baronesshydrangea

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Christ’s side wound in illuminated manuscripts

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Two versions of Love and Pain, often called Vampire due to the composition, from a series of six created between 1893-95, by Edvard Munch (1863-1944).

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Mabon/Autumn Equinox Personal Correspondences

Oh my goodness it’s my favorite time of the year approaching! Leaves are beginning to change and gold and fiery reds are beginning to seep into it’s green colors. Acorns sprinkle the ground as squirrels do their feverish dance across the lawns. So many delicious fruits and vegetables are in season! The air is cooling and bringing a breeze that is gently pushing summer away. This is the beginning of the end of the year as we enter the final season and the last quarter. It is a time of reflection of the past year, things to banish and improve on and to show gratitude and count our blessings. Especially in honor of the harvest and the togetherness that the holiday season brings, gratitude is an important aspect of this sabbat. A fantastic way to celebrate this sabbat is by hosting a pot luck for your circle and enjoying the equinox with a wonderful fall feast!  

Mabon - Autumn Equinox

September 22nd (2020)

Colors:

Orange and Amber  For fall, I don’t need to say more haha.

Mustard yellow and Pea green I put these two together because this celebration also falls on a transition where most leaves are a lighter greenish yellow and I noticed in nature many things have the hues of a deeper mustard yellow or a yellowy pea green color. Also a lot of squash have these hues too. 

Brown undertones for fall and the soon to be bare trees

Burgundy/Wine It’s the season of the wine harvest and also the colors of plum and other ripe fruits. (Thanks to hands-heart-hearth for the helpful addition!)

Crystals:

Jasper

Tiger’s Eye

Smokey Quartz

Honey Calcite

Herbs and Plants:

Squash carnival, fairytale pumpkin, acorn there’s many but those are the top 3

Leaves

Acorns

Conkers

Chrysanthemums

Apples

Cinnamon

Figs

Plums

Grapes

Mushrooms  Especially Turkeytail, Chicken of the Woods, Beefsteak etc.

Animals:

Squirrels

Red Fox

Sleepy Brown Bears

Decorations:

Squash

Chrysanthemum pots

Cornucopia

Leaf Garland

Apple Candles

Instruments/Music:

Wooden flutes that are slower and somber like the oncoming cooler breeze.

Mostly the Bassoon.

sometimes the clarinet

Also the Cello!

Here is a playlist I made (play the white noise soundtracks under the music)

Fragrances/Incense:

Apple (especially pie and baking)

Cinnamon

Nutty earthy fragrances like peanut

Potpourri

Musk

Amber

Food:

There is a lot in season. For vegetables, the biggest one that takes the attention for me is squash. There are many beautiful squash that are great for decoration and to eat. My favorite is the acorn squash, especially because of already the symbolism of the acorns everywhere on this equinox but also the nutty flavor of the squash and it’s green to orange colors. It is both highly decorative with perfect flavor and presence. Corn is also appropriate for this holiday and can be honored with a warm cornbread and carrots add great color and flavor to a lot of dishes. 

For fruits there are apples, plums and grapes. Grapes and plums can be honored in wine and for apples there is cider. Apples of course also make fantastic pies and sweets. 

I see this holiday as a fantastic alternative to Thanksgiving (since it’s a fall feast and gratitude is involved) and especially since a lot of things are in season many similar dishes can be served like corn bread, apple sauce, roasted squash and stuffing. 

If there is meat being served I like to make candied bacon with brown sugar and maple syrup or bbq chicken with a bbq sauce lightly spiked with smoky bourbon with a hint of maple syrup. 

Spices like allspice, cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, cloves and ginger find it’s way into my cooking in both sweet and savory. 

In the realm of sweets and treats there is a lot to work with. For dessert, especially because it’s pie season, one must make a pie or tart. Annually I make a caramelized apple tart with sparkling brown sugar on top. Apple cider donuts also make for a great dessert option. For treats there are the options of caramel popcorn, caramel apples, caramel itself, maple sugar fudge, maple butter cookies, butterscotch, dried apple chips, apple flavored candy. I also like flavors such as earthier nuts like peanuts and walnuts, but especially peanut butter with treats. It can be dangerous if someone has allergies so I usually omit it, but I like the nutty earthy flavor because it reminds me of acorns and burrowing seeds. Caramel apples is the prime treat for this holiday and can be decorated in a number of ways with either fall leaf sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, chopped nuts, icing designs or candy toppings. 

For drinks there are many options, but one I tend to go to the most is spiked warm apple cider. I warm it with cinnamon and spike it with Haitian rum I infuse with caramel. I see this as the height of brewing season where a lot of ciders and wines are beginning to get brewed especially since many fruits are in season. You can bring wine to the feast or even enjoy it with seasonal beers. I also see the colder part of the year as whiskey season and if you wish to honor the corn aspect of the harvest, bourbon is always a good smoky spirit to keep around.

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I don’t know who needs to hear this but you can be a Black Hoodoo Practitioner, Rootworker, Conjuror and still identify as a Witch

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cheat code

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Black kids deserve to be treated like kids.

Black kids deserve to be able to grow up at their own pace instead of being held to adult standards as children.

Black kids deserve to grow up without fear that white adults will somehow feel “threatened” by them and make them suffer for it.

Black kids deserve a safe place to unload their thoughts and feelings without being belittled or punished for it.

Black kids deserve a support system.

Black kids deserve to be taken seriously.

Black kids deserve to take up space.

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its always weird when ppl get arrogant after ammassing a bit of a following on tumblr as if they didnt get it by saying dumb shit that's forgotten a month later like bro youre in this shit with the rest of us. having a window seat in the clown car doesnt stop you from being a clown

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✨🎵🍂Autumn Equinox🍂🎵  🎶🍂Music Post🍂🎶✨

 I made a musical post for white noise and ambient music sound tracks for both Yule and Ostara so I wanted to share one for Mabon since I do have playlists for each sabbat tbh.

When I play ambient music I like to play several tracks together which are white noise sound tracks and a musical sound track together to create an atmosphere. For autumn equinox that usually is light rain, the sounds of crows cawing and wind rustling the trees! (Specifically crows at 50% and wind at like 10% or just wind and rain both at 20).

In my personal correspondences post, I mentioned instruments I associate with this sabbat which are the basoon, cello, sometimes that ragtimey piano sound, sleepy jazz and sometimes the clarinet since they are deeper and a bit somber or relaxed. It fits the emotion of things coming to an end and a sense of restfulness/oncoming hibernation.

🍁 Ambient Tracks to play under the music 🍁

Gentle Rain

Crow Cawing

Wind Blowing through Autumn Forest

🍁 Music 🍁

Wooden 🌰

Clarinet Quintent in A Major

Plaint - Kevin MacLeod

Premier Rhapsodie - Debussy

Village Greens 2

Jimbo’s Lullaby - Debussy

Piano 🦃

Into the Unknown

Chord Left - Agnes Obel

The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods - Camille Saint-Saens

Woods Darker than Night - Child of Light

Strings 🐿️

My witchy friend’s cover of Neil Young’s Harvest Moon played on Harp

Sleepy Cello

String Quartet

Adelaide’s Trap

Sleepy Jazz/Blues (mostly just OTGW) 🌕

Shine On Harvest Moon

Patient is the Night

Bassoon Jazz Stuart Mckay (has a bit of a spooky groove to it)

Music with Autumn Ambient Sounds  🍏

Clarinet and light Rain

Celtic Autumn Forest - Adrian von Ziegler

Somber Reflective Witchy Songs (fits the mood) 🍂

Agnes Obel - Fuel to Fire

Agnes Obel - Aventine

Marika Hackman - Ophelia 

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as the colder months approach: i wish you all a healthy, calm end of the year. i wish you tasty cups of tea, comfortable clothes, warm beds, nutritious meals in safe homes, good music, new friends and unwavering health. you deserve good things now.

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@dariabydasha

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Milkshake needed her own set of pumpkin pictures this year! She tolerated this for about five minutes before she got bored and kept looking for something else to do.

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“The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man.”

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Marta Cors | instagram | prints | more prints

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Lilith Appropriation Bingo

I have a Kabbalah Appropriation Bingo too, but Lilith deserves her own personal card. Enjoy! Lmk if you get bingo, I want to see.  🖤  Have a wonderful day!

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Harvesting Vervain for Magical Use

In Pliny the Elder’s Natural History he describes the process for harvesting vervain by “the magicians” (which scholars believe to be describing druids). 

According to him, magicians believed that they should be picked around the time of the rising of the Dog Star (Sirius - a Fire time), however, neither the sun nor moon should be shining (an anti Fire time). Essentially, the Dog Star rises just before sunrise. Before harvesting the herb, honey or honeycombs (products of the bee, a creature of Mars) are given as an offering to the Earth. 

Before picking, magicians drew a circle around the plant with an iron implement - such as a wand (the metal of Mars), and then harvested it with their left hand. It was believed that the left hand was used for picking herbs for magical use, whilst the right hand was reserved for mundane use such as medicine or cooking. Each part of the plant was dried separately in the shade, with each part having their own distinct magical usage (Roth: 2017, 133). 

Examples of Vervain Associations

Carrying vervain prevents dogs from barking at you and was further recommended for the bite of mad dogs - typically a Martian type of protection (Roth: 2017, 133). 

In Ancient Rome, bundles of vervain were used like brooms to sweep and purify altars for the god Jupiter (Cunningham: 1985, 252). 

In the Middle Ages, vervain was carried for good luck (Chevallier 1998: 149). 

A crown of vervain on the head protects the magician while invoking spirits (Cunningham: 1985, 252).

Sources:

Roth, Harold. The Witching Herbs: 13 Essential Plants and Herbs for Your Magical Garden. 2017, page 133. Red Wheel/Weiser. United States. Print. 

Chevallier, Andrew. Encyclopedia Of Herbal Medicine: 550 Herbs and Remedies for Common Ailments. 1998, page 149. DK. United Kingdom. Print. 

Cunningham, Scott. Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs. 1985. Llewellyn Publications. United States. Print. 

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Perfect Winter by dinabelenko

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