Ho! Know me as Fern (he/him), hailing from main blog @rainbluealoekitten. Adult. Witch of a kind. Aspiring friend to fungi. Explorer of words and worlds, which are sometimes the same thing. Profile picture and header taken by me.
No but seriously if you want to work with the Fair Folk please also look at local legends, myths and folklore. The "rules" often stated for working with the Fair Folk: things like "don't say thank you", "offerings should be of milk and honey", "don't tell them your name, for it gives them power over you". Are not universal concepts. Actually, they mostly come from Irish and Scottish lore.
And that's logical because they have the most written about the Fair Folk.
However, those might not be the "rules" of your local Fair Folk. For example, Dutch Fae were given offerings of pancakes. Gnomes apparently love boiled potatoes. And any Fair Folk that love to help humans will disappear forever when seen. Different rules for different Folk.
hey so the reason new age spirituality sucks is because it focuses way too much on individual salvation instead of community health.
new agers believe that the key to happiness is "increasing your vibration" to reach 5D ascension or whatever - and the only way to achieve that is to isolate yourself from "toxic" people, buy expensive crystals, pay for pseudoscientific healing therapies, and perpetuate the idea that **you** are the sole being responsible for your own health & wellbeing. all the while ignoring things like global warming. war. racism. sexism. corrupt politics.
because why would you care about the things that are impacting you, and future generations, when you believe that you can simply save yourself by giving ~love and light~ and "raise your vibration" high enough to simply leave this earthly plane?
its the rapture, repackaged. simple as that.
let's bring the focus back to our communities. quit the meditation and reality scripting for two seconds and bake your neighbor some cookies. call up your friends and family and check in on them. advocate to make our world a better place, here and now.
Initial General Disclaimer: I do not know any of these authors personally, have no ideas at all to their character, and am not speaking about anything here but the content they make. I do not agree with every aspect of every item, but they have provided substantial direction and foundation for my practice (whether positively or negatively). There is no organization here aside from media types and this is deliberate. You are capable of seeking these titles, reading a synopsis, and reviews. Lastly this list is in no ways complete (I am always learning and consuming media) or all encompassing, as I have very likely forgotten certain items. Use it to do with whatever you wish, I always will encourage buying books second hand and supporting your local libraries.
*FREE RESOURCES: HERE OR HERE OR HERE OR HERE OR HERE OR HERE.
BOOKS:
*The Poetic Edda - Translated by Carolyne Larrington
*The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practices
- Claude Lecouteux
*Demons and Spirits of the Land: Ancestral Lore and Practices - Claude Lecouteux
*Six Ways - Aidan Wachter
*Protection & Reversal Magick - Jason Miller
*Southern Cunning - Aaron Oberon
*Thirteen Pathways of Occult Herbalism - Daniel Schulke
*Herbs & Things - Jeanne Rose
*Sorcerer's Screed: The Icelandic Book of Magic Spells - Skuggi
*Wortcunning: A Folk Medicine Herbal & a Folk Magic Herbal - Nigel G. Pearson
*Fixed Star Sign & Constellation Magic - Christopher Warnock
*Ashkenazi Herbalism: Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews - Adam Siegel and Deatra Cohen
*New World Witchery - Corey Hutcheson
*The Complete Picatrix: The Occult Classic of Astrological Magic Liber Atratus Edition - Translated by John Michael Greer, Christopher Warnock
WEBSITES:
*The Poison Garden - Any content written/interview by Sarah Anne Lawless (previously Banefolk)
*Kitchen Toad - (I lied I do know/am friendly with Mahi but this is a genuine referral.)
PODCASTS:
*New World Witchery
*The Frightful Howls (I have not listened to this yet but it came highly recommended by a few trustworthy individuals).
*The Astrology Podcast
Free Resources added, I managed to acquire a book that is for some reason now HUNDREDS of dollars because occultists looooovvveee financially gatekeeping translations (not even original texts) for free with one of the above links.
The god of dirt
came up to me many times and said
so many wise and delectable things; I lay
on the grass listening
to his dog voice,
crow voice,
frog voice; now
he said, and now,
and never once mentioned forever.
— Mary Oliver, from “One or Two Things” in The God of Dirt: Mary Oliver and the Other Book of God by Thomas Wingate Mann · 2004 (via Alive on All Channels)
While I appreciate white people being vocal about antiblackness, decolonization, appropriation etc, I think it's also important to remind you all that you should never take any white person, no matter how good and kindhearted and knowledgeable they might seem, you should never take them to be the leading voice in decolonization, antiblackness nor spokespersons for Black and Indigenous peoples.
If you have questions about Indigenous people's relationship to the Land, about our traditions, about appropriation, how to approach Indigenous peoples respectfully or how to avoid hurting closed practices, ask people from those closed practices and cultures. We're right here!!! You asking the white person like we don't exist, or worse, only taking your answers from other white people, is not as woke as you think it is. It's the opposite of the work you should be doing.
Oh, and no matter how "educated" someone seems, it's still nowhere near accurate from our perspective. White people don't speak for us and they cannot lead these movements, they shouldn't and cannot represent us because these movements exist to de-center and de-platform whiteness. Not to mention, they're still outsiders and they still get things wrong. They're learning and looking in through a window as much as any other white person is. And you're taking all your guidance from them without knowing that, without having any way to tell when they're wrong or misguided, because you're also an outsider. It's literally the blind leading the blind.
Do better. Ask the source directly. Center Black and Indigenous voices.
something that I've noticed in neo-pagan/polytheist spaces is this focus on one or a few deities. while this is a valid approach and seems to be working amazingly for many people, i wanted to write a short defence of a different form of polytheism that, while maybe less visible on social media, is equally viable.
the poly in polytheism necessitates the belief in multiple gods however modern forms of worship take many different forms on top of that. from my years being in pagan spaces on social media I have noticed that to many, being a polytheist means worshipping one or a handful of gods and having very close relationships with them. which deities someone chooses to have this kind of relationship with stems from multiple possible sources, for example, personal interest, the deity's domain being somehow related to a person's life or an inexplicable draw to them.
to me, this seems to be the dominant view on social media of the form that neo-paganism takes, however, after years of exploring my spirituality and practice, I have come to the conclusion that this is not how I want to worship. I am writing this post for more people like me, who are interested in exploring this often less mainstream approach.
an ancient template
reading about Ancient Greek and Roman civilisations I was always struck by the number of minor deities with hyper-specific domains and associations. as a modern pagan, I could not understand the appeal of worshipping such a deity, ie. using so much time and resources to build a relationship for only a handful of niche issues that you could approach them with.
but as I kept reading and exploring, I realised that I was approaching polytheism completely differently than the ancients did. they truly did live in a world full of gods and they did not require a relationship built over days, if not weeks or more, to approach a deity and ask for their aid.
as long as you followed the rules of reciprocity, you could approach any deity that was relevant to your situation because they were the best equipped to help you with your problem. now this is not true for all of the population all the time, there were definitely also for example, people devoted to one deity, but from my understanding, this seemed to be the general form that polytheism took in those ancient civilisations.
the influence of monotheism
I think another feature of online neo-paganism is this expansion of the major deities' domains which then removes the need to worship the smaller deities. now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for expanding the domains of deities, especially if this is done from a revivalist perspective in order to modernise them for the contemporary worshipper. but sometimes I feel like completely unrelated domains are added for the sake of convenience more than anything else, ie. so that someone can keep worshipping the same deity(ies) without approaching others.
this, in my opinion, goes against one of the core aspects of polytheism which is the idea that different gods rule over different domains and have power over them. following this idea, it would make very little sense to pray to Neptune during air travel as he has no influence over the skies. yet, I sometimes see the deities be treated more like monotheistic gods which are all-powerful and can influence anything in the world.
if this is your view of how the gods work, that's fine, but I feel like sometimes people accept it without questioning it much or thinking about their view of theology at all. after mulling this idea over for some time, I realised it made much more sense to approach those specific deities, even if they are much less known or minor because this fits into my beliefs about polytheism much better.
a poly-practice
so, how would a poly-polytheistic practice look like in the modern day? well, there are many ways to go about it but I will just share bits from my own experience.
what I have ended up doing is focusing on different deities as they become relevant in my life - I focused on worshipping Janus at the beginning of the year while also taking the time to pray to Fortuna in moment when I needed her aid. I then did some extra reading on Jupiter, but didn't forget to thank Mars every time I went to the gym. I no longer felt the pressure to have some sort of special "connection" to every deity or "feel their presence", just trusting that they are there and then catching glimpses of divinity in my daily life.
looking into which Roman festivals I wanted to celebrate also opened my perspectives to more deities I would not have otherwise worshipped on my own. like this, I feel like I am building an arsenal of deities I can turn to when I need and of course, it is also vital to remember that I can call on multiple ones at the same time, just like the Romans saw the gods aiding one another in their tasks.
I only have one altar, which is practical and thus quite minimalistic, but there is space for my prayer notebook as well as other supplies that I need for my rituals.
conclusion
of course, this kind of practice results in a much more "impersonal" relationship with the gods, but I never really felt the need to communicate with them directly or things like that, so it fits me well. I find comfort in imagining a world full of gods, who may only know me in passing but who look out for me nevertheless.
in the end, the goal of this post is not to change anyone's mind about how they worship, but to present an alternate perspective which you can learn from but also completely disregard. in the end I am just happy that you were interested enough to reach until the end of this post. thank you for reading!!
An illustration for one of my favorite (and surprisingly kind) Sweden tales “Changelings”
Update: Many thanks for @flo-nelja for finding a summary in English!)
http://flo-nelja.tumblr.com/post/176985177190/inkyami-flo-nelja-inkyami-at-the-troll#notes
The Wise and Subtle Arte of Reading Cards, full document
Ebook - The Wise and Subtle Arte of Reading Cards
Binder Margins - The Wise and Subtle Arte of Reading Cards
Original version as I copy-pasted it from the archive website
Quickref guide, 1 page front and back
If anyone has input on the slur disclaimer, I am open to input and replacing or altering my disclaimer for something more suitable.
If you notice any errors in formatting or other issues, please reach out. I can fix the files. File versions are just dated to help keep track if there are changes.
These documents are here because this information has mostly disappeared from the internet. Save resources you value.
I did not write this document. I did not change its contents beyond mild reorganization and formatting. The original that I worked from is posted so you can compare changes if you would like to.
Working on cartomancy a fair bit lately and I've found these personal definitions have been more useful to me as compared to the Hedgewytch method:
Sevens as Due Consequences, Inevitability, and Fate
In the Hedgewytch method, sevens are "trouble that fate has assigned." Given this association with fate, all the sevens also have a strong link to magic, astrology, and psychism in general. But they're also typically framed as negative. This hasn't been working out as well for me because it clashes with the red/black system of "good" and "bad" portents.
The link to psychism and magic works out great for me because witchcraft and spirit work is prevalent in my life. But instead of framing all sevens as "trouble," I've found a lot more utility in framing them as:
Causal outcomes
Expected consequences
Inevitability
Bottlenecks
"Reality check"
Anchoring
Or basically, shifting them from "seven brings trouble that fate has assigned" to "seven speaks what is fated, troubles and all."
A part of the Hedgewytch explanation for the meanings of the 7s is that they are the half-way point in each suit; six cards are behind them, and six cards are ahead. From this we can derive a meaning of the scales of balance. If all our ideations, hopes, and desires are set aside, what is the very likely outcome of the set of circumstances at hand?
I take this in a very practical way. The consequences of spilling water is that the floor is wet. It's not a moral judgment, it's the reality of the matter at hand: if you run a marathon, it's inevitable that you'll be tired.
Some aspect of negativity can be preserved in this, in the sense that a "reality check" is often going to set our wants and needs aside, and speak only to the facts. So the 7s can still be used as a 'balancer' card to obtain information that might be difficult for the querent.
For example, this would shift the 7 of Diamonds from "financial troubles" (where you basically have to set aside or modify the red = good rule) into "the consequences of this will be related to finances, likely in a good way."
The 7 of Spades transforms from "double trouble" to "the outcome of this is going to suck," and if it's surrounded by diamonds, we can then derive "the outcome of this is going to suck, financially speaking."
The key for me is to view the 7s as being a little outside of the present moment, usually speaking about the consequences that are bound to happen as a result of actions (adjusted to your views on free will and fate, of course).
Jacks/Knaves as Events, Occurrences, Happenings, Opportunities; sometimes Social Status
The original meaning of knaves as "a message, a girl, or a youth" has never been helpful to me and mostly left me with a big question mark when I tried to work off that set of meanings.
Instead I am finding it to be much more helpful to reframe knaves as specific events related to the question or signifier, probably events that give the querent an opportunity to take action towards their wants and needs. (Or, if the knave is poorly dignified, some relevant event that will get in the way of their goals.)
The problem for me with the "message" meaning is that it has been difficult for me to tie the idea of the querent getting a message with the rest of the spread. I realized it's because it feels like a static event happening to the querent, rather than an interactive part of a dynamic spread.
For me the primary difference between "message" and "event" is the agency of the querent. The Knave of Hearts isn't necessarily a thoughtful message from a friend, but an opportunity to deepen that friendship, change the dynamic, or step away.
When the knave represents a person, instead of a "girl or youth" I find it's more practical to read the knave as someone lower down in the social hierarchy than the queen or king might be. If the king is the CEO and the queen is the manager, then the knave might be the shift worker.
Introducing relative social status has helped me untangle the court cards in general, because the courts change from absolutes ("this is a divorced woman") to something relative to the question at hand ("this is a person who has already struggled with the same issues, and probably has more influence in this situation than that knave over there.")
I have a lot of questions for people whose animisim extends to everything but their own body
if you identify as an animist but seriously view yourself as a spirit residing in an entirely spiritually dead hunk of flesh, that baffles me
bc wdym you don't see the little cells in your body as sacred and spiritual??? do you understand how many really cool and intelligent little guys r keeping up ur body thru these really cool processes and making up your entire body with teamwork
where worlds meet @fern-the-seeker - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
