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One day you will drink in kindness like the soil in a storm. You will take all that you can until you are overflowing with it, waiting, never sated, for those showers to come again. You will breathe gentleness like breaching the ocean for the first time and feel it flooding, pure, into your lungs. You will tilt your head up to heart which fills you like a sprout brimming with the sun– and then you will return it to where it came, as like is to like, and love is to love. 

#the old green

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When you truly find the sun– and it is not often that the sunlight flows so thick that you might wade through its pools, where it shimmers and shivers under the cool breath of the wind– there is more than enough for all. Drink deep. Remember how to be warm. It is a lesson too quickly forgotten, but the sun will teach you today. If you forget, the sun will teach you tomorrow. If you forget, the sun will teach you again.

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Day again and day again; every morning the sun looks you in the eye and lays the burden of days upon your shoulders, lights the way you are to walk– and though you are tired and your feet singe on sun-scrubbed sand, you will trudge on. You will follow the breaks in the clouds until the sun loses herself to night, and you two will spend the night wondering: where do I rest? when is it dark? how far must I go until the horizon feels like home?

#the nomad #montu

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Vultures are holy creatures.

Tending the dead.

Bowing low.

Bared head.

Whispers to cold flesh,

“Your old name is not your king.

I rename you ‘Everything.’”

#the old green

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Had a dream about a haunted forest

#ok but this has some #old green #vibes #the old green #horror

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Localizing Your Practice

So much witchcraft emphasizes how important it is to honor and work with the Earth, but then teaches us spells with ingredients we basically have to import using locations we don’t have access to. It’s rare to find an existing grimoire or guide book that actually works with where we live. We can still use them, but it doesn’t enhance our connection to our local land, which to many can feel important. Here are some tips for localizing your practice and working with the land you actually live on.

See what nature exists around you. Explore your own backyard with a critical eye. What plants can you actually go and pick yourself? What are those plants associated with? Do you have access to a creek or river? What does your local land actually have on it? If magic correspondences for your local plants haven’t been written about, you may have to do your own research. Example: I grow several plants on my back porch which I can potentially use for magic.There are magnolia trees and rhodedendrons on the grounds of my apartment complex. My parent’s neighbors have chickens in the backyard, so I have access to some feathers when they shed. 

Check out local folklore, legends, etc. This is one of my favorite parts, but can also be the hardest. What are the stories of your area, both on a local and cultural scale. Example: A West Virginian may incorporate legends of the Mothman. Everyone says that one building on my old college campus is haunted (and they’re right.) People talk about that liminal-space feeling when you drive down that one road at night.

Find the magic spots. Sometimes the urban legends will tip you off to these (usually in a bad way) but other times you can find them on your own. A place where the energy is just right for some reason. A place you can go to be closer to nature, or a place you could host a ritual if needed. Sometimes it’s just a place where you can feel your mind open a little bit. Example: The shady corner of a public park. The tunnel downtown. That weirdly-perfect circle of trees in the woods behind Wal-Mart.

Meet your land wights. Spirits of the local land. This could be the fair folk, but also house spirits, the spirits of the trees near you, the nature spirits of wherever you are. They’re there. Be good to them and they’ll be good to you! Note: Some spirits and wights will not be interested in working with you, and that’s okay. I generally think it’s good to at least leave a polite offering to just be on general decent terms even if you never work with them more directly beyond that. 

Check in with your Seasons. Harvest holidays generally don’t have actual lifestyle importance to most people reading this. The seasonal shifts other people write about may be from a very different climate than yours! Figure out a calendar that works for you. It doesn’t have to be detailed, but something that ties you to the seasons as you actually experience them. I also love working in any fun annual festivals nearby, if any.

#the old green

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the forest is singing for you. the wind harmonizing with the trees. the birds calling lullabies into the ears of any creature that will listen. hooves hitting the ground like drumbeats. howls of glory. chirps from insects that just want to remind you that they are there, they are important. the forest breathes music. it’s singing you to sleep.

i am watching over this orchestra. i am the conductor. i will defend these beings with all of my soul.

listen to the melody as you sleep, my friend. the forest is singing for you. 

#the old green

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Mary Oliver, "From The Book of Time." Devotions

#oh darn #the old green #montu #sometimes i really feel the Nomad #the Nomad

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🐸Help a witch out🐸

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So, i'm not a beginner witch, but right now i took great interest on Kemetism, specifically in Serket, and i don't know where to find any info on her. I will try to read some recommendations, but still, if you know anything please don't hesitate to reach out!

#kemetic #serket #serqet

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by Tendril

#the old green #hedgewitch #storm witch #sigils

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Osorapis- An aspect of the sacred bull/god Apis as Osiris, connected to the sun, the underworld, renewal and fertility. 

Graphite and gold leaf

#oh HECK this got me feelin a Way #apis #devotional art

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So everyone apparently got on board this quiz to collectively put me on blast. Thanks, Sirs.

i made a little quiz. it has gentle wisdom to take with you. whatever i can give you is yours. love u. take the wisdom & run.

#the sirs #montu #sobek #the old green #discernment #ever get the woo equivalent of people kicking through your wall like the koolaid man with a megaphone and screaming messages of self care? #kemetic fandom

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To you, oh dearest stranger To you whose weary, trembling heart yet rails against that terrible night: I love you more than you’ll ever know. Be well.

// Part 23

#the old green

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O, Heru, before you is the battle that you seek and it is almost upon you You search with your piercing, hawk eyes for the enemies on the horizon And you know that they are close by and hiding from your hunting gaze But you will find them as you have always found them

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Rules of Nature #3

#the old green #sobek

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Inktober 2020 by Gren Art

#the old green

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Ferns, WA

#the old green #sobek