Otherworld Ventures

Over fifty years of data show a peak in PFAS (also known as "forever chemicals") content in seabird eggs in the 90s, followed by a decrease as regulations went into effect. The most recent findings show a 70% decrease of most common PFAS.

We are making genuine progress! Producers are dramatically altering how much they use PFAS and how much gets released in effluent, but also there's a lot better understanding of how to remove PFAS from the environment!

Δημήτηρ Μέλαινα🐍🌾🐴

Mount Elaios is some thirty stades away from Phigalia [in Arkadia] and has a cave sacred to Demeter surnamed Melaina (Black). The Phigalians accept the account of the people of Thelpousa about the mating of Poseidon and Demeter, but they assert that Demeter gave birth, not to a horse, but to Despoine (the Mistress), as the Arkadians call her. Afterward, they say, angry with Poseidon and grieved at the rape of Persephone. She put on black apparel and shut herself up in this cavern for a long time. But when all the fruits of the earth were perishing, and the human race dying yet more through famine, no god, it seemed, knew where Demeter was in hiding, until Pan, they say, visited Arkadia. Roaming from mountain to mountain as he hunted, he came at last to Mount Elaios and spied Demeter, the state she was in, and the clothes she wore. So Zeus learnt this from Pan, and sent the Moirai (Fates) to Demeter, who listened to the Moirai and laid aside her wrath, moderating her grief as well. For these reasons, the Phigalians say, they concluded that this cavern was sacred to Demeter and set up in it a wooden image. The image, they say, was made after this fashion. It was seated on a rock, like to a woman in all respects save the head. She had the head and hair of a horse, and there grew out of her head images of serpents and other beasts. Her tunic reached right to her feet; on one of her hands was a dolphin, on the other a dove. Now why they had the image made after this fashion is plain to any intelligent man who is learned in traditions. They say that they named her Melaina (Black) because the goddess had black apparel. They cannot relate either who made this wooden image or how it caught fire. But the old image was destroyed, and the Phigalians gave the goddess no fresh image, while they neglected, for the most part, her festivals and sacrifices until the barrenness fell on the land Then they went as suppliants to the Pythian priestess and received this response :

‘Azanian Arkadians, acorn-eaters, who dwell in Phigaleia, the cave that hid Deo, who bare a horse, you have come to learn a cure for grievous famine, who alone have twice been nomads, alone have twice lived on wild fruits. It was Deo who made you cease from pasturing, Deo who made you pasture again after being binders of corn and eaters of cakes, because she was deprived of privileges and ancient honors given by men of former times. And soon will she make you eat each other and feed on your children, unless you appease her anger with libations offered by all your people, and adorn with divine honors the nook of the cave.’

When the Phigalians heard the oracle that was brought back, they held Demeter in greater honor than before, and particularly they persuaded Onatas of Aigina, son of Mikon, to make them an image of Demeter at a price" - Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 42. 1-13

My favourite part in this account recorded by Pausanias is the oracle's message to the Phigalians. To me, it's metal as hell.

This is a common strategy of white feminism: to align with women of color when it suits, trumpeting a nonexistent sisterhood as a mask for appropriating our work to advance the myth of a better world run by women. The truth is, it is women of color, most especially Indigenous women, who are at the forefront of environmental rights because their own rights are inseparable from the battle for the environment.

According to the World Resources Institute, protecting Indigenous lands is among the most successful methods of fighting deforestation and climate change: remove such protections and environmental catastrophe is unavoidable. The battle for land rights is deadly. From 2002 to 2015, some 1,237 eco-activists were killed for defending (mostly) Indigenous lands.

2017 was the deadliest yet with around four activists killed per week. Indigenous women on the front lines who list their lives include Berta Cáceres, Lesbia Janeth Urquía, and Efigenia Vásquez. To dress this up as a warmhearted girl power story not only trivializes their work, it erases the danger such women are in."

Hellenistic Greek Cast Glass Pomegranate Vase

This sick bleach shirt I made. Something to showcase my undying love for prehistoric cave art.

Adonis is a lot more similar to other androgynous "beautiful youths" who die young, representing the Greek fascination with life/beauty and death/aging and the border that a dead youth represents. and it interests me specifically that, in his myth, his divine lover/s are primarily feminized beings, who actively desire and pursue him and have control over his life, and he dies not through being a Brave Manly Warrior but is passively killed. its similar to Ganymede and Hyacinthus, but in both of those stories their divine lovers are masculinized (Zeus and Apollo) and one might think that their androgyny / feminized role in the story is the product of being in a homosexual relationship. but then here we have Adonis, who is said to have "acted as a woman" for Apollo, yet his story is centered around his heterosexual relationship with goddesses and he is still androgynous and narratively passive.

Doors, door handles, the top of door frames etc. Most effective with guardians and the like.

Hung or tied on gates. Make a warning sign with a sigil or knot magic with ribbons.

Any entrances or exits, including ventilation, drains, holes of any kinds etc.

On window sills. These will catch light - make use of this!

Under lamps and on lampshades.

On shelves and hearths.

In pockets, in wallets, sewn onto clothing. If they are close to you, they will absorb body heat, many in witchcraft charge stones and the like with their own energy, so be wary of this if you have little energy yourself.

On animal collars! As they travel about, they carry protection.

On top of the loo, the sink or tied to the tap or on the shower-head. Be aware that the bathroom is not the cleanest of places and that water can do some damage to things like metals and stones.

Medicine cabinets and cupboards, protecting your medication and food is wise idea, it might be best to avoid strong smells with herbs and spices as this can be absorbed by some food.

The four legs or posts of a bed, I hang charm-bags alternating between sweet smells to help sleep and strong smells to ward things away. Half the battle of warding is feeling secure yourself!

Under your pillow or sewn into a blanket; a blanket or duvet can be a ward itself - as everyone knows, you pull your blanket over yourself as protection as a kid, we use blankets to shield from the cold and the feeling of a blanket weight’s makes you feel secure!

Your computer monitor or laptop, place something on it while it is off.