Aethnir

Eclectic Witch devoted to The Morrigan. (she/her pronouns) Feel free to send in requests for cartomancy or hand lettering!

[tardiscontrolmatrix-blog]

1 Week of Beginner Witchy Research

Many beginner witches here on Tumblr ask the question “where do I start?” To somewhat answer that question I have created this 1-week research schedule that can be continually used to cultivate new and deepening knowledge within the many fields of witchcraft. Please note that you should have a somewhat specific topic or goal going into this process, such as “astrology” or “warding spells” rather than just witchcraft at large.

Monday - basic key terms! find ways in which this topic connects to things you already know, and record basic info Tuesday - historical trends. Who were the big names/civilizations for this, and is it part of a living tradition? Are you allowed to use this? what are similar practices that you can use? Wednesday - safety: in what ways can this go wrong? Include mundane safety concerns as well as more esoteric ones. Fire safety? warding? Thursday - What are some accepted ways of doing this? how do they fit in with your tradition? Include any specific wording, especially if it is a method that you want to try. More experienced witches may want to use this day to create their own process, rather than using something from an outside source. Friday - Attempt 1! record your results and any information about the attempt. did any part of it feel strange or unsafe? were there ways you would do it differently on a second attempt? Saturday - Making edits: research any of the things that were wrong/strange about yesterday's attempt. Are these common issues? have there been any lasting effects? do some form of a deep cleanse today after you make sure you can/have stopped your spell. Then make a new form of your spell working around the things you want to change from yesterday. Sunday - Attempt 2. Redo the spell/ritual with any edits from yesterday. Note how the effects differ from attempt 1. Is it stronger/more effective now? Make sure you record everything once again! How do you foresee this integrating into your regular practice? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes: Make sure to record your sources for research! you may find trends of reliable/unreliable sources, and you will be able to tailor your research accordingly. All of your research should not be coming from a single source. While it may work for them, you have no guarantee of their method working for you. Vary your sources to avoid this problem. DO NOT STEAL FROM PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY CLOSED TRADITIONS!!! This is an iterative process. Do not assume that you know everything about a new process after just one week! This is just a system that allows you to be well informed before you try a new process, to avoid any potential issues and to understand how it works for the future.

Think that I've missed something? Just want to say hi? Let me know through my asks, or on the comments of this post!

[sunbathe]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWRYb8nD04T/

[witchsaidwhat-deactivated202012]

Hello, friends and witches!  My shop is back open.  As some of you may know, my Salt Shop is my full-time job right now!  Any and all purchases are greatly appreciated.  And if you cannot purchase anything from the shop, please share my new listing!  Much love to you and I appreciate your patronage! If you have any questions, be sure to check out my FAQ first!

SALT

[tardiscontrolmatrix-blog]

Salt’s readings really are wonderful...I highly recommend them! 

[witchhavencommunity-deactivated]

Thanks for everyone that attended class tonight!  You all had some great questions!  Y’all are the best!

–SALT–

[writing-prompt-s]

“Adulthood is like looking both ways before you cross the street, then getting hit by an airplane.”

[wpsstories]

“I’m sorry to bring you here like this.”

“Not at all, my dear boy. Not at all.”

“But, you see, I have to know… I have to know, and you’re the only one –”

“I get it,” the old man interrupted me. He puffed his cheeks weakly, like it took him great effort just to breathe, and then he leaned back against the armchair and his eyes turned to the crackling of the fireplace. “Ask away.”

“Well… it’s pretty simple, actually.” I leaned forward. “What’s it like?”

His eyes turned to me, and he almost smiled. “What’s it like?”

“Yeah. Life. Growing up. Being old.” I paused. “Well, not that I’m calling you old, I just –”

“It’s okay, dear boy,” he laughed. “I am old. That’s why you brought me here.”

I said nothing. He arranged himself on the armchair like he had all the time in the world. Then his eyes went up to me again. “It's… hard.”

I waited. I knew he wasn’t done.

“It’s the hardest thing you’ll ever have to do, actually” he continued. “Harder than building all this fancy equipment you’ve built. Harder than studying all you’ve studied. Harder than winning all these scientific awards you’ve won so far.” He chuckled. “Nothing prepares you for it.”

“What makes it hard?” I asked. “Is it the responsibilities? The body decaying? What makes growing up so hard?”

“No. It’s not the responsibilities. Growing up is like looking both ways before you cross the street, then getting hit by an airplane.” He lowered his head as if to put his thoughts together, then continued. “It’s the things you don’t expect that catch you by surprise. Sure, it’s scary to have a kid, and to get married, and to ask your boss for a promotion, and all these grown-up stuff we have to pretend we know how to do.”

“Pretend?”

He seemed surprised. “Yes, pretend. No one really grows up, of course. We put on a face to the world, but at home, three in the morning, all alone watching TV, you’re still sixteen. All of us are.” He shook his head. “There’s nothing more heartbreaking than being a real person and sitting down in front of another real person, and then both of you have to act like fake people. You sit across from someone two years older than you in a job interview and you both say ‘Hello, sir’ and ‘Yes, I also think the Dow Jones has been fluctuating dangerously this last few days’ and ‘Oh, absolutely, the 405 is a nightmare this time of day’. And all along you know you both laugh at poop jokes and fart sounds and you have all these hobbies and interests and you curse and say fuck and shit and asshole. You’re real people. But you act like robots. You have to put on the face, and they have to put on a face, and you have to pretend that nothing in life is ever fun, everything is productivity and seriousness.”

“Is that what makes it hard?” I asked. “That everyone’s just… faking their way through adulthood?”

“No. No, that’s expected. It sucks, but we all know what we’re getting into.” He sighed. “No, what catches you by surprise are the little things about growing up. It’s being stuck in traffic and remembering a day. Any day. A locker room conversation in high school. A teacher. A friend of a friend. Something that happened long enough ago that it could order its own drink. It sneaks up on you, and you look at yourself in the rear view and you think, my God… where did it go? When did I become so old?

“I remember college like it was yesterday. I remember my girlfriends and my friends and they used to drink and talk about sex and hanging out and now they all eat oatmeal and go to funerals. And I do that to, and I like all of that. Well, not going to funerals, but oatmeal. Soap operas. Going to bed at nine. I like it.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“The problem is I’m still the sixteen year old. I’m still the college kid. My needs and wants have changed, and my body has changed, and my mind has changed, in a way, but I didn’t change. I’m still putting on a face. So when these thoughts sneak up on me – when a flash of a college party or a roadtrip or the feeling of falling asleep in the back of my Dad’s car wells up on me… it breaks me. It breaks me because I don’t think of it fondly. I don’t look at that young kid with affection and nostalgia, I look at him with envy. Envy, because he’s got all of that ahead of him still, and he doesn’t even know how lucky he is. He’s me, we’re the same – but he’s got the good looks and the health and all the years ahead of him, and I’m wasting away in an old apartment. And I hate that kid so much. Every time he sneaks up on me I hate him more.”

I looked down, then up. “What about family? Kids?”

“They are great. They are amazing. But they go away. They’re not you. In the end, you raise your sons and daughters for the world, not for yourself. They have to fall asleep in the back of my car, and go to their college parties and all that… they don’t exist for my benefit. No one exists for my benefit but myself. And I’m much too old to do anything about it.”

I swallowed dry and averted my eyes to the fireplace. The old man leaned forward. “We always get the feeling that the good old days are either behind us or ahead of us. They’re never our own days. We were always born just a bit too late to go to Woodstock or to see Nirvana live or to see the Berlin Wall fall or to party Great Gatsby style in the 20’s. And then we get old and we realize we were born too soon to see the wonders of technology and the world reshaping and blooming into something new and exciting. But the truth is, our Woodstocks were happening all around us as we grew. Our new and exciting world was some old guy’s boring present, and our past will be some spoiled, arrogant kid’s ‘Good old days’. We were just too stupid to realize it when it mattered. So we let it slide away. And then we ended up like me – sad and resentful of our younger selves for all they can still do and we can’t.”

Finally, I got up. I went to the old man and I knelt in front of him. “I’m sorry I brought you over.”

“It’s okay,” he said. “I knew you would. After all, I did it, sixty years ago.”

I looked at my own eyes. Despite the wrinkles around them, they still looked pretty much the same. The old man shook his head and sniffed a tear away. “Now let’s go back to your lab so you can send me back to my own time, so I can hate you in peace.”

I hugged my own eighty year old version and leaned away and nodded. “I’ll enjoy it,” I said. “And I’ll know I’m living in the good old days, I promise.”

He got up with difficulty. “No, you won’t,” he said. “The good old days are only ever good when they’re gone. That’s what makes them good. When you’re living through them, they’re just… days.”

He slow-stepped ahead of me towards the lab. Then he spoke without turning his head: “And days go by really fast, man. They go by really fast.”

[writing-prompt-s]

[stimman3000]

View this post on Instagram

https://instagram.com/p/BVtkXUWFxmU/

[tardiscontrolmatrix-blog]

This is the most aesthetically pleasing video I have ever seen

[muchymozzarella]

The world is a terrifying place but at least the erupting volcano of Mayon is waking the ancients to remind us of our place

[muchymozzarella]

Quick note: original art is by Kerby Rosanes

Link to the original post here on the artist’s IG

[muchymozzarella]

Another note: This is in reference to the Filipino legend from Albay called “Daragang Magayon” [literally translated into “beautiful maiden”, with “daraga” meaning “maiden” and “magayon” meaning “beautiful”]

She’s a folk heroine, whose love story can be read here

It is said that her lover, Panganoron, is the clouds that surround Mt. Mayon’s peak, while she is herself the volcano, which has always been seen as remarkably beautiful in shape

It’s said that the volcano grew where they were buried together

Which is why the shape of two lovers seen in the smoke of its most recent eruption is so culturally significant. 

And really, really cool. 

[shoeboxgoblin]

Wonder Woman was a great movie for equal opportunity eye candy.

Straight guys and gay girls can enjoy gal gadot in armor.

Gay guys and straight girls can enjoy a mostly naked Chris pine

Bi/pan people get to enjoy both

And if you’re ace like me, well. She threw a tank with her bare hands, and that’s as good as it gets

[illogical-bullshit]

I really like this post.

[a-trex]

reblog this and i’ll ask you the first question that comes to mind when i go to your blog :D

[a-trex]

still doing this, and have done it for everyone so far!

[a-trex]

it’s November 2017, I originally made this in May 2013. I sent over 15,000 asks with this post. Many blogs were deactivated, didn’t have asks enabled, didn’t understand an ask limit exists, were confused when I finally got to them months later, or would reply upset at me.

REGARDLESS, I have decided to continue on with this. I don’t know if it’s a good decision but… I’ll give it a shot. So go for it. I’ll send some more asks.

[gryffon]

i appreciate how immersive the gameplay is in x/y

[becausebirds]

3D graphics are incredible these days.

[tardiscontrolmatrix-blog]

ROFL

[ingridverse]

Do not punish the behaviour you want to see

I mean, it seems pretty obvious when you put it like that, right?

But how many families, when an introvert sibling or child makes an effort to socialize,  snarkily say, “So, you’ve decided to join us”?

Or when someone does something they’ve had trouble doing, say, “Why can’t you do that all the time?” (Happened to me, too often.)

Or any sentence containing the word “finally”. 

If someone makes a step, a small step, in a direction you want to encourage, encourage it. Don’t complain about how it’s not enough. Don’t bring up previous stuff. Encourage it.

Because I swear to fucking god there is nothing more soul-killing, more motivation-crushing, than struggling to succeed and finding out that success and failure are both punished.

[sola-invinctus]

Wheel of the Year Holidays

Imbolc is one of the 8 holidays in Wicca/paganism. It happens on February 1-2. Most days are either on the first of the month or the solstices/equinoxes. A lot of holidays related to Imbolc are on February 2, which is why I choose to celebrate it on the second. This makes Imbolc the only Wiccan/pagan holiday to be on the second day of a month. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Imbolc is the day when all of the first newborn lambs have been born and the ewe’s start to have milk for their offspring. In Rome, it was a celebration of the founding of their empire by Romulus and Remus, who were nurtured with the wolf goddess Lupa’s milk, and a goat was sacrificed. To the ancient Egyptians, Imbolc was the birthday of Nut, a major sky goddess in Egyptian mythology that created five extra days to give birth to her children on each day, which were important gods. It marked the first sparks of life since Yule or the winter solstice, and celebrates the coming of spring. Groundhog day originated from a similar tradition on the same day as Imbolc, where a snake would come out of the earth to predict whether there’d be more winter or the start of spring. People would begin ploughing their fields and getting ready to plant crops on this day, and it’s considered taboo to pick any plants or flowers. In the old Jewish tradition, it took the mother forty days after giving birth to be pure again. Imbolc is forty days after Christmas, meaning that the Virgin Mary becomes pure again. It may very well be the day when she earns her title as the Virgin Mary or ascends to heaven. This shows that Imbolc is to the Goddess as Yule is to the God. It’s a day to celebrate the Mother Goddess after giving birth to her son, the God, and bringing back the light of the son. It’s thought by some that the Goddess dies in Yule, so it would make sense that it’s sort of purification or rebirth of the Goddess. It’s not clear as to whether this is the day that the Goddess gets reborn or when she gets impregnated by the God. At this stage in the Wheel of the Year, the Goddess is in her Maiden aspect. Imbolc in itself and it’s more traditional pagan roots (such as how many Wiccan holidays were absorbed from specific cultures and names to honor their tradition) come from Ireland. The word “Imbolc” originates from it’s original name, “oimelc” which meant “ewes milk.” It was a day meant to honor Brigid, the Celtic goddess of healing, poetry, blacksmiths, and the hearth. To this day, it’s still celebrated as the day of Brigid/Brigid’s sacred day. Pretty much every resource you can find will tell you how the daughters of the household in Ireland weaved dolls out of straw and made crosses. Wiccans today can still make dolls and Brigid’s crosses, and light candles for Imbolc. Another Imbolc tradition is to light a fire the night before and put it out as the last thing you do before bed, then rake the ashes outside. Put a piece of clothing out, and if you find ashes smeared onto it on Imbolc, it’s been blessed by Brigid. I found one website that said “If you can make it with your hands, it’s sacred to Brigid.” That means that it’s a day where Brigid can be celebrated through making things, and arts and crafts. Brigid was such a popular goddess in Ireland that she became an important Saint in Christianity. To some, she’s known as the Saint of Ireland. Imbolc is also the same day as Saint Brigid’s feast day. In Christianity, this is also known as Candlemas, which is another name for Imbolc, as well. In Yule, the sun is reborn, and the days become longer. This is a celebration of the renewed light expected from that day and all the births manifested.

[nayters]

[c-bassmeow]

NcjdkfkfkfkjfkfjJFJDKFKFKFNFJFJFKFJFJKusijJidjdjd

[tardiscontrolmatrix-blog]

OMG HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[witchhavencommunity-deactivated]

Thank you to everyone that attended our bootcamp!  You all had some amazing questions.  –KIT

[tardiscontrolmatrix-blog]

It was a great class! Thanks Kit!!

[drawing-prompt-s]

When I was a child I was afraid of the moon. I used to think that the sky was a giant raven and the moon changing phases was its slowly blinking eye, watching me.

Draw the giant space raven.

[budmuddy]

This one gave me a lot of inspiration.

[drawing-prompt-s]

SKY RAVEN!! HECK YEAH!! Favorite bird and an awesome concept? Heck yeah. Awesome art? Double heck yeah!! Thank you so much for sharing this with the rest of us! I love it so much!

[motsimages]

@absoluteradman If this is not an idea for a short story, I don’t know what is

@drawing-prompt-s turning @writing-prompt-s.

[writing-prompt-s]

We need a story, amigos!

[tophertv]

Corvids collect treasures. Shiny things, pretty things, precious things. And what could be more precious than life?

Life which learns.

Life which grows.

Life which builds.

Life needs to be coddled at first, of course. Giant space birds don’t just pop out of the vacuum, ready to take wing on the stellar winds and soar through the universe. Life needs time, and air, and a shield from solar radiation- life needs a planet. And a planet doesn’t produce a race of giant vacuum defying corvids in a millennium.

So the Raven settled in to wait. And wait a long time, it did. It didn’t mind. The Raven had always been a patient bird, a watchful bird. It stared down upon the planet, slowly blinking, always watching.

The Raven watched as the planet was settled by its ken. They moved from treetop to treetop, forest to forest, spanning all across the world. The Raven watched as the corvids learned cognizance, understanding, and communication. The Raven watched as the other animals settled into their usual roles.

But then The Raven saw something strange.

The direwolves and the direbears were not hunting their prey, the humans, as well as they should have been. And the humans were changing- they began to make their nests in places they normally wouldn’t. They began to construct farms, and villages, and towns, and cities! And the corvids, intelligent as they were, watched the humans develop and build and create- and settled into a role as scavengers!

The Raven was perplexed! The strangest chain of events unfolded as the humans began to dominate the world. They spread and spread, growing and growing, conquering and settling the world as if they were the corvids, and the corvids were left in the dust!

The Raven was confused, and concerned. Perhaps it should do something to right this scenario. Perhaps it should reach down and correct this mistake. But then, perhaps not? Mayhap the direwolves and direbears would rise up and strike down the humans after a while. Mayhap the corvids would rise up in the humans wake and take their place at the top of the food chain.

And yet, as The Raven watched, this seemed less and less likely. And then in the blink of an eye, the predators were gone. The direwolves were hunted to extinction, the direbears driven to the poles, and the lesser wolves domesticated! Domesticated by the humans, of all things!

The Raven felt outrage, disgust, and disappointment. With a sigh and a caw, it spread its wings to catch the wind and float away, in search of some new treasure, some new planet.

And then it saw.

The Raven blinked. It paused, midflight, to be certain. And there it was. A point, no smaller than a pin-prick, of light.

Real, genuine light. Not from the stars, but from the planet itself. From the humans.

They had discovered electricity.

The Raven watched, perplexed and amazed, as the planet spun. When a part of the planet drifted from the light to the dark, the lights would come on. And when that part faced the sun again, the lights would go back out.

The Raven folded its wings. It let the flow of gravity take it, spinning around the planet, always watching, slowly blinking. And as it spun, the world began to glow. The planet, when darkened, would shine. The humans made it shine.

The Raven let out a joyous cry! What greater treasure could there be than life which was shiny? And with contentment, The Raven still floats, watching us. And though we are not corvids, we are still precious.

[plutospromise17]

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. Your writing is amazing.

[constellations-and-energy]

Modern mythology y’all

[vetyr]

Fatespinner

[unmaskingthedivine]

Behold! The accompanying tarot spread for the January Shadow Work Challenge. So if you don’t want to commit to the whole challenge, feel free to give this stand alone spread a go. Best wishes and happy new year!