Mel's Witchy side @melswitchyside - Tumblr Blog

In light of some of the many things happening across the world this year, I thought this Pride Month needed a special illustration.

Happy Pride Month, may we all stay safe, look after each other, and keep painting our rainbows, no matter what. 🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

chronically-chaotic-cryptid

Back on my Quaker nonsense (seeing that of God in everyone, viewing every person as inherently worthy of a good life and fair treatment, hoping and trying to fight for a better world, finding God in nature and tragedy in people being forced into violence, etc)

mxmaebie

Do witches still use Tumblr?

teawitch

Nah. We all left.

Sound off if you're no longer here.

comida-dellarte

Saw this in our local paper today. It was interesting to read.

There’s been an unprecedented surge in the numbers of attendees at Sunday worship at the Quaker Arch Street Meeting House in Old City Philad

Young adults turn to Quakers’ silent worship to offset — and cope with — a noisy world

BY LUIS ANDRES HENAO

Updated 2:18 PM GMT-5, October 31, 2025

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — At the Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia’s Old City, more and more young people are seeking respite from a clamorous technological age in the silent worship of a centuries-old faith.

Like other Quaker houses of worship, it follows values of simplicity and equality. There’s no clergy, pulpit or altar. No statues of saints, no stained-glass windows. No one sings or chants, burns incense or lights candles. They simply sit in silence in 200-year-old wooden pews — and wait for a message from God to move through them until they speak.

“This feels different in that it’s so simple. It’s set up in a way that makes you feel like your internal world … is equally as important as the space that you’re in,” says Valerie Goodman, a pink-haired artist reading her Bible outside the meeting house on a recent Sunday before going inside. Goodman, 27, grew up Southern Baptist but left the evangelical church in college.

“It feels like I can have a minute to breathe. It’s different than having a moment of meditation in my apartment because there’s still all of the distractions around,” Goodman says. “And it’s crazy being in a room full of other people that are all there to experience that themselves.”

It has been called the “Westminster Abbey of Quakerism.” Yet for years, attendance at Arch Street was so low, and its historic 300-seat West Room felt so empty, that the few people present began to meet in a smaller room. But recent years have produced an unprecedented surge in the number of attendees at Sunday worship — from about 25 before the coronavirus pandemic to up to 100 today.

“One of the things that I’m very excited about is the number of people that we have coming to meeting, and the fact that the majority of them are young,” says Hazele Goodridge, Arch Street’s clerk.

One couple’s story

Among them: Emily Philbrook, 24, and Benjamin Barger, 27, who recently married at Arch Street in a traditional Quaker wedding. The couple moved from Washington to Philadelphia so he could attend veterinary school and began to worship at Arch Street three years ago.

He in a dark suit, she in a white wedding dress, they sat on chairs upfront facing hundreds of guests in wooden pews. Eyes shut, they held a long period of silence broken only when they stood to exchange their vows. Like other Quaker weddings, it was a self-uniting ceremony: They married each other, without an officiant. At the end, the guests lined up to sign, as witnesses, a marriage certificate.

Two days later, the couple returned to Arch Street for Sunday worship, wearing jeans, sneakers and Philadelphia Eagles T-shirts.

“It’s really nice to have that hour of silence when so much is going on in the world,” Barger says. “Kind of like stepping back into time a little bit in this building.”

It isn’t merely the silence. Philbrook says she values the faith’s long tradition of Quaker activism that she believes is attracting young people at a time of deep divisions and political violence in America.

Historically, Quakers have been involved in peaceful protests to end wars and slavery, and they support women’s voting rights in line with their commitment to justice and peace. Earlier this year, Quakers marchedfrom New York City to Washington to demonstrate against the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants.

“In times of national distress, people tend to turn towards something that is historically a peaceful and social justice-oriented faith,” Philbrook says. “They just want a place to sit and reflect and be in a like-minded community.”

Tracing its heritage to William Penn

The Arch Street Meeting House was built in the early 19th century on land donated by William Penn, an English Quaker, who founded Pennsylvania following the faith’s emphasis on religious tolerance. It remains one of the world’s largest active meeting houses.

“It’s the most important building in the Quaker faith, probably because it is that sort of mecca of Quakerism,” says Sean Connolly, executive director of the Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust. “It was built to be the largest, grandest Quaker meeting house in the world.”

But not many knew about it. Tourists visiting Independence Hall and other historic Philadelphia attractions would walk into the meeting house’s brick building and were often surprised Quakers even existed, says Goodridge, a member of Arch Street for more than 25 years.

“They think, ’Oh, they must have all died out because probably they don’t hear too much about us,” says Goodridge, who is also the first Black clerk in Arch Street’s history. “They think of Quakers as a historic construct, something that used to be around.”

Others, she says, would confuse them with Amish or Mennonites or would invoke Quaker Oats, which is unrelated to the faith. The company describes the logo as “a figure of a man in ‘Quaker garb’” with white hair and a tall black hat on its label that the owners picked along with the Quaker name more than 150 years ago “as a symbol of good quality and honest value.”

“Quakers didn’t haggle,” Goodridge says. “Quakers were fair businesspeople. And they made good products -- the benches are proof of it!”

Arch Street’s original wooden pews withstood the test of time. But how does a religion that offers the solace of quiet make itself known and compete against all the loud noise of the modern world?

Part of the challenge, Goodridge says, was that Quakers — those in the northeastern United States, at least — don’t proselytize. Arch Street, though, has more leeway because it’s a historic site with exterior exhibits that talk about the Quaker faith. That has helped increase visitation.

The museum run by Arch Street’s preservation trust has also held organized tours and virtual resources. One of them challenges visitors to test their knowledge of Quakerism with questions painted on a wooden panel. Among them: “Do Quakers quake?” “Do Quakers eat Quaker Oats?” and “Are Quakers still around today?”

Roots in 17th-century England

The Religious Society of Friends, or the Quakers, originated in 17th-century England. The Christian group was founded by George Fox, who objected to Anglican emphasis on ceremony. In the 1640s, he said he heard a voice that led him to develop a personal relationship with Christ, described as the Inner Light.

Fox taught that the Inner Light emancipates a person from adherence to any creed, ecclesiastical authority or ritual forms. Brought to court for opposing the established church, Fox tangled with a judge who derided him as a “quaker” in reference to his agitation over religious matters.

In the United States, Quakers became highly influential in cities like Philadelphia and founded colleges in Pennsylvania. But members of the group also faced scorn for refusing to join wars due to their belief in nonviolence. Some were persecuted and even executed for trying to spread their religious beliefs.

Today, there are an estimated 400,000 Quakers worldwide. About half live in Africa; most are in Kenya, where they use bands and choirs and evangelize.

Arch Street Quakers, though, want to remain traditional. But members credit its outreach clerk, Alec Unkovic, for raising awareness about the often-ignored contributions of Quakers by redesigning the congregation’s site and posting about events on social media.

“The stillness in meeting and the way of silence is atypical for our current moment,” says Unkovic, who grew up Catholic. “This meeting made a really conscious choice to acknowledge that many people were interested in this.”

On a recent Sunday, Aurora Reardanz sat with dozens of others at Arch Street. After worship, she shared that she had decided to become a full member.

Though she was baptized Catholic, Reardanz never practiced. Instead, she found her spiritual home in Quakerism and the faith’s values, known as SPICES — Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship. Today, she also appreciates silence, calling it “beautiful and alluring.” But it wasn’t always that way.

“My first meeting for worship at 15, I thought I was in a cult. I was terrified. The silence was deafening,” she says. “And it’s something that grew on me, and I think it grows on a lot of people, and they learn to appreciate it in a world of constant noise.”

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

upthewitchypunx

I just keep thinking about Ysha's comment yesterday at the @criticalthinkingwitches Brew "Capitalist loves a solitary witch"

Capitalism loves to be able to sell you things and keep you buying things from self-help books disguised as witchcraft to crystals of explorative extraction. Capitalism loves to isolate you and focus on your individualism leaving you open to shit like the "Law of Attraction" shaming you for just not wanting things enough and never considering all the cultural obstacles from racism to sexism to class that permeate society.

Capitalism replicating itself in magic says you will be happy if you just buy the next thing and that your spiritual enlightenment can be just one purchase away.

It never focuses on community or cooperation or connection, unless it is to make money for someone else.

I know so many of us are solitary due to location, or needing to hide our practice, or not finding a lineage you would want to join. But that does not preclude you from having community with other witches, which is kind of what Tumblr is about when we share and grow together.

But in the real world you can have study groups or attend one of our free CritWitch Brews. We always share and learn things and we have guides breakout rooms with questions to answer so it's not so awkward. It's good practice to talk about magic if you aren't used to doing that in real time.

Not everyone who comes to the CritWitch events is atheist, agnostic, or secular in their practice. A lot are animists or pagans who genuinely enjoy the critical thought aspect of what CritWitches focus on.

Capitalism wanted you isolated and consuming, what can you do to contract that?

stormwaterwitch

Rabbits Rabbits Rabbits

Reblog this on the first of the month for good luck all month long!

dumbbbunnnyy-deactivated2021021

aropride

please god let chatgpt die out like nfts did. With a fast and graceless fall into irrelevancy

bladespark

Like to charge, reblog to cast.

conservethis

Casting with all my might

thelittledaily-deactivated20260

REBLOG THIS TO GIVE THE PERSON YOU REBLOGGED THIS FROM A GOLD STAR BECAUSE THEY’VE BEEN STELLAR TODAY AND THEY DESERVE IT ⭐️

pnkrathian

i feel like the knowledge that there are some medical databases with free-to-use 3D scans of various human organs available for 3D printing would have drastically reduced tumblrs amount of bone stealing scandals. plus you can make ones that glow in the dark.

look at my glow in the dark humerus boy

pnkrathian

hey. if anyone wants em:

NIH 3D Library (Free)

Embodi3D (Free and Paid)

MorphoSource (Free, database of fossils)

Scans can also be found by searching on general-purpose 3D sites like Thingiverse, Cults3D, MakerWorld, Sketchfab

The glow in the dark filament I used

If you don’t have a 3D printer, check the website of your local library to see if they do! If you’re in college, your university’s libraries could have one too! They’ll likely have info on how to submit a print to their services and how/where you could find them.

dragon-in-a-fez

hey can we. can we rewind to the part where tumblr has a regular problem with bone stealing scandals

that-aster

saintmachina

Deeply religious openly queer people are God's strongest soldiers. Constantly justifying their own existence to everyone from all sides...Phew

traumacatholic

If you’re seeing this, please say a prayer for rape crisis shelters and charities, and the people that need to access those services. A lot of shelters and charities were/are unable to operate because of lockdown measures in various countries.

agnarid-deactivated20260112

I know most people don't care about anything unless it has to do with the U.S. but can we please start talking about the Canadian election.

Please don't vote for Poilievre. He's basically the Canadian Trump and plans to put in place laws that harm trans youth, and lots of other shit.

Please vote istg this is the only way anything will get better. Poilievre has been kissing millionaires and billionaires asses. He'll make life even harder, and he loves Trump.

Reblogs are appreciated, especially if you aren't Canadian.

horse-is-a-horse-of-course

I haven’t slept in three days.

I’ve been working around the clock to back up over a petabyte of research data and records and articles from the National Library of Medicine before it gets attacked by that elongated dipstick and his gestapo squad. Trying to get copies of every federal research program’s data before it gets destroyed in the crossfire. I hope to God that it won’t, but I have no confidence that it will be safe. Lots of copies keep stuff safe.

horse-is-a-horse-of-course

Census Bureau data that breaks down the schedules of historical census records? Gone. NIH research into anything containing the word “diversity”? At risk of deletion. I am working so hard to make sure that some glimmer of what we know is preserved before something truly terrible happens to this knowledge.