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YOU ARE THE REASON
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$LAYYYTER
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Sweet Seals For You, Always
Keni
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
blake kathryn
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
if i look back, i am lost
art blog(derogatory)
Misplaced Lens Cap
Origami Around
JBB: An Artblog!
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Xuebing Du
Sade Olutola
Peter Solarz
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@warlocksway
Time to cut out the distractions and reread The Invisibles. I’ve got the giant tome in my backpack and was surprised to find out there are no less than <i>two</i> different companion volumes.
Anarchy For The Masses, which I used to have a copy of and
Our Sentence Is Up
Just going to go ahead and order both.
Familiar Spirit.
I use to think that for you to be real, you had to be outside of me. That I had to see every detail of you. That you had to be here always, by my side, 24/7, an unbearable influence of strength and solidarity and protection.
And I was disappointed when that was not who you are, and angry, and upset, and then doubtful of your existence.
For you to be a part of me was a paradox I could not understand. Because a part of me didn’t think I could be strong like you. This world etched away at me until I was a meek little boy learning how to wear dresses in secret. For you to be a part of me would mean that you have never existed because someone strong like you could never be like me.
All of these questions and insecurities sat in the back of my mind, swirling and brewing and seeping into my daily consciousness as I went about my days, saying that I had a Familiar Spirit. And then at night, I would lay in my bed, and wonder why I can only sometimes feel your arms and whether you were just a figment of my imagination. I could never say those words outloud, all that doubt and anxiety. As with many of my other forays into witchcraft, I felt that if I were to voice all of my insecurities, then I wouldn’t even have the facade of magic, and then what?
But gradually, you showed me in other ways, not by being in my bed every night, but by touching my life in bits and pieces so that every step I can see not just my foot prints but yours walking next to mine. Someone’s walking next to mine. Yours.
The things I asked you to do, to make my life into, when I sold my soul at the crossroads. They were big things, sometimes painful things, things that needed sacrifice. Rather than demand four legged animals with black fur to be cooked and the red blood poured into pits at your crossroads, you asked for something else. My patience, my endurance, and my willingness to walk and have you walk with me.
And now I look at my life, and I see all that I have wanted and more, and how I have changed through getting them, how I have changed with you. How you have changed through me.
I don’t hate that you might be a part of me anymore, a part of my mind, because I don’t hate myself anymore. I don’t think that being a part of myself makes you any less real, that it somehow takes away your autonomy if you touched me mostly by being that little voice in my head that helps give me wisdom, peace, guidance. Because I can now hear your voice next to my own, you taught me that, you helped me find that, my voice.
And I remember you and see you in other ways, so I know you are real to me.
And I know why you did not become what I asked you to become for me. To become a real man, so I can love you and hold you and be with you forever. That is not what I came here to do.
The spirit world needs to stay in touch with this world to keep in touch with this world.
When I cook on the stove top, stirring the pots of bubbling, warm stew, I will show you, this, this is human comfort.
When I cry, and I feel my tears well from my eyes and fall in fat, clear, salty drops into my lap, this, this is what sadness is like in this world.
When I go to school, sit in lectures, score my first role in film, when I achieve my dreams, when I fail, this, I will show you, this is what human life is like.
When I change things in this world, when I try to make things better, I will tell you, this, this is how humans try to create our world.
And when I lay in my bed, old, wrinkling, tired, weary, comforted, and happy. When I take my last my breathe, feel it welling up inside of me and flowing between my lips. And I close my eyes. Feel my soul curl inward into something beyond. I will remember, this is what dying is like, and we will be home.
It’s amazing to think that everything we use, every piece of music that we hear, every form of art we see once lived only in the brain of the person that made it. THAT is being able to change reality in whatever way they imagine and that, when it comes down to it, is magick.
- Grey School Core Energy Practices 101
Paganism does not have to be/include
⛤ Nature centric: There are pagans who do not revere nature, who don’t want anything to do with nature, etc. They just worship their gods, and that’s it. No nature involved. And there are pagans who are urban based as well. Nature worship is not a necessary component of paganism ⛤ Polytheistic: There are pagans who are: Pantheists, Panentheists, Deists, Atheist, Agnostic, Henotheist, or even Monotheist/Monist. Not all pagans are polytheist ⛤ Worship of “The” God and Goddess: Worshiping a singular God and Goddess (duotheism) is a relatively new concept, due to Wicca. Ancient pagans had no concept of “The” Goddess and God. And many modern day pagans do not worship “The” Goddess and God. This is particularly true with recon polytheists who try to reconstruct what ancient pagans believed ⛤ Soft Polytheism: This goes along with the last post on the concept of a singular God and Goddess. Usually the saying goes “all gods are one God and all goddesses are one Goddess”. There are plenty hard polytheist pagans who do not agree with this. They see all gods and goddesses as distinct individuals with no connection to other gods (unless they’re family). But they are certainly NOT all the same being. ⛤ Witchcraft: Not all pagans are involved with witchcraft ⛤ Magic or divination: Same as above: not all pagans are involved with magic or divination ⛤ Wicca: And finally, for the love of everything holy: Paganism does not always mean Wicca. There are many non-Wiccan Pagan paths!!!
OK, this relates to something I wrote earlier, trying to get at what I think is the same point. We’ve setablished what paganism is not:
The things in the post above are not necessary to be considered pagan.
the Abrahamic religions are obviously not.
Dominant religions other than Abrahamic ones. This may be a bit controversial but when was the last time someone from the local Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist temple was invited to speak at your local new age shop?
That leaves us with the question of what paganism is.
The closest I’ve come, and I’m not entirely satisfied with it, is the following:
In modern usage, paganism is an umbrella term covering a loose-knit community of magico-religious practices. While many of these are non-Christian polytheists tracing their routes to Western Europe, all practitioners of magic are in theory welcome in the pagan community.
Warlock Tip
First rule of the world: everybody’s hungry.
C’est moi.
Warlock Tip
Be yourself. If that doesn't work, change yourself instead of trying to be someone else.
Warlock Tip
Words are power. Avoid giving offense unless you are prepared to accept the consequences. A genuine, heartfelt apology is a powerful, low effort spell.
Reblogging since this issue came up again recently.
Update
Looks like there’s about a 50/50 shot my presentation will be cut due to management shakeups at the event I was supposed to be at. I’ll be away from Internet connectivity tomorrow through Sunday. When I get back, though, it’s time to start on my next project, one that is directly Dr X related!
Define Pagan
Serious question for the five people who follow my posts. How would you define “pagan”? As a magic/witchcraft practicing person who spends a lot of time at an occult/witchcraft shop, it seems to me like there’s a core, common set of beliefs that are not directly tied to one’s choice of deities.
There are Christian witches but you don’t see many Hindus in “the pagan community”, so it’s not about monotheism vs polytheism.
PRESENTATION!
I’m trying to decide if I should show up for this Pagan event in full mask with a couple of she-devils on my arms in red dresses and horns. I mean, clearly I’m going to be the voice of the opposition here. The question is, will going completely over the top help me get my message across or just serve to piss the organizers off? The second question is whether I really want to put the time and effort into showmanship. . . which is almost always a yes.
DAMMIT! Time to start getting elaborate.
Shit Pagans Say
I’m borrowing a hashtag from @warlocksway, because I attended a meeting yesterday that pissed me right the fuck off.
Trigger warnings abound. Ethnic slurs, prejudicial statements, and bigotry repeated below.
Please know that I *wish* I was exaggerating, especially as these people are responsible for putting on an educational event that is supposed to help end religious and spiritual discrimination.
So, this very special edition of #ShitPagansSay
“Not all gypsies mind being called that, so it’s okay that we have it worded that way. And most gypsies do read Tarot cards, so I don’t know what your problem is with us saying that.”
“I’ve met gypsies who are fine with us calling them that, so we can call them that!”
“No gypsies are Pagan!”
“All gypsies are Pagan!”
“We all follow, ‘An it harm none’ here.”
“Pagans are anyone who doesn’t believe in Yahweh.”
“Muslims worship Yahweh.”
“No Pagans engage in animal sacrifice!”
“No Pagans believe in Satan!”
“If someone doesn’t believe in multiple gods, then they aren’t really Pagan.”
“All Pagans worship the divine as divided into male and female by the God and Goddess.”
“We don’t want to alienate anyone, but does this really need to be changed?”
“It’s not that we have a problem with a trans person speaking, but…”
“Well the Indians - what? Why are you upset at me saying that? That’s what they call themselves!”
“We don’t need to apologize to anyone - that will just remind them of the past. We need to just ask them to help us move forward and be more positive.”
as a special note:
Gypsy is an ethnic and racial slur against the Romani.
Not all, or even most, Romani persons read Tarot.
Muslims may recognize Yahweh as one of the 99 names of Allah (Sufi persons may recognize three more names in addition to this, so Yahweh would be one of 102 names of Allah for them.)
Indians would refer to citizens of India, the second most populous nation, containing 17.50 percent of the world’s population. “Indian” refers to nationality, not ethnicity or language. It certainly does not refer to the First Nation people of the United States, which are who were being discussed.
The rest are pretty self-evident.
Thanks to @havencraft I got a sneak peek at their FAQ as well. It makes the above look pretty good by comparison. Fortunately, they seem very open to input (I’m genuinely not sure if that’s sarcastic or not) and I’ll be happy to provide some…not a lot, my time is limited and this is really an event I could skip and not feel bad about missing. It’s also the one I’m stumbling through the “You Want Me To Do What?” posts for.
Black Magic, Left Hand Path and The Shadow Man
Or: You Want Me To Do What? Part 4/reboot
Note: After finding out my speaking bloc will be somewhere around 45 minutes, I’ve expanded the topics covered considerably. The title above has them in the order they’ll be covered. If a discussion breaks out (PLEASE!), we’ll have covered the more important bits before time runs out.
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Some of you have probably come here with a definition of what the Left Hand Path is already. It’s the diametric opposite of everything that the Right Hand Path that you practice stands for. It’s evil and selfish and self-defeating. Left Hand bad, Right Hand good. Black magic bad, white magic good. Witch (or Wicca, Druid, whatever term you use to define yourself) good, Shadow Man or Warlock bad.
That’s cool. It’s not like there’s a single, standard definition of Left Hand Path that you can look up on Witchipedia. I know, I tried while I was writing this and it’s not there. Black Magic has about five. If that’s the definition that you want to go with, you’ll get no complaints from me. Class dismissed.
For those of you still around, we’re not going to be talking much about Vamachara or Left Hand Attainment of Tantra. That’s not my field or my culture. There will be some passing reference where Left Hand Path as used in 20th and 21st Century America intersects it but that’s all. Instead we’re going to be talking about the oral traditions of the pagan community with a couple of digressions to written works.
Next bloc - a real working definition!
#WitchesforBernie
Let’s cast spells to get bernie in the white house!!! Anything you feel will help. Put your energy to this, and let’s change the nature of the world!
Hey, how about after the spell, you call campaign HQ in your area. You might be thousands of miles away from California but you can still phone bank and help get supporters out on primary day. Magic is great. Action is better.
Warlock Tip
If you are consulting with a practitioner of magic, listen to them. Often, your problem isn’t what you think your problem is and someone with a little more distance can see it clearly. If a practitioner is trying to give you what you need instead of what you ask for, it may suck. It may be disappointing. It may be difficult to let go of your fantasies. Listen to them anyway!
Warlock Problem
Controlling other people on a long term basis is a really bad idea. If you need magic to get them, you’re going to need magic to keep them.
Even if I could do it, I’d be busy using it on people like Mark Zuckerburg or Donald Trump, so you couldn’t afford my rates.
Also, there’s that whole thing about consequences. There are second and third order outcomes that you’re not considering.
Plus, if you do this, you’re a terrible person who has acknowledged that someone trying to control someone else by force (of magic) is an action that’s on the table for you and by extension for people to do TO you. You’re being an abuser.
Client: Yeah, I get all of that, can you do a spell to control him anyway?
*sigh* here’s some candles and a bottle of oil. Light them every night and recite this prayer to Santa Muerte. You’re her problem now.
Like every other creature on the face of the earth, Godfrey was, by birthright, a stupendous badass, albeit in the somewhat narrow technical sense that he could trace his ancestry back up a long line of slightly less highly evolved stupendous badasses to that first self-replicating gizmo---which, given the number and variety of its descendants, might justifiably be described as the most stupendous badass of all time. Everyone and everything that wasn't a stupendous badass was dead.
Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon
