#mothymusings

You do not need visualization skills to do energy work, perform magick, be a witch, or anything in between.

Rituals, spirit work, spells, divination, and so on have been practiced through so many other means than just visualization since practically the dawn of humanity. There are four other mundane and psychic senses than just eyesight and clairvoyance that you can utilize.

Raise and direct your energy via movement, your breath, and music. Meditate through automatic writing/drawing, or focus on how energy feels in different locations. Hone your intuition by asking for and noticing observable signs or listening to the voices of spirits and discerning them from your own inner voice.

“In the end, a simple happiness is better than a complex disillusion.”

― Janelle Monáe, The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer

Synopsis

Memory Librarian and Other Stories is an anthology inspired by Monae’s album Dirty Computer. Each story is set in the near future, where a new government called New Dawn controls everything a person does down to their memories. Within each short story is a message of Queer, POC, and Female resistance against the rigid conformity New Dawn tries to impose.

There are five stories within the anthology, every single one could be read independently of the other, however there are references interspersed each novella. The titular story, Memory Librarian, follows Seshet as one of the high ranking officials in New Dawns order. Her job focuses on categorizing as well as monitoring the memories of her city until strange circumstances cause her to question her loyalties and even her own memories.

Nevermind follows the residents of the Pynk Hotel, a resistant group of queer women who have run away from New Dawn, dubbed Dirty Computers. However things are not as harmonious as they assume, as tensions between those who try to restrict what it means to be Pynk threaten to destroy the safe haven forever.

Timebox centers around two women who have found out that their closet has time altering powers, and the arguments on how best to use such a valuable resource as time for the benefit of the whole, or the individual.

Save Changes also deals with time, as Sisters Amber and Larry deal with being outcasts due to their mothers status as a reformed resistance leader. Gifted with a stone that their late father claims to rewind time, Larry tries to save her sister and mother from fates worse than death.

Timebox Altar(ed), the final story, is about a young child named Bug, who with their friends find and create art in a clearing with the help of Mx. Tangee, a strange woman who almost seems to have magical powers.

First Impressions

Wow! Memory Librarian blew me away with the descriptive prose and inventive stories of rebellion and love in an oppressive society. I enjoyed each story and the messages they imparted. I think my favorites were Nevermind and Save Changes, especially Save Changes with how well it mixed technology and magic together. I think for me it was definitely a fun read all the way through

The Good, The Bad, and The Fuzzy

The good has to go to the inventive worldbuilding of the setting Memory Librarian is in! Details are kept vague in terms of how New Dawn gained power, how memories are able to be used as a resource as well as what being a Torch entails. But I think that vagueness is in its favor from a narrative standpoint as the characters we meet already know all these things (Save for Bug and their friends), as well as for the reader to keep drawing you back in. It’s a nice blend of sci-fi contemporary without being set in such a heavily futuristic setting, there’s technology everywhere but it doesn’t feel like it’s the main focus or detracts from it.

The bad, I will admit I had trouble reading through some of the prose, especially in the Memory Librarian novella. I had to go back and reread many large paragraphs to try to figure out what exactly was going on. I think other than that I couldn’t really find anything else I had a problem with?

The fuzzy is more to deal with plots being abruptly cliffhangers, however I don’t find it as a fault due to the formatting but I still had moments where I would go “And then what??!!” before turning the page to be met with a new story.

Conclusion

Memory Librarian and Other Stories from Dirty Computer is an amazing anthology that talks about being different in a society that tries its hardest to stamp it out through the lenses of black queer women. Its sci-fi setting is friendly enough to those who aren’t familiar with the genre while also providing an interesting spin on the genre. I think this is a perfect read for those that enjoy evocative short stories within the same world as well as fans of Monae’s music. Listening to Dirty Computer while reading definitely helped immerse me in the world of New Dawn.

Rating

A nice 8.9/10 lamps!

Upcoming…

Physical cleaning is so underrated in witchcraft.

I feel like most of the time when witches talk about cleaning, they're primarily talking about energetic cleaning. Even when physical cleaning is involved it's "use the broomstick to sweep away the bad energy," "open your windows," and "recipe for a cleansing room spray," and so on, but nothing terribly thorough.

I just spent three and a half hours cleaning my room, no magick other than my spirit guides' candle lit to help keep me locked in with some video essays rolling in the background. Several surfaces and items have been dusted for the first time in months, I filled two garbage bags with trash and two more with donations, and rearranged all my drawers and shelves.

And no recent magickal cleansing method has made me feel so relaxed and at ease in so long.

I honestly wasn't expecting it! Usually deep cleaning makes me feel quite exhausted, but this is more of a satisfactory exhaustion. Like a physical weight I never knew was there has been lifted off my chest. Now I'm rewarding myself with a nice bath using the bath bomb that my boyfriend made for me!

Divination doesn't need to be done before every spell, but rather than asking for permission you should be asking for insight to better curate your spell to the situation at hand. Many of us have a hard time sorting out what is wanted vs what is needed, and this is what divination can help us with in our spells.

I am the joyful warmth of the sun and the lizard that basks in it's heat, I am the quiet serenity of the moon and the moth it guides, and I am the transition of dusk and dawn as cycles end while others begin.

I am the trees grounded in layers of soil and the animals which feast upon its fruit, I am the heavens solitary and mysterious which moves in its own time, and I am the clouds that lay in between which paints a new picture every day.

And by just south I mean so just that at home we're getting heavy rain, some thunder rumbles, a bit of lightning, and a bit of heavy wind. But two towns just a fifteen minute drive away? 80MPH winds. Confirmed tornado touchdown. Hail the size of tennis balls. Trees and power lines getting torn down everywhere.

Seriously, I feel like an intelligent functioning human again and I have so much free time now! I can discuss this more if people are interested, but to avoid rambling, I feel like I'm in a mental state where I can finally start building some semblance of a morning and evening routine.