#(pronounced Al-eh-cat)

[wordsmith-storyweaver]

Me after finishing Emerald Blaze:

[luci-on-the-moon]

Tag 21, Answer 21

Tagged by @paperheart-girl !! Thank you <3

1. Nicknames: Luci, Luna.

2. Zodiac sign: Taurus sun, Virgo moon, Aries rising

3. Height: 1.60 m *sniff*

4. Hogwarts: Definitely Slytherin.

5. Last thing I googled: Sooner or Later (Song my Madonna)

6. Favourite musicians: Queen, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Adam Lambert, Backstreet Boys, Shakira, Gloria Trevi, Adele, The Weeknd......Eh there’s more but I can’t recall XD

7. Song stuck in my head: ‘Bury a Friend’ Billie Eilish.

8. Following now: 173

9. Followers: 1072 (yo how tf did I pass a thousand followers??!!!!!?? me??)

10. Do I get asks?: Not al the time, feel free to come and say hello <3

11. Amount of 💤?: about 8 hours...

12. Lucky number: 4, 8, 9, 6. (i guess)

13. What I’m wearing: my pink bunny pajamas. I’m evil.

14. Dream job: I’d like to gain fame and money as an artist. 

15. Dream trip: Egypt, Italy, France, Belgium, Amsterdam, Spain, Japan, Mexico, Dubai.

16. Favorite food: Ooooh boy. My Mama’s arepas, Yabrak, Kibbeh, Pizza, and CHOCOLATE.

17. Instruments: I used to play piano. I’d like to take it up again tho...

18. Languages: Spanish (first language I learnt), Arabic (I consider this my mother tongue tho), English, I understand french but can’t pronounce it for the life of me XD.

19. Favorite song: I think it would have to be Bohemian Rhapsody. Nothing beats it.

20. Random fact: A week ago I fell and scraped my knee. The wound was shaped like a heart. Beautiful.

21. Aesthetic: Tarot cards, Demons, Black, Bloody red, Moody blue, Bruised Purple, Sunglasses, Hats, Resting bitch face, Astrology, Cats, Scratches, Untidy brows, Inappropriate jokes, Angry tears.

YOOOO sorry to do this sooo late gaaah I fucking suck at getting things done eep

[csykora]

i don't know if you know the answer, but if you do, would you mind explaining why some Russian names are always transliterated the same way (like Никита to Nikita), but some very much aren't? i've seen Evgeni, Evgeny, Evgenii, Yevgeni, and Yevgeny - is one 'more right' than the others?

Thanks for asking! You’re right, there’s some whacky variation in the League right now, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to talk about for a while.

(I’m going to focus on North American English speakers: if you’re not, sorry! The basics should still apply and make sense.)

The NHL follows the International Ice Hockey Federations 2011 standard for transcription of Russian names. Probably.

The NHL is a loose confederation of franchises. Historically, it’s been up to each team what they wrote on their Russian players’ jerseys. A lot of their creations were more artistic than phonetically accurate, but the surname would stay pretty consistent for PR and jersey purposes. First names were a free for all, with the team and official NHL media or licensed materials like video games all spelling them differently.

It’s still technically up to teams, but since 2011 the League is pushing a little harder to pick one spelling and stick with it across all media, and to have the spelling reflect how the name should be said.

Any Russian player who came over before 2011 is grandfathered in as whatever spelling they were assigned at the time, for PR reasons. (Like Craig MacTavish being the only one on the ice without a helmet, but less horrible.) Anyone who debuts in the League today should, theoretically, be assigned a spelling that follows the new rules.  

The IIHF transcription standard has three basic principles:

Sound-emulating: Yevgeni instead of Evgeny

Simplicity: Yevgeni instead of Yevgeny, Alexander instead of Aleksandr

Consistency: same spelling for same name (and different spelling for different names)

Sound-emulating  

What does Russian sound like?

This is one of my recital pieces, Tchaikovsky’s Moy geni, moy angel. Music is a great snapshot of the sounds that a language likes to use, particularly the vowels. Listening here, you’re going to hear a lot of “eh” and “ooh”, a lot of soft schwa sounds, and no “ae” or “oh”—the only long vowel is “ee”. You might pick up an odd nasal quality to a lot of those sounds, as if the singer is actually say, “yeh” or “yoo”.

Russian has different phonemes than North American English. A phoneme is “any of the speech sounds which are perceived to be a single distinctive sound in the language. An example is the English phoneme /k/, which occurs in words such as cat, kit, scat, skit.” There are a couple Russian consonants that seem to give English-speakers trouble (most obviously Ж in hockey fandom. The (Y)evgeni(i)ys just have to go and confuse North Americans more by also calling each other Женя, “Zhenya”, which fans often try to say with a G or a J sound. It’s pronounced like the S in “pleasure” or “treasure.”) But mostly, it’s all about the vowels, which don’t line up with English spelling or pronunciation very neatly.

In North American schools your teacher probably talked about how English has long and short vowel sounds.

And Y does double duty, as a mystery vowel and a consonant that can jump in before or after other vowels.

You’re not really going to hear any long vowel sounds in Russian, except for ē. Instead, Russian has hard and soft vowels:

The hard vowels are close to English short vowels. The matching soft vowel is pronounced pretty much the same but you glide into them with a “y” sound.

So Э and E are  “ĕ” and “yĕ.”  

O and ё are “ŏ” and “yŏ.” 

(Standard Russian speakers splinch O and A (“ŏ” and “ă”) into a schwa sound, a phenomenon called аканье/akanye.)

And so on.

The exception is Ы and и, who are both shifty characters. Ы drifts between ĕ and ĭ,  and и moves between ĭ and the long e sound.

(“и” also happens to mean “and.” You’ll hear hockey players, especially Kuznetsov, make a sort of horrible high-pitched eeeee sound all the time in interviews. That’s Russian Hockey Player for “…uh….” )

й is the Cyrillic character for the Y-consonant sound after a vowel, as in “Moй/Moy”. The symbols ь and Ъ can also appear on their own, and they palatalize the consonant before (adding a sort of Y twist to the end of it), or explicitly forbid you from doing that. This sound is rendered with a J or a Y after the consonant in different Russian transliteration systems. The IIHF uses Y.

So when we get transliterating, we’re going to have to have Ys all up in everything.

Евгений 

This is where the many Yevgenis come in. 

Every Евгений is best said as “Yev-gen-ee-y.” (I’d say it kind of ends in a little Y twist, but that’s because it’s kind of easier to say and a Cyrillic spelling artifact. You say “Yevgeneeee” or “Yevgenee-y” depending on your natural voice and how quickly you’re speaking.)

You don’t necessarily say the first syllable with a heavy Y like “yeah,” but the glide has to be there. “Eh-vgen-ee” would be an entirely different name, spelled Эвгений. And Э just isn’t a very popular sound in Russian: only 2 male names start with it. Maybe there’re some hipster parents out there naming their son Эвгений right now to annoy people, but otherwise, no.

Simplicity

Since Y is playing an important role in the basic vowels, we don’t really want to use it to represent the long e sound the way it sometimes does in English.

So “Yevgeni” is preferred over “Yevgeny” or “Yevgeniy.” Yevgeniy is the most technically accurate, but let’s be honest, North Americans are going to pronounce them all the same and the second two are just way too much Y.

The one time you will see reliably Ys standing alone is in patronymics. Yevgeni Kuznetsov’s father is also named Yevgeni, so his full, intensely boring name is Евгений Евгеньевич. “Yevgeneey Yevgen-ee-e-vich” is not exactly a delight to have to say. The suffix -евич/-evich means something, so you don’t change the letters in there, but you can drop the last vowel of the first name and palatalize the last consonant, making it into an easier “nyuh” sound. So it becomes “Yevgenyuh-evich,” which we can transliterate as Yevgenyevich. 

With a name like “Aleksandr,” the IIHF standard says go ahead and spell it as the familiar “Alexander,” because you’re gonna pronounce the two the say anyway.

Consistency

So every Евгений whose name is pronounced the same way should be spelled the same way—and players whose names are pronounced differently…should be spelled differently.

Семён и Сёмин

The IIHF standards were introduced after feedback from Russian players, most directly Semyon Varlamov.

By 2011 the NHL had officially spelled Varlamov’s given name, Семён, as:

Simeon

Semyen

Simyan

Simyon

Semin

and of course, Semen.

Ah, cross-cultural respect.

Listen, the fact it’s Varlamov makes that feel just. But it was being done randomly to everyone. 

And it was especially on the nose because Varlamov was on the same team as  Александр Сёмин—Alexander Semin.

Semin’s surname, Сёмин, is pronounced something like “Syaw-min”. (Akanye turns it into an A-sound, which is how his nickname, Сёмa, is pretty much pronounced “Sam,” rather than the way North American fans probably read it when they see “Sema.”) Under IIHF rules, his current KHL jersey is spelled SYOMIN.

But when he entered the NHL someone said, “That sure looks like an e to me,” and wrote down “S-E-M-I-N” Few years later that same spelling wizard looked at Семён (pronounced “Sim-yawn”) and said, “Man, I got this.”

Team officials, media, fans, even their teammates read the Latin spellings, naturally assumed their names were pronounced the same way, and went around calling both of them the same thing. Someone yells something that sounds like “semen” in the locker room, or on the ice in the middle of a game, and both of them have to turn around.

Semyon addressed the pronunciation with media, pointed out the confusion with his own teammate, filed paperwork to officially change the spelling (because he had to do that, the League had functionally taken away his name), and contacted the IIHF to ask them to step in, which they did.

(Semin did…nothing, because he would literally rather turn into a snow leopard and run away to nap in the sunshine and eat flowers and squirrels and live in the forest forever than talk to an official. So his name is still spelled SEMIN.)

More “Right”

Pronunciation isn’t a moral issue. As we grow up, our mouths learn to shape the phonemes we’re using all the time and our brains trim away the nerve connections for making sounds we don’t need. Some of us can learn some of those back, and some of us can’t, and we certainly can’t learn very well if we don’t have examples and help.

And it is strikingly hard to find that for Russian in North America.

Until the ’90s, management and especially announcers had no way to hear names pronounced before they had to try to spell or say them because there was no real cultural exchange between North America and the USSR: no TV, no radio, no way to hear the voices of Russian people except briefly on the ice. Miracle had Al Michaels recreate his goal calls because at the time he’d only had a hasty list of the Soviet line-up that he begged off the officials, and he took a wild swing at Vyacheslav Fetisov. A decade later Fetisov came to America and we were able to hear him speak and learn his name.

It’s unimaginable now, but when Ovechkin was drafted, many broadcasters were calling him “Alexander ov-itch-kin,” not “Oh-veh-chkin.” Because they actually did do their homework: they were trying to listen to Russian-language broadcasters and recreate their pronunciation. If you hear a Russian speaker say it, the middle vowel does sound a lot more like an I than a drawling North American “eh.” But then we all said it a thousand times a day and our mouths settled into sounds that are comfortable for us.

Which is fine, we’re not in any way Wrong for calling him “Oh-veh-chkin.” Just saying a Russian person’s name differently than native speakers say it isn’t a horrible thing. (‘Native speakers’ of every language fight each other all the time, too.) What matters is respect: trying our best to transliterate and pronounce a name shows that we’re listening to that person and we’re valuing them.

I think it says something that it’s still hard to hear any Russian in North America, it’s still hard to learn these names, and so we still say them in a very North American way.  Even if we’re not the ones making it, the Russian voice still mostly exists in our consciousness as a joke.

Sometimes that joke feeds into innocent not-quite-accuracies. And sometimes like with the Se(i)(y)(o)mi(y)(o)ns, it feeds something that feels a little…less of us.

It’s been 16 years* and we’re still turning their names, one of the few personal things they were able to bring with them to the foreign world of North America, into dick jokes. It’s hardly the worst insult in the world or in the NHL: making each others’ names into dick jokes is hockey players’ primary sport. It’s just that the foundation of the joke is, “I actually didn’t take the time to listen to you say your own name,” and that makes it seem small of us. And it seems smaller after they made repeated requests and took legal action to ask for their names back, and we’ve not only kept doing it, most of us don’t know or remember that they asked us to stop.

some very much aren’t

It’s worth remembering Russians still make up a small percentage of the NHL, and most of the active Russian NHLers came over before 2011.The Russian voice in North American hockey is still small. So the spelling of Russian names is still controlled by North Americans NHL officials, and it’s a small and wild pool of possible spellings. Change comes slowly, if it comes at all.

Most of the new prospects’ surnames do seem to have been effectively standardized, but I’m not really sure where future Yevgenis stand at this point in the NHL. Евгений Свечников is the newest I know of: under IIHF rules he’s Yevgeni Svechnikov, but it seems he’s still being spelled “Evgeny” in the NHL. Because it’s such a common name and several Yevgeni-spelled-Evgenys have been high-profile players, we’re all already used to seeing Evgeni and Evgeny, and NHL officials might easily choose to keep using them for PR reasons.

This was fun! somebody ask me about nicknames or patronymics or the Czechs next, please. I need to keep expanding my embarrassing tabloid glitterbomb vocabulary.

[honeymintki]

 🌙👽🌌 can i get some uh information [cue x-files theme] 🔭🛸✨

i was tagged by @ukiqyun-93 for an about me tag and @ilovemxwithallmyheart for the 20 questions tag so i threw them all together under one big ol info post about myself hello get to know me the Fool woo t woot

about me tag:

1st rule: tag 9 people you want to get to know better (I’ll do it at the end)

2nd rule: BOLD the statements that are true. 

APPEARANCE: 

I am 5′7 or taller

I wear glasses (and contacts)

I have at least one tattoo 

I have at least one piercing

I have blonde hair 

I have brown eyes 

I have short hair 

My abs are at least somewhat defined 

I have or had braces

PERSONALITY:

I love meeting new people (in theory)

People tell me I am funny 

Helping others with their problems is a big priority of mine (no but it kinda is my job :/)

I enjoy physical challenges 

I enjoy mental challenges (only about things I’m passionate about)

I am playfully rude to people I know 

I started saying something ironically and now I can’t stop saying it (probably)

There is something I would change about my personality 

ABILITY: 

I can sing well (enough)

I can play an instrument 

I can do over 30 pushups without stopping 

I am a fast runner 

I can draw well (enough)

I have a good memory (but only for useless things)

I am good at doing math in my head 

I can hold my breath underwater for over a minute 

I have beaten at least 2 people arm wrestling (probably when I was a kid asserting dominance over all the boys in my life but does that count)

I can make at least 3 recipes from scratch 

I know how to throw a proper punch 

HOBBIES: 

I enjoy sports 

I’m on a sports team at my school or somewhere else 

I’m in an orchestra or choir at my school or somewhere else (okay not right now but I was in multiple ensembles at any given point in time for 10 years so I’m gonna bold it fight me)

I have learned a new song in the past week 

I exercise at least once a week

I have gone for runs at least once a week in warmer months 

I have drawn something in the past month 

I enjoy writing 

Fandoms are my #1 priority 

I do some form of martial arts (I wish people didn’t suck and I stuck with it)

EXPERIENCES: 

I have had my first kiss 

I have had alcohol 

I have scored a winning point in a sport (on accident)

I have watched an entire TV series in one sitting 

I have been at an overnight event 

I have been in a taxi 

I have been in the hospital or ER in the past year 

I have beaten a video game in one day

I have visited another country (i was born in korea but i haven’t been back in 17 years so eh)

I have been to one of my favorite bands’ concerts 

MY LIFE: 

I have one person that I consider to be my best friend 

I live close to my school/work 

My parents are still together 

I have at least one sibling 

I live in the United States 

There is snow where I live right now 

I have hung out with a friend in the past month 

I have a smart phone 

I own at least 15 CDs 

I share my room with someone 

RELATIONSHIPS: 

I am in a relationship 

I have a crush on a celebrity 

I have a crush on someone I know 

I’ve been in at least 3 relationships 

I have never been in a relationship (but there was this 4 day thing that. kinda? was? something? but it feels like a fever dream)

I have admitted my feelings to a crush (the one time I had one in high school rip) 

I get crushes easily 

I have a crush for over a year 

I have been in a relationship for over a year 

I have had feelings for a friend 

RANDOM: 

I have break-danced 

I know a person named Jaimie 

I have had a teacher that has a name that is hard to pronounce 

I have dyed my hair 

I’m listening to a song on repeat right now (lost! in! the! dream!)

I have punched someone in the past week 

I know someone who has gone to jail (not well at all but he murdered someone)

I have broken a bone (and then I fixed it on my own)

I have eaten a waffle today

I know what I want to do in life (I wish)

I speak at least two languages

I have made a new friend in the past year

and the 20 questions tag:

Rules: answer the twenty questions and tag twenty people you want to get to know better!

Name: allison

Nickname(s): al (only my staff uses it), alli (I only use it online)

Height: 162

Orientation: scalie >:-)

Nationality: korean

Favorite Season: autumn but a bitch loves all of them

Favorite Flower: lilac and honeysuckle

Favorite Scent: honeysuckle ! ! ! and the scent of seasons changing 

Favorite Color: ?

Favorite Color of Pen Ink: dark blue

Favorite Animal: dogs, foxes, hawks, literally all of them,

Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate: tea

Average Hours of Sleep: I don’t fuckin know

Dog or Cat Person: pup!!

Favorite Fictional Character: I was gonna say Grim Hairy-Cheeks from one of the iceland sagas but I think he was a real person so hm. jiji from kiki’s delivery service bc I wanna watch it again (if anyone wants to rabbit and watch ghibli movies w me hmu)

Number of Blankets You Sleep with: 1 or 2

Dream Trip: Iceland! or Italy!

Blog Created: dec 2017 I think

Number of Followers: 🐟

Fun Fact: fall out boy once posted my art on their instagram page and to this day it’s probably my greatest accomplishment

i tag @milkihyungwon @changkyun-lim @babeminhyuk @if-on1y @mxrays @hyungwon @hackerkyun @kihyuns @kibean @kihwii @shwhyuk @jooheonies @nottechae @changkyunsprincess @changhyuk @jealousymv @kiihyun @kimnatozaki @jealousymp3 @sakurachae @akaminhyuk (wow i didn’t know i knew 20 people) to do both or either or neither

[spell-bound-life]

Witch Tools Meanings, Coresponences, and Uses

TriviaSources: x x x 

Written by me, but feel free to copy and paste into a google doc form/write in a Grimoire 

Keep in mind this is how I see it and is opened to re-interpretation by you

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Altar Pentacles

Pronounced pen-ta-kull Element of Earth Direction North Color Green Gender Male and Female Associated with Hades or Mars

Description- A 5 point triangle in the middle of a circle. The top point represents spirit (however not all witches represent it as such), the right top point represents water, the bottom right represents fire, the top left represents air, and the left bottom represents earth What the Heck is it- An altar pentacle is normally made (but not limited to) with saucer-type, metal, or wood. Usually set on an altar to be used for protection and as a center point for your magick. When Getting One- Just like the others, nothing to say besides find one that calls to you, or make your own however you want Most Common Uses- Protection, center of energy, various uses in spellwork/magic Things to Remember- Normally the pentacle has one point facing up to the sky, however if you flip it upside down so that two points are facing the sky, it symbolizes a ram’s head and is normally meant to be satanic

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Athame

Pronounced a-thAM-ay Element of Fire Direction of South Color Red Gender Male Associated with Sun or Apollo or Apollo

Description- The athame is a tool of command, used to direct power. Normally only used in rituals and is deemed a very sacred object (unless a part of Sax Wiccans) and is normally given as a gift. The blade is often left dull What the Heck is it- It is a double edged blade with a handle. They are normally made of stainless steel, copper, silver, other metals, or carved stone. When Getting One- Make sure it fits in your hand. Most personalize theirs, but it is up to the person. I have seen some use a old letter opener their father had as one. Most Common Uses- Casting Circles, Focusing your point of energy, opening ritual, handfasting (wedding), or initiation rite. Things to Remember- Not all witches need or use an athame. it is something you gain a bond with. I personally do not use one because I prefer my hands, but it is totally up to you

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Bells

Pronounced b-eh-LL Element of Spirit or Air Direction of South Color Silver or Gold Gender Female Associated with Apollo or Apollo or Goddesses

Description- Bells have been around for many years, they come in different shapes and sizes, as well as different tones and sounds, and not a common tool witches use What the Heck is it- They are more or less cup-shaped objects with a string and a ball attached to the inside of the cup, so when you shake it, it makes a sound. When Getting One- Make sure you like the sound! You can even choose to relate the color/sound to your intent Most Common Uses-  The bell is a ritual tool of invocation (summoning a deity)and banishment. It is related to a strong, willing force (example: a Goddess). Bells have been associated with magical/spiritual powers for a few hundred years. The sound symbolizes creative power, and their shape a symbol of the female force and celestial vault. Can be used in opening/closing a circle. Warding off negative/evil energies/spirits, or invite happy/good vibes/energies/spirits Things to Remember- There is not just a few ways to use a bell, so let your imagination come to life when using them!

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Besoms (Brooms)

Pronounced beh-soum Element of Air Direction of East Color Yellow or Pale Blue Gender Male Associated with Goddesses or Hygeia or Hygeia

Description- The Besom (broom) is used to ritually cleanse an area before magic is performed. What the Heck is it- The besom is a broom used in cleansing your ritual areas. When Getting One- Nothing special to say here besides that you can get different ones made out of different things to correspond with your intent Most Common Uses- In handfasting (marriage) rituals, couples often jump over the broom if they want children. Witches often have a besom stick down, bushy side up to keep unwanted spirits and energies out Things to Remember- Besoms are special protection tools, however again, not all witches must have one

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Bollines (White-Handled Knives)

Pronounced boi-line Element of Earth Direction of South Color White Gender Male Associated with Goddess Energy or Pan or Faunus

Description- A bolline is a knife with a white handle and a single sharp side blade What the Heck is it- The bolline is the practical knife of the craft, used to cut wands, flowers and herbs. It is used to cut things so your athame does not When Getting One- Make sure it feels right in your hand and has a white handle Most Common Uses- Cutting herbs, flowers, etc, carving sigils into things (like a wand or athame), used to whittle/make a wand Things to Remember- You can cut anything to do with a ritual, just don't use it to cut things outside of your craft

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Cauldrons

Pronounced call-droun Element of Water and Fire Color Black or Blue or Gray Gender and Direction Female West or Male South Associated with Hestia or Vesta or Celtic Deities

Description- A iron pot that (normally) has three feet and a handle. Cats like to store their toys in them, too! What the Heck is it- Cauldrons have many different sizes, from ones that are big enough to a tea candle to the big ones you use for cooking in fireplaces. The cauldron is symbolic of reincarnation, immortality and inspiration.  When Getting One- Get them in many sizes for different things (if you want, this is a suggestion) Most Common Uses- Burning spells or incense. Cooking. To keep it dirt/water in it for spells that involve fire, Bounty, blessings, (in some Celtic beliefs) Bran the Blessed and the Goddess Cerridwen, and the Cycles of birth, death and rebirth Things to Remember- Animals love to play in them (c a t s man) so make sure they are safe to play in for your furry buddies or put away so they can’t get hurt.

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Thuribles (censers)

Pronounced th-ur-ih-bell Element of (incense) Air and (coals/fire) Fire Direction of North Color White or Yellow or Purple Gender Female Associated with Zeus or Jupiter 

Description- “a container in which incense is burned, typically during a religious ceremony.” What the Heck is it- The censer is an incense burner used during ritual. Normally a small cauldron, or a hollow ball on a chain When Getting One- Make sure that it if fireproof. I use an old tea strainer as one, so feel free to get crafty Most Common Uses- To burn spells/incense/etc, to purify an area/tools/or circles Things to Remember- Always have a cup of water/dirt near by when dealing with fires

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Chalices

Pronounced ch-al-is-es Element Water Direction West Color Blue or Silver Gender Female Associated with Dionysus or Bacchus or Poseidon or Neptune

Description- Chalices are cups made from any material to be filled with liquids What the Heck is it- Chalices (cups) are used on altars or placed in a direction facing west and represent The Female Principle of Water. When Getting One- You can get sets for Covens/dinner parties, just one, or different one for different meanings Most Common Uses- Holding and serving liquids for you/other people/Sabbats/deities/etc. People passing the chalice around a table, Taking a sip, then saying “May We Never Thirst!” Things to Remember- If you intend to drink out of them, make sure the one that you get is safe to drink from

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Grimoires/Books of Shadows

Pronounced grim-waur Element Earth Direction West Color Brown or Mauve Gender Female or Male Associated with Athena or Minerva

Description- The Book of Shadows is the workbook of the witch. What the Heck is it- It is a book that holds spells/notes/anything about your craft When Getting One- Some people prefer notebooks, I prefer binders and google docs so you can add shuffle your papers, take your papers out and put em back in for a ritual, and take away things Most Common Uses- To write down information such as: Rituals guidelines, Invocations, Spells, Runes, Rules of a particular Coven or Tradition, Symbols, Poems, Chants, Sigils, or anything else you may find useful Things to Remember- A Book of Shadows is more of a spell book/you book. A Grimoire is more of a list/aesthetic/etc thing. You do not need two books for this, but I thought I would include that there is a slight difference between the two •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Staffs

Pronounced st-a-f Element Earth Direction North Color Brown or Green Gender Male Associated with Pan or Faunus or Asclepius or Vejovis

Description- A (most are) wooden stick more or less What the Heck is it- Staffs are held up there in importance with some witches. It is a shoulder sized stick witches use for many things When Getting One- Make sure it’s just about your shoulder height, and decorate it/buy it how you like. You can get a few for different meanings/ceremonies/holidays. Most Common Uses- Used as a wand, to hold up ceremonial banners/flags, and other things Things to Remember- People can say “oh it’s just easier to use” “oh the magick does the thing better” all they want. But I don't know the only reason it’s shoulder length is so you don't knock yourself out in the middle of a ritual

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Swords

Pronounced s-or-d Element Air Direction East Color Blue or Green or Yellow Gender Male Associated with Ares or Mars

Description- A sword is a object with a long metal blade and a hilt (hand grip). Some have hand guards What the Heck is it- A sword can be used as a weapon or ceremonial object When Getting One- Make sure it feels balanced in your hand and you can put it in a sheath without it dragging the ground Most Common Uses- Thrusting, striking, Typically worn as part of ceremonial dress, used in place of an athame Things to Remember- If you go to a Coven meeting, always ask before bringing a Sword and if The High Priest/Priestess asks you not to use it yet they use one themselves, it’s to keep you and the others safe

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Wands

Pronounced wah-und Element Air Direction East Color Yellow or Brown Gender Male and Female Associated with Hecate or Trivia

Description- “a stick or rod thought to have magic properties, held by a magician, fairy, or conjuror and used in casting spells or performing tricks.” What the Heck is it-There are wands of glass, copper, silver and other metals, but the “classic” material is still wood. Various woods have different magickal associations and uses. When Getting One- Normally witches want a wand the length to be from the crook of your elbow to the middle/tip of your pointer finger, however I personally like it shorter, it’s up to whatever you feel more comfortable with. You can also get a few for different meanings/etc Most Common Uses- To cast a circle, direct energy in spells and such, and to use in spells and such Things to Remember- Witches who don’t have/don’t want to use an athame use a wand. However you are not required to use one (I use my hands)