alest

Make yourself comfortable, whether it's laying down or sitting or whichever position suits you best. Take a deep breath and visualise a tap root growing down from the bottom of your spine and deep into the ground. Breathe out through it and feel the roots spread and reach deeper. Take a breath through the roots, and feel the breath travel up your spine and into the crown of your head. Now visualise branches spreading from the top of your head into the sky, first large ones and then thinner and thinner reaching ever upwards . Exhale through the branches and then inhale through them. Feel the breath travel down your spine and into the roots, then out into the ground. Breathe in through the roots. Breathe out through the branches.

Reverse direction and keep moving your breath up and down for as long as you like, grounding yourself and cleansing the stale energies within you.

It’s all so natural too: son, big man, young man…

We’ve never talked about it. He’s the only one who hasn’t pushed for details. He just accepted it and carried on because it’s not a huge deal.

But I now have a chance to talk about who my grandfather is. 

You see, I find it interesting that you claim the only way my 90yr old grandfather could possibly be so accepting is if he was dying of one of the most horrible diseases known to man, a condition which eats your brain from the inside out and turns you in an angry, scared shell of the child you once were while your family has to grieve you long before you’re dead. 

You find it easier - and evidently prefer - to believe that to accept me, my grandfather must have Alzheimer’s rather than any other reason. 

Why is that easier to believe than a man who lived through (not was born during, not was around for, lived through) the Second World War and the aftermath, seeing footage of the concentration camps and meeting refugees would be accepting? 

A poor builder and a farmer who worked alongside queer men and deaf men and the few people of colour in Northern Ireland in the 1950s and was himself barred from many places of employment and education due to his religion?

This man, whose oldest son was born the year the British army began occupying his country, who lived through the Troubles and was automatically considered suspicious and dangerous through an incident of birth? A man who helped raise six children - most of them boys and therefore in great danger of the army turning their guns on them for playing kid-games - in a time of civil war where it didn’t seem to matter which side you were on, the bombs and shootings could get you either way? A man who once was taken hostage by the IRA? 

My grandfather’s oldest son - my dad - was the first in his family to go to university and there he met and fell in love with a Protestant woman. This was before the Good Friday Agreement, when the civil war was still happening, and if my grandparents had a problem with it - they never let said to my mum. 

(My grandpa and my mum don’t really get along, but that’s more to do with me being a premature baby and tensions over my survival and disagreements on how to look after me. My mum and my Nana? Thick as thieves.) 

They certainly never let it slip to us when we came along because it wasn’t important anymore that we were something many people in Northern Ireland would have preferred to not exist. It didn’t matter. 

He voted in the Good Friday Agreement in hopes of stopping the conflict. He spent a lot of time listening to me about the bullying I was facing for being - unbeknownst to me at the time - queer and disabled. He just told me that being happy was far more important. 

Being trans? It does not matter. Of course it doesn’t matter to him because he’s seen worse things in the world. 

He’s ninety years old. He’s still out on the farm, he’s still studying history, he’s still sharp as fuck. I’ve seen someone die of Alzheimer's. I know every bit of it and it’s not him. Besides, I’ve not medically transitioned in anyway yet. He’s only seen me presenting fully masc for six days in person. Two years in total. If he had Alzheimer’s he’d be calling me by my deadname and using she/her. 

And he’s not unusual. Outside of your echo chamber, most people are fine with trans people. Most people don’t care. Most people are accepting. They may not understand, they may not use the right words, but they’re accepting. 

I do find it interesting that once again the TERF tactic is try and wrestle autonomy and self-control away from people who don’t follow your bigoted stances. Autistics must be being manipulated. Trans men are clearly confused little girls. Children obviously can’t understand their own minds and bodies. 

My grandfather must have Alzheimer's. 

Of course my view of a world I’ve seen in a Tumblr textpost must be more correct than the reality everyone else lives in. 

She was born in 1940 in Spain. She was sent to catholic school then married a man and came to the us in the 60s.

She’s had a long list of lovers, both men and women.

She doesn’t understand my gender. But she slips up less than almost anyone in my immediate family. I’m her grandson, su hijo, her handsome man.

People love saying that it’s Alzheimers or dementia or something else fucking with her memory. But she still speaks English and spanish perfectly (she has never ever misgendered me in spanish). She can get up and down stairs. She can read and watch tv and understand.

Old people can be accepting and loving and caring without understanding.

Before my mom really came around, before my dad stopped talking about how much he didn't get it, she accepted me.

Why in the hell would I say this? It's simple, dear friends: it could hopefully show them that, hey, gods are actually a lot more chill and willing to help than mainstream paganism and polytheism would have us believe.

We're approaching Samhain so a good time to resurface this one because every year people ask - but what if my ancestors were terrible people?

So a quick rundown of other types of ancestors that we can work with. (The terms aren't mine but rather used in the community. They should help if you want to find more info on a specific type to work with.)

Ancestors of Flesh and Blood are biological ancestors (shared DNA)

Ancestors of Milk and Honey are those who nourish us (adoptive ancestors)

Ancestors of Bone are the ancestors of the land (bones of the earth connection)

Ancestors of Breath and Bread are those we share a vocation, craft or interest with.

-Make Soul Cakes

-Get Into Costume

-Leave an offering to your deity or ancestors

-Go for a walk

-Dance

-Build A Bonfire

-Visit a cemetery

-Set up a Samhain Altar

-Host A Dumb Supper

Other pantheons might be for closed practices etc., so let’s be respectful. Remember, in some practices you do actually need a calling/initiation to partake.

-Pray to them or just just talk with them and tell them about your day

-Light a candle and say your thanks

-Offer your meal/snack to them or bake/cook with them or for them

-Watch a movie in their honor

-Offer your morning drink to them or make a cup for them

-Assign them a plant and take care of it as a devotion to them

-Listen to music that reminds you of them

-Say good morning/good night

-Thank them for the things you see that you consider beautiful

Charms: A charm's main magical purpose is to bring about luck, happiness, love, good fortune, health, etc. It isn't strong magic, but it's something. Ex.: "See a penny, pick it up, and all the day you'll have good luck", that's a charm and it's said by school children all the time. It's an object that is spoken over to give it a little bit of magic. It doesn't have to rhyme, and it can be whispered, but it can help bring about a minor magical intention. (It's like the first-level armor you get in a video game. It's not strong, but it helps)

Enchantments: Enchantments are usually worn or carried and the objects are themselves magic. They are wearable or portable spells that effect the wearer/carrier. They can have a much larger effect than charms can, however, they are a bit more complex in the making - creating a spell, speaking over it, and whatnot.

Enchantment hows and whys can be found here.

Amulets Amulets are magical objects that protect people from evil spirits, negative energy, disease or illness, general harm, bad luck, etc. People believe that the amulet has some kind of magical power that protects the person possessing the charm.

Amulets are all different types, which includes herbs, stone, garlic, coal, horseshoes, plant or animal parts, coins, or any other metals. Amulets also include various signs and symbols. Amulets can be of the general type or can be personalized or changed according to the person going to use them.

It is often used in the form of jewelry so that it stays within the person every time and the chances of losing it becomes negligible. Amulets are natural objects and do not harm anyone. They improve the quality of life of a person having it as they satisfy the natural desired of the individual.

Talismans Talismans are magical objects supposed to give strength and power to the person possessing them. People also believe that it provides some kind of magical abilities to the person having it.

Talismans are natural amplifiers. They boost up the energy and empower the people leading them to make the right choices. Talisman is usually in a single piece, made up of gemstone or any other crystals. Talisman is a magical charm that can be customized or changed according to the person.

Do keep in mind! The basics are important!

WARNING long post ahead

Introduction

⚝ Your name

⚝ Your pronouns

⚝ How long you've been practicing

⚝ Your sun, moon and rising sign

⚝ Birth time (if applicable)

⚝ Your path (if you have a specific path)

⚝ Deities you worship/work with (if applicable)

⚝ Birth tarot card

⚝ Birth chart

How You Define Witchcraft/Magic(k)

Differences Between Wicca, Paganism, Witchcraft, Satanism, Luciferianism

The Elements

⚝ Their directions

⚝ Deities associated

⚝ Symbols

⚝ Genders associated

⚝ Seasons

Meditation/Mudras

⚝ Note: Include what culture Mudras originated from!

Casting Circles

Grounding

Omens/Good Luck/Bad Luck/Superstitions

Charging/Activating/Cleansing

Summary of The Salem Witch Trials

Folklore in Your State/Country

Protection

Warding

Different Types of Divination

Sigils

Runes

Talismans

Types of Spells

⚝ Note: I don't mean different spells, I mean different TYPES of spells. Such as spell jars, word spells, etc.

Moon Cycles

Astrology

⚝ Note: By this I mean the basics of astrology. Astrology is a lot deeper than a lotta people realize, so fitting it all in a grimoire/BOS would be almost impossible lmao

Altars

Color Correspondences

⚝ Note: I often like to refer to psychology and how colors affect the brain

List of Closed Practices

Symbols in Witchcraft

Herb Correspondences

Crystals + Crystal Grids

⚝ Examples: What crystals you can put into water, what damages crystals, where they are native to, their spiritual properties, etc.

Different Pantheons/Mythologies Across Different Cultures

Auras

Numerology

⚝ Note: NOT JUST ANGEL NUMBERS

Tarot/Oracle Spreads

Affirmations

Everyday Glamor Magic(k)

List of Books You Want/Authors You Like

Strange Dreams

Chakras

⚝ Note: Include what cultures Chakras came from

Recipes

Holidays

What Each Day of the Week Represents

What Each Month Represents

What You Believe to Happen After Death

Types of Spiritual Entities

⚝ Examples: The Fae, Tulpa, Spirit Guides, etc.

⚝ You can also include Cryptids if you are interested in those!

Sacred Geometry

Flame Candle Reading

⚝ Note: Don't stare at candle flames for too long!