Eyes on oblivion

I’m almost 40 years old and I’ve never owned a car.  As an America that doesn’t live in one of the big cities, people often think that’s weird. My bike and public transit have been my primary form of transportation even thought I have been a licensed driver since I was 16 and I rent cars from time to time.

Last week bought a car for $1 from my folks. It was made the year I graduated from high school and has been sitting for long stretches of time up at The Riverhouse for the last 5 years. It’s not too fancy as it was bought to be able to shrug off a tree falling on it. It’s had a safety check and it’s insured and stuff. I have to go finish registration things today. It’s just weird to think I have a car. It completely changes the way I’ve been thinking. Up until now getting a car has been a thing I had to plan for. Now I can just decide to drive to the coast or go camping or go and buy craft supplies on sale in the suburbs. It’s very strange.

I’ve also taken time to get to know my car. I also bought it for a dollar from family, haha. It used to belong to an old family friend who had died. So my car, Betsy Blue, gets ger name from her. We’ve had problems (she’s not running right now) but I think naming a thing and embracing that animism helps to respect and care for a vehicle.

Charmed bumper stickers/decals are something I want to do. I wabr to get a Dutch Bros. sticker and charm it for alertness.

Following [this post], I’d like to write about what to do during a magical or spiritual downswing.

A downswing is a period of magical or spiritual “night”, when abilities and powers seem to be dampened or lost, and the natural connection is weakened. A spiritual dark night is to be expected in the path of any practitioner. A downswing can last for days or weeks.

I am currently in a downswing where I am required to take a magical “break” and not force my abilities. So here’s a list of stuff to do while in a downswing, to keep yourself spiritually aligned and focused on positivity.

MEDITATE on positivity, love, and peace. Engage in meditations once or twice daily. Take the energies from this meditation to carry you throughout your daily life.

REFLECT on your spiritual path as it was before the downswing. Ask yourself what could be improved, what could be added, what could be reduced, and what could be taken away entirely. Closely examine your spiritual and magical paths and ask yourself what can be changed for the better.

MUNDANE FOCUS on your physical life is useful and positive during a downswing. Catch up on chores. Deep clean. Spend more time with IRL friends. Put more focus in to work. A downswing is an excellent time to seek physical balance.

SELF WORK is a good idea as well. Make your downswing a time of resolutions. Work on breaking bad habits and adopting new, positive habits.

SCHEDULE your time. This is especially useful if, like me, magic and spirituality is a huge part of your life. Fill up your time with mundane chores, tasks, and relaxation time.

PLAN AND ORGANIZE your time for when you are done with your downswing. Dissect your magical and spiritual practices. Organize your spiritual practices and have a solid plan for where you want to go when you are done with this period of reflection.

CATCH UP on life! Make a list of the five biggest mundane tasks you need to tackle. Focus on catching up and getting ahead in life.

ACCEPT that this is a necessary and normal period of time that pretty much every spiritually aligned person goes through. You aren’t losing anything. You are not lost. It’s just night time. Dawn is coming on the horizon.

Also you know what my first introduction to the concept of witchcraft was? This:

Also, as far as I had known, the “magic words” meant nothing, but apparently the writers of the song equated them to five core elements!

Treguna: Wood

Mekoides: Metal

Trecorum: Earth

Satis: Water

Dee: Fire

Just throwin’ some more pop culture magic onto the fire here.

YO OKAY SO LISTEN

one of my nurses got me these for Christmas!! They’re dryer balls, and apparently you add 2-3 drops of essential oils to it, it soaks in, and you throw 3 of them in when you dry the clothes and then they smell like the oils! They’re reusable for like 3 loads! This is SCREAMING witchcraft, adaptable or otherwise.

Curse an abuser? Awesome, great for you to stand up for yourself!

Curse a bully? Sweet! Maybe a bite back is just what they need to respect your boundaries.

Curse someone who committed a crime against you? We all know the justice system can be flaky, so anything you can do to level the playing field is totally rad!

Hex a really mean customer at work? Neat, tell me the story! I wasn’t there, so if you thought they were mean enough to deserve it, I trust your judgement.

Curse someone who broke your heart? Go you for valuing yourself enough to not let someone walk all over you and your feelings! Show ‘em what happens when they take your heart and treat it poorly.

Curse someone who was acting bigoted/hateful/violent? Way to go! Some people are dangerous and will harm others if left to their own devices. Thank you for being the one to try and do something about it.

All you witches are awesome, supported, and loved!

Glad pacificsm is working out for you. I, and many others, meanwhile, have encountered situations where YES, sometimes you need to ACTUALLY FIGHT BACK to defend yourself with the intent to harm. Some situations really do call for it, and I hope you never have to endure one of those situations. I, and many others, will NOT sit around and let people to continue to cause harm with no justice. You know where it got me in life? Fuller healing. A sense of agency in my life.

If you find yourself stressed or simply desire a different form of meditation, go ahead and pick one, or, better yet, have your tarot tell you which meditation you should do!

0. Fool – meditate to some calming music, find a nice track and let it fill your mind and body

1. Magician – recite a mantra of some sort, word or phrase, pick something meaningful to you, not just what the internet suggests

2. High Priestess – the practice of attending: look at and assess each thought you have as you meditate

3. Empress – focus on self-love, find things you appreciate about yourself, let love fill you and your soul

4. Emperor – count your heartbeats or your breaths 

5. Hierophant – take this time to recite a prayer to a higher being, speak a blessing of some sort, or your equivalent

6. Lovers – send love, good vibes, and blessings to a loved one

7. Chariot – focus on each body part separately, flexing and relaxing each part from your toes to your head

8. Strength – stand up and do the sun salutation or a similar yoga exercise, or if you’d rather, go work out

9. Hermit – ask a deep, philosophical question and ponder on it for awhile

10. Wheel – diaphragmatic breathing: breath deeply from the diaphragm, so your stomach moves but your chest does not

11. Justice – find five things or people you are grateful for and meditate on them

12. Hanged Man – the practice of mindfulness: simply let your thoughts pass by as you meditate, not focusing on anything in particular

13. Death – take a short nap! please wake up, though

14. Temperance – the practice of visualization: visualize your dreams about the future

15. Devil – focus on each sense individually, what do you feel, hear, see, if you want you can eat a small treat and focus on what you taste

16. Tower – candle meditation: focus on a flame, image of a flame, or some sort of object

17. Star – take a bath or shower and focus on the water cleansing both your body and mind

18. Moon – acknowledge your worries, then give them up or let them go to a higher being

19. Sun – sit in sunlight or other bright light and focus on the brightness, draining all your negativity away to be replaced with positivity

20. Judgment – focus on the energy within, how it interacts with the earth and others around you

21. World – stand up and take a walk, preferably walk outside through nature

Some beautiful tarot & oracle decks I believe any cosmic witch would enjoy.

 Cosmos Tarot & Oracle

 Miracles Now

 Starchild Tarot

 Spirit de la Lune

 Arcana of Astrology

 Sacred Creators Oracle

this is a reminder ppl cuz i saw a post earlier just listing “nettle” under their list of potion ingredients….

please dont do that.

im not sure what nettle means in relation to op’s local flora, but in my area it means stinging nettle. Without the proper preparation, using stinging nettle in a potion would be extremely bad. Not everyone lives by experience and not everyone knows that stinging nettle can sting, since the full name isnt often used and it is commonly referred to as just “nettle”.

My point being that when making a post with ingredients even remotely including your local flora, please include the specific area in which the said flora can be found. i say this because edible wilds exist in different variations, like cousins, from area to area. Each one should be treated respectfully to their own preparation requirements. The nettle in one area may be (and almost definitely is) different to the next. Please include any important details surrounding the ingredients of your spell/potion/etc. im not asking for a huge breakdown of each individual plant, because whoever uses your spell should do their own research as well, of course, but important details like the plant’s full name, what region it grows in, and details as to it’s nature are extremely important. please try to limit your ingredients to include only what you have experience/extensive knowledge on handling. This isnt a game. Anything you put in your body (especially from the wild) will affect you.

Remember that some people, respectively, dont know what they’re doing. Could be their first time ever using edible wilds. And a vague ingredient like “nettle” or “mushroom” (never tell someone to use edible wild mushrooms, ever, ever no matter the circumstances) could mean something very different to them than it does to you. If, in your spell/potion/etc. you mean that any nettle or mushroom is usable, please mention that and make your meaning very clear.

Im very concerned about the number of posts i see (specifically about potions meant to be ingested) that are extremely vague and brief. Remember that while you may be a grown adult with “common sense” you are not just speaking to other adults with “common sense”. There are kids on here and a brief sentence to cover yourself at the top of a post like “do your research before proceeding!” Is great, but its also your responsibility to make a good post and make sure you know what you’re doing. Especially with edible wilds.

Nettle vs Stinging Nettle is a great example. Another is the common carrot top. Yes, the greens from the tops of carrots. These are edible, and quite tasty. But the greens of the plant called Queen Anne’s Lace, which strongly resemble carrot tops in appearance and aroma, are highly toxic. And that’s an easy and deadly mistake to make while foraging.

There is a half-done post about how to have a fantastic next year and maintain your swag sitting on my desktop right now, but it just doesn’t feel right. So, I’m going to be honest.

The large scale call-forth for spells to affect everyone’s 2017 and protect everyone from the great unknown is fearmongering. It’s sensationalism and quite frankly, I don’t have the energy for it. I know you all mean well, but I request that you take a second and take a look at what you’re actually doing.

All-in-all, if you *point* have not taken the time to take stock in what has occurred in your personal bubble this year, you are probably discrediting a lot of great things that have happened. You might be perpetuating an unnecessary sense of negativity, and it might be in your best interest to unplug from the internet for a few days and curl up with a gratitude journal and a cup of tasty.

2016 wasn’t that bad. Yes, we ended up with a fucktruck president-elect. Yes, people have died.

But people die. That’s sort of what we do … spoiler alert.

Seriously, though, stop.

Take a deep breath.

Do whatever you can do for yourself and those you care about. Encourage people to do whatever they can for themselves and those they care about. Do it without framing it in such catastrophic language.  The more people take care of themselves and their loved ones, the better the world will be in general. But this whole throw a toilet sponge in the ocean to soak it up mentality isn’t doing anyone any good.

If you did, personally, have a shitty year outside of everything that is occurring in the media, you have my sincerest condolences and sympathies. That sucks. But you know who needs your energy then? You. The world doesn’t need your energy. You do. You need to heal, your loved ones need to heal. You need to do better. The planet can go fuck itself if you feel obligated to fix its problems when you’ve got problems of your own.

So, yeah. There’s that.