whiskey-londubh

[whiskey-londubh]

Humans are selfish, even when they think they're being the most generous.

[whiskey-londubh]

Update #1

For those just seeing this, please refer to this post:

https://whiskey-londubh.tumblr.com/post/622041519586738176/buy-whiskeys-healthcare-service-dog-a-coffee

And please donate. Even $1 helps me get closer to actively managing my health - something I’ve not been allowed to do for years. 

#witchblr #cptsd #lgbt #ftm #complex post traumatic stress disorder #signal boost

[whiskey-londubh]

I haven’t been active on here much lately, and for various reasons. At least 99 of them being my mental health and the discovery that my employer-offered health insurance has 0% coverage for anything related to mental healthcare. 

I also cannot pay out-of-pocket because my employer broke their policy and allowed me to ask for less hours without a doctor note (I cited my health), but they’re requiring me to submit a doctor’s note to work more hours(citing that I cited my health), and I’m fighting discrimination on this front (update next week after a phone call).

I have most diagnosable symptoms of C-PTSD(Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), and regardless of if I am able to be diagnosed soon, I will not be taking medication due to my experience with other health care providers’ incompetence, and my being an adult transgender man in today’s American politics.  

The most appropriate place for me to pursue therapy is $120 per session at the reduced rate. I’m trying to save enough for a month of therapy at a time (but can’t do that because they won’t let me work more hours until further notice). I’m trying to raise $480 for this to start.

The German Shepherd rescue (breed plan A) I contacted about adoption costs are understanding of my wanting to adopt and train a service dog, and have given me the adoption fee quote of $550. They’ve also offered to share my application (if/when I submit one) with several other rescues in the area in case they don’t have anyone suitable I can come in and check out at that time.

The local organization that appears most appropriate for me to enlist for help training this dog has their service dog training program (reduced/budget) fees listed at $3,000. 

Tumblr has done some amazing things for people and petitions over the years, and I’m asking only for help to at least start down this path. Money may change in the future, especially since I’m making my “inconvenience” known, but I need to get a handle on this as soon as possible. Literally anything would help, and won’t be touched until I reach the goal amount for each stage of things. 

I can make enough to reasonably pay bills, I just need help actually fixing my quality of life and taking charge of what people have tried to take away from be over the years, not just with recent events.

#witchblr #mental health #living with cptsd #cptsd #service dog #signal boost

[whiskey-londubh]

Please do not sell graveyard dirt on Etsy, if you have any respect whatsoever for witchcraft, and whatever spirit supposedly gave you permission to take it. If you have no respect for it, you should not be practicing with anything that involves a cemetery.

#Witchblr #Graveyard dirt #Paganism #Spirit work #Spirit worker

[whiskey-londubh]

do not alter or repost. ⛦

#witchblr #plants #vertical panorama #photo #green witch #traditional witch

[whiskey-londubh]

do not alter or repost. ⛦

#Witchblr #Liminal space #photo

[whiskey-londubh]

do not alter or repost. ⛦

#Witchblr #Liminal space #photo

[whiskey-londubh]

Discovered some wild-growing comfrey (seen in this post) and took some home. It’s been a while since I actually took home a full plant that wasn’t simply in a nursery pot, so the outer leaves wilted while the center perked back up.

Oil would be better, but since I’m a little impulsive I opted for a water experiment, instead. Luckily (and by design... heh) I have the occasional empty whiskey bottle saved for Craft related efforts. I’ll give this a turn every week or so, then start experimenting with skin care in about a month.

And, if you don’t know already, comfrey is fast growing. More updates on the transplant as available. 

#witchblr #green witch #comfrey

[whiskey-londubh]

Stumbled on a lovely sight, and took some home. Keep your eyes open, and you'll be shown what you need.

#Witchblr #green witch #comfrey #wildcrafting #photo

[whiskey-londubh]

do not alter or repost. ⛦

#witchblr #liminal space #photo #green witch #forest

[whiskey-londubh]

Regarding Tarot Readings

Hello! 

There’s been some expressed interest in my rates for tarot readings. For readings that have been posted publicly (with permission), please see this tag:

https://whiskey-londubh.tumblr.com/tagged/tarot-reading

Until further notice, my rate is $1 per card. I’ll choose a spread that corresponds with how much you can provide, or you can suggest a spread you prefer (as long as it matches with the number). I will keep my availability status updated on my bio as well as I can, as well as post this link there. 

Because of the current worldwide situation, I should be able to complete any given reading within a week or so. I enjoy reading tarot, but have several other things to keep track of. 

 If you have interest in my reading for you, I ask that you reimburse me through the following link:

https://ko-fi.com/whiskeylondubh

Please state your user name in the note, and then send me an Ask here with your question (after reviewing the guidelines below). Currently, I’m only able to respond to readings publicly, for personal reasons. I’m okay if you’d like to be anonymous, but please alternatively provide your question in an Ask first, with your code word, and then visit the Ko-Fi page above. This will make sure that the same person reimbursing me for my time is the one providing the question.

Guidelines:

No yes or no questions. Example: “What should I know about--” and “Is this situation as I see it?” is better than “Does {NAME} like me?” or “Am I going to get into this school?”

If you would like to provide any symbols, items, or anything else I may be able to use for a stronger connection to your question, please do so. Example: “I work extensively in herbalism, particularly with teas,” or “I work with Freyja, particularly with cat symbols.”

No readings on other tumblr users.

This list may have a couple more bullet points if I notice any particular trends in questions in the future. 

I reserve the right to decline any question I deem inappropriate or I am otherwise uncomfortable with providing divination for. If you aren’t sure if your question falls within guidelines, feel free to ask me beforehand. 

#tarot reading #witchblr #witchcraft #divination #tarot

[whiskey-londubh]

do not alter or repost. ⛦

#witchblr #green witch #forest #liminal space #cryptid

[whiskey-londubh]

#music #witchblr

[whiskey-londubh]

Hi! How much do you charge for a reading?

Currently, my rate is $1 per card. This is mainly due to having the time to set aside fairly easily, because of current events. Though, I definitely appreciate you asking - I enjoy reading tarot, but that’s just it. It’s time as well as energy.

If you (or anyone else reading) are interested in a reading in the near future at this pricing rate, I’ll go ahead and set up a Ko-Fi page for organization, as well as post reminders of openings (or lack thereof, etc) at regular intervals. 

#witchblr #tarot reading #witchcraft #tarot

[whiskey-londubh]

As we talked about on Facebook, and I'm fine with you posting this :D for a tarot question, what does Beezlebub want me to know currently? I'm rather curious since I work with him but we dont talk much.

I used a classic Celtic Cross spread, because I’ve found it thorough, but straightforward. I’m somewhat of an intuitive reader, and I hope I can shed some light on the answer in the same way.

“To the entity known as Beelzebub, is there anything you’d like this witch to know? How do you view working with them?”

For the center cards, 1 and 2,  we have the immediate present in the Page of Cups, as well as the immediate challenge, in the Five of Pentacles. 

You’re a creative individual, but even if you don’t feel you’re accomplished, you still have an imaginative outlook, which is always a plus. You want to try new things and explore, like a child learning things for the first time. 

However, while the suit of cups is more about creativity, pentacles speak more to material possessions, and being a bit more pragmatic. You want to explore with total freedom and color outside the lines, so to speak. But you feel that you’ve lost something material (or can’t get it) and that you’d better keep tabs on more practical things. This isn’t a bad thing, necessarily, but in my own experience can make us think we’re keeping a balance when we’re not.

There aren’t many Major Arcana in this spread, but the Wheel of Fortune is one of two (/suspenseful music/). 

Your past is characterized by a stroke of good luck, or a notable blessing. The wheel turned, and it was your turn to benefit. This speaks to having an opportunity that drastically changed your life, and you took it for what it was worth. With the last two cards, this looks to me like you know what the blessings in your life are, but you’ve come into a period where worry is starting to creep up on you.

You don’t necessarily take this for granted, but you’re feeling the affects of less than carefree, or spiritual influences.

Recently, things have still been going well, despite setbacks and doubts. You still feel creative, and have trust in your abilities for the most part. Double-checking is good, but doesn’t mean you’ve lost faith.

Again, with Three of Pentacles, you know the value of balance. Having or using materials doesn’t mean materialism, and we’re physical creatures as well as spiritual. Keep paying attention to the balance of your practical (”mundane”) and magical. Though it’s important to keep our lives creative and fun, keeping up morale, we each have to find our own unique balance between grunt work and the rest. 

Take what you know you can do and build on it. Self-check is a part of growth just as much as reading from a textbook. The best future for you through this question is to reach a point where you can take this to heart, and own it.

Though I’m sure you’ve heard some of these ideas before, reversed Four of Swords speaks to the potential for a burnout in the immediate future. You’ve been blessed with opportunity and have taken appropriate advantage of it because you’re open to new ideas, and questioning yourself. 

Even the best of us can reach periods where we need to unplug and take a good look at what we want. Mistaking producing for productivity/positivity is dangerous. So far, I read this spread as your willingness to progress, and be a good student, but without giving up your sense of why you’re on this path in the first place.

Just don’t get tunnel vision. Focus is good, but can lead to using all your resources in one place while other areas suffer. Don’t spread yourself thin - sometimes, just take a break.

Back to references to your creativity - you’re confident in your abilities. Even if your path and work is hindered or influenced by anxiety or depression (or something else) from time to time, you know how to return to something you feel is stable. 

Keep on with your general methods, because they’ve served you well. A balance of material needs to serve the material side of you, with knowledge of the spiritual and creative to make sure the rest of you won’t go hungry. You care about following the recipe, even if it’s your own that no one’s ever heard of.

More and more pentacle cards~

Unfortunately, this also speaks to material pursuits. Again, not necessarily materialism, but a certain stubbornness and that you may be missing or ignoring something of a mundane nature despite your best efforts.

Even if the material isn’t something you’re holding in your hand, this can be seen in status, connections, or reputation. 

Up until now, all of your suits (except for the Wheel of Fortune) have been pentacles and cups. 

The Page of Swords is a card that, when reversed, speaks to a disconnect between what you want and what you’re actually doing. That, or you’ve said something that you haven’t fully delivered on, if at all. This could be due to hesitation, sensing something is “off” such as doubting your attempts at balance. 

You seem to need more time to sort out what it is you really want to do, or be clear on what it is that you’ve really offered or said. Not quite the same as the Hanged Man, but prompting more reflection on how you’ve come across. 

Self-reflection is good but, when it involves outside entities (human or otherwise), you may have stopped in the middle of your sentence, there. 

And, last card, other Major Arcana!

The World is the card of satisfaction and completion. This situation can  and will  resolve in some way, but will take some reflection on what you really want, why you want it, and how you’ve expressed yourself. 

I am not a Satanist, and don’t work with Demons or associated systems. So, the following is my intuitive tl;dr based on this divination only:

Beelzebub views you as competent, though not yet sparking specific interest. Not in a personal way, but they will not show focus on you until a few things are sorted out.

Why is it you want to work with them? Is it because of their status and reputation, however well-meaning? Are you a bit starstruck, for lack of a better term? Why do you want to work with them more closely? Why hasn’t the occasional exchange been enough?

They know who you are, and bear no ill will. You have their “business card,” but it’s not their personal number. To create a stronger connection, you’ll have to continue through their “secretary” for a time, and be willing to continue to follow procedures and etiquette. Not as an ever-present fan, but to show you’re willing to stay calm, measured, and leave it up to them, out of respect.

Then you might get a call to set up coffee, one of these days, rather than just passing each other in the “office.”

#witchblr #tarot reading #satanist #witchcraft #paganism

[whiskey-londubh]

Whiskey Wednesday!

I’m kidding.

But on a serious note - I would like to post here more regularly. Based on what you’ve seen and read thus far, what would you be interested in? I will of course post anything that I feel it’s necessary to say, but I would like to have a bit more of an anchor for my disciplined content. 

Which may involve whiskey for the duration of isolation, but who knows?

#witchblr #chaos magic #witchcraft #adult witch

[whiskey-londubh]

When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

Astral travel is a subject that’s long interested me. 

The problem is, I’ve found it mostly associated to concepts and disciplines of Chaos Magic. The problem isn’t necessarily with the path itself, but the loudest interpretation of it largely boiling down to the following:

“Nothing is true; everything is permitted.”

The interpretation I’ve seen of Chaos Magic, especially on Tumblr, is that learning and discipline don’t matter, because Chaos Magic is what you want it to be at any given time, and will work because you want it to. I am by no means ceremonial, and am known by those close to me as the kind of eclectic practitioner that would make some Traditional Witches swoon. However, in my path of learning, and not just my practice, I have come to realize one of the most important foundations of my work. And it came through Chaos Magic. 

If you’re going to claim no one can tell you what to do, you’d better damn well know what you’re doing, and be willing to re-check often. 

To know what you’re doing rests not only on your internal world, but understanding the affect you have on the world around you. Reality may indeed be subjective, but your thoughts do not shape someone else’s reality - your actions influence it. Whether or not you agree with the outcome or not - that is indeed the outcome, and you must decide if how you’ve impacted it matters to you.

What does this have to do with travel to the Astral? 

Everything I’ve read thus far describes the experience as wholly subjective. No two Astral spaces are the same. How, then, if one were to practice this skill, are they to test themselves against reason? How can anyone tell if it isn’t just an imaginative, half-dreaming state? Seeing what we want to see, doing what we want to do?

The question ignores yet another integral principle of Chaos Magic, one which those claiming total relativity and total irresponsibility willingly overlook.

Chaos Magic is based on results. As long as the methods produce the desired outcome, that method is valid in terms of magical practice. If the equation results in the answer, and that answer cannot be attributed wholly to another influence...

That’s why we’re witches.

Over time, this is what I’ve learned about the Astral. 

All my life, I’ve had vivid dreams, though coming and going in intensity. As a younger child, these would occasionally turn lucid and then, strangely enough, sometimes pick up where they left off and characters telling me that they were glad I’m back.

When I came to witchcraft, and then a little later Paganism, the concept resonated. 

I’m posting this in the public of Tumblr not to encourage others to feel compelled to share the majority of their craft (such is a definite red flag that you should have more time to yourself), but because I don’t often see users talk about these subjects, at least in this way. There’s a benefit of sharing, and connecting to others but, as I said, feeling compelled is a bad sign. 

Feeling compelled to hide your craft, rather than keep more aspect personal, is also negative, obviously. The balance must be struck between productivity, and positive pride. Saying something is for yourself doesn’t make it so.

In my work, I’ve learned that the Astral is for the practitioner. Maybe those few they trust, but largely personal. This intensifies the energy, and places the focus on results, rather than showmanship. And if you don’t see yourself in that word, consider these -

Content creator.

Such innocent words can be a cover for feeling compelled to share actions, rituals, and events, and thus drain the energy. Compelling the practitioner to share even more, trying to make up for what’s lacking. The addiction of social media, bleeding into the spiritual sphere. Witchcraft has then become a product.

If you’ve made it this far, I congratulate you. I know I haven’t been active for quite some time, but this is a subject that’s weighed on my mind recently. I use aspects of Chaos Magic heavily in my work, in the sense that I don’t feel connection to many other established practices. I therefore formulate and experiment with my own.

However, I had an experience recently, regarding the use of lucid dreaming (I’m not yet to the stage of more overt manipulation), in which an entity stated specifically to keep something to myself. 

In the age of social media and “Witchblr” as a noun for “content generating blog,” I first was surprised someone would feel the need to tell me specifically to keep something personal. In reflection, I realized this is not common practice. 

In summary: subjectivity exists in witchcraft, and even in the Pagan realm. However, without producing results, this doesn’t become a practice with a goal, but rather a practice for the sake of ritual. This isn’t a bad thing, as long as you call it what it is. Comfortable, not practical. 

#chaos magic #witchblr #astral travel #lucid dreaming