#ogham wands

[raffaellopalandri]

Celebrating Spring's Arrival: Traditions of the Spring Equinox

Today, in the Northern Hemisphere, we celebrate the spring equinox, a time when day and night are roughly equal, marking a turning point in the Earth’s cycle. It’s no surprise that many cultures have developed rich traditions around this astronomical phenomenon. Today, we delve into the Pagan and Celtic celebrations associated with the spring equinox, exploring the vibrant tapestry of the Wheel…

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#Bonfire #Celtic #divination #Fertility #Litha #Mabon #Ogham #Ostara #pagan #Paganism #Raffaello Palandri #Rites #Rituals #Spring #Spring Equinox #Spring Wand #Wheel of the Year #Yule

[juniper-divination-and-witchery]

Ogham: An Introduction

What is ogham?

Ogham (pronounced OH-mm) is a writing system that dates from the 4th century CE that was used to write Primitive Irish and is used today as both a writing and magical and divinatory system. Each letter in the Ogham alphabet is called a fid (pronounced fee) and a group of letters is called a feda (pronounced fed-ah).

Stones with ogham inscriptions are found all around Ireland and areas surrounding the Irish Sea.

You may also see it spelled ogham spelled as ogam, which is the Old Irish spelling (the version of Irish that came after Primitive Irish).

The original alphabet has 20 letters and is divided into four groups of five letters called aicme (hear pronuncation). An additional five letters were added to the ogham in the Old Irish period (600CE to 900CE) and these are known as the forfeda and are less commonly used today.

Each letter has many associated lists that may have been used as mnemonic devices as well as bríatharogaim or kennings which are phrases that are associated with each letter which we can date back to the Old Irish period.

As a quick aside: Often when people have heard of ogham it’s through Robert Graves’ The White Goddess and his “Celtic tree calendar” or “Celtic astrology.” Ogham is not a calendar or time-keeping system and has many associations beyond just trees.

What do the ogham letters look like?

The ogham letters are formed by tally marks that come off of a central line. They are generally read from bottom to top when the text is arranged vertically (as it often is on stone inscriptions) or from left to right if it is arranged horizontally. The rightmost line of this images is the forfeda who's characters are more complex than the original alphabet.

Where did ogham come from?

There are 2 main theories on where ogham comes from. The first is that ogham was created by the Irish to be a written language that could not be understood by Latin speakers (primarily for political. religious, and military purposes).

The other mainstream theory is that the ogham was invented by early Irish Christians because the Irish language was difficult to write in the Latin alphabet.

There is also an older theory that ogham was invented by Druids in Gaul which has since been discredited as it has since been shown that ogham was almost certainly created for writing primitive Irish.

What are ogham's mythical origins?

The Book of Invasions and The Scholar’s Primer both have similar stories about the invention of ogham that relate to the Tower of Babel (see this episode of The Constant podcast for more context around this).

In this version of the story, a (fictional) Irish king sends out a group of scholars shortly after the fall of the Tower of Babel to try and reconstruct our previously shared language that the Christian God had destroyed. Those scholars take the best part of each new language that they find and mix them all together and create the Irish language/recreate the original language before the fall of the Tower of Babel and the ogham writing system with each fed being named after one of the scholars who helped reconstruct the language.

However The Scholar's Primer contains a second creation story and it tells us that the god Ogma, a God known for his skills in speech and poetry, invented the ogham to warn the God Lugh that his wife would be stolen away to the Otherworld unless he protected her with birch.

What are ogham's uses today?

Today ogham is primarily used in Pagan circles as a writing and divinatory system. The bríatharogaim and associated lists for each letter are generally used as a guide to the letter’s divinatory meaning. The main reference cited for ogham as a divinatory tool is a brief mention in The Wooing of Etaine but not much information is given on how exactly the ogham was used other than it involving yew wands with the ogham written on them, but reading methods tend to vary from practitioner to practitioner.

Where can I learn more about ogham?

Books

Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom by Erynn Rowan Laurie

Ogham: The Secret Language of the Druids by Robert Lee Ellison

Courses

3 Truths About Ogham (Free!)

Primary Sources

The Ogham Tract

#ogham #ogam #irish legends #irish mythology #witchcraft #divination #divination witch #pagan #celtic pagan #celtic paganism #celtic #irish #irish pagan #irish paganism #divination tools #divination community #baby witch #beginner witch #druid #druidry #witch tips #ogham introduction #ogham study guide

[tencrowns]

An American Witch’s Herbal: Burning Bush

Euonymus alatus

Common Names:     Burning Bush, Winged Spindle, Gui Jian Yu

Type:     Deciduous Shrub

Element:     Fire

Botanical Family:     Celastraceae

Region of Origin:     Northern and Central China, Korea, Japan

Euonymus from either Latin euonymus (a kind of tree growing in Lesbos) or Greek euonumos (of good name), and so may be associated with Euonyme, mother of the Furies in Greek myth. (Other versions may have the Furies as the daughters of Hades and Persephone, or as having sprung from the blood of Uranus when Cronus castrated him.) The specific name alatus (winged) from Latin.

Growth and Care

Burning bush has been a very popular landscaping shrub in the Eastern half of the US for a number of reasons. It’s considered cold hardy from zones 4-8 and makes an attractive hedge that helps prevent roadside erosion, but has been known to become invasive, spreading both by seed and pushing up suckers from their root systems. They require no special care, and thrive easily in full or partial sun, growing to a height of 9 feet if left unpruned, though some cultivars are slow growers. They put out a small flower and berry in late spring and early summer, but the real draw of this shrub is the bright red tones its foliage takes on in the autumn. 

It should also be noted that burning bush is toxic (berries and other parts of the plant as well) and so are best avoided wherever there are livestock, pets or children left unsupervised. Its sale has been prohibited in a few states.

General Use

In traditional Chinese medicine, it has been used promote menstruation, reduce swelling, and kill insects and parasites. As all parts of this shrub are toxic to humans when ingested, I do not recommend internal use or use of the wood to make implements that will come in contact with food.

In the same genus as the European spindle tree, it also has a creamy, smoothly grained wood that is good for carving small objects like skewers and knitting needles. As a point of fact, my first wand came from a broken burning bush stem wrapped in copper wire: my freshman year of college, taking some major strides into my personal practice, I was dashing to class on a snowy February day. The area along the sidewalk of my dorm building was landscaped with burning bush--they’d been a vibrant, electric red in October but now stood bare, and even though I was in a hurry as I was running late, a sudden sound and movement caught my eye. Down at the base of the row sat the first robin I’d seen for the year, chirping at me as it stood on a slim, broken stem and flew off as soon as it seemed to have realized I was looking at it. Acting on reflex, I picked up the broken stick, tearing the last shred of bark holding it to its shrub, stuffed it in my pack and took it with me. It wasn’t until later in the day that I realized it was February 2nd--Imbolc, Candlemas, or however you prefer to call it. It is the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.

The smooth grain is good for producing tools used in fiber arts so that threads and fibers don’t snag on rough spots or splinters--items like spinning spindles, bobbins, looms and knitting needles, hence the spindle tree's name. The twigs also make an excellent charcoal for drawing.

Symbolic and Magical Uses

Although not technically the same as the European spindle (Euonymus europaeus) which features in some versions of the Celtic ogham system, they are sibling plants, and it maintains many of the same qualities that made it culturally significant, and so can be substituted for spindle in spells and formulae that call for it.

This shrub may also be used in dedication to those spirits that focus on fiber arts (off the top of my head, the Moirai, Athena, Frigg, Neith and Mokosh--there are many other with whom I am unfamiliar, depending on your personal path and practice). The creation of cloth was an incredibly important and widespread aspect of human civilization, so no matter what your path, there are likely to be myths and stories that involve this sort of work.

In my research, I also found a small consensus of symbolism in this plant that calls on us to fulfill our obligations. If you squint a bit, I think that this can related back to Euonymus and her daughters. The Furies or Erinyes were minor goddesses who punished wrongdoing, especially for offenses committed against family members. One of their euphemistic names was also the Eumenides, which can be roughly translated to "The Well-Meaning Ones," or "The Kindly Ones," an epithet which readers of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series may be familiar with. If these are entities one works with, then I think you could easily see your way to using this plant in rituals designed to invoke the Furies, or at least to connect with their mother to intervene with them on one's own behalf. I would, however, make sure that you yourself are blameless and in appropriate behavior in whatever altercation you seek to have them punish--I certainly would not want to invoke the Furies for petty matters or draw attention to myself if I held responsibility for some wrongdoing.

#american witch's herbal #herbalism #green witchcraft #green magick #green witch #pagan #neopagan #paganism #neopaganism

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

The Significance of Loki's Tarot

In Defenders and Defenders Beyond Doctor Strange forms the teams (and in Defenders Beyond it's kind of from beyond the grave but I don't know what's going on in the comics so I don't know what the context is for this) to fight various multiple-cosmos-level threats in the comics by drawing tarot cards. The cards he draws not only represent the people he summons with the cards he pulls, but also by some magical means of the universe, the characters' likenesses are printed upon the tarot cards. (I really want this tarot card with Loki on it. I found a tarot card on Etsy with Loki on it, but it's not the right one. Anyway, I digress.) So he draws cards that match their story arc in Defenders Beyond and where they're at in their story arcs in the comics at the point that he's pulling these cards, and to a certain extent their personality, and who they'll represent for the team.

So strap in for a long as hell post. Obvious spoilers for Defenders and Defenders Beyond, many Loki comics, MCU Loki, etc. await. (INCLUDING Scarlet Witch #8 a little!)

The card Strange pulls for Loki is in the text called the ten of coins. Coins is not a suit I have heard used, and I'm not sure why Ewing uses coins as the suit. It's pentacles. I don't know enough about tarot (and didn't actually research it, sorry) to know the nuances about the distinction. The websites I looked up for more information did not say anything about the suit also being called coins. My thinking is one, Ewing is British, and maybe there are differences between US and British decks that I don't know about. And that may have slipped past a cultural translator (or whatever that person's job title is), who maybe didn't know enough about tarot to know, or did notice the discrepancy but decided it wasn't that big of a deal and chose not to change it. Or maybe I have a UK copy by accident. Or maybe everyone calls them either coins or pentacles, and I'm just unaware that it's interchangeable. I dabbled briefly in Pagan religion for like two years but I didn't really do much with this kind of practice, and when I did, my divination tool of choice was ogham staves because my following was more Celtic (or at least attempted to be more Celtic). So I'm not that qualified to determine why he used coins versus pentacles when naming the suit.

Anyway, his card is the ten of coins or the ten of pentacles. And the interesting thing about the cards Strange pulls in both comics is that most of them are reversed. And when you draw a card in tarot that's reversed (or upside down), it changes the meaning, sometimes almost completely opposite the upright meaning.

Now, you may be wondering why it's ten of pentacles. And I was wondering that too, because I did not remember it being in the minor arcana. (I didn't remember what it was, but I definitely did not remember it being in the minor arcana.) So I have not seen any interviews or anything of Ewing explaining this (if he ever does), so I'm just speculating why he didn't choose other cards or why he didn't choose anything from the Major Arcana. First of all, it should be noted that all the cards drawn in Defenders Beyond are ten of a suit, so he limited (or challenged) himself in that respect by making it all the same number card.

Now to clarify (with my limited understanding) if you are unfamiliar with the Major versus minor arcana: There are two groupings of tarot cards. The Major Arcana tends to have more significant roles in readings if they come up and in the deck itself. They're almost like face cards in a regular deck. They're not face cards, because there are like King of Pentacles, Page (which is basically a Jack) of Wands, but they're more important and more easily recognizable than the suit cards. And then the minor arcana are the suit cards: pentacles, swords, wands, cups. They're numbered, but like I said they also have face cards.

So now you may be wondering (or you may not be), that's cool and chill and all about all the cards being tens, but why would Al Ewing bring in the minor arcana anyway, into a comic book, with readers of a multitude of different understandings of tarot, and who probably don't care that much about tarot anyway, and maybe only have a passing understanding of the Major Arcana. (If that. It's probably that meme of like, the average person can only recognize half the Major Arcana, and then don't even take into account that they can only recognize the Hanged Man.)

(I spent the last ten minutes finding and editing this meme instead of adding to this post.)

Anyway, first of all, here's some reasons why I think Loki's card is not a Major Arcana (aside from the fact Ewing apparently chose a number and made sure the suit of that number fit the person). First of all, Strange is not going to draw the Magician card for anyone other than him. Now, the Magician does not get drawn in Defenders Beyond, and technically speaking, Strange isn't even doing the drawing, but he's engaging Blue Marvel in doing it for him, which is essentially the same thing. Regardless, he is drawing these cards at random (Strange is, not Ewing), but there is intent behind the cards that you are drawing. And in the world of Marvel comics, where magic is way more overt and exists in a way that is different than how believers in tarot would describe it existing in real life, it is entirely likely that Strange's intent in drawing these cards has significantly more pull than it would in our world. Like IRL, you can shuffle the cards as much as you want and be like "I'm going to draw the Magician now," and if you've legitimately shuffled them, there's still a 1 in 78 chance that you're going to draw the Magician card. But Strange, on the other hand, is freakin' made of magic, so I don't think he has a 1 in 78 chance of drawing that card. I personally don't think he's going to draw the Magician for anyone other than him. And even if it is just the universe's doing, the universe isn't going to draw the Magician card for anybody but him. The universe needs him as the Magician archetype. We've already seen how Loki as Sorcerer Supreme plays out and it doesn't end well for anyone involved (including Loki), so I don't think the universe is going to try to play that game again. If someone else, especially Loki, gets the Magician card, it's going to cause a conflict in this comic that is not relevant to the storyline. And in terms of storytelling, Loki can't be the magician, because the most obvious magician is the one pulling the cards (which, again, technically isn't Strange in this case), which is a magician move. And also these cards are magic, both in the comics and to the people who use them regularly IRL. So Strange has to pull the Magician card if anyone's gonna pull it; it has to be him.

Personally, I wanted Loki to draw the Hanged Man card. Upon looking at meanings of these cards to make this post, I have come to the conclusion that I actually don't know what I thought I knew about the Hanged Man. So the symbolism that I was associating with the Hanged Man is not necessarily the symbolism usually associated with the Hanged Man. I just felt like it was a good card for Loki, especially because this comic comes directly after Loki: Agent of Asgard in canon (for Al Ewing, specifically, and in canon for this version of Loki). There are nine years IRL in between the end of AoA and DB, during which time (and I've talked about this) someone fucked up Loki in my opinion. But in Ewing's continuity and in the Loki that he is bringing to DB, the events of DB occur directly after AoA, meaning more or less, directly after his ego-death. So I personally felt like he should have had the Hanged Man, just because of the symbolism that I associate with that card, which is not the symbolism that anyone else associates with it, so that's one reason why he did not draw the Hanged Man for Loki. The other reason why, is because even if Ewing somehow linked brains with me and drew on my symbolism for the Hanged Man, that arc has passed. Loki in this moment is going through another crisis, while at the same time pretending that he's not. He's pretending like his character arc has been fulfilled, because that's what he thought he was doing at the end of AoA. But because of that nine-year chunk in between, of other writers fucking up the character development that Ewing gave him, he's discovered that Loki, and is grappling with that shit right now. But because of the way he's behaving, and because of comics continuity, that arc has passed. Part of DB is Ewing kind of letting go of this Loki, and this Loki kind of letting go of what he thought he was going to be doing after this ego-death. Because people fucked him up, and now we all have to live with it.

Off my soap-box (for now). I don't think Ewing wanted to draw on the Major Arcana as much or at all in DB, because in Defenders, when he introduces the concept of Strange drawing cards to form a team, he used all Major Arcana cards. In doing so, he introduced to the reader this concept with cards that were approachable and recognizable to a certain extent for most people. So now he can branch off from that. Also, there were several characters in Defenders, like Cloud (and probably some other characters, but I don't really know a lot of side characters from the comics so I'm not gonna say that certain characters were set off to the side for several decades like Cloud, because I don't know if that's true), that have not been in the comics for so long, and so using the Major Arcana to introduce them, so the readers have something to go off of that they recognize (or at least kind of recognize) is helpful. So you may not recognize Cloud, and you may have never seen a tarot card with The Lovers on it (and we'll get to that later, I'm mad about that choice), but at least you can look at that and make your own associations with what's going on. Like Red Harpy (Betty Banner) was the High Priestess, and I don't know a whole lot about the High Priestess card but I do know a little bit and Strange talks about the meaning behind the card briefly, but I really don't know who Red Harpy is. So that really helped me to gain an insight into her archetypal character so that I could better understand who she is going into this book. However, with DB, a lot of the main characters are characters we've seen very recently in the comics, or either have seen or will see (I'm not sure about timing specifically around when this was published) in the MCU. Like America Chavez is in it, and Loki obviously. So we've seen these characters before. We haven't seen Cloud since 1985, but we've seen America Chavez, at the very least, in Doctor Strange trailers (if the movie isn't out yet), so we recognize her. So drawing on minor arcana is okay, because he's doing the reverse. We know the character already, and now we're getting to know the archetypal card that is associated with them through the minor arcana. Because when you see the ten of pentacles, you don't really know what that means; that has to be explained to you. But when you see The Lovers, you may not necessarily know how to interpret that, but you at least have these pre-existing understandings of what that might symbolize, as opposed to the ten of pentacles, which makes no sense at all if you know nothing about the minor arcana.

So now that I've talked ad nauseum about why Ewing may have chosen against using literally any other card in this 78-card deck, let's chat about the ten of pentacles. So the site I used to get some further background is labyrinthos.co, if you want to get more information on the different cards and their meanings.

I'm going to start by talking about the suit of pentacles in general. So the pentacles are associated with the worldly and material, as well as nature, body, and stability. It deals a lot with financial matters, like career and wealth, but also security and health.

So I want to talk about what Ewing has chosen to pull out for the ten of pentacles, and then also any added meaning to it that I would personally associate with Loki's journey both in this story and then also moving forward for Immortal Thor as well as the MCU. Because the way that I associate Loki is at different points, he's either one conglomerate character, or he's separate based on the media that he's in. So I'm irritable and blame other authors of the comics if they fucked him up but I will also bring in little things that I liked from the comics. I say that Al Ewing's Loki is superior to everything else, but also, most of what I write is MCU Loki. While at the same time, disregarding the fact that they fucked up the genderfluidity and bisexuality of MCU Loki and substituting my own, which is sometimes Al Ewing and is sometimes me being genderfluid and bi projecting onto Loki. Anyway, moving on.

So, the comic interpretation: "The ten of coins, reversed. Material success as a trap. A kingdom unwanted-- a future, yawning like the grave."

...So I hate everything, after reading Scarlet Witch. Because I read this, a week ago (after calming down from that damn trailer), when I was planning this post and had to go back to find the tarot card. And it had a slightly different meaning for me then. It was worrying, I still didn't like "yawning like the grave." But I hate it even more now. (What with, "I don't know how or when... but this path will cost me my life. I can live as a liar or die as a hero. Either way...I am to be punished.") (I'm sorry, I didn't mean to spoil Scarlet Witch in this post, but as I said, I take everything into canon.)

Okay, so. "Material success as a trap." He's not happy, being king of Jotunheim, in The God Who Fell to Earth and the Loki miniseries and in Scarlet Witch. To the point that in Immortal Thor, he says that he drops it.

We can also look at this for AoA at Old Loki, who has everything he wants. Supposedly. He's intermittently called King Loki. What he's king of, I'm not quite sure, because Thor is king of Asgard. I think periodically he says he's king of Midgard, but he's really just king of a pile of skulls at that point, because he kills everybody. And he's just the constant villain of Asgard, the constant rival of Thor, continually trying to just get one over on Thor, occasionally trying to take over Asgard. But he's aimless; he's got no reason why he's doing this. He doesn't actually want to rule Asgard, he doesn't actually want to kill Thor, as we see in King Thor (which is not written by Al Ewing and I think comes way after, but I'm counting it anyway). Because the most ultimate truth of Loki is, no matter what he does, no matter what he claims in any sort of universe, he doesn't really have an end goal if he's the villain, because he's always so self-aware. He knows that he's going to lose, but he also knows that he's going to get away. So nothing has a point. He just does shit, for the temporary amusement of it, to possibly hurt Thor or to hurt somebody else, to giggle about it for a little bit and temporarily have some power. And then, inevitably, he fails, he loses that power, he gets hurt, he goes off to lick his wounds, and then he comes back and does it again. Because he's so aware of the narrative that he knows how it's going to end, but he also knows that it's not really gonna stick. But he's not happy. Ultimately, (and I don't think that when he first decides to do it that he even realizes what he's doing, but by the time AoA Loki tells him that he's doing it, I think he's already figured it out) to the point that Old Loki specifically goes back in time to change it. Now he claims that he goes back to bring about his future, but no one in his past did that, he just brought his future about himself. So there isn't any need to change the past to bring about his future. That's not why he goes back. He goes back because he's not happy. He goes back to give himself a support network, to give himself friends, to break himself away from this Sisyphean cycle of trying to do better under the thumb of the All-Mother that's never gonna get him anywhere. To give him the means, and the courage, and ultimately, the catalyst to make him confess to Thor earlier than he would have about what he did to Kid Loki, thereby making Thor angry, and more or less disown him. But the thing is, this is a past that Old Loki hasn't known, but he still knows how it's going to end, because he knows Thor, and he knows that Thor will come around in the end. And he knows that, after this has all calmed down, this Loki is going to have a better relationship with his brother than he ever did. And I don't think he really knows what ego-death is, but ultimately, ('ultimately' counter: I've lost count) he's also pushing his past self to the brink of ego-death, which is going to bring him to this point. If later writers had done right by Loki, his character would've been substantially different than it is now, and Al Ewing would not be forced to say good-bye to this character in this manner in DB, but I digress again.

So we can think of this material success as a trap as Old Loki is successful, but he's not happy. And even AoA Loki is successful, not necessarily materially, but in ego-death, in making his full character arc, and then it doesn't matter. He still has to go back at the end of this, and deal with the same thing, put himself back into the narrative. Ultimately (argh, sorry) for the greater good, but it's a bittersweet ending, and I don't think it's a good ending. It feels sour to me, almost like Ewing didn't even believe his own ending.

And then bringing it back to Scarlet Witch. What he said at the end of SW, that I quoted above, he's still trapped. No matter what he does, he's always going to be trapped in this narrative. Because no matter how many times he goes through ego-death, no matter how many times he breaks free from the narrative, he's still stuck in a fucking comic book, so he's still gonna be stuck in the fucking narrative.

"A kingdom unwanted." He didn't want to rule Asgard (I'm dipping into the MCU a bit here, sorry), even though he claimed that he did. All he wanted was to be Thor's equal. He doesn't want to rule Jotunheim. He isn't happy there; he never fit in there. He never lived there until he became king of Jotunheim; he doesn't want to be there. Old Loki claims to be king of Midgard but then fucking murders everybody. So like, what are you the king of? You have no kingdom. You're standing on top of a wasteland and calling yourself king, that's nothing.

"A future, yawning like the grave." Death is still staring this guy in the face. And you can twist it in a positive light, like Loki has just committed ego-death. The very last page (of AoA) is him walking through a door that says "Next" and it says something like "Would you know more?" Like he's moving on, he's moving forward. He's writing his next chapter, as he says in SW. But it has this counterbalance of he's walking out of the narrative to in the end circle back around and walk right back in again. At the end of this book, he's going to go back to where he was. The last time we see him, he's sitting on his ice throne in Jotunheim as the king. And he's gonna try to be better, and he's gonna try to be different. But how long is that going to last? Because the second he wiped his memories, it all left. And then he regains his memories, and now he's gotta figure out what the fuck he's gonna do now. With that sword hanging over his fucking head the entire fucking time. And now we're in Immortal Thor, and it's implied that he sent Utgard-Thor. Huh? Why? What are you doing now? Are you fast-tracking your own "future, yawning like the grave" so you can get into the grave as fast as possible? I don't understand what's going on.

So that's all that's said in the book about the card. So let's look at the website.

"Reverse keywords: family disputes." The last time (as of DB) that Loki interacted with Thor (that Thor knows about), Loki just told him that he killed Kid Loki and stole his body. And Thor was not happy about that. Thor beat the shit out of him and then tossed him to the frickin' Warriors Three and the rest of Asgard to deal with him after that. So, family disputes? Hell yes. And we don't see Thor again with a Ewing Loki until Immortal Thor. And now everything seems fine? Despite the fact that Thor just went toe-to-toe with Utgard-Loki and then Loki showed up and was like 'Hey, I've been here the whole time! But I'm also not king of Jotunheim anymore, so why am I here? Who knows!' And Thor's like 'Okay, funny joke! Moving on with my life.' And then Loki fixes the Bifrost. So I don't know what's going on, y'all, but that's for another post. This one's already long as fuck.

"Fleeting success." We already talked about that, "material success as a trap." I'm skipping over all the money things, because I don't think Loki cares about money. "Bankruptcy, debt, conflict over money," I don't think that affects him.

"Instability." He's figuring himself out, but directly post-ego-death Loki was a little bit unstable. He was all over the place, and I loved her so much. Verity was like, 'What the fuck's going on with you?' And I was like, 'I don't know, but I love it! Let's keep going with this.' Anyway.

"Breaking traditions." Yes, that's Loki to a frickin' T! Ego-death Loki, breaking everything! Breaking the narrative, breaking the 4th wall, breaking traditions; he walks away from the fucking throne of Jotunheim by the beginning of Immortal Thor. Why the fuck does he do that? I don't know!

Moving on to the description. "It could point to problems and hiccups later in life, even though they may not currently be an issue." DB opens with Loki seeing his...honestly, I don't know what self it is. I don't understand how time's working in this story. I think it's his future self, but it might also be his past self, who knows? Not me! But another version of him, and he's like really frickin upset about it. He's like, 'Did you kill Thor? I bet you did!' And then he kisses him on the temple like he did with Old Loki. (Dude, I don't know what's going on.) And then he just kind of like heads off, he's like, 'I'm not gonna think about that, because I'm leaving this shit forever. I'm not gonna deal with this nonsense.' But then by the end of the book it comes back to bite him in the ass. So yeah, may not be an issue right now, but becomes an issue in the future? For sure. He's like, 'I'm not gonna think about this, I'm not gonna deal with this, I'm not gonna acknowledge this, because this has nothing to do with me. I've written myself out of the narrative. I'm writing my own future. I don't even care about Verity at this point.' And then he has to go back and be that Loki. Who still doesn't have Verity. Where the fuck is Verity? I'm annoyed.

So for MCU Loki the phrase that pops out the most is "a future, yawning like the grave." He's escaped the timeline. He can't go back on that timeline now. That timeline's been pruned, and the main timeline's moved on without him. And with Sylvie having killed He Who Remains, the timeline is fucked. I mean, it's not just Sylvie's fault, it's also Wanda and Strange and Peter's faults, but cumulatively, we've fucked the timeline. So there isn't really anywhere he can go, and also there's everywhere he can go.

"Yawning like the grave" is interesting, though, because he's essentially escaped his death more or less. If we assume that what we saw in Infinity War is his death on the main timeline, which I don't accept. I think that's bullshit; I don't know why they would've had him say that throwaway fucking line if he wasn't going to come back. I mean, I do, the Russos kind of suck, but you know. That's one of their wives' son, don't be mean to him (I don't know whose wife played Frigga)!

And to a certain extent, I feel like they are kind of moving this Loki (gradually, poorly) towards merging him with AoA Loki. The way they're going about this redemption arc seems kind of AoA-ish. I don't love it, because I think this means (unless we go with my theory about the main timeline) we're not gonna get Loki on the Young Avengers if we get a movie or tv show eventually. And I'm not happy about that. But also one, it might mean we get him in the fucking Coat with with some fucking nail polish maybe, and two, ultimately I want AoA Loki in the MCU somehow some way, and if Tom has to play him, then okay. I don't mind Tom. So if season two is like MCU Loki and AoA Loki gradually merging with more similarities via this tarot prediction, I'll take it.

Also, page one of DB, he basically walks through a Time Door. I mean, it looks different, and it's not functioning as a Time Door, but he basically walks through a fucking Time Door, let's be honest.

Now, I want to talk about the fact that I think Al Ewing is wrong. I think there's a better card for Loki. Of both upright cards and reverse cards. Now, I don't do tarot and I did maybe ten minutes of research, which I think is significantly less research than Ewing did, but I still think I have a better idea for Loki's card. I have several, actually. (That's right, baby, this post is still not done. Strap in.)

We're gonna start with the Major Arcana, because although it makes sense to me why I think he went with the minor, I don't care. Major makes more sense to me. It's more approachable, and also I know it better.

The Hierophant, reversed: Ewing already used this (reversed, as well) in Defenders, but again, don't care. "Reversed keywords: rebellion, unconventionality, nonconformity, new methods, ignorance." I'm basing a lot of this on ego-death, because it's my favorite event that has ever taken place where Loki is concerned. Loki is subverting all expectations for him, both in-universe and IRL. So as the hierophant, reversed, he's rebelling against this box that they've put him in. And he spends the entire DB resisting being put back into that box. And at the very end we see him, back in that box, but with a new means of working his way through that box. He's got a new tool, and he's got his memories from before, and he's got a new purpose. So in theory, he's gonna stay in the box (think of it as a comic panel), but he's gonna do what he needs to do in that box. Not necessarily within the confines and rules of that box, just in the box. Also, the hierophant is a religious figure, and Loki's a god. And it's very similar to magic, and if we can't make him the magician, here we go. He's sometimes referred to as the High Priest, as a counterpart to the High Priestess. And Loki's genderfluid so he could also be the High Priestess.

This is a little on the nose, even without ego-death, but Death, either upright or reversed: It pretty heavily relates to Loki's conflict throughout DB. Upright represents "end of a cycle, beginnings, change, metamorphosis" which is like all of ego-death, but also how he's behaving in this. He's spending this entire time clinging to what he thought he gained through ego-death, and then finally taking this moment to let go of some of it in order to finish changing. He's not done transforming. He thinks he's done, but he's not. And then the reverse is "fear of change, holding on, stagnation, decay." He's holding on to this part of himself that he thinks is fully transformed, because he thinks going back into that box is going back to who he was before and he doesn't want to do that. He's afraid of going back to who he was. He doesn't want to go back into the narrative, he doesn't want to be held under the confines of what other people tell him his story is. But he has to go back in order to finish changing. He has to go back in order to finish the cycle of ego-death. So, death. That one, I think is the best option. If we went with Major Arcana, it would have to be Death, because it ties together both AoA and DB, because it's his conflict throughout both of them. His conflict changes slightly between AoA and DB because of that lynchpin of ego-death, but he's still that same person who's afraid of being put into that box, who doesn't want to be put into that box, who wants to break out of that box. He keeps trying to find ways to break out of that box, and what changes in DB is that he thinks he's finally figured out a way to break out of it, and now he feels like he's being shoved back into it. And he doesn't want to go. And so he needs Cloud, primarily, and then a few other people on the team, to be like, 'But you're not going back. Not completely. You are changed. You are different. You're not going back to who you were when you started this. You've already made those changes, and now you're returning to the narrative to finish the cycle of ego-death. To finish the cycle of change, so that you can truly be the ultimate person that you're supposed to be. That you want to be on your terms. Just because you're in the narrative does not mean you are on anyone else's terms but your own.' And he needs someone to tell him that before he can go back and before he can finish out the cycle of death and rebirth. Because he comes back in AoA and immediately leaves. And he leaves partially because the world's about to die, but then the world cycles back. And he doesn't want to go back to that, but he has to, in order to finish out the cycle. Because he hasn't fully assumed who he's meant to become through the process of ego-death if he's just fluttering around the cosmos.

Eight of Swords, also either way: Depends on what Ewing wants to gain from the card draw. Are we foreshadowing the conflict or are we foreshadowing the resolution? Because upright eight of swords represents the conflict. "Imprisonment, entrapment, self-victimization." He's like, 'I don't want to go back to who I was. I don't want to go back to the narrative, because then I will be trapped again.' Versus the reverse which represents the resolution of his arc: "Self-acceptance, new perspective, freedom." He's back in the narrative, but he remembers what happened, and he has new insights and new tools to make change and to be better and to be the person that he wants to be without anyone else telling him who to be.

Two of Swords, upright or reverse: Which ultimately represents my feelings about the ending, as well. Upright: "Difficult choices, indecision, stalemate." Reversed: "Lesser of two evils, no right choice, confusion." Like, I was so fucking mad, that Loki had to go back to where he was and who he was and wipe his fucking memories. Now on the last page, he regains his memories, of everything that happened in DB and his ego-death experience, and so he's changed, and he remembers that he has this tool to help him, and all that shit. And like, as I started to understand why we had to do this, because people between AoA and DB fucked with Loki's character arc, it felt like there's no right choice and this is the lesser of two evils, because there's nothing else that we can do to give him a proper send off in DB other than doing this bullshit. For continuity's sake. And I was annoyed. But here we are.

I think the best one would've been Death. But like I said, there was a reason why he did minor arcana and then he decided to do all tens.

And finally, this book is where I met Cloud, which prompted me to read Defenders, because that's where Cloud makes their modern comic debut. (Their better comic debut.) And so my hot take is that Cloud's card in Defenders should've been The Star rather than The Lovers. But that's a different post.

#nobody was demanding this post #but if youve been waiting here it is long as hell #loki #loki theories #loki comics #defenders: beyond #the defenders spoilers #defenders: beyond spoilers #al ewing #al ewing comics #marvel comics spoilers #marvel comics #scarlet witch issue 8 spoilers #loki spoilers

[on-wednesdays-we-eat-the-rich]

fun facts about my uncle, because he is a rather strange man (and I love him)

My whole family calls him Seamo, and it wasn't until I was about twelve that I found out it wasn't his real name. Apparently when he was younger he had lots of long black hair, and one time he went swimming in the sea and when he came out his hair was all over his face and his friend said he looked like a sea-monster, so they nicknamed him Seamonster and eventually it shortened to Seamo and now everyone just calls him that.

He's a morris dancer. Whenever we go somewhere to watch him dance I always try on his hat because it's a black top hat with badges and feathers on it and it looks really cool. Once there was a folk festival in our town and my aunt (his wife) and her band were playing, and we were watching them, and my uncle randomly got up and started dancing all by himself.

He will turn any conversation into him telling a story. I once asked him to tell me about ghosts and seances (for research purposes) and he proceeded to tell me a very lengthy story about Gef the Mongoose, which is apparently a ghostly mongoose that communicates through tapping on things. Not once did he tell me anything I wanted to know but I enjoyed the story anyway.

He once joined a philosophy club, and was going to a meeting in some building somewhere, but got the wrong room and accidentally walked in on a seance. I imagine the people attending the seance got a bit spooked.

He is the reason that rowan is my favourite tree. When I was in my Harry potter phase a couple of years ago, he made me a wand out of rowan wood, and used one of those wood-burning things (do they have a name?) to write the Ogham (Celtic basically) equivalent of the letter L, which is 'luis' (pronounced 'lweesh'). apparently this letter is the symbol (?) for the rowan tree. Also, when we went on a walk in a forest, he cut a big stick off a rowan tree and gave it to me (the man literally carries a saw around with him for this exact purpose) and then put a bit of clay on the cut branch and thanked the tree for letting us take the stick. I still have the stick. It's taller than I am. I call it my Wizard Stick.

His favourite LOTR character is Tom Bombadil. I am not surprised. He is basically Tom Bombadil in real life. He's also a lot like Gandalf

He is quite short. So is my aunt. They have three sons who are all giants. I don't know how this happened.

He looks a bit like Christian Slater. And a lot like Aragorn. And a LOT like Catweazle.

#fun facts #idk how to tag this #seriously though my uncle is one of the coolest people i know #i think he might be a wizard

[spiced-wine-fic]

#liminal places #paganism

[theherbalsanctuary]

Happy Monday! Tarot reading for the week

Hey lovelies, this is a new series among many, that I will be doing every Monday and Friday! Usually they will be simple card draws, such as a quick read like this one. Mondays you can usually expect "prepping for the week to come" sort of readings, and Fridays will usually be reflective type readings.

I want to start by saying, this deck just, *chef's kiss*, so beautifully, yet, brutally honest. This is the Crow Tarot deck by Mj Cullinane, and it is not afraid to slap you in the face when you need it. That said this week, she was very kind. I sincerely believe this is a message for the masses.

For future reference, when I do a tarot reading, I GENERALLY ask a question for each card pulled. This is completely different from when I am doing a reading with my Ogham alphabet, or my runes.

-What can we expect this week?

I pulled the Chariot in the upright position. This card signifies that we should be moving through this next week with confidence. Whatever goal you have been working towards will see amazing progress. There is a catch here, you must have been already putting in the work for this to happen. Not only that, but you need to continue to put in the grind this week. Just know it will happen. The light is at the end of the tunnel.

-What is going to be the biggest challenge this week?

For this one, I pulled Two of Wands in the reversed position. Oh boy, for people out there like me with ADHD and want nothing more to be wonderfully successful in all of their intentions, hold onto your butts. This card, in this position, urges us to prioritize the tasks we must do in order to achieve our goal(s) from the first card pull. Why might this be challenging? Well almost every goal out there has at least a couple different ways of achieving it. But which choice or path is providing the highest quality outcome? Ask yourself, what is maybe blocking you from doing that one silly task? Is it fear? Or simply a tiny list of prerequisite tasks? Either way, when I said you will still need to grind this week, I meant it. Get that shit done. You'll feel better.

-How can we be successful?

After I pulled the first card for this question, I felt I needed to pull a clarifying card. The first card I pulled for this was Page of Pentacles reversed. This card begs us to identify those potential blockages I mentioned earlier. Remember, while deciding how to go about reaching your goal this week, what sort of effort are you willing to put out in order to achieve this goal? Which parts are worth the energy, and which tasks are distractions?

The next card I pulled for this question was Six of Cups in the upright position. This card is the answer to our struggle in prioritizing tasks. First though, this card requires you to reflect back on not only what makes your heart full, but also what exactly makes reaching this goal worth it to you. Why is it important? Remember, the goal can be as simple as cleaning up your apartment. Does it need to be super clean? What pulls you out of the state of executive dysfunction you have been stuck in for months? Can you get by doing small 5 minute chores for the week? How much rest do you need in order to be able to be productive? Yeah, rest. This card also serves as a reminder to treat our bodies and souls with a little more love. What task can you do to help you clear your head of the anxious thoughts surrounding reaching this goal?

-Final Words

Basically, keep your chin up and stay focused. Do not slow your roll this week, but do know there is a light at the end of this as long as you put in the required amount of work. The reading this week encourages us to follow the path we have been planning all this time, and not to veer off of our path just yet, as our time of success is definitely on the horizon.

As always, if you would like to support me and my business, give me a follow! Or go check out my tiny store where I am currently selling a wonderfully buttery herbal salve- www.theherbalsanctuary13.com

Thanks for reading!

#tarot #mondaytarot #divination #tarotblr #tarotcommunity #witch community #free tarot #tarot witch #tarot reading

[greenmansgrove]

My most recent addition to my altar is this brass mistletoe trinket dish I use as an offering plate. It was made by Virginia Metalcrafters in the ‘50s and is part of a whole plant-themed series for them. It was apparently made in two sizes. The bigger one is used on my altar, and the smaller dish is a nightstand accessory.

Mistletoe, aside from being sacred to druids and full of folklore on its medicinal and symbolic use, is a personally important plant in my life. It showed up again and again on random trees wherever I moved as a military brat. Mistletoe doesn’t grow in the cold climate where I live now, so I decorate my altar with mistletoe-themed items, including my altar cloth, wand, and ogham runes.

I appreciate that the artists modeled the dish’s design on American mistletoe, or Phoradendron leucarpum. I feel as though North America under-appreciates its native variety of mistletoe. I see the European variety (Viscum album) more commonly represented in media, as well as a bemoaning that our native species isn’t “the real deal.” It’s a shame to me, really, because our native species is very pretty!

#druidry #altars #mistletoe #allheal

[darkdivinations]

Hello, my lovely readers! Today is a momentous day--the birthing of Dark Divinations! Here's where I'll give readings, both general and personalized, with my own dark slant. By "dark," I mean embracing the shadow self and the unknown aspects of situations, internal or external. I figure there are already too many divination sources that just tell people what they want to hear, and only skim the surface of the issues. This is my attempt to help you plumb the depths of yourself and your life, and tell it like it is.

Card of the day for you guys is the Two of Wands from the Crow Tarot (my personal favorite tarot deck, since of all the decks I own, it most closely relates to my patron Goddess). The gist of it is to push yourself out of your comfort zone. Now's the time to capitalize on a new idea and chase your dreams.

And, in true Dark Divinations fashion, if you're reading this, I'm going to urge you to examine any excuses you may have for why you can't move forward and verify if they really have any merit, or if it's just your fear talking. Just like I had to do when I first fired up this blog!

In full disclosure, I pulled this card for you, but now I am wondering if I unwittingly pulled it for myself, as today is the day I put my plans to start a divination blog into action. Well, there's never a bad time to push yourself out of your comfort zone and move closer to your best life!

Stay tuned for my Ogham of the Day and Futhark of the Day!

Best, Dark Divinations

#card of the day #crow tarot #mj cullinane #tarot cards #divination #tarotcommunity #wands #suit of wands #two of wands

[that-strange-ringing]

Wand design, the ogham between the antlers reads “bua”.

#magic wand #wizzard wand #drawing #sketch #design #wand design #skulls #animal skull #deer skull #human skull #vulture culture #goth #gothic #antlers #aesthetic #metal aesthetic #goth aesthetic #ogham #traditional art

[thewandcarver]

Cha-cha-changes! Thank you, David Bowie

#EarlyBiz #BBlogRT #QueenOf #firsttmaster New #blog by @TheWandCarver ~ Cha-cha-changes! Thank you, David Bowie

By Isabella @TheWandCarver Instagram: @thewandcarver No, not about Mr Bowie, just thanking him for the tune stuck in my head at the moment. Who doesn’t love a bit of Bowie? The changes I refer to are these: A rebranding of our shop and our blog. I have felt for some years now that our name doesn’t really suit. It was taken onboard in a silly moment and for the lack of better names coming into…

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#David Bowie #numerology #ogham birth tree pendants #rebrand rebranding #rebranding our blog #rowan jewellery #rowan wands #Speaking of Witch Wands #Talismans #wytchen #wytchen tree #wytchen wood #wytchencrafts

[calleo-bricriu]

Just a few tools of the trade.

Some day, I’ll remember the order to get all 25 of those things back in the box in three neat rows; they’re all just slightly different sizes and even one out of order makes all of them not fit--and no, it’s not an “alphabetical order” sort of thing. You think I didn’t try that first?

#divination #divination tools #wand #runes #bone #ogham #elder wood #blood #tarot #hp rp

[faedatayartworks]

Completely MIA here and likely to be for the next few weeks still. But there are still a few #dreamcatcher #ogham #wands #Smudgingfans #pyrographyart #mirror and other bits n pieces in my Etsy which are going to get a 10% over the whole shop. Local buyers can get a further 5% off (15%total) when they contact me through social media (Fb/insta) messaging to buy direct. I also have gift cards for commissioned pieces like this #standingstones stone #talisman over the month of January. Get in touch by DM/PM to know more n gift card pricing n conditions.#hemp #woodburning #runes #pagan #seiðr #witchy #natureworship #natural art #foraged #quartz https://www.instagram.com/p/CIMKsY0hvcE/?igshid=2nr0kds46bol

#dreamcatcher #ogham #wands #smudgingfans #pyrographyart #mirror #standingstones #talisman #hemp #woodburning #runes #pagan #seiðr #witchy #natureworship #natural #foraged #quartz

[wisehoagiekidwobbler]

Forms of Witchcraft

•Dolls and Poppets

Poppets are the English terms for what movies call a ‘voodoo doll’. Voodoo doll is a misnomer, and does nothing for either poppets or Haitian magic.

Poppets can be used for a couple of things – mainly either cursing or healing. This doesn’t always have to be physical curses/cures – poppets can also be used to influence thought patterns.

Dolls can also be used to provide homes for Spirits, or used to create guardians. You can also use a doll as a scapegoat to prevent a curse from latching onto you.

•Shrinemaking

Shrine making is less a way to create a defined outcome, and more a way of pleasing Spirits who you may later want to call upon. It’s kinda like taking your new neighbours a pie, in case you ever need them to watch the house whilst you’re away. The pie is an overture to a friendly relationship, not direct payment for the house sitting. However, if you just blundered into their garden one day and offered them £100 to watch the house, they’d probably tell you to get lost. Randomly calling up Spirits, Saint or Deities can have the same effect. I mean, would you help someone get a job if they just banged on your door and waved some incense at you? Get your local Spirits pies. Find out what scents, and objects, and offerings that they like. Keep the land around you clean, and pick up after other people if you can. Use your vote and your money to protect the land from logging and fracking. Build a dedicated ‘meeting space’ where you call up Spirits, and fill it full of pictures of them or things they like. It pays dividends in the future.

Shrinemaking can also be used to help bless and protect your home and land. By connecting with the other Spirits that are there, you solidify the relationship, and can work together against intruders.

•Bottles and Jars

Witch bottles (or spell jars)  are fun, easy ways to create a variety of effects. As a spell base, they can be effective for:

* money

* love

* friendship

* animal work

* protection

Some people define a witch bottle as strictly the traditional version which is used as a scapegoat, and call other spells involving bottles and jars ‘spell jars’. Some people use the term witch bottle to encompass all magics involving jars.

You can learn about all types of bottle magic in the free course which you can sign up for below!

•Candles

Candle magic is a much more modern form of magic than you’d think – especially if we’re talking coloured candles. Candles were very precious objects in the past! However, it was not an unusual item to have, like a hunk of crystal or fairy doll, which is why they became an item to use for undetected witchcraft – like brooms, and cauldrons.

As candles have got cheaper and cheaper and less needed to be used for lighting, much more forms and types of magic have sprung up around them. With the addition of coloured waxes or painted candles, the sorts of magic you can do with candles has grown exponentially.

Candles are a subset of fire magic and therefore are fantastic for banishing, but they are often the beginners tool of choice. It’s easy to understand why – easy to get hold of, easy to use, and there’s as much fancy ritual needed as you feel inclined to give it.

When you want to expand your knowledge, you can still stick with candles – but investigate the use of oils, herbs and crystals in conjunction with candles.

•Crystals and Rocks

Crystals and rocks are often used as ‘ingredients’ in other spells. They are very easy to add to bottles, pouches, dolls and more. However, you can also use crystals in spell work solely on their own by adding them to your pillow, till, money box, plant pot, etc.

Their use goes much further than this, but that enters the realm of energy healing which is a part of many traditions and is a very dedicated and intensive practice all by itself, and too much to explain here.

Air

You can utilize the powers of air in a lot of ways. It’s usually good for cleansing spells – think sweeping with a ritual broom, burning incense (smoke=air, not fire), ringing bells or playing bowls, singing, using flags and wheels. Air methods tend to return quick results.

Earth

Earth brings slow results, but they tend to be larger. Earth practices include enchanting seeds that will bring you money as they grow, burying offerings in the Earth, making vessels and spells out of clay, or writing spells in the mud.

Fire

Fire can bring things into your life, but is much better used to get rid of them – for beginners, anyway. If there is anything in your life that you wish to get rid of, you can write or draw a representation of it and cast it into the fire to remove it.

Water

Water can take the longest time to bring you what you need. However, think of water pounding against a rock. Drips of water became rivers, became waterfalls. Water can often bring you the biggest results, but it may take a long time.

Water spells can include potions (see below), but can also include ritual baths, leaving offers in water, or giving up bad energy or habits to the ocean.

•Bones

Bones are a contentious subject in witchcraft. Some people will never use them, some people’s practice is not complete without them. You can actually get bones in an ethical manner, by either cleaning up roadkill yourself or paying someone to do it for you, or literally keeping the bones from your dinner!

Some uses for bones are:

* Telling the future (casting bones or lots)

* Housing the Spirit of the animal so you can work with them

* Form parts of wands or ritual jewellery or headresses

* Ingredients in pouches

Tarot, Runes and Ogham

You can use all of these fortune telling tools in spells, too! You can choose one of them that has a characteristic or represents an outcome that you’d like. So if you wanted a new job, you might choose the Ace of Pentacles. Then you could do any one of the following with it:

* Use it to focus a candle spell

* Add it to a pouch or bag spell

* Add it to a jar spell

* Use it in lieu of a sigil

* Make a vision board around it

* Even burn it! (You can get single Tarot cards for this purpose on eBay.)

•Potions and Elixirs

Potion Magic used to be a lot more popular. Whilst elixirs, tisanes and tea blends are still popular for use on yourself, the masses of recipes of potions, philtres and similar recipes have all but died out. That’s because a lot of potion magic is only to be used in desperate circumstances, like love potions and curses. The reason so many old fashioned love potions are beyond creepy and controlling is that woman’s husband was her meal ticket. If he left her, not only would she be blamed, but she would be out of a house, food and her own family probably wouldn’t take her in. She had shamed them all. (Often through no actual fault of her own.) She was literally facing public humiliation, being outcast, perhaps even starving to death – and sometimes her children along with here.

So dousing  a lover or husband’s food with love potion made a lot more sense then, than it does now.

Thankfully, most of us don’t live in those circumstances any more, so a lot of philtre or potion use has died out. However, there are still some amazing things you can make to ingest yourself:

* Tea blends

* Tisanes (herbals teas)

* Bath spells

* Lunar or solar water

* Herbal Oils

Spoken Magic

Spoken Magic can be long and complicated, or very short. It doesn’t have to rhyme (but it can) it doesn’t have to flow like poetry (but it can). You can use spoken incantation to help direct energy when you’re using other methods, but you can also use it on it’s own.

Some examples of spoken magic:

* Affirmations

* Words of power

* Singing

* Ritual Offerings

* Wishes

You can even banish Spirit’s solely through your voice. Shouting ‘Leave!’ with the correct intention can be very powerful.

•Written Magic

Written magic has existed since we could write. Many cultures view writing AS magic. Think about it – 26 (or thereabouts, depends on your alphabet) tiny squiggles can become anything when placed in the right order. Dumbledore was right about the power of words.

Written magic can include:

* Petitions to Spirits

* Magic squares

* Words of power or protection

* Wishes

* Tattoos

* Rune work

Bag and Pouch Magic

There is all kinds of bag magic – from mojo bags, to more modern spell envelopes. The main idea behind bag or pouch magic is that keeping a carefully curated selection of objects together for a certain time period will produce the effects that you want. A lot of bag magic produces indefinite spells  provided they are charged. Such bags usually grant the wearer protection, prosperity, luck or good health. However, there are bag magics wear a specific time limited spell is wanted – invisibility spells, hex breakers and the like.

•Enchantments and Glamours

Enchantment covers a variety of spell types, but theme of the spells are pretty much the same. Enchantment covers a lot of the old folklore kind of witchcraft – hidden worlds, changing age, changing into different animals and so on.

Enchanting something fools the viewer into believing something is there when it is not, or isn’t there when it is, or is something completely different.

Think of the Harry Potter scene where Hermione explains that the ceiling of the Great Hall isn’t a real sky, it’s just enchanted to look that way.

Real enchantment can be done for fun, but they can also be useful pieces of magic. You can enchant jewelry, clothes or makeup to bestow certain personality traits upon you. You can enchant your witchy items to look normal if you’re fearful of discovery. The possibilities are just about endless.

#grimoire #witchcraft #book of spells #wicca #book of shadows #witch #spell book #witches journal #magic book #pagan #black magic #black spells #witchy #witchy spells #beginner witch #witchblr #witchtober

[sk1fanfiction]

patricide is like falling in love (tom riddle, probably)

~inspired by a moodboard thing I saw on here where TMR says murder is like falling in love~

Read from the beginning at FFN | AO3!

“You are my son,” Tom Riddle chokes out, his gaze roving helplessly over his dead parents’ bodies as he clutches a crucifix, dangling from a small silver chain. 

His voice is wrecked from the pain.

Weak. 

“I made you. You’re a monster.”

Tom laughs. “No one made me, father. I made me.” He feels his head tilt, his eyes focus. “You’re sixteen years too late to claim me, now. You left me. I came for you. You see?”

“Your mother bewitched me!”

“That may be so,” says Tom, twirling Morfin’s wand and laughing as his father shrinks back. “She’s dead. Died giving birth to me. In Wool’s Orphanage, London. My poor, dead mother stumbled into the orphanage, weak and starving on the coldest night of the year. They couldn’t stop the bleeding or the fever, and she only lived long enough to name me.”

“I’m sorry,” says his father, though Tom doesn’t want his pity. He hates pity. He hates his pathetic, neglectful, sobbing father.

How could two weak people produce him?

“This is wrong, Tom!”

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Shakespeare.” Tom points his wand at the battered copy of Hamlet on the bookshelf, laughing. It catches on fire.

“What do you want?” He sounds tired.

“Nothing much, father,” says Tom sweetly. His father, who left him, like everyone else. His father will never read him a bedtime story or wipe the sweat away from his face when he is sick or hold him when he is sad. (Not that he needs any of those things — he doesn’t.)

His father is the reason he is broken. Broken from birth.

It doesn’t matter, because Tom is something better than human now. (There is only power.)

“Daddy,” he says, like a small child. He has never said the word before, and it rolls off of his tongue with surprising difficulty — the agile tongue that pronounces Parseltongue, Latin and Arabic spells, and Ogham runic chants with ease. “Why did you leave me?”

“She bewitched me — she lied to me, you don’t understand how violated—“

“I want to see the light leave your eyes,” whispers Tom, in a tone that befits a love confession more than a death threat. “I hate you.”

“I grieve for your soul,” says his father, trembling with fear. “Repent, demon. Show some remorse, for your own sake!”

But Tom doesn’t intend to meet judgment. Tom intends to live forever.

He is burning, burning, he has never burned like this, he is so full of exquisite hatred that aches so good, and all Tom has to do is to let it all go.

“Avada Kedavra.”

Now, Tom is sitting on the floor in the Riddles’ dining room. He is running his fingers through his dead father’s hair, handsome, just like him, admiring his frozen, horrified expression. 

Tom sits in his grandfather’s chair and cradles his dead father, like the Pietà, with two more dead bodies strewn at his feet. His head tilts gracefully down, mimicking the Virgin Mary’s silent compassion and suffering, but feeling none of it. Tom Riddle is gone. He is dead. Tom lays his head on his father’s chest, but there is no more heartbeat, no more breath.

His brown eyes, just like his son’s, blown wide with fear. Lips parted in surrender. 

He leans forward and kisses his father’s forehead sweetly, presses two chaste, cold lips to still-warm skin, like a priest’s blessing. 

The twilight sky is darkening, turning dark violet like ink has spilled on it.

It is beautiful. It is perfect, yet the despair is not gone. His heart still beats with anguish, and Tom Riddle is left more broken than ever and aching for more.

It is like falling in love.

#hp #fanfiction #tom riddle #tom riddle aesthetic #questionable ethics #very very questionable #slytherin #harry potter #morally grey #as in very dark grey #practically black #but hopefully still kind of aesthetic

[7serendipities]

Crow Calls: an Ogham Divination

This moon’s message comes a bit late thanks to Hurricane Ida and the migraine she caused, and I was instructed to do a less intense version of my ritual, and to draw ogham instead of channeling poetry. The message itself does somewhat explain why I was given lighter duty: rest is important for all healing.

I pulled three ogham feda*: Tinne, Beithe, and Nin. In the personal lists I’ve been developing, the kennings for these three are Tested Resolve, Beginning Healing, and Knotted Weaving.

Tinne is here to represent the near-past, and in that context I understand it to be the completion of a trial by fire. We’ve been dealing with things we weren’t sure we could handle - and yet we did handle them, if perhaps not as well as we might have liked. Still, that cycle is now behind us, and we need to focus on our current and future cycles.

Beithe is here to represent the developing present, the thing we should be working on right now. This is the fid* that really explains my instruction to rest: we should be focusing on healing. Having completed one cycle, we need to rest and rejuvenate to face whatever comes next. Beithe is a fid of healing, but also of beginnings, in my understanding. We need to start the next cycle as favorably as we can, to aim for positive outcomes.

Nin is here to represent the near-future, and in this context I understand it as a fid of communal goals, and of working together as a community. A symbol I associate with this fid is the hand-tied fishnet. It takes more than one pair of hands to make one in any reasonable length of time, and more than one pair of hands to both cast it into the water, and to pull it back in. Nin speaks to me of weaving, both literal fibercraft and metaphorical joinings. As we look to the future and our own healing, we need to both support and be supported by those in our communities. We are a community of Crows, but we belong to other communities, too: spiritual, and geographical, familial and professional. All and any strong community ties matter, and those webs will look different for each of us. As you work on self care, make sure to also put aside some time for community care, as well. Learn how to be a shelter for others, and learn where you can go to find sanctuary of your own.

Hopefully that gives you insight into your current situations, and with any luck I’ll be back with more poetry next month. The next Dark Moon is October 6th.

*: Fid and Feda are the singular and plural, respectively, of the Irish word for each individual ogham letter, meaning also tree, wood (or something wooden, like a walking stick or wand). See it here in the eDIL.

#Crow Calls #Morrigan #Na Morrigna #Ogham #divination