Medliwaith Overthinks

Putting your own name in a jar of protective water and herbs is essentially gonna cook you in there. You put something in a jar to prevent breathability or energy flow. Glass isn't porous, it's a solid that nothing gets through. You're building your own coffin.

There's a reason why glass jars are used to stop someone's influence and why fabric is used for charms when you want that influence to flow. Cloth in breathable, glass is not.

Magical practice is about intention and what symbols mean to the practitioner. This is one reason why magical practice varies across cultures and religions.

There is no one absolutely correct semiotic meaning to an item.

A glass jar, unlike red splatters on a hospital floor, has many potential meanings and usages.

You can grow some plants in glass jars, in fact sometimes it’s helpful because of the way it lets sunlight in. Compared to a pot, it is porous for light.

If I came upon a glass jar, completely out of context, I might imagine it as something I could preserve pickles or perhaps a delicious jam within. I might think, hmm, delightful! Nothing will be able to get in and fuck up my pickles before they’re ready. But the convenient lid will come off when I need it to, so the pickles will not be forever isolated. What a helpful and protective item!

This isn’t to say your understanding of the semiotic meaning of a jar is incorrect or unhelpful for your own practice. In fact, your understanding aligns with many others’ and a widespread approach to spell making.

But this random person on the internet is not your student, and even a student of yours would not see the world in the same exact way as yourself. The magical practices they might find work for them would likely reflect that.

At any rate, the individual who posted their magic may find it works to protect them in a way they appreciate, or they may find it does not. (Honestly, this goes regardless of whether it actually isolates them. Sometimes solitude is necessary.)

That’s for them to find out.

There's a village called Kvidinge in the south of Sweden. Probably the most notable thing to happen there was that in 1810, crown prince Carl August fell off his horse there and died, from unknown reasons, possibly a stroke. In 1826, a monument was raised in his honour.

It looked like this:

Until last week, when it was struck by lightning. Now it looks like this:

In conclusion:

Lightning is pretty powerful.

Having a large pillar on an open field was maybe not the best idea.

I'm really grateful for the invention of lightning rods.

Like. Yes, absolutely, it is annoying when people base how they treat another human person on anything superficial but especially something like moment of birth (measured by planets edition). I am a scorpio. I get fucking slut shamed…. because of my birthday. It is frustrating. At least slut shame me for my slutty actions, yknow? And as a fem, curvy, afab flavor of nonbinary, slut shaming really is not separable from the genders of the wider world we live in. It sucks, and people shouldn’t do that.

Housing and hiring discrimination based on astrology is also wrong. People shouldn’t do that. But making personal decisions, like choosing a partner or thesis advisor (I have heard stories), based on astrology, is like. Maybe not totally prudent but also not my circus not my monkeys not my decision making process and most importantly not my fucking business.

For me, astrology doesn’t impact my decisions. I use tarot spreads if I want to consider my knee jerk reactions as they come up, it’s just a far better and less fixed system for that. For me, astrology can help me interact with my reactions but because (unlike with tarot, where I am skilled enough to go without looking up written definitions) I must rely on pre conceived ideas often written by someone with a very different understanding of life events from me, it’s not very efficient. For me astrology is mostly just fun and is the broken clock which is right twice a day.

However that occasional coincidence definitely has led me to major shifts in understanding about myself or my relationships. Which are nice and good to have. I don’t communicate my understandings in astrological terms because, well, it’s not particularly accessible & few amateurs will come to the same assessment anyway, unless it’s super generalized, which just usually doesn’t need to happen.

"Would you like to?"

"Sure!"

So I told them. I told them the story as I know it- and I've had a bit of practice. Orpheus, child of a wishing star, favorite of the messenger god, who had a hard-working, wonderful wife, Eurydice; his harp that could lull beasts to passivity, coax song from nymphs, and move mountains before him; and the men who, while he dreamed and composed, came to steal Eurydice away. I told of how she ran, and the water splashed up on my clothes. But I didn't care. I told of how the adder in the field bit her heel, and she died. I told of the Underworld- how Orpheus charmed the riverman, pacified Cerberus with a lullaby, and melted the hearts of the wise judges. I laughed as I remarked how lucky he was that it was winter- for Persephone was moved by his song where Hades was not. She convinced Hades to let Orpheus prove he was worthy of taking Eurydice. I tugged my coat back on, and said how Orpheus had to play and sing all the way out of the Underworld, without ever looking back to see if his beloved wife followed. And I told how, when he stopped for breath, he thought he heard her stumble and fall, and turned to help her up- but it was too late. I told the story four times after that, to four different groups, each larger than the last. And I must have cast a glance at the statue, something that said "I'm sorry, I miss you--" because when I finished my second to last retelling, a young boy piped up, perhaps seven or eight, and asked me a question that has made my day, and potentially my life: "Are you Orpheus?" I told the tale of the grieving bard so well, so convincingly, that in the eyes of a child I was telling not a story, but a memory. And while I laughed in the moment, with everyone else, I wept with gratitude and joy when I came home. This is more than I deserve, and I think I may never be sad again.

i found my group soon after that and i never saw that queen again but to this day i am convinced i met an angel.

Expand on that, king (genuinely curious)

I feel like…

okay, so it’s a lot like conceptual art, or like introspective meditation, at the risk of sounding pretentious

Like. It’s not so much about “the cards are a portal to a higher wisdom that knows more than me” thing- it’s more of a, “given the symbols drawn, could I interpret them posing a question or possibility or suggestion?” Followed by, “is this applicable to my current context? COULD it be?”

Like.

I don’t lay out á tarot hand and say “ah yes, the devil and the tower, I am about to be betrayed”

But I MAY lay out a hand and say, “okay, devil and the tower. Something treacherous and danger. Am I approaching a treacherous or risky situation in my life? What might be a tipping factor? Am I being deliberately reckless? Maybe I should spend some more time working on X project I’ e been thinking of before spending money on it” or “you know what, I HAVE been kind of uncomfortable with X thing, I should say something” or “yeah okay I KNOW Tom from work sucks to work with, I KNOW, yeah maybe I should consider ways of handling that”

Less of a magic oracle, more of a tool for doing literary analysis on real life. Like simplifying everything and laying it out flat so I can gain some distance to untangle my problems without in-your-head crap like projected feelings and social obligation getting in the way and muddying the waters.

So like. I don’t think tarot cards can legit tell the future, but I DO think that self-reflection, mindfulness, and consideration sometimes allow us to predict and calculate our own circumstances.

So, IMO- It’s not real. But it works

As a pagan (and a really lowkey witch) I support divinatory practices, though I acknowledge the pitfalls and even dangers with engaging with that. (Including: one might be wrong; one might encourage a choice one isn’t satisfied with; one might encourage delusions). There is a place in culture for divination practices.

That’s just… not the tarot I learned first, and it’s not the one I like. However, it can be a lot less fun to do introspective tarot. I often end up having quite solemn conversations with myself or others. I’m a good reader to come to if someone is trying to think through a decision, or wants to assess their moment in life holistically, etc.

The answers I have to questions like “does x person like me back” or “will x happen” will not be in a format that directly answers the question. I can explore intention setting for potential futures. I can do a relationship spread that reflects on the nuances of an existing or potential dynamic… but even then I’ll won’t read any cards with amatonormative framing. And it will all be hypothetical. No promises made.

And he kept doing it. Scene after scene.

He spent the film expecting someone to make a joke about how unserious things were or to break the fourth wall or do some other self referential type thing.

Now, maybe I'm just at that point in my cycle or maybe I'm too delicate in general, but I literally teared up hearing that. Straight up cried a bit. It is so fucking sad that sincerity and genuineness is being bred out of people.

People say all the time 'this generation can't take anything seriously!' and really, is it any wonder? Younger people have been trained out of it. You are no longer encouraged to be genuine or show emotion or be honest. You are actively punished for it. In fact, you are almost guaranteed to suffer for it.

That is so fucked up. I'm sorry to go on a bit of a random ramble rant but it's so fucking gut wrenching to see younger people lose that element of themselves. You can't express your passion without being told you're 'crashing out' or 'cringe'. You have to live in this neutral state of fear of perception, and god forbid anybody step outside of it!

You're told you should only consume and succumb and be ironic and emotionless and cool.

Listen, if you're following me and you're like.... 25 or under, let's say. Please. I beg of you. Do not fall for this rhetoric. Please, for the love of all things, feel. Feel and create and be honest with yourself. Indulge in things that make you happy. Be sincere. Wear your heart on your sleeve. Do not let this hyper-capitalistic, hyper-consumerist, self-centred, individualist culture take that from you.

Dictators lie, all the fucking time. They invent AI to bring a whole new level of dishonesty and plagiarism to their propaganda slop. They try to ctrl+alt+del their way out of diverse and nuanced realities and histories. They tell you the library of congress needs to be child friendly. They ask everyone to lie about their productivity, and anybody who isn’t willing to exaggerate or fabricate is out of a job.

Capitalists lie, all the fucking time. They invent AI to bring a whole new level of dishonesty to their representation of workload distribution. They create content scrubbed of meaning so it will be consumable to the broadest possible audience, and they cancel projects before any interesting story is told. They require everyone to closet their personalities at work and in interviews and on resumes and on linkedin, and anybody who doesn’t know how to mask or exaggerate suffers.

In neurodiverse and queer spaces we indulge in honesty and authenticity. We make art and we share it. Poetry and fanfiction and drawings and paintings and fibercrafts. We tell each other our true names. We vent our real emotions. We admit to one another when we are vulnerable, we are frustrated, we are horny, we are (half-guiltily) joyful despite The Circumstances.

Such spaces aren’t perfect, we all know that. We’re traumatized or we haven’t done all the work yet or we really don’t know where authenticity ends and boundaries begin. But through our honesty we can find each other, and with each other we can finally fucking breathe a little.

When you're in the phase you're in now, you have all the "omg my writing is garbage" thoughts, but those are not true. Your writing is the same as it was last week. However, your ability to see it and analyze it is getting better -- and that keener perception is why it SEEMS to be worse. It isn't, I swear.

When it's the other way around and your execution is in a growth stage and your perception is on a plateau stage, that's when you have all your "omg I'm a supergenius? Omg *I* wrote that? fuck yeah im a god of writing" moments (and if you haven't had them yet, that's ok, they'll come, be patient with yourself).

Either way, this is a normal part of the growth process. It's like the ache of sore muscles after you've gone to the gym for the first time in a while, that's all. Your muscles will hurt less as you get stronger, and then you'll add more weight or more reps to your exercise routine, and you'll be sore again until your body catches up. It's just that when that's happening in your brain, it's a lot harder to set the "muscle ache" aside, because your brain's only way of expressing discomfort is to gnaw miserably on itself and make you have sad thoughts. Prescription: Have a cup of tea or whatever small treat you like best, and be gentle and patient with yourself. It's gonna be ok. Try to consciously notice and appreciate some of the things you've measurably gotten better at and give yourself a deliberate, intentional, conscious pat on the back for it. (I have ADHD, so my brain doesn't want to give me the reward chemicals automatically; I have to trigger it manually by saying aloud "I'm really proud that I accomplished this." YMMV.)

SECOND POSSIBLE DIAGNOSIS: This one also happens to me all the time. Oftentimes when I have the "my writing is getting worse" feeling, it is a signal from my subconscious that the story is going in the wrong direction -- that is, a direction which doesn't satisfying to me, or that I'm not interested in, or that leads the characters in a direction that I don't like, or that leaves a glaring plot hole that I haven't noticed consciously yet... All manner of small, fixable problems. This usually happens after I have ignored the earlier warning signs, which start with feeling a bit bored of the story but trying to push through, and then go to a vague dissatisfaction that I ignore. The end result of this is frequently outright burnout or writer's block, so the better you get at noticing those early warning signs, the faster you can address them and nip the problems in the bud. Problem is, being able to do this and use your feelings as a useful tool to flag burgeoning story problems only comes with practice. Prescription: Do the practice. When you start having those fidgety, restless feelings, try to notice what you're feeling before it gets to the "this is garbage and I hate it" stage, and then sit with that feeling. Instead of flinching away from it and hiding from the scary feeling, turn towards it with compassion and curiosity. Ask it questions like, "Hmmm, what SPECIFICALLY is garbage about it? What would make it more fun and appealing? Is there anything I'm missing here?" Your brain may initially try to continue the tantrum of "No, it's bad, it's just all bad, there's nothing good about this, it's horrible, and therefore I'M horrible" but you're gonna need to address this with all the kindness and patience that you would give a cranky toddler. Let it wriggle and cry, and just continue being curious and trying to get it to use its words to express what the problem is. Eventually you'll stumble on SOME kind of answer, and then YAY THAT IS A THING THAT CAN BE FIXED. Oftentimes when it happens to me, I have a reaction that's sort of like, "Oh! Duh! I forgot [XYZ thing]! That was a silly mistake, haha, no wonder I'm grumpy about it. Glad i noticed it now." The answers you stumble on might be things like, "I don't like mystery novels but I seem to be accidentally leading myself into writing one, whoops" or "It is so out of character for this person to be reacting that way, I need to rewrite this scene" or "I'm feeling bored, I would have put the book down by now if I were a reader; how can I jazz it up?" THIRD POSSIBLE DIAGNOSIS: (kind of a really specific subset of the Second Possible Diagnosis, but it is SO COMMON for both experienced writers and apprentice writers that it gets its own section) Your book might be having problems with tension.

Tension issues account for 99% of all book problems. It's like sewing machines?? You know how all sewing machines have the devil in them, and if you try to sew and your thread gets tangled and fucked up on the bottom, that's because the tension has gone weird, so you have to try rethreading the machine and wiggling the tension knob a bit to make it stop? Like that.

Prescription: If you are having the "this shit sucks" reaction, stop immediately and check your story tension. Are there stakes? Do they MATTER DEEPLY to the protagonist? Can they be raised? Can they be endangered? Does a new problem need to be introduced, or an existing one made worse? TENSION TENSION TENSION TENSION. There are a thousand ways of raising tension, and I cannot list them all here. When my tension is right, I almost never have the "this sucks" reaction, because I am in that document doing my job with ruthless efficiency. The SECOND it goes wonky, I have a crisis of confidence and a small tantrum and I sink into my Desponds. Every single time. It has gotten to the point where I have trained my closest friends to say, when I slide into their DMs to complain about my book: "Oh, this part. Past!Alex told us to give you a message. [checks notes] Message reads, 'bitch, is it a tension problem'" whereupon I subside, chastened, and say, "....yeah probably."

CHECK YOUR TENSION, IT IS PROBABLY FUCKED UP. How do I know? Bc tension wants very badly to fuck itself up if you're not keeping an eye on it. Same as sewing machines having the devil in them.

I especially appreciate the first diagnosis, I think I was in that phase a few months back but I could only conceive of it as, like… maybe I’d just generally gained enough knowledge/skill to comprehend how much further I had to go.

Which did also apply