21st Century Wizard

1. What do you think your d&d race would be?

2. What class?

3. What two feats would you have?

4. What has been your favorite d&d character you've played? (NPCs count for DMs)

5. Which of your d&d characters has been the most like you?

6. Which of your d&d characters has been the least like you?

7. How do you go about making a character or NPC?

8. What is the most memorable natural 20 you've ever experienced?

9. Has one of your d&d characters ever died? How?

10. What is your favorite class to play?

11. Have you ever fought a dragon?

12. Have you ever fought a beholder?

13. Have you ever fought a mind flayer?

14. Have you ever had a romance with an NPC or another PC?

15. Do you prefer to DM or play?

16. What is your favorite D&D pod/vodcast?

17. Who is your favorite "celebrity dm?"

18. Do you use props/minis/terrain in your game?

19. How did you discover D&D?

20. If you run a homebrew game, give an out of context spoiler.

21. Drop a picture of a mini you painted (if applicable)

22. Write a brief scene centered around one of your characters!

23. Do you have any art of your characters?

24. Have you ever played any TTRPGs other than D&D?

25. What is your favorite snack for d&d?

26. If you could have one potion from d&d, which one would you choose?

27. If you could cast one spell from d&d, which would you cast?

28. What is the most memorable natural 1 you've experienced?

29. Have you ever been drunk playing d&d?

30. Homebrew or prewritten?

31. Tell me about your current party!

32. Most memorable NPC you've encountered in a game you played in.

33. Do you listen to music while playing? What kinds?

34. Favorite accent to do for characters?

35. Favorite classic d&d trope

36. What was your first d&d character you made?

37. What is the most recent PC or NPC you've created?

38. Goblins or Kobolds?

39. Favorite villain you've defeated?

40. What d&d deity would you be a cleric of?

41. Give an out of context quote from one of your games!

42. Have you ever rolled turn into a potted plant on the wild magic table?

43. Minis and terrain or theater of the mind?

44. Mulligan, Mercer, Murphy, or McElroy?

45. What is the longest session you've ever had?

46. What is the longest battle you've fought or run?

47. Have you ever played at level 20?

48. Does your dm say "How do you want to do this?"

49. Have you ever played an edition other than 5th?

my being’s unready but you insisted—

come, already;

My aunt would always be on the couch, watching this or that soap opera. I can’t say I remember the program names, but the repeated peaks and valleys of emotional turmoil that came were soon ingrained within my hungry heart. To be honest, I ended up consuming very little food in these quests, and instead found myself filled with questions.

I couldn’t wrap my head around the drama that unfolded before me. The lies; the manipulation; the withholding. It just didn’t make sense. All these people seem to care a lot; a whole lot. Isn’t that all you need? Isn’t that enough? If he likes her then why isn’t he talking to her about it? If she misses him, then why won’t she just tell him? If they’re sorry, then why are they spending so much time telling everybody else but the people they’ve lost?

To have a vip seat to the inner-workings of what I believed to be adult-life was equal parts exciting and anxiety inducing. I racked my brain for a good reason as to why any person could decide that their only option was no option at all; in the moments that it looked like their desire burned hottest.

I ached for these actresses and actors; hoped for resolution; promised myself that I would always find my own solution. I won’t give up so easy. It’s simple: if you long for something, and there’s still an ounce of a chance, fight for it.

And throughout my life, that’s what I’ve done. I’ve spent so many endings questioning, challenging, gripping. Refusing to give in, I’d find the tiniest little cracks and fit myself into them. I’d stretch any and everything as far as I could: a conversation; my capacity; ultimately — the truth. All in the name of love; how I believed to be the most courageous way to hold it. I had decided long ago that this must be the path to connection, because the alternative was so obviously filled with heartache, loss, and regret.

But, I missed something crucial.

Among all those relationships shared, explored, and lost in the matter of 12-16 episodes each season, there’s one devastatingly important relationship I never saw.

The twist and turns of the main characters’ life were always dependent upon a select and often changing group of their peers, lovers, and family. I never questioned this dynamic, it seemed natural. Life and love are about connecting; the only place to find and forge that is with others.

Lately, I’ve found myself wrestling with a follow-up question to all those I had asked years ago: what about the relationship you share with yourself? Like the main characters, or what I comprehended of their stories as a four year old, this question never once struck me. Until the last few years of my life, all the relationships I found myself poring over were external.

All the connection I ever considered to be important, was external.

It’s been quite the journey — quest — realizing and rebuilding the way I approach and navigate connection. Bringing myself into the equation seems so achingly obvious now, yet before, was easily forgotten as a necessary component. And still, is something I experience as new as I build and explore with others.

But, I think I’m onto something.

In the beginning of this quest, I found myself on an unfamiliar path that I was often convinced to be far more complicated than necessary. I mean, one person was tough enough; now I was considering another? Yet, as I’ve traveled deeper, I’ve been able to recognize more and more of the twists and turns I’ve found myself within. I’ve become more patient; more kind; more honest; more connected.

Before, when things were still mainly external, I was so terrified that a life inside would keep me from what existed externally. Now I find myself sharing more, because I have more of myself.

Internally, I’ve built trust, reverence, intimacy, and contentment. Externally, I don’t exist only to receive. I don’t walk only to find. I don’t share only to sustain.

Lately, I’m more with others not because I’ve courageously decided to forget myself, but because I am with myself.

Every once in awhile I am met with an acronym for a concept that is in my practice, but the problem is I’m not too good at remembering acronyms. So, I decided to make a list of acronyms for magickal concepts to help me remember, and maybe some of you to also remember these acronyms. If I missed some which I probably will feel free to reblog, and add them.

List Of Acronyms For Magickal Concepts

AP - Astral projection

AB - Astral Body

APT - Astral Projected Travel

OBE, or OOBE - out-of-body experience

ASE - All Seeing Eye

LBRP - Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram

LBRH - Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram

GBR - Gnostic Banishing Ritual

IOT - Illuminates of Thantateros

OTO - Ordo Templi Orientis

HOGD - hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

TK - Telekinesis

PK - Psychokinesis

ESP - Extra sensual perception

SG - spirit guide

AA - ArchAngel

HP - High Priest

HPS - High Priestess

CM - Chaos Magick

COSP - Cross of St. Peter

FS - Familiar spirit

LOK - Law Of Knowledge

LOSK - Law Of Self-Knowledge

LOCE - Law Of Cause & Effect

LOSY - Law Of Synchronicity

LOA - Law Of Association

LOSI - Law Of Similarity

LOPA - Law Of Positive Attraction

LONA - Law Of Negative Attraction

LON - Law Of Names

LOWOP - Law Of Words Of Power

LOP - Law Of Personification

LOIN - Law Of Invocation

LOE - Law Of Evocation

LOI - Law Of Identification

LOID - Law Of Infinite Data

LOFS - Law Of Finite Senses

LOPU - Law Of Personal Universes

LOIU - Law Of Infinite Universes

LOPR - Law Of Pragmatism

LOC - Law of contagion

LOTF - Law Of True Falsehoods

LOSYN - Law Of Synthesis

LOO - Law Of Opposites

LODB - Law Of Dynamic Balance

LOPE - Law Of Perversity

LOU - Law Of Unity

NT - New Thought

PA - Power Animal

AOTM - Alphabet of the Magi

AS - Ancestral Spirit

BR - Banishing Ritual

BOT - Book of Thoth

COS - Church of Satan

EVP - Electronic Voice Phenomena

EMF - Electromagnetic Field

ES - Empath Sickness

EM - Energy Manipulation

EW - Energy Work

EV - Energy Vampire

MOTB - Mark of the Beast

WMT - Western Magickal Tradition

EMT - Eastern Magickal Tradition

NMS - Native American Spirituality

NCTT - Non-Contact Therapeutic Touch

ONA - Order of the Nine Angles

PLR - Past Life Regression

PR - Psychic Reading

RV - Remote Viewing

SW - Shadow work

TOL - Tree of Life

TBOTL - The Book of the Law

AAS - Ausar Auset Society

CTQ - Calling the Quarters

CM - Ceremonial Magick

FM - Folk Magick

EBS - Earth Based Spirituality

EBR - Earth Based Religion

HM - High Magick

LM - Low Magick

M&P - Mortar and Pestle

LD - Lucid Dream

WILD - Wake Induced Lucid Dream

SS - Sacred Space

AOA - Age of Aquarius

GA - Guardian Angel

HS - Higher Self

LHP - Left-hand path

RHP - Right-hand path

COP - Cone Of Power

AR - Akashic Records

TOTA - Triangle Of The Art

AOD - Alphabet of Desire

AM - Ascended Master

AW - Automatic Writing

HF - Handfasting

KJB - King James Bible

NDE - Near Death Experience

NA - New Age

WC - Witchcraft

DDM - Drawing Down the Moon

DDS - Drawing Down the sun

WOTY - Wheel of the Year

BOS - Book of Shadows

BOI - Book of Illuminations

BOL - Book of Light

TFL - Threefold Law

TRT - Tarot

MGK - Magick

PGN - Pagan

BTW - British Traditional Wicca

WR - The Wiccan Rede

SMIB - So Mote It Be

BB - Blessed Be

UPG - Unverified Personal Gnosis

SPG - Shared Personal Gnosis

What if supernatural creatures don’t exist anymore? What if they did once, but through the years, they slowly mixed in with humans?

You can see the blood of fairies in the way a ballet dancer hovers in mid air before he or she hits the ground. You can see it in the way that middle school girl never forgets when someone makes her a promise. You can see it in how that one little boy in the kindergarten class seems more comfortable in the forest on that field trip than the others.

You can see the blood of dryads in hikers who never trip over roots. You can see it in that suburban grandmother never lets any of her garden die. You can see it in that one kid who climbs a tree faster than his friends, barely looking at the branches as he goes.

You can see the blood of naiads in the way a professional swimmer seems to command the water to help them. You can see it in how a cross country runner needs a water break more often than his teammates. You can see it in the way that one girl in your class always has a water bottle on her desk.

You can see the blood of mermaids in a surfer who can be tossed around underwater for a long time without drowning. You can see it in a teenage boy who doesn’t have to pretend to be unbothered by the pressure when he races his friends to the bottom of a swimming pool. You can see it in the little girl who wades into every stream she sees on a hike without quite knowing why.

You can see the blood of sirens in people who never have a problem with getting people to date them. You can see it in that soprano who can hit notes most of her fellows can only dream of. You can see it in the camp counselor who all the straight girls have a crush on, who can play guitar and sing better than any of the others.

You can see the blood of shapeshifters in the way an actor adjusts their personality to become their character with scary accuracy. You can see it in the subconscious, barely noticeable changes a tween girl’s eyes make to match her outfit better. You can see it in the way you always lose that one friend in a crowd if you’re not careful, because he’s just too good at blending in.

People who carry the blood of werewolves don’t change with the full moon anymore, but you can still see it in the way your best friend always knows something is wrong, though even they don’t know they’re smelling the changes in your body chemistry. You can see it in the way that one guy always seems to eat more than the reasonable amount of red meat at an all-you-can-eat buffet. You can see it in the way that one werido never has a problem when the teacher turns off the lights before a PowerPoint presentation because her eyes adjust quicker and better than yours.

Men’s style at http://destijlco.tumblr.com 

No. 426

Men’s Look

“Never underestimate the power of a simple tool.”

No. 417