Echoed voices in the night

Page 50: Punt kick the journal into the middle of a field and do your ritual wherever it lands then write about how it went

-drip wax on this page, write down correspondences.

-press healing herbs here. press luck herbs there.

-dip this page in full moon-charged water. put it in your wallet.

-wrap a rose quartz in this page and put it under your pillow tonight.

-write a wish on this page, fill it with your intent, and burn it.

-use this page to brainstorm sigils

-write down a blessing here. write down a curse there.

-rub different kinds of dirt here and write down where they’re all from.

-meditate on this page, write down what comes to you.

Write down your favourite guises for the fair folk here

Put this page in a jar and cover with salt

Write down shufflemancy lyrics here

Make a collage themed on your favourite celebration

Use this page to write down new moon intentions

Trace your favourite crystals and rocks on this page

Write down weird old names for herbs on this page

I’m making my own wreck this grimoire!!! These two pages are the inside covers, once I get home I’m going to make a cover from recycled cardboard, bind all the pages, then glue these two to the cardboard!:)

2. Press your favorite flower here, and write down its correspondences.

3. Drip different colored wax here, and write down the color meaning.

4. Press healing herbs here, write their names and uses. If needed, use them, and replace.

5. Rub different dirts here and say where you got them, and their uses.

6. Make full moon water. Write a spell for growth on this page. Dip this page in the full moon water, and when it dries keep the spell near you, in your wallet, purse, backpack.

7. Fold this page into an envelope and put lucky herbs inside. Write a luck spell on the front of the envelope, imbue your intent, and then burn the envelope.

8. Write a song or poem that is important for your craft. Write your Craft playlist.

9. Make sigil components on this page.

10. Make sigils on this one.

11. Write a love spell. Use this page to wrap up a rose quartz and sleep with it under your pillow.

12. Make a collage of something important in your craft – nature, the moon, technology, etc.

13. Meditate on this blank page, or a scrying mirror, or a crystal, and write down what you see.

14. Make a pendulum circle, including Yes, No, and Maybe in different directions. Ask questions, and write down the answers. You can make a pendulum out of a needle and thread, and put the needle in this page to keep it safe.

15. Write a glamour spell, and mark this page with whatever you will use for the glamour – lipstick, paint, dirt.

16. Throw tea or coffee onto this page. Fold in half to make a print. Read the image and write down what you see.

17. Write a banishing spell. Bury this page in a jar of salt, and seal it with wax. Put in a dark place.

18. Make a collage of your favorite celebration, and use it as altar décor or wall art. Make a collage for all celebrations, if you want.

19. Make new moon water. Write a spell for a fresh start on this page. Dip this page in the new moon water, and when it dries burn it.

20. Draw herbs and write correspondences.

21. Draw crystals and write correspondences.

22. Draw astrological signs and write down traits.

23. Look up your own birth chart and write down all information. Write down what all of the positions mean. If you have to look something up, write down what that means too.

24. Use a couple pages as a dream journal – write down dreams when you have them, and analyze them. Write down what the imagery means to make a sort of personalized dream glossary.

25. Draw herbs and crystals you use the most and write down their correspondences.

26. Write a spell for your garden or houseplants for growth – or, write a spell for personal growth. Make a page into an envelope. Put in your earth-friendly ingredients and the spell, and bury it in your garden, in a pot, or near your home. For added growth, put in some seeds of local flowers. Remember this spot. It’s your natural altar now.

the website at the bottom of this infographic has more information 💜 

they also just created a twitter yesterday, I believe:

The book in question:

Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

by Caroline Criado Perez

10 Ways to Read a 5-Card Tarot Spread

1) IMPRESSION

What does one glimpse tell you?

No one looks happy in this spread. The man in the Nine of Wands is worried. The heart in the Three of Swords is hurt. The guy in the Seven of Swords is cautious. The royal in the Four of Pentacles is tense. The boy in the Four of Cups is bored. So whatever the question is, the answer is not good.

2) PROGRESSION

Read the cards from left to right.

You are currently grieving (Five of Cups). But with the help of a feminine figure (Queen of Cups), passion will enter your life once more (Ace of Wands), and you will have something to celebrate (Three of Cups). Your broken heart will not be so broken anymore (Three of Swords reversed).

3) ARCANA

Observe which arcana dominates.

Four out of five cards belong to the Major Arcana. One Major and one Minor combine to create negativity (The Tower + Nine of Swords). But three Majors blend to cancel that out (The Hanged Man reversed + The Magician + The Sun). Whatever sadness there is right now will soon be replaced with joy.

4) SUITS

See which suit is present and which is not.

Wands and Pentacles share prominence with two each. A Cups card is there too. There are no Swords, which represent our thoughts. Thus, this situation has a lot of passion (Wands) and stability (Pentacles), as well as a bit of emotion (Cups). Even better, there is no anxiety and overthinking (Swords) involved.

5) COLORS

Use color psychology.

This spread is dominated by blacks and grays. Even though the Five of Swords says “Keep fighting” and the last two cards are positive (Four of Swords + Three of Pentacles = harmonious relationships), there is a darkness and a dullness that surrounds this situation.

6) NUMBERS

Use numerology.

You have one zero, two Aces, and two Twos. Zero means a new start. This is reinforced by the Aces, which are equivalent to the number one – a symbol of beginnings. And number two represents partnerships. Therefore, a new partnership with a new person is predicted to come into your life.

7) SYMBOLS

Look at the symbols on the cards.

That is Apollo on his chariot (The Chariot), ruler of the Sun (The Sun), which in turn rules Leo, who is represented by Strength. Leo’s symbol, the lion, even appears in the last two cards – bottom right in the Wheel of Fortune, and on top in the Two of Cups. Obviously, a Leo will play a huge role in your life.

8) ASTROLOGY

Use the cards’ astrological associations.

The Emperor and the Queen of Wands both represent Aries. The Tower is Mars, ruler of Aries. The Hierophant and the King of Pentacles both represent Taurus. Therefore, this spread is speaking of a connection between an Aries and a Taurus, or just one person who is on the cusp of these signs.

9) DIRECTION

See where the cards are facing.

Four out of five are looking towards The Devil. The King of Cups, The World, The Hermit and The Fool are all observing him. So you are being warned against an abusive person or an oppressive situation. Or perhaps you are simply being told that your soulmate is a Capricorn, the sign associated with this card.

10) INTUITION

Listen to what your gut is telling you.

Within only a few years, we will stop knowing what the rate of sex-selective abortion of female fetuses is, or in what regions those rates are highest.

Within a few years, places that usually show a skewed sex ratio of adults due to highly gendered workplaces (for example, cities with oilfields and many temporary male workers, or capital cities with many women in low-level government jobs) will not be able to plan or budget according to known factors—for example, planning for female or male-specific healthcare, or prisons. 

Within 10 or so years, we will lack any verifiable data on the oppression of women and girls. We will not know if they are underrepresented or overrepresented in certain jobs, we will not know what the wage gap is (or if it exists), and we will not be able to make data-based arguments for programs that support women and girls.

Within 20+ years, we will no longer even have verified proof that the sex ratio of human beings, is, on average, roughly 52:50 females to males, with male infants slightly outpopulating female infants, and female elderly people being much more populous than male elderly people.

This means that MRAs will finally achieve their dream—being able to make the spurious argument that, for example, women are not underrepresented in the highest levels of corporate and governmental power. Maybe women really are just 10% of the overall population, so it makes sense that they are 10% of XYZ’s board of directors, or cabinet ministers. Maybe women are actually dramatically, rather than slightly, overrepresented in certain fields (like law school), so we need to do affirmative action for males.

Prison planning will now be very difficult for all cities, not just the ones with highly dynamic sex ratios and temporary workforces. Likely, planners will just save money by building very few female prisons, and overcrowding them if necessary. This is assuming that male and female prisons are still segregated at all, though. If, in the MOGAI hell world, we decide to do mixed-sex prisons, female prisoners will likely commit suicide before or after being subjected to multiple sexual assaults a day, and constant harassment.

Data on male violence against women will become nonexistent. We will only have statistics about human violence against humans, which makes it difficult to know which humans need a special shelter with a secret address and a detailed plan to escape another human.

Obviously, the problems with health care planning will be tremendous. Even assuming that individuals still have proof of their sex, but that sex is not recorded on mandatory census forms, accuracy in allocating funds to sex-specific healthcare needs will be drastically reduced by lack of accurate data.

Census companies will take advantage of the growing corporate demand for census data. However, their data will be fractured, market-based, and targeted only at specific consumer populations. (For example, what percentage of people in income bracket $25-50,000 and neighbourhood LMN are male and female?) Some companies will deliberately engage in biased data-collection processes in order to skew data in the way their commissioning company wants.

Companies competing for government contracts will use skewed and dishonest private data sets to make it look like their particular services are absolutely necessary and urgent.

lupron puts you into premature menopause. it tricks your body into thinking it’s reached 40-50 and so drastically lowers your reproductive hormones and stops your hormone cycles. doctors are putting little girls and boys through menopause. it doesn’t stop your aging, it doesn’t freeze you in time, you don’t stay 12, your endocrine system ages 30-40 years in an instant

dialogue between an AI and a poet

If it’s so chill and awesome then why isn’t it WOMEN CHOKING MALES?!?!?

Anyway the theory:

Men’s sexual response is different from women. I’m not a man but let’s face it they like to talk about it so we have a good idea. It’s been proved they have fewer nerve endings on their cock than we do on our clitoris. Men who are circumcised have fewer still.

Men who masturbate excessively and/or who use porn compulsively (which is a great number of men now) lose feeling in their penis and have to stimulate it much more forcefully than a woman’s vagina ever could (this is known as death grip).

Additionally, ever since the sexual revolution and the Masters and Johnson nonsense, men have been told that women both are sexual beings like them who have superior orgasms and who also fake orgasms and don’t enjoy sex. In previous decades there was an obsessive search for how to get women to have multiple orgasms, or at least to orgasm on demand. The current equivalent is the obsession with getting women to squirt (it’s visual proof of something, and men like that, plus it reminds them of themselves).

Anecdotal evidence from older straight women suggests before the porn explosion men in general tried to be competent in bed in order to secure sex in the future and as a source of pride. Now there are issues with this too, as any anorgasmic woman with an ego-bruised male partner will attest. But in general there was a sense that although men were suspicious of orgasms being fake, they still considered being a good lover as a sign of manhood.

The porn explosion changed that, in several ways. Being able to examine women at an almost gynaecological level to see what happens when an orgasm is real or faked meant the nagging doubts about women’s orgasms were amplified. Women could be observed being penetrated by the most enormous penises, in the roughest ways, and still no orgasm. Worse, in many cases the woman seemed entirely unaffected. Now we know that’s because of numbing creams and drugs, but to the male viewers it hints at an insatiability of the vagina. No matter what you throw at it she looks bored! Therefore all the orgasms are either fake or brought on by something else. You see where I’m going with this?

Anal.

Men with normal sexual response and feeling in their penis can orgasm really well during vaginal intercourse. There’s nothing intrinsically inferior or unsuitable, even post partum. We know vaginas stretch and return and balloon when aroused etc etc. A straight man doesn’t “need” an anus to stimulate his penis because the anus is somehow superior. So where did all the anal come from?

Pain. Women find it much more difficult to look bored when something is penetrating their anus. It is uncomfortable, or painful in many cases. Unlike with vaginas, there can be actual physical damage caused by penetration so all the tropes about tightness, first time, virginity - and conversely overuse, slackness, etc play out much more with anal sex particularly in porn.

Who masturbates to rosebudding if not men with deep seated fear and hatred of women’s sexuality? If she’s screaming she feels it. If she’s crying she’s not bored. He can be satisfied there’s no fakery and he isn’t being laughed at.

So, strangulation. It’s proponents talk of intensity, trust, intimacy and the physical sensation of oxygen deprivation especially at point of orgasm. Great, except for two things: it really can cause death or brain damage quite easily, and as mentioned above, it’s a one way street.

So how come men, who have given up on the quest to be the perfect lover and now focus on their own sexual response, the aesthetics and the depravity (again driven by the porn explosion whereby overuse of “normal” porn leads men to seek out more violent porn for the novelty factor) now want to intensify women’s orgasms by strangling them?

Well again there’s nothing to suggest that despite what they might say, men are suddenly interested in getting women to come. However there is another physical response involved in strangulation, and it’s something women who get strangled all the time can’t fake or stop happening, and that’s the flash of fear and panic that happens when a human realises she can’t breathe.

Going back to the painal phenomenon the look of terror, no matter how fleeting, is also real and can also be relied upon. The man once again knows her responses are real and he is creating them. He might well have also fetishised women’s pain and fear from porn use too.

There have always been perverts, but in the past when pornography was not available men were much much less likely to try to have anal sex or to strangle their wives (while having sex - they still beat them when they were angry of course).

But rather than it being a copycat behaviour, it’s more driven by performance anxiety and a need to compete with other men. Think about how many erect cocks and naked men fucking the average straight 25 year old man has seen now versus how many he would have seen pre porn explosion. Also, humans are much more savvy in terms of advertising. It’s no longer enough to advertise the existence of a product, its price and its benefits, there is now often a psychological appeal - this will make you sexy, this will make you morally pure, this proves your superior intelligence, this is rare and shows your discernment.

You’re absolutely into something. The pieces add up and it makes too much sense to be a weird coincidence or fringe conspiracy theory. I feel sick thinking about it, but it rings with so much truth there’s a clarity.

mormons 18-24 after they go through their endowment ceremony and receive their new name and secret clothing and learn the secret handshakes and passwords and realize everyone around them has been secretly doing this the whole time and now theyre going to be sent away from their family for 2 years where they will literally not be allowed to be alone for 1 second of the day except to go to the bathroom and they have no idea how to get out of what they just got into

then if youre a boy and u turn 18 they’re like wow amazing!!! you get to go on a mission and be like all the great men around you!! and now you get to go through the temple! so #blessed!

and then you go through the temple and all the above mentioned SECRET CULTY SHIT happens (EXPLANATION HERE http://mormoncurtain.infymus.com/topic_templeceremonies.html) and youre shipped off to a strange place where everything you eat, wear, go, listen to and do is controlled, and you’re not allowed to talk to your family or friends (except through a once-a-week email) and you literally are being watched by your companion at all. times. 

Leaving is such an isolating experience. No one inside wants anything to do with you anymore and no one outside understands the scale of messed up that Mormonism is. Like it’s easy to point and laugh at the ridiculousness, but it’s literally a cult. There’s so much trauma involved and there’s trauma in leaving.

People on the outside don’t understand how hard it is to leave. I grew up where all my friends were catholic and are no longer religious and they’re like “well everyone hates church, you just stop going” but Mormonism isn’t like that at all. For starters I had to get a lawyer involved to leave and then the ostracization from the entire community that nurtured me growing up was just the cherry on top. It’s effectively being shunned. Everyone you were forced to call sister and brother growing up no longer wants anything to do with you. And you deserve it, because you shouldn’t have fallen for the anti-Mormon lies.

If you know you’re ready to leave, use quitmormon.com. It’s run by the guy from reddit who is now famous in exmormon circles for offering absolutely free legal services to anybody who needs help leaving. You can give your church id number if you know it, but it’s not required (I never memorized mine, and I sure wasn’t going to ask for it). He takes care of everything. This keeps TSCC (the so-called church) from getting all your latest info and keeps them from hassling you or harassing you. They have to talk to your lawyer instead. Pre 2015, it felt almost impossible to try to leave, but it’s a lot easier now! The years of picketing General Conference to force an excommunication trial are over!

Find a support system. Lean on your friends that have never been mormon, any family members who left, anyone you know who left. I’m an exmormon happy to answer any questions, and I’m sure there are plenty others in the notes who would be super willing to be supportive too. Exmormon groups are many and varied now, and it’s best to find the one that vibes for you. There’s a subreddit that’s popular, but I personally used - and I know this sounds weird, since I don’t have kids - a forum called Mormonism & More on the site babycenter.com. It was started several years ago by some mormons who had questions they weren’t allowed to ask on the normal mormon board (because that board required uplifting, mormon-approved answers at all times). It’s since shifted to ex-mormons or people who want to leave but can’t right now because of family situations. Even though the threads were years old, I spent weeks on that forum, reading about what other people had gone through and how they got through it, and to me, that was super helpful.

Research the culty stuff at your own peril. I liked learning about that stuff for a really long time, because I felt learning about all those secrets (I especially liked learning about the truth of the Book of Abraham) … it helped me feel valid in my choice. It helped me keep in mind that this was something that I had escaped, something that had wanted to hurt me. Missing your abuser doesn’t mean you should go back, it means you should keep moving forward. Missing your cult has the same solution. Lots of people fell for the “we’re totally not a cult!” line by TSCC. Some of them will not offer sympathy. If you want to watch the hidden camera videos of endowments and other temple stuff, I would super super recommend you have a trusted friend watch them with you. And bring comfort food. You’ll probably need it.

TSCC put out a series of essays on controversial (read: faith-killing, eye-opening, omg how could I have ever supported the people who did this) issues in mormon history. They are the Orthodox LDS pre-approved responses to a lot of the more incriminating accusations that have been leveled at TSCC over the years. They should be hosted on TSCC website somewhere, and would have been posted around or after 2015. They may reaffirm your faith now that you know TSCC’s defense, but they may push you right out the door. (Or break the shelf? Do Mormons still use the shelf analogy, or is that retired now?)

Lots of mormons become atheists after leaving. Many join mainstream xian churches. Some become witches, some study every religion they can get their hands on, some try to go back and realize all the magic (or holy spirit, if you prefer) is gone. Don’t think you have to know right away. Some people throw away or burn all their mormon stuff, some people keep it to show their kids, but again, you don’t have to make that decision right away. Some people call TSCC a cult after they leave, myself included, but you don’t have to if it makes you uncomfortable or it it doesn’t feel true to your experience.

Look up religious trauma syndrome. It’s real. The pain you will probably feel is real, the grief you will probably feel is real, and in many ways, you may have to mourn the death of what you were always told Life Will Be For You.

And learn that the world is not half as evil as TSCC told you. Your coworkers who drink a beer at the end of the day are not evil or abusive. Your friends who wear sleeveless shirts are not evil or promiscuous. You’re allowed to wear short shorts! You’re allowed to drink coffee! You’re allowed to ask questions in a faith community without being silenced or condemned! You’re allowed to not want kids! There’s a lot of unlearning here.

- a lesbian

- a lesbean

- a practitioner of lesbianism

- a dyke

- sappho’s daughter

- really incredibly gay

My friend started her period unexpectedly while we were at our local temple (in America) for dance class. Asking around if any of the parents had pads (all of them apologized and acted like adults about it), I thought surely the front office has a first aid kit. Don’t they have pads? When we asked, not only did they not have any, when one of the women gave one from her purse, the head secretary told us “There are men who need to use the first-aid kit, ya? So we don’t keep period things there.” Not even ibuprofen (which has so many more uses than period pain).

There are girls in India and Nepal (and other places, but I just read an in-depth piece about the situations in Nepal) who have to go to the “period hut” when their period comes and not leave until its over. They can’t wash and dry their cloth pads in the daylight, so they do it at night when the pads won’t dry properly before their next use, making them vulnerable to infection.

It is incredibly important, especially in India, to break the taboo surrounding periods. Break the secrecy around an event that happens to almost every woman, every month for literally half of her lifetime. Break the hiding, break the cover-up, break the SHAME.

Why did I put up with the "lesbians are seen as predators too" comparison?

Why'd I put up with "any man can walk into a women's bathroom anyway. There's not a security guard waiting"??

Why'd I put up with inciting violence against women?

Why'd I put up with "she looks like a terf"?