#sagescented

Have the day you deserve, Anna.

"Tagged" by @sagescented - love this!

August sounds like ... owl shrieks, dog barks, humming air conditioning and roaring attic fans, chatter of students on campus.

Tastes like ... shaved ice, grilled meats, iced coffee, electrolyte drinks.

Feels like ... The sting of sunshine on skin, the cool breeze of fans.

Looks like ... golden hour, lush foliage turning to straw,

And smells like .... wildfire smoke, ocean breezes, tomato leaves, and sweat.

Artist

Happy Birthday tomorrow to my friend @sagescented !! Thank you for all your encouragement and guidance on my botanical journey. I hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow and in the coming year.

Be like a dandelion and grow and thrive, whatever your circumstances may be.

2 ✧ Does hair hold significance in your practice? if yes, tell us a bit about it!

Yes! A lot, actually. I'll tell you one of my favorite bits, and one that I'm reminded of every time I do my hair: we must pay attention to how we're feeling when we braid (ours, or somebody else's) hair, and to the environment we're in, since braiding your hair will keep things (mostly) unchanged around you as long as the braid is tied. While you could avoid braiding your hair when you're feeling under the weather, it's also customary to use this as an opportunity to braid prayers into your hair. Focus on the prayers until you feel your mood is sufficiently changed to a positive one, as much as you can, and then braid your hair while you continue to pray. It's one of the ways we have to change our luck.

8 ✧ What is your preferred method to bring joy and happiness? (to a person, or home)

I put some water and coffee on my ancestral altar, light a candle, and then light some of my favorite jasmine stick incense by the altar. Open the windows and doors of my home, and set my incense burner by the front door. Then I light a charcoal, and burn some smoke allies there. Orange peel, clove, chamomile and frankincense are my favorite for happy thoughts. Really the combined feeling of a fresh breeze, warm sunlight and incense burning, of any kind, is what true happiness feels like to me! I do this everytime the weather allows me to 😂 because in my head and in my heart, it's as much a prayer to give my gratitude for joy and peace, as it is a prayer that the days to come will continue to be happy and peaceful.

I know who that was and I chose not to address then. They were mad at me because I blocked them on Tumblr and discord.

At the time, we hadn't spoken in a couple of weeks.

I blocked them because I was dealing with a lot and my mother had recently been diagnosed with very serious cancer (which she is still battling) and that person's posts at the time were really hard and unsettling for me to read as they often portrayed someone grieving the loss of their own mom to cancer in a way that was difficult for me to see.

I did not confront them because I had no desire to control what they put on their blog but I also didn't think that it was necessarily the safest time for me to confront them directly and thought they would not take it well which they didn't as they doxed me in retaliation to being blocked -- and adding in an edit: which they didn't see for over a week, and it's not like they had been following me either when I had blocked them???.

I blocked them just to protect my peace, but I have not been in contact with them since-- also, I haven't known peace since either. :/

I was doxxed. I was accused of cursing someone (that I did not curse). I was called all sorts of things.

It was disappointing, but I guess unsurprising. And hearing about through anons and from people sending me the post really affirmed my fear of that person not handling me wanting to cease contact well at all.

I was trying to find something big that happened this month that I could point to, to be my #favorite part of the month... but my favorite thing so far has actually been a really simple small thing. One small moment of peace, deep, heartfelt, honest peace in my heart.

One day, I found a small window of time to sit down a few minutes and try to unwind. One of my goals for 2025 is to draw more, if I could find time between errands and obligations, and so I did. It wasn't something grand, or intricate, like I what I used to enjoy painting. I started with a small sketch of a hummingbird in my journal and then added one of my favorite native flowers alongside it. Then I colored it with cheap pencils and markers to give it some life... and it turned out surprisingly better than I expected.

And it really lifted my spirits because I felt like I was able to pour onto the page something that I'd been holding on to for a long time, simple as it sounds. It felt like release, or relief, almost.

3❀ Do you do night or bedtime prayers? if yes, what does that look like in your practice?

I don't, at least not routinely. I rarely pray at night, and there's some taboos in my tradition about working after sundown which include prayers and offerings. When I do, it's either because I'm offering prayers as a devotion to a nocturnal Spirit, Saint or Deity, or because there's some kind of urgent situation that requires me to handle it at that moment instead of waiting until sunrise.

8❀ How does glamour magic work according to your beliefs and in your practice?

I think it really depends on a lot of things. One, who the glamour is placed on, two, the method, and three, the eye of the beholder. I feel people always put a lot of focus on the third aspect and forget the other two. I guess you can sweeten someone specific to see you more favourably, but when I hear the word "glamour" I think less of a specific individual sweetening and more of a general blessing upon someone, so that others see what you want them to see, regardless of who they are. And that's the trickier part. How do you make someone as close to universally liked as possible, when people have so many conflicting preferences...?

The answer, to me, is that you don't aim for physical beauty, you aim for some other non-physical quality that is endearing and appearing pleasing to their eye will follow as the natural consequence.

14❀ Do you keep a magical garden? if yes, what does it look like in february? (if not, you can tell us what the landscape outside looks like instead!)

I don't! Not that I haven't tried 😂 gardening is a skill that I've never been able to cultivate (ha)

February here looks like late summer. You can feel nature very slowly retreating, almost teasing with the idea of autumn. The soft winds that carry the sweet smell of blossoms slowly turning into thunderstorms and seasalt breeze. The neighboring trees still have some flowers, and the grape vines in the gardens are heavy with ripe fruit. Everything looks green and bountiful but the weather is starting to get chillier and chillier (and I love that combination).