Astrid The Witch

Ant: strength, industry, community, power

Bees: messages, communication, community, family, teamwork, luck, love, hidden wisdoms

Butterflies: beauty, grace, transformation, change, growth, death and spirit work

Caterpillar: transformation, transition, change, youth, preparation, new paths and possibilities

Cricket: luck, blessings, abundance, happiness, joy, song and meditation

Dragonfly: truth, change, wisdom, learning, water and air elements, energy, speed, acceleration

Earthworms: growth, fertility, life and the underworld

Fireflies: guidance, illuminating problems, love, passion, inner self, self discovery, freedom, ancestors and spirits, often associated with the moon, fire element

Fly: travel, flight

Grasshopper: freedom, air element

Ladybug: good luck, blessing, dreams, happiness, wishes

Moth: the truth, wonder, happiness, joy, passion, sometimes associated with the moon and nighttime, light, fire element

Praying Mantis: directions, finding your way, new beginnings and paths, stillness, peace, fullfilment, spiritual perception, paitence

Scarabs: reincarnation, rebirth, creation, eternal life and immortality, creativity, astral travel

Scorpian: speed, reflexes, survival, intuition, battle and competition, aggression, protection, peercetion, offesnive magic

Snail: luck, divination, birth, meditation, peace, protection

Spiders: creativity, dream work especially nightmare prevention, mysticism, life, creation, good fortune, fate, destiny 

Wasp: warning, strength, independence, adaptablity, offensive magic, curses

So the conversations usually go:

Them: I'll pray for you!

Me: K, tell Zeus I said hi.

Them: Jesus loves you!

Me: Awwww, tell Dionysus I love him too!

Them: You'll burn in hell!

And I don't mean what trickster figures unilaterally stand for or anything, I mean their folkloric role.

One theory (because even if I'm reasonably confident in it social science is still science) is that tricksters exist to challenge the norm, not just of the social group they occupy in stories but of the people telling them. And in challenging these there are two outcomes in the story. Either they show that the norm isnt the best path, that things should indeed change, or they reinforce it.

For example: a trickster taking advantage of hospitality rules common to the society may show that you should be wary that your guests do not take advantage of your kindness. Or they may be positioned as the reason an old social norm is not the norm any longer. However they may also try to subvert something, or take advantage or something, only to be stopped through the social norms.

and then some guy named Praxiteles looks at you and goes, "I'ma make you a naked statue, but not just any statue, a naked Aphrodite statue," sells it to Knidos and calls it "Aphrodite of Knidos."

Which turns you into such a legend making so much money that your ex lovers are suing you and your current lovers are defending you, and you get acquitted by showing off your breasts to the judges to prove you have the favor of the gods:

But you showing off your bits is debatable because so many ancient people are writing stories about you, so we don't know if you showed off your bits, your lover did, the judges requested it or what but we do know you went to court.

You are literally the face of Aphrodite

and your statue is so famous that it breaks the minds of ancient Greek people who have never seen a goddess depicted naked before. Your statue also gives Praxiteles massive fame and the invention of the Praxitelan S-curve.

Your statue has a famous legend attached to it:

about a young guy who commited suicide after breaking into a temple to try to have sex with your statue and getting caught by the priest: (LINK)

Also everyone is trying to buy your statue and putting the small town that bought it on the map because every one and their mother is going to see this statue, so it becomes a big tourist attraction and a major source of income for the town.

And if that's not all, even after you DIE the Romans become OBSESSED with your statue and they make different versions and poses with your FACE on them and canonize your face as Aphrodite to future generations forever.

and you were just this poor sex worker trying to live in a world that hates you and the women who are in the same boat as you, but Aphrodite looked at you and inspired Praxiteles to be like "Yup, that's her, that's the face of Aphrodite" which proves the idea of Aphrodite being known as the oldest fate: (The one that changes your fate in an instant because going from poor to rich AF in ancient Greece for an independent woman was practically IMPOSSIBLE).

And people still believe that Aphrodite does not protect or even likes sex workers while they look at the literal face of a sex worker whenever they look at a traditional statue of Aphrodite like...

Your best is the best you can do! 🌱

Hellenic cheat sheets