The “nine lives” reading I did for my mother using my Cat tarot deck She found the insight my cards and I gave her very helpful, and I appreciated the practice
I got the Archetypes Deck by Kim Kranz and I gotta ask: is it the most confrontational yet cryptic deck ever, or is it just me? It really pushes me to read very deep into myself, which is exactly what it’s supposed to do, but it’s super blunt with what you need. I never feel like I should draw again for clarification, at least not from this deck. It’s gorgeous and really cool to work with, but super abrasive on parts of myself that I hide even from myself.
Have you guys had a similar or different experience with it? Not gonna lie, I’m shook
(This is a topic I’ve spent months working on; after a recent breakthrough, I think I finally know how to introduce my thoughts to the polytheist community. This is a post about awareness, in essence, and my personal experiences.)
I am the child of a felon. I don’t talk about it because it’s a very personal topic, and a very uncomfortable one for most people. However, I think there’s a lack of discussion on prison systems and rehabilitating felons in polytheistic communities, so I want to discuss this from the POV of a devotee of Hermes.
Growing up in prison culture messed me up in subtle ways. Every adult I knew who wasn’t a teacher was also a felon or a criminal in some way. Because my parent was a white man in the prison system, he became incredibly homophobic, racist, misogynistic, and even xenophobic, and I internalized these ideas even when I actively sought to overcome them. I couldn’t even come to terms with my bisexuality until I was living 6 hours away a year into university. Prison culture affected how I trust, how I love, how I feel anger - it even affects how I feel about my chronic and mental illnesses, thanks to the nuanced idea of “weakness.” Prison culture affects all of my relationships, including with the Gods.
When I approached Hermes as a confused and struggling 15 year old, it was because He is a thief and a criminal. Hermes’ first act as a Theos is to plunder Apollo’s temple - not just the infamous cows, but also Apollo’s gold, jewels, and sacred items. And it doesn’t get mentioned often, but Hermes steals regularly, and from anyone:In Homeric Hymn #4, Apollo predicts that Hermes will steal from any poor mortal shepherd when He feels like eating some meat.
Of course, it’s not the same to have your flock stolen by a shepherd Theos like Hermes as it is for a random citizen to steal from you, but Hermes violates xenia. In order to restore order, Hermes is essentially brought to trial before Zeus, and pays Apollo reparations in gifts. This is why He is an archetypal Trickster - because He transcends and transgresses boundaries and established morals, but is not always free from consequence.
My parent is not a nice person, and he is not always a good person, but I have come to understand what American federal prison did to him - especially since he cannot get his rights restored all these years later. This is why I sought out Hermes, even if I couldn’t articulate it in that anger years ago - because Hermes is a thief who restores order, because Hermes is a criminal who is also Divine. (Hermes steals Ares from the Aloadai Giants, and He steals Io from Argos at the request of Zeus, and He steals the tendons of Zeus back when the King of Gods has been disabled.) Hermes may be the Prince of Thieves, the Deceiver, but He is also Friend of Man, the god who gives us luck in our smallest matters and leads us to Haides when we are covered in the miasmaof death. He is the closest to humankind for good reason.
I think it’s important to remember prisoners, felons, and their families when we want to discuss wide-reaching community building within polytheism. Paganism is a growing segment within the American prison system, but there is a real lack of awareness on the intersection of paganism/polytheism and prison in the unaffected, non-incarcerated community. It’s important to remember that even in our mythos, criminals have a sacred place, and that the world’s largest prison systems do not follow through on the other side of that divine crime - rehabilitation into the world.
I greatly appreciate this perspective. As a child of a cop, I’ve gravitated towards Ares in a similar way you did for Hermes (for different reasons obviously). And throughout the past few years, I’ve been working my way to understand and get past the toxic views I’ve developed because of my upbringing. Thank you for putting this out here.
I hope Hermes continues to guide you and the Gods be with you.
Feeling a pull to Artemis today. I haven’t really worshiped her singularly, at least not on a more personal level. I was setting up a rotating shrine with all of the Theoi I worship mainly on it and i couldn’t help but feel her telling me that I need her. And I think that feeling is right.
I miss hanging out with the gods at a shrine. Lately I’ve just been offering up things in small ways, and it helped me feel like I was doing something,but I think I‘m ready to do more again. Maybe I will set up a neat little shrine and see about doing some readings. It feels good to be comfortable in progressing again.
Before I called myself “Witch” I was a strange girl with a penchant for the bizarre and spooky. Having been a seer and am empath all my life I was fascinated with the otherworldly, turning to the more well known of esoterica and occult to feed my fascination. When I was 9 I got my first tarot deck, and when I was 13 I found a ouija board in my stocking on Christmas morning.
There’s a lot of controversy around the topic of Ouija boards, or spirit boards. Some decry them completely, insisting that they’ll never bring anything but trouble, others swear by them as a means of contact with non-physical beings. Personally I believe that a spirit board is like any other means of contact: you’ll get what you’re putting out, consciously or subconsciously. Unfortunately, as a troubled newly-teen the energy I was putting out, whatever my intent, was confused and negative, a perfect target for anything that feeds off those lower vibrations.
It came through at first masquerading as the grandfather I’d never known, who passed away a few years before I was born. It wasn’t long before it became obvious that it was no dearly departed family member I was interacting with. Of course it lured me in at first with pleasantries and secrets, for weeks the contact seemed light and playful. Until it began spelling out crude and invasive comments and desires, things that made my skin crawl. When it began to manifest it was as a dark, creeping shadow, the sensation of something cold getting into bed beside me at night, and once a full body apparition of what looked like a young man with dark clothes and pallid skin, the whites of his eyes were black, and he was at least 8ft tall and menacing. It tormented me for months, it fed on my anguish and did it’s best to cause me as much fear and pain as it could. Nightmares kept me from sleeping, and I didn’t want a thing to do with anyone else, the sounds of my loved ones voices were grating and ugly to my ear. I was angry, and I was scared. I began scour the web for banishing spells and clearing rituals, trying each to no avail. The negative entity began mocking my attempts, getting bolder in its attacks.
One night, when poltergeist activity had made a mess of the room I used for my ouija sessions, I found myself at my breaking point. None of the advice I had found online or in books had helped, and I felt it was time to appeal to something closer to that unseen world. I poured out a circle of salt, and sat myself in the centre with my board. I was so tired and stretched so thin that tears were rolling down my cheeks as I called out for the help of something positive, someone greater than this darkness that had been following me. I could hear the entity knocking about the room, around my salt barrier, things were falling off of tables and floorboards were creaking with heavy footfalls. Then, suddenly, silence. My sob caught in my throat, and no fresh tears gathered in my eyes.
“Is someone there?” I asked, hands shaking on the planchette.
“Yes”
“What’s your name?”
“A-R-A-D-I-A”
I didn’t recognise it, and I wouldn’t until I saw it again a full three years later.
“Can you help me?”
“Yes.”
She proceeded to spell out a simple, three line incantation that I was to repeat that night when I was in bed, and the entity was sure to be hanging around, ready to continue its harassment. I thanked her profusely, sure, despite my past failures, that this would be the thing that saved me.
I felt her leave, she took the stillness of the room with her, but the knocking and footsteps were gone as well.
That night, when the being came back, rattling my furniture and running what felt like cold fingers over my skin, I shut my eyes right and repeated the incantation three times. The first time the rattling only got more intense, and my fear swelled, with the second I heard heavy breathing in my ear, angry and hot on my neck, but as I finished the third all activity stopped. More than that, the heavy blanket of darkness that had been weighing me down for moths had lifted. I felt a flutter of hope in my chest, and such relief passed over me that I cried myself to sleep. I dreamt only of bright, white light, no nightmares haunted me.
Years later, when I had realised my path and sought a deeper understanding of the occult and witchcraft, I came across the title of a book that brought that interaction with that helpful entity flooding back: Aradia: Gospel of the Witches.
Aradia took my pain and transformed it into power, Aradia started me on my witchy path without my even realising it, Aradia loved me before I even knew her name. And now we need her, to invoke her power and lift the darkness that covers this world.
I invested in the Tarot Del Fuego in honour of, well, primarily in honour of the amazing artwork - but also to pay homage to Mars and his fiery campaign through his home sign of Aries this year. He’s just gone into retrograde, retracing his steps and scorching any earth he may have left untouched the first time. Mars is a hell of an ally but his fire can easily burn out of control. Pray for water, pray to Venus, see if she would be kind enough to have a sweet word with her old flame. And remember to bow your head when Mars passes by, he’ll accept any challenge he sees in your eyes.
Gosh, nothing feels better than an energetic cleansing, especially when it goes deep enough to bring you to tears.
Grab the salt, the sage, the blessed water - whatever it is that does it best for you - and get to sloughing off any negative attatchments or general grime. It’s the perfect time of year for it, like clearing a garden so the spring flowers have room to grow.
Personally I love a bath with some blessed salts and a fancy bath bomb full of rejuvenating essential oils. All that ick goes right down the drain with the water.
I’m having a hard time expressing how the “come on you can do 15 minutes every day of your life to reconnect with your practice, stirring widdershins into your morning coffee, doing a (grounding) meditation, or energy work” posts and guides I see - contributes to the “you must be doing witchcraft / spell casting every single day” pressure that creates a community shame and guilt for people who literally cannot or do not want every single day.
Also how there’s a slight textural feel to that which is “I made it so easy for you, the bar is SO Low for you, these are LOW effort to be a /real/ witch. So how dare you not have the 15 minutes in your day to do these things.”
While also not dismissing how important low effort magic is for many people who wouldn’t otherwise have access to witchcraft or spell casting. Because sometimes it’s very important as a personal reconnection for someone to stir into their coffee some witchcraft, some spell casting.
I think it’s the /every single day/ and while simultaneously not offering an optional status. But I can’t quite get at it, in terms of a mindful discussion. But I’m posting my thoughts here to see if someone else can help me with the phrasing in their rebagels.
I think this is a really interesting discussion, and I am currently having a breakfast bagel, so I feel called to speak on it.
Once I saw this witchcraft book, IIRC a popular author, who was like, “meditation is vital.” (sure, maybe, go on) “Start with 15 minutes a day of meditation.” (perhaps) “Soon this needs to be expanded to 45 minutes of meditation per day.” (no) “Ideally you want to meditate at least 30 minutes in the morning” (no) “and 30 more minutes at night.” (no) “I have a full time job” (good for you) “and three kids taken care of by my stay-at-home wife” (the picture becomes clearer) “and this much meditation has allowed me to be extremely financially successful and allows me to take vacations when I need to” (ah, the other shoe drops).
1.I think the kinds of “do X magic/exercise every day” posts feed into another problematic assumption, which is that every single person who wants to practice magic wants to be on the professional/olympic level track.
2. I think that kind of rhetoric also spectacularly fails to describe or define what a “real” or “good” witch is, leading to a circular argument: a good witch practices magic, if you practice magic you are a good witch. Literally, the daily performance of magic becomes the only goalpost.
3. I think a good way to approach the discussion of how to be a “good witch” is starting with the individual practitioner and discussing their wants and needs. I.e., perhaps witchcraft is only ever “good” if it is good for the practitioner. Perhaps, very literally, daily exercises presented for no other real purpose than you’re supposed to practice daily is a form of bad witchcraft because for many people it is witchcraft which is bad for them. Performance anxiety, stress and pressure to perform a relatively arbitrary list of activities, and shame/over-exertion isn’t good for people.
4.I think that “regular practice” may become a more helpful discussion if it starts with what an individual wants and needs, and provides a clear pathway to help them achieve their goals. E.g. someone who wants to be good at divination may benefit from regular (perhaps not daily, but regular) card draws. Someone who wants to be an energy worker may benefit from grounding/centering exercises much more than someone who wants to cast candle spells. Someone who wants to explore their mind may indeed benefit from regular meditation but not really want or need “imagine you’re a tree” grounding.
I’m fucking tired y'all. So have a picture of the tobacco seedlings that I spotted this morning that made me so happy before the rest of the day turned to shit.
This is the fullest container but I would say there are tiny little babies in about half of the 48 containers I seeded.
I’m fucking tired y'all. So have a picture of the tobacco seedlings that I spotted this morning that made me so happy before the rest of the day turned to shit.
This is the fullest container but I would say there are tiny little babies in about half of the 48 containers I seeded.
