it bothers me so much when people talk about absinthe as if it’s this wild hallucinogenic thing. it really isn’t dudes, it gets you nice and drunk and it tastes real bad and that’s about it
@counselorcrash replied to your post “it bothers me so much when people talk about absinthe as if it’s this...”
Are you drinking real absinthe, or American absinthe? Because American absinthe isn't legally allowed to have wormwood in it, which is the part that makes you hallucinate.
i’ve had both and it all just gets ya dronk my dude. wormwood a)isn’t hallucinogenic and b)actually is in american absinthe according to the wormwood society
voodoodal replied to your post “it bothers me so much when people talk about absinthe as if it’s this...”
It's just alcohol even then I've heard the wormwood still isn't a real hallucinagenic. Though I remember our absinthe party turned into a pantless party
hahaha that is true, but also we all drank a lot of it, and a lot of any alcohol will do that to ya
Going to clubs over dressed in dresses, absinthe parties, my cat farting on you, sharing a bottle of cheap red wine at an improve art show, Outland, homestuck, and the scar by China Mieville
that’s actually seven things but i’ll accept each and every one
Hi I found your post through McCoy book which I found freecycled. And even taking it with a grain of salt this book has a lot of really useless info/not source info from 1995. But I've been thinking about looking at the magical path again and a lot of book are floating around like this do you have any suggestions on the basic intro. to pagan on how to start/ basic structure/ what to do before trying magic out/ dos and don't invoking a powerful deities. That would be helpful
Warning: long text post is long, and I mean really long. And very wordy. So I’m gonna put it under a cut to avoid clogging everyone’s dash.
I think the first step is to weed out options. The term “paganism” is an enormous umbrella with many smaller umbrellas underneath, and trying to find good information can be really difficult if you don’t have a clear idea what you’re looking for.
So, step one: What are you looking to get out of your path? What are you interested in?
Are you looking for a religion-based path, focused on devotion to god(s)? Would you like to work with fae or demons or land spirits or Ancestors or some other non-corporeal entity? Or are you more interested in magic and witchcraft (not the same as religious or spiritual ritual), and doing spellwork or divination?
Here follows, in no particular order, an extraordinarily short and incomplete list of possible paths, as well as tumblr users who have much better and more complete references for their areas of expertise:
Kemetic Polytheists: The gods of Ancient Egypt. shadowstep-of-bast and thetwistedrope are really fun people to follow, and great beginner resources. The Kemetic Fandom as a whole are a great group of people; very helpful and informative (and playful as fuck).
Hellenic Polytheists: The gods of Ancient Greece. I’m a fan of asphodel-grimoire, soloontherocks and opalborn. The Hellenic crowd can be very intense, and a lot of them have harsh personalities with low tolerance for bullshit. But they are some of the most academically minded and well-informed folks on tumblr.
Celtic Polytheists: The gods of various Celtic sub-groups. echtrai, nicstoirm and withbloodinherteeth are some of my personal favorites. A lot of the Celts here on tumblr - or at least, a lot of the folks I follow - are focused on the more warlike deities (we are a people of rawr). But their resource pages cover a broad swath of other topics that are helpful.
Norse/Heathen Polytheists: The various gods of the Norse and Germanic paradigms (I’m probably wrong for lumping everybody together; apologies!). answersfromvanaheim, nornoriel, grumpylokeanelder are some good beginning resources. Another group of remarkably well-read people.
Satanists and Luciferians: There are as many ways to be a Satanist or Luciferian as there are Satanists and Luciferians. luxettenebris and whoreofabaddon are great places to start.
Fae: Folks who work with various kinds of fae. gardenofthequeen is a great resource to go to.
Ancestors. People who work with ancestors - whether of blood, of tradition, of clan, or of specific paths (ex: warriors of bygone days, famous writers, etc.) coldalbion and hangedwoman have some interesting stuff to scroll through.
Spirits. Those that work with spirits - guides, astral beings, land spirits, other unnamed nondeities (or unknown/forgotten deities, sometimes). duskenpath is a great place to start.
Demons. Pretty much what it says on the tin. nornoriel and littledoomwitch are good first steps. I don’t spend much time in this neck of the woods, so I don’t have much more for you than that.
Green Witchcraft: Earth-based, focused on plants - not necessarily the same as Druidry, but can be complimentary. thedruidsteaparty is one of my favorites.
Secular Witchcraft: This is spellwork, magic, and witchcraft that is divorced from divine influence or aid - not the same as atheistic witchcraft. asksecularwitch is a really great resource (and her side blog, consecsuallyreading, has very thorough and critical reviews of a lot of the popular books you’ll find in New Age sections of bookstores). oldmotherredcap is another great font of information.
Druidry: Historically Celtic-influenced, focused on honoring your local land and living in harmony with it. sagefae, herban-druid and thedruidsteaparty are great resources.
Christian Witchcraft. They are not mutually exclusive! christowitch is a fantastic resource.
This is by no means a complete list, either of possible paths or of good resources; it’s just a down-and-dirty rundown of some of the more popular groups on tumblr.
You may notice that all of these resources I’ve thrown at you are tumblr blogs. That’s deliberate, because I think one of the true miracles of the modern day is our ability to communicate across far distances and to come into contact with a million different ideas. I, personally, am much more excited about (for example) asking six Kemetics about their experiences with Aset than I am to read one book (that may or may not have historical, verifiable source materials that are free of 19th century imperialism). Particularly when you’re starting out, I think there’s an immeasurable value in being exposed to as many different opinions as possible. Which is why I love tumblr.
Each path has its own basic structure, including guidelines for how to approach that religion’s gods or how to successfully work with a non-corporeal, religious holy days and rituals, codes of conduct, etc. Whether you choose to follow that structure, and to what degree, is a different discussion, and a decision you can make for yourself.
Some general terms that will come in handy:
Reconstructionism vs. Revivalist: Reconstructionists put more emphasis on historical accuracy than eclectic practices. They attempt to reconstruct, as completely as possible, actual historical practices of ancient religions. Revivalism, by contrast, is more interested in bringing the “spirit” of the ancient religion into a modern context. Revivalism tends to be more eclectic and UPG-influenced than reconstructionism.
UPG, SPG and VPG: Unverified Personal Gnosis, Shared Personal Gnosis, and Verified Personal Gnosis, respectively. To use a loose, not-entirely-accurate analogy, UPG is like headcanon - a belief you hold about a spirit or deity that is not supported by canon historical material. (For example, I hold UPG that Gilfaethwy is genderfluid and androgynous, though that’s never referred to in the Mabinogion.) SPG, as the name implies, is UPG that several people share, like a mass-fandom headcanon (for example, there’s a popular SPG among Lokeans that Loki is a redhead, though the Eddas don’t explicitly state this). Finally, VPG is a belief you hold that you later learn is supported by canon - like a popular fan theory that turns out to be correct (like many people believe that GRRM will eventually confirm R+L=J). Here on tumblr, there’s a tendency to refer to small, “soft” things as UPG - for example, X deity loves the scent of Y. But the terms are properly intended to refer to the bigger, “hard” spiritual matters that aren’t currently confirmed by extant sources.
Woo: “Woo” is a term many people use to refer to their unique abilities - empathic tendencies, various clair-abilities, and the like. Some people dislike this term on the basis that it demeans or cheapens said abilities, and makes it difficult to have honest, helpful conversations about them.
Fluffy Bunnies: This phrase has come under a lot of fire in recent years. It’s a somewhat-to-very disparaging term referring to a certain kind of pagan; usually a young person, who focuses solely on “love and light” craft work. They tend to read the Big Name Pagan Books of the early-to-mid-90s, and tend to have a very Neo-Wicca approach to their work. All of that is fine; however, these people also tend to shame fellow practitioners for things like cursing (hexes, bindings and the like, not profanity) and not upholding Wiccan ideals like the Threefold Law and the Rede - even if said practitioner isn’t Wiccan or Neo-Wiccan.
In terms of your question about what to do before trying magic out - I really have no advice, besides dive in and do it. Pick a spell that looks interesting to you and try it out. (My first spell was a Glamour spell that promised to change the color of my eyes.) If you’re worried about the spell going haywire or bouncing back on you, there are ways to protect yourself from that - calling a deity or spirit to protect you, setting up a shield around yourself that will either absorb or deflect ill effects, or putting a rider in the spell itself to the effect of “this spell will have no adverse effects for me or my loved ones, and if adverse effects develop then may the universe (or whatever paradigm you’re working in) prevent the spell from coming to fruition.”
Now, for your question about do’s and don’ts of invoking gods. Here’s my advice: don’t invoke. At least, not right off the bat. Invocation means to draw a deity (or at least part of Their power) into your body, and in my opinion that’s not a thing to do lightly. (This post of mine is all about an invocation that did not go to plan.) In my experience, there are two big dangers involved with invocation: getting addicted to feeling that much power coursing through you (this has definitely happened to me), and getting lost in the deity’s energy (this has also happened to me). Both suck. A lot. So I wouldn’t recommend diving right into invocation if that’s not a thing you’re familiar with.
My advice is: evoke first. Evocation is just requesting a deity’s or spirit’s presence. It’s a good way to get to know t/Them, learn what t/Their energy feels like, and to become familiar with t/Their personality. Then, when you’re more comfortable with t/Them and have had at least one discussion about where, when, and how long t/They will reside within you (and how you will anchor your awareness, or how you will eject t/Them if needed), then you can invoke them. To use another not-quite-accurate analogy, it’s like sex. Sure, you can fuck someone when you first meet them, but it tends to be more satisfying after you’ve discussed your bedroom preferences and safety standards.
Finally, I want to leave you with some generally useful tips and things to look out for. These are things that I’ve found make it easier to navigate the seemingly endless stream of information out there.
Be very wary of anyone who says “real _____ do (or don’t do) _____!” This attitude stems in large part from the Big Name Pagan Authors of the 80s and 90s. My theory is they were trying to make paganism more enticing and less threatening to a mainstream audience, so they downplayed certain types of paganism and built up others. But this kind of rhetoric is divisive and exclusive, and really not helpful in today’s zeitgeist. There is no One True Way to do anything.
Common problems in mainstream paganism: cultural appropriation, ableism, racism, sexism, and (in some circles) heteronormativity. These aren’t new issues, but as society as a whole becomes more sensitive to these problems you’re more likely to see said issues pointed out now, as we try to find ways to make our practices more inclusive. (For example, a recent topic I saw all over my dash is heteronormativity in Wicca, and how a non-straight person fits into that mindset.)
Llewellyn is the devil. Okay, not really. But a lot of the really popular books and authors (Silver Ravenwolf, Edain McCoy, Scott Cunningham, etc.) are from Llewellyn’s stable. The publishing house has pretty loose standards about what they’ll put onto the market, and many of their books have the same problems - few or no sources (or worse yet, they all reference each other in a big circlejerk of uselessness), few or no warnings about possible adverse effects of herbs and oils, shoddy history (ie: the “Burning Times”, the Christianity bashing, pan-Celtic deities, etc.) and Neo-Wicca Everything (there are other paths out there, Llewellyn. Many. Other. Paths.).
At some point, you have to stop reading and do. Religion, spirituality, and witchcraft are all experiential things - you will never truly understand them from a solely intellectual perspective. You have to do things. Say the prayers, make the altar, try the spell, read the cards, whatever it is. You have to do it, not just read about it.
Don’t greet or thank anyone with “Blessed Be.” This is related to the fluffy bunny thing. Blessed Be is a phrase intrinsically tied into Wicca. It is a ritual phrase to be used in ritual, often in relation to the Wiccan God and Goddess. But not everyone in the pagansphere is Wiccan, and not everyone wants to be blessed by the Wiccan gods. Some people are oathbound to other gods and literally cannot have contact with any other deity; an unsolicited blessing then breaks that promise. Others might not want anybody’s blessings, for personal reasons. So it’s best to just avoid the BB, as a courtesy.
Has there been any food or dish you saw in a show, anime or movie that you've wanted to try or make but where unable to make until the advent of the internet. Like a dish that you had no way of acquiring the recipe or trying out until the internet became wide spread and years later said hey I can make this now and try it out. For me it's trying out the recipe for moon cakes and melon-pan
well i've spent pretty much my whole life with the internet. i mean, i did grow up in that weird period of time where the personally-usable internet was a fledgling thing, where like it was a privilege you had to ask your parents to get on the computer to use, but at that age i didn't really think about cooking or baking
i suppose the closest thing is that i've always thought it would be absolutely amazing to eat any of the stuff chihiro's parents eat at the beginning of spirited away (i saw that movie for the first time in middle school, so it's been a while), and i bet i could find recipes for it now
