Xan, 30s, tme nonbinary (they/them)
environmental historian & agroecologist
white settler in so-called Canada
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Hellenistic polytheist and mystery cultist
focused on syncretic practices in the Mediterranean & West Asia
atheistic-agnostic thaumaturge, mantis,
arcanist, and goêteic scholar
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worshipper of Ninurta-Khnum,
Yarikh-Djehuty, Seshat-Nisaba,
Themis-Maat, and Pakhet-Artemis
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main: @phasers
I'm Xan (they/them), Treaty 7 territory (western Canada), background in archaeology/anthropology, MA history of science, sometime museum exhibit designer. these days I'm an urban wildlife educator, restoration ecologist, and environmental health historian doing community development & public engagement work. I speak German, French, Polish, and Japanese (in decreasing level of proficiency).
I mainly post art, nature, history, science, and religion (from academic study to occult practice & esoterica); most reblogs run on queue. this is primarily a space dedicated to my household practice and personal experiences as an agnostic revivalist pagan, including my research into ancient cultus and syncretic deity worship. I may also discuss Abrahamic theology and demonolatry; I'm a lapsed Catholic and still retain some of my cultural and occult traditions, including veneration of the saints on behalf of my ancestors. I like to talk about myself and my practice, and I'm always accepting asks! I also accept research requests, ritual and prayer commissions, and private consultations as a service to the community.
I've been a practising polytheist, diviner [tarot, bibliomancy, cleromancy], and bioregional spiritworker for almost 15 years. I'm specifically a syncretic Mediterranean polytheist working within the Greco-Egyptian, Greco-Bactrian, Canaanite, Phoenician, and Indo-Greek traditions of late classical antiquity. I'm really interested in chthonic worship and ancient mystery cults, particularly Orphism, Mithraism, and the Samothracian rites, from which I draw a lot of inspiration in regards to trancework and ritual.
I am currently constructing a revealed mystery tradition dedicated to the Bronze Bull, an enigmatic deity who shares features with many ancient storm gods across the eastern and southern Mediterranean. I have been researching this figure for almost a decade, and at various times have believed him to be Ba'al Hadad, Zeus-Aidoneus, Krishna, and Saturnus-Hammon (to name but a few) as he seems to deliberately appear in a confusing and multifaceted way. I now believe him to be a deity of Chalcolothic-era Anatolian origin in the guise of Jupiter Dolichenus, or Hadad-Baal-Teshub, who was at the centre of an 'orientalized' Roman cult that spread as far as north-central Europe before it was outlawed and suppressed.
my daily practice is highly syncretic and draws from diverse influences, inspired by the religions of the ancient Near East and southern Europe. everything I do is grounded in historical and archaeological evidence, and reflects my interpretation of that evidence through the lens of my background in archaeology, anthropology, and cultural history. I consider myself an atheistic agnostic practicing a secular household religion; that is, I don't believe the gods (or magic, sorcery, divination, &c.) to be literally 'real', but I choose to take an orthopraxic approach. I don't really believe in objective reality, either, and I think faith is valuable without belief! and, admittedly, I have had ecstatic 'visions' and other seemingly religious experiences that I cannot easily explain away.
the deities I worship represent a cross-section of cultures that were variously present in large, cosmopolitan port cities like Cyprus, Phoenicia, Ugarit, and Alexandria. I am an acolyte of Nemesis-Tykhe-Fortuna, and a devotee of Meretseger-Salus, Gula-Nephthys, and Hygieia-Kebechet. my household gods are Hermes-Khonsu, Duamutef, Wadjet-Leto, Twtw, Heryshaf-Hauron, Aristaios-Nefertem, Taweret. most cherished of all are my tutelary gods, Resheph-Apollon, Shapshu-Montu-Ra, Shezmu-Dionysos.
I heavily utilize trancework and meditation in my practice, and I include elements of goêteic sorcery such as the Greek Magical Papyri in ritual and prayer. I'm also a thaumaturgist with a focus on Greco-Roman divination systems, Egyptian heka, Mesopotamian medico-magical records, katadesmoi, and incantation bowls. I'm not a witch and I don't practice witchcraft, but we may run in the same circles sometimes. I additionally have some experience in Heathenry/Rokkatru, primarily with Freyr, Fenrisúlfr, Níðhöggr, and Jörmundgandr, but this is a separate and mostly peripheral part of my practice. and lastly, I'm always happy to answer questions about any of the above!
common tags in no particular order:
Personal:
religion [posts that align with my beliefs, approach & philosophy]
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Indigenous lands are crucial for climate mitigation and resilience. Research shows their health is a direct result of Indigenous stewardship
While this isn't news to anyone who works in this space, it is useful to have this water-is-wet research to affirm that Indigenous knowledge and land management are extremely effective at storing carbon and protecting biodiversity.
I want to draw special attention to this part of the article:
New research shows that approach overlooks the key role that Indigenous knowledge and culture can play in mitigating climate change. It also reveals a dangerous misconception that has taken hold in global climate discussions: the idea that Indigenous lands are so rich because they are remote or sparsely populated.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The health of Indigenous lands and their ability to store vast quantities of carbon stem from the stewardship of the people who inhabit them.
I'm actually bringing this back around to say another important thing.
I get a fair number of asks and comments on my posts expressing sentiments like "human beings are a plague on this Earth", "humans ruin everything, we deserve to be wiped out", "humanity is inherently selfish, evil, and irredeemable".
I don't think the folks saying these things have bad intentions, I know their words come from a place of very understandable pain, fear, and anger. But to act as though humanity's impact on nature is inherently damaging and extractive is to erase thousands of years of Indigenous stewardship of nature. These ecosystems are thriving because there are humans living there.
This is your regular reminder that you don't need to feel guilty for being a human. You are part of nature--viewing humans as inherently separate from the rest of nature is actually part of the problem. You will be so much better served redirecting that guilt into supporting the humans who are helping nature or resisting those who are hurting it.
Nope! Sperm whales eat extremely large deep-sea squids, like the Giant and Colossal Squids. They have also been known to opportunistically eat dead whales, sharks, and seals, but not actively hunt them. They got real big teeth for it too:
However, they only have teeth on thier bottom jaw! they have corresponding holes in their top jaw for the teeth to lock into, which makes hanging onto a slippery, boneless squid:
It should be noted that the human here isn’t in particular danger of being eaten on purpose, but an accidental swing of it’s multi-ton head, a clip from the teeth, or being directly in the line of it’s sonar could seriously injure or kill them- Divers that have been in the direct line of echolocation for a sperm whale calf have described being hit with the soundwave like “being kicked by a horse” and some have suffered internal organ damage. Sperm whales, like other large whales, aren’t particularly aggressive towards humans, but they are still very large wild animals who behave in unpredictable ways.
I know that in US waters, it’s illegal to intentionally come within 300 yards of any whale or dolphin, and if one appears closer you should turn off your engine or stop paddling to avoid accidental injury to you or it. This human is doing something dangerous and ill-advised, but it’s still hopeful that we can love something like a 130,000 lb deep-diving, squid-eating Oceanic former ungulate.
Im.sorry I’ve lived my entire life not realizing that echolocation could possibly be felt and I have to come to terms with the fact that whales have sonic attacks
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Warsaw Uprising, August 28, 1944: The Prudential Building stands amid the fighting after being struck by a massive 2-ton mortar shell. This photograph was taken from the roof of a building at Kopernika Street 28, capturing the devastation in the heart of Warsaw during the uprising.
“Base notes are the deepest, most mysterious, and oldest of all perfume ingredients. Every ancient culture used them—indeed, for centuries they were the essence of perfume—so when you work with them, you literally have ancient history in your hands. You hold the ingredients that camels carried along the spice routes and that Cleopatra mixed in her workshop. Sandalwood, for example, has been in continuous use for four thousand years; its soft, soothing scent made it an obvious choice for spiritual practices. Distilled sandalwood is said to have been used in Ceylon for embalming the corpses of native princes since the ninth century.”
—
Mandy Aftel, Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume
Two 1,600-year-old lead curse tablets in the Museo Archeologico Civico di Bologna were recently deciphered, and one of them turns out to be the first known surviving curse directed at a Roman senator.
It starts with a dramatic drawing of a snake-headed deity, possibly Hekate, underworld goddess of crossroads, sorcery and necromancy (among other things), with her arms crossed and a star carved over her groin. Although her name is not mentioned, the phrasing of the invocation is similar to other curses that enlist Hekate to their dark cause. The crossed arms symbolize the binding of the deity to the curse. The goddess will remain bound until its terms are fulfilled.
“May Fistus dilute, languish, sink and may all his limbs dissolve …”
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individual environmentalism gets a lot of flak in the face of corporate pollution but picking up litter makes a significant, noticeable impact. I spend about an hour a week picking up litter from around my dorm complex and I'm literally outpacing my community's litter production. Just an hour a week from one person is enough to offset nearly 200 people's worth of littering.
it would take less than 100 man-hours of labor per week to keep my whole college campus entirely litter-free. If you got two classrooms' worth of people to spend two hours per week each picking up litter, the whole campus would end up spotless and they'd straight up fucking run out of things to pick up.
If you're looking for some way to make a noticeable and positive impact on the world around you, go pick up some litter.
Here's a good video on getting started and what to do. Yes, it's fully legal, just don't trespass on private property. All you need are gloves and a bag.
I've been litter picking in the background of my walks and I've removed several bags of trash from the area. The other day, children were playing in the creek that I litter pick at a lot. They were jumping into the water and swimming, right in the spot where I pulled torn up cans out of the riverbed and where I removed nearly-buried fishing wire that still had hooks on the ends. Just one person with a sharps container made it safer for those kids to go out and have fun.
That was the most direct cause and effect thing I've had with litter picking after just a little while of doing it, but even aside from that it's just. Good to do. It makes your area cleaner and safer and removes plastic from the environment. Plus, people are less likely to litter in clean areas, and litter can not be subconsciously normalized in people's minds in a litter-free area.
It's also fulfilling instant gratification. You get to go out and do something with your hands and then look and see for yourself that an hour or two of picking shit up has made an instant tangible difference in the world.
First of all hard agree on all of this. Every time I go out and pick up litter my mood noticeably skyrockets. The opportunities one encounters in their daily life to make an immediate positive material impact on a social/political issue that concerns them do not come up very often.
But what this post doesn't even mention is the community aspect. Which is possibly my favorite part.
Every single time I go to pick up garbage without fail I have at least one positive interaction with a stranger in my neighborhood. Sometimes small like someone walking past and saying thank you for doing it. But also people sometimes offering to help or even offering a bottle of water. And since I've started doing it I've seen more people in my neighborhood going out with gloves and a bag on a warm evening after school or work. In which case when I see them on my walks I become the kind stranger they meet that day.
So argue all you want about whether picking up litter is actually good for the planet (it is) but there is no question. It is good for your community and it is good for you.
something I've been thinking about lately is the false dichotomy we've created between "natural" versus "synthetic" (or "man-made"); how it rhetorically categorizes human actions, presence, and existence itself as "unnatural" and encourages us to see ourselves as somehow outside of or different from that which is "natural".
of course these terms have utility in some contexts (textile fibres, materials science, etc.) but we should be mindful of applying them elsewhere. generally speaking I think we ought to discourage the use of language that positions us as inherently oppositional to or in conflict with nature and the natural - we ARE nature!! we do not and cannot exist apart from it or without it, and everything we do is in some sense "natural" because we are merely one of countless organisms with an evolutionary history like anything else alive on this planet!
colloquially, we tend to invoke "natural" as synonymous with good, or healthy, or beneficial, but it's not any of these things - just like "man-made" isn't synonymous with bad, or harmful. ecological restoration projects are man-made. species conservation work is man-made. nature is morally neutral; it simply exists, and though we unequivocally have a far greater influence on it than any other species, it will continue to exist in some form with or without us. we belong to nature, it does not belong to us.
recall that all life shares a common origin; understand that "species" is a continuous trait if you zoom out enough. there is nothing separating you from the sparrow, or the orchid, or the termite, except time. conceptualizing humans as uniquely apart from, unbeholden to, and/or exempt from nature serves nothing, and no one, except perhaps those who wish to further damage and degrade it (and us) for their own brief, temporary benefit. we cannot allow ourselves to fall into the trap of believing otherwise.
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idk man, I think sometimes we're too quick to accuse others of lying or otherwise acting maliciously, in part because it's really hard to ascertain the communication style or intention of (near-)strangers. especially in these sorts of public forums where we may be primed (often correctly, in fairness!!) to expect hostility, rudeness, &c. almost by default. and sure, intent doesn't necessarily erase the harm or offense caused by an action, but it absolutely can mitigate it (offense caused out of ignorance may be more easily excused than that caused deliberately, for example).
I'm quite certain every one of us has said or done something hurtful or inappropriate out of frustration, ignorance, thoughtlessness, failure to read the room, or simply because our tone or meaning was misunderstood. and obviously not every mistake is equal in severity or equally forgiven, and of course one's individual marginalizations and/or privileges affect the way we perceive and are perceived by others. I'm not going to pretend it's always a simple metric; each of us has to decide our own limits and tolerances, and do our best to treat others fairly by the same standards.
but generally speaking & ceteris paribus, I think we should all try to give each other a little more grace and assume good faith as far as possible, particularly when it comes to people we don't know well or haven't interacted with before, or when reacting to things in the heat of the moment. you don't need to become friends with everyone you meet or interact with anyone you don't want to (though it's always good practice to interrogate your reasons), and certainly there are situations where reacting harshly is justified if not called for! but I will basically never agree that jumping to ostracization and one-strike policies is an appropriate response in any case, and I should hope we can all recognize that for the reactionary tendency it is!
very suddenly & unexpectedly came into some extra money and it happens to be the exact amount + perfect timing to pay for something I've spent the last year or more worrying about how I was going to afford -- and something I'd requested Nemesis-Tykhe-Fortuna's guidance on numerous times
