#extradirty
Aqua Utopia｜海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
JVL
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Game of Thrones Daily
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titsay
JBB: An Artblog!
Jules of Nature
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Today's Document
if i look back, i am lost
shark vs the universe
Misplaced Lens Cap
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Kiana Khansmith
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styofa doing anything
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@witchofwolfwood
if you want butterflies, you need to live with caterpillars.
i am not being metaphorical, i work in a garden center, stop buying plants 'to bring in the bees and butterflies' and then immediately poisoning every caterpillar that dares to consume a single leaf
you will not get butterflies if you kill all the things that turn into butterflies! what are you doing!
a new trend
PLEASE I'm begging the neopagan girlies to stop spreading misinformation online, because I've just seen someone argue in earnest that the UK government has banned swimming in the ancient geo-thermal spring at Bath due to a hatred of 'native Celtic spirituality', and completely ignoring the fact that it was closed after a girl contracted a brain-eating amoeba and fucking died
In English, we say: "Overthinking." But in poetry, we say: "The storms in my head ruined the garden that my soul holds."
Dirt is sacred.
There is nothing wrong with leaving offerings on the naked earth.
When we die we are returned to the ground be it whole or as ash.
From the ground comes all our food, be it directly grown or eaten from to what else we eat.
There is nothing wrong with leaving offerings on leaves or stone, plates or trays but...
There is nothing wrong with laying them to the soil either.
The compost pile is as hallowed a hill as any shrine or shelf.
Homemaking, gardening, and self-sufficiency resources that won't radicalize you into a hate group
It seems like self-sufficiency and homemaking skills are blowing up right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic crisis, a lot of folks, especially young people, are looking to develop skills that will help them be a little bit less dependent on our consumerist economy. And I think that's generally a good thing. I think more of us should know how to cook a meal from scratch, grow our own vegetables, and mend our own clothes. Those are good skills to have.
Unfortunately, these "self-sufficiency" skills are often used as a recruiting tactic by white supremacists, TERFs, and other hate groups. They become a way to reconnect to or relive the "good old days," a romanticized (false) past before modern society and civil rights. And for a lot of people, these skills are inseparably connected to their politics and may even be used as a tool to indoctrinate new people.
In the spirit of building safe communities, here's a complete list of the safe resources I've found for learning homemaking, gardening, and related skills. Safe for me means queer- and trans-friendly, inclusive of different races and cultures, does not contain Christian preaching, and does not contain white supremacist or TERF dog whistles.
Homemaking/Housekeeping/Caring for your home:
Making It by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen [book] (The big crunchy household DIY book; includes every level of self-sufficiency from making your own toothpaste and laundry soap to setting up raised beds to butchering a chicken. Authors are explicitly left-leaning.)
Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust [book] (A guide to simple home repair tasks, written with rentals in mind; very compassionate and accessible language.)
How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis [book] (The book about cleaning and housework for people who get overwhelmed by cleaning and housework, based on the premise that messiness is not a moral failing; disability and neurodivergence friendly; genuinely changed how I approach cleaning tasks.)
Gardening
Rebel Gardening by Alessandro Vitale [book] (Really great introduction to urban gardening; explicitly discusses renter-friendly garden designs in small spaces; lots of DIY solutions using recycled materials; note that the author lives in England, so check if plants are invasive in your area before putting them in the ground.)
Country/Rural Living:
Woodsqueer by Gretchen Legler [book] (Memoir of a lesbian who lives and works on a rural farm in Maine with her wife; does a good job of showing what it's like to be queer in a rural space; CW for mentions of domestic violence, infidelity/cheating, and internalized homophobia)
"Debunking the Off-Grid Fantasy" by Maggie Mae Fish [video essay] (Deconstructs the off-grid lifestyle and the myth of self-reliance)
Sewing/Mending:
Annika Victoria [YouTube channel] (No longer active, but their videos are still a great resource for anyone learning to sew; check out the beginner project playlist to start. This is where I learned a lot of what I know about sewing.)
Make, Sew, and Mend by Bernadette Banner [book] (A very thorough written introduction to hand-sewing, written by a clothing historian; lots of fun garment history facts; explicitly inclusive of BIPOC, queer, and trans sewists.)
Sustainability/Land Stewardship
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer [book] (Most of you have probably already read this one or had it recommended to you, but it really is that good; excellent example of how traditional animist beliefs -- in this case, indigenous American beliefs -- can exist in healthy symbiosis with science; more philosophy than how-to, but a great foundational resource.)
Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer [book] (This one is for my fellow witches; one of my favorite witchcraft books, and an excellent example of a place-based practice deeply rooted in the land.)
Avoiding the "Crunchy to Alt Right Pipeline"
Note: the "crunchy to alt-right pipeline" is a term used to describe how white supremacists and other far right groups use "crunchy" spaces (i.e., spaces dedicated to farming, homemaking, alternative medicine, simple living/slow living, etc.) to recruit and indoctrinate people into their movements. Knowing how this recruitment works can help you recognize it when you do encounter it and avoid being influenced by it.
"The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline" by Kathleen Belew [magazine article] (Good, short introduction to this issue and its history.)
Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby (I feel like I need to give a content warning: this book contains explicit descriptions of racism, white supremacy, and Neo Nazis, and it's a very difficult read, but it really is a great, in-depth breakdown of the role women play in the alt-right; also explicitly addresses the crunchy to alt-right pipeline.)
These are just the resources I've personally found helpful, so if anyone else has any they want to add, please, please do!
“I thought this city didn’t have any gods.”
The pigeon grinned a beak full of dog’s teeth. “Ha. They say there aren’t. They even kept most of them out for a while.”
“How did you make it?”
“By being smart. By hiding.”
She gave the one-legged, feral feathered thing a sideways look. “As a pigeon?”
“Sometimes,” said the pigeon. “Sometimes I’m graffiti on a wall. Sometimes I’m a coin dropped in a beggar’s hand. I am neon at night, the rain in the light. I am the song the busker sings. I listen to the prayers of those who come to the city with big dreams.”
“And in return?”
It grinned again. Steam rolled off its feathers, smelling of cigarettes. “I eat their despair.”
“That’s cruel.”
It moved its wings in something like a shrug. “That’s the big city for you.”
I was reminded of this story and wanted to try and paint the pigeon god
a deer is like a forest horse if you think about it
(nodding sagely and correcting the whiteboard with a very squeaky marker) a deer is like a forest whale if you think about it
I don’t know who needs to hear this,
There was no universal Scandinavian religion, or Slavic, or Celtic.
They were multiple mini cultures with changing and differing views.
That’s why we have different beliefs on who was the ‘High God’ in the Norse myths and physical evidence that we have left. Tyr, Freyr, Odin; have all been the High God in different cultures. Because people didn’t collect under orthodox and shared religion in a pre Christian world the way they do now.
You can now make a more collective religion, but saying there was always one, is a mistake at best and pseudo history at worst.
You, yeah you. Go work with random spirits in your backyard. Yeah yeahh working with gods is fun but yk that dead deer might want a friend.
Generally in favor of coyotes. Wolves, as well. Bobcats. That sort of thing.
spirits don't have to be your friend. the rock in your backyard doesn't have to behave like a human or be useful to you to deserve respect. there is inherent value in loving the web of spirits that surrounds us without asking what they can do for us.
norse pagan prideposting
I’d wish you a merry Christmas, a happy Yule, and a warm Winter Solstice, but I actually wish you something greater.
May your December be complex. May you enjoy the darkness and relish the cold. May you commune with the spirits of winter. May you lie awake, safe in bed, while the wind howls outside your window. May the gifts you give and receive be thoughtful, not frivolous. May you smell the evergreens on the frigid wind, and the spices from your warm kitchen.
These are sacred nights, unlike any others during the year. I hope we can all see beyond the corporate lights and the plastic of the holidays and seek out the real magic.
If someone tells you that you can't to spellwork or manifest when you're anxious or emotional, that's some bullshit, and it's best to ignore that person.
We are animals. Fear, emotion, anxiety, these are hardwired into us because of our nature. They exist to keep us safe. Saying that you have to be completely neutral is sanist propaganda bullshit.
Yes, you probably shouldn't be casting while you're in the middle of a crisis, an anxiety attack, etc etc. But if you're angry? You're sad? You're bitter? Use those emotions. That yearning, the psychological need for those emotions to be transmuted into more pleasant ones, that is pure alchemy. Your brain is yearning to feel different than it is, it is yearning to feel different than it does, because being in an upset state doesn't feel good.
Your body craving the change it knows it needs is an incredibly valuable tool. Use it.
i can’t believe that im still hoping and hoping and hoping and
