#bodaciousbanshee

Anyway, if you’re looking for a reading, I highly recommend Banshee. 

And yep it definitely is. Which sucks because we all have our flu shots here but stomach flu isn’t the flu virus. >:I Thankfully it hit me worse than it hit her since she’s frailer and I can handle feeling like crap a lot better aha.... 

Nah, it’s cool. I misread things, and you make many good points. Every day’s a school day and I should learn to keep an eye on my own internalised assumptions!No harm done - quite the contrary.

Never would have thought of the dark feminine stuff, awesome. And the martial arts thing could be seen as defense or protection. I mentioned how often I’ve seen them this year to the Dragon and he said he’d noticed a lot too, so I’m wondering what type of environmental factors have led to a mantis explosion in Sacramento.

LOL! Thank you Doll. It’s crazy how much my life has changed in the last 2 years. I still have bad depression bouts but they don’t last as long as they used to last. I’m just really having fun and enjoying life for the first time in close to a decade.

Disclaimer: What follows are my own personal associations and practices regarding hair braiding and ornamentation for use in magic, personal and devotional practices, there is little to no historical documentation that any of what I do is anything that was done by pre-christian Irish or Scottish peoples. A little personal history first, up until I was 30 my hair was long...really long, like ass length long and braiding it just seemed normal (what else do you do with ass long hair right?).  I remember being young and my mom would do some crazy elaborate braids in my hair, I always asked for “Princess Leia” hair (this was the early mid 80s ok.) but since that style is physically impossible to do with real hair, my mom did her best to placate me with some crazy braid things. I always loved the feeling of my hair being braided, and the effect that it had on my personality was striking, I was the rough and tumble leader of a group of boys, tree climbing, dirt playing wild child, when my hair wasn’t braided I was more inclined to be found reading or playing quiet imagination games. I was “Unschooled” until the age of 16 so I spent a lot of time sitting in a tree and braiding stuff into my hair to facilitate the image of whatever the fuck I was playing at that day. By the time I got into high school, I was starting to be interested in magic and paganism, and of course having read a shit ton of fantasy books my initial experimentation was this weird blend of neo-wicca new age pop culture shit, I’d pretty much stopped putting things in my braids (it didn’t go with the goth style I’d adopted, but there was almost always at least one or two thin braids in my hair. Into my 20s my practice became less what books I was reading, and more what I was actually doing. The braids were now braided with intent, they had reasons for being there rather than just cause they looked good. I never really put anything in them then, sometimes a bead or two, or a specific color tie, as I am unfortunately limited in what I can do because I’ve worked an office job since I was 21, So I have to stick to subtle things. I’ve not been able to do much braid work in the past few years because the length but it’s almost to my shoulder blades now, and I’ve slowly been getting back into doing them. An interesting aside that has me giggling over this topic, my boyfriend asked me the other day if I would put a braid in his hair “cause it’s the Irish way” which struck me as odd, and kicked up what could possibly be a past life memory. Of course I can’t find anything to academically verify that Irish women would put braids in their lovers hair, however It “feels” right and I do seem to recall doing something similar a long time ago. Ok, that got super long still reading? Good, That was a lot of rambling basically to say I’ve been doing braid stuff probably before I even knew what I was doing (this is also the story of most of my magical/occult workings for the longest time). Now I’ll go into some of the ways and reasons for braiding etc. I associate most hair stuff with glamour magic, you are braiding it for a desired affect on how you feel and/or how others perceive you, so the first thing you need to decide is why you are braiding. the second is placement, where do you want this braid? if it’s for an effect on yourself it can be somewhat hidden, I prefer to do mine at the base of my skull right below my ears. If you want more of an effect on others then you can place it somewhere more prominent. Size isn’t really an issue however the smaller the braid the longer it will last (just make sure you don’t leave it in long enough do that gross tangle dread thing). Once you know where and why you are braiding you can choose what if anything thing you want to add to the braid, string/thread/ribbon with color associations to what you are after. bones, beads, etc. personally I stay away from feathers simply because I don’t want to seem that I’m appropriating NA stuffs, and the MBTA kinda has this whole illegal feather thing going on. But I’m not going to tell you what to do, it’s totally YOUR hair ;) Then it’s time to start the braid, I usually like to braid slightly damp or with a smoothing product because my hair has a bloody mind of it’s own when it’s dry, and the braid looks a lot cleaner when smooth, you can also use coconut or olive oil which is better if you’re planning to leave the braid in for a while. Like any other spell the way you’re going to braid and focus your intent is totally up to you, you can state it out loud, hold it in your mind as you braid, chant, whatever, just as long as you’re focused on the purpose of the braid. After the braid is complete if you really wanna get woo woo, an essential oil that corresponds to the intent can be rubbed into the finished braid. Some ideas for braid work: Confidence Protection Focus Attraction (of all sorts) “Get the fuck away from me” Symbolic of a personality aspect or devotion to a deity That’s just a few. But Hair is symbolic and significant in many cultures for many different reasons, as well as being time and again mentioned in different spells and that kind of thing, when using braid magic you are quite literally tying a spell to yourself and using your energy to fuel it continuously. Every time you feel that braid your focus is brought back to the reason for the braid and the intent is renewed, if you’ve used the essential oil then you’ll also have your sense of smell brought back to the intent as well. I’m almost done...Promise. I mentioned how my boyfriend asked me to put a braid in his hair and how that brought to mind things that may or may not have happened as well has how much I’ve always enjoyed the feeling of someone else braiding my hair. While braiding your own hair is all fine and effective, having someone else braid it is really powerful.  That can open up all kinds of interesting avenues. If you are doing a lover’s hair you can braid for longevity of the relationship, happiness, faithfulness etc. just clear what you are doing with your lover as this is akin to a love spell and consent yo! You can also do things like a group braid spell with fellow magic users, lots of braids for one intent. You could also use it as a group connector or indicator if you are in a specific coven etc. like everyone has a braid with a red bead behind their left ear or something. Whew....that was long winded and rambling, and probably all over the place. But I hope you found it interesting and maybe even a bit informative. Feel free to ask me to elaborate or explain anything that was confusing or unclear.

She's 10. We've definitely talked about problems with institutionalized Christianity, but it is hard to connect that with concrete things going on at my parents' church or what she learns in Sunday school, you know?

orioncomplex, bodaciousbanshee, lux-obscura, creep-teeth, bekkathyst, brynja-storm, beagmactire, korrigantsionnach, foxhex, wanderingartificer, mountainsand-molehills,