Graγ Ladγ of the Weɭɭ

Stephanie Celeste, she/her/any, Witch •Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixture dementia fuit • Magic, TradCraft, Mushrooms, Studying, and Humor. Seeking transformational experiences.

[grayladyofthewell]

After being highlighted by the fantastic @per-aspera-ad-tenebrae , I felt a need to follow suit and introduce myself more thoroughly. Thanks to @slewfootwitch for the movement in the community here. Great idea!

You can call me Gray Lady or Stephanie Celeste. I’m a 41 year old Academic who is focusing her work on research and the magical world.

I started my path with a quiet nudge of intuition that I promptly ignored until my blindness dumped me into a Near-Death Experience. The first of my massive transcendence experiences that changed my life in a highly formative manner. Almost dying changed the way I thought about life, priorities, and god. Beforehand, I had been a struggling Roman Catholic, though my brief foray into the idea of witchcraft and the alternative religions in the 90’s was highly inspirational at the time. After the NDE, I was nearly obsessed with finding out more. I visited every library looking for more info on what could have possibly happened, and ended up squarely in the realm of Goddess Worship.

By Sophomore year of HS (2000) I had started an underage coven focused on self improvement and magical development. By Freshman year of college(2003), the group had survived two witch wars with some extreme circumstances. We had founded a presence in an astral realm and started working with otherworldly courts. I had not been the leader of this particular group since HS and it expanded then devolved into a cult of personality by the time we graduated from Undergrad(2007).

In the heart of the worst part of it all, after undergrad, we moved to China. Further isolated from the familiar world and forced into deeper and deeper levels of abuse on all areas of life. I can click every measure on the BITE scale and have written old posts on this blog about those years after coming back to some level of normal life away from that.

I both love and hate those years of learning to adult in a foreign country. There is something inexplicably beautiful about Asia that has drawn me back in recent years. The call to serve the population in the location we were in at that time continues to pull me. I am constantly surprised by the resiliency and ability of the people there. I welcome the overwhelming feeling of growth and potential I feel when I have returned to those places. The recent visit was a second fantastic adventure that well overshadowed and outshined the first two. I have witnessed the growth of a nation and am humbled by the strength and progress I see there.

I’ve moved through various eclectic Wiccan styles in the 90’s, to some group-bound astral work in my post-college cult-of-personality-participation phase, then to my own explorations of similar spaces in the astral, sans-cult, during my Sovereign Era years. Within that period is when I met @per-aspera-ad-tenebrae , and we started practicing together. Somewhere in there I had a cosmic witchcraft phase, a kitchen witch phase (Sage and lemon cookies for internal cleansing, what?), and a run-with-coyotes/non-physical shapeshifting phase that moved me into traditional witchcraft.

In an official way, I shifted into a richer physical focus with 🍄mushroom hunting in 2020, and then an 🌳EcoPsych Certification in 2021-2022, followed by my 💜Masters in Transpersonal Psychology graduation in 2023. I am now in my 🎓PhD program with my 🌙Dream Studies Certification just accomplished in summer 2025. Graduation looks like 2027, but we’ll see.

I teach massage therapy, transpersonal psychology, biosciences, humanities, and creative expression. I have passion for all spiritual topics but especially the impact of steady Othering that comes from the committed path of magic and witchcraft. I especially love the benefits that neurospicy individuals have when they engage deeply into witchcraft practices.

My magical work spans an eclectic and traditional witchcraft background with elements of folk work and world travel. That’s a fancy way to say I pick up things as I learn and they feel like they apply to me and my work based on lived experience. I use things from various cultures if they are offered to me during my visit to that culture.

I was raised Polish Roman Catholic with various ancestor practices, was born German Roman Catholic with heritage energy practices, and am still discovering the male lineage in my family line. My birth father has yet to believe me that all families have some kind of folk practice inherit in their living style. When I discover more about that side of my family, I will likely incorporate it.

I have been told by people who study such things that my bloodline carries some measure of both Native and African American from a rural county in North Carolina, but until I can confirm this for myself, I have not incorporated any part of this into my practice since I was not raised in this fashion.

My current magic work focuses on spirit communication, visiting the wild places to share with the spirits, and connecting to them in order to find my proper path. I have had my skills amplified through this practice and while it is still in a fledgling style at a development of 5 years and counting, I believe I am finding a format that is comfortable for me.

The Dark Man/ Forest Lord/ Man in Black approached me in 2020/2021 and I was uncertain of my ability to honor that call. Since then, I have had several spirits leading me and I now work with one in particular who feels like the proper match. I have been studying with this spirit off and on for more than a year.

My current hyper focuses include academic framing of magical topics, psi/telepathy/clairs as a study opportunity within popular acceptance, magical lives of neurospicy folks, and spiritual refuge for those who combat mental health.

[mothermara]

remember to bury the dead with a phone, everyone. these days the ferry terminal at the river styx wants you to download a fucking app

[gffa]

What are the attachment rules in the High Republic Jedi are like?

The High Republic Jedi and the prequels Jedi are pretty much exactly the same on this front--attachment is specifically the fear that keeps you holding onto something/someone to possess it/them because you're afraid to live without them, that you would sacrifice a thousand lives to save just the one because your fear is greater than your compassion. Because the Force works based on your emotions--what you put into it is what you get out of it--you cannot connect to the Force through fear and anger (ie, attachment, as more closely aligned with the Buddhist definition, because Jedi are strongly influenced by Buddhism more than anything else), because that's a path to the dark side. GEORGE LUCAS & ATTACHMENT:

“[Jedi Knights] do not grow attachments, because attachment is a path to the dark side. You can love people, but you can’t want to possess them. They’re not yours. Accept that they have a fate. Even those you love most are going to die. You can’t do anything about that. Protect them with your lightsaber, but if they die they were going to die. there’s nothing you can do. All you can do is accept that fact.     “In mythology, if you go to Hades to get them back you’re not doing it for them, you’re doing it for yourself. You’re doing it because you don’t want to give them up. You’re afraid to be without them. The key to the dark side is fear. You must be clean of fear, and fear of loss is the greatest fear. If you’re set up for fear of loss, you will do anything to keep that loss from happening, and you’re going to end up in the dark side. That’s the basic premise of Star Wars and the Jedi, and how it works.     “That’s why they’re taken at a young age to be trained. They cannot get themselves killed trying to save their best buddy when it’s a hopeless exercise.” --George Lucas, The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005

 “In this film, (The Phantom Menace) you begin to see that he has a fear of losing things, a fear of losing his mother, and as a result, he wants to begin to control things, he wants to become powerful, and these are not Jedi traits. And part of these are because he was starting to be trained so late in life, that he’d already formed these attachments. And for a Jedi, attachment is forbidden.” --George Lucas to CNN, May 8, 2002

    “The fact that everything must change and that things come and go through his life and that he can’t hold onto things, which is a basic Jedi philosophy that he isn’t willing to accept emotionally and the reason that is because he was raised by his mother rather than the Jedi. If he’d have been taken in his first year and started to study to be a Jedi, he wouldn’t have this particular connection as strong as it is and he’d have been trained to love people but not to become attached to them.

    “But he has become attached to his mother and he will become attached to Padme and these things are, for a Jedi, who needs to have a clear mind and not be influenced by threats to their attachments, a dangerous situation. And it feeds into fear of losing things, which feeds into greed, wanting to keep things, wanting to keep his possessions and things that he should be letting go of. His fear of losing her turns to anger at losing her, which ultimately turns to revenge in wiping out the village. The scene with the Tusken Raiders is the first scene that ultimately takes him on the road to the dark side. I mean he’s been prepping for this, but that’s the one where he’s sort of doing something that is completely inappropriate.“ --George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary

PREQUELS JEDI & ATTACHMENT:

THE HIGH REPUBLIC JEDI & ATTACHMENT:

     "I'm like...just a big huge ball of attachments!" she moaned. "I'm attached to being alive! And to my friends being alive, too! And to Master Sy! Every day I go somewhere new in this galaxy and feel attached to it, meet more wonderful people that I don't want to be hurt or killed! The attachments just keep coming! If I live to grow old, I'll have thousands and thousands of them! I'm even attached to the Star Hopper, and that's just a silly ship! Ugh!" [....]      “Let me ask you this: If saving Master Sy or Zeen meant that you’d never see them again but you’d have the knowledge that they’d be safe, would you still do it?” [....]      “I would.”      “Then you are saving them for them, Padawan, not for yourself.  It is not attachment.” --Vernestra Rwoh and Lula Talisola, [Star Wars: Race to Crashpoint Tower]

     But Jedi weren't supposed to have attachments, even to the past, even to a simpler, safer life. If this was the time she'd been born into, she would face it with everything she had. It was the only choice. --Lula Talisola, Race to Crashpoint Tower

     Lula knew she wasn't supposed to form attachments, and she understood why—she could feel it jangling up her flow, twisting her connection to the Force into unintelligible knots. But what else was she supposed to do? She cared about her friends and didn't want them to get hurt. --Lula Talisola, [Star Wars: Race to Crashpoint Tower]

      [Ram had] been in his first real fight! He'd lived! And so had everyone else! Which was a huge relief, really. The idea of taking a life, even in battle, was almost as scary to him as the thought of losing his own. He hoped he'd never have to do it, and then, as he'd been trained to do, he did his best to release any attachment to outcomes and just exist in the gigantic spinning galaxy. --Ram Jomaram [Star Wars: Race to Crashpoint Tower]

     How many times had Lula ignited her saber to save her own life or those of her loved ones in just the past few months? She'd lost track.      But Jedi weren't supposed to have attachments, even to the past, even to a simpler, safer life. If this was the time she'd been born into, she would face it with everything she had. It was the only choice. --Lula Talisola [Star Wars: Race to Crashpoint Tower]

  “So, the Jedi are Force users united in our quest to understand the mysteries of the Force and to serve as guardians of peace and justice throughout the galaxy. [....] we ground ourselves in a spiritual existence and give up individual attachments in order to focus entirely on greater concerns." --Reath Silas [Star Wars: The High Republic: Into the Dark]

All of this forms a consistent definition and pattern and set of rules--the prequels Jedi and the High Republic Jedi both are more along the lines of attachment in the Buddhist sense and it's dangerous because of how the Force works, because as the Jedi define it, it's inseparable from anger and fear. Of course there's room for Jedi to question how they approach those same rules and what it means to them individually, just as Lula questions it, so does Ahsoka, and this is shown to be a natural part of the process of learning to be a Jedi, but ultimately both the prequels and the High Republic have the same rule for the same reason--attachment is forbidden because the worldbuilding says it's a path to the dark side and the dark side will fuck you up.

[marmot-bee-person]

i'm back guys

Part One Part Two Part Three

[ceciliamoonlightstars]

Cutest thing I have found.

Not mine. This belongs to @ruthesla.

[baraste-legacy]

Just a correction: this artwork is by @bonesmarinated and the original first appeared in their post here 🙂(it has a second vignette!).

(They have TONS of delicious SW fanart, and from other fandoms, too 😊)

[gran-maul-seizure]

We love you and all your Maul art @bonesmarinated !!

[totally-correct-star-wars]

Rebels + the "cracker barrel arson charge" alignment chart

i've spent so much time overthinking this that I can't tell if it's accurate or even funny anymore, but it exists nonetheless. bon appetit

[livia-the-potato]

The idea of Bail Organa putting tater tots in his mouth to make laugh Leila Orga 🥹

[shesgonnachangetheworld]

people have this tendency to believe that fandom discourse exists because people in fandoms are Stupid Nerdy Losers, but in fact fandom discourse exists because anytime you get a group of more than 100 people together, they will start creating interpersonal bullshit. fandom is not special in this regard

[lyricwritesprose]

There is sports discourse. There is yarn discourse. There is food discourse. There is academic discourse (dear sweet god is there academic discourse). If there are people out there collecting brass buttons specifically from 1921, they are going to have discourse about which buttons are trash and whether Person A cheated person B. To be human is to engage in pointless wankery sometimes.

[rosieandthemoon]

By Charles Aubrey, 1865

[jezzzebel]

No i will not hear out any argument about period blood being dirty religion wise.

B-b-but!

No i will not. No. No actually.

[sweet42]

[free-my-mindd]

When life feels like this

[classic-hollywood-glam]

Barbara Stanwyck

[erodingsinner]

LA MORTE VIVANTE / THE LIVING DEAD GIRL (1982) dir. Jean Rollin

[ieafy]

I can’t stop drawing mantises I fear

[buonfire]

I fucking love these guys. The mantits

[glamourofyesteryear]

Le Bal Blanc, by Joseph-Marius Avy, 1903

[kyotoprotocols]

[darkearthsuggestions]

There are angels in the rafters, roosting. The wind whistles where they came through, shooting stars in your room. Often you have seen the eyes, speckling skin like a robin's egg, but now-- count the teeth, the rhythm of a prayer. The air tastes of tin. They pass on their message.

A blessing is a terrible thing.