Art of the Nephalim

Sharing other people's work, and sometimes my own.

[lionofchaeronea]

An Elegant Woman at the Élysée Montmartre, Louis Anquetin, 1888  

[thefugitivesaint]

This 3 minute clip of James Baldwin from a documentary aired on television in early 1969 explaining why “black people are in the streets” remains frustratingly relevant. As Baldwin explains, what was happening then had to do with “the lives they are forced to lead in this country. And they’re forced to lead these lives by the indifference, and the apathy, and a certain kind of ignorance, a very willful ignorance, on the part of their co-citizens.” This was recorded in 1968. It’s been 52 years. History is repeating itself because white America has continued to remain “willfully ignorant.” As Baldwin rightly stated, “we will either live here together or we will die here together. I am telling you, time is telling you, you will either listen or you will perish.”    

[gailcarriger]

[iliaora]

Why does @gailcarriger have the exact same cat as I do?? Clones? Another dimension?

[servantofthefates]

Hey there amazing person! Hope this doesn’t sound ridiculous but do you know any spells against hair loss? I don’t wanna sound vain, I know its a normal part of life especially for man, but as a child of Venus I’ve always took pride in my hair and with just 23 years It would be amazing if I could keep them just a little longer haha you’re such an amazing which and I hold you in very high regards so I hope this isn’t disrespectful or something bc I’m sure ppl have much worse problems.. thank you!

Beauty Enhancing Rituals for Venusians

The Goddess of Beauty has blessed her mortal children with many presents. When these gifts show signs of losing their luster, here are what you can do to nourish them further.

FOR GLORIOUS HAIR

Step 1: Build a shrine to your divine mother. Place upon it a portrait of her, a white candle, and a red rose — her favorite flower.

Step 2: On a Friday, the goddess’ favorite day,  present to her a bottle of castor oil.

Step 3: In your native tongue, implore your divine mother to refill your charms. Leave her shrine. Do not look upon it again until an hour later.

Step 4: Take the oil in your hands. Kneeling in front of her altar, while gazing upon her portrait, use some of the oil that she has now blessed to massage your scalp with.

Step 5: Wait for her to blink, nod, look away or make another gesture of dismissal.

Step 6: Speak your thanks. Then stand up, and leave the bottle on Venus’ shrine to once again be charged by her benevolence.

Step 7: Perform the ritual on the same hour for nine consecutive days — nine being the sum of the two Houses within her power and grace.

FOR DAZZLING SKIN

Step 1: Build a shrine to your divine mother. Place upon it a portrait of her, a white candle, and a red rose — her favorite flower.

Step 2: On a Friday, the goddess’ favorite day, present to her a jug of drinking water.

Step 3: In your native tongue, implore your divine mother to refill your charms. Leave her shrine. Do not look upon it again until an hour later.

Step 4: Take the jug in your hands. Kneeling in front of her altar, while gazing at her portrait, thank her for the water she has now blessed to enrich your skin with.

Step 5: Drink the water throughout the day.

Step 6: The next day, refill the jug and leave it on Venus’ shrine to once again be charged by her benevolence.

Step 7: Perform the ritual on the same hour for nine consecutive days — nine being the sum of the two Houses within her power and grace.

FOR A BEAUTIFUL VOICE

Step 1: Build a shrine to your divine mother. Place upon it a portrait of her, a white candle, and a red rose — her favorite flower.

Step 2: On a Friday, the goddess’ favorite day, present to her a teaspoon each of grated fresh ginger and raw honey. Place them in a teacup together, with the honey covering the ginger.

Step 3: In your native tongue, implore your divine mother to refill your charms. Leave her shrine. Do not look upon it again until an hour later.

Step 4: Take the teacup in your hands. Kneeling in front of her altar, while gazing at her portrait, thank her for the blend she has now blessed to embellish your voice with.

Step 5: Pour hot water into the teacup. Mix it well and drink every drop.

Step 6: The next day, refill the teacup as before, leaving it on Venus’ shrine to once again be charged by her benevolence.

Step 7: Perform the ritual on the same hour for nine consecutive days — nine being the sum of the two Houses within her power and grace.

[writing-prompt-s]

Aliens have arrived. They touch down on the planet, hoping to meet new people.

No one is there.

[themightytej]

From the bushes, an ominous honk

[sovietpostcards]

Working women in Soviet art

[growing-yet-into-magic]

Growing-Yet’s Personal Witchy Library!

Growing-Yet’s Library Masterlist (Best Copy)

*Updated and most recent version!* I put a link to the google doc up in the title, just in case the list looks illegible. The notes are only in the google doc, link above!

So I am a compulsive hoarder of witchcraft books, and I was honestly surprised I had so many when I started counting. There are a total of 56 real books, with a few mini-books thrown in from kits I was given. Most are purely witchcraft based, and a few are Wiccan, but I put personalized notes on each book so it’s easier to see if you would actually want to read or actually need something out of them. For example, the Sabbats books has some really fun activities, but I wouldn’t use it for the historical sections as most have been debunked over time.

Those books highlighted in lavender are the ones I have personally read cover-to-cover, while the gray ones are mini-books. Most are reference books, and I totally encourage anyone who needs a peek inside of them to message me with what you would need! I know that metaphys. and witchcraft books are hella expensive, and not everyone wants to drop $30 for one of the Judika Illes books, so if you want something from them, go right ahead and speak up. :) I may not always respond immediately, I will get to you and you will save yourself some $$$.

*Please, just clarify which book you want something out of. I cannot trawl each individual book for answers to a vague question, but if you want to know what, say, one book says on a certain topic, or if you want to see certain pages from a book before you buy, send a message that includes the title! :)*

*Also, I know that some of these authors are controversial or otherwise not-reliable, so take the words with a grain of salt. I made some points in the notes, so read the notes. I also make a point to buy used instead of new where I can.

-Blessings!

[darknessblackness]

By Dusty Ray

[feytouched]

me: has at least a dozen unfinished hobbies and projects with an array of untouched craft supplies

also me: i have a terrible and sudden urge to learn how to tablet weave

[gay-witchcraftt-deactivated2021]

When is society gonna release new superstitions

like let's start some new superstitions

"if your buffalo wings have a broken bone in them, somebody has lied to you"

"if siri stops recognizing your voice, someone has cursed you"

"if your uber gets lost on the way to you, bad luck will befall you that week"

"a speaker that keeps disconnecting from bluetooth, a spirit is nearby"

keep it going

[gingerbrownies]

Titanic conspiracy exposed

[thehighwayphantom-deactivated20]

Head canon: Accepted

[alice-paige]

HOLY SHIT

[dorkles-bingleton]

Let’s not forget Jack has the exact same haircut as John Connor

[inkskinned]

how terrifying, to be aging and girl. at 18 i was told by men that i was “the perfect age,” and i still thought it was a compliment. is it because at 20 i figured out how sharp those words were. i felt old at 21, felt like if grey hairs came and my spine cracked i was done for. how scary. i am reminded constantly by “realistic” ideas in fantasy novels that i should have five kids.

my life feels short. like it is squeezed into my twenties. like at 30 i become ghost, just another mother or hard worker or both, just another background character. like if i am not settled and making a difference by 27 i should just give up already. is this something men feel? like a clock is painted on their back, one hand warning: your beauty is something you are valued for and it is something you cannot get back.

and why was i only beautiful, i wonder, at 18 on a riverbank. i’m told often my childish face is a blessing. that i shouldn’t want to look older. one told me i was a trap falling: “you look young but you’re not” he said to me, “it kind of led me on”. am i not young? 

maybe i am wrong. maybe it’s just how we all feel, getting old, like time is slipping from us. maybe men do worry that they will be alone forever if they don’t settle by thirty, maybe it’s even because they think they’ll turn ugly. maybe we all squish our lives into that incredibly young decade. what do i know. i’m still learning.

[shad0wspinner]

I’m almost 25 and I’ve been feeling this a lot lately.

[plaidadder]

As a 48 year old lesbian, I offer my perspective on aging, and you all can take it or leave it.

Our understanding of our own aging is very much conditioned by the priorities of straight men, who in the aggregate understand beauty and femininity, indeed women in general, in literally superficial terms. Most of the ads you see for anti-aging products, for instance, focus on its *visible* symptoms: graying hair, wrinkling skin or discolored skin, sagging breasts, changes in body shape, etc. These are the symptoms of female aging that men perceive, and they are the ones that the cosmetics and the larger anti-aging industry therefore target. (Men do have their own anxieties about visibly aging, mostly related to hair loss and body shape; but they are not, for instance, generally terrified by the appearance of wrinkles, unless they work in the entertainment industry.)

But aging is not just something that happens to everyone else’s perception of you; it is something that happens in your own body, at levels deeper than anyone else (especially anyone male) is ever likely to perceive. From my POV the really important thing about aging is how you feel. Your body is where you live; it is for you. Aging is inevitable, but it can to some extent be intentional, in that you can (to some extent; all this is limited by the amount of time and money available to you and the healthfulness of the environments you have lived in and how you did in the DNA lottery) choose to do things that will help preserve the things about your body that make YOU happy to be living there–things like flexibility, strength, and the smooth functioning of your major organs. Generally, if you’re healthy, you don’t think about any of this stuff at 18 or 25; but when you are 40, you will start to take more of an interest as you come to understand how important all of this is to your own ability to enjoy life.

So that sucks, as does menopause, which is the unacknowledged referent of a lot of cultural anxieties about female aging. But the point I want to make is: one of the worst things that the phenomenon described so evocatively by the OP does to girls and young women is to make them so anxious about their own bodies that they are unable to enjoy and appreciate their youth while they have it. And that is theft. It really is. I miss youth, but even more do I regret the fact that when I was young I was so fucked up by cultural obsessions about female beauty that I was unable to fully enjoy the body that I had then. I did not appreciate its many excellent qualities, and it was a long time before I allowed myself to accept and act on its desires. At a time when I was beautiful, I thought I was fat and ugly, and that because no man would ever find me attractive, I was doomed to loneliness and isolation. After I met Mrs. Plaidder, her conviction of my beauty eventually passed into me. As a result, I enjoyed my life in general a lot more in my 30s than I did in my teens. I’ve enjoyed my 40s more too, apart from the cancer and the current catastrophe. Age does actually bring experience and knowledge and, to those able to profit from it, wisdom. You do gain, even as you lose.

Catullus, yelling in Latin verse at his lover Lesbia, asks her venomously, “cui videberis bella?” By whom will you be seen to be beautiful? It’s a question that still poisons our sense of self and our understanding of our own possibilities. By myself, asshole, she should have replied; and so may we all, at any age. 

[cricketcat9]

Long post, but - my three cents. At 67 I don’t feel old and/or ugly. In fact, I really enjoy myself. I’m happy with how I look - because I got over the brainwashed way we see ourselves. As plaidadder said: “even more do I regret the fact that when I was young I was so fucked up by cultural obsessions about female beauty that I was unable to fully enjoy the body that I had then.” BTW, plaidadder - you are STILL beautiful, trust me.  The American cult of youth and they way of evaluating women’s beauty as inevitably liked to age is fucking TOXIC. I now live in South America; was complemented ( in a non-creepy way) by two guys less than half my age last week, grey hair & all. Love it here. 

[justgot1]

You will never feel as old as you do in your late 20s to late 30s. Seriously. Western culture makes the passing of youth into a tragic death and that’s – so fucking sad. Once it has passed and you can no longer reasonably think of yourself as young, no matter how desperately you try to hang on to it – you find yourself in a whole other country, you realize that you’ve lived on one side of a mountain all your life and told there’s nothing beyond it only to discover that there is, in fact, an entire world on the other side. Don’t believe the lie. 

[unreconstructedfangirl]

I enjoyed this post. I also lacked the clarity on culturally imposed bullshit to enjoy my youth and beauty, and at 47, I have good days and bad days. I’m looking forward to one day not giving a flying fuck what anyone thinks about my body. I’m embarrassed and a little ashamed to report that I’m not there yet.

[mizjesbelle]

What I like about getting older (I’m 46.) is that the less “attractive” I become, the more I get to fill that space with things I choose.  The more invisible I become as a person with whom someone may wish to have sex, the more I can just wear clothes that I like and think are pretty, the more I feel free to let my hair have no real “style.”  I wear flat shoes that I think are cute.  I wear the same earrings I’ve worn for twenty years.  I get to choose to present myself as eccentric or artsy or sloppy or outdated without much commentary from the peanut gallery, because nobody is concerned any more with my fuckablity.  And without the constant input, I have more room for my own opinion.

Not that I’m there all the time, but I’m sure there a hell of a lot more often than when I was in my twenties.

[doctornerdington]

One of the things I love best about tumblr (and there are many, many things) is that here I have found a circle of middle-aged and older women who are kind and wise and brave, and are willing to share their experiences and to mentor younger women through aspects of aging. I’m 40, and I feel like I am beginning a journey into a new phase of life with a tribe of women beside me. It is so hugely valuable. ❤️

[recentlyfolded-deactivated20181]

Well, at 67, I can tell you that finally no one is looking at me like a tarted-up slab of meat with a vagina. Of course, I’m easy to mistake for a little old lady now, my hair having come in a disorderly charcoal grey after my chemo. But that’s a fun stereotype to work (some years ago the teens I was working with described my personal style as “granny goth”), and it also lets you comment and converse with other people with impunity: no one really worries if their kid shares a word in the store with “that granny” and when someone is unspeakably rude, you can just fire right back at them and they actually, sometimes, demonstrate at least momentary guilt. I dress for my own comfort—although I believe one can demonstrate respect by dressing nicely for things like meetings or travel, I tend to mean beyond what simply amuses me that I am clean, relatively ordered, and have all body parts covered that would cause arrest in my local jurisdiction. 

The rest of it? Fuck that noise; I’m old and I haven’t got time for that shit.

[antilla-dean]

Just to chirp in (45). One of the many gifts of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival was the intergenerational community of dykes. So first, as a dyke, I wasn’t around men a lot who were telling me how unfuckable I was. So aside from the general socialization, inside stepped a ton of bullshit. But also, at 21 I was hanging with wyms who were 40, 50, 60. I was seeing all of these older women in their fullness and glory and sexiness and intelligence and BEAUTY and like everything that happened there, I realized the head trips about aging were a lie.

These women, who embraced being crones, were EVERYTHING. I wanted to be them. And as I age, I remember their power, their gorgeousness. I aim for it with all my might.

Unlearning lies is such hard work, but patriarchy spends a lot of energy reviling things that are powerful.

[vulgarweed]

I can’t believe all the wisdom in these posts above. you GO. I am so in love with all y’all.

There is so much women are not only not taught, but flat-out LIED TO about aging. Even within fandom, a space that is very much women-driven, occasionally you come across someone trying to pressure older women to bow out because our mere presence makes some people uncomfy (and sometimes by “older” they mean over 30, never mind the 40+, 50+, 60+ women speaking up here).

Because we are not taught to respect older women as sexual beings, as beings with our own interests, our own passions, our own weaknesses, and our own right to take up space and be fully present even though we are no longer sexually desirable (to SOME) and might not be willing or interested in taking up a “mom/grandmom” role.

When I was in my 20s I was doing a lot of music writing and one of my biggest role models who I sort of knew personally was Deena Weinstein, who was doing exceptional work on metal culture - very little studied in academia at that time - and she was doing it as a (at the time) very rare visibly middle-aged woman at metal shows banging her head off to Cannibal Corpse. (She is not “detached.” She’s in the mosh pit. She loves the fuck out of it, and it shows.) Lots of people were lining up to tell her in one way or another she ought to be “acting her age,” whatever the fuck that’s supposed to mean. I looked up to her as the giant badass she is.

A few things they don’t tell you about aging, that I know at 48 (and I know to some people here, I’m still a baby, and that’s OK)

1. Menopause is real and for some people perimenopause takes years. Holy shit. It’s as big an upheaval as puberty - but, like puberty, it’s not a disaster it’s just a shift. Respect it but don’t fear it. Most of all, don’t fear talking about it honestly.

2. Being sexually invisible to strange men is a fucking blessing, especially if you take public transit every day. What a gift to actually be able to read in peace most of the time. Don’t dread this!

3. Judgmental opinions of trivial people become a lot more obvious for what they are, over time. 

4. Your interest in sex might decrease. OR IT MIGHT NOT. IT MIGHT EVEN INCREASE. In a culture that is horrified by the sexuality of older women, consider who is served by the assumption that loss of libido is a thing that always happens. (Or that it should.)

5. You ARE still the same person you were at 17, at 24, at 39, etc. You’re just a little bit MORE that same person. 

6. You have the right to discuss and write about any age you’ve passed through. You own your experiences and you can do with them as you will, creatively. You have been a child, a teenager, a young adult, a middle-aged person - you have memories that you are always entitled to draw upon, for any reason at any time.

[aprillikesthings]

I’m so, so fucking glad I’ve had women friends older than me (and in some cases, older than my own parents) since my early 20′s. Seeing women older than me enjoying their lives and being interesting and doing fun things and even (gasp!) having active sex lives, meant I haven’t been nearly as freaked out about getting older. 

[jaybird-with-a-hat]

Things I have enjoyed about getting older to this point (37):

Increased self confidence

Learned patience

Managing my anxiety and depression

Enjoying the body I have, right now as it is

Things I am not enjoying:

why is it so hard to get off the floor??

I get tired from physical activity faster

I can fuck up my back/neck in 0.5 seconds

Things I give zero fucks about:

grey hair

wrinkles

[recentlyfolded-deactivated20181]

For all of you up thread fretting about menopause, feel free to ask (my inbox is open). I’ve actually been through it twice, one naturally and then because that didn’t work out as well as hoped, surgically. And I’ve done a lot of research on the topic. So fuck the conspiracy of silence and know that I’m available for questions or just blowing off steam.

[feeblefeeb]

I love this thread. This is so affirming and things I wish I’d been shown in my 20s.

Also as a 35 can I emphasise things that might already be mentioned or not above that I’ve also noticed since hitting my mid 30s:

Love:

Not feeling the pressure to wear makeup or heels or ‘co-ordinate my outfit’ because I just don’t feel like caring about that any more (despite anxiety still being an issue, this doesn’t bother me the way it used to)

Feeling like a cool spy when I do do the whole ‘pretty woman with perfect clothes and femme presentation’ thing. I only do it when I know I’ll get something out of it (job interview, bullshit meetings, ‘dressy’ events) which makes those occasions feel like undercover cosplay and waaay more interesting since it basically becomes LARPing.

Feeling absolutely confident dressing up to the exact level I want to despite the circumstance.

I get why people were telling me all those things about real friends actually giving a shit about you. I get it now.

Cool becoming something I get to define, not something other people tell me to aspire to.

Not. Giving. A. Shit. About. Shaving.

Hate:

Back problems

Neck problems

Gut problems

Feet! Ankles! Knees! Oh my!

JOWLS??? (Bear with me I’ll get over that but… it was a shock)

Oh shit I actually have to sleep, eat and hydrate properly now.

Less physical stamina

Zero fucks:

Grey hair and wrinkles

Boob sagging

Weight

Ever increasing amount of errant facial hair

Being unfuckable to random strangers

[may-shepard]

Love this post and all the responses. What a pleasure to read!

I’ll turn fifty later this year. 

The thing I like most about being this age is seeing the multiple, extremely challenging practices / passions / obsessions I’ve taken on in my life coming to fruition. Writing is hard. You get better at it after doing it for a long time. Internal martial arts and meditation, which i teach, are extremely challenging and nuanced to learn. You get better at them after long, careful study. (And bonus: I’m living proof that even though aging is real and the body definitely changes, that doesn’t have to mean pain and deterioration. I’m stronger now than I was at twenty-five, by a long shot) 

I’m at the point with a lot of stuff I do where I feel like I’m achieving mastery. This includes my personal life, too: although it’s been a really weird and tricky past couple of years, my challenges aren’t throwing me like they used to. There’s a deep, wild pleasure to be found in persistence. It’s totally worth it. 

[13monkton]

56 and fresh out of fucks to give.

[sussexbound]

45 and love every damn thing about this post. This is why I wish the internet, and spaces like tumblr had been more of a thing when I was in my teens/20s.

[plaidadder]

Wow, it’s been a while since I last saw this come around and never with all these other responses! Thank you everyone for the additions!

[calligrafiti]

I’m 52. I’ve got some bits that hurt more than I’d like, but I haven’t had a menstrual cramp in years. The trade off’s totally worth it.

[gothiccharmschool]

I’ll be 52 this year. My joints and skeleton deciding to randomly hurt? Not fun. Giving even LESS of a shit about what people think of my appearance? AWESOME.

Also, peri-menopause was horrible, but menopause is great.

[thesanityclause]

This was such a wonderful and comforting thread to read as a 29 year old feeling like I didn’t do my 20s right. I wasn’t beautiful, I didn’t have any grand romances or adventures. I just did my best, and am starting to feel like I’m about to become a side character. Women in their 20s are the main characters, older women are side characters. They get a page maybe of lines before the story moves on without them. And I feel like I never got to be the main character before being relegated to this role.  But reading all this gives me so much hope and comfort, life is NOT OVER. There is still so much and every year I feel like I’m becoming a better person than I was so how much better is 30s going to be?? 40s?? 50s?? There’s still so much life to go!!

[iliaora]

Glittery pride nails for my wife! Found some neon glitter at the craft store this weekend, and here we are. #acrygel #ursugar #gelnails #gelnailsdesign #80saesthetic #pride #pridemonth #pride🌈 #nailsofinstagram #nailsnailsnails #nails #nails💅 #nailstagram #notanailtech https://www.instagram.com/p/ByOirVxBCny/?igshid=1qrvopm10979j

[iliaora]

@cakedinosaur81 came over last night to get her nails done and had an idea so amazing that there was no question it would turn out awesome. Only bad part was that since it was all hand painted, it took FOREVER to do. By the time I got to the fleeing dinosaurs, we were both so tired and I rushed. So the dinos suffered twice; extinction and poor artistic execution. Also, extensions without forms or tips is a challenge. Anyway, I’m REALLY proud of this set. 🤓 #acrygel #ursugar #gelnails #gelnailsdesign #original #originaldesign #nailart #nailsofinstagram #nails #nailart #naildesigns #nails💅 #nailstagram #nailsofinsta https://www.instagram.com/p/ByLGKPlBnQQ/?igshid=1kney0ifu1910

[iliaora]

Inspired by @getbuffednails. She’s a master, and I am merely a dopey plebeian. I bow to her mastery. That said, I looooooove my take on her design. I get seriously jazzed when green and purple show up together. I got a HUGE #bornpretty haul, so I had to play with the new cat eye polish and chrome powder. Check the second photo for that cat eye effect in action. What’s on my other hand? Three week grow out! I’ll probably update when I do that hand. #nailsofinstagram #nails #nailsnailsnails #sadcuticles #stilllearning #notanailtech #nailstagram #nailsofinsta #gelnails #gel #gelmanicure #gelpolish #polygelnails #polygelextensions https://www.instagram.com/p/BxvMZW4g9KS/?igshid=36168oluom06

[iliaora]

10/25/17 - I used my cat as a model for this! I love it, even though I might have colored it a wee bit differently. Inktober “ship” and Drawlloween “black cat.” #art #art🎨 #artwork #artofinstagram #inktober #inktober2017 #inktoberday25 #drawlloween #drawlloween2017 #drawlloweenday25 #blackcat #catsofinstagram #piratecat

[iliaora]

10/24/17 - Inktober “blind” and Drawlloween “moon man.” This is quite a loose interpretation of these themes. #art #art🎨 #artofinstagram #artwork #inktober #inktober2017 #inktoberday24 #drawlloween #drawlloween2017 #drawlloweenday24 #vashtanerada #whoturnedoutthelights