Hex and Balances

Hekatean Witchcraft ♀☽ Research & Aesthetic

[hexandbalances]

Nihil Videt et Omnia Videt by Randy Ortiz

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Photographer unknown to me.

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How Paganism re-enchanted modern Britain

50 years after The Wicker Man, Christianity is waning and neo-Pagan beliefs are on the rise – here, we talk stone circles, online spirituali

The last five decades haven’t been kind to Sergeant Neil Howie, the ill-fated policeman tasked with searching for a missing girl on the remote island of Summerisle in The Wicker Man. Between Britain’s rising ACAB sentiments and its declining belief in “the life eternal, as promised to us by our Lord, Jesus Christ” (the kind Howie invokes, as he’s led to the site of his fiery death) many of us are more likely to sympathise with the island’s maypole-dancing, fire-leaping Pagans, in 2023, than the moralising authority figure who arrives to interrupt their May Day celebrations. Life on Summerisle looks idyllic, and its inhabitants (good-humoured fishermen, sex-positive schoolteachers, the pub landlord’s beautiful daughter, and the charismatic Lord Summerisle) outfox Howie with neo-Pagan pranks at every turn. We’re supposed to enjoy Summerisle’s mockery of the policeman’s Christian prudery, and it’s not entirely clear whether our allegiance is supposed to change at the end of the film, when he’s dressed as a Fool and ritually slaughtered – whether we’re supposed to repent and clasp our hands in prayer as Howie recites Psalm 23, or link arms with the islanders and join their rendition of the mediaeval folk song “Sumer is icumen in”. On the 50th anniversary of Robin Hardy’s cult classic, the answer to this question is even more ambiguous, as British Christianity wanes and Pagan beliefs are on the rise....

[hexandbalances]

Mandrake needle felting tutorial from FeltField on etsy. Look at his sweet, derpy face. 😭

[hexandbalances]

I found an interesting, faintly thorny plant with delicately pale purple flower growing around my compost. After a little searching I identified it as Solanum carolinense, commonly called "Carolina Horsenettle", but also affectionately referred to as "the Apple of Sodom" or "the Devil's Tomato". I am still a fairly miserable gardener, but I have been blessed with the favor of nightshades.

[the-poisongarden]

Mab’s Drawlloween Day 12: Toad

My favourite toad is the Fowler’s toad (Anaxyrus fowleri), a little poisonous toad native to eastern North America. According to field guides and conservationists it’s not supposed to be in Ontario past Lake Erie, but I see it all the time in the Ottawa Valley. A lot of critters (and plants and fungi) are moving up here due to climate change and habitat encroachment.

I don’t just love toads because they’re poisonous, I love them because they are perfect. They haven’t needed to evolve in millions of years. They are “sit and wait” hunters, similar to spiders that are ambush predators. They just chill in the dirt and dead leaves and wait for food to come to them. Their whole life is “just bugs”. The creators of “work smarter, not harder”. They have a lot to teach us about patience, strategy, playing dumb, and doing well despite being lazy. Role model material, honestly.

[hexandbalances]

Evening Call by Jules Breton, 1889.

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Mushroom Medley with Reindeer Lichen by Jill Bliss.

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Mushrooms photographed by Jan Erik Waider

[2headedsnake]

[artqueer-blog]

Keith Perelli: Build, 45” x 24”, oil on paper on wood

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Found online, but I missed it on his blog. Kyle Thompson is on Tumblr and worth your attention.

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“Overthinker” by Nicolae Scarlat

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By Spanish sculptor, Noe Serrano.

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By Polina Washington

[mirrorsinner]

[hexandbalances]

Hi, any advice on where to start as a beginner interested in witchcraft

I have some general advice. I wrote something to this effect some years ago and it boiled down to this:

Wicca is just one system. Adaptive, certainly, but it is not a universal default of magical practice. This is perhaps more commonly understood now than when I began practising, in which Wicca was misrepresented as THE witchcraft.

You don’t need to buy anything. Witchcraft has/is becoming slowly consumed by the Wellness Industry. Some will attempt to sell you everything from crystal phallus (porous! Do Not Use) to nail polish in the guise of self-care/self-affirmation/empowerment. You cannot buy these feelings, only products. Where you can, make your own tools. Thrift them. Improvise. Try the next best thing and see if it works.

Experiment.

Actually practice. Especially if it feels silly. Too often we make practice a thought exercise and it never escapes ideation.

When it comes to religion or spirituality, no one has the answer. You must discover what is true for yourself.

Read everything. Often we read one thing and then sit on that as the Definitive thing. Expose yourself to different interpretations, different perspectives. You may find you like some things but turn away from others. Resist anyone or anything that requires you to be “all in or else.”

Have curiosity. “Where does this belief come from? Why must it be done like this? What was the purpose of this part? So and so says XYZ, is that true? Is doing X serving me, my patron, or someone else?” If a step seems arbitrary there may have been meaning that was lost over generations - or it might have just fit more nicely in the pan. Critically analyzing the text/practice/metaphysical schema/culture/etc. will give you a better understanding and dismiss assumptions that might otherwise waste your time and resources.

You might find you like a particular style or practice for a time and then decide that it stops working quite as well or something else calls to you more. This is natural; you were never meant to be static. Be ready to leave some things behind and be at peace when you do.

Khaire

[lizardsfromspace]

Someone on Twitter posted something about how America doesn't have folk horror, the true American folk horror is quaint suburbia and the more I think about that the more off base it seems

That America has sprawling suburbs and suburban horror doesn't mean we don't have small towns or backwoods with dark secrets or isolated cults or the like. America is drowning in those and the percentage of America that's sparsely populated and rural is much higher than the percentage that's suburbs and it's weird to pretend that nope, it's all suburbs

[hexandbalances]

We absolutely have folk horror. It might not look the same as British folk horror, but we certainly have it. It's in the dread of the things that stalk the spaces between rows of corn, that lurk in the deep dark of coal mines, creatures in the wilderness that suddenly walk upright and speak in otherworldly voices, the wind of desolate plains that whisper secrets and madness, the shame of the family we keep locked away in basements or attics, or the sweltering, suffocating heat of revival church tents that greater resemble hell than salvation.