#This is by no means a complete list.

[buggywiththefolkmagic]

Hello!! I was wondering if you have any book recommendations for Appalachian folk magic? Especially for a beginner, I’m familiar with our local “old wive’s tales” but I’d love to learn more!!

Hello there! I have answered this question before but I have some new resources so I'll list them here!

It really depends on which part of Appalachia you are looking at! And if you want to dig deeper the ancestral roots of the family you are looking at. For example my family has a lot of Welsh and British influence because that was our family source so a lot of those beliefs lingered and changed throughout the years!

Someone from Pennsylvania would likely have a lot more German roots for their practice. But despite the root differences for the folklore these practices stem from they do still share a lot of connecting points!

But having babbled all of that here are my favorite books on AFM specifically. (Mind you Christianity takes a super huge part in the practice so a lot of bible and doing things in threes for the Trinity is involved!)

Authors to check out:

H. Byron Ballard- A pagan who also practices AFM, from the NC side of Appalachia, a lot of people hate her writing style which is a bit ramble-y. I also dislike the term she uses for her own practice but that is a super simple and small complaint honestly. I own all of her books on the subject, which should say something.

A NOTE ON H. BYRON BALLARD: I no longer support her work after discovering she is a TERF. I will no longer be suggesting her as an author to follow.

Jake Richards - From Eastern TN like me! A lot of what he talks about are things I have seen before, and he breaks down complex concepts like burn blowing into something relatively easily understood. HOWEVER HAVING SAID THAT the author is partially Melungeon, so he does have some Hoodoo mixed in from his grandmother's side iirc? He does label these things in his works and explains that they are not for everyone which I do appreciate.

Rebecca Beyer - While vaguely Wiccan toned, which I attribute to her publishers/raising, she's a transplant to Appalachia and if you're looking for herbal information on Appalachia and to wax poetic about how even with a ton of people settling there SO MUCH of the natural herbs and plantlife still survive, read her work! Her work on foraging safely and environmentally is so SOOOOO good.

Brandon Weston - For Ozark Mountain range/German/Dutch Appalachian work! He has written quite a few books on the subject and all of them are a treat!

Roger J. Horne - For how to dig into folklore and apply it to your own practice! This author is pagan and does blend in some traditional work with the Appalachian but I do enjoy his work and how he applies folklore. This author is also FROM Appalachia which is nice to see.

INDIVIDUAL BOOKS TO READ:

Appalachian Folk Healing by Jake Richards - A republication of a very old book on remedies and 'spells', while kitschy and stupidly worded, after all it was a popular book created just for sales reasons, some of these remedies are things I remember having done to me! Good for both a giggle and actual information. TW for mentions of animal parts, hunting, illnesses, the G slur, period specific phobias and racism.

Albertus Magnus - These books all supposedly written by an ancient guy, were actually mildly common on traveling salesmen's trucks and wagons. So as a result a lot of people in Appalachia had access. Like the book above it is very stupidly worded and definitely of their time. Same TW as above.

Pow-Wows or Long Lost Friend - Another Pennsylvania Dutch book! Very good and very clear.

Southern Folk Medicine - A book that breaks down a lot of common medicinal beliefs in the South which does include Appalachia! Sadly not just Appalachia but a very good book regardless. THIS BOOK MADE ME UNDERSTAND THE THEORY BEHIND BLOOD ISSUES MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE EVER HAS.

Moon Eyed People - A collection of Welsh folktales that brewed within Appalachia from Welsh immigrants. Very good book imo!

Granny Buck's Dibs and Dabs - This book is so worth the price tag! One of the more expensive books in my collection, but I'm fine with that. Granny Buck covers a lot of topics and I can feel the accent through the wording!

Signs, Cures, & Witchery - More German Appalachian stuff! This book and it's interviewees are from the Kentucky side of the mountains!

Witches, Ghost, and Signs - This book is based more in the Southern Appalachian area! Georgia, SC, NC, and TN specifically! Lots of folklore here, but does mention some not so great bits of the lore, but that is expected.

The Foxfire Books - What began as a school project exploded into a collection of true to life stories and idioms from Georgia elders within the mountains. SO SO GOOD OKAY? For everything. How to plant, hunt, make musical instruments, anything from the mountains? They cover.

[morgan-n-cheese-91]

old Obi-Wan is so funny to me because his sass and overall bitchiness is like the last thing he's got and I'm so proud it survived the great depression of his 40s.

[ruporas]

kisses of affirmation (ID in alt)

[syrelivesforptj]

"That isn't enemy's to lovers, that's just Bully x victim!" Okay. Maybe that's what I'm aiming for. Maybe that was my goal. What if I like Bully x victim? Hm? What if I like the trope where someone torments the other because they have the hots for them? HM?

[peridots-pixiwolf]

[Start ID. A digital drawing of Gabriel and V1 from Ultrakill in super-saturated, pixellated colors. It seemingly takes place during phase two of his second fight, judging by Gabe's bright yellow-cyan wings and the consequent blush shining through his helmet. Gabriel is pictured on the left, facing the left side of the screen with his head turned to V1, preparing to strike them with the bloodied spear in his right hand. Small but frequent splatters of blood dot his armor and outstretched wings, fabrics torn through in places. V1 is on the right, aiming its piercer revolver at his face. Their arms are stacked in pairs on either side, idle Feedbacker and Knuckleblaster on the left and Whiplash tucked atop their default arm on the right. Both parties are stylized to resemble insects, Gabe with beetle wings and a halo in the shape of antennae, and V1 with the four wings, four arms, short antennae and bristles expected of a dragonfly. End ID]

woah.... happy 1 year anniversary to gay people

also a couple alts (background removed, just gabe, and just v1, respectively) in hopes it'll be a little easier to understand what's going on and all!

additionally once again: special thanks to @magnumopos and @muzzleroars , neither of which I have actually spoken to in my life but both of which are credited with partially inspiring this! (dedicated section under the readmore due to the fact I do not generally tag people at all ever and wasn't sure if I should, but thought it was worth mentioning!) The former for giving me the wonderful idea of dragonfly V1, the latter for drawing V1 like a strange little creature + for the feedbacker plate, I enjoy both your works :]

(retroactively, on march 27th of 2024, assigning them a full bingo with credit to deep-space-lines. ehehehehe)

[dragon-reblogs-and-rambles]

Very important collection

[blackhholes]

teen wolf meme: [1/6] creatures -> berserkers

You ever heard of the Berserkers? Germanic warriors. They wore the skins of bears to channel their ferocity. They didn't just wear them- they became them. [...] With Berserkers, the human side doesn't last long-- they're not tempered by the moon.

[pepimeinrad]

nononononono PLEASE the strings-version of Gnossienne No. 5 is ON THE OFFICIAL S2 SOUNDTRACK??!?

[niymue]

i tried so hard to fight it but im just actually so disappointed with veilguard.

as a video game, its fine! the gameplay is fun and it’s visually stunning. but as a dragon age game it’s… not good. even if we somehow ignore all the massive world breaking lore inconsistencies, it’s supposed to be a story heavy RPG. but it’s so shallow, so surface level. there are so many issues with so many of the decisions the devs or ea or whoever made leading to the final state of this game and it’s actually so sad.

I feel like im grieving what could’ve been, making new saves in hopes it’ll somehow be better this time around, and it just isn’t.

[luminouscanary]

i have seen a whole trend on twitter where people draw hatsune miku in the clothing styles of different countries and in a lot of ways it's beautiful and fun to see her so lovingly depicted in unique ways, but the only israeli miku i ever saw was instantly bashed and quote retweeted with pictures of horrific things and i just wonder, like. does anyone else here see how horrific that is? that an entire country's ability to partake in cute harmless fun like this is always met with aggression, with anger, with hate? with horrible images and messages? are we not human enough for you, that we can't partake in the lightheartedness?

and what's wild is i've seen so many russian mikus. so many american mikus. but none of them get the same vitriol that the one, singular israeli miku got

[dw-flagler]

blonde wildbow characters:

WORM:

lisa wilbourn (Tattletale)

victoria dallon (Glory Girl/Antares)

carol dallon (Brandish)

sarah pelham (Lady Photon)

Neil Pelham (Manpower)? (Presumed, i'm not a geneticist but both his kids have blonde hair and i think that's recessive)

crystal pelham (Laserdream)

eric pelham (Shielder)

Dean Stansfield (Gallant)

Mike ? (Lightstar)

Missy Biron (Vista)

Elle ? (Labyrinth)

Riley Grace Davis (Bonesaw)? (it's never said if her hair is naturally blonde or she made it blonde to look more like America's Sweetheart)

Paige Mcabee (Canary)? (feathers are yellow, hair is technically unknown)

Ashley Stillons (Damsel of Distress)

Noelle Meinhardt (Echidna)

Marissa Newland (Sundancer)

Greg Veder (The Worst)

Oliver (Oliver)

Ava (Cuff)

Kurt Wynn (Harbinger/Number Man)

Jeanne Wynn/Brown (Citrine)

Rune/Scribe

Sam (Prism)

WARD:

Rain O'Fire Fraizer (Precipice)

Ashley Stillons II (Swansong)

Ashley Stillons III (Damsel of Distress)

Ryan (Cradle)

Nailbiter

Colt (Colt)

PACT:

Blake Thorburn

Rose Thorburn Jr.

Rose Thorburn Sr.

Paul, James, Roxanne, Peter Thorburn

Sandra, Penelope, Joanna, Lea, Chloe, Lola Duchamp

TWIG:

I didn't read twig

[another-goblin]

The path of the Hunt seems a bit self-contradictive.

Yes, most of the Hunt characters are proactive, energetic, enthusiastic, and singleminded, but 'hunt' in the traditional sense implies murder. Whereas most of it's characters seem to be motivated by the sanctity of human life, to a certain extent, or the idea of protection at all costs. It's usually not obvious at first glance but becomes clear when you get to know them a bit better.

Seele, who seems unfriendly and gruff at first, whose singular concern is the safety of the Underworld

Yanqing, an arrogant and overconfident child who, without hesitation, challenges two ancient legendary warriors to protect the people of the Luofu.

Sushang, who is called 'naive' in her Character details, is already a Cloud Knight at 15, who spends her days helping others and protecting the people of the Luofu.

Dr. Ratio, whose underlying philosophy of "all lives are worth living" is hidden under his stern exterior.

Topaz, whose methods are absolutely messed up and horrible, but her sincere goal is to give the people of Jarilo-VI the best chances to survive, whether they want it or not.

Boothill, who pulls a gun at everybody he meets, seems genuinely offended when Aventurine accuses him of killing his bodyguards.

[d8tl55c]

more Tempo (community post)

[dear-ao3]

Ask for f1 drama

i shall continue my tales of regaling you all

this edition: las vegas

so as it currently stands (november 14, 2023) there are two races left in the 2023 f1 season. one is this weekend in las vegas and one is next weekend in abu dhabi. we already know who has won the drivers and contractors (team) championship (max verstappen and red bull) but theres still some loose ends in the form of second third fourth etc place that need some tying up.

and the standings for the lower places of the championship are all quite tight:

theres still a whole lot of action that can come there

which brings us to las vegas

vegas is a new race on the calendar, meaning no one has ever raced there on this track before (and likely no one will again based on how its going) and it is a street circuit, so they are literally racing on the las vegas strip.

now, prior to all the new stuff that came to light for this weekend, f1 royally managed to piss off las vegas by (probably) making tax payers (the people of vegas) pay for the strip to be repaved (several million dollars), wreaking absolute havoc on their town, shutting off the fountains, blocking things off, making traffic a nightmare and most terribly, saying that they would block off/put blackout on any stores or windows of stores or hotels who didnt want to pay a several thousand dollar fee to f1, basically making the race not viewable to anyone for free. (note that they have several other street circuit races in the calendar and they don't do this there). so it was already a nightmare.

now it gets more fun!

the race is in the middle of november in las vegas (which, for all intents and purposes, is a desert) and they decided for some unholy reason to make this a night race. i think it starts at 11 pm local time. and low and behold, the organizers just happened to forget (and they admitted that they did indeed forget) that it gets very cold at night in the desert. right now its projected to be 44-47 degrees f ( about 4/5 degrees c). f1 cars are fragile little machines that get grumpy in the wrong conditions and boy let me tell you, this is absolutely the wrong conditions. if it is indeed This Cold at the race, it will make it the coldest race in f1 history. last i heard people weren't entirely sure that the cars would work or that the tires would cooperate.

the track set up is woefully abysmally. to get the tires warm, the lads would need some good corners to zoom around to get the tires up to temperature where they can go vroom zoom fast, but, there are not too many corners. below is the track. as you can see, theres a lot of straights, and thus, not many good opportunities to get the tires nice and hot, further affecting car performance

the pit lane (you know where everyone usually goes at least once or twice to change their tires) is quite possibly in the worst spot it could be. it is on the tiny straight right before turn 1. when you go into the pitlane, the tires lose a good amount of heat (or all of it if you're going in to get fresh tires) and they need to warm the tires back up. problem is, they're going to be zooming out of the pitlane basically directly into turns 1 2 and 3, on cold rubber, in a cold race. but it gets better, because of the way the track is set up, this positioning of the pitlane, if the exits are not timed correctly, will cause collisions because the pitlane exit it basically right where the cars on the track need to go in order to get the most speed (its more technical than this and someone else can fully explain the pitlane disaster better, but this is it in very simple terms i think). the pitlane is around where that arrow is.

so not only will it be cold and the pitlane cause accidents and the cars won't work, they don't have names for any of the corners and straights. so right now the map of the track looks like this which is batshit hilarious

and to top it off!! no one has raced here! no one knows how the cars will perform!! its going to be a shit show! god save the poorest little meow meows!!

and unrelated but there is a chapel in the paddock at the race, just for some spice, called race to the alter

[spenglernot]

COMPLETE* OFMD SEASON 2 PLAYLIST

I'm obsessed with the music featured in Our Flag Means Death, and have been slowly identifying music used in the show. The result is this playlist. It features several instrumental pieces that I haven't seen on any other OFMD playlists (they might exist, I just haven't found them).

Why the Astrix* ?

I'm still working to identify several songs/instrumental music from the show. I isolated the music as much as possible from the dialogue and sound effects, but some of the tracks have a lot of background noise that interferes with music identification apps. Apps like Shazam are also not as good with identifying classical music as they are with music genres like R&B, Pop and Rock. I've tried a number of other methods to identify this mystery music, but haven't been successful. If you're a classical music or 1970s & 1980s African Pop and/or American Funk aficionado, please take a listen to see if you recognize anything. With your help, it would be great to make this a fully complete playlist. Classical & Instrumental music search 1970s & 1980s African Pop & American funk (?) music search