Valor North

“it’ll be fine”

“That’s what Checks and Balances™️ are for :))))”

“It can’t happen here this is AMERICA”

”We just need to survive the four years until Kamala Harris”

Like….not to be r u d e but 1) you were wrong and 2) there are mass protests on June 30th and if you actually care about this country your ass had better be there.

A metal tea strainer just like the one above.

Put just a pinch of herbs inside. Hold the mesh over a candle for several moments. You will be able to see the herbs begin to burn. If you just need a little smoke, they will smoke immediately and go out quickly when removed from the flame.

If you need a lot of smoke, let the herbs turn in to embers (they will not really catch fire). In this form you can carry the tea strainer all around a room to smoke it out, or place it on a fire-safe surface such as a baking dish or pan so it can smolder safely.

Really only use a small amount of dried herbs! 

Witchcraft uses a lot of words you might not have heard before; here’s a breakdown of some of the most common!

Basics

Intent: The goal or desire; the will for something to come into being.

Visualisation: A technique used in magical workings in which the witch pictures the desired effect within their mind’s eye.

Manifestation: The process of a desired intent being brought into reality.

Charging: The act of filling an object with energy.

Cleansing: A magical working with the intent of removing all lingering energies from an object, place or person, be those energies negative or positive.

Grounding: A magical technique in which the individual removes excess unwanted energy (often by ‘pushing’ it into the ground while sitting down) and aligns themselves with the energy of the earth.

Banishing: A magical working with the intent of sending something away, removing an individual from your life or cutting out negative acts and behaviours.

Warding: A magical working in which the individual creates ‘Wards’. Wards are barriers of energy which deny any unwanted entity entrance to the place warded. Wards can also be placed upon oneself to prevent a magical attack.

Deity: A supreme being. Often represented by Gods and Goddesses though not limited to these terms.

Tools, Objects & Symbology

Grimoire:  A personal magical inventory of beliefs, spells, ingredients and anything else deemed essential to a witches path. 

Altar: A sacred space in which to enact magical workings, meditation and worship.

Wand: A pointed object used to direct energy.

Priapic Wand: A phallus-shaped wand.

Athame: A knife used in ritual to cut out a sacred space and to direct energy. Typically you will never use this to cut solid objects.

Book Of Shadows: A personal magical inventory of beliefs, spells, ingredients and anything else deemed essential to a Wiccan’s path.

Boline: A knife, often but not always a sickle, used for the cutting of ingredients, inscribing of candles and carving of wood.

Besom: A broomstick used to cleanse an area.

Cauldron: A metal pot used for spellwork. (Boiling, mixing, stirring).

Chalice: A goblet, cup or class containing ritual drink. Typically containing offerings.

Dark Mirror: A black piece of glass or reflective material used for scrying.

Pentagram: A five-pointed star widely used amongst many Pagan religions.

Pentacle: A pentagram with a circle around it, typically worn as a necklace for protection.

Inversed Pentagram: A symbol relating to Satanic practises and beliefs.

Septagram: A seven-sided star, usually used in reference to workings with the Fae.

Triquetra: An ancient Celtic symbol which has lost its initial meanings which is today adopted by Pagans of varying paths to mean different things. In Christianity referred to as the trinity knot and believed to represent the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. A secular way of viewing this is that it represents life, death and rebirth. In Wicca believed to represent the triple Goddess. 

Amulet: An object that has innate magical properties used as a necklace.

Charm: An object that has been given magical properties.

Talisman: An object that has been created with the intention of having a specific magical property

Hag Stone: A stone with a hole worn naturally worn through it in which the other side is visible. Thought to be used to see the ‘unseen’ and often the Fae.

Poppet: An object designed to take on the likeness of an individual upon which spells are used. A taglock is used to bind the person to the poppet.

Taglock: The personal effect of an individual that can be used in spellwork as a link to that target. 

Festivities, Holidays & Events

Wheel Of The Year: A name used to refer to the cycle of the eight holidays observed in Wicca; synonymously used to describe the turn of the seasons.

Solstice: Two points in the year in which the sun reaches its highest or lowest point in the sky. The longest and shortest days of the year.

Esbat: A meeting upon the full moon.

Sabbat: Used to refer to any of the eight holidays observed by Wiccans and others.

Skyclad: To be naked. Believed to promote a greater connection to nature during ritual and worship. 

Equinox: The time in which day and night are of equal length as the sun crosses the celestial equator.

Coven: A meeting of witches with the intent to perform magic or worship as a group.

Circle: A temporary space marked out by a magical practitioner that is capable of containing, enhancing and binding magical energy.

Further Reading  

Mage: Another term for a magical practitioner.

Aether: The fifth element after Earth, Air, Fire and Water meaning Spirit, Energy, Life Essense & Soul.

Abjuration: Practices of magic relating to the protection of oneself through the suppression of spells cast by other magic practitioners.

Conjuration: Practices of magic relating to bringing desired effects into reality.

Divination: Practices of magic relating to gathering further insight on desired topics, including knowledge of the past and the future. 

Enchantment: Practices of magic relating to enacting influence over the minds and decisions of others.

Evocation: Practices of magic relating to working with raw, sometimes uncontrollable forces of power.

Animism: The belief that all things are alive or have a soul.

Glamour: Practices of magic pertaining to achieving desired intent via altering, enhancing or changing one’s appearance.

Blasting: A magical working with the intent of causing infertility and ill health, in both people and crops.

Sigil: A magical symbol created by the individual, usually constructed by breaking down a word or sentence and using the letters.

Seal: A magical symbol. Often used to finalise a working.

Elemental (Noun): A force, being, entity or representation of an element given form and sometimes rudimentary conscious thought, though not in a way thought to be understood correctly by humankind. 

Elemental (Adjective): Pertaining to any workings regarding the elements

Witchcraft Types

Secular: The practice of witchcraft at its core. Devoid of any influence from religion or spirituality.

Atheistic: The practice of witchcraft from an Athiest perspective.

Elemental: The practice of witchcraft in which the individual utilises the power of the Elements as their primary source of energy and spell structure. E.g Water Witch, Fire Witch, etc.

Wiccan: Belonging to Wicca, a relatively new nature-based religion born in the 1940′s/50′s in which Witchcraft is expressed as the main form of worship for the God and Goddess.

Traditional: Witchcraft that predates the rebirth in popularity of Witchcraft during the 20th Century.

Hedge: A solitary practitioner who utilises herbs in their practice. Once used exclusively for witches who follow the practice of ‘Hedge Riding’ this term has opened out to encompass those following the archetype of the ‘village witch’ providing salves and potions. 

Stregheria: A form of Italian witchcraft, often centred around the worship of Leyland’s version of Aradia and Diana (though the term can also be used for other forms of Italian witchcraft).

Christian: The practice of witchcraft from a Christian perspective. 

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Many more women dressed as men to fight.

Long before female nurses were officially considered to be a part of the military, they were already on the battlefield. They merely didn’t get written into official reports because they were “invisible women”, “not supposed to be there”. Usually they would be local women running a makeshift care center out of their homes.

Movies involving ancient societies? Guess how many had female fighters?

Spies? Mostly female. Yeah, only the men were caught, usually (because nobody suspected the servant woman), but historians believe most cases had more women spies than men. Most cases meaning across time and continents.

Giving me a movie on samurai? Women were trained as well to avoid being captured and raped, and often fought just as hard as men. One woman notably survived multiple battles, and became a hero alongside her sisters after taking out 7 men before dying in her last fight (usually in sword fighting you’d be lucky to take out 2 enemy soldiers. 7 is fucking insane, but because she was a woman it was shoved under the records how the lord managed to survive).

Women have ALWAYS been on battlefields. Women have an intense history in driving victories and losses alike. They were supply runners, fighters, spies, assassins, prostitutes (look up how prostitutes essentially ran the western world, or even the social status of harem members. They literally fucking ruled), even underground activists.

By this post we want to raise awareness that language death is nothing that happened in the past but is in fact alarmingly accelerating today. When a language dies, it dies quietly. We can only name examples in this post because the death of most of the last speakers wasn’t noticed by the public and never came to its attention.

2001

Mesmes language

It belonged to the West Gurage languages of the Semitic languages, thus, distinctly related to Arabic and Hebrew. The last speaker of it (no name is cited by the language survey that interviewed him) died presumably 2001.

(Upper) Chehalis language

This language belonged to the Salishan language family, of which almost all languages are highly endangered (only a handful of speakers) or dead. Its native name was Q̉ʷay̓áyiłq̉. Upper Chehalis is now dead, as is Lower Chehalis. The last speaker of Upper Chehalis died in 2001.

2002

Gaagudju language

Gaagudju was an Australian Aboriginal language that was spoken in Arnhem Land, Northern Australia. Australia has about 27 language families and isolates - only about 150 languages have survived today, back in the 18th century there were up to 750 languages spoken there. But today, with only a few exceptions, almost all languages are highly endangered. Gaagudju has died in 2002 with the death of its last speaker, Big Bill Neidjie.

Unami language

Unami was an Algonquian language spoken in lower Delaware and Hudson rivers and in small groups in Oklahoma. The language died in 2002 with the death of Edward Thompson. His sister Nora Thompson Dean died in 1984 but has compiled a lot of Unami language material to document the language.

2003

Akkala Sami language

Akkala Sami belongs to the Sami languages of the Uralic language family. It was spoken on the Kola peninsula in Russia near Finnland. The last native speaker, Maria Sergina, died 2003. There were in 2011, however, still two or three people left that have some knowledge of the language. 

2008

Eyak language

This language belonged to the Na-Déne language family and was closely related to the Athabascan languages, like Navajo. The language went extinct in 2008 with the death of Marie Smith Jones (in Eyak:  udAch’ k'uqAXA'a'ch “a sound that calls people from afar"). Currently, some revitalisation efforts are done, notably by Guillaume Leduey, who teached himself Eyak since he was 12. A lot of material has been made for Eyak, some can be found here.

2010

Great Andanamese languages

The Great Andanamese languages and the the Jarawa-Onge (Sentinelese?) language family belong together to the Andanamese language family, a language family spoken on the Andaman Islands in India. The speakers are said to be an ethnic group that split up tens of thousand years ago (some sources even proclaim the split happened 65,000 years ago). The Andanamese languages may have been spoken there since then (of course in various different historical forms) and are not related to any other language family. Sentinelese, a language spoken in the south, can’t be clearly classified as the 100-250 speakers of it haven’t had contact to the rest of the world for the past three centuries. The death of Aka-Bo was a rather public language death since many media stations reported about it. The Aka-Bo language was a Great Andanamese language, Boa Senior is believed to be the last speaker of any of the Great Andanamese languages (Aka-Bo) and with her death in 2010, the whole family can be considered dead. The other languages have died also shortly before in the 2000s. There might have, however, emerged a creole or koine language mostly based on Aka-Jeru. Some say it is still spoken, some say it already died by 2009.

Cochin Portuguese Creole

It is an Indo-Portuguese creole language spoken at the Malabor Coast of India. The last speakers lived on the Vypeen Island in the Cochin city. Some Christian families still live here that understand it to some degree. But the last native speaker, William Rozario, died in 2010.

Pazeh language

The Pazeh language was an Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan. The last speaker was Pan Jin-yu who died in 2010. Luckily, she was teaching about 200 students in classes in Puli. But there is little know about their usage and fluency of the language.

2012

Cromarty dialect of the Scots language

It is not even slightly less bad when dialects of a language die. Scots is an endangered regional language in Scotland and with the death of Bobby Hogg in 2014 the language now has one dialect fewer. The Cromarty dialect was spoken there since the 15th or 16th century. 

Kiksht language (Upper Chinook language)

Kiksht was a Chinookan language spoken at the Colombia river. The last speaker, Gladys Thompson, died at age 97 in 2012. The Chinookan language family only consists of Upper Chinook, Lower Chinook (also called Chinook-proper) and Kathlamet which died in the 1930s with Charles Cultee and was believed to be a dialect of Upper or Lower Chinook but not mutually intelligible with either. Only Lower Chinook is still spoken by about 140 people. 

2013

Livonian language

Livonian is a Finnic language, closely related to Estonian and Finnish. It was spoken at the coast in the West of Latvia. The last native speaker was Grizelda Kristiņa who died in 2013. The language is however still taught to some students at the university, so there are around 40 B1 speakers and 210 A1-A2 speakers.

2014

Klallam language

This language is traditionally spoken on Vancouver Island and across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The native name is  nəxʷsƛ̕ay̕əmúcən. It is a member of the (Straits) Salishan language family, and thus distinctly related to Chehalis (s. above). The last native speaker was Hazel Sampson who died in 2014. However some younger Klallam are learning the language to some degrees of fluency.

At the end there is hope

In order to not end this with a total loss of hope we wanted to present to you the extraordinary Marie Wilcox and her honourable efforts to help document the Wukchumni dialect, the last remaining dialect of the Tule-Kaweah Yokuts language. She is the last speaker of that language and is now constantly working on a written and spoken dictionary of that language. The Global Oneness Project filmed a short documentary about her.