Mugwortana

M. Old school witchy Papist. Cartomancer. "Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves." -Matthew 10:16

[estrild-deactivated20200501]

can you tell me more about Christian mysticism & what it means to you?

Christian mysticism to me is joining your soul with the divine. In my practice it looks like study, song, and prayer, as well as a lot of time spent meditating on the rosary and walking in nature. I also ask past mystics for assistance in intuitive readings, especially St Hildegard of Bingen.

[mysticromanceofchrist-deactivat]

Same here, but I was wondering about the association with witchcraft and/or the occult?  Doesn’t the Bible forbid those associations?

[estrild-deactivated20200501]

Eh, to a degree? But it also contradicts itself there too, since Joseph cast divinatory lots and Saul consulted a witch.

Christianity and the occult have been friends for a long time. Folk magic involving psalms, rosaries, prayers, etc. abound, especially in my part of the US. It’s not as cut-and-dry as “witchcraft bad, prayer good,” since the two blend so much in so many parts of the world.

Mysticism and the occult aren’t too different from each other, if they are at all. Mysticism is understanding God’s nature, and witchcraft/the occult serves as a way to exert our will. If done with safety and God’s will in mind, I don’t see how the two can’t be compatible.

[mugwortana]

This. It really depends on what you mean by witchcraft/occult. I personally use those words because they are the easiest to get my point across. But is it the same witchcraft/etc that believes the power to be our’s? That deals in sinister forces? That looks away from God for gifts and answers? No.

[exquisite-grandeur]

“People who’ve had any genuine spiritual experience always know that they don’t know. They are utterly humbled before mystery. They are in awe before the abyss of it all, in wonder at eternity and depth, and a Love, which is incomprehensible to the mind.”

— Richard Rohr, This I Believe II (via emotional-algebra)

[mugwortana]

The Deads’ Candles

On October* 1st I write the names of my beloved dead on the glass of a white devotion candle. I light it every night for a little while and I remember them that way. If I am especially good that month I set up pictures of them and objects they have left me as well as things they loved (a drink, a cigar, etc) around the candle. I talk to them. I thank God for them. I pray for them.

On November 1st I take another candle and write on the glass ”the souls in purgatory”. I light it every night for a little while and pray for them. November is dedicated to the Holy Souls in Purgatory in the Catholic church with the first and second days being set aside as All Saints Day (a Holy Day of Obligation) and All Souls Day. There is a lot more for the dead in this month but that's a whole other post.

*There is no official reason that I do this in October, I just always have. October and November have always signified ”The End” for me as we head into Advent and ”The Beginning”. In nature in the Northern Hemisphere, October and November are on the throws of Fall where things are dying off or otherwise ”going to sleep” for the year. It just makes a sort of sense to honor our dead during these months.

[ablogintwoacts]

“The Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.”

— Pope Francis (via queerlychristian)

[vinegartoteeth]

Christ in the Realm of the Dead

- Joakim Skovgaard

[jaded-mandarin]

Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg. Detail from The Angel Binding Satan, 1797.

[jspark3000]

Trying to look nuanced all the time by saying “both sides have a point” is not thoughtful. It’s cowardly. It’s from fear of alienating your fanbase. Both sides can have a point, but sometimes one side’s point is wrong and oppressive. The bare minimum is to call evil what it is.

[mugwortana]

Call evil evil. Especially when it's unpopular to do so.

[eternal-echoes]

“Celestial consolations are not bestowed on those that go in search of earthly pleasures.”

— St. Alphonsus de Liguori

[scavengedluxury]

Pizzeria Jesus. Naples, November 2015.

[the-soul-doctor]

[arjuna-vallabha]

Street art by Zilda at Naples, Italy

[maria-aegyptiaca]

[mugwortana]

🖤🖤🖤

[theredheadfromvirginia-deactiva]

[estrild-deactivated20200501]

Weekend Cleaning

So I work with a wide assortment of spirits now, and they’re not always my own. I do readings for friends and family on occasion that has me in contact with entities outside my personal spirit court, and, whether they mean to or not, sometimes these spirits bring along a little astral baggage. I’ve found it helpful the past couple weeks to clean up the vibes in my house, reset my wards, and do a little visiting with my own spirits at least once a week, most often on Saturdays.

Here’s what I do:

Get ye an angel friend. The best candidate for scrubbing spiritual/demonic residue is Michael, by far, and if you ask him nicely he’ll shoo some serious dirt out of your space.

Start with a red candle, a St Michael medal (if you have one), and your cleansing medium. I used a smoking stick of desert sage and some black sand in a pottery bowl.

Open all your windows and turn on all your fans. You want to get the air moving.

Make the sign of the cross and pray the St Michael prayer. He will show up, I promise, and when he does you need to tell him directly what you need. He doesn’t mess around.

Wave that smoky shit in every room. I find it helpful to remind my helper by saying, “St Michael, cast out unwanted spirits from my space.” Make this as witchy as you want, but honestly Michael doesn’t really give a shit. It’s all flavor at this point.

Loop back around to your candle. Snuff out any smoky shit and make another sign of the cross. I personally thank Michael verbally, then blow out my candle. He’ll understand that his job is done.

Check on your wards. Make sure they’re standing. Close any holes that have formed over time. Finally, shut your windows to keep out all that negative shit you just shooed away.

Sit down with your spirits you’ve allowed to stay. Make sure they’re doing okay, and maybe offer them something to eat or drink. Even a simple prayer with them will suffice.

And you’re done! Feel free to do some physical cleaning, light some incense/spray some Febreeze, and water your plants.

[bibligical]

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. —Psalm 147:3

[yeshuaspriestess-deactivated202]

Stop stigmatizing sex. I'm a sex repulsed asexual and even I know there's nothing wrong with having sex with someone you don't plan to be with in the long run. For most people sex is pleasurable and releases positive hormones that decrease stress. It's absolutely fine to have sex for yourself, and not for a god within the bounds of marriage. Virginity, castity and purity are constructs that have been used to control and scare people for millennia, by linking sex with depravity. Time to stop.

I’m not stigmatizing sex, but sex isn’t a small deal either and as it currently is, this society where sex for coping, coercion, non autonomous hookups is norm, it’s okay to point out that it’s not the exactly the healthiest of lifestyles and in this context not really a part of Christian doctrine.

can it work for some people if done the right way? Yes I’m sure there are even Christians who can make it work, but that would take an societal change that I don’t believe we can accomplish overnight to ensure healthy and Holy hookups. we’re talking about Christian views of sex, not the general population. There are pros and there are also cons to casual sex and hookup culture, but when it comes to Christian doctrine on it, I lean towards monogamy, while also understanding that stepping outside of that such as consensual non monogamy can be healthy with the right people and under the right circumstances and frame of mind.

I don’t see how Knowing that sex has consequences and giving my opinion on why I think monogamy is biblical is making sex depraved, I’ve had sex before marriage and I’m not impure because of it, But I sure as hell wasn’t doing for the right reasons and it is asks like these that helped me “cope” in all the wrong ways because I was ~doing it for myself~

[mugwortana]

I don't agree with @marymagdalaa on sex work (not entirely, at least) but her perspective is well thought out and worth thinking on. It's also not ” stigmatizing sex”. Nor is acknowledging and standing by Christian teaching in this. Christians love sex. We believe it to be sacred. That's the opposite of stigmatizing it. Only in a fallen world can saying that something is beautiful and great and demands reverence be perceived as dirtying that thing. SMDH.

[yeshuaspriestess-deactivated202]

Holy cave of Mary Magdalene