Lys

‘facilis descensus averno… sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras, hoc opus, hic labor est.’ verg. a. 6.126-129

[forestoflys]

An Introduction

Hello all, my name is Lys! I am okay with the use of any pronouns, however I am partial to he/they. I’m a 23 year-old beginner witch whose focus is primarily on southern Italian healing traditions as well as classical Roman folk magic. Aside from being Italian-American, I also come from an academic background studying Latin literature and the Roman religion; however, my practice does not solely revolve around these subjects as I often incorporate more popular traditions.

This blog does not tolerate:

Homophobia/Transphobia

Zionism/Antisemitism/Racism/White Supremacy/Islamophobia/Bigotry of Any Kind

Pulling from closed cultural traditions if you yourself are not a part of said culture

In addition, while I am not intolerant of minors liking/reblogging my content, I would ask that if you are under 18 that you do not follow me or strike up conversation. This is technically a SFW blog, but while I’ve got nothing against you I would simply like to keep any interactions 18+.

Source:

Printer’s Ornament (Chiswick Press, 192)

[forestoflys]

Friendly reminder that if your leftism excludes people in red states, you’re not a leftist. If your leftism excludes disabled folks, you’re not a leftist. If your leftism leads you to gloat when already-marginalised people become even more of a target, you’re not a leftist. If your leftism excludes folks that can’t quote theory back to you, you’re not a leftist. If your leftism leads you to believe that you can just choose to opt out of a system that you pay into/benefit from every single day, you’re not a leftist.

Call me a ‘liberal’ all you want. For people that claim to be against the hoarding of power and wealth, some of you sure do care a lot about gaining social capital through your ‘activism’.

[forestoflys]

Okay so I know I’ve been doomposting a lot but like… Now that Harris is absolutely going to lose can we finally say the quiet part out loud? We may be heading towards another large-scale war. I hope to whatever deity exists that I’m wrong.

[forestoflys]

I’ve lost everything. My family most of all. My parents were my heroes and now I don’t recognise them. What’s worse is that they didn’t change. They are still the same people they were in 2016 and 2020. I just lost any hope I held for them.

[forestoflys]

Sitting here as a recent grad with a shitty part time job in the reddest part of my state with no hope for anything. My college education that everyone said would be enough to get a job doesn’t mean anything anymore. My vote doesn’t matter and gets cancelled out threefold by my family. I live with people who experience genuine glee at the thought of people like me suffering at the hands of their god king and his minions. I spent four years living alone in a grey apartment because of the pandemic. I lost my late teens/early 20s to it. I’m in my mid-20s now and I don’t feel like a functioning human adult. I can’t complain about the fact that nothing feels real anymore and that I’m just going through the motions because others have it worse than me. Trump has all but won and I just feel lost.

[forestoflys]

I want to hug my mom and cry into her shoulder but I can’t anymore. She’s out celebrating the death of all decency.

[forestoflys]

Sitting here as a recent grad with a shitty part time job in the reddest part of my state with no hope for anything. My college education that everyone said would be enough to get a job doesn’t mean anything anymore. My vote doesn’t matter and gets cancelled out threefold by my family. I live with people who experience genuine glee at the thought of people like me suffering at the hands of their god king and his minions. I spent four years living alone in a grey apartment because of the pandemic. I lost my late teens/early 20s to it. I’m in my mid-20s now and I don’t feel like a functioning human adult. I can’t complain about the fact that nothing feels real anymore and that I’m just going through the motions because others have it worse than me. Trump has all but won and I just feel lost.

[faggyton]

hey if you're trans in the us i love you. hey if you're queer in the us i love you. hey if you're a person of color in the us i love you. hey if you're a woman in the us i love you. hey if you're disabled in the us i love you. i love you i love you i love you

[forestoflys]

‘Don’t be defeatist! Even if he wins we can’t give up hope!’ You say from your safe blue state. Your safe blue county. Your safe blue city. Those of us in red states don’t have that luxury.

[forestoflys]

Bernie Moreno won. Fuck.

[breelandwalker]

"You're a witchcraft blog! Stick to magic and don't get all political!"

Buddy, I'm a witch living in a country where my ability to live safely in the open as a queer person and a pagan could be gone TOMORROW, you think I'm going to sit back and keep my mouth shut about it?

It's not enough to debunk and decolonize. It's not enough to educate and inform. It's not enough to mutter over a candle and hex the fascists. We did not get to where we are by sitting back and going Oh Well It'll Be What It Do, No Use Gettin Worked Up.

My cauldron is the polling booth, my wand is my registration, my sigil is the marks I leave on the ballot, my spell is exercising my right to vote. All the magic in the world is NOTHING if it's not accompanied by practical action.

Witchcraft is an inherent act of rebellion. I am not a creature who will go gentle into that good night. And I'll keep encouraging others to educate themselves and defend their civil rights until the day they put me in the ground.

If you don't like it, there's the fucking door.

[forestoflys]

I think I’ve become too much of a hermit. I’m handing out candy and a group of my little cousins came up. Only one of them recognised me and another one turned around in my driveway and screamed ‘OH MY GOD WAIT THIS IS THE [lastname] HOUSE?!’

GIRL I LITERALLY USED TO BABYSIT YOU.

[angeltiaras]

if you are a witch or magickal practicioner who wears or buys merchandise with the slogan 'we are the daughters/children/descendants of any sort of the witches you couldn't burn' on it,

disrespectfully, shut the fuck up.

the 'witches' who were burned were women who did not conform to the patriarchal standards of their time. women who read, women who did not marry, women who did not want to bear children. the women who were burned were not witches, and you have no right to use their history as a catchy slogan to paste all over your culturally appropriating, under researched, witchtok wiccan practice.

acting as if the women who were burned were weak and irrelivent and your theoretical witch ancestors were powerful enough to evade the tragic femicide is directly mocking and degrading the women who were murdered. put some respect on their names.

thank you.

(reference pictures for anybody confused)

[cursecuelebre]

Not only that this OP is correct those women were most likely weren’t witches even the men that were killed. These people were victims of mass hysteria but also even of these victims were “magical practitioners” they wouldn’t call themselves witches, rather practicing folk traditions or just simply practicing a tradition. Especially women who knew how to simply stop a plague or disease from spreading by having cats around and killing rats was enough for them to be persecuted.

These were victims that were unjustifiable murdered on false accusations or just simply helping people we shouldn’t make a trend of their deaths or glorify what happened. It’s disgusting and shameful.

[forestoflys]

Another addition to this already great post: witchcraft accusations and executions were not limited to those who were educated or chose a ‘nontraditional’ life path. Many of them were disabled or enslaved or owned coveted property or were just generally known to be curmudgeons. Some of them were not even outcasted but were the victims of an accuser’s lust for revenge. These people are just as important as the folk healers and women who didn’t conform to their society’s expectations.

Also, it’s very important to note that most ‘witches’ weren’t burnt. They were tortured to death, hanged, drowned, and very crucially, many died of infection/illness before even having the chance to go to ‘trial’/be executed due to the horrific conditions in their cells. The lesson taken from the witch trials, whether it be Salem or Pendle or some other, shouldn’t be ‘these women were protofeminist icons who practiced witchcraft’. It should be ‘when people with power can financially and socially benefit from the persecution of the dispossessed they will choose to do so every time’.

[licksmenhirs]

Friendly reminder that this witch doesn't tolerate "anti-Abrahamics" on their blog. Your Christian religious trauma is valid, your vile Islamophobia and antisemitism will never be valid and I will never respect you.

[pinkfey-archive]

vetted palestinian gfm in need of urgent support (10/03/24)

Ahmed's family's campaign has raised €976/€20,000. Ahmed is displaced in southern Gaza caring for his father and brothers while his wife is alone in the north with their fifteen-month-old daughter, Najah, under constant bombardment. They have lost a child before and live in anxiety and fear of never seeing one another again. Any donations help support safe passage so the family can reunite. This campaign has been vetted and promoted by @/gaza-evacuation funds here. (contacted by @najah-meshal)

Eman's family's campaign has raised $1,305/$5,000. Eman is a science teacher and mother of five children; Nada (11), Rahaf (8), Sarah (5), Sham (3), and Zeina (9 months). They are struggling to find clean drinking water, survive the harsh climate, endure sickness, and are surviving on canned food. All donations are used to support their basic survival. This campaign has been vetted by association through Eman's sister Eslam here. (contacted by @emanfamily3)

Shaima's family's campaign has raised $2,179/$30,000. Shaima is a mother of four (Magdy, Walid, Abdel Rahim, and Amal) currently separated from her husband, who was across the border at the time of Israel's attack on Gaza. They have been displaced six times and are in desperate need to evacuate to Egypt to reunite and escape the genocide. Any funds will help secure their safety. This campaign has been vetted by association; information here. (contacted by @familygazaamal)

Mahmoud's family's campaign has raised $4,035/$40,000. While Mahmoud was able to evacuate to Egypt, his sister, Soha, her husband, Hassan, and their four children (Ahed, Mohammed, Majd, and Karim) are still in Gaza. They have been displaced seven times and now reside in a refugee camp, where conditions continue to worsen. Donations, through Mahmoud, support the family as they struggle to find stability. This campaign has been vetted by @/90-ghost here. (contacted by @ahed-family2)

Lama and Mohammed's campaign has raised $4,115/$10,000. Lama and Mohammed were forcibly displaced from Khan Younis to Rafah along with Mohammed's family of twelve; their house was destroyed in the winter. Lama is now pregnant and in need of care. All funds aid in securing their evacuation. This campaign has been vetted and promoted by @/gaza-evacuation-funds and vetted by association; information here. (contacted by @lamahourani7)

[grey-sorcery]

New to witchcraft? Awesome! Here's some things you should pursue.

An understanding of sympathetic magic: Correspondences, their metaphysical and theoretical framework, and their derivation.

Magical systems that incorporate the entire gender spectrum.

Energy work that isn't based on visualization.

The means of manifestation: How, where, and when spells affect physical change. The physical mechanisms through which witchcraft manifests beyond just willpower/intent/wishes/etc.

The history and subsequent influences of, and on, popular contemporary practices like Hermeticism, "Ceremonial Magick"/Golden Dawn, Wicca, and New Age/New Thought/LOA/Reiki.

How to approach and practice magic with critical thinking skills.

Influence of consumerism on contemporary practices.

Divination as systems: all methods of divination beyond tarot, their statistical applications, and their different methods of use.

The anthropology of medieval Arabia, Europe, Near East, and Asia relative to the magical or occult publications of the era. What is purely religious, parareligious, or syncretist and what does that mean for the interpretation of the text?

The genuine limits of our knowledge of the ancient world, what's possible for us to know and what can't we know?

Conversations with practitioners of closed or semi-closed practices and perspectives of POC when it comes to what the western world would label as "witchcraft".

The differences and similarities between superstition and the practice of witchcraft.

An understanding of the influence of colonialism on modern witchcraft and the language used to discuss magic.

Critical Race Theory (CRT), Queer Theory, and systems of oppression.

Botany and herbology: An understanding of the physical and medical properties of plants.

Building a personal lexicon for modern and/or colloquial terms used in and by the witchcraft community to describe and discuss practices.

Spell design: What makes a spell a spell? What is the smallest or slightest action that can be considered a spell and why? What are the most important and influential elements of the design and application of a spell?

Altars: Their use, design, and potential; whether or not an altar would benefit your practice or goals for practice.

A critical approach to spirit work and astral projection, being able to discern between personal narratives and probable experiences.

A safe and solid community to become a part of. One that does not allow the influence of personal narratives (Without addressing them as such), doesn't allow for the mixing of adults and minors, and with established and enforced logical and reasonable rules.

Collect and cross-reference correspondences from as many sources as possible, then start to create your own.

Try to find a STEM subject that interests you and study it through any non-dogmatic avenues available to you.

The items highlighted in blue are things I highly recommend!

Here is a list of things to avoid.

This is, of course, not an end-all-be-all list of possible responsible and healthy pursuits.

You can learn more about me, find my master-post, check out my Patreon, and suggest content here.

[forestoflys]

Reading ancient texts can be incredibly sobering sometimes because I’ll look at the symptoms ascribed to a certain character/person and I’ll think ‘god how many suffered from PTSD without there being a word for it? How many were tossed aside and labeled as possessed or afflicted by dark magic when what they needed most was compassion and comfort?’

[lynnsdarkuniverse]