#internet sources

[gawrkin]

Hmmm

Of King Arthur's mistresses/concubines, Indeg seems to be the most notable of them. She has her own wikipedia page.

One day, writers will have to use her in their stories lol

[aspelladay]

Question: What are some alternative terms to the word “smudging?”

What is smudging?

The smudging ceremony is a custom of Native American and other indigenous cultures. For centuries many cultures have used smudging as a way to create a cleansing smoke bath that is used to purify the body, aura, energy, ceremonial/ritual space or any other space and personal articles. Smudging is performed to remove negative energy as well as for centering and healing. Our bodies and environments are not only physical but vibrate with invisible, silent energy.

(from Powwow Power)

Why should I use a term other than smudging or smudge stick when I talk about smoke cleansing?

Many cultures all over the world smoke cleanse, and have their own techniques and specific herbs they prefer. However, Smudging is a term that refers specifically to a religious ritual practiced in nearly all Indigenous tribal cultures. Because of centuries of having our cultures ripped from us and beaten out of us, we have lost our original terms for many of our religious rituals and important spiritual aspects of our cultures. So we are reclaiming the English words used for them, much like the terms ‘two spirit’ and ‘spirit animals’.

(from thecuriousviolet, a Mvskoke Creek and Western Cheerokee writer)

The American English term "smudge stick" is usually found in use among non-Indigenous people who imitate what they believe are Native American sacred ceremonies. However, the herbs used in commercial smudge sticks, and the rituals performed with them by non-Natives, are rarely the actual materials or ceremonies used by traditional Native Americans. Smudging with these smudge sticks, or actions inspired by it, has also been adopted in some forms into a number of modern belief systems, including many forms of New Age and eclectic Neopagan spirituality. This has been protested by Native activists as a form of cultural misappropriation.

Smudge sticks are often sold commercially, despite traditional prohibitions against the sale of spiritual medicines like white sage. These sticks or bundles may be made of a single herb or a combination of several different herbs; often these herbs are not found bundled together in traditional use, and their use is not universal to all, or even most, Native cultures. In some Native American cultures the burning of these herbs is prohibited. Other commercial smudge sticks may contain herbs not native to North America, or not indigenous to the region where they are being used, as well as substances that are toxic when burnt.

Native American students in college dorms have at times faced harassment and been forbidden from burning herbs for ceremonial reasons due to university policies that prohibit the burning of candles or incense in college dorm rooms. This has raised issues around the religious freedom of Native Americans.

(from Wikipedia)

What are some of my other vocabulary options?

Censing: [T]here is a term that has been in existence since medieval times that properly describes what the pagan community’s ‘smudging’ actually is: smoke cleansing. This term is Cense. It originated in Europe around 1300-1500  to scribe the act of cleansing something with smoke. It is not tied to any one specific religion or culture. (from thecuriousviolet)

Herb Bundles: A bundle of dried herbs wrapped tightly together with string made from organic material. A more appropriate and general term for dried herbs that are used in the context of smoke cleansing.

Recan: To smoke (trans.), steam [in Anglo-Saxon.] (from Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary)

Saging: The act of burning a bundle of sage to cleanse or purify an area. May toe the line of cultural appropriation, depending on who you talk to.

Saining: A Scots word for blessing, protecting or consecrating. [...]  Traditional saining rites may involve water that has been blessed in some fashion, or the smoke from burning juniper, accompanied by spoken prayers or poetry. Saining can also refer to less formal customs like making religious signs to protect against evil, such as the sign of the cross. (from Wikipedia)

Smoke Cleansing: The burning of botanical materials to cleanse a space using smoke. Has no religious denomination or specific instructions or practices attached to it.

Additional reading:

Smudging and Smoke Cleansing: A Comparative Guide (tumblr)

Practical Magic: Smoke Cleansing (Groverdaughter Witchery)

[aspelladay]

Question: Is it alright for me to feed birds leftover rice from my spells, even if it is raw?

The short answer is easily yes and here is an explanation.

[...] plenty of wild birds eat naturally growing, uncooked rice without suffering death or any other harmful effects.  The notion that rice absorbs moisture, and would therefore swell up to many times its original size in the crop of a bird and thereby rupture avians from within, is water — any uncooked rice eaten by birds is digested or excreted long before it can pick up enough water to expand in size to the point of causing injury to them.

[...]

Krupa’s students prevailed upon him to also test the exploding rice theory on real birds, an entreaty he finally acquiesced to because he felt their previous experiments had sufficiently demonstrated that no birds would come to harm through the process. He agreed to try some rice-feeding tests with flocks of doves and pigeons he kept at home, feeding 60 of his birds a diet of nothing other than instant rice and water for one day and monitoring them for any ill effects. He found that none of the birds showed any obvious signs of pain, discomfort, or distress; none of them exhibited ruptures or other injuries (including explosion), and none of them took ill or died.

Many churches and reception halls still have rules prohibiting the throwing of rice, or require that thrown rice be enclosed in those “little tulle and chiffon bags.” This practice isn’t about protecting birds, however: these rules work to keep the properties clean so that subsequent happy couples don’t get their send-offs amid the leavings of a previous pair. Rice and confetti can be notoriously hard to clean up, and sometimes not even vacuuming a lawn will return the grass to its pristine condition.

Rice also poses a unique danger, albeit it to people rather than birds: rice scattered on a hard surface (such as the steps of a church or a dance floor) puts anyone who walks across that surface at risk of taking a nasty spill. Far better to prohibit rice throwing at a wedding than to end up with an injured guest.

(from snopes.com)

[aspelladay]

Question: What is the evil eye?

Everyone gets a dirty look now and then, and we usually think little of it (especially if we deserved it). For most of us it is soon shrugged off, but in many places belief in "the evil eye" is taken very seriously, and requires immediate action to avoid harm.

The evil eye is a human look believed to cause harm to someone or something. The supernatural harm may come in the form of a minor misfortune, or more serious disease, injury — even death. [...]

The evil eye is also said to cause a number of other maladies including insomnia, fatigue, depression and diarrhea. In many places, disease is considered a magical as well as a medical issue, and the reason a given person succumbs to a malady may be attributed to a curse instead of random chance or exposure to a virus. It can even affect objects and buildings: The evil eye cast upon a vehicle may break down irreparably, while a house so cursed may soon develop a leaky roof or an insect infestation. Just about anything that goes wrong may be blamed on the power of the evil eye.

[...]

The evil eye is well known throughout history. It is mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman texts, as well as in many famous literary works, including the Bible (such as Proverbs 23:6: "Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats") the Koran and Shakespeare's plays. Though belief in the evil eye is widespread, it is not universal. A 1976 cross-cultural survey by folklorist John Roberts found that 36 percent of cultures believed in the evil eye.

The evil eye is essentially a specific type of magical curse, and has its roots in magical thinking and superstition. Let's say that a person experiences bad luck, ill health, accident, or some unexplained calamity — perhaps a drought or an infectious disease. Before science could explain weather patterns and germ theory, any bad event for which there was not an obvious cause might be blamed on a curse. [...]

(from livescience.com)

Some additional sources:

Wikipedia

Turkish Evil Eye History

[aspelladay]

Question: Why is the word “pow-wow” used in certain spells that are clearly not of First Nation or Native American origin?

Answer: Powwow, called Brauche or Braucherei in Deitsch, is a vernacular system of North American traditional medicine proceeding from the folk culture of the Pennsylvania Dutch. Blending aspects of folk religion with health and healing, powwowing describes a wide range of healing rituals used primarily for the healing of ailments in humans and livestock, as well as securing physical and spiritual protection, and good luck in everyday affairs. Although the word "powwow" is Native American, these ritual traditions are of European origin and were brought to colonial Pennsylvania in the transatlantic migrations of German-speaking people from Central Europe in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. A practitioner is sometimes referred to as a powwower or Braucher, but terminology varies by region. Powwowing continues in the present day in both rural and urban settings, and has spread across North America.

[...]

Early Pennsylvania was a melting pot of various religious persuasions, as William Penn's promise of religious tolerance opened the doors for many Christian sects: the Anabaptists, Quakers, Lutherans, German Reformed, Catholics, and all manner of religious mystics and free-thinkers. It is from this blending that the Pennsylvania German powwow tradition was born.

Although the majority of the Pennsylvania Dutch were protestant, their folk religious culture was deeply rooted in practices of the pre-Reformation era, such as the veneration of the saints, the use of folk adaptations of liturgical blessings for everyday purposes, and the use of sacred objects and inscriptions for healing and protection. These practices were brought to North America, and formed the basis of both oral and literary ritual traditions in Pennsylvania.

The majority of the early ritual traditions of the Pennsylvania Dutch were rooted in German language, but the term "Powwow" became widely used by speakers of English by the late 18th century.  "Powwaw" (in one of its early spellings) was appropriated from the Algonquian language by 17th century missionaries in New England, where it originally described a healer, derived from a verb implying trance, or dreaming for divination or healing purposes. Evidence suggests that the term was applied to the Pennsylvania Dutch out of a perceived similarity in ritual healing, consistent with its borrowed meaning in English for "conjuration performed for the cure of diseases and other purposes."

Later, at the turn of the 20th century, the term "powwow" became associated with the title of the English edition of a celebrated manual of ritual procedures, entitled Powwows, or, The Long Lost Friend, written by John George Hohman and first published in German as Der Lange Verborgene Freund (literally "The Long Hidden Friend") in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1820.

The tradition is also called Braucherei, or simply brauche, in Pennsylvania Dutch; an adept is referred to as a powwower or braucher, though not all practitioners use the same terminology. The verb brauche means "to use, to employ, to make use of, to need," while Braucherei implies a collection traditional ways, related to "Breiche of "customs, traditions, rituals, ceremonies."

(via Wikipedia)

The Lore Podcast by Aaron Mahnke has an episode that does a fantastic job explaining this and discusses some stories about it.

[gawrkin]

hello! i've already asked other people but i wanted your opinion as well. what do you think about this substack that talks about historical and legendary brythonic figures related to the arthurian mythos? https://www.arthwys.com/

I'm wary of anyone making claims about "the Historical Arthur" as the concensus is that he's largely fictional.

Two red flags is that the site manager, Aurochs, has no credentials to speak of, and that some of the articles are behind a subscription.

I'd stay away from stuff like this and trust only what you can verify yourself.

[the-juicywizard]

Idk why preteens with Google think their opinion and internet site is more important than the professors' opinions that taught me in college but some people need a world adjustment view.

It's pathetic dude. No I don't give a shit about what you have to say dumbfuck you aren't in any position of importance and you're not correct. I literally paid thousands of dollars to learn from professors, your Google job doesn't impress me and it absolutely doesn't invalidate the actual words in an actual college literature book so go off like a child with your illusions of grandure and stop sending me childish anon messages because you know nothing and no amount of internet sites are going to sway me. Maybe if you have your college literature book or a professor with a master's degree tell me I'll give a shit about what you have to say but until then my sources are better than "several websites" thanks.

[raves-with-trees]

A Generation of older people, who have never had to correctly cite an online source for a term paper.