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Grimoire - Decolonizing Witchcraft
Racist Stereotypes About Magic What you mean to say: Karma Edition Depth and Cultural Appropriation in Witchcraft Racism, Spirituality, and Witchblr Making Magic More Inclusive Accidental Appropriation Closed Traditions Aren't a Monolith. CHAKRAS (are not what you think they are) Chakras - What they really are
More related posts at: For Pagans/Witches to Beware of My Posts Related to My Practices Religions and Deities
Once again, I am back to share a new diagnosis. I wish I remembered this blog exists between diagnoses.
Anyway, I have degenerative disk disorder. I know for sure I have it in my cervical spine, but my lumbar spine hasn't been imaged yet to call that one way or the other. No stenosis, and primarily affecting C3/C4.
I'm 30.
I was getting imaging of my head and neck to rule out Chiari malformation as the cause of recurrent, terrible pain in the occipital region of my brain because I have hEDS. Since I was ~16, I've known that I have a hunger point at C3, which has made every hEDS knowledgeable physical therapist and primary care beg me to never receive chiropractic. The neck pain isn't new, but this is the only time I've gotten a physician concerned enough about it to order imaging. I've done PT for it numerous times, including for whiplash in my mid/early 20s. I'm not surprised, but...
It's good it's not Chiari, I suppose. DDD is almost guaranteed for people over 40, so there are many treatments.
It's the degenerative that freaks me out. I ready have a progressive, degenerative, condition. Spinal surgery freaks me out. I'm so scared of c-spine fusion because of the loss of mobility, but I'm also daydreaming longingly of being in traction
Overall, I've been seemingly stable and relatively well this past year, more so than any other time since I got really sick in 2018. This feels lile a cloud on that horizon, and there's no telling how bad the storm will be.
…oh no, I might be housebound
Please help. I’ve literally never thought of my fatigue and reluctance to go out in this way, probably d/t internalized ableism. I have hEDS, POTS, gastroparesis, auDHD, anxiety, CPTSD, etc. etc. and I live in a building with stairs in a big city. I’m exhausted at the prospect of going out.
The two biggest reasons I stay in are 1) covid and 2) fatigue. It’s hard and painful to go out, and each time I do, I’m risking my 3rd infection with a severe pathogen. I go out about 2x/month usually, and I miss the outside world. I miss doing things and being outside. I haven’t felt like going outside has been worth the effort since 2018. I work part time from home but can’t keep up on housework.
I feel like crying. I’ve been carrying shame and self-blame for being a “lazy hermit”, but I’m just sick. This shouldn’t be a revelation.
Idk what to do. I’ve wanted a wheelchair for years, but my building isn’t accessible, and neither is my partner’s car. My rheum doesn’t want me to have one, and I can’t find a rheum that’s affirming of my mobility aid use. A cane is not cutting it. I’m still learning not to blame myself for needing to sit often when I’m out, because people in my life when I was younger told me I was “just out of shape”.
I don’t know exactly what to do with this new information, but I feel like this changes everything.
Whoops I’ve been gone forever so obligatory update
hEDS: not much news, but I’m being sent to a cardiac geneticist? not totally sure what that’s going to entail. I also have chronically low iron and can’t tolerate oral supplements, so I need iron infusions. I also have mild thyroid disfunction
POTS/lupus: being on hydroxychloroquine for “sub-clinical lupus” is super dehydrating, which means I am drinking liters of fluid daily, which helps my POTS so much. It also helps lower the inflammation in my body exponentially, which helps a lot with my pain
Gastroparesis: I’m totally recovered from GPOEM, and I can eat most things that aren’t a salad or super fatty! I’m so happy! I’m still lactose intolerant d/t gastroparesis, but I’ll take it! My nausea is much better. Still chronically constipated, but for 2-5 days vs. up to a month
Mental health/neurodivergence: so much CPTSD that I’m figuring out how to deal with, but big fan of mushrooms of all kinds for their neurologic benefits. Plant medicine in general has been really helpful for me this year. I’ve really leaned into my ADHD/autism this year, and feel much more validated in myself
Trans stuff: v trans all the time. I’m on low-dose T and spiro. Bottom surgery consult in the spring. In a violently T4T relationship, which is the best thing ever. Cannot recommend T4T highly enough. I’m feeling like a nonbinary/genderless dykey twink dom-leaning switch, which is very fun for me
Misc.: I’m a few years into being a Mental Health Professional(TM) and really focusing on decolonizing myself, mental health stuff, and reconnecting with my communities. Plant medicine has been a pretty integral part of that process. I also have an ESA cat who is adorable and incredibly anxious. She has a lot of trauma from her former life on the street, but she’s v v sweet and strange in classic Orange Cat fashion
DO NOT SUPPORT SALVATION ARMY
I can back this up. It isn’t only their shelters.
I have a family friend who worked at our local Salvation Army headquarters as a a secretary. This particular office took all the Christmas donations for children in need, put them in a warehouse, and on a designated day the staff and their friends picked through them all, taking whatever they wanted. She saw people hauling away bikes donated for specific families. Some local children had hundreds of dollars of gifts donated in their name, and on Christmas they received three cheap things, items likely not even from the person who sponsored them.
My friend quit, and I’ve not given them a dime of my money since then.
Do not give to the Salvation Army.
Do Not. Give. To. Salvation. Army
My turn.
I’m a wildfire and disaster logistics specialist.
I deal with a lot of agencies who provide disaster relief.
I used to say the Salvation Army’s disaster services were the one (literally the ONE) good thing they did.
They would come in, set up a canteen trailer, make and pass out hot coffee and donated food in a disaster, usually being one of the first agencies to get there and the last to leave.
Then I found out.
Every time they did this, regardless of if they were actually invited or deployed by the agency in charge (usually FEMA, sometimes others) they would SELF-DEPLOY. Meanjng they would just show up. Ok. That’s not TOO bad, sometimes agencies have to take initiative and get there before the red tape is sorted out. BUT. They, after they left at the end of the incident, they would send FEMA or the host agency a BILL. They used one or two paid employees (usually the driver of the truck and a supervisor); and many VOLUNTEERS, but they would bill for EVERYONE’s Labor at standard federal rates. They would bill for the food they distributed even though it was all donated by another agency or private parties. They would bill for the coffee they made and the supplies. Except they would use electricity from the shelter location, water from donations or from the shelter, and in many cases, they would get the coffee and industrial filters DONATED, but bill for them at retail prices.
Don’t FUCKING give to the Salvation Army.
The Salvation Army is also ass to the workers. A good number of people join it, naively thinking that it’s doing good, and end up leaving cynical and beaten down. The management is hostile, if not outright abusive, and demand some ridiculous hours of it lower to mid-level staff. Don’t support these people.
Unsettling update
Find better local charities and shelters and give to them instead!
Also just for even more horrific context on the original twitter thread?
Salvation Army reached out to Milknmuffins and asked what shelter she’s at with the promise to address the abuse in it. She…ended up saying where she was. She was thrown out onto the street. It’s also all on Twitter.
They invited her to a personal talk so she could explain the situation in person.
And then they threatened her with a screenshot of a rape-threat made supposedly by her:
And then threw her out into the street while claiming she broke house rules that
So yeah, the Salvation Army is a bunch of entitled assholes that will treat the most vulnerable like shit if they dare try to do anything that makes them look bad
Fuck the Salvation Army
GPOEM and New Diagnosis
I promised an update and it’s soooooo late, whoops.
On the previous episode of wrassefinn’s absurd life: March was the month of hip surgery to correct a malformed femoral head and torn ligament/cartilage (thanks, hEDS) and GPOEM. I am done with all my PT for hip surgery and, while my bones are still healing, I’m so much better and that joint is almost pain free!
GPOEM has a longer recovery/adjustment time. I was on a soft food diet for a month post-op to let my stomach heal and teach my duodenum how to digest food (other than tube feed). I’m back to my pre-op baseline, and I’m able to slowly incorporate new foods back into my diet. I had fresh cherries this summer for the first time in years! Tomatoes! I’m so excited by food again! I just had a follow-up gastric emptying study done that shows that GPOEM worked. My gastric emptying is normal now, but GP isn’t technically in remission because the reason it’s normal is because my stomach is essentially just a funnel now. Either way, I have so much relief from most of my GP symptoms.
My new (read: this week) diagnosis was a surprise. hEDS comes with joint pain, and I’ve had pain in my fingers and toes for years. Recently, that pain has gotten worse and some of those joints have gotten crunchy, so I scheduled an appointment with my PCP to get an arthritis eval, expecting early-onset osteoarthritis, which is common with EDS. My PCP asked if I’d ever been tested for autoimmune rheumatological conditions, which (shockingly) I had not. We did a bunch of labs; turns out, I have lupus (SLE) now too. And probably arthritis. I have an appointment to see a rheumatologist about the lupus dx in a few weeks, so more info then.
I do think it’s a Leetle Annoying when ppl are like omg american food is so narsty and unhealthy.. look at this (food that is only sold at the texas state fair)
It does ALWAYS just come back around to saying americans are such Fatties and of course it is ~Bad To Be Fat~ It’s also very cool and fun because america is obviously the only place that uses sugar or butter to make their dishes. the only place. no other place does that
Also the mock confusion of “why are there so many foods that use cream/milk/cheese??” in areas of the US where there are tons of cows, and “what tf is up with these corn products??” while standing literally in the middle of an american corn field
you’re right and you should say it (out loud)
Brits committed genocide, globally, for spices they don’t use
I will mock american food relentlessly for: 1. Frying everything 2. The tasteless sanitized garbage you dare calling cheese (gouda….. is not….. an extreme cheese…) 3. Not having a fresh vegetable in sight anywhere. I will never mock american food for : 1. Being based on cheap calories bc food poverty is a big thing 2. Not having traditional dishes bc its a very young country and the culinary equivalent of a teenager trying out recipes for the first time.
“Frying everything” happens primarily in the American south and is an extension of soul food which is a southern (black) American staple.
Not only do we consistently have and consume vegetables, we have regional and seasonal vegetable dishes and sides.
We absolutely do have traditional dishes that are specific to the regions and cultures found throughout the United States and the varying ethnic groups found therein. We are not children floundering around in the kitchen. We have entire unique regional and cultural divisions of food all over the US that have been passed down and worked on for generations.
You don’t know anything about American food or the cultures that curate them.
I thought I was done, but I’m not.
America is one of the most food diverse countries on the planet largely due to the massive variety of food profiles and cooking techniques melded together over the years.
The southern United States alone is a culinary banquet of flavors, colors, techniques, and food history. Each southern state has its own way of preparing soul food that is specific to the spices and culture of the black people living there. Louisiana is internationally known for its soul food. Tennesse is internationally known for its soul food. Kentucky is internationally known for its soul food. Texas is internationally known for its barbecue.
Did you know that Within the United States we have like 20 different types of barbecue and that, in the south (the real south not Texas), barbecue is not a verb? It’s a noun. It’s literally it’s own type of food that is incredibly regionally specific? It’s literally different all over and we all fight over who has the best (it’s SC).
Thousands of cookbooks have been made to try and cover the variations in soul food alone. Like we haven’t even begin to talk about other cultural influences in American food outside of the south.
“I know food” you don’t know anything about food and quite frankly this whole debate is low key rife with racism.
this also completely erases the huge varieties of native american food that has existed for thousands of years the USA is a young country but people have lived here for fuckin ever and they obviously eat and are a big reason Europe has more than just turnips and depression
Literally. “America is like a bunch of teenagers making food for the first time” yeah tell native Americans that. Tell the enslaved Africans who came here that. Tell the native Mexicans whose borders were crossed to expand America that. Like a bitch whose country is known for eating snails, frog legs, and eye of newt is going to tell us about food. Ok.
Disabled people have their own culture
Deaf people have their own culture
Blind people have their own culture
Autistic/ADHD/Neurodivergent people have their own culture
Mobility aid users have their own culture
For example:
- in deaf/sign language culture, its okay and normal to point (its often a sign itself)
- in nd culture, eye contact isn't necessary, and its very common to talk about personal things like trauma or political views (unless the person doesnt want to) and there are certain stims that often show recognizable emotions (flappy hands often mean happy)
AND a race one since the most affected regions will be Africa, Asia and Oceania
as a friend pointed out, this headline makes it sound like supply will be dwindling. supply is fine. people will be *priced out*.
this is fucking MURDER.
insulin has been mass produced (from animal extracts) since -1923-. slow acting insulin has existed since the ‘50s, and ‘human’ genetically engineered insulin (derived from E. coli bacteria) has existed since 1982.
insulin treatment for diabetes is not some new or ‘unproven’ treatment. according to beyondtype1, “Humalog rapid-acting insulin came on to the market with a list price of $21 a vial in 1997.” adjusting for inflation, a vial these days should cost about $34 at most. instead, it costs over $300. there is NO reason for it to be steadily gaining in price to the point that diabetics are unable to afford their lifesaving medication, other than the sheer inhuman greed of pharmaceutical manufacturers.
let me reiterate: life without insulin (for Type 1 diabetics in particular) is a slow and painful death sentence. the ability to treat diabetes is a relatively modern phenomenon that has allowed countless people to live full, healthy lives. we should be expanding full covereage and access to insulin to diabetics the world over, and it should be FREE.
Have y’all heard about Open Insulin Foundation?
“ We’re a team of biohackers with a variety of backgrounds, and skills, and relationships to insulin and diabetes from many cities and countries around the world, including Oakland, California; Baltimore, Maryland; Paraiba, Brazil; Dakar, Senegal; Yaounde, Cameroon; and Puerto Rico. We’re working to develop the first practical, small-scale, community-centered model for insulin production to make insulin accessible to all. We envision a world in which communities in need have local sources of safe, affordable, high-quality insulin, and where people living with diabetes and their communities can own and govern the organizations that produce the medicine they depend on to survive.
What We Do
We are creating an open-source (freely available) model for insulin production that centers on sustainable, small-scale manufacturing and open-source alternatives to production. We are developing protocols to produce short-acting (lispro) and long-acting (glargine) insulin, working on developing open-hardware equivalents to traditional production equipment, are researching sustainable regulation pathways to bring our insulin to the public, and are building capacities for local, small-scale manufacturing.
How Do I Participate?
Our work would not be possible without the support of volunteers, interns, and community advisors. We welcome people of all backgrounds from all over the world to bring their enthusiasm, time, connections, and experiences, both in life and in work. Our volunteers promote us on social media, build equipment, run experiments, write reports and blog posts, facilitate meetings, connect with other organizations and groups, meet with experts in the field, run virtual events, and contribute in designing tools, resources, and methods of all sorts.
Potential Partners
We welcome collaboration with other groups that share our mission―community labs, academic institutions, patient advocacy groups, and NGOs.
Donate
Your donation will help us get closer to our goal. With a healthy financial situation, we can pay for lab supplies, acquire lab equipment, recruit scientists, and pay for consultation fees for regulation and manufacturing experts.”
Open Insulin Foundation
I had GPOEM!!!!
It’s actually funny how it happened, which I’ll go into later, but basically my life has been:
Covid vaxx shot 1
2 week intermission
Hip surgery
2 week intermission
GPOEM
2 week intermission (I’m 2 days into this)
Covid vaxx shot 2
2 week intermission
Max covid immunity and last set of grad school finals due
On one hand, I’m happy to just get everything done all at once. On the other, I’m still a full-time grad student studying for a licensing exam and looking for a job in the midst of a pandemic/the anniversary of a massively traumatizing experience. Should I feel like I’m drowning?
I wish the month of March a very
go fuck yourself.
In other news, I’m having orthopedic surgery on the 10th, and my post-traumatic symptoms became full-blown PTSD because I almost died last year. I’ll post about that on my traumaversary if I can.
if your disability activism doesn’t support belligerent disabled people, disabled people who refuse meds or therapy, disabled people who don’t trust the system that’s fucked them over too many times to count—if your disability activisim depends on disabled people being nice or respectable or willing to be made into inspiration porn—it is not good disability activism.
Depth and Cultural Appropriation in Witchcraft
So I started reading Penczak’s Temple of Shamanic Witchcraft in order to see what was up. I already knew he was pretty low on the “Understanding Cultural Boundaries” scale, and was expecting to score out more advice than I would take in, but even early on in the book I was stopped by what he said.
After he became “…a little bored with witchcraft [and]…needed to explore other forms of mysticism, including shamanism” (pg. xvii), he “…found himself studying the rituals and lore of the Native American tribes.” Although he “…love[d] and respect[ed] them, Native American traditions didn’t touch [him] the way witchcraft did, so [he] kept looking”. (pg xviii).
Although this was a throwaway passage in an introduction, it kind of stuck with me. Witchcraft, the New Age era, and Neo-Paganism often butts heads against Native traditions in the least complementary (if you can call thievery “uncomplimentary”) way. I had always sort of wondered why- after all, most of how the New Age and Neo-Paganism movement in the US had started was derived in the slapped-together European tradition brought over from the witchcraft imported from Britain. So why were Native and Asiatic religions such prominent cultural inspirations for the longest time?
I wonder, almost, if it was a need for depth.
Keep reading
My gender is in hell, right where it belongs.
okay maybe this is common knowledge but not to me
twitter source: https://twitter.com/Al_Naffy40/status/1361419318206947328
THEY REALLY FUCKING STOLE THE REAL GATE OF ISHTAR AND LOOTED IT ALL THE WAY TO BERLIN GERMANY? Truly no words for the level of theivery and evil. and Iraq now has a ~recreation~ while the real thing is in germany
source to back it up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar_Gate
litearlly no words this is so evil and vile
This ones in Germany but u got the right energy
Just gonna cover all our bases here
happy captain cook death day everyone!!
Please do not leave deaf, disabled, mentally ill, and autistic people out of your conversations about police brutality.
50% of all people killed by police have a disability.
And this is coupled with the fact that Black folks with these conditions/disabilities are way more likely to be seen as having “behavioral issues” or being “dangerous” or “noncompliant.”
