outside over there

These horses went extinct in the wild 60 years ago! They were reintroduced in other parts of Mongolia and Central Asia earlier than they were reintroduced on the Steppes, but having them back here has been generational conservation work. It's truly amazing.

These horses and other kinds of horses are probably different branches of evolution, which is CRAZY AWESOME. Modern horse breeds trace back to one branch, and these dudes evolved separately. They have 33 chromosome pairs whereas the horse you're used to seeing in movies and TV shows (or riding if you too are a horse girl - gender neutral title of expertise) have 32.

Despite this, you can interbreed these two species and they will have fertile offspring. That's really rare! (A common equine cross between species, the mule, is an always-sterile offspring of a donkey and a horse, for instance).

I did have to look the exact numbers up here, full disclosure, but it's believed that Przewalski's horses and other breeds have a common ancestor about between 160,000 and 38,000 years ago

The horses you see on cave art? These guys!

It's likely that Attila the Hun and his armies rode these horses (though hard to prove decisively)

Part of the conservation efforts around them involved CLONING to avoid a genetic bottleneck. ISN'T THAT DOPE. You can read more about that here

These are the only truly wild horses. All other "wild" horses -- Australian brumbies and American mustangs, for instance -- are feral descendants of domesticated horses, which is partly why you can see such a wide range of heights, colors, conformations, etc in those populations.

i don’t paint often, but when i do

The Merseburg Spells or Incantations are two magic spells found in a Latin Sacramentarium and are written in Carolingian minuskel. The manuscript originates from the Abbey of Fulda, Germany and are dated around 800-900 AD, but only rediscovered in 1841.

The spells do not show any sign of Christian influence and are the only written proof of Germanic mythology in Old High German.

The first spell tells of prisoners of war which are freed by the Idisi. An unknown kind of god-like figures, possibly a Germanic version of Valkyries.

The second spell is a healing incantation. Wotan rides through the woods with Balder, until Balders horse named Phol gets hurt. Wotan, Friia (Freya), her sister Volla and Sinthgund and her sister Sunna sing to the horse; let your wounds be cured.

There are other version of the second spell known, but in different rhyming couplets and turned into a Christian motive.

English and Dutch speakers may identify most of the words without knowing the lyrics first.

“The second herb is called by the Chaldeans Royb, by the Greeks Olieribus, and by the French Ortie. Whoever holds this herb in his hand with yarrow will not be afraid and will not be frightened at the sight of some ghost. That if we join it with Serpentine juice, and after having rubbed our hands with it, we throw the rest into the water, we will easily catch all the fish that are there. That if you take your hands out of the water, the fish will return to the same places they were before.”

Многая літа. 🙏💖

This is a highly versatile, beginner-friendly, and fire-free spell.

This spell sends energy out to the Universe which will return to you with whatever you desire. 

I originally used this spell to find tools for my craft. I love the tools I found and I still have them today.

However, you could use this spell to find whatever you want.

Money

Supplies

Apartments for rent

Potential friends

Potential lovers

Potential room mates

New books you will love

New opportunities

You get the idea!

This spell will only put things in your path. You still must do your own work to obtain what you desire.

Ingredients:

A piece of paper and a pen or pencil

A point of focus - the sky, the moon, the stars, the sun, the clouds, or something outside and up high. You do not need to be outside to cast this spell.

Write down what you desire. This was my original spell:

I WILL FIND TOOLS THAT WILL HELP ME ON MY PATH

Here are some other ideas:

I WILL FIND SUPPLIES FOR CASTING SPELLS I WILL FIND AN APARTMENT CLOSE TO MY JOB I WILL FIND NEW FRIENDS AT MY UNIVERSITY I WILL FIND MY WII REMOTE

(Your statements do not have to be all capital. In fact you should write them in whatever way is the most ‘magical’ or ‘powerful’ for you.)

Write down your statement on your piece of paper. 

Ground and pull up energy from the earth (or, use energy from any crystals lying around). Infuse your written statement with energy. Visualize, or understand, that the words are glowing with power. Understand that your written intent is being imprinted on powerful energies that will go fetch whatever you desire. 

At some point you will feel that the charging process is ‘done’. This is part of your magical intuition that you should always listen to during spellwork. Gently close off the ‘pipe’ of energy you were using to power the spell.

Turn to your point of focus. Using your magical will, lift the imprinted energy off the paper and send it to your point of focus.

You are releasing the energy so it may go do it’s job. You may immediately discard your paper or keep it until the spell has manifested.

Manifestation for this spell is where you, as a witch, need to be ‘crafty’. Sometimes a crazy opportunity really will jump right in front of us and the manifestation will be easy to see. Other times, it is subtle, and without a discerning eye we may pass right over it.

Miscellanea: Make this spell fairly specific. Don’t literally ask for “whatever I need”. If you are new to witchcraft it may be really tough to figure out when your spell has manifested and you will be second-guessing everything that happens to you all day long.

Depending on the energy you put in to this spell and your own ability, it may take a few days to manifest. 

Knowing I wasn’t going to be meeting coven, and feeling rough, I spent my weekend pretty low key. J and I went to the farmer’s market, took a nice drive out in the country to feed my rural soul, spent some (ahem) quality time together. Food hasn’t been my friend for a couple weeks, but I baked a rhubarb cake and ate some strawberries. That, I figured, was it, past pouring out a couple libations on the actual solstice.

Monday night I had a good chat with our new upstairs neighbours for the first time, and they are quiet people, like us. It’s welcome. They’re still getting used to the nonsense that goes on here, though, and it’s been a little rough for them. I haven’t done any work on wards and bounds for a few months, but recognized it was time to maybe boost them up a little, and Summer Solstice is perfect for that.

Suddenly, my very carefully considered no-plans became plans. It wasn’t…convenient. The Solstice weather promised to be feeling like 42°C with the humidity (compared to 22°C and no humidity the day before). I had a migraine aura, which blew up at 3 AM Solstice eve into the promised migraine. I tried to medicate and sleep, but sleep didn’t happen. So I did the ever-so-sensible thing, and got on with it.

Midsummer Night started out with this:

My camera does no justice to that fire. It was blazing orange and pink, and the sky between was brilliant turquoise. Such a beautiful start. While the sky burned, I went about my bounds, and left a few gifts for our more disruptive and unwelcome neighbours. Then I went back in for a little bit to cool off and hydrate (it was still terribly hot outside), and then came back out for offerings once it had gotten a little darker.

No real ritual here, but offerings of flame, some handmade Midsummer incense and the Fair Folk’s own blend, an herbal offering I call ‘Faerie Food’, and some very fine mead from 2016 made by an LARPing acquaintance who keeps his own bees. (I can’t have more than a sip because of my meds, but that sip was so nice.)

The pile of paper on the plate is my Midsummer bonfire, and something I’m absurdly proud of. My coven’s summer solstice ritual involves a ritual burning of herbs in a cauldron…and therein lies a tale of woe and mirth. After years of fighting with lighting these herbs, I made some handmade paper studded with the herbs we needed and soaked in a saltpeter solution. Lo and behold, I have herbs that burn in that cauldron reliably. And of course I have that paper at home, so not having the ability to have an actual proper fire it was perfect. I lit my tiny paper one, and sent off all my prayers and intentions with it.

Jewish Myths and Legends, Part 1: Lilith

ALSO BEFORE I EVEN START I WANNA MAKE IT ABUNDENTLY CLEAR THAT I DIDN’T PUT ALL THIS TOGETHER SO THAT GOYIM CAN TURN LILITH INTO THEIR SEXY DARK GODDESS UWU, STOP APPROPRAITING JEWISH CULTURE AMD FOLKLORE.

“The angels who are in charge of healing are Sanoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof. While God created Adam, who was alone, He said, 'It is not good for man to be alone'[1] (Genesis 2:18). He also created a woman, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.' Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.'[2] But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name[3] and flew away into the air[4]. Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: 'Sovereign of the universe!' he said, 'the woman you gave me has run away.' At once, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angels to bring her back." Said the Holy One to Adam, 'If she agrees to come back, what is made is good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day.[5]' The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, 'We shall drown you in the sea.'"'Leave me!' she said. 'I was created only to cause sickness to infants[6]. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days.' "When the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: 'Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.[7]' She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the child recovers.” (Otzar Midrashim, The Aleph Bet of Ben Sira)

Commentary by Yours Truly:

[1]: As is indicated here, this Midrash was designed as an explanation for why Genisis repeats itself in taking about how HaShem created man and woman and then again when it talks of how Chava was created from Adam’s rib.

[2]: While this myth was undoubtably written with misogynistic undertones, it was since been reinterpreted and taken on a lot of symbolic importance in Jewish gene it’s circles with The Coming of Lilith" by theologian Judith Plaskow being written as a distinctly feminist telling of the story along with commentary on feminist issues within Judaism, 10/10 would recommend. Additionally, Lilith became the name of the promenent feminist Jewish magazine in 1976.

[3]: “Ineffiable Name”, The Tertragramaron. Names of Gd in Judaism have always had powerful theurgic powers which went on to be the basis of Kabbalah Ma’asit, or the Practical Kabbalah, farther down the line.

[4]: It is important to note in the legend here that it says very clearly that Lilith left of her own accord, not cast out as many goyische occultists like to claim she was.

[5]: Here we further see that Lilith was free to leave the garden. These children were later born by the seed stolen of mortal men which became a popular superstition father down the line, there is a ritual to prevent this during/after intercourse as is outlined in Zohar III:19. The reason that her children must be slain by the hundred every day is to maintain the balance of things as she would go on to spawn a huge amount of demonic children which would overwhelm the world should they be allowed to go unchecked. Think of it as the same as when fish and wildlife facilitates hunting of certain species to help maintain the stability of the ecosystem. (I mean no disrespect by this metaphor)

[6]: Lilith speaking of how she was created to cause sickness in infants further speaks that she had a larger purpose and was not simply reveling against HaShem. This would be elaborated on even further by the Kabbalist who would hold her as the left hand counterpart of Chava whereas in the Zohar she is seen as the evil counter part of the Shekhinah. She would in fact be split into two different characters, the Greater and the Lesser Lilith in the Treatise of Left Hand Emmanation where the Greatee Lilith is consort to the punishing angel Samael (who is described as the left hand counterpart of Adam) and the Lesser Lilith becomes the Partner of Asmodeus, the King of Demons. Again, I am not advanced in my study of the Kabbalah and don’t feel comfortable to speak much more on the differentiation between the two and the lore there.

[7]: Finally, I thought it fitting to include some archeological examples of of these amulets, images courtesy of the EJMMM by Geoffrey Dennis:

An older amulet from ancient Babylonia against Lilith

FATH fith Ni mi ort, Le Muire na frithe, Le Bride na brot, Bho chire, bho ruta, Bho mhise, bho bhoc, Bho shionn, ’s bho mhac-tire, Bho chrain, ’s bho thorc, Bho chu, ’s bho chat, Bho mhaghan masaich, Bho chu fasaich, Bho scan foirir, Bho bho, bho mharc, Bho tharbh, bho earc, Bho mhurn, bho mhac, Bho iantaidh an adhar, Bho shnagaidh na talmha, Bho iasgaidh na mara, ’S bho shiantaidh na gailbhe.

FATH fith Will I make on thee, By Mary of the augury, By Bride of the corslet, From sheep, from ram, From goat, from buck, From fox, from wolf, From sow, from boar, From dog, from cat, From hipped-bear, From wilderness-dog, From watchful 'scan,’ From cow, from horse, From bull, from heifer, From daughter, from son, From the birds of the air, From the creeping things of the earth, From the fishes of the sea, From the imps of the storm.