The Red Earth

A personal blog to journal my exploration of tarot, green witchcraft, and eclectic wicca.

[creanavt]

https://creanavt.tumblr.com/archive

[cricketcat9]

The Hanged Man

[inthefallofasparrow]

[beepbeep-eddy-27]

[swagdinner]

[dispenserofshenanigans]

do talk or think about this please

[traegorn]

Hey hi hello so I have a question abt intention? Specifically how do you stay focused on it I’ll be doing something and partway through I’ll realize that my brain has gone off on a tangent without me noticing even if I’m trying really hard to concentrate on what I’m doing? So people will be like “yea do your spell but intentionally” and it’s like “okay either I do not know how to do that or I do not know what it means” and is it just? Practice? Or am I flat out skipping a step?

Also u seem very cool and I wish I had ur gender confidence instead of being very confused

Look, there are people who think intention is the whole ball of wax. And while I think that, in a sense, you should know what you're trying to achieve with a spell -- constantly concentrating and holding that intent is... wholly unnecessary.

Like many things in the Modern Witchcraft Movement, this is a fairly new idea. A popular one for sure, but still a new one. Like if you look at the history of folk magic, that isn't a thing.

So relax. You're fine.

(As for the gender confidence -- remember you're seeing me as a fully formed, middle aged person who spent decades of their life as an unmitigated disaster. I didn't show up like this on day one.)

[malefixium]

hm i saw a post - but lost it so idk - that was talking about titling energies as masculine and feminine which brings a gender bias into what should be a neutral idea. i actually like this idea and def agree with it! 

but what should or how should energies be titled or at least be distinct in what they bring? there’s like the light or dark - but that can also bring another bias into it. positive and negative has another bias… hmm 

does anyone have suggestions? 

[teawitch]

Projective and receptive?

Stabby and shieldy?

[heatherwitch]

I like both of these posts on the subject but I seem to recall a post that went around quite a while ago that had a whole bullet point list full of alternative phrases/ideas—I know I’ve reblogged it but I currently can’t find it.

Reworking Gendered Energies

When getting started with magic, especially magic influenced by Wicca, nearly everything is immediately split into a gender binary. To many

(Reposting my response to a now-deleted post, since the original was removed at the request of the OP.) Context: Many books on modern witch

[wiedzma]

Kupala Night

Żmijowiska 2020

[traegorn]

Doubt is GOOD actually

[diana-thyme]

I’d say this comment was more of a, “Let people see things and immediately think of their deities.” The whole ‘feel connected to their deities’ means 1) it’s not witchcraft, 2) they are not seeing something and thinking it’s a sign from a deity they do not know/worship, and 3) they are not even talking about signs. This are not having ear pain and thinking it’s a ghost, this is not having a gas leak and thinking it’s your house being haunted, this is not seeing a butterfly and thinking you are being called to by a deity. It’s simply, “Hey, that’s a cow, that reminds me of Hera. It’s nice to feel connected.” It’s not, “Hey, that’s a cow, Hera must be calling to me to work with her.” Everything in this video is correct with signs and witchcraft, not religion.

[traegorn]

So, with context, this comment was left on this video, and this was about both witchcraft and religion. It's about any metaphysical or supernatural experience.

And remember, for a lot of us who practice religious forms of witchcraft, these are deeply intertwined ideas in our practices.

But more importantly this thread was started with observations of the form of "deity work" performed by so many witches on social media. Where people claim they have no say about which gods they work with because they were "called" by those gods -- often in an attempt to explain why they're taking something from a closed cultural practice at the same time.

And again -- I'm not asking people to reject their personal experiences. I'm not asking them not to believe things -- just to consider the mundane and simple answers first. If you choose to still believe them, good. But if you're never asking the question, you are placing yourself in an unhealthy position.

So please -- ask the question.

[nature-soldier]

Amethyst Black Pentacle by ~MoonLitCreations on deviantART unter We Heart It.

[thisishalloween1331]

A wicked aesthetic… 🖤

[auntie-nettle]

Dark Cottagecore

Cottagecore | Dark Cottagecore | Grandmacore | Dark Grandmacore | Hagcore

[feminine-fox]

i think a large part of our desires to live simply and naturally by homesteading is a way for our souls to find rest from the fatigue of living in the modern world.

it’s like i can feel my heart let off a sign of relief when i turn off social media and spend some time baking. we weren’t meant to absorb all the information that’s being thrown at us constantly. give your mind, heart, and soul a breather by unplugging and cultivating or creating something with your own hands. i promise there is infinitely more value in that than being up to date with current events.

[call-me-noa]

Please do cite the deep magic to me actually. I may have been there when it was written but I am very forgetful

[helloitsbees]

[satsekhem]

Remember to uphold ma'at and that the ma'at of ancient Egypt was playing the puppet to what the government demanded and claimed but the ma'at of our diaspora is protecting everyone's rights to bodily autonomy, marriage equality, and fighting against millennia of ingrained racial injustice.

[morganarchy]

As an Egyptologist, this is incoherent if we’re adhering to the ancient Egyptian definition of ma’at, but sure, if we change its entire cultural context, that works.

I can’t tell if I like this or not. It makes me uncomfy to change the fundamental of an ancient concept because then it’s not still that thing, but I also like pretending that it’s fine to just do that because yay ancient history being applied in modern times, kind of!

Part of the problem may just be though that ma’at most closely translates to our concept of “order”, which for ancient Egyptians was synonymous with goodness and whatnot, and as an anarchist this is no bueno for me.

This post is going to live in my head rent free, I can already tell.

[thetwistedrope]

i can give you some insight to the rationale behind this if you're interested. i can tell you that many of us came to this conclusion from reading original texts and drawing different conclusions than AE did. we didn't just change the meaning on a whim.

i think the best definition that we have for ma'at comes from Stephen Quirke, who basically defined it as "what is right." he argued that "order" and "justice" or "what is just" is placing a value that isn't inherently there, that "what is right" is more correct. if we use that definition, i think it highlights how easy it is to manipulate ma'at into whatever you want it to be. which the egyptians did regularly imo.

karenga as a person sucks, but his book is a good reference to see a list of ways in which "what is right" was interpreted in AE. whether we're talking feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the widow, not stealing offerings, not being a hot head, honoring your parents/family, etc.

for many of us, when you get down to brass tacks, "what is right" really sounds like being a decent human being, not being shitty to others, actively removing sources of isfet from creation and replacing those isfetian things with "what is right." showing up for others, sharing your wealth with those who don't have it.

and, by extension, this would translate into removing systems that harm people, that cause injustice, that destroy the earth. from there, its not a far jump to "we should probably not have kings or capitalists or rampant exploitation". i know AE may have disagreed with us, but tbh, i think their rendition of "what is right" was pretty flawed in practice compared to their idealized versions of "what is right" were on paper. but it's super easy to write it down and call it truth and never bother with actually acting it out.

idk if that helps, but i gotta admit i've spent far too much time thinking on this to simply leave it with "yeah we just decided to redefine it with no basis" XDD

__

also for clarity of tone, because i'm kinda used to ppl getting the wrong tone from me, i'm not mad, this is lighthearted and genuine, i just want ppl to understand, i'm not trying to start shit with anyone.

[what-even-is-thiss]

Plato makes up Atlantis as an allegory and over 2,000 years later people are still looking for it. You might as well be looking for Narnia.

[what-even-is-thiss]

Plato: Luxury and unlimited power are forces that corrupt human beings and lead them to being colonialist and stupid. The gods will punish Athens if we continue to exploit others for our own gain. I have invented this society as a parable to illustrate my point because I tend to use metaphor for a lot of things.

Everyone: But where are you hiding it though

[what-even-is-thiss]

Plato: I’ve purposefully included details like a mud shoal west of Iberia that doesn’t exist and references to a volcanic eruption that we all have cultural memory of as an obvious indication that I made this up. Are you paying attention? It’s a metaphor. I’m using literary references. You can go west of Iberia yourself. It’s not there. I explained where it is and it’s not there. You all know it’s not there. Please stop it with the luxury and exploitation. That’s my main point here.

Everyone: Yeah but where is it though

[cipheramnesia]

You make one allegory about people missing the point and the ironic Greek gods punish you forever.

[will-o-the-witch]

Epistemology and Why It Matters for Witchcraft

Epistemology, as one of my professors articulated, is "the study of truth." It's the theory of knowledge, investigating what we consider to be fact/truth and how we decide what constitutes reality. The scope goes way beyond just spiritual/religious belief, but that's what I'll primarily be discussing here.

That's really vague and esoteric, so to give a more concrete example: think about Hell. To many folks, Hell is entirely fictional, just a theory used to scare people into submission. Others believe the existence of Hell is a cold hard fact. To them, taking steps to avoid going to Hell is a very real and legitimate thing to be concerned about, because that's a part of how they perceive reality. Both "sides" have equal conviction, because both consider their belief to be the truth. Epistemology asks why that is. How do we get two equally-strong, opposite beliefs?What makes people consider something opinion vs. fact? What makes people change their mind? How do we decide these ways of measuring "truth" are accurate? How do we decide what's accurate? This keeps going indefinitely. Don't give yourself an existential crisis over it.

A lot of arguments debates pop up in spiritual/religious communities when people butt heads with opposing beliefs, both considered fact by someone. Someone believes that intent is the only thing that matters when practicing witchcraft just as much as I believe that's bullshit. Both of us have our reasons why, also based on things we consider fact. We might even have the same beliefs backing our opinion, just arranged differently. Neither of us have any way to prove our belief is "true."

This is important to keep in mind for many things.

Interacting with the community in general. Is that person an idiot or are they just coming at it from a different perspective? Are you bothered because they're actually being rude, or because it's in conflict with your own beliefs?

Analyzing resources. What beliefs and assumptions does the author hold beyond the specific thing they're conveying here? How is it influencing their take? Is it congruent with how I believe the world works?

Analyzing yourself. What do I believe?How did I form these beliefs, what's behind them? Do I feel like I need to update anything? I'm allowed to decide I was "wrong" about something before. Are my actions in line with these beliefs, or holdovers from an old way of thinking?

Assessing the results of your craft. How do I measure when something was effective? How much faith and skepticism and I comfortable putting into the process? Am I coming to this from a perspective I consider balanced and rational?

It's honestly helpful for way more than just spiritual practices, but it's especially important when dealing with things as esoteric as, well, esotericism, mysticism, the occult, and spiritual practices. It may not be healthy to constantly question yourself and everything you know, but an occasional, compassionate check-in can really elevate a person's work. That's my belief, anyway! What's yours?

[lush-retina-is-dead]

lithuanian grass weaving 🌾

[pascalcampion]

Late night thoughts #Manlyman

[warningsine]