A Lady's Respite

Hello! My name's Mythic, and my pronouns are she/they. This is a blog for a beginner/closeted witch, and is also a writing and aesthetic blog. My main is ShadowLucario778

[lucjan]

//

[dumpsterprophet]

the fact that Christians call it good news that you can be saved from the eternal torture chamber when the same guy who is saving you invented the torture chamber... it's like that post "heartwarming: girl raises money to stop orphan crushing machine" but it's weird if you question why there's a torture machine and why you need money to stop it

[midnight-in-eden]

“Good news! The guy who put you on the Conveyor Belt to Eternal Torment can get you off the Conveyor Belt to Eternal Torment for the low low price of an entire lifetime of dedicating your time, money, and devotion to promoting him and his rules! Isn’t he such a great guy?!”

[coinandcandle]

Feeling stuck? Wanna try something new?

Here are a few things you can do to kick-start the magic juices.

Craft a sigil using a method never used before. Here's mine if you're interested.

Low energy? Check out this 7-day spell crafting method to get you through the week.

Write down a list of your household spices and either research their correspondences or give them your own!

Research a spirit or deity from a culture you've never looked into before. How were they interacted with? How is this different from what you're used to? How is it the same? Here are some research tips btw!

Grab one of your tarot or oracle decks and pick a few cards. Without looking at the meaning, write down what you think the meaning is based off the imagery you see. What does the scenery imply? What about the individual parts? How do they come together to create meaning?

Wanna cook or bake? Here are a few kitchen witchery posts of mine, but also check out @breelandwalker's page and her many recipe round-ups! Follow the recipes or use them as inspiration to craft your own!

Deep dive into the life and death of one of the many occult figureheads throughout history! Here's a list of some of them.

Check out my #weekly witchy questions tag on my page to expand your practice by exploring your beliefs!

Have fun!

[dailystuffie]

Today’s plushie is . . .

Fraidy the Black and Orange

Halloween Cat !

day 13 ,, posted 2/24/26

[witchxpunk]

Why do spells have to rhyme?

[space-queen]

it's not a requirement :)

[illusionsgrimoire]

Hi, hello, definitely I agree that it's not a requirement BUT I have thoughts on why this can be, and how it can be used for greater effect in magic!

A lot of spell anatomy involves symbols and metaphors and structure. Something else that uses those a lot? Poetry. And songs. Prayers too, in many cases. Anything that uses language as a medium with artistic purpose, really. There's a couple reasons why.

Firstly, and most simply, it helps with recall. Before literacy was common, when stories and songs were passed along orally, language tools like rhyme, alliteration, rhythm, and repetition were used more because they help people to remember what's said, keep it in order, and not miss any words.

For example, here's a homily that I read in a book when I was about 12:

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure!"

This simple line has both rhyme and rhythm, and has lived rent free in my head for more than 20 years now.

So, by utilizing something like rhyme or repetition, a spoken spell or prayer is easier to recall without needing to look it up, and easier to teach to someone else. Think, for example, of how many songs you might know the lyrics to by heart, compared with a paragraph of text from even your most favorite prose story.

Even aside from recall, language is about communicating feelings and ideas, and evoking emotions. The sound of language, when the writer pays attention and arranges it with care, is important if you want your language and rhetoric to be powerful and memorable and get through to people. If you strengthen the writing, you strengthen the message.

You don't have to use rhyming in your spells, of course. You don't have to use words at all. But I do think language works very similarly to magic in many ways. With words, we can ask for things, banish harm, call for help, mend a hurt. We can change minds, create images, inspire confidence, express devotion, and capture attention. Is this not a form of magic, all on its own?

[witchxpunk]

Lovely additions, thank you!

[amorphousbl0b]

The tribes of Tumblr appeared to worship Apollo as their primary patron deity, most often under the epithet Apollo Spairahemon ("Apollo the Ball-Thrower") as a god of prophecy and sport. His name was typically invoked to celebrate a user blessed with uncommon prescience. Moments of prophecy were considered highly sacred and were often recorded, and such texts are sometimes accompanied by an artistic depiction of the god — either his traditional masculine image or, unusually, in the form of a young woman, which appears to have been an earlier style before a conservative shift toward more conventional iconography — preparing to cast a round rubber ball that our scholars believe was used in the sport known as "dodge ball". Much as other cults regarded his arrows as bringers of disease and health, this community believed that being struck by this ball would bestow prophetic visions.

Some icons are reproduced below:

An earlier depiction (c. 2020) of Apollo as a girl clad in a simple tunic and playing with other children. Figures are smiling and the image is brightly colored, indicating a celebratory outlook toward knowledge of the future.

A later piece (c. 2022) that resembles the traditional appearance of Apollo. References to childhood and play are omitted, and the god carries a more frightening aspect; perhaps this icon represented grim omens rather than good tidings.

[redlipstickresurrected]

Hilma af Klint (Swedish, 1862-1944, b. Karlberg Palace, Solna, Sweden) - Altarpiece No. 1 Group X, 1915, Paintings: Oil, Tempera, Gold Leaf on Canvas

[creature-wizard]

Why is salt good for exorcism and banishing and all that jazz? Well you see, way back in the day people knew jack-all about germs and microbes and for all they knew it was evil spirits that got into their food and made it go a-spoil. They Noticed and Observed that when you soaked food in a Lot of Salt, food stayed good longer. So that meant that the salt was keeping the bad spirits out. Now, tossing around salt and making salt circles makes for dramatic rituals, sure. But I think we all know that some entities are just powerful bastards and need some extra oomph to get them out of the damn house. You know what is more potent than salt at killing bacteria and germs? Bleach. You know what’s really good for just killing all kinds of stuff very dead? Medical autoclaves. Now I understand that not all of you have access to autoclaves, but I understand that a good pressure cooker can also do for sterilization. So therefore, I propose that if you have yourself a haunted doll or something that isn’t reponding to the usual methods, a wash with chlorine might be in order; and if that doesn’t to the job, a visit to the Insta-Pot might teach the bastard who’s boss around here. (Of course there might not be much of a doll left but it wasn’t like you needed to keep it around, anyway.)

[viktor-sbor]

In the 1830s, such books were very popular, as they showed the reader amazing 3D projections.

[frozenwolftemplar]

Honestly, this impresses me infinitely more than the snazziest 3D CGI imagery Hollywood can come up with.

[dirthymns]

the thing folks living in Christian dominant cultures gotta realize is that even if you’re not Christian, your basic understanding of religion and spirituality and morality is still being filtered through a Christian lens. your very concept of what religion is and does is filtered through that lens.

[evilwickedme]

This is what I call cultural Christianity, for those who are still confused

[hissorikos-menagerie]

“But everyone celebrates christmas.” No. No we don’t.

[queertillyarchive]

“Religion is based on complete blind submission and not asking any questions ever”

No. That’s Christianity.

“Religion is totally focused on the afterlife and getting into heaven and avoiding hell”

Nope. Christianity again.

“Religion is about pushing your beliefs on others and trying to get them to convert”

Still Christianity.

[bai-xue-lives]

Actually that’s even more specific - that’s Calvinism, which predominates in America. America isn’t just culturally Christian,it’s culturally Calvinist, which very specifically focuses on submission, the fear of damnation, and conversion. It’s also not just any old Calvinism, but a very rigidly puritanical variety thanks to our roots.

There are other culturally Christian countries, which are of other denominations and therefore have a slightly different bent. England is culturally Anglican, Germany is culturally Lutheran, Italy and Spain are culturally Catholic, Russia is culturally Orthodox, etc. However, even the cultural Catholicism of Italy is different from, say, the cultural Catholicism of Ireland.

So even here, we need to be careful not to filter other cultures’ Christianities through what is a very Americanized (via @queertilly) Christianity, and vice versa with other countries. Speaking as an American, even our concept of what Christianity is has been Americanised.

[damnfool-of-a-took]

^^^ that

[askadventuresoftheflies]

Question: what if you’re Jewish in America and don’t see religion through any of the lenses you’ve mentioned? Are there other false beliefs one can get through the dominant culture here?

[beeceit-deactivatingsoon-deacti]

Oh, definitely. I can’t think of any off the top of my head, though

[sublimepaperfury]

Picture a wedding. Any wedding even in a fantasy context. Let me guess, you’re picturing a woman in a veil and a white gown, some guy in robes officiating, and it’s probably taking place in a church-like building, right? Christian culture is pervasive like that.

[hugaddicted]

I once gave a lecture about “rituals”, and I asked the people who were attending how a marriage looks like in their culture. An adult woman answered “the bride always wears a white dress”. So I asked her which culture she was talking about. She kept insisting that that was the case in every culture, “even with atheists like me”, and that it wasn’t culturally Christian. Luckily there were several Muslims in the group that told her that that’s often not the case at Muslim weddings.

[terulakimban]

Other examples of “things we internalize” -I’m going to stick with religious ones: 

What’s today’s date? The Gregorian calendar is fundamentally Christian; it was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII as a reform to the previously-used Julian calendar (itself only in use today in Christian contexts). 

What does someone mean when they say “The Bible”? 

If you have the phrase “Old Testament” in there at all, congrats, that’s cultural Christianity in play. That phrase isn’t one that makes sense to us, given that we don’t believe there is a New Testament -the OT is also, historically, not the Tanach. 

When is New Year’s? 

The classical Jewish response to that would be “which one” -we’ve got four of our own. Other cultural new years take place around the year.

What does a religious service look like? 

What do people look like when they’re praying on their own? 

If your mental image here is someone kneeling, hands together… Christianity again. 

Do you find the concept of being culturally a member of a religion you don’t, as far as you can tell, practice or believe in, weird?

Yeah, that’s Christianity again -specifically because of its ubiquity. “Oh, I’m not Christian; I just do big family dinners on Christmas and Easter” is Christian, but somehow requires less explaining to most people than “I’m not religiously Jewish, but I still celebrate the Jewish holidays.”

Is there fundamentally a good-evil dichotomy? That’s another one that’s not really a classical Jewish approach. 

What does repentance/atonement entail -and what requires it? 

There’s a lot of stuff like this. In many cases, it’s about “what is the first mental image that comes to mind.”

[sorekbekarmi-deactivated2022051]

What does the word “religion” mean to you? Is it defined by faith, belief, trust, commonality, culture, tradition, deity, lack of a deity, peoplehood, way of life? Is it defined by biblical literalism, by orthodoxy, by anti-science, by an implicit superiority? Is it all those things in equal measure, or are some more important? What is the opposite of religion? Do you assume that your definition is universal and applicable to others?

Do your ideas and concepts about religion exist in English, or do they only really exist in another language?

What is the honorable and good way to bury someone who has died, and to mourn their passing? What is the language of death? What makes a death good or bad? How is the body treated? What are the ritual, sacred, cultural, practical, ethical traditions around death?

What are the legal particulars that evolved into the marriage ceremony you imagine as the default? How is that marriage celebrated? What IS marriage, and who has authority over it?

How does someone come into this world? How is their coming celebrated, before and after the actual birth? How is their name chosen? What names are off limits? How many names do they get? When are the names used? What do they mean? How do they honor family?How do they become a part of the community?

As someone ages, how will they pass through meaningful, institutionalized rites of passage? When are they responsible? When are they an adult?

What is the relationship between humanity and nature? The relationship between humanity and the earth? What is our position in the natural world? What rights do we have or not have, what duties do we have or not have?

What is your view about the occult? Your concept of angels, demons, and the devil? What do magic, divination, and astrology look like to you?

What ubiquitous symbols exist in your culture? What phrases and idioms do you use to convey meaning beyond the explicit? Do you use these without thinking about their origin?

How is the year celebrated? What seasons are given special honor, and why? What themes are strong enough to provoke holidays and observances? What ARE those holidays and observances? What holidays do you consider “religious,” “secular,” or “national?” How do you observe them? What rights do you feel you have around them - do you have the right not to work on certain days, and why those days? Do you have the right to celebrate them publically, even in a government supposedly separated from religion, and what gives you that right?

What IS prayer? How does one do it? Does it matter or make a difference? What is it’s intention?

How much do you know about the culture, beliefs, history, traditions, and oppressions of different religious groups? How much do you know about your own group, or the dominant group in your country?

Looking at the entire list, do you expect other people to have similar answers as you? Why?

[script-a-world]

Not originally worldbuilding, but this is a really good guide you can follow when building a religion to avoid making it just feel like a copy of the one you grew up surrounded by!

[somestorythoughts]

A note on the praying - I don’t know what prayer looks like for others (I’m familiar with the kneeling-hands-clasped-image and the ‘knock-knock time to talk’, but that’s only two) but one of the things I remember from an Grecco-Roman religion class was the teacher telling us that “they prayed out loud because if you were silent it implied you were hiding something.”

I had a psych class where we were running a study on religiosity. I don’t remember the details, though it was one of the things that made me realize I didn’t actually want to keep doing psych, but I vividly remember reading through the questionnaire and realizing that this did not apply to me.

And I’m not an atheist. This questionnaire just didn’t measure me.

And to be fair to the teacher, they were aware that it was not a good assessment for a lot of religions. For example, the question I remember was how often you go to your place of worship (along with how often the place has them). That doesn’t work for anyone that does not have a place where people go at regular intervals for group worship.

Your religious get togethers are scheduled around everyone else’s schedule? That question doesn’t apply. You don’t do religious gettogethers? Doesn’t apply. You don’t have a temple? Doesn’t apply. You DO have a temple but don’t have regularly structured get togethers, or your get togethers are occasional? How to you answer that? You have those get togethers but it’s in someone’s house? The question might apply but I can hear the “takes things literally” voice in my head already asking if that counts.

And that was just ONE question.

And look, I’m not saying I know where all my assumptions fall short of reality, I definitely don’t. But our brains take shortcuts to conserve energy, and sometimes those shortcuts are wrong. It just, helps to be aware of that sometimes. Normal is relative, and sometimes inaccurate.

[canwriteitbetterthanueverfeltit]

Hello! I'd like to share with you a character work game! I call it "Six Secrets" and honestly it's a work in progress but I'm sharing it anyway

List six secrets that your character has.

1 is an open secret

2 is a secret the people close to your character know

3 is a secret that your character wouldn't really care about getting out

4 is a secret exactly one person knows anything about

5 is a secret no one knows about but they sort of want to come out/to tell someone

6 is a secret no one knows and they desperately don't want anyone to know about.

You can also decide who knows and how

The secrets don't have to have anything to do with your actual plot! The secrets can have super low or super high stakes! It doesn't matter! But you will absolutely have a better idea of your character's intentions and state of mind, and you may wind up coming up with some new plot points/obstacles to play with

[kness]

Kitty latte mugs - work in progress

[madamefeu]

One thing that pisses me off about Christians is that even the ‘good’ ones can’t stand the idea of Christians being bad people. You show them an example of Christianity being used to justify atrocities and you’re met with Christians crying ‘but Jesus wouldn’t do that!’ Or worse, ‘those people aren’t real Christians! They don’t speak for us!’ Yes, they are real Christians, because like it or not, they are, or were Christians just like you.

The Teutonic Order wasn’t Jewish, or Muslim, it was Christian. The Nazi party was Christian, deeply so, and it sold people ‘family values’ and idyllic visions of blonde, blue eyed children raised by Christian mothers. Colonialists throughout history have tried to eradicate people’s native faiths and force them to convert to Christianity. The Salem witch trials saw women being burned at the stake for practicing witchcraft, or just doing anything that men didn’t like. The Catholic Church opposed women’s rights, and for years, it covered up the sexual abuse of children within the church. The Catholic Church. Christian institutions. Not Jewish, not Satanic, not Hindu, Christian institutions are the ones responsible for all of these atrocities.

‘But Jesus wouldn’t approve of that!’

And what if he did? Would that make any of the above ok? It wouldn’t. Jesus is not your get out of jail free card, and you cannot use him to avoid confronting the atrocities that Christians have committed. The opinion of one person you like cannot override historical facts.

[whereserpentswalk]

The least bad Christians would still rather the world bow to their god, then for genocide and tyranny to be abolished. The modern expression of Christianity is fascism, siding with one means siding with the other.

[bebs-art-gallery]

“BACK WHEN TIME DIDN’T MATTER” — AN OIL PAINTING BY RIONA

[rubyjones]

Create your own book cover - without generative 'AI' | Ruby Jones

Get more from Ruby Jones on Patreon

Too many writers are using generative 'AI' to make their book covers, so I've written a guide on how to make your own cover for free or cheap without turning to a machine.

If you can't afford to pay an artist, you CAN make your own!

I hope this is a helpful overview that covers the basics and points to some free resources.

[rhube]

I annoyed my cat by writing this and not playing with her; you might find it useful?

[copperbadge]

This is a fantastic guide not only to the technical aspect of cover design but the aesthetic aspect as well!

[naamahdarling]

This is GREAT STUFF. Highly recommend! Exactly the techniques I have used on covers in the past, and they look great!

[ymutate]

A Mesopotamian leopard. Date: Late Uruk, Jemdet Nasr period, circa 3300-2900 BCE. Medium: inlaid limestone.

[thatdisasterauthor]

Awhile ago I was struck by the similarity between fire towers and lighthouses, and wanted to capture that in a painting. Both are lonely, isolated structures that people tend to work alone, sometimes in extremely dangerous if not life threatening conditions. But fire towers are about warning people to run, about putting out a light that is a threat to people's safety. Lighthouses are sort of the opposite, drawing people in and guiding them to safety by keeping a light on instead of putting it out.

View more of my art in my portfolio!