#It’s disrespectful that no one really knows about Christian mythology and creatures as a Christian

[fregget-frou]

Oooohhhhh first hyperfixation is coming backkk

First testament biblical mythology my beloved

[the-fae-folk]

What is a Fairy?

I suppose they probably need some explanation, especially nowadays. Fairies (Faeries, Fay, Fey, Fae, or even Fair Folk) could be considered a type of mythical being. Some have described them as spirits, others as ghosts of the deceased, some deified ancestors, prehistoric precursors to humans, personifications of nature, pagan deities, or even angels and demons in the way of Christian traditions. Often they encompass a metaphysical aspect, being depicted as spirits or beings who transcend the physical universe and world that we know. Or given features of the Supernatural, such as magic or extrasensory perception, which allow them to violate or go beyond the laws of nature. Even sometimes Preternatural, which something abnormal or strange and explainable but still within the boundaries of the natural laws of the universe (for example I could say someone is a preternaturally good cellist, and mean that they are impossibly good beyond expectations or even belief, but I’m not saying that they are actually magical...just that their apparent abilities and how they gained them are unknown and very strange to me.) But what is a fairy? Well you already know what some of them look like. Many people might immediately picture Tinkerbell from the animated Disney feature film, or even from the original Peter Pan novel by J. M. Barrie. And they would be correct, in part. Tinkerbell is a depiction of a Pixie, a specific type of fairy. But there are lots of fairy types, I don’t actually think there’s a complete list. (I should probably try to make one at some point, but no promises.) During some points in history the label of fairy was used to mean magical beings who had a mostly human shape. Gnomes, leprechauns, goblins, pixies, dwarfs, elfs, etc etc etc. And at other points it also included non humanoid magical creatures such as Unicorns, Dragons, Kelpie, Basilisk, and more (Sometimes these were referred to as Fairy Creatures). So where did they come from? Well the funny thing is that Fairies don’t actually come from only one area or set of myths. They are a strange combination of the folklore from all over Europe (and possibly beyond) and include ideas and stories from Celtic, Scandinavian, Nordic, Germanic, French, and English Folklore and Mythology. As these stories were passed around and intermingled and changed they brought about the collective creatures we know today as the Fae or Fairies. The Renaissance, Romantic Era, Victorian Era, Edwardian Era, and even the Celtic Revival Movement of the 19th and 20th centuries all had their influences on the stories and ideas connected with the Fairy folk, some significantly less helpful than others. Even the Fantasy Literature Genre, with Tolkien at its forefront, has added and changed much about people’s view on these creatures. So lets talk about some basic things you’ll want to know when dealing with Fairies. The first thing you might want to remember is that many people view the Tuatha Dé Danann (Supernatural gods, goddesses, heroes, and kings of Irish Mythology) as being the source for Faeries, or at least one of the strongest influences. Celtic Folklore and culture is easily one of the most visible bits of Faerie lore that you can find these days, but there’s a lot more that starts showing up when you begin to dig. Another thing to note is that the Renaissance, Romantic Era, Victorian Era, Edwardian Era, and the Celtic Revival Movement had a massive influence on how people saw fairies. They would mix folklore from different areas of Europe, attempted to prove the existence of fairies through scientific means, created artistic depictions of fairies, and much more. Often they sanitized and shrunk the fairies until they were mostly harmless or relegated to the outskirts of human life as a curiosity. Which brings me to the next point. In a lot of older folklore, from all over Europe, fairy beings are often depicted as being incredibly dangerous. Kidnapping humans or human babies, causing crops to wither, water to dry up, food to rot. They could lure people in with magic into a fairy ring of mushrooms and make them dance forever or make them forget their life. Sometimes they even played with time itself. A person could dance with the fairies only to find that they’ve been gone a hundred years when they try to go home. And many beliefs have depictions of some kind of Otherworld, a world apart from our own, or layered over it like an extra dimension we are unable to perceive or directly interact with. Sometimes its a land of the dead or a hidden underground kingdom, other times is a strange and fantastical country with its own laws and ways of doing things. As these stories meshed together we got what is known as Fairyland. The land which the fairies dwell in. Though some believe they simply live on Earth, hidden in the wild, or among us. Some reoccurring ideas are often connected with fairies, though not all have stayed the same as the original lore they were born from. The idea that Faeries, for whatever reason, are unable to or will not lie. This is a very important idea because the Folk are also simultaneously depicted as deceptive. Like particularly vicious lawyers they will play with words, never quite lying, but purposefully leading you astray or tricking you into a bad deal. They will often obey an oath, promise, or deal exactly to the letter, but ignore the intent behind it in order to twist it to their own benefit or amusement. Whether or not fairies are immortal depends entirely on where you draw your folklore from. Sometimes they are immortal; deathless, not mortal. Unable to die in spite of starvation, terrible wounds, age, or anything else. They are bound to life for all time. But some stories depict the stranger Fae Folk as being Eternal. Beyond time, always having existed and always existing, sometimes cycling, sometimes directionless and boundless and everything. Some tough concepts to get your head around, but nobody really agrees which one fairies are. In some folklore they’re even depicted as mortal, same as you and I, but a lot longer lived and harder to kill. A reoccurring motif in older Folklore is the need of humans to try and ward off fairies with charms and totems. When they were not depicted as outright malicious and dangerous, sometimes being thought to cause illness and death or bring about disastrous misfortune or steal a person’s name and voice, fairies were still mischievous and valiantly unhelpful. So people had all kinds of lucky charms to protect from them: like four leaf clovers, various plants, or actions like wearing your clothes inside out to confuse them. Iron is said in many beliefs to burn them, and certain herbs they view as sacred and will refrain from touching the bearer. A few more things. Christianity plays an important part in this discussion, though many people don’t like that. In many places myths and legends were wiped out by Christianity, either intentionally or simply by the very fact that it was trying to convert people in Europe and old pagan beliefs were seen as nonsensical. But still stories persisted despite this. Many old Myths and Folkloric beliefs were recorded for posterity by Christians, and some stories were altered and we are unable to see exactly how much (Beowulf). A lot of fairy stories remained too, only Christianity painted them as fallen angels or even demons of a kind, who could be kept away from Holy Ground, or were forced to kidnap humans to pay a tithe to Hell (or be taken themselves if they couldn’t pay). So folk beliefs, though generally discouraged by the church as superstition, remained quite strong all over Europe for a very long time. The last three things you need to know. One, there are many people who still believe in Fairies, though their beliefs often vary, sometimes wildly. Witches who claim to work with them. People who believe in them through their religions (usually pagans and other non christian groups). People who claim to have encountered or been abducted by them. And many others. While I personally do not believe in Fairies (though I like to keep an open mind, just in case), I do believe that the beliefs, cultures, and and rights of these people ought to be respected. Which leads me to other mythical beings that are similar to Fairies but hail from cultures and peoples outside of Europe. It might be tempting to label some of the spirits from various Native North American Tribes or from Chinese Folklore (or many others) as fairies. Don’t do that. If Fairies are real, you have to consider that there might be other mythical beings who fall under different categories and groups. And even if they are not real, it is extremely disrespectful to the people of those cultures to take their stories, myths, beliefs, and folklore and try to mesh it in with European Folklore. (this is exactly what the Victorian and Edwardian Era were guilty of.) And finally... Some people might tell you that they know everything there is to know about Fairies. Don’t believe them. Even I, who have spent years and years studying European Faerie Folklore, find new things about them every day. I have sources I’ve found and haven’t yet had the time to look into, areas of study I’ve had to neglect. There is so much about Fairies to explore that it’s quite literally impossible for any one person to know all of it. Personally I’m doubtful that a single person can even know an eighth of it all, you can hardly imagine how much there is. And while there is a great deal of it buried on the internet, there is even more offline. Books which are out of print or have never had their contents uploaded, cultural stories passed down in various European groups which are saved from oblivion only by the oratory tradition, and the remains of all kinds of long dead or vastly changed civilizations who believed in the Fairies and tried to work with or avoid or appease them. All the misinformation and personal gnoses out there also make it a lot harder to find accurate information about traditional folklore. And that’s not even counting the multitude of inventions and ideas spawned by fictional literature surrounding fairies. There is simply too much. But of course... Since when has something being impossible ever stopped a human from trying anyway? If you’re still interested, then who am I to discourage you? Go, jump right in. There’s so much to learn about the Faerie Folk.

[haydeetebelins]

Anyway have a wall of text about Helpheus -- from first meetings up to the moment he figures out how he fucked up with her and tries to make it right. pre-romance, just laying the groundwork for now. it’ll all be enemies to friends to lovers by the end. and it will hurt.

there’s just shy of 2000 words under the cut why am i like this nobody cares but someone said it would be ‘tasty’ to talk about them at all. so i blame that person. and the fact it’s almost midnight.

Starting with first meetings, of course. 

Hel, a teenager, thrown out of her home by someone she thought loved her, isolated, lied to, gaslighted by Odin. Invited, as a queen, young though she might be, to some affair. Her family is not there -- but of course not. Odin has already told her that her father left with his new wife, and he would not want to see her, the daughter of a lost love. So Hel comes to Asgard tired, and she is angry, and she only wants to go to her chambers and sulk.

But wait! Someone is in her room! Someone is in this place, with its high windows, that was hers in another life. This tall, dark eyed Jotunn, with his black hair wild. And she demands to know what he is doing here. He is in the wrong place at the wrong time -- and she is shouting at the wrong man for it. 

Things are said. Lines in the sand are drawn. No less than Frigg herself intervenes, clasping her hand across Hel's mouth, offering the most fearful and profuse apologies for Hel's behavior. And Hel wants none of it, but she is dragged from the room, denied entry to the one place that was her comfort. 

Before she can say anything to defend herself, gentle, good Frigg is half to slapping her. Asks if she knows who that was. Asks if she knows what she has done. 

Frigg breaks the truth to her like fine china against the face. She's mouthed off to no less than the Third of the Seven. 

Hel's blood runs cold, thinking her days are numbered now, she knows Dream’s reputation and his love of cruelty. This is how she dies. Still, for the sake of politics, she bites her tongue, makes her apologies to Frigg. She swallows her own pride but its another blow to know that nothing in this place is hers anymore. 

 She spends the rest of the affair keeping her distance from Dream or studying him too intently. At one point asks her little kin Thrud if she sees the Jotunn at the front of Odin's table. What Giant, Thrud lisps, that's an Asa with Afi. and Hel knows she's fucked and that really is Dream.

She catches Dream at the end of the delegation, as he himself is leaving. Asks his forgiveness. Says she is sorry for incurring his wrath, and rattles on like a girl, not the queen and diplomat she will become. Dream would have let it slide, because Frigg had pleaded so skillfully and so kindly for the girl and her youth and her struggles. But Hel's apology also paints her afraid of a tyrant, and his pride won't have such disrespect.

So he mocks her again, asks why she thinks Queen Frigg's words were not enough, why her arrogance made her have to say anything at all. And Hel bites her tongue near to bleeding at the naked self-righteousness of his actions. But yes, little queen, he will forgive her, after tonight. She need never worry for his wrath again.

That night, in her own dark hall, she is reunited with her brothers. They are all free. They are back in the Ironwood, where once she was safe and happy. Her mother and father are there, too. She is happier than she has been in years. Everything is right, everything is just what she wants. There is no emptiness in her. 

And then she wakes up, alone in her bed, beneath Yggdrasil, knowing that it was a dream, and she weeps. In this, the Dream Lord has his petty revenge on a girl.

But he does not break his word. After her punishment, all is forgiven, if not wholly forgotten. She grows more solemn, and well-spoken, and she is polite with him, if reserved. He repays the sentiment in kind, in the times when they run into each other at various affairs. She comes to befriend his most beloved sister, and at times they hear of each other, and their affairs, from Death. Neither pays the other much mind.

And then he disappears after centuries of.. acquaintanceship. Things are certainly more chaotic without him, but Hel can hardly notice. She wonders to herself, over the decades, if he has died and if the 7 can ever be 6. He is the great mystery. The only missing persons case in all mythology.

But her returns, at the end of a decade. And it is strange, when she first hears his name in present tense. But his sister is happier for his return, and Hel does not question it. Perhaps sends her regards via messenger with all the others who remind the Dream Lord of their loyalties and alliances.

She owes him nothing and he has no power over her. It's little more than goodwill and acknowledgment of his station.

She has little and less to do with him for nigh a year. When he gains Hell. When he holds his court. It stings at first, knowing Odin so easily forgets her and her realm and its function, not realizing his true intentions with the Christian Hell. Worse still that her father is only freed like a dog upon a chain. 

What cuts her the deepest is the midnight specter, Loki given form before her. He must be a dream thing. Grimnr and Lord Shaper conspire to hurt her, and she knows not why, as if Odin ever needs reason for his cruelty, as if Dream ever, ever did. And she tries to tell him to stop, stop talking with her father's voice, and stop weeping with his eyes, to please get out of her hall and return to whatever master made him. This is a dream, and it settles leaden in the pit of her stomach. It is the crueler mate to Morpheus' prior 'gift' 

Loki pleads his case. and with one question, he proves himself. He is real, and he is not of dreams. Her father is free. She could weep for joy, but they have much to discuss, webs to untangle of Odin's making. She starts to realize the truth, and that Loki spent so long seeking her out, trying to find her brothers. That Odin lied all that time. Her father did so many things up to and including slaughtering Odin's own dearest son to try and send a message, or some regard, something to his only daughter. That he would have fought and died to find his way back to her, to free her and her brothers. That someone out there loved her and ruined himself to try and show it. 

They have all the time in the world for it, as he comes and goes. But that first night, he reveals his liberator.

The Dream Lord.

A creature she has known to be more monster than reason. Perhaps he is, as others say, changing. Perhaps, at the very least, he is not the monster she knew him to be for so long.

It scares her to death, approaching him in his own home, but she must. Debts must be repaid, or named. And half-trembling, she has her audience with him, and thanks him truly for his mercy with her father, and offers herself as ally and tool, if ever he has need of her.

He does. 

Even then, he sees her value as a potential pawn in his long game. At the very least having her loyalty might make Loki more malleable -- what father wouldn’t move the heavens to free his daughter? He accepts her as ally and, should the need arise, an agent of his interests. With that, half of Hel’s business outside of her own realm is concluded, leaving only Odin to be dealt with.

That is what leads her to Asgard in the aftermath. By her mirror, in the way that she swore never to do. She finds Odin's chambers, and she does not make a threat, she is a threat.

Hel coolly, with darkness surging around her because something dead and long atrophied in her still fights to be free, lets him know that she knows. She knows everything now. She knows Bestla's son a liar, a monster, the kind of man who hurts a little girl for no reason but his own need for control and to try and burn fate to the ground. And her eyes are so sickly green against the chiaroscuro of her form. She is jotunn, and that's a primal, brutal thing. 

How can she know? 

And that is when she drops the bombshell of her latest company. The Dream Lord. and Odin realizes an alliance might slip from his hands. And she says that, in Morpheus’ honor, she ought to show Odin how cruel she can be -- she wants his pulse against her palm as she tears his neck from his torso -- and she ought to pay him as he deserves -- long, lonely teeth tearing deep into him -- and so she will. So she will. She says this in parting. She will make the Allfather pray for Ragnarok.

Odin going to Dream for explanations, for why he’s allowed himself some affinity with Odin’s enemy. Dream calmly explaining that he did Hel a good turn after the affair with... Well, Hell, and she saw fit to owe him a boon in return. It will pass. He's sure she's too proud to keep the arrangement long. They discuss it and Dream just 'why do you care about the company she keeps, all these centuries you've told me she's nobody, just a...' 

And it slowly suddenly dawns on him. Oh, she's your prisoner. She's nobody to you. And I encouraged that once. 

So now, in fine Dream fashion, he’s facing the reality that he encouraged what was done to Hel and it's just a modified version of what he himself endured for 70+ years, that Hel was given titles and false power with her imprisonment but it's still that. Helheim is still her cage. 

Dream did nothing when it was first brought up as a possibility, and supported it over the centuries, by not speaking up, by encouraging Odin to keep it up, by never questioning what a child did to deserve being sealed way beneath Yggdrasil. He said that it was acceptable because she was a threat. Because of what she might do when grown, her fate was brutal. To him it was no different than destroying a dream vortex, because Odin did what he had to in order to protect his own. And now sitting on the other side of his imprisonment, Morpheus disgusted.

Dream trying to make up for it. Trying to give Hel some time, some boon, anything that might give her freedom, for however long it might agree with her. He knows her destiny, writ clear in his brother's book. He knows she must have the cage, and the war with Asgard, that he cannot stop this -- but Ragnarok is so far away.

He wants to badly to do whatever he can to keep her from what he encouraged be done to her. He can't apologize for it and she shouldn't accept it but he's not doing this for his ego or his newfound sense of conscience, he's doing it for her, because she never deserved any of it.

It is through this consideration of ways to pull Hel from her own prison that Dream gets the idea to send her on a sort of quest. There is, in fact, something she can do for him -- seek out knowledge of a particular rite from Svartalfheim, that has fallen out of practice. And in this, Hel begins her path towards Dream’s ends.

And if anyone actually gives a shit about any of this, next time I will write out the build up of their romance arc.

[communistastrobabe-blog]

My Thoughts on Lilith, and rebuttal to @littledoomwitch

Through my extensive research on Lilith it’s been very difficult to find solid sources regarding her history. It’s only recently I’ve come across the Lilith discourse on tumblr, particularly that of @littledoomwitch. Although I respect what they have to say on the little-discussed niche topic of Lilith, there are certain points I fundamentally disagree with them about. Prior to finding their blog, what little I found regarding Lilith worship was always pro-Lilith in that they viewed her as a feminist demon open for anyone to worship. As I try to be as aware as possible of not accidentally appropriating a closed culture or religion in my witchcraft, i was very surprised yet interested in hearing the viewpoints voiced by tumblr user littledoomwitch which (in more or less terms) view Lilith as an entity that is inappropriate to worship, especially from gentiles. After going through about 10 pages of the #lilithdefensesquad tag, I think I got the general gist and have a couple takes. However I am very open-minded and am still actively engaging in Lilith research, so please feel free to engage or correct me on any of this.

- Firstly, I’d like to clarify how I view Lilith. I strongly disagree with the Dianic Wiccan nonsense that Lilith is synonymous with the mother-goddess, or that she is anyway associated with love, fertility, motherhood, positivity, healing, etc. Wiccans who conflate Lilith with the "Mother" or goddesses from the Greek/Roman pantheon fundamentally misconstrue what little we do know about Lilith, and I believe are very disrespectful. If you are going to worship Lilith, do not try to paint her as some sweet Benevolent Mother-figure. Take her for who she is, and do not simply discount the beliefs of an ancient religion.

- Lilith, to me, is a powerful goddess (I use 'goddess' loosely - you could say demon, or otherworldly creature - that's pretty much just semantics) who represents wild, repressed, destructive feminine energy. I do not believe she is "evil", because I do not believe in the good/evil binary. She is chaotic, amoral, vengeful, assertive, beautiful, powerful, angry, promiscuous, and defiant. She is associated with infertility and miscarriage, as well as succubi, or demons who would steal men's semen in the middle of the night and cause premature ejaculation.

I do not worship Lilith on a daily basis. I don't feel comfortable praying to her or talking to her like I would other more approachable entities. Still, I do make offerings to her, in exchange for keeping me from getting pregnant. I also call on her in cursework and she is a very powerful and destructive force to deal with. I call on her in times where I need her destructive anger and strength backing me. But I am always aware of the price she exacts.

- As for her history, I don't really buy that she doesn't show up in other religions apart from ancient Judaism. 600 bc where she's first mentioned in Judaism she is also briefly described in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the jury is out about which drew from the other. Mythological figures THAT far back tend to appear in altered forms cross-culturally. So does it really matter whether or not Lilith came exclusively from the Sumerian 'lilitu' or Jewish rabbinical literature? Probably it was a combination of both, due to the intermingling of different cultures from war, trade, conquest, etc. We don't have definitive sources because now we're getting further and further into BC years where there are fewer and fewer written sources. Personally, I'd like to think that Lilith is an archetype that has been passed down orally since almost the beginning of civilization, existing in one demonic form or another. This isn't to discount her role in Jewish mythology, but you really can't make the claim that she is closed to worship by modern gentile practitioners of witchcraft, given that a) Lilith was never worshipped by Jews in the first place, and b) she wasn't a figure exclusively known to the Jews, as the Epic of Gilgamesh also mentions her c) she's also mentioned in Isaiah later on. You make the claim that gentiles aren't allowed to worship a Jewish demoness because she's been historically feared by the Jews in ancient times; but ask any Jew (or anyone, for that matter) who Lilith is today and I'd say 9 out of 10 do not know who she is. Furthermore, I really don't think this argument stands when you look at all the other biblical villains who are being worshipped in neo-wicca, the most obvious being SATAN himself. Is worshipping Satan/Samael/Lucifer culturally appropriative or antisemitic, as you claim worshipping Lilith is? I'd be skeptical if you said it was, given that so many of us within neo-paganism worship Satan.

- I completely disagree with your point that Lilith cannot be worshipped by Gentiles. Yes, Judaism is a PARTIALLY closed religion. It is not completely closed given the fact that gentiles have been allowed to ritually convert to judaism. Similar to how Christianity is not closed but you still need to go through a ritual baptism in order to be a full-fledged member.  This differentiates them from closed religions like most native american, indigenous, and african tribal religions where outsiders are completely banned. In those cases it would be inappropriate for outsiders to worship Native American deities for example and claim their mythology as their own. But Judaism, along with Christianity and Islam, are NOT closed religions. We should respect other cultures' beliefs and mythologies, but the Abrahamic religions are not closed from outsider worship of deities/demons/what have you.

- Regardless about whether you personally think the First Wife story is true or not based on the validity of the Ben Sira text, you yourself have admitted that many rabbinical scholars were influenced by this text and it had a profound effect on how Jews viewed Lilith for centuries. Lilith has been taught even in Hebrew school as being Adam's first wife, to quote yourself. So why are you so pissed that jews AND gentile witches are believing the same thing? Also consider that the first wife tale may not have begun with the ben sira text, since most myths tend to be past down orally for centuries before it is eventually written down. I doubt the author of ben sira made it up out of nowhere - everything originates from somewhere. I really don't think it's that far of a stretch, and given that it's one of the only sources we have on lilith and Jews have been believing and teaching their children that Lilith was Adam's first wife for centuries, you really don't have room to shit on believers of the first wife story. You can be skeptical of the text itself and the intentions of the anonymous author, as we should be of ALL ancient documents, but you shouldn't discount it simply because there's no other sources backing it up yet to be uncovered. While I personally do believe the alphabet of sirach was a satirical text, I don't necessarily believe the lilith story was pulled out of thin air. It was also written in 2 parts; the first part being older and largely thought of as the most satirical, and the second part written by a different author containing the lilith story.

- You claim that people shouldn't worship lilith because that would imply jewish religion is misogynistic because adam tried to dominate her and god took his side and she left…. But really, come on now, MOST if not all major world religions particularly the abrahamic ones are inherently misogynistic. To claim that not even SOME ancient jewish texts / practices do not contain misogynistic elements would kinda be purposefully ignoring a lot of problems with organized religion in general which tends to be inherently misogynistic?? I don't think it's a stretch to claim that organized religion in GENERAL is misogynistic and I'm mainly talking about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This is just a fact and it's not antisemitism but rather being critical of misogyny present in organized religion.

- I think I'm done but one last thought- I've heard time and time again that Lilith is viewed as either trans or intersex in some circles but I can't find any sources. If anyone knows anything about it and can point me in the right direction that would be lovely.

- Again, feel free to dispute any of this, I'm here to learn more.