Melodious

Mneme. Nox. 22. xe/xer or they/them. Sidebar images by Paulina Cassidy

[rollingstoneboycomplex]

when Lemony Snicket wrote “I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I see you everyday” that hurt me

[bastard-woodsman]

Leaf/tree identification guide by Nutt & Stevens Ltd., Leicester, England

[mossywizard]

My grandma told me every time you move the clasp of a necklace from the front of your neck to the back, you should make a wish. I’m now using this as a small day to day spell

[dontlickdatoad]

House Brownie

Growing up in a superstitious, very religious Catholic family that retained strong ties to “the old country” meant being raised with a weird mixture of beliefs.

My maternal grandmother in particular would pray to Saint Anthony whenever she couldn’t find something, often enlisting the help of my cousins and I to recite the prayer/chant because, “God listens to children first.” But having parents from Ireland and Scotland, she also would regularly leave out gifts of bread or milk to her “house brownie.”

For anyone not aware, a brownie (also known as a brùnaidh or gruagach depending on where the folklore is coming from) is a type of fae known to live in or around a house and help with chores. They would be insulted if you offered them payment for their help directly but enjoyed small gifts like fresh milk or bread left out for them in a corner. Some stories say that if you gave them clothes they would leave for good (often out of anger over the insult).

Now, I have never been able to find a story where a brownie helped it’s housemate find a lost item but my grandmother would always leave out a bit of cream if she needed to find something. She never answered directly when I asked her why, instead just telling me that it was “for the best” before heading off to cook or clean, her mission to find the lost item over. I don’t know if she thought the brownie had borrowed it, was playing a prank, or if she believed that the helpful soul had seen the lost object laying around and hating clutter, had put it away somewhere she hadn’t thought to look. I have a feeling it was the last one because once she had done a thorough search, said her prayers, and left out her cream she stopped worrying about it. And sure enough- poof! As she would be going about her business, there the lost object would be, out in plain sight.

I’m positive that there are non-magical reasons for why when she stopped freaking out while searching, she was able to think clearly and find her lost item. But I also have been in enough situations where we had most definitely looked in a certain spot and there had been nothing before but now there the lost book, pen, or knitting needle was.

And belief or no belief, I’ve grown up asking the house brownie for a bit of help when something is lost. Bread and honey are regularly left in a certain spot outside of my house. And even my partner, the least superstitious person I know, has gotten into the habit of saying, “I think the Brownie moved my *insert object here*” though he’s at least half joking.

[southerncunning]

5 years ago I started writing a journal as I went a new direction in my magic. I read through as many books on folklore as I possibly could. I wrote down every story I remembered from my childhood. I went through every superstition, urban legend, and ghost story to find the magic hidden there. Today I get to hold a completely different book in my hands that is the culmination of this journey- at least up till now. Everyday something new comes forward and gives a different facet to what I do and how I understand the stories we tell. I hope this book helps people do the same, I hope it helps people find power in their stories.

[meiselr]

Nyx for @histhory

[hgk477]

How to talk to the wind

If the wind falls silent, she is listening to you. Speak.

Always whisper.

In case there is a wind swirl carrying autumn leaves, step back. Let her dance. 

Don’t go outside if the wind is howling. The ghosts are passing through. 

She already knows everything about you. Never lie.

You may play the flute.

Listen to storms. Don’t talk. 

She gives life to your words. Make them meaningful. Especially when you talk to her.

If she whispers in your ear, listen closely. It means she trusts you enough to share her secrets. 

Words travel far and fast. Don’t say anything that could awake the spirits. 

She has a strong temperament and gets angry easily. Make sure to always be nice to her, you don’t want to be on her bad side.

If she is talking to thunder, leave them alone. They don’t want you to hear. 

When she greets you with a breeze the following morning, pretend you didn’t hear them. 

A sudden draft is always a bad omen. 

Never, ever, complain about her. She will remember.

More guides

When driving at night

Surviving a Desert

[vanscribbles]

I saw something like this floating around on tumblr and wanted to add to it

[study-blr]

IM SO HAPPY THERE ARE TWO VERSIONS

[waywardwarlocks]

tips for walking in an abandoned graveyard

if it’s dark, don’t shine your flashlight into the trees.

if a child approaches and asks you a question, don’t tell the truth.

you may find some harrowing artifacts (i found a ribbon on a tree and some bible pages) pick these up and keep them. they belong to you.

if you walk down a long, straight pathway, you will feel someone behind you. don’t look

you may see people in your peripheral vision; these are the spirits. they won’t hurt you.

if you wish to communicate with the spirits, do not do it alone. cast a protection circle. only ask polite questions.

you will feel bursts of dread and terror. ignore them.

don’t read too much into what the graves say. some things are best left unsolved.

research the history of the graveyard beforehand. you need to know what you might encounter.

some beings may not want you to leave. should you come into contact with one of these beings, leave immediately.

don’t read the hidden graves.

if you find a headless angel statue, don’t look for her head.

if you find a tipped over angel statue, leave her be. she’s only resting.

don’t listen to music. this will distract you from them.

don’t look in the bushes. you will find something that you weren’t supposed to.

[minions420]

shoutout to me for still not having my driver’s license

[khangi]

What Native people say about the use of sage: you can use sage, but you cannot smudge as nothing you are doing (waving sage around) is actually smudging. Smudging is a ceremony and you are, we promise, not smudging. Please buy sage from either us, or someone who sources the sage from us. White sage may not be considered endangered by the US government but corperate sourcing is making it difficult for us to source sage for our own religious purposes. Let alone to sell it.

What white people hear: never use sage ever, don’t ever buy it, don’t own it, don’t even look at it.

Look, y’all. There’s a couple of facets to my talk today.

1) Yes! You can buy sage! You really, truly can! Buy it from either native sellers (go to a powwow! Eat our food, buy our stuff, watch some dancing!) Or buy it from a seller who sources the sage from native people. Pick one. And no, buying it from 5 Below doesn’t count.

2) you CANNOT smudge. This isn’t just you “shouldn’t”— this is a YOU ARE INCAPABLE OF SMUDGING. Waving a sage stick around your doorways IS NOT SMUDGING. It is smoke clensing. Smudging, depending on the tradition and tribe, could easily have dancing and drums involved. You, as a white person, do not have the cultural BACKGROUND to even know how it works. At all. Period.

3) please, for FUCKS SAKE, stop making posts here on tumblr where you tell other white people about cultural appropriation and what they can and cannot do. Please stop, your license has been revoked because none of you bother to get the facts right. We native people are FULLY CAPABLE OF DOING IT OURSELVES. Consider instead: a) reblogging our posts where we talk about it! We’re here! We have made posts!! b) Making a post that states what we said and then LINKS BACK TO US. Screenshot with a link if you must. Stop centering your own voices in these conversations. You are already centered in everything, stop centering yourselves in a native space.

I’m tired of this nonsense, y’all.

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk ™

[writing-prompt-s]

While cleaning your attic, you find a box of glass balls with names on them. You accidentally drop one, and as soon as it shatters, a person appears.

[ukeealyptus]

“Dude,” your brother said as he opened the door to the attic. “Stop breaking stuff.”

[scaliefox]

I love these clever subversions of fantasy writing prompts to give them an mundane punchline.

They give me life.

[coyote-696]

My poor datura got weedwacked by the guy I hired to do brush clearing but amazingly she started growing leaves from her sad butchered stalks almost immediately. Couldn’t ask for a tougher plant than the white lady.

[coyote-696]

A little water and burying some small animal bones under her seems to have done her a world of good

[ourownredrose]

Datura is surprisingly hardy. 💕

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

i think one of the most common dangers I run into in the edible and medicinal plant scene is the problem of “can you eat it” vs. “should you eat it”

a lot of websites and books these days will be like “ten wild plants you can use to make tea” without then listing the actual use for those teas because all they care about is the novelty of making your own tea from things you picked in the woods.

They tell you stuff like “A wonderfully cleansing medicine, it supports the liver, stimulates the flow of urine and the removal of waste by the kidneys.”

And people are so into the idea of cleansing their bodies of supposed toxins, that sounds great!

But what I know is that what they really mean is, this plant is a diuretic, meaning if you use it for tea, you’re going to peeing All. Day. Long. Every. Ten. Minutes.

Which isn’t fun if you’re on a hike or about to get back in your car and drive an hour home.

Some popular plants recommended for teas are used as contraceptives and morning after treatments. So here you are, trying to get pregnant, drinking your natural to rid your kidneys of impurities, being healthy as can be, and all along you’re taking birth control!

And if you’re already taking birth control and trying to not get pregnant, the plant can mess you up too.

There are plants that mess with antidepressants, and with blood pressure medicine, that make you sick to your stomach, that messes with your blood, and on and on.

And all of these sources will just list them as something you can eat, because hey, you won’t die if if you do!

Which is true, you’ll live, but at what cost!!!

Please remember herbal remedies and edible plants have always been consumed and applied with a PURPOSE, and unless you know what that purpose is, don’t consume them just because you can. It’s a bad idea.

[spiritusarcanum-deactivated2020]

Criticism and Dedication in Witchcraft

I don’t understand this culture of “nobody’s craft is better than another’s.” In what world is this true? Are there no doctors better at their healing than others? Are there no sculptors who are better at their craft than their peers? Are there no scholars more learned than their colleagues? Does it not then stand to reason that some witches are indeed “better” at their craft than others. Is it possible for one to simply *feel* like a witch and adopt that title as a mark to claim some of the associated power? Certainly. And there are many who do little else than this. Some more sincerely than others.

However, to imply that all approaches are equally valid, that all create success, or that witchcraft is something which requires minimal effort is simply. not. truth. And further, to adopt such sentiments to heart, and spread them as foundational teachings representative of the craft to others is to misstep. It not only does a disservice to your own practice, but to the craft as well. There are people who have devoted their lives to learning, working, and refining their practice. To flippantly cast off the importance of dedication, devotion, and discipline in the magical arts is to dishonor the nature of the work and the spirits whom attend to you. Truth. There is no ONE way to all of this. And if someone is trying to sell you that there is, then close your ears to such falsity.

There are, however, better ways to accomplish the work than others. This is a part of why certain practices and lore have stood the test of time. Unfortunately for many, there is no quick and easy route to obtaining such things. To assume that a witch who just started practicing is in any way a match for one who has been diligently studying and practicing for decades is to insult both the craft and the dedication of your elders. No. A person who has this level of experience, and the wisdom that comes with it does not deserve your friendship or respect on a personal level simply because they’ve been at it longer than you. Many of the greatest magicians and witches I’ve known could quite easily be described as assholes, at least on occasion. This does not diminish the work they have done. Or more importantly that witchcraft, if you want to get good at it, requires actual work. Or that, even if someone more experienced than you behaves in a fashion that you find arrogant, or is critical about your practice, their points and the value found in them may not be worth pondering. Witchcraft is not about us all getting along. It never has been. That’s not the end goal. Powerful people often have powerful personalities and strong opinions. Get enough of that together in one place and the result is rarely going to be folks standing in a circle sweetly agreeing with each other and nodding heads. There are times where things should indeed be pointed to as being of little use and not germane to the study and practice of what has traditionally passed for witchcraft throughout the ages. Or at the very least, suffer a bit of poking at for being silly. People died, and still do, in the name of witchcraft. To treat it with flippancy, or as fashion, does a discredit to all of those people (practitioners or otherwise) who were martyrs to the craft. It besmirches the work of those people who have dedicated their life’s work to the craft. Let’s talk about dedication shall we? Are you willing to die for your craft? Would you be willing to stand in the face of an inquisitor and tell them to fuck off should you find yourself in their grasp? Is that the level of love and devotion you have for it? Do you truly believe that in the current era this is an impossible scenario that might be not faced by this generation of would be witches?

Or is witchcraft simply a way to tell yourself you’re different? Something fun to do on the full moon? Is that true dedication? Something worth dying for? Something which gives honor to legacy? Your craft may not look like mine. And it rightly shouldn’t. But if your expectation of what will make you a stronger, better, more effective practitioner is that your work be beyond reproach or critique, particularly when you put your works and words out there for the consumption and adoption of others then the person you do the most disservice to is yourself. The standard I hold for others in the craft is not one born of ego. It is the standard I hold for both myself and my students. My work is not without its flaws or beyond critique, nor is my practice, or even my dedication at times. And I have faced the critique of others, both friends, and strangers. Some of them were teachers who strengthened my craft. Some of them were assholes. Some of them were both. 

[spiralthorn]

There are people who have devoted their lives to learning, working, and refining their practice. To flippantly cast off the importance of dedication, devotion, and discipline in the magical arts is to dishonor the nature of the work and the spirits whom attend to you.

[hackassoccultists]

I love your blog! What most People don't get that you need to understand thr basics! Even Picasso learned the traditional methods of art first to get an understanding, before breaking it up and going into his very unique style! And thats the same for magic!!

^

[hackassoccultists]

So I just spent quite a while looking through all of your posts. Seems like you basically just try ans put down everyone who doesn't conform with your way of thinking, and instead of actually putting forward logical and evidenced rebuttals - you just all act like angsty teenagers. It reeks of bitterness and the kind of thinking that wanna be cult drug users subscribe to.

Good talk.

[shittybeatnik-deactivated201905]

This shit leaves me clutching my chest, for real. There’s no way this blog does any good for my blood pressure.

Look, there is no occult tradition that encourages you to “follow your heart!” or “do what feels right for you”, because that’s not a fucking method. It is the New Age movement that encourages that shit, and don’t get me started yet again on how the New Age movement is toxic insanity. How do you guage your success if you have no method? If you have no method then what you’re doing is aesthetic, and when you covet tradition in the name of aesthetic then that is absolutely up for criticism. The shit @hackassoccultists doles out isn’t “you aren’t following MY tradition”, it’s “you have no tradition or method and your practices hold zero water, we’re going to have fun at your expense”. Deviations from tradition also aren’t the issue– if anything, this is the face of innovation– but be prepared to give an argument backed by theory. Not even something as personal as religion is exempt from this absolutely basic rule of life! What makes craft any different?!

Doing whatever you want and calling it magic or craft is spitting on the graves or in the live faces of those that dedicate(d) their lives to uncover the knowledge kept by tradition. If nothing means anything anymore, then our predecessors gave their contributions and sometimes their lives for absolutely nothing. How fucking dare you.

[hackassoccultists]

I usually just link to the dictionary.com definition of “fuck you” but shittybeatnik actually broke it down!

And “positive thinking” isn’t magick, it’s fucking The Secret ™.