#I am not an ecologist i just work with lots of them

[drumlincountry]

From one bog region person to the other (Bourtanger moor, don't live there anymore but grew up there)

What are your bogs like? We have 'high bogs' (peat moss growing over time, sadly mostly destroyed for fuel) and 'low bogs' (depressions of water filling up with plant material and becoming bogs, also mostly destroyed but not *as much*)

I like how when you go for a walk in a high bog the ground is springy, there's willows everywhere. The water is very low in calcium so you don't have to fight the caulk in your shower and kettle as much as in other places. I like the willows everywhere where there's bogs. And the (possibly apocryphical) story that once, a bunch of farmers won against much more well-armored knights because the knights all sunk into the bog

That's so interesting!

I think what you call "high bogs," we call "raised bogs"! We call them 'raised' because intact ones are big mounds, looming like a big wet sponge sitting 'raised' above the lower landscape around them. They can have peat up to 7m deep, and feel very bouncy when you walk on them!

Unfortunately, almost all raised bogs in Ireland are severely degraded. So much of the peat has eroded that many aren't even raised above the nearby landscape anymore. Historically, people subsistence farming in the area cut drains into the bog to make them more valuable grazing lands, or cut turf out of them for fuel. COLONIALISM is the villain of our story as always - the British government cut down all our forests to build their navy, fuel their forges, etc. All the locals had for fuel was turf (=bits of peat) and whatever bits of scrap wood they could steal without the landlord's men noticing, mar dhea.

Now turf cutting is an established cultural practice that many rural people can be very touchy about. A colleague of mine had got death threats because someone thought the ecological surveys she was doing on bogs would prevent him from cutting tuf.

Everywhere a bog is cut, it leaves a weeping wound. The drainage effect causes the bog to sink slowly over time, even where the surface of the bog looks pretty intact .

About your knights .... there's a very famous image which I can't find right now, of a raised bog in England. In the victorian era, someone sank a metal rod into this raised bog. The top of the rod was just at ground level. That rod is now notably taller than a person. That's over 6ft of peat, gone! Evaporated into the air! All that captured carbon - released back into the atmosphere.

The other kinds of bogs we have here are 'blanket bogs' so called because they are draped over mountains like blankets. The peat on these are thinner - usually less than 3m, and sometimes only a few cm.

(This is an aside but Irish place names often have the word "Droim" in them. That's a word that means ridge or hill, but also means back, on a human or an animal. When I stand on a height and look across at the peat-draped hills, I can see exactly why that's the same word. The peat hills look like the bony shoulders of sleeping giants. Drumlin, from my url, derives from "little ridge")

The biology of our mountain bogs is pretty similar to our raised bogs. The same species live there. The threats are similar too. Blanket bogs aren't cut for fuel as often because they were that bit less accessible, but it did happen.

And, the blanket bogs are getting damaged by more modern pressures at an extraordinary rate 🙃🙃🙃 But I will go on about government-imposed sheep quotas and plantation invasive forestry another day!

For now I'll say - they're doing some really amazing things with peatland restoration in Scotland these days! I went to a presentation and I was just astounded how much they can restore the most damaged and degraded bog, all with a few diggers and well educated digger operators. Once you raise the water table to 4cm below the bog surface, the moss does its magic and it becomes a carbon sink again!

I really love bogs. I've been on so many lovely bogs. Bog woodland, like you describe, with willows and birch and alder. Long flat mountaintops covered in pools and hummocks of moss. Waist high heather on steep rocky peatland, which is a pain to walk through, where your boots get sticky with pollen.

One time I lay on my stomach to plunge my arms into a bog lake. The water was black. I couldn't feel the bottom. I reached back, and back, and I realised that not only was the lake bottomless, it didn't have sides. I was lying on a floating outcrop of moss, over 50cm thick.

Bogs 💞🥳✨🟦💙😍💕🌟❤💫🥰

[glitchlight]

everyone who has been memeing about the USDA soil textural triangle for approximately the past decade doesn't even know the best part: there's another entire classification system that is far more widely used and more important

[grison-in-space]

I'm genuinely sorry, I was really tired and couldn't think of the word that mad pride movements use. I'm new to all of this. I thought you would be more open to it because you've reblogged from radical leftists (anarchists and communists both) within the past couple of weeks and they're all for Veganism afaik. The argument that all brains are different but equal and should be treated the exact same is a primary aspect of mad pride from my understanding, and that speaks to me about animals just having different brains, and that they don't deserve to be exploited and killed for us just because they're different. I'm not spamming people with it, but I was inspired by an ask by a nonvegan and started asking popular bloggers why they weren't vegan to open up conversation and potentially change people's views on animals. If I've made you uncomfortable I'm sorry, though I admit I'm really confused by your standpoint. You do know that the only reason communism hasn't succeeded is because of America? Anyway, sorry again, I'm also autistic and I didn't mean to dismiss your legitimate dietary needs. Can I recommend acti-vegan's posts? While I understand that you can't go vegan, perhaps their blog will at least help you understand our points, they're much more well-written than my asks and they have plenty of legitimate science resources at hand. Thanks for listening, I'll take your advice into account. I'm not trying to not listen, it's just frustrating because so many people say they get it but they don't change, and if they truly got it they would, you know?

Okay, I get that you didn't mean to be offensive, and fuck knows I shouldn't throw stones when it comes to forgetting specific words. (This happens to me fairly frequently; it's a thing.)

The argument that all brains are different but equal and should be treated the exact same is a primary aspect of mad pride from my understanding, and that speaks to me about animals just having different brains, and that they don't deserve to be exploited and killed for us just because they're different.

So yesterday I actually wrote out and then deleted a whole paragraph to the effect of "part of my deep, deep frustration with animal rights activism hooks into my commitment to the phrase 'nothing about us without us,' because I frequently see the same kinds of emotional projection without making the effort to listen to animals on their own terms from animal rights activism groups."

The first thing I need to make clear to you is that this--veganism and animal rights activism (ARA) more generally--is not new to me. I am in my mid-thirties and I have never had a job of any kind that did not revolve around animals in some way, I've spent time in rescue spaces and vets and universities, I'm queer and I have spent most of my life in leftish progressive circles, so it's kind of hard to miss.

Essentially, you are proselytizing to me as if you were a newly baptized evangelical convinced I had never heard of Jesus, because if only I had heard and understood his holy word, I would be converted instantly to his light! It's not any less irritating when the belief system isn't explicitly a religion.

More under the cut, because this one is long.

Disclaimer one: Veganism isn't synonymous with ARA ideology, but it's deeply entangled with it, and ARA ideology drives the movement of veganism as a (theoretically non-religious) ethical decision. And I object very strongly to the framework imposed by ARA activists. When I say I am not vegan, I am saying that I have considered the ethical framework that underpins veganism as an ethics movement and I have deliberately rejected it.

The second piece of context you should know that when I talk about being a behavioral ecologist, I mean that I'm a researcher who works on animals and that my framework is rooted in trying to understand animals in their own natural ecological context, without necessarily comparing them to humans. There's a lot of ways to study animal behavior you might run into, including attempts to understand universal principles of behavior that transcend species (animal cognition) and attempts to understand how to better treat animals in human care (animal welfare). You know Temple Grandin? Temple Grandin is an ethologist (the field that gave rise to behavioral ecology, also focused on animals within their species context) who worked on animal welfare (finding ways to make slaughterhouses less stressful to livestock, among other things).

Third point: my profession also means is that I work directly with animals--in my case, currently mice--and that I do not think research with animal subjects is wrong as long as all efforts are made to ensure maximal welfare and enrichment for the animals involved. This is another major bone of contention politically between my entire field and ARA groups, and you should know that I have also spent my entire professional career under the shadow of, well, people who care strongly enough about those ideas to invade my workspace and potentially seize my animals and "free" them into a world they do not have the tools to survive in.

So there's where I am coming from. Let's get back to what you're saying. Here, I'll quote again in case you have the same crappy short-term memory I do.

The argument that all brains are different but equal and should be treated the exact same is a primary aspect of mad pride from my understanding, and that speaks to me about animals just having different brains, and that they don't deserve to be exploited and killed for us just because they're different.

Point the first: Even within humans, I don't think that all brains should be treated the exact same. Especially in a disability context! After all, what is an accommodation if not an agreement to treat someone differently because they need certain things to access a space? Accommodations by definition fly in the face of this "treating everyone the same" understanding of fairness. I think all (human) brains are equally valuable, and I think all brains are worthy of respect, but I do not think that it's wise or kind of me to assert that everyone should be treated in the same way. For one thing, I teach students. If there's one thing teaching has taught me, it's that a good teacher is constantly assessing and adjusting their instruction to meet students where they're at, identify failures of understanding, and keep the attention of the classroom.

Point the second: animals do have different brains from humans. That does not mean that animals are inferior, but it does mean that they are alien. There's a philosophy paper, Nagel, What Does It Mean to Be a Bat, that you might find illuminating on this front. Essentially, the point of the paper is that animals have their own experiences and sensory umwelts that differ profoundly enough from humans' that we cannot know what it is like to be a different species without experiencing life as one, and therefore we must be terribly careful not to project our own realities onto theirs. That is, our imagination cannot tell us what a bat values and what it experiences. That is why we have to use careful evidence to understand what an animal is thinking, without relying on our ability to identify with and comprehend that animal. I have watched ARA groups deliberately encourage people to shut their reasoning brains off and emotionally identify themselves with animals without considering within-species context for twenty years. This is a mainstream tactic. It is not an isolated event and for that reason alone I would be opposed to them.

Point the third: there is a definite tendency in lots of people to care deeply and intensely about both animals and people who are seen as "lesser" in status--children, poor people, disabled people, etc--just as long as those groups never contradict the good feelings that come from the helper's own assessment of themselves and their actions. In humans, when the "needy" point out that some forms of help are actually harmful, the backlash is often swift and vicious. This is why animals are such an appealing target of support and intervention. They can't speak back and say "in fact, you are projecting my love of this frilly pink tutu onto me, and I think it's uncomfortable and prevents me from walking." They can't say "I kind of like it better when I don't have to worry about getting hit by a car, actually?"

(By the way: this is also why it's offensive to compare disabled people to animals, because this is generally done at least in part to silence the voices of disabled people speaking for our selves and our communities. We have access to language, and we use it, thank you.)

All forms of animal welfare intervention going right back to the founding of the first RSPCA have been incredibly prone to being hijacked by classist, racist, and otherwise bigoted impulses. This is because animals offer an innocent face for defense that conveniently cannot criticize the actions taken by their champions, and they therefore provide a great excuse for actions taken against marginalized members of human society. Think about the very first campaign the RSPCA ever did, which was banning using dogs as draft animals: a use that is not inherently harmful to dogs, which many dogs actively enjoy, but also one that was specifically used by poor Londoners and which in fact immediately resulted in a great butchery of the dogs that Londoners could no longer afford to feed rather than allowing poor people and their dogs to continue working together. No one was, of course, challenging the particular uses of dogs or any other animal favored by the wealthy. This kind of thing is so, so, so common. Obviously it doesn't mean that all interventions to prioritize animal welfare are inherently bigoted, but it does mean that we have to be critical about our choice of challenges.

On top of everything, the animal rights activist movement's obsession with "exploitation" is a function of the idea that humans are sinful or otherwise Bad in how we interact with animals by definition. For example, take the chicken rescue near me that is so obsessed with the possibility that some human somewhere might benefit from an animal in their care that they implant every hen they adopt out with hormonal implants such that the hens no longer lay eggs--a function that is normally a natural byproduct of a chicken's reproductive system, fertilized or not. A mutualistic relationship involves both parties benefiting, and that is the case for an awful lot of human relationships with animals. In general, the idea that associating with animals is a thing that can only harm animals rather than being a trade between two species to enrich one another is all over these groups. It's just so myopically focused on human shame that it prevents practical interventions that might benefit everyone, and often promotes interventions that don't directly benefit animals but sure do make humans miserable. For example, this kind of thinking is why groups like PETA are absolutely awful at effectively rescuing unwanted dogs and cats: they think pets living in "bondage" with humans are an essentially sad outcome, rather than one that might be mutually enjoyed by all parties.

I'm tired and my meds haven't kicked in, so I'm not currently going to handle the communism thing except to point out that while the US absolutely did destabilize a number of leftist regimes in South America and Africa, Russia and China between them have certainly not treated their own people kindly, either (and more so their own client-nations, as with the former members of the USSR). Please do some reading about the Holodomor and Lysenko in Russia (and frankly all of the details of Stalin's regime) and the Cultural Revolution in China in particular. Khmer Rouge might be worth looking into, too. I am not saying the US's hands are clean, you understand, because they are not; they're as steeped in red as anyone else's. What I am saying is that for people living on the ground, communist revolutions have this nasty habit of turning into bloodbaths and arbitrary slaughters. Do not let your distaste for the US's bloodsoaked imperialism (which, yes, is and was bad) let you fall into the trap of becoming a tankie.

And if you don't know what a tankie is, you really, really should take some time to learn.

[a-very-tired-jew]

Conversations with a younger colleague about I/P conflict

In my department there is a grad student who is friendly with myself and a few others of the openly nerdy ecologists. We actively talk about anime, video games, TTRPGs, etc... We've also all collaborated on research together because we generally study the same thing, and being a grad student we are also letting them helm their own research to carve their own path. The research topic that links all of us is decomposition ecology.

Meaning, we study death, how it effects the environment, and all the things having to do with it. Often we have our own terms that we define and use, but we also work within the framework of various medical and legal definitions nationally and internationally. Recently this student has been talking to me about the I/P conflict because it has dominated their social media feed. Like many young adults, this is their first I/P conflict and their first exposure to anything regarding that region. As such, they have come to me to talk about things knowing that I am Jewish. Not out of maliciousness, but because I am the only person they talk to that has any sort of connection to it. Over these past months they have repeated the "genocide/Holocaust" rhetoric that we have seen Western Activists use to make the conflict the Worst Thing Ever. Our conversation went as follows: GS: I can't believe they're committing a Holocaust on them after what they went through. Me: How is it a Holocaust? GS: They're committing a genocide against the Palestinians. Me: They're not doing either one, but let's touch upon the first thing you said. How? GS: They're killing them in large numbers! Me: Oh...oh...that's not what made the Holocaust the Holocaust, you know that right? It was years of systematic dehumanization that culminated in what we know. There were death camps, torture, experimentation, and so much more than simple "killing in large numbers". GS: Damn public school education... Me: You didn't really go over it too much did you? GS: WWII was, like, a week I want to say. Me: *sigh* yeah, not surprised at all. GS: Okay, so a genocide then? Me: GS, what do we study? GS: Decomp Me: and that involves? GS: Death Me: One avenue of which is mass casualty events which a number of our friends have published on. GS: Yeah! I read those papers, they were really good. Me: They were, but do you remember conversations we had about them and what differentiates mass casualty events from one another? GS: Cause? Me: And...? GS: Shit. Intent. Me: Exactly. Has their been an official stated intent to commit any genocide? I mean, you've got the bigots in the government like Ben Givir and the shit they say, I'll give you that. But has the official stance been genocidal? GS: No. I don't think so. Me: What has it been? GS: To get the hostages back and get rid of Hamas. Me: Uh huh, and what has been Hamas's stated intent? GS: To kill Zionists. Me: And before 2017 when they changed the wording in their charter? GS: ah fuck...it's Jews isn't it? Me: Ding ding ding. GS: So that's why no one in the group has said it's a genocide... Me: Correct. Humanitarian crisis brought about by war? Yes. Mass casualty event? Certainly. But genocide? Well, there's a reason no one in our circle has endorsed the term. And remember, we're considered experts on death. GS: I got puppeted didn't I? Me: Yep. GS: Shit. The only reason this went so well is due to our friendship and mentor/mentee dynamic. They already trust me to not lead them astray, be informed, and address the holes in their knowledge. Hell, they help me be a better scientist as well with how they bring in new and novel techniques that I didn't know. But they're still getting a lot of their info from TikTok and IG, and they've talked about a lot of BS from those two particular apps these past few years. This is just the latest (they had a TikTok induced anti-GMO trend for a while, it was bad).

[samwisethewitch]

How I Get the Most Out of Meat When Cooking

As someone who 1.) was 100% vegetarian for ethical/religious reasons until very recently, and 2.) recently had to reintroduce meat for vitamin deficiency reasons, limiting waste as much as possible when I cook with meat is really important to me. For one thing, I feel like I owe it to the animal that died to get as much use as possible out of its body as a way of honoring its death. For another, meat is expensive (ethically raised meat even more so) and I want to get my money's worth.

I recently bought a bunch of lamb for my family's holiday dinner, so I wanted to share my attempt to practice the Honorable Harvest in my meat consumption. This is new to me, but I wanted to document the attempt because it's been a fun learning process for me! If you want to actually learn about honorable consumption I encourage you to read the works of Robin Wall Kimmerer and other indigenous ecologists, since the Honorable Harvest is based on indigenous North American practices. (Though there are other cultural practices all over the world.)

Step One: Sourcing the Meat

I am very fortunate to have enough disposable income to buy ethically raised meat, which tends to be more expensive. This is a privilege. Other people are not able to spend this extra money on their meat, and that doesn't make me better than them. Feeding yourself is morally neutral, and a tight budget is not a moral failing. Most meat alternative products (Beyond Beef, Impossible, etc.) are also pretty expensive. If the factory-farmed meat at the supermarket is the only thing in your budget, use that.

If you DO have some extra funds, local farms are a great place to source meat. The reason we had lamb for the holidays is because a local farm recently culled their herd and had lamb on sale. In the past we've gotten beef from a relative who raises cattle. I encourage you to learn about farms in your area and what they have to offer. CSAs and farmers' markets are great places to start. You can also ask around at local restaurants about where they source their ingredients.

When I say "ethically raised meat," what I'm really talking about is pasture-raised animals. Cage-free animals may not live in cages, but they can still be kept in cramped, dirty, inhumane conditions and be sold as "cage free." Pasture-raised animals are able to graze and forage and generally wander around within a paddock. For some animals like chickens you can also look for "free range," which means the animals are unfenced and are able to wander freely. Since I don't cook meat often, I try to get free range or pasture-raised meat when I do buy it.

In some areas, you may also be able to find certified ethically slaughtered meat, which means the slaughtering process has been designed to cause as little suffering to the animal as possible. That kind of certification isn't really available where I live, but it might be for you!

And of course, hunting or fishing yourself is also an option. If you kill the animal yourself, you know exactly how it died and can take steps to limit suffering as much as possible. Hunting isn't a skillset I have, but if you do more power to you!

Step Two: Cooking the Meat

This is the easy part. Depending on the cut of meat you got and the dish you are cooking, you may need to remove bones or trim fat, but aside from that it's just following a recipe.

For our holiday lamb stew, I used this recipe. I have Celiac disease, so I subbed gluten-free flour and replaced the beer with red wine. I also added rosemary and garlic for a more Mediterranean flavor to compliment the wine.

Step Three: Organs and Bones

This is where the breakdown is for a lot of Americans. We don't cook with bones or organs very often, and we tend to throw away whatever parts of the animal we don't want. That is not honorable consumption. Part of the Honorable Harvest is using every part of the being that died to feed you.

Most organs make great stew meat. My favorite Nicaraguan beef stew is made with tongue, and my indigenous Hawaiian relatives make stew with pig feet. And while I don't like them, lots of my Southern family members love chitlins (pickled pig intestines). Lots of cultures eat organs, and you'll find plenty of delicious recipes if you look!

Bones are typically used to make stock, which can be used as a base for future soups and stews. There are lots of recipes for DIY stocks and broths, but I usually fry some onions and/or garlic, deglaze with wine, and then add the meat/bones and the water, plus salt, pepper, and herbs for flavor. Most animal bones can produce two batches of stock before they lose flavor. (For really flavorful stock, leave some meat on the bones.)

Once the stock is done, you'll still have bones to deal with. Contrary to popular belief, cooked bones are not safe for dogs to chew on. (But raw bones usually are!) Instead, I strip any remaining meat and gristle from the stock bones, give those scraps to my pups as a treat, and then use the stripped bones for something else. With a little extra processing, the bones can be used as a fertilizer in a garden, a calcium supplement for chickens, or a safe treat for dogs and/or cats.

This was my first time processing bones, but after boiling them for, like, 12 hours in water with salt and vinegar, they were soft enough to break apart with my hands. I'm going to grind them to make bone meal.

[podcastjam]

Project Spotlight #3: Eart(h) FM

The year is 2072, and we're talking about the solarpunk sci-fi pilot Eart FM with team member Ari!

Tell us a bit about yourself and your teammates!

Hi, I’m Clover! I’m a writer, voice actor, and audio engineer. I’m helping edit Eart FM, and potentially voice act in it. I’m working on a few podcasts, but none of them have released yet. My first and favorite podcast is Wolf 359. I technically have a tumblr account, but I don’t use it, so you can find me lurking on various podcast discords, mainly the official WOE.BEGONE discord.

@lotsadeer: My name is Izze Sykes, I'm an illustrator, writer, podcaster, game designer, voice actor, and wearer of many hats. I'll be doing the cover art for this podcast! The first podcast I ever listened to was Welcome to Night Vale, don't ask me my favourite podcast that's like asking me to choose children, and I'm involved in a few podcasts at the moment! Hope's Hearth, an actual play podcast; Abbey Archives, a Redwall reread podcast; SCP Research Archives, an SCP article podcast; Colchis, a sci-fi audio drama; and Cauterized, a horror audio drama. Plus a few podcasts that are in the works. I like podcasts.

@aclickbaittitle: Hello, I am Ari! I like to say I am a storyteller. I am the organizer (?) for Eart FM and I also plan to sound-design and write.  Like a lot of people I got into audio drama through Welcome to Nightvale and then it was history. My most recent project is a little short-fiction podcast called “Broken Hearted: The Friendship monologues”.

Hello, I'm Laurel. I'm a writer, digital artists, and self proclaimed voice actor. I will be voicing the role of "The Host" in Eart(h) FM! I have not participated in any projects publicly but I have be doing voice work for fun with friends and a bit on my joint youtube channel. My favorite podcast is definitely Penumbra Podcast, my younger brother showed it to me and I was hooked instantly. I don't use my tumblr anymore but you can find me on discord @ cyanosiis!

@timberfins/@elijahharpermusic: I'm Eli, or Timber, and I'm providing music! The first podcast I remember falling in love with was Welcome To Night Vale, but my current favourite is probably Within The Wires (unless we're also including non-fiction, where it's competing with Lingthusiasm). I sing with the Anguilliform Chorus in Eeler's Choice, and you'll also hear me in two Law of Names productions: Season 4 of Breathing Space and the upcoming Waterlogged.

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Fuent, I am a MBA student trying to survive in this trying world. I am a huge nerd, and love to travel. I have been to over 14 different countries and plan to expand that number. I also host my own podcast as well. My first podcast that I listened to was Campfire Radio Theater, and my favorite podcast is Midnight burger. Currently I am a writer for the podjam and happy to be here.

What's your podcast about?

Solar-punk sci-fi with anti space-colonialism sentiments. It is the year 2072, the poles have melted and humanity has taken for the stars, except for the HOST, . To cope with being the only human on earth, they’ve decided to create a Radio Show where they broadcast music from various times and places of the world. One day someone finally calls to the radio station an ECOLOGIST, living on the skirt of the iztaccihuatl bearing news that the earth is healing. Together they embark on a quest for other humans that still live on planet earth, finding various communities and people, and begin to help the earth one day heal.

What are you most excited about in this event?

To collaborate with other creators in order to tell a story that is very dear to my heart.

Any advice for other participants, or those on the fence about joining?

Consult it with the pillow, but if come morning you discover that is just the nerves and impostor syndrome keeping you from participating, take that leap. At the end of the day, we are all just a bunch of people trying to tell stories the same as you.

This team is still looking for new members, adding: "We are currently looking for the ecologist voice actor. We are specifically looking for a chicane / mexican-american voice actor since we are writing the ecologist with an experience specific to said identity (don’t worry, you don’t need to know spanish or anything, as long as you have a connection with the ethnicity or identity, you are welcome to join!)"

If you're interested in joining their project, you can find their casting call here, or you can reach out in the Podcast Book Club Discord server. If you want to know more about the jam first, be sure to check out this post as well!

[pyrrhocorax]

my current hetalia wildlife/natural resources au thoughts i have from your resident wildlife biologist: sweden: i have lots of ideas for him but the idea of him being an entomologist is interesting b/c the contrast of "big scary giant guy, but he studies tiny butterflies" is really fun to me. he has a very entomologist personality to me too based on all the entomologists i know so lepidopterist is my current thought. finland: forester. all foresters i know are unhinged in the same exact way he is unhinged. potentially also a fire ecologist?? i think that would be interesting (give me an excuse to learn about fire ecology more) and i think he would enjoy using a flamethrower. iceland: thinking geologist, prob volcanologist? or he studies auks. norway: less sure of him. thinking mainly about fisheries (not sure if marine or freshwater, both are interesting), mycology, lichenology (this is the main one i am thinking about rn), oceanography, or mountain stream hydrology (yes that is a thing) for him. denmark: having the most trouble with him honestly. maybe meteorology, geography (GIS dude??), soil biology?? maybe even human dimensions (i can see him being a good intermediary between the public and natural resources, like park ranger-esque)?? idk if extension agents exist in europe but he'd be good at that i think. estonia: songbird biologist. bander (or ringer you're european). potentially studying migration trends? breeding output of at-risk species? potentially lab mates with austria b/c sharing same field site. he's uncannily good at mimicking bird calls. lithuania: large carnivore biologist that studies in canids (i.e. wolves), mainly does camera trapping but also darts/radio collars them. looking at habitat usage to hopefully boost populations??? latvia: shorebird/rail/stork biologist?? reminds me of a shorebird biologist i know and i think he'd vibe well with water/water adjacent bird work. i also think him studying beavers is fun because beavers are fun! and i think the riga beaver thing back in the day was hysterical lol OR i think him being an aquatic entomologist would be cool he could be a dragonfly guy austria: also a songbird biologist, but looking at vocalizations/song stuff, does a lot more lab work than field work analyzing vocalizations. maybe studying nocturnal vocalizations during migration of birds across different habitats??? potentially lab mates with estonia. america: ungulates. or maybe specifically cervids. respectfully, as an american, we are overly obsessed with deer. could also see him studying salamanders because they are a special kind of person too that fits the american personality well, and america is home to the most salamander diversity in the world so like. yeah. canada: ducks/loons/grebes, raptors (specifically thinking eagles/hawks), weasels (him being so understated but studying wolverines is funny to me), or fisheries? :/ could also see him being a habitat biologist in general, doing modeling stuff for wider scale land changes? i kind of want him to be a prairie conservationist too. england: botanist is my thought for now? he has a "plant research guy who is 3 years into his phd and kind of regretting his life choices" vibe to me. but he's also the world's crustiest birder outside of his work (b/c uk influenced a lot of the current world birding culture) germany: ngl environmental policy analyst seems up his alley and we need more of those who are good. romania: chiropterist. and before you are like "urg don't stereotype the vampire thing pyrr" it's not that. his personality is just very bat biologist. they are a special kind of people, and i say that with affection, as all the bat people i know are fantastic. specifically could see him being also an entomologist studying the interactions between bats/bugs on farmland to see how bat populations help crop production. still thinking on things though!!! welcome to my niche au.

[tinywitchgoblin]

Oya vod! I’m brand new to this, so hoping I’m doing it the right way. :)

Could I request a ship?

I’m a 6’6”, relatively fit terrestrial ecologist (biologist) and a horseback archer. I have a passion for all wildlife, especially avian creatures. I spend a lot of time in the outdoors assessing habitats, identifying birds (sometimes at long distances) by sight and sound and just enjoying the freedom of the natural world. I should probably just go ahead and build a cabin in the forest, because that’s where I feel most at home. Owing to having to work twice as hard to gain the same amount of respect respect in the traditionally male-dominated field of biological science I’m pretty independent and self-reliant but am flexible and can work as part of a team too.

I find large social situations challenging, and am generally slow to connect with people but once I do they are part of my clan for life. ;) People tend to perceive me as confident and capable, but in truth people mostly make me anxious. I connect with animals far more easily - they’re honest!

When I’m not in the forest, I can probably be found with my horse, firing arrows at targets as we gallop across a field, shouting along to metal tunes while driving my Jeep on trails, or working on some ridiculous craft project (probably a wool bird sculpture or leather armour that no one will ever see). Come to think on that I have some rather contrasting traits, haha!

Thank you! These have been fun to read!

Of course, I'm glad you're enjoying them!

I ship you with...

Crosshair!

Our resident sentient toothp(r)ick enjoys spending time outdoors, especially alone, where no one can bother him and he can have some peace and quiet. Just like you, he doesn't like large social gatherings and is very hesitant to let people in. However, once you accepted each other and started dating, you spent a lot of time alone together.

Once he finds out that you do horseback archery, he begged asked you to teach him everything show him a couple of things, and you happily obliged. Initially, he wasn't very good at it because it was so different from his usual skills as a sniper, but eventually, he started showing some improvements. There are few people in the galaxy more stubborn than Crosshair, and he was determined to be good at horseback archery, so help him god.

Having grown up with Tech, Crosshair is very familiar with listening to ramblings about various topics (animals included) and identifying local flora and fauna. However, having it come from you instead of his brother made it very different. He asked Tech for some resources to learn about the various birds in the area (which Tech was very curious as to why Crosshair would want all of that information all of a sudden. suspicious), so when you and he went birdwatching, he had at least a basic knowledge of what you were seeing and hearing, and it made you happy that he put time and effort into such an activity- because as much as he refuses to admit it, your smile is far prettier than any bird.

-

Thanks for reading! If you want a ship request like this one, drop it in my ask box, and don't forget to reblog 💚

[vaicomcas]

Since I am rather serious about some day writing nihpil Tanya verse I am trying out characters and Nora just doesn't make sense to me

Like She is a single mother who works, right?

Then she should have had babysitters at hand, someone who does it regularly, somone she can call if they are not available I don't know, didn't she have like friends or family or even neighbours?

Nora asking Cas or Steve who was practically a stranger to stay with her kid is just straight up stupid

Oh yeah it's totally unrealistic. What single woman would invite a random guy she obviously doesn't know anything about into her house, let alone leaving her baby with him?

Clearly the sole purpose of the Nora character and her only two or three scenes was to demonstrate Castiel being miserable and humiliated in his human life. For that reason, unlike many Castiel fans, I don't hate Nora, I don't even fault her. She never had a chance, if you know what I mean.

And really, without this contrivance, we wouldn't get the "Castiel comforting baby Tanya and vice versa" scene, which I do like, obviously. So I am grateful to her for that.

And thirdly, as far as Castiel's humiliation goes, it was so mild, especially in contrast with what the others dished out to him, it's almost inconsequential. There was zero evidence that Castiel had any feelings for her. It was just one more routine disappointment. I am more angry that Nora didn't pay for his babysitting service--Cas was homeless and needed the money.

(Really, if they want to show Castiel humiliated, they should have just showed the moment after "you can't stay " registered. They should show him realizing he had no right to be there after screwing up everything, that he had nothing to contribute anymore, that he had to be saved by the Winchesters and now he was freeloading on them. They should show him turning red and stammering and sweating and him not knowing what to do with the burrito he was eating that he had no right to be eating, they should show his rush to get out of the bunker as fast as possible even though he didn't know where to go. Compared to that? being misled into babysitting was small potatoes.

Like of all the characters on SPN that treated Castiel terribly, she was pretty low on the list. She exploited him for a few hours of free labor, sure, but unlike others, she didn't demand him to negate his own identity or to hurt himself or to die for her benefit. )

Sorry, I went off a bitter Cas girl tangent again. You didn't ask me to comment on what I think about Nora, you asked about Nora's character not making sense. The way I tried to incorporate her into my hc is to decide that she acted in this senseless way for a reason. Perhaps she was always kind of unhinged wild-child, a reckless free-spirit, but was forced to become the adoptive mother of baby (Nephilim) Tanya because her sister (Tanya's birth mother) of course died at child birth. Because of that she had to go on the run (because her sister warned her that angels and demons would be after the baby), leave her life behind, and get a job in some small Utah town that she hated. So she resented all this responsibility she didn't ask for, and resented the baby. In rebellion she pursued her own interests while dumping her baby with a stranger. But I would like to give her a redemption arc where she discovered that despite her bitterness, she grew to loved baby Tanya after all.

However, there are lots of other ways to explain her behavior too. Like she could be an undercover demon or an agent of BMOL who was spying on Castiel (this was the hc of heaven-ecologist). In this way, she could also be killed off in a fic.

And one more thing (back to the show). I totally think that after that episode, Nora kept asking Cas for babysitting and Cas kept agreeing. I don't know if Nora started paying him or not. I think Cas would have agreed even if she didn't pay (like I believe he would have agreed to babysit for free in the first place if Nora just flat out asked him honestly). I would think babysitting was a peaceful refuge during his homelessness, to have the security of a comfortable house (maybe Nora was at least decent enough to provide free food as well), alone with a baby who didn't judge him and who needed him, made him feel useful.

[startedwellthatsentence]

I read a lot of science fiction novels, especially near-future hard-ish sci fi about first contact. It’s one of my favorite genres.

It also absolutely underlines for me why scientific inquiry MUST be a team effort. The authors will, if they’re doing their job well, present a bunch of scientific evidence connected to a new phenomenon. Perhaps the MC will do a few rounds of different experiments, and then come to a conclusion at the end. Or sometimes they’ll experiment, theorize, experiment, theorize, experiment, theorize, etc. Sometimes they’ll even explain in detail why some logical conclusion actually isn’t correct (suck it nerdboys I’m ahead of you*).

I’m a social scientist, a linguist with a background in gender studies and cultural studies who works as a second language instructor. I have a pretty good grasp of the scientific concepts these books like to play with, but they aren’t my specialty. So when they are doing these experiments, I am coming to *different conclusions* and wanting them to *conduct different experiments*. “Your evidence could be explained by these three other models!” I scream in the group discord. “Your conclusions aren’t fully supported, you need to do more tests!” “Not only are your postulates Terracentric, they’re Anglocentric! There are other cultures on our own damn planet that exhibit this ‘unexplainable alien behavior’!!!”

And that’s a perfectly valid plot point for a lone scientist, that their myopic view is narrowing what they can see of the world and therefore limiting the scope of the data they collect and causing them to draw questionable conclusions. The problem is that the authors tend to then have them be correct about everything they theorized. They did the science and now we’re done and we can move on to the plot. Meanwhile I’m either bitching “an anthropologist and an ecologist would have wildly different takes on this???” Or (looking at you, Arrival), “why is a fucking translator of a previously-studied language doing this work at all? Why don’t we have a rogue formalist syntactician who studies signed languages? Or a fieldworker doing documentation and description in South India, Papua New Guinea, or the Amazon River Basin? Or all of them in a room together?”

This is one of the reasons that I enjoy Brandon Sanderson novels so much, I think. Sure, every single one of them has the same plot twist: “your [physical/magical/political/interpersonal/historical/cosmological] model of the world is wrong, the truth is _____.” But that definitely fulfills my itch for theoretical models of the world to actually work like models instead of laws. Contemporary descriptions of the world may match the results of experiments, but that doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily correct in their totality. Time To Orbit: Unknown by @derinthescarletpescatarian is also pretty good at having the characters come to conclusions with limited data and then facing the consequences of that.

This isn’t a full thought, just something that occurs to me frequently when reading new sci-fi. Put your scientists in teams so they can think of different questions and supply different answers. So that I don’t have to yell at the MCs all alone.

*Andy Weir in Project Hail Mary came across as particularly defensive in his scientific explanations, but never about the things that I was questioning.

[childofthewolvess]

I adore what your relationship with your familiars feels like from your posts. I want to know about familiars in general!

From most posts from different people I stumbled on about familiars, they always seemed like something really really serious, something only people with experience should engaging with, something that never enjoyable and are there only for magical purposes and nothing else.

I have connection with some animals, always had. I don't know how exactly explain it, they just always had a place in my heart. I thought to incorporate them in my practice, maybe worshipping them as general spirits.

I remember seeing your post about why everyone should have a familiar, so I wanted to ask:

How did your familiars found you? Or was you, who found them?

What are general requirements for having a familiar? If there are any?

Are familiars there only for magical work? Would it be okay to have familiars just as companions?

I got assumption from your posts that familiar is choosing their person and not other way around. Is it spirit's choice or person can choose, which animal they want?

Those people I mentioned before say that having familiar may come with a price. Is this true? In which scale?

What general precautions you would advise?

Thank you so much, kind person. Your blog is really informative and it's pleasure to read it. I hope you will have a great week!

Oh I love a good Q&A. Thanks for all these questions and the kind words! 🫶🏻

First of all—familiars are a pretty niche topic that I haven't seen many sources for, anywhere. I navigated a lot of familiar work all by myself, especially starting as a child. And the problem is, during 18th century English witch trials, familiar spirits were completely demonized. This big-time messed up our jobs as ecologists.

Demonology/demonolatry—which I am entirely unfamiliar with—also has familiar spirits in the form of demons in their practice, involving a familiar spirit sent by a demon or that is a demon. I'm completely out of the scope of this practice, and every single animal spirit I've worked with has either been a spirit who lived its life as an animal before it passed to the afterlife, or a spirit guide sent by some other entity. With all spirit work, individuals should always practice protection and understand how to vet spirits (which is not that hard, with intention), but a lot of the sources claiming that familiars aren't enjoyable have a lot of post-Christianization bias and fear behind them. Any time you're contracting a spirit, you want to know the spirit well, but that goes for all spirit work, not just familiars! :)

In my experience? I've never once met, invoked, or encountered a malicious animal spirit. I do, however, work explicitly with animal spirits. I do not work with entities or spirits of any other form. This is a boundary I've set for my protections—only animal spirits, spirit guides, and deities may occupy my physical and spiritual spaces—and peace of mind.

That being said...

Familiar Spirit Anon Q&A

I also added not only this ask, but a couple other questions in here to make one concise post.

Q: How did your familiars find you? Or was you, who found them?

My familiars were gifted to me by my ancestors. From as early as I can remember, I was being followed by two wolf spirits. To get really technical—my male black wolf familiar was a previous alive-wolf companion to an far distanced ancestor of mine in Scandinavia, and was sent to me in this lifetime for some personal reasons I won't disclose. My female gray wolf familiar was the black wolf's mate, and whose spirit followed his through the afterlife. One of my deities worked with her and allowed her to become my familiar in this life! In other words, my familiars kinda have always been with me; they found me, then I found them!

Q: What are general requirements for having a familiar? If there are any?

Mentioned above! There's not really requirements, besides making sure you vet the spirit and be able to confirm that you are in fact talking to the spirit that you think you are talking to. This is because you're contracting the spirit to make it a familiar. I just personally find much lower risk with animal spirits and I'd venture to say the same "requirements" go for familiars as they would deities. Just always do your research in any spiritual practice and what it entails for you!

Q: Are familiars there only for magical work? Would it be okay to have familiars just as companions?

Nope! Familiars can absolutely just be companions. My two familiars are spiritual companions more often than aide for my magical work.

Q: I got assumption from your posts that familiar is choosing their person and not other way around. Is it spirit's choice or person can choose, which animal they want?

More often than not, the familiar chooses the person, or the familiar is sent to the person. If you're familiar with spirit work, then you could invoke a specific animal spirit to become a familiar, but honestly, most of the time you've already got a spirit guide in the form of an animal surrounding you. If you're asking if you can choose what animal/species your familiar is, then no, spirits either choose their own form or it was a form previously-had in a physical life.

Q: Those people I mentioned before say that having familiar may come with a price. Is this true? In which scale?

With normal animal spirits, absolutely not. I've never once had to pay a "price" or a "sacrifice" for an animal spirit. There is no price to animal spirits in the same sense that there will never be a price to a deity. Now, I don't speak for familiar practices in demonology/demonolatry, but as said before, I work solely with animal spirits.

Q: What general precautions you would advise?

Refer above!

Hopefully this helps! As always the inbox is open, just be aware I may take forever to respond (lol).

[hylianengineer]

Okay I'm done with the film review for my sociology class, now you can all have my rant about it, and it's LONG so it's going under a read more:

I'm watching that new Netflix documentary about dirt - Kiss The Ground. For context, I'm an undergrad researcher in biogeochemistry and I study the carbon cycle, particularly a very specific type of decomposition that occurs in waterlogged soils - methanogenesis.

I'm so thrilled that something this mainstream is talking about soil carbon, soil microbes (my beloveds), and carbon sequestration. They're talking about root exudates and mychorrizhae and agriculture as part of an ecosystem! That's exciting. There's also a really excellent dose of climate hope in this documentary - and I am really excited to see that concept getting out of niche environmental circles and into things that regular people might actually watch.

On the other hand, parts of this documentary tick me off. I do not consider Tom Brady, nor his wife, to be a reliable source about the importance of organic agriculture. I know you're trying to interest the non-science types but come on, that is a classic appeal to irrelevant authority fallacy. And they should have said the thing about how we do still have to stop using fossil fuels and reach net zero emissions IN ADDITION TO sequestering the carbon we've already emitted more than one time in the whole film, because I just know people are going to take the rest of this message and run with it in the wrong direction. And they are really hammering home the appeal to emotions in the first half, to the point where I think the core of their argument suffers for it. Are you trying to explain this thing to me or are you throwing around buzzwords and pictures of sick children in hopes I'll get distracted?

Also they keep introducing guests with credentials like "ecologist from the Rodale Institute." You know nobody knows what the fuck that is, right? (It's an NGO dedicated to organic farming, for the record, but I did have to google it, and they had multiple guest speakers from this group.) Come on, you have no credibility if I can't tell where your info's coming from, and most people are not going to do background research as they watch a documentary.

Overall, I agree with their main points but I'm annoyed with how they made them. They're right about the ability of soil to sequester carbon, they're right that it could play a big role in climate change mitigation, and they're right that helping the soil is also better for people, ecosystems, and the planet. They're right about no till farming, permaculture, and crop diversity. They're even right about the bullshit that is the US industrial agricultural system, and they dug into how it came about in the post-WWII era, which isn't something I see talked about much. Kind of baffled how they managed to talk about soil degradation in the Midwestern USA without getting into the unique ways prairie soil and roots work, and instead went down a weird rambly path about how plows are bad (true, at least here - I cant speak for ecosystems I don't know as well - but explained poorly) and cows are good because this system evolved to have bison in it (sort of true, but incomplete. Cows aren't bison and the differences do matter.)

Also, reduced meat consumption is a very common thing that a lot of experts say is needed for climate change mitigation, and don't think I didn't notice how you sidestepped the issue just to say 'cows are good actually, stop vilifying cows.' I call bullshit. Just because cows work well in some ecosystems on a certain scale does not mean that it's possible to farm meat sustainably on the scale we currently do - factory farming and feedlots (CAFOs, if you want to get technical) are what allows us to make this much meat in the first place. You just admitted we need cows spread out on a lot more land to making ranching sustainable, and then failed to address the fact that this idyllic system doesn't really mesh with a world in which everybody eats multiple servings of beef per day. I see that decision and I know why you made it, because asking people to make sacrifices for the climate tends to make them ignore you, I don't even necessarily disagree with that decision because I know you're trying to persuade normal people and not environmentalists, but don't think I didn't notice.

Okay, fine, NOW they're talking about eating less meat and how what meat people do eat needs to come from more sustainable agricultural practices. Good. Better.

Oh look at our free range eggs, they're orange and that means they have more nutrients. Do they? Please back up this claim with scientific evidence. Of course the farmer says his eggs are better, he raised them. It's plausible, but I am pedantic and a scientist and I want data. You have to prove things to me.

Overall not a horrible documentary but ticks me off in several ways and tries to cram too many different subjects into like an hour and a half. Also, visiting the film's website makes me MORE ANGRY because they say even STUPIDER things about how they think climate science works. They make it sound like carbon sequestration in soil is THE solution which is BULLSHIT. There is no THE solution, there's gotta be a bunch of em stacked on top of each other - according to basically every climate change mitigation plan I've ever heard of (Project Drawdown is a good example). There's this metaphor I like to use to explain this to people - there's no silver bullet, but there could be silver buckshot. I read that somewhere once and cannot remember where but I'll never forget it.

Anyways, if you want a good intro to soil health directed at non-scientists/environmentalists, Kiss The Ground isn't bad, but you gotta think critically about some of the claims it's making because some of them are bullshit.

[professor-amaryllis]

[a gift arrives to amy's current doorstep! it seems to be a carefully wrapped box with an assortment of unovan sweets inside; buried deep within it are two bottles of mead; a very standard mead, and what seems to be one with a small kick of figy berry spice.

inside is a small, poorly drawn card of ren hugging amy.

"Happy Palentine's Day, Dad! Heehee, I couldn't pass up the chance to send ya this when I saw they had it in the lil Cafe I've been frequentin', and I managed to score ya a few bottles!

Blueberry Academy's been treatin' me real well--I don't think I got the chance to tell ya, they're lettin' me oversee a project about introducin' Orthworm into one of the Biomes and I'm so! Heckin'!! Excited!!! It's a small project right now, but I'm so determined to see this through and make sure these worms can thrive out here, and coexist with everything here too! It's givin' me a lot of good research too, and Blueberry offers no real shortage of experiences here on the daily.

Lulu's been doin' great, but you should really see Bouton now! The lil guy's comin' into his own so well! Coriander's been gettin' started on some work becomin' a physical therapy Pokemon, and I've never been more proud of her! Soba's been a delight--I don't think you've met him yet, I gotta introduce you to this guy, and I got a Huntail attached to me (long story) I'm considerin' raisin'; she's a sweetie, real lovebug, though I'm a lil worried about raisin' a whole new type of Pokemon for sure. Like I said, though; no shortages of experiences here! That's for dang sure!

I definitely gotta come visit again at some point! Especially since there'll be less harrowin' circumstances!!! If you ever happen to swing by Blueberry, please please please lemme know! But I wanted to you to know I'm doin' good, and I just gotta know how you're doin'! Tell me whenever ya get the chance, yeah?

Love you bunches, Ren 🪱"

Ah what a wonderful thing to receive, I absolutely adore this card it's going on my corkboard for sure!

Honestly I can't even say how proud I am of you! this is a huge project to be taken on, even if you say that it's a small think, take it from an ecologist, I know well the work and research it takes to introduce a new species to an established ecosystem- even an artificial one. Don't downplay your achievements, dear, they're something to be proud of. I can see already that you're going to have quite the promising career in whatever direction that this leads you.

You know that you're always welcome at the lab, and I would love to see you. I know it's been a long while but I am finally back in goldenrod, maybe i can take you to that cafe you like again when you have the time. :) I would love to sit down and hear about all of the updates with the team and these new members as well! As much as you may be nervous I have every confidence that you will be able to adapt to caring for this new team member if you do decide that's what would be best for both you and them. You've shown great adaptation to Bouton despite never raising a poison type before, and i know that you are more than capable of the work and research, though i'll always be here for support if you need it.

Love you always, - Dad

[orangepunkwitch-blog]

Reclaiming My Roots

My practice has definitely changed since I was last on here. I’ll be going into more detail on that in this post. But don’t worry! I’m still a Lokean! It’s just gonna be.. weird? I don’t have a better term to describe this, but yeah.

First off, Bastet, Thoth, and Vulkan have all left (though I wasn’t really following Vulkan in the first place, so.. yeah.. He’ll still be there if my dad tries some shit). Bastet and Thoth both left with the same vibe as if they patted my head, said I’m a good sport and all, but this isn’t gonna work out. And honestly? That’s fine!

So now, it’s just Loki and Veles, and that seems like that’s how it’ll always be!

But regarding my craft, I’ve noticed that there’s stuff I’ve unwittingly appropriated (such as smudging sage, which I’ve removed the string from the last sage bundle I’ve had and buried it in the back yard, apologizing to the spirits), and I didn’t want to do that again. What better way to do that than trying to reclaim my roots?

But not so fast! I’m of Serbian descent from my father’s side! It’s not gonna be that easy for me! And I can’t imagine how some other people must find it difficult to find any info on their own heritage! Especially if they have no idea what their heritage even is! As far as my case is concerned, it’s just a bit of a pain in the ass.

I still haven’t learned much in a way of Serbian (I did do a year of Russian on a couple of language apps, a library book, and a YouTube channel, and to be honest, the alphabet isn’t the hardest, it’s the cases; the syntax), so that makes that just a bit more harder. My sources are from some posts on the internet that can be translated to English, one YouTube channel whom the practitioner sadly passed away (I think 2018?), an author (Radomir Ristić) whom I have Balkan Traditional Witchcraft and Witchcraft and Sorcery of the Balkans (just found out recently he passed away in 2020), and Vladimir Zlatić book about the “demons” (the term is a catch-all term for spirits and monsters and such, and not used in a Christian context).  I hope to get the upcoming book Veštica Bašta by Ristić as well as a few other books by Zlatić as well (pertaining to magickal objects, places of power within nature, magickal uses for plants and herbs, and of the gods).

With all of this, I will be taking notes. Not only am I reclaiming my roots, but I will be reforming my practice. I’ll be avoiding things like animal sacrifice, as since I’m hoping to be an ecologist one day (and even if I don’t, I still wanna do better as a human to the planet), I want to do my best to save life on the planet, and I don’t feel I can do that through any form of sacrificing an animal.

And before anyone comes at me about this, keep in mind that religious and magickal practices have always changed throughout history, especially if they are not in the place of origin.

I’ll still work with the Elder Futhark as well as color/candle magick, but I’ll be omitting some of the other stuff lots of modern witches of the west use/practice (crystals being the big one, and I’ll have a separate post explaining that one).

As far as incantations are concerned, I definitely want to have them said in Serbian. So I’m still going to do my best with the language. For me, because of the origin of what my practice will be based off of will be said in its original tongue, I think whatever spell I do would be more effective. I also kinda believe that Modern English doesn’t exactly have the same... “recognition” (for lack of a better term) when it comes to the realm of magick, unlike other older languages, and that seems to be why those other tongues are usually respected. (Don’t take this as me bashing anybody for doing spells/incantations in English; if it works for you, keep on using it unless you feel otherwise!)

Because I’m reclaiming my roots and reforming such a practice to suit my needs, this is a great example as to why some keep a “Book of Shadows.” Although, I don’t think I'll call it that. I don’t know what I’ll call it, other than useful.

And I should bring up an exciting fact that it turns out Veles has been with my family this whole time through my dad’s side! The patron saint of my baba and deda’s was St. Nicholas, and that particular saint was said to be one of the aspects of Veles (back when they split the gods into a lot of saints, and Veles split into like.. a shit ton of them).

And now, a glaring question some of you might have: the politics of Serbia and my views on them...

I’m an anarchist, so... That should be pretty self-explanatory.

I won’t be sharing every little detail about my reformed practice, but I will be sharing just enough for anyone else who is of Balkan descent and are also having trouble finding info on such a practice. 

One of the reasons why such a practice isn’t widely shared is, according to one YouTuber (who has deleted her channel, I guess), because while all of the stuff you see on WitchTok is aesthetically pleasing, some witches of a particular practice are now reluctant to share some of what they practice for fear of being appropriated into another online fad. This stuff is sacred to a lot of people from different backgrounds of different practices. And even from those who aren’t part of closed practices fear that what is sacred to them could be turned into another fad. So I will only share some, and by some, I mean what could usually be available within books and online already. What I tailor to my own needs as far as details are concerned may not be shared for similar reasons.

With that being said, this is the end of the post. My mind’s all over the place trying to figure out how to organize these thoughts to update everybody on what’s going on. I’ll have another post up tomorrow about crystals, cuz I’ve got something to say about them that I’ve said in my newer account that I may just... reblog here.

[peppermintbarrk]

About me!

My name is Pepper! I'm a 24 year old wildlife ecologist, avian rehabber, & artist! I specialize in raptors (bird of prey)! My pronouns are they/them and I am a non-binary lesbian! I am also disabled (I have EDS & autism)!

This is my main and only blog and I have a variety of interests, but most of what I post will be warrior cats! I also like Pokémon, wings of fire, genshin impact, jjba, chainsaw man, bnha, demon slayer, and lots of other things! I'll probably also just reblog misc stuff I find pertinent or funny. It'll be a big mash of stuff I think is interesting. Consistency is a foreign concept to me!

My special interests are warrior cats and birds! My favorite warriors characters are Ivypool, Hollyleaf, Brightheart, Cinderpelt, Bristlefrost, Ravenpaw, and Shadowsight and I'm also a huge fan of Squilf, Leafpool, Mothwing, Longtail, Alderheart, Brackenfur, Deadfoot, and Rootspring! I love all birds but especially raptors and work in raptor rehab!

I'll occasionally post my art including warriors fanart, OCs, wildlife art, and my warriors comic, A Cure for Fate!

You can also find me on twitter with the same handle, @vulturethoughts !!

SFW blog in the sense of no sexual content, there will probably be light blood/violence/gore as a warriors blog but it'll be tagged!

My tags:

My posts/art: #/vulturethoughts #/.txt

My comic: #/acff #/a cure for fate

My warriors designs: #/vulture designs

Usual DNI criteria of no big0ts, t3rfs, p3dos, z0os, etc

[fourhornedsatyr]

Recently I've been trying to build up the confidence to present as myself (as a woman) outside of my typical comfort zone.

I'm a very butch transwoman so a lot of my gender signaling comes down to my voice, how I decide to do my hair & cosmetics, and how I decide to style my clothes. It's the little things. I still, very much so, enjoy confusing people on my gender, but nowadays most people consider me a woman until they hear me speak.

I am not confident in my voice. I know it passes, but I still struggle to use it when I am uncomfortable or outside of my safe groups.

I, quite frankly, got sick of this after a while. So I thought about the issue in a different light and compared it to something that I deal with in my regular work week.

I am a wildlife ecologist, and I have an irrational fear of bears. Just bears, no other big predatory animal that could kill me, just bears.

I've worked in the northeast USA for two years now and have lived in rural areas and remote field stations for many seasons. Black bears are a common sighting in my work. Have I had one or two scary encounters with them? Yea. Are they annoying sometimes? Yea. Are they really that scary? No. Like, a bear can certainly kill me and there are times of the year when I should stay the absolute fuck away from a black bear, but tbh most of them will back off if I just make myself known. Black bears make me uncomfortable, but I know that (most of the time) I know how to handle an encounter and survive with minimal stress.

I am now preparing to move out for my first job in the southeast. I have never been in grizzly country, and I am terrified. However, I know that there are ways to handle grizzlies. Bear spray, bear bells, and bear cans will work on grizzlies, just as they do on my local black bears.

However, there's still a massive aspect of working with grizzlies that catches me up.

They are massive, and they are not cowards like my black bears. Black bears will certainly attack if there is food present, if one doesn't properly identify themself, if one gets too close to one, if its starved, if it has cubs, or if it just wants to fuck around & find out. Yet, most of the time you can yell at a black bear and it will go away.

Grizzlies, on the other hand, are the dominant entity in any interaction. There are preventative measures to be taken. Travel in groups, make noise, secure your food, have bearspray on hand, and be aware of your surroundings. Yet in the end (skipping many steps) the final precaution is to defend your head and neck and play dead. That scares the shit out of me.

Thinking about cis-folk as bears has helped me gain some courage. Most cis people won't cause me any trouble. They may misgender me, look at me funny, and generally make me feel uncomfortable when I present as myself; however, they're most likely not going to care enough to cause me any significant stress or threaten my safety.

Of course there are outliars in this group. Groups of these black bear cis folk, parents with kids (although I'm realizing that's less common now-a-days), and black bears who happen to be with a single grizzly (weird analogy I know).

Transphobes, like, the real transphobes who believe all of those nasty things about us trans folk -- those are the grizzlies.

Is it likely that I will encounter one on the regular? No, not at all.

Are there ways for me to deal with them? Yes.

Are there ways to avoid interactions? Some.

Are there ways to keep myself safe? Yes.

Will they seek to cause me harm or even kill me? Yes.

Will my self defense make me uncomfortable? Will it feel like an act of submission? Will I have to fake a submissive aspect of myself that doesn't exist? Is it likely that it could all just fail anyways? Yes.

Am I going to stop being myself? No.

Why should I?

Would I stop hiking because I'm afraid of bears? Absolutely not!

Would I quit my job because I had a scary encounter with a grizzly? Definitely not.

Similarly, would I stop being myself because I'm afraid that someone may make me uncomfortable for not being myself?

Would I stop being myself because someone might hurt or kill me because of their hatred towards people like me?

No.

So I'll go on living. If a bear kills me then at least I'll have a story for someone elss to tell.