Witchcraft & Watercolor

Saige | She/They | Artist | Hedge Witch | ig @thewildadversary | thewildadversary.com

[thewildadversary]

Every January, I paint a self portrait to reflect on and capture the subjective experience of the year that has gone by. These portraits help me to see how far I've come, both as an artist and as a person.

In 2022, I was diagnosed with epilepsy. I had to undergo many tests, and my body seemed opaque and mysterious. I've made progress in my journey to understanding my body, though I still have a ways to go.

In 2022, I practiced finding my inner peace among the storm. I connected with Nature. I learned to give myself space.

I am still learning, but I've come so far.

My tarot card for 2022 was Temperance. May we all take her lessons with us into 2023.

Your intangible lessons are still valuable. You have come so far. Give yourself space. You are a beautiful expression of Nature, and you need room to grow.

[thewildadversary]

Mosaic Syndrome

Portrait of a strange girl I met in a dream.

A friend of mine had a dream about something called "Mosaic Syndrome" where, in short, your face would change. After I heard about it, I subsequently had a dream where I met this girl with an "interesting" face. She apparently had Mosaic Syndrome. I was fascinated with her and asked if I could paint her. She agreed. I tried to take reference photos of her but every time I took one and then looked back at her, her face would be different even though I didn't actually see it change.

I followed through with my promise to paint her, though. As a disabled and neurodivergent person, I identify with this girl. I feel as though she is probably judged and ostracized, just because she is different. I hope she appreciates that I saw her differences and beautiful, and approached her with respect and curiosity instead of fear.

Media: Watercolor on paper

Size: 5"x7" triptych

[thewildadversary]

Deep beneath the mountain, he waits and listens… with his cute little sad face.

[just-a-bird-in-a-sweater]

Some days brain fog just makes everything really difficult. That's not your fault.

Don't be hard on yourself for things outside of your control. It's hard to read, it's hard to focus, it's hard to do work, it's hard to think, none of that is your fault. Pushing yourself harder is only going to make you feel worse.

You're not stupid. It'll be okay. Just get some rest. You can try again another time.

[skunkes]

[95wonder]

No. I know this is probably just a casual commiseration but I think it's a real and important question to ask and answer. If doing the stuff you're expected to do everyday is super hard, then something is probably wrong.

Anyone who relates to this too hard, I'd recommend looking up spoon theory and starting to make a record of how you feel and your experiences that you can bring up with some kind of health professional. Chances are if doing laundry feels like climbing everest, it's because you're disabled in some way. Whether that disability is some invisible chronic illness or depression or ADHD or burnout, *something* is wrong.

Almost all disabilities have some form of treatment or accommodation that can make your life easier. If you can get a diagnosis, you might also be eligible for official accommodations and benefits. Social security sucks ass and is almost impossible to access but like, it's not the only thing out there set up to help disabled folks and usually local organizations are gonna be better anyway.

Plenty of people reblogging this probably already know they're disabled in some way but if even 1 person sees this and can learn something important about themselves then it's worth saying.

TLDR: people who aren't disabled don't find acts of daily living extremely hard. Maybe look into that and see if you can get help making your life less hard.

Sincerely, a multiply disabled person.

[kiricat]

This is super important okay. Like, I used to try to ask my conservative family/church/etc. for help, and they’d just be all, “suck it up; life is hard for everyone; quit being such a baby”... and then I went to, like, actual experts, and they were basically like, “um, wow, you’re clearly super depressed and suicidal; you should actually be proud of yourself for still being alive!” And I’m still trying to unlearn the former and accept the latter, even after all this time. And I’m so mad that I’ve wasted so much time just trying to “push through it” instead of getting help I clearly need(ed), and that’s still a thing I struggle with.

Please, please seek real help if you need it. Like, I understand that there are shitty doctors and shitty therapists and whatnot, but it’s so worth expending what effort you can to find good ones who can help. If you have mentally ill friends -- which, if you’re reading this in the first place, you almost certainly do -- they might be able to point you in the right direction.

[ledeadface]

[ID: a screenshot from the Too Afraid to Ask reddit that reads: "How do people just so stuff? Is life not incredibly hard for everyone?" /end ID]

[eatember]

I have a friend with insane ADD and we have this same conversation sometimes

She can't actually even define laziness (which is weird) but she thought she was just lazy, life was that hard for everyone, and that everyone else was just being more responsible at managing it. I told her laziness feels good once and she blue screened.

Like if you can't define laziness, you've probably been convinced it's something that it's not. Probably something nebulous and hard to describe. Like, idk, an unknown disorder.

In case you're one such person, laziness feels great. It's not stressful. It's like the opposite of stressful. If you're being stressed and lazy at the same time you've managed to do it wrong somehow. The only struggle in being lazy is wanting the tv remote and being to darn comfortable to want to move. (But you get it anyways, because it's not an inability to get the remote. You were just cozy.)

Think of it like a cat sitting near a warm heater or a hamster so relaxed it "melts". If there were danger, or if the animal were hungry, it would get up. It probably doesn't want to get up because it's comfortable but it will. If the hamster is actually genuinely hungry but it can't get up and it's just laying there stressed and starving, you would take your animal to the vet because it has a problem.

[dollsonmain]

That’s how it was for me growing up, too. I seriously thought everyone was constantly exhausted, confused, and in pain like I was and I was just really, really bad at dealing with it, didn’t want to try hard enough, and was just lazy.

[bostonbakeddeans]

Additional gentle reminder that the regular amount of unidentifiable/unexpected pain is none. The normal amount of unidentifiable/unexpected pain is none.

Sore the next day after a workout? Makes sense.

Sore for the next week after a workout? Not normal.

Barked your shin on a low coffee table and have an ache/bruise? Expected.

Gently brushed past the doorframe and your arm feels like it's on fire? Not normal.

Joint pain in your teens/20's is not normal. Heart problems in your teens/20's are not normal. Continual (AKA chronic!) fatigue despite diet/sleep schedule is not normal.

If you cannot point to an event or series of events that caused the discomfort/pain you are experiencing ("I fell off my bike", "I walked 3 miles", "I slept poorly", "I haven't been getting all the nutrients I need"), it's probably not normal! And it is okay to want that discomfort/pain to stop, even if it's mild! Most people are not going through their daily lives consistently uncomfortable or in pain.

Most people are not going through their daily lives uncomfortable or in pain.

You deserve to be comfortable and to have things be easy. Whether that looks like readjusting your life and expectations or getting professional help (medical/mental/other), you deserve it. I promise.

[passionpeachy-deactivated202312]

slumbering spring (colorized)

[hare-beneath-pine-deactivated20]

In spirit work I am not bothered (and in fact am somewhat encouraged) by being ‘told’ “no”, “not interested”, “seriously go away”, “fuck off” etc.

Of course I respect this, and I’m glad I get these messages so I can better avoid stepping on toes. But further, if I was always hearing exactly what I wanted to hear, if every tree and dead dude and god was treating me like the super special protagonist of a fantasy novel… I would absolutely conclude that I’m not doing this properly at best, or am just playing with imaginary friends at worst.

[thewildadversary]

Art vs Artist 2022 :)

[jasper-pagan-witch]

I'm just...not interested in beginner magic stuff anymore. I've been a beginner. I don't want to go back over the same shit over and over again. I want to talk to and learn about other people's very specific crafts, as much as they want to share, because I love seeing how people weave things together. I like talking to people in a way where we're all pretty equal, not where there are teachers and students as some kind of impassable boundaries.

[sandersstudies]

“It needs [verb]ed” sounds like funny internet speak but it’s just how people talk in the Midwest

[sandersstudies]

“The fence needs painted” or “the dishes need washed” instead of “needs to be painted” or “need washing.”

[porcupine-girl]

Once at work I said “those files need organized” and everyone stopped and stared at me like I’d grown another head and it legit took us several minutes to sort out that they all thought I’d just flat-out left out some words while speaking while I thought I’d said a perfectly normal grammatical sentence.

The funniest part of this story is that I was working in a linguistics lab where we were studying a stage of language development where toddlers (fairly consistently) use the infinitive when they shouldn’t and here they want me to toss an unnecessary infinitive into my sentences.

[thewildadversary]

I’m from PA and we talk like this too, so this post confused me for a minute.

[skullchicken]

I just had a small epiphany why you might like other people's art more than your own:

It's the lack of suspension of disbelief.

When you see something someone else has drawn or painted, you take in the content faster than you take in the technical aspects. You experience it as pseudo-real, the same way you stop perceiving animated characters as drawn or book characters as written as you get into the story.

On the other hand, when you yourself have made something, all you see is the machine behind the theater, so to speak. You're probably thinking about lines, shading, coloring in a "does this make sense? Is this the best decision I could have made?"-kind of way.

I think that's also why sometimes, pictures you haven't looked at for a long time starts looking nice to you again, à la: "Hey past-me was unto something! Why can't I replicate it nowadays?". It's probably specifically because you've forgotten the process of making it that you are now seeing it with fresh eyes.

Art is an illusion, but a magician has a hard time tricking themself. So don't be so hard on yourself: it's probably just that you can't see the magic right now, but that doesn't mean it's not there.

[thewildadversary]

𝕋𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖 𝕀𝕤 𝕒 𝕃𝕒𝕟𝕕 ℂ𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕕 𝔸𝕞𝕪𝕘𝕕𝕒𝕝𝕒 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕀 𝕎𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕋𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖 𝕚𝕟 𝕄𝕪 𝕊𝕝𝕖𝕖𝕡

This painting literally came to me in a dream.

Available for sale (first come first serve): $250 Watercolor 14"x11" DM me!

[thewildadversary]

600 Seeds and 48 hours later

ig: thewildadversary

[delphinidin4]

Tons more at the source!

[fallingtowers]

sorry if i was weird the other day i'm but a conduit for powers as terrible as they are strange

[thewildadversary]

The Cold and the Dark are Full of Hope

As a Dark Goddess, Kali is an apt patron of the Winter Solstice. In the dark and the cold of the longest night of the year, it may be easy to feel consumed by despair. Yet, the Winter Solstice is a celebration of the coming light. Growth cannot occur without periods of rest and stillness. It is the way of the Witch to turn inward in the winter, nourish the potential that lies deep in our souls. And like a seed, that which we cultivate will blossom forth in the spring. This process cannot be rushed. All things happen in their season. All seasons contain limitless beauty.

Blessed Yule!

If this painting resonates with you, it is available as a free wallpaper! The original work is also on sale for $200 + shipping and I also have prints for $20 + shipping! Message me if interested :)

[funnytwittertweets]