In the blink of an eye

Make me some art RIGHT NOW. Paint me a portrait in oil-based acrylic. 

What? You don’t know that acrylics are water based, not oil based? Gee, that’s something only a skilled painter might know.    

Or instead compose me a song. Design packaging for this new product we’re launching in 10 days. Make me a webpage with eye-popping graphics you didn’t steal from another site.

Artists do all that. In fact, every manufactured thing you touch passed through the hands of a skilled artist at some point.

FAST FOOD! If fast food is ‘unskilled’ then why does Wendys, McDonalds (et al) expend time on training employees? Surely if any asshole off the street could do the work they can just slip right in there and start slinging happy meals on day one, right? 

Do you know the correct EH/OSHA-approved way to wash your hands? Do it wrong and you are literally violating the law. 

Quick: what do the symptoms of Hepatitis-A look like?  

Or let’s talk janitorial services. Do YOU think you can clean an entire floor of an office building in the allotted time? Where does the trash go? The recycling? How do you get ahold of the waste removal company when the dumpsters are inexplicably full at 4am? Whom do you call? What’s the account number? Is this even your job to worry about? If the dumpsters are full where do you put a night’s worth of collected trash?

What do you do with hazardous waste you might encounter, if you’re cleaning (say) an industrial workspace? Dispose of it incorrectly and that’s a crime.

What’s the procedure for when you encounter a trespasser in a secure building where supposedly nobody but you is working? Can you identify a fake or expired employee badge? Are you supposed to? Your training probably covered that. 

How much would we have to pay you, dear @ithinkthatthismustbetheplace, to deal with a seriously clogged toilet? Shit-smeared walls, standing waste water, the entire place trashed as if it was 3am after a frat party? You have less than an hour to return that restroom to pristine condition. And no, building services is not going to help you.  

You don’t think that requires skill? 

The idea of “skilled” or “unskilled” labor is inherently classist, and misses the fucking point anyway. All labor has dignity, whether you THINK it’s “skilled” or not, and all people deserve to live comfortably, whether they’re able to work or not.

Loyalty and Light Hufflepuff jar - to find your tribe/true friends

This jar has been asked again and again for so long, well I am happy to tell you IT IS HERE!

Here is what you’ll need:

vanilla for attraction and connection

nutmeg for prosperity and luck

ginger to always speak truth to one another

chamomile for gentleness of the heart

pumpkin seeds for a friendship that will grow strong

tiger’s eye for protection and a strong heart

citrine to attract the right people in your life

OPTIONAL:

Moon phase: Waxing Moon

Candles: gold and orange

Charm bag version: use orange or yellow fabric and a golden ribbon

How to proceed:

Take the time to light a candle, meditate if you wish to, and focus on your intent (finding true friends, deepening already existing friendship). Visualize it clearly and with as many details as possible. You can visualize energy surrounding you warmly, to symbolize the love and friendship you search for. 

Add ginger or nutmeg at the bottom of your jar, then all the other ingredients in layers. With each ingredient, repeat your wish.

Finally, add the lid to your bottle. Seal it with wax if you want. One last time, charge the bottle with your intent, like an external layer of energy.

Let the jar charge under the Waxing Moon light.

Carry the jar with you to attract your tribe/discover new friends!

Don’t hesitate to tag me in if you do it ;)

BUT. but the thing is. you how selkies/seal women was a pretty common variation of this? another really popular one was swans.

i just want you to think about that for a moment. swans. like…I get it, they’re pretty, graceful birds, certainly it’s easy to imagine them magically becoming pretty graceful ladies? but have you ever fought a swan. swans are awful. swans are the devil’s geese. imagine seeing a pretty magic lady and being absolutely enchanted by her, and stealing her magic feather cloak, and then you go up and say ‘hey i’m in love with you, let me make you my queen, it will be great, we’ll be so happy’ and she just looks at you for a moment and…

finally one day, a swan comes up to her and says ‘why don’t you come and swim with us? you always sigh so wistfully to see us on the water, and you would be most welcome to join our company, for you have always been a true friend to our kind’

and the woman says, ‘i can’t swim’

and the swan says, ‘we’ll teach you’

and the woman says, ‘literally i can’t swim, my husband stole my sealskin and should i venture into deep water i would surely drown’ 

and the swan says ‘your husband fucking WHAT’

the next morning the woman’s front yard looks like this. 

Also? Swans don’t have a lot of obvious physical markings that divide the males from females. So some idiot might be like, “damn, that’s a sexy bird, I wanna marry her” and then like. It’s a dude swan. You just transformed thirty pounds of angry aggressive bird into 200+ pounds of angry aggressive adult man, who will totally kick your butt. (Also I’m pretty sure that if you turned a lady swan into a human, you would not get a willowy little 5′0″ girl. You’d probably have a 6-foot amazon with biceps the size of your head. Swans are heavy birds and it takes a LOT of muscle to get them into the air. They are among the baddest bitches in the bird kingdom)

“What do you think?” God asked as we passed a nineteen-way taking place in a pool of champagne. Little cherubs flitted overhead armed with mops and cleaning supplies, thankfully. “Lust is our most popular sin.” I eyed the supermodel-like figures of a couple passing nearby, and could easily see why. “You can look however you want. Hell, you can be whatever gender you want. No fetish is too taboo, and no desire can be denied here.”

It was quite tempting, but I wasn’t ready to make a permanent decision here. “Let’s see the others,” I told God.

We carried on to Greed. We passed rows and rows of mansions, each more opulent than the next. Some of them were so large that they would have had enough bed rooms to fit my entire hometown. And so many different styles: one second, we were in a beautiful French vineyard in front of a gorgeous chateau with the Alps in the background. The next second, a warm tropical beach with a modern mansion atop breathtaking cliffs. After that, a ski chalet in Colorado with a roaring fire in a hearth large enough to fit an ox. Each one had various Italian sports cars and Rolls Royces parked in front, with the occasional smattering of boats, helicopters, etc.

“Any material desire you ever wanted,” God explained. “Your own world, where you can have everything. You want the Hope Diamond? You can fly to Washington DC in your own solid gold helicopter and buy it from the Smithsonian. Hell, you can just buy the Smithsonian.”

Also tempting, but I decided to keep looking.

Gluttony was next up. Tables and tables of the very finest foods: beautiful steaks cooked medium rare; butter-poached lobster tail; fresh oysters on a half shell; exotic wines in dusty bottles that had been hiding in the cellars of the world’s finest restaurants. Everyone had a glass of champagne in hand and simply lounged on couches and chairs near the tables, eating endlessly. As soon as the inhabitants took a bite, the food just instantly came back. My mouth watered even watching them.

“In every other House, the food is practically sawdust compared to Gluttony,” God explained. “You haven’t truly experienced heaven until you’ve been to Gluttony.”

I shook my head, and we kept moving.

Sloth was as you’d expect. An endless sea of the softest mattresses, stacked with cushions and pillows that made the story of the princess and the pea seem minimalist. Little angels visited each resident, giving them massages that made them all melt into their blankets.

Wrath was… well, a lot like what I’d expect Hell to be like. Fire, brimstone, whips, torture.. you know, the works. Except here, you weren’t the one being tortured. Every enemy you’d ever made in your real life was now under your thumb. “Lots of people choose their fathers,” God explained. “Lots of grudges against parents in general, you know. But you’re not limited to that. Someone beat you out for a big promotion back on Earth? Take your pound of flesh here.”

Then we arrived at Envy. It looked… well, a lot like home.

“Go on in,” God said, gesturing toward the door. I turned the knob and walked in… and found Emily waiting inside. She ran forward, wrapped her arms around my neck, and planted a kiss right on my lips. “Welcome home, honey.”

I looked back toward God. “Oh, don’t be coy,” he said. “You have no secrets from me. We all know that you were in love with your best friend’s wife.” She didn’t seem to hear him at all; she went back into the hall. “We all know that you just settled for your own wife while secretly pining after her. Well, this is your chance to live happily ever after.”

I peered into the kitchen. Emily was baking something, wearing nothing but an apron. Her curly black hair fell softly over her shoulder as she whisked ingredients. She turned back, noticed I was observing her, and an enthusiastic smile spread across her face.

“It’s what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it?” God whispered in my ear.

I wanted to take it. God damn did I want to take it. But I shook my head.

God seemed puzzled. “You need to make a decision,” he told me.

“I haven’t seen Pride yet.”

He scoffed. “No one ever wants Pride, trust me.”

“Well, I want to see it.”

_________________________

Pride was boring. Just a row of workbenches in a bare white room.

“I don’t get it,” I told God.

“Yeah, no one does,” he answered. “That’s why no one ever chooses it. Doesn’t cavorting in Lust sound better than sitting here building little trinkets for the rest of eternity? Wouldn’t you rather gorge yourself in Gluttony? Or spend time with Emily in Envy?”

I considered the options again. “I pick Pride,” I finally told him.

He narrowed his eyes. “What? Look at it!” He gestured around the room again. There wasn’t much to look at. “Why would you choose this for the rest of time?”

“Because you don’t want me to pick it,” I told him. If he was really God, he’d know what a contrarian I can be. And I knew he was hiding something, trying to pretend like Pride didn’t exist. There was something special about it.

hey there! i’m doing simple 1 to 3 card spread tarot readings to fundraise for my wheelchair! and just to further my tarot practice and intuition ☺️

1 card reading - $5

3 card reading - $15

if you want a reading send me message/ask. i’ll send you my paypal link, i recieve payment, you ask me your question(s) and i create a spread based on your question(s) and tell you your drawn cards and what they mean; and how the cards meanings correlate to your question(s).

don’t know what to ask? here some ‘Good’ tarot questions! :

1) “What do i need to know about…?”

2) “What do i need to do to achieve…?”

3) “What is in the way and how can i overcome this…?”

4) “How can i improve my ability to…?”

5) “What do i need to change in order to…?”

6) “What is the potential for…?”

Disclaimer: i am NOT comfortable doing readings based on questions relating to romantic/love life.

“Brigit búadach,

búaid na fine,

siur Ríg nime,

nár in duine,

eslind luige,

        lethan bréo.

Ro-s íacht nóibnem,

mumme Góidel,

riar na n-óiged,

óibel ecnai,

ingen Dubthaig,

duine úallach,

Brigit búadach,

        bethad béo.”

***

“Triumphant Brigid,

glory of her kindred,

sister of Heaven’s King,

a noble woman,

a danger to perjurers,

a broad-spreading flame.

She has reached holy Heaven,

the foster-mother of the Gael,

the desire of visitors,

a spark of wisdom,

daughter of Dubthach,

a proud woman,

triumphant Brigid,

living one of life.”

~ Brigit Búadach/Victorious Brigid {Old Irish, translated by Kuno Meyer. Found in Miscellanea hibernica.}

Tips for Witches in College

A lot of witches I have met throughout the years are in college, including me! While our magickal studies are important, it is also important to maintain your academic performance. Think of it this way; the less you stress over school (because you’re on top of things), the more you can focus on magick! 

Here are some tips: 

Use different colored pens/font colors to match the meaning behind the subject or just use purple for intelligence!

Wear purple to exams!

Make a sigil for a successful day in classes and in tests

Appeal to gods who are associated with wisdom or intelligence (I appeal to Athena)

Keep an intelligence or memory charm/sachet in your bag

Ground and center yourself when you get stressed. 

Brew a tea as well to calm yourself

Do affirmations regularly (”I will pass this test”, “I will understand this concept” etc.)

Create a bubble/circle around your study area to ward off bad energy, distractions, and incorrect information

taste:

eat small fruit snacks

buy yourself a treat occasionally

make a cake in a mug

chew flavored sugar-free gum

put lemon in your water

hearing:

listen to your favorite music

or just wear earphones to block things out

listen to white noise/ambient sounds

smell:

put on some sweet-scented lotion

spray a bit of your favorite perfume

make your favorite coffee or tea

sight:

look in the mirror and tell yourself you look good today

clean the clutter in your room + throw things away

close all the unused tabs

clean the dishes + do your laundry

delete unused apps

make your bed

fold your clothes tidily

organize your books and papers

turn down the brightness of your phone/computer at night

smile and be more polite at strangers

open up the curtains, let the light in

go outside often

touch:

hug people you love

cuddle your pet

read while lying in your bed

hug a soft toy

appearance:

wash your face/use face wipes

dry shampoo if you’re too tired to shower

brush your teeth

exfoliate + moisturize your skin

change into clean clothes

brush your hair

put on some lip balm

body:

do your favorite exercises

take a nap

take deep breaths with your stomach

take a warm shower

stand up and stretch your legs

put on some music and go for a walk outside

get at least 7 hours of sleep

drink lots of water

hobbies:

always make some time to do what you love

create art, writing and music for yourself, not anyone else

don’t feel embarrassed about your hobbies

be patient with yourself, progress takes time! don’t give up

hobby ideas: cooking, reading, drawing, painting, a sport, a new language, learn a musical instrument, collect things, photography, join a class or a club

mind:

put yourself first

spend less time around people who make you feel bad

write your thoughts in a journal

stand up for yourself

stop judging people

don’t dwell in the past

concentrate on what’s happening now

don’t try for people who don’t care

stop caring about what’s not important

be a friend to yourself, rather than a bully

learn to love your body

see the bigger picture

change self-destructive habits

appreciate the good

let things go

ask for help

studying:

make lists

focus on priorities

stop putting everything off

turn off your phone if you need to

take breaks

do one thing at a time

believe in yourself!

other:

laugh a lot

get a plant and name it

buy flowers for yourself

be ok with being alone

go out with your friends

watch a movie