stardustjunkie

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I adore thee, Receiver of Many, Giver of Blessings from the Earth, Thick Shaded and Dark, Ultimate Task-Master, Kind and Gentle Lord, Loving and Peaceful King! 

Reblog to let Hades know you value and love him, like to let him know you don’t think he’s a savage monster

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Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents

Lindsay C. Gibson

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Dionysos Bakcheios - Dionysos the Crier, Bacchic Dionysos

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–Anne Carson, Bakkhai

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— Euripides, Bacchae 506 (tr. Reginald Gibbons)

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Safe Crossings for Someone Who’s Passed

A simple ritual to help someone who’s passed find peace.

Ingredients:

A small candle (white or black is good, or a color you associate with the deceased)

A small piece of paper and pen/pencil

Rosemary oil or leaves

Thyme

Violet, marigold, or rose petals

Ground clove

A pinch of sugar (any kind)

A small candle-safe bowl/holder (needs to be a bit larger than the candle itself so herbs can be placed around)

1.) Write the name of the person on the piece of paper. Write what you wish for them (peace, rest, happiness, love, reunions, etc.).

2.) Place the paper under the candle. If you have rosemary oil, rub the candle with it lightly. If you have the leaves, you can stick them into the candle in a ring around the outer edge.

3.) Create a ring around the candle with the herbs and petals. Sprinkle the sugar around on top last.

4.) Light the candle and say the person’s name and the things you wished for them.

5.) Leave the candle burning as long as you are able, but it’s okay if that’s a short amount of time.

6.) Bury the herbs/petals and paper- or burn them if you’re unable to bury.

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I finally did a character sheet of dem greek nerds!!! whenever yall ask me who is who I can just point to this post for now on └(＾＾)┐

see more greek mytho art here and doodles here 

see icarus-centric content here

see general mytho content here

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@modernmythsnet | Event Fifteen | Secret Santa | moral ↳ Hades & Persephone for @merflk

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Beginner masterlist

Thing to know:

Theories on how magick works Theurgy and Thaumaturgy 

Magic Vs. Magick 

Types Of Witches

List Of Magick Tools 

Magickal Tools   

List Of Different Theistic Doctrines

List Of Acronyms For Magickal Concepts 

Derogatory terms that I have ran into in the magickal community

The Crazy Stage 

Things to remember 

Belief 

Understanding substituting, and reworking in spells, and rituals. 

Reasons that a magick spell, or ritual would fail 

Spiritual Verification? UPG To Lore!

How to undo a spell

Things you can use instead of candles in witchcraft, and other forms of magick.

Simple methods in order to help you opening your third eye 

Energetic Blockages 

Energetic Burnout

Energetic Overflow 

Basic:

How to get started on your magickal journey!

Chi Energy 

Visualization 

Exercise ideas for strengthening your visualization skills 

Centering

Centering 2

Grounding

Grounding 2

Power Hand

Power Hand, and Receptive hand   

Affirmations

Magickal Names 

Magickal Names 2

Altered States Of Consciousness

Book of Shadows (BOS) 

Pentagram, Pentacle, And Goat Of Mendes 

Invoking, And Banishing The Pentagram 

Casting And Undoing A Circle 

Bubble Of White Light Protection

Warding In Witchcraft

Ways to cleanse a room

Shielding

Raising the cone of power

Liminality    

Taglocks, And Magickal Links 

Tarot Reading For Beginners 

Connecting To The Elements

Spiritual Senses: The Clairs

Make:

Making A Magickal Wand, Or Staff 

How exactly do you use a sigil?

Creating your own tarot spreads, and oracle cards spreads 

Learning to write your own spells, and/or rituals 

Curse:

Symptoms Of Being Cursed, and Diagnostics methods 

The 3 steps to get rid of a curse.

Meditation:

Meditation 

Focal Meditation 

Void Meditation 

Problems, And Solutions For People Who Can’t Meditate 

Universal Maps:

Planes Of Existence   

The subtle bodies of the soul 

The 10 Dimensions 

Guides:

Types of Personal Spirit Guides 

How To Find Your Spirit Guides, And Guardian Angels

Spirit Guides

The Higher Self 

Laws:

The Laws Of Magick 

The Seven Hermetic Principles of the Kybalion

The Law Of Attraction   

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My 3 Faces for Halloween 2017

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Scorpio Season of Death

We’re in the House of Scorpio until the end of November so keep in mind, in this Season of Death, that if you come to me for advice I’m prolly gonna tell you to let it all go, let it die, let who you thought you were and what you wanted fall away, and that’s what I’m telling myself, too, received, downloaded from my Sun in Scorpio.

We are at the place of Separation that comes before the palace of Union. Work must be done here, on our own, before we can re-emerge with the values and passions we’ve chosen and participate once more in our relationships, of all kinds- romantic, business, communal, familial.

In alchemy it’s expressed in the maxim “solve et coagula,” which means something must be broken down before it can be built up.

I will tell you to embrace the seedbed of nothingness that rushes upon you when you are able to face those ghosts and ghouls, explore your fears, ask those difficult questions, submerge yourself in the darkness and ignite its consciousness. Let that ego shell you’ve spent the last year building up in beautiful ways dissolve so that you can truly assemble, part by part intentionally, into an renewed, authentic self that honors your heart’s song.

Alchemy of the heart, the mind, the soul, the body. Taking the journey to the underworld of our entire layered being and surrendering to who and what we meet in that realm. Seeing our fears, the things we thought we knew, the comforts we’ve come to rely on, and pushing through the cozy room of familiarity passed the threshold a new paradigm.

Spending time under difficult conditions removes us from comfort, ease, complacency so we can emerge refreshed with an invigorated passionate and creative life. Sometimes though, this phase of initiation goes awry and we must make drastic measures to remove ourselves from harm. Either way, there is a choice and a journey.

Transformation is good, hard work. It means learning to die well so we may live well.

Birth, life, death, rebirth, continually, without end.

Scorpio is the jungle, the forest, the dark cave that leads to the heart of the mountain, and the dragon therein.

Our task is to make that depth journey in search of the treasure we’ve forgotten, that we’ve buried under layers of trauma, lies, distraction, useless ideologies that we’ve accepted from others that don’t align with our passionate hearts.

Our quest is to take the road deep into the mountain, through these layers of “self,” not to kill the dragon, but to face it and name it, even make friends.

Our dragons are only guarding that which has been hidden from us for safe keeping as we spend time in difficult conditions that are not nourishing in ways the treasure requires.

Let’s be dragon riders, not slayers.

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Stills from Michael Alan Alien’s “Living Installation” held last weekend at 4 Wheels Studio in Riverwest! I’m still buzzing from the vortex we stirred and opened and the playful, cathartic, non-sense, wild, wacky, wonderful, sensual forces we summoned! It was healing. A powerful way to counter the rigid, oppressive, inhibiting structures of capitalism and religious purity ideology. Thank you so so much to Michael for being the maestro of this ceremony, the ring leader of the crazy clown circus, the guardian of this sacred space, and a new best buddy!

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Dispatch to BFF: That's my locker in the background; a collage of rockers under a Durga and Lakshmi Scorpio 2D altar. The sky is grey here while I'm in heels and fading- in and out, paramount, paramour, sky to floor, star to sod, Babalon, noticed with a upturned snout, direct me with a dowsing rod. "Yes, let's walk into the sun because I like the way it looks on you." & "Yeah, okay, I'm staring at your legs- unicorn carne, please don't stop, prayerful thoughts. Soft fade to light parade, with the gold-milky weightlessness of the world on top."

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My Rio Turbo Family

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As a battle cry affirming Great Mystery I yell, "I DON'T KNOW!"

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On Family & Ancestral Healing Disclaimer: Its long! The background story is first, insights at the end. I don't think it's a coincidence that as I've deepened my relationship with the medicine I've also been deepening my connection with my bloodline. Working with Grandmother has shown me how to more effectively and tenderly work with my Grandmother! Now, there are many bloodlines running through my body, but this particular work is regarding my matrilineal side, my Lebanese-Armenian family, with whom I grew up with and spent most of my childhood years around. My grandmother, Makrouhi Arabajian, now Margaret Thatje, helped raise me from birth till we moved from California to Wisconsin when I was about 9 years old. My sister and I would fly back to visit once or twice a year, but as I got older the trips were less and less. Being the first born, my grandmother always felt a special connection to me and spoiled me rotten. She's responsible for my early sugar addiction and love of musicals! Getting older and better understanding the intricacies of a family dynamic, I learned just how difficult life was growing up for my mother and uncle, and how challenging spending time with my grandmother can be. Without going into too much detail, my grandmother was the first in her family to immigrate to America from Lebanon. she came here alone at 24 years old with a husband who was 35 years her senior and totally emotionally unavailable. This is my grandfather, Adebeg, who I knew at 4 years old as an old man who fed me sugar cubes and scared me wth his dentures. I now have his gold front teeth as a necklace from my uncle. So, being alone in a new world is pretty frightening. She was put to work immediately and, being a rebel, had to learn all the ways a woman "should" act and perform as a "good wife." She had children, my uncle Ademar and my mother Laila. They grew up isolated, lonely, over-protected, and without a voice. Though fiercely loved, it was a love from a mother who had nothing but her children in this new world, at least until the rest of the family came to the US. This fear of losing what she had was manifested in being that kind of person who covers their furniture in plastic to protect it, if that gives you any sort of simple context. My mother and uncle endured some neglect from their birth father and abuse from their step father. My uncle is gay and unable to share that part of his life, which because of his conditioned self-loathing isn't really a life. He got a good job that allows him to visit his mother often and take care of her. My mom got married, gave her mother grandchildren, divorced twice and continued to battle her deep depression and high anxiety. Being older and able to see the complex weavings of my family dynamic and being someone who is so dedicated to healing and understanding, I have all kinds of new perspectives and approaches thanks to Ayahuasca and my personal experiences through emotional wild fires. After my first experience working with Ayahuasca in March, in a beautiful, transformative, life changing 4-day ceremony, I was compelled to see my grandmother (among many other things I was compelled to do and not do, hehe). I budgeted and booked a flight for June, right after my second round of ceremony. That entire visit felt like one long, intensive healing quest. I was still riding the post-ceremony euphoric clarity and that allowed me to anchor in love, to be patient and curious in the face of challenge and disruption. I was able to, for the first time, really connect with my uncle and see his pain. He's focused on his mother and her wellbeing for so long that it's become an obsession that's sucking the vitality out of his life. He's consistently on edge, suffers frequent panic attacks, out bursts of anger, lethargic depression, and decision paralysis. All from a place of love and concern, but expressed in a way that is depleting his personal reserves and distracting him from the path of healing by redirecting attention away from himself. My grandma is a whole other story! To keep it brief, she's a born-again a Christian who's extremely stubborn, hypocritical, progressive when it comes to the heart of a matter but conditioned to be rather critical of absolutely everything on the surface. She glosses over conflict, wants the best from you but only if it's in the way she thinks is best, and loves to sing Armenian church hymns as morning prayer even though she lost her voice. She's hilarious, generous, so strong, and really a trail blazer. Last visit I considered moving back to Los Angeles to be closer to her. One of my jobs is as a caregiver for dementia patients. I thought, "Why am I caring for someone else's grandmother when I can be taking care of my own?" I considered indigenous beliefs systems regarding family, community, and caring for elders and how in our western world we've moved away from communal care because of the productivity based work schedules this life under capitalism and hegemony require. I considered who and what I'd be leaving behind, the sacrifices and compromises, and what sort of unknowns I'd be embracing. The ocean called to me, and I wanted to return to her. I was pretty convinced for a couple weeks. I waiting till I was back home and settled to reconsider such a huge move. Now, I've decided that I have much work I want to do in Milwaukee, and my community and creative endeavors thst are in Wisconsin are still alive and growing. Also, I want to be close to ceremony and my rebel family, the community that we cultivate and nourish. Now that I'm here again, a month later, Im seeing that my decision was the right one. My grabdmother is 87 and lives alone. She still drives, cooks for herself, cares for a delicious fig tree and lush rose garden. Shes got some health issues of course, but ultimately is pretty damn great for her age! I'm able to sit with her, listen to her stories and extract all kinds of wisdom through the broken English that weaves in French, Arabic, and Armenian words. I see that some of her health issues are mine- her having lost her voice but still singing as prayer, her digestive issues, her addiction to sweets. I have learned to receive messages of healing and guidance all around me. I have grown in patience and learned when to engage and when to float. I see now that the thorn is in my uncle's side. This trip has been energetically heavy and sludgey compared to last time. My uncle arrived on edge and hasn't moved from it. Yesterday his mounting stress, anxiety, and suppressed feelings erupted in a temper tantrum during a 3 hour car ride home from a family gathering. I knew what was going on, so I didn't breach the subject, making sure to allow some space on what was rather close quarters. instead, I focused on what I could've done better, what I could do moving forward. I sat in silent meditation in the passenger seat. Letting my mind and spirit journey, seeing myself as someone who can see the truth so clearly, but often burns when I should warm. I saw that because I know better in this situation, I have to be the one to do better. That though my perceptions may be right, my delivery is the most important part. I noticed that when it comes to a family members pain I have a hard time feeling compassionate. I get annoyed, irritated, angry. I want to tell them to get their shit together because I'm only 27 and who the fuck is helping me out? I allowed myself to see this part of me in my mind, to see where it arises in my body. I then asked myself why I cannot look at his pain? Why is it so uncomfortable to see an adult family member so vulnerable and suffering? I looked, in my mind, at his pain. I saw that he felt isolated, alone, and deeply lost to himself. I saw that I couldn't look at it because it was my pain, too. Then I asked for my higher self to elevate me to a vantage point of love. To see love in everyone and everything! Stop look passed ego and personalities and to see the love, the angel, the child within. To learn to soften into tender compassion. To break the uncomfortable barrier of affection and hold him of he needed it. I prayed to Ayahuasca to help me move this energy, to see where I am creating blockages, to see where I can provide support, where I can offer healing and love. I am being shown when to blaze and when to warm (to use Justin Tilley's words). I slept on it. In the morning I went for a walk while Ademar was doing work in the garden before the clear, bright, hot sun moved in. I sang what I call Chaos Songs- free association melodies and words, even if nonsense, with the intention of love and healing. I returned to my grandmothers mobile home and Ademar immediately came to apologize. I invited him to sit with me on the porch and talk. He explained everything that I already knew- his mounting anxiety, his feelings of being out of control, the helplessness, feeling isolated, the eruption. He started to cry. Just like in my vision, I was able to hold him, to tell him he's safe and I love him. We discussed how he spends all his time and energy focused on helping his mother and so has neglected to help himself. I encouraged him to find therapy back home, since the company he works for is really creative, progressive, and offers amazing insurance. He agreed. We discussed that grandma is really actually alright, and now it's him that needs the love and support. Now the sun is climbing higher, the air is hot and dry. My uncle is resting on the couch (that no longer is covered with plastic), my grandmother is awake and making Turkish coffee, I am washing figs and spooning olives into a bowl. Thank you for reading. Thank you to our plant teachers, to Ayahuasca for her terrifying, beautiful, infinite love and power. Thank you for these opportunities for growth. Thank you for this experience of life.

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FYI: This post is phone-typed, long, poetic, ancestral, for love, for healing, in gratitude, for me, for you!

This California trip, this newest installment of ancestral healing lessons (7/20-7/25 2017) has taught me that I have a keen perception that allows me to see the truth in matters of emotional, spiritual, psychological issues, but I can be too harsh and sharp in my approach. Sometimes that sort of stern delivery is necessary, but sometimes it's even more disruptive. I understand now how to soften into tender compassion, especially when it comes to issues belonging to family members (where looking at their pain makes me uncomfortable and want to yell at them to get their shit together), and how this approach that requires seeing the person and situation from the vantage point of Love is the work of True Healing. I am learning when to let the fires of truth burn and when to simply warm (to use Justin Tilley's perfect words).

I am here in California with my Grandmother and Uncle.

California, my birth state and place of my blood and my lifeline. Leaving Milwaukee with a head cold and a goal, heart-centered and anticipating deep diving in ancestral waters. Upon arrival I was teary-eyed. This continued through to the night; before bed, having hugged, napped, unpacked, picked up uncle, and eaten; before sleep when I lay down in the same bed Ive used here for the past 15 years. I wanted to cry, but felt the energy well up inside me and release in its own way, maybe a tear or two produced, and all in Gratitude.

I am so happy and grateful to be here, now, in this life time, in this mobile home, in California, at this age, with my grandmother and uncle, who, since her health has been changing, has come to visit monthly to help her (a Gayngel, hidden behind the glare of religious eyes, working through his own anger and inherited depression and voice suppression by throwing himself into the fire, by her side).

I feel I am at a place, now, where I can consciously receive the blessing of wisdom in every moment shared here. Whether it’s in watering my grandmothers roses, running errands, accompanying her to doctors appointments, showing her how to make a smoothie while she trades me an Armenian recipe, sitting, eating, napping, listening to her sing her prayers in the morning with a hoarse voice she said she lost in an accident but use to let flow in church as an alto, or recording her stories of her journey to America at 24 and escaping two husbands in her broken English weaved with Armenian or Arabic or French. All of it, every second, is healing, is strengthening, is informing me of my origins and my purpose.

So far, from our heavy exchanges over Grandmother’s morning coffee, she has told me:

“One thing you learn from me this life, Catrine. Don’t hold onto nutting. Some time you feel anger or sad or someting you need to say, don’t keep it! Else it make you sick till you death.”

“Each morning I play the song from church [on her keyboard] and I sing. This is pray. Sometime you pray but your mind go coo-coo! You cannot pray, it is no focus. Sing it is pray.”

“Religion don’t matter, is only Jesus. Jesus live for the peace, love, do good tings, help people, forgive. What is god even? Love. Power. The Light. Why god make the angels? Cos we need each one another.”

But also, an occasional old-country racist remark, or religious bigotry (she’s a Christian, born again), some anti-pagan devilry. Usually I let it slide but sometimes can ride it out with her till we find common ground and she gets to her core-belief, which is that it’s all just Love. For instance, “I hate your tattoos but I don’t see them because I love you.” Or something like that.

All three of us together, or just my uncle and I to the side have discussed our family damage and what needs to be done. Of course, there are barriers of understanding, language, generation, culture, etc, but ultimately it returns to Healing and Love and the idea that younger generations help to carry the fire of existence, the red pulsing drum blood of healing for those who came before us and those who will come after.

And I cry, with sorrow and joy! Maybe just for 15 seconds, maybe without tears and just pressure and heat, but I cry.

I sometimes get so full of Love and a future-projected nostalgia because I think about how when I am no longer an Earthling how much I will miss this particular moment, these memories, dreams, visions, songs, this unique expression of life, of Soul. The people I meet, I connect with, I Love. My friends, family, lovers, partners, collaborators! Or the Great Beautiful Poetic Mystery Healing of the schizophrenic genius stranger I met online as a young one and maintained a creative penpal friendship with for 7 years and who has been integral in helping me define and then re-find my voice! Then, getting to meet him and it being like two soul parts finding comfort in understanding and friendship, an electrical current vibrating from then to this second, the one we are all connected to, yes, me & you!

And he and I, this impossibly coincidental friendship, being affirmed by radio songs playing the words we’d just spoken, and searching for shells gifted from the ocean while yelling nonsense haikus at each other in the sun! He in his middle-aged, whimsical awkwardness, high functioning conversationalist to those who know what real treasure looks like, and me in my open hearted temple of understanding, receiving each pun and praise and serious statement, like waves, like I was surrounded by gems but without miserly lust for gain- no profit, just prophet.

Side thought: I’ve learned from him, and my other pen pals who work with what western medicine has called Schizophrenia, that it is a condition of being an oracle, a creative conduit; someone with their irons in many dimensional fires. Receiving transmissions from past and future but as their present reality! His letters and messages, and mine in reply, could be seemingly nonsensical, but if I let my mind apply itself and stand at the precipice of meaning, I could extract something! But even then, finding something only vaguely, if I bowed my head, my heart would feel it all, and know, without thought to seeking meaning.

Every failure, every injury, every song, every kiss, every lap dance, every slice of pie! Cactus, wet dress, cookie, traffic! Radio divination, guessing games, cheesy inspirational quote, devilish grin! I am just so, so grateful to be here for it all. I wish I could multiply myself and deeply connect with everyone. But, I can only Be In Love

Each night here, Ive welled with some kind of feeling and express my gratitude to Goddess, Ayahuasca, Creator, Great Mystery, Source, ALL EXPRESSED FORMS OF LOVE, my Earth teachers, for helping me be here, now, and for this life and this journey, for these lessons and this healing.

So, this is a prayer for you, the one I Love. I pray that your life, your path, your healing be blessed. May you find comfort in knowing there’s no beginning or end. May you find your voice and speak your truth whenever and exactly how you need to. May you recognize love when it’s calling your name. May you learn to help without giving yourself away. (okay dropping the initially unintentional rhyme scheme) May you walk through the fire and let all that is not needed disintegrate. May you fearlessly dive deeply into the places you thought were terrifying, only to find the treasure you’d been so soul-hungry and searching for.

Thank you for reading. I love you!