#theswahn

Oof, I hear you. We all have the best of intentions when it comes to keeping up with our practice and making progress on our goals and projects, but damnit, Real Life just keeps on getting in the way.

Ideally, we'd all be able to keep perfect track of the occasions we wish to celebrate and the cycles of the moon AND have time and energy to devote to our practices on top of taking care of silly things like jobs and families and social lives and household management. Ideally, we'd be well-read, well-rested, well-organized, and perfectly in command of our faculties.

It's nice to dream, isn't it?

In reality, we're all doing the best we can and despite our best efforts, we miss holidays and moon dates and gatherings and go weeks or months without having time to sit down and actively work on our craft. And that is OKAY. None of it means we're bad people or failed witches. It just means we're human beings with human lives and human limitations. We can only do so much with 24 hours in a day.

The nice thing is that the craft meets us where we are, and if that means waiting a while, it's got a loooong shelf life. Besides that, practicing witchcraft isn't JUST performing rituals and casting spells and lighting up the altar. It's research and rest and reflection too.

In my practice, I've found that doing small things as part of my daily routine and larger things when I have time really helps. For instance, stirring a blessing into my morning drink, or setting my wards when I lock the front door, or wearing a charmed piece of jewelry. I do my best to keep track of the moons using reminders and a planner so I can put my jars out, but I forget sometimes. It's annoying, but there's always another one coming. And I find ways to make things I'm already doing magical as well, like cleansing my home when I clean or take out the garbage or reconnecting with the land I live on while doing yard work.

And when all else fails, I take a break and go back to the things that inspire me. I work on crafts. I journal. I try something new. I listen to music and watch movies and maybe re-read some things, and I give myself a little grace. (I've run myself into a full burnout before by ignoring my limits before. I don't recommend it.) Then when I have the time and energy, I get back to work.

Here are some posts that might help:

My Intuitive Spark Feels Low - How Do I Get It Back?

I’m In A Slump - How Do I Get Out Of It?

I’ve Reached A Stopping Point - What Do I Do Next?

How Do I Know When I’m Ready For The Next Step In My Practice?

Witchcraft Exercise - Quantifying Your Craft

Witchcraft Exercise - The Book of Lessons

Witchcraft Exercise - Witchy Inspo Journal

Witchcraft Exercise - Music To Witch By

I also discussed the topic on two episodes of my podcast:

Hex Positive, Ep. 027 - When Inspo Takes A Holiday (March 2022)

Hex Positive, Ep. 033 - Touch Grass (April 2023)

it issssss esp the manga I feel. unfortunately the anime is seared into the minds of ppl as a ‘cute but dumb shonei-ai’ and the manga gets very little exposure bc its old and the art style screamed very NINETIES 

if it would ever get a full on remake it would get cancelled immedietly tho 😂 its like one problematic trope stacked on another and they all create a yenga tower lmao. 

Hello!

No worries, it’s not weird at all! I also have MDZS + CQL projects with my friends, so of course, I’m very happy to help you with this! <3

And hopefully you don’t mind that I publish this answer in case there are others who needs similar reference.

Disclaimer:

MDZS and The Untamed do not allow cosplay. They do, however, allow us to post our photos as long as we do not mention the word “cosplay” both in the caption and tags.

We are also not allowed to place their official logos in our photos.

We are allowed to say that we’re “wearing MDZS/CQL costumes”.

This is also why they release their own official MDZS and CQL costumes in their official Taobao stores (although this still does not stop the Chinese folks to sell their own self-made costumes, especially for characters whose costumes are not released by the official stores).

This rule, as far as I know, applies to other MXTX works, as well (SVSSS and TGCF).

For XXC hair in Yi City, I regret to tell you that I don’t have any clear shots of this (at least not at close range). BUT I know where you can find the wig for this because coincidentally, one of my friends is also going to cosplay XXC.

You can use these photos as reference if you prefer styling it on your own.

Note: Just in case the pictures I’m going to post below isn’t clear enough, here is the GDrive link for the original pictures and screenshots. I will also include the store link at the end of this post in case you need it.

Okay, so I just noticed that in the Yi City Arc, Xiao Xingchen have 2 hairstyles (at least that’s what I noticed). The first one is in the beginning, where he just met A-Qing and found the dying Xue Yang.

The other one is nearing the end of the arc before his death.

The difference is the buns(?) on top of his hair.

So me and my friends found this shop in Taobao that specializes in selling all sorts of front-lace wigs for cosplay. Not only MDZS and CQL characters, they also have front-lace wigs for other Chinese/Japanese series and dramas. 

Their wigs are in good quality, and the most important is, their styling is (IMO) 80-90% accurate. That’s why you can also use their product photos as reference.

I found their Xiao Xingchen wig and they have 4 different hairstyles you can choose.

I believe the one you’re looking for is the 3rd and 4th styles. The 1st and 2nd ones look like they are for the past XXC when he was still traveling with Song Lan (because they included a plain white hair tie bonus).

This is the 3rd style.

And this one is the 4th.

I uploaded all of their product photos in the above GDrive folder if you need to zoom/take a closer look from different angles.

Hopefully you’ll find them useful. Sorry that these are the best reference that I can provide. ^^

The links to the Taobao store is under the cut.

Re-upload since the original post is just.. gone???