Bees and Trees

Before I can determine the appropriate substitution for something in a spell, I have to know the purpose of the spell and what correspondence system the originator of the spell was following. I also need to know the purpose of the item in the spell. Then I can determine if I’m doing a simple swap out or if I might as well sit down and write a spell of my own to work with what I have. 

If I can’t determine the system used, I should either work the spell as is or not work the spell if I don’t trust the process. It’s like baking - if you substitute more flour for baking powder because they are both white, you won’t get the right result. Substitute applesauce for bananas and you don’t get banana bread, but you might get a tasty applesauce bread. 

I don’t trust the “X substitutes for any Y” substitutions. Now you can usually substitute a white candle for any color candle by sticking it in a candle holder of the appropriate color or otherwise bringing the color to the candle. (The fantastic availability of all sorts of candle colors is a more modern convenience.) But rosemary is aligned with the sun. Good for protection and prosperity. Not good at all in a spell that needs the Moon influence. Or Venus. Or well, maybe Jupiter. But otherwise, I’m going to find a plant for the influence I need. Quartz crystal is an amplifier, so good in the sense that it can amplify the spell. But I’m not going to consider it a substitute for a stone for Mercury or Venus. I’m going to go find something else that is appropriate to that work. 

Personal correspondences - I see a lot of people developing their own correspondences. This is great. I have my own list of correspondences that I know work for my personal work. But they are personal. Which means if I hand off a spell to you based on my relationships with certain plants or stone, it may not work for you because you don’t have the same relationship. 

Saying that life is meaningless is like stepping into a wilderness and saying there is no shelter.

The fact that we have the ability and inclination to build shelter, to make meaning, is a message from the universe.

I’m not an expert on folklore or Judaica, but I am a Jew who has taken some classes in European folklore, so I have a couple thoughts on this. “Goblin” is a generic term to refer to a lot of different mythical creatures, some of them mischievous, some of them friendly, some of them evil. Some goblins do share traits with antisemitic stereotypes (lookin’ at you, JKR … and also a lot of modern RPGs), and sometimes that is intentional antisemitism on the part of the people telling the stories.

But the term is still very, very broad, and there are so many different types of creatures that are called “goblins” that they can’t all be said to represent an antisemitic stereotype.

Shakespeare’s Puck is a hobgoblin, for example, and this was a book I read as a kid and enjoyed:

“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.” -Wendell Berry

In rebuilding a relationship with the natural environment, I realized everything starts and ends with soil. And in a pantheon of natural forces, soil transcends, the archetype of a deity of the dead and the underworld

It’s not just dirt, Soil is a collective being. In just one gram of soil can live 10 million bacteria [x]. Soil is home to the unseen. In its dark depths lives all sorts of minerals, microbes, fungi, and small creatures essential to our existence, but mostly out of view. These minions of the soil toil as the Great Decomposer. From fallen leaves, animal droppings, to the leftover kill of the coyote, beetles and bugs: in a great orchestration the collective soil transmutes dead matter into the nutrients for life. Working together the soil makes this life force available and assists in delivering it with the help of mycorrhizal relationships and others. Most all death (sans some humans) will meet soil in one sense or another and it is soil that is responsible for managing the dead, the transition to the afterlife, and offers possibly of resurrection.

My relationship with soil is quite intense and personal. I learned from a school of gardening that focuses on building and raising soil using no-till techniques to harbor a thriving soil community and thus a more productive garden. My wealth and wellbeing comes from the soil, in the form of food, and I n exchange it must be treated with respect. Much of my time is spent with the soil, working with compost, collecting mulch, cleaning animal manure, and gardening of course. This time spent is offering dedication to the soil which facilitates learning it’s lessons

The soil also plays an honored role when it comes to burying the remains of our animals. We try to use every last gift they bless us with but there are always unusable parts that are offered to the soil and we let it work its magic. The soil takes the bones and remains and transfers them to new life.

Burial plays a crucial role in my path: a way to give offerings to the land and harnessed as a useful form of magic. A direct connection to the soil, the underworld, and unseen forces. Along with bones, herbs, roots, charms, other gifts and ingredients (all safe for the earth) are buried and used to form bonds with these entities and execute spells and rituals.

For those of you who are wondering who else the original tweet is referring to, they are talking about Margaret Atwood, a very prominent feminist author (probably best known for The Handmaid’s Tale). Because she is a feminist the terfs assumed that she’d naturally side with them, and it came as a massive shock (for some reason) when she very publicly opposed and humiliated all of  terfdom.

But yeah I don’t know how terfs can possibly get through Discworld books without any kind of self-awareness but apparently they do. I’ve also seen them talking about how the Wives in the Handmaid’s Tale are all trans women (solely based on the fact that they are infertile). If you know anything about the plot or even the basic premise you’ll know how ludicrous that suggestion is.

Also there’s this

My pal and I have a good relationship bc we work at it.

Them: *uses the language of boundaries to get me to drop a discussion about where a piece of furniture could go for a party*

Me a while later: hey I noticed this is what you said earlier and it felt like you used the language of having a boundary just to get me to shut up

Them: I think I did do that- *explains they have a lot of feelings unrelated to me about the piece of furniture and we're feeling overwhelmed*

There's no such thing as "healthy people act this way with emotions". We all process. Many of us deflect or hide or aren't even aware of what our root issue is.

I needed time to be able to bring up an upsetting interaction we had. They needed some feedback to recognize there was something else going on.

It was tempting to leave it alone and just sit in how I was harmed and develope narratives of resentment (mine for them and them for me).

Be brave. Ask for clarity "I didn't like this; was anything going on for you?".

It's a necessary skill to relationship anarchy to see people as their own whole cosmos.

Even if there's a person you spend a large amount of time with, who you have great emotional and 'i also live many parts of your life with you' intmacies with.