#calling them 'deities' for lack of a better term

[heilos]

Living Harmony AU relevant character sheets/info: Harmony aka the "Tree of Harmony" Shadow Lock Somnambula Starswirl the Bearded Stygian might be my favorite of the Pillars of Equestria and it's always made me sad that he wasn't used more in the show. So I decided to team up with my new friend Orin who's taken the time to make a bunch of amazing Pillar redesigns (same person I made this Starswirl animation rig for as a gift) that i'll be incorporating into my future animation project. The Pillars are very important characters to Harmony's story so I wanna do them justice. Listed below is some context for these sketches provided by my friend Orin and some written bits from myself. This is a Stygian who's been separated from the Pony of Shadows for some time, but is now dealing with the consequences of dark magic. I've had so much fun throwing ideas back and forth for this AU and I can't wait to share more in the near future.

Unicorn from a small sea side village in ancient times

Dedicated scholar and battle strategist

Special talent is writing. An incredible wordsmith in his own right

Wrote a very popular autobiography about his time possessed by the Pony of Shadows called “Me and My Shadow” (his third novel)

Name means "dark and gloomy" and also relates to the river and deity "Styx" of Greek mythology

Brought the Pillars of Equestria together in a bid to save his home town from the Sirens (the Dazzlings)

Wanted to become a hero in his own right even though he tried to convince himself otherwise

Lacks the physical strength and magical prowess of his fellow Pillars. Compared to any other run of the mill unicorn, however, Stygian is actually decently above average in terms of magical ability, though he downplays himself significantly

Ousted from the group after a misunderstanding involving him taking the other pillar’s relics to make copies of them so he too could be a hero and join them as an equal. His friends thought he was out to steal their power instead

Becomes bitter and seeks revenge afterwards when discovering the Well of Shade, which leads to the Pony of Shadows claiming him as its vessel

Banished along with the pillars to “limbo” for 1000 years through a powerful spell conceived by Starswirl and planned out by the rest of the pillars

Is freed from the Pony of Shadows' influence in modern Equestria thanks to the Mane 6 and the pillars with Twilight and Starlight being the main catalyst in helping Stygian where Starswirl had failed before

While no longer claimed by the Pony of Shadows, the consequences of using such powerful dark magic as well as being possessed by a being of pure shadow left its mark on him

Has dark magic scarring visible on his body. His eyes, inner mouth, teeth and magic color are permanently altered in appearance. It gives him a rather unsettling aura, much to his displeasure

The Pony of Shadows mark is not so easily purged, even with the combined strength of the past and present Elements of Harmony. A fragment of the shadow lives on in Stygian, inextricably bound to him, but small enough that it can no longer influence him.

Has abilities superficially similar to King Sombra's, albeit on a much smaller scale, and needs extensive practice before he can comfortably wield this new strength.

Luna becomes Stygian's second mentor, after Starswirl, to help him gain control over his new abilities. Her direct experience using dark magic to become Nightmare Moon makes her an effective teacher

As Stygian exerts better control over the shadow fragment, he eventually gains the ability to "Shadow Walk" or travel between shadows. This temporary form makes him look eerily similar to the Pony of Shadows. Pretty spooky

Can tell when the Pony of Shadows is close in proximity due to the shadow fragment, like a magic tracker

Stygian is a lucid dreamer. He appreciates dreams a lot more now that he’s sleeping on a proper schedule. Once in a while he’ll meet up with Princess Luna in the dream realm when they can’t find spare time in the waking world, outside of mentoring sessions, to enjoy each other's company as friends

Stygian redesign by Orin331

[mostly-magical-polls]

You are not a magical girl. A magical girl is given magic powers by a supernatural entity, often accompanied by being given a magical object and having a transformation physically. You practice standard Tiktokified witchcraft ripped out of its' cultural context and original sources wherein things are thrown together and assumed to work for a magical purpose with no knowledge of why they would, what culture came up with the idea, or what the old pagan community thinks about it. There's no deity or supernatural entity who gave you magical powers. You got your "magic" via watching some Tiktoks and scrolling through tumblr.

That is not the same thing as being a magical girl. It's just paganism, watered down as hard as possible in order to avoid thinking, reflecting or doing the reading. There is no such thing as an IRL magical girl. You call yourself that because you lack confidence in your paganism and need to self-soothe by calling it something you think sounds cool. You call yourself that because you're so over-invested in a genre of fiction that you need to pretend everything you do somehow pertains to this genre of fiction.

Magical girls are not real. Anime isn't reality. You are not a magical girl. You are a flesh and blood, real, living human being. Your therapist knows you're too far gone to be saved when it comes to this, so they're too polite to tell you this outright. But it needs to be said: no, you're not an IRL magical girl. You're someone who has to use terms like that to hype yourself up to get through the day out of a need for validation, instead of finding validation and confidence in your actual strengths and accomplishments the way a mentally healthy person does.

"I don't see how this is different from people who say they talk to God" this is a lie. A person who prays to God doesn't go, "This makes me the exact same as a fictional character from a genre of anime I like!" They go, "This makes me a follower of [insert religion here]." No Hindu says that prayer makes them like Goku and no Muslim says that prayer makes them a Gundam pilot IRL.

I know reality is scary. But you're not helping yourself by denying it. You're only going to make it worse when shit hits the fan and you have to deal with the realization that no amount of, "I'm a magical girl!" is going to soothe over the pain you're feeling. This is not a good or healthy coping mechanism. This is a coping mechanism that encourages you to think of anime and reality as more or less the same thing. That means that when real life hits, it hits you much, much harder than it does someone whose paganism is based in a reality-centric approach. A Wiccan or an Asatru person wouldn't have that awful moment where it hits that no, they're not like Sailor Moon IRL and they're not Madoka Kaname but real. Their spiritual paths involve addressing their real life problems, reflecting on them, doing magic and standing firm in their beliefs. There is no need to tell themselves they're functionally an IRL Precure. They have confidence and pride in who they are, not in what kind of anime character they would like to be.

I used to hide from reality too, when my anxiety disorder was untreated. It didn't help. It didn't fix anything. Entertainment will not be your salvation. You won't learn how to deal with the real world by pretending that you're just like an anime character. You are something much better than an anime character - a real person. There's nothing wrong with that. Embrace it.

You are not a magical girl. And that's a good thing.

imagine hoppin in my inbox just to say all this. fuck off im literally just having fun.

[furinfry]

Hi 🩷

I'm just curious about why tsubaki -chan had more fighting scenes than Sakura in the upcoming arc . I'm rereading the manga, nii sensei used to give Sakura the most number of the action panels except in this arc . Do you think it's intentional? For Sakura's growth?

Oooh! Yeah, yeah- I think it was intentional! Of course, my initial thought was "Well, yeah- of course Tsubaki had to do more of the fighting, it was what was important to him-his sister- who was at stake." But the thing is is that that doesn't actually answer your question towards 'why'. Why put Tsubaki and the things important to him here in the story? Why give Tsubaki a boss fight for Sakura to fight?

Let's talk about Tsubaki first! Tsubaki is the Leader of the Jikoku Team, named after Jikokuten. Jikokuten is the protector/defender deity (called the "upholder of the nation" and also the deity of music) of the Four Heavenly Kings. Immediately feels fitting for Tsubaki, who fights in this arc to protect Shizuka, both someone Tsubaki considers family and a singer (to play into the 'music' aspect too). Tsubaki is someone who fights while upholding "Umemiya's style"- meaning wanting to get to know the other person better and come to an understanding more than wanting to 'win the fight'. Prioritizing empathy and protecting the weak about shows of strength. When Tsubaki arrives to fight Suzuri, understandably he is pissed- This other kid comes sauntering in with a huge mob of mercenaries intent on taking Shizuka away from the life she's found with Kanji and Tsubaki. Tsubaki fights Suzuri to ensure that doesn't happen and to keep his sister safe. Yet, Tsubaki still applies the Umemiya Style and actively tries to understand and have a conversation with Suzuri over the course of their fight. But, we've had Sakura watch Umemiya "fight" before. He's seen a Furin upperclassman prioritize empathy before. So why here?

I personally think the answer lies within not just looking at Tsubaki in this arc, but at Kanji Nakamura. I think what's interesting to me about Kanji is he seems like a mixture of the leader figures in Furin Sakura has seen and learned from thus far. He has the passion/ presence/ strength of will that Umemiya has and he goes berserk in a fight like Kaji.

But, Kanji is actually also like Sakura. He rushes impatiently into fights when he sees someone being scum and threatening the safety of those important to him (though he does seem to have....some control as Sakura comments that apparently Kanji was pulling his punches when he first tried to put himself between the trio and Shizuka. Probably some small part of him realized he didn't actually know what the situation was yet). He's definitely an "act first, ask questions later" person.

I think this arc serves to be a response to Sakura's state after the Keel arc. Sakura is now in this position of leadership, he's coming to terms with the fact that he doesn't have to 'prove' himself in order to be accepted by his new family in Bofurin. The fight with Keel even served to show that what is holding Sakura back isn't even a lack of strength. He was strong enough to fight that "Nobody" (as Kaji called him) and we're not shown that Sakura wouldn't have been strong enough to fight Natori. Sakura's problem was his scope of vision in a fight. His classmates, who Sakura is responsible for leading, started getting hurt. He lead them into this fight but because he was so focused on beating the shit out of Natori he wasn't giving them the support they needed. Which is why when Kaji shows up he punches Sakura and tells him to stop tunneling on beating up Natori and pay attention to who of his peers needs his support. For him to have their back so they don't go down. He's not fighting alone anymore, and that's a very new thing for Sakura.

So why the Gravel arc? I think because the events of the Gravel Arc forces Sakura to decide what he wants to do in being placed at the top (of his class). It's still small scope, it's not yet addressing his intentions of becoming the top of Furin. But it IS forcing Sakura to ask the question, "what do I want to do"? What is his goal as the captain of class 1-1 (who, it is important to note, are first years and for the most part not as strong as the few best fighters)? The Gravel Arc gives Sakura a chance to see the events of the Keel arc from an outside perspective and evaluate how he feels about how HE currently fights (and also a new perspective to consider when it comes to fights, but I'll expand on this in a moment). Sakura rushes into fights by himself, and Kanji does as well.

But what starts to happen? There's simply too many members of Gravel and while Kanji is able to still steamroll through Gravel, the other members of the Roppo Ichiza start to lose steam.

And Kanji also knows that even given as strong as he is, he's not going to be able to take on the entirety of Gravel himself. Which bring us to perhaps Kanji's most important lines in the arc:

It doesn't matter if Roppo Ichiza getting beaten down by Suzuri and Gravel. They can at least wear them down enough, they can at least keep fighting until they are no longer able to stand. And in doing so, whoever is left will not be able to get past Sakura, Suo, Nirei, the Sakaki twins, and Tsubaki. Even if Gravel has the last person standing against Roppo Ichiza, they can still have been successful in keeping Shizuka safe. And to them, that's all that matters.

But what is Sakura's reaction to these words? To this perspective on fighting to the very end to protect what is important? Well, at first he admires it. But... then he realizes what losing would mean. It wouldn't just be him, Sakura, getting beaten up. It would be everyone else getting hurt in the process too.

Kanji's means of leading Roppo Ichiza is... actually pretty reliant on individual strength. He puts his money where his mouth is; he will fight with his entire being for the safety of the red light district so that they can feel safe. He even is shown to have the same drive and strength of will as UMEMIYA. But, when he fights, Kanji rushes in on his own. It's up to the other members of Roppo Ichiza to hold their own. And every member of Roppo Ichiza is a strong fighter. That's directly stated in the arc. However, that is not necessarily the case for those in Bofurin.

It is more someone's heart that determines whether they are able to find a place at Furin- if they are willing to fight to protect the town and everyone and everything within it. Everyone has something of value that they can offer towards helping out the townspeople or supporting their fellow Bofurin members in a fight. But Sakura saw the same thing that happened in the fight against Keel happening against Gravel. So what did Sakura decide his role was in this fight? To support the other members of Roppo Ichiza and keep them from going down (something that will play a BIG role for Furin in the Noroshi War after this arc). He was not going to let there be a repeat of the Dead Wife!Nirei moment.

Sakura doesn't go after Suzuri because he decided there was a more important role. Trying to go after the BBEG is what got others hurt last time. From watching these events unfold, Sakura is deciding that he would MUCH rather stay close to others' sides if it meant he could keep them from getting hurt as much as possible. He's deciding that no goal is more important than his team's well being. That he will never let himself put the blinders on and ignore them in a fight. He's deciding that he has to be aware of what is happening to them at all times during a fight so that he can do everything he can to keep them from going down. He knows it's a naïve and unrealistic goal- to keep the others from getting hurt in the fights that they get into- but that's what he decides at the end of the Gravel Arc to start applying himself towards.

I think the Gravel Arc's role was to have Sakura revisit the events against Keel now that he has some of that pressure of never making a mistake, of always having to prove himself to be strong removed from his shoulders. To be presented with a similar situation and have Sakura confirm that the role he wants in a fight is to prevent his classmates from going down/getting beaten into unconsciousness. I think the Gravel Arc is why we are able to get THIS Sakura in the Noroshi Arc.

Sakura's growth isn't towards being able to take down the big bad guys who try to pick fights with Makochi. Sakura's goal is to be a leader that is able to best support his family and keep them safe as well. It's for him to become the kind of leader that HE will be proud to be. In order to feel like he is doing all the things that he can for his class as their captain.

[stagkingswife]

The Returning: Who Are the Forgotten Ones?

The Returning revolves around a pantheon of 11 unrecorded entities that I collectively call the Forgotten Ones.  I believe that some, if not all of them, were once known to our Paleolithic era early hominid ancestors, as several of the Forgotten Ones have responded with recognition and familiarity to samples of art and artifacts from that era.  They also feel older than any other entity I’ve ever encountered - older than gods from other pantheons, older than the Fair Folk and dragons I work with, older than any entity I've encountered in the Otherworlds.  There’s something primordial about them for lack of a better word.  But old age and deep roots doesn’t necessarily equate to power, or more importantly for the purposes of this post immutability. 

Long time readers and friends of this blog are probably familiar with my “silly hat” theory of godhood.  That “god” is just a label that people put on the spirits that we worship. It doesn’t mean anything in terms of power, or importance, in my cosmology.  God is just a silly hat we put on the particular spirits who are special to us.  But there is a corollary to the “silly hat theory” that I don’t think I’ve talked about in a while - I think of it as the "aspect creation theory”. We all know that spirits can have different aspects, like facets of gem, and I believe that people can be responsible for creating those aspects. If enough people believe strongly enough that a spirit has a certain personality or behaves a certain way the spirit will start to be affected by that - an aspect of that entity will form that conforms with that belief. 

It was this human driven change that the Forgotten Ones sought to avoid by fragmenting themselves and going dormant.  They wanted to stay as they were, and in complete control of themselves.   The details of how they came up with this plan were shared to me in the form of a myth that maybe one day I’ll share here. But suffice to say, they knew there was a chance that someone would come along one day to fulfill the role I find myself in - a person who would want to worship them on their own terms, whether that meant preserving them as they are or letting the Forgotten Ones lead any growth or change that might happen.  And if no one ever came along to take up that mantle, they believed it was a better fate to die as themselves than to live to become someone unrecognizable.  So the Forgotten Ones broke themselves in tiny pieces and all but ceased to be, until I passed my initiation was tasked with putting them back together.  

This is my ultimate responsibility as their priestess - I’m the caretaker of their essences.  It is my responsibility to ensure that these entities remain in control of their own aspects, staying the same as they were millions of years ago if that’s what they want, or nurturing, but not forcing or dictating, their growth if that’s what they want. It’s an honor to have been trusted with this role, and I have dedicated my life to it.

It is in the interests of this role that I am sharing carefully curated details of The Returning. The deity profiles that I will be posting will not have all of the details about each of the Forgotten Ones, the posts about the Holy Days will not include step by step guides for how to perform the associated rituals for that day. I feel it is time to share more about The Returning than I have before, in the hopes of helping others who are building their practices around their own unrecorded entities. I'm not looking to recruit people practice my religion or worship the Forgotten Ones, in fact I'm actively asking people not to.

[f8foretold]

LOCATIONS + some culture snippets

[ OVERVIEW ]

* In the novel OF MAGIC, STEEL & STARDUST there are two primary species types: humans and elves. Although most easily described as humans and elves, in world, they do not call themselves that. * HUMANS are often referred to as the STEEL-BORN, STEEL-BLESSED (most commonly used by humans) or STEEL-CURSED (mostly commonly used by elves). Humans lack the ability to cast magic and rely on bladed weapons to defend themselves (and to attack others). Because they are not able to spellcast, humans use a wide variety of metal weapons and tools to aid them in everyday life. Humans, in turn, tend to collect and use up natural resources faster than elves -- human settlements tend to have a negative impact on the environment. * ELVES are often referred to as MAGES, SPELLCASTERS, or WITCHES (most commonly used by humans). Although they have bladed weapons like humans, all of their blades and arrows are made of condensed magic instead of steel. Close contact with steel, even with gloves on, tends to burn the flesh of the mage who dares attempt to wield the steel weapon. Elves have the ability to cast magic but must study/train for years in order to harness such abilities. Although elves tend to have a less negative impact on the environment since they need to consume less resources (less wood, stone, etc. -- they can condense magic to recreate tools & building materials) the frequent use of magic tends to attract ancient beasts who attack elven settlements in order to feed off the arcane energy found in elven settlements. The beasts often appear to be rabid animals that glow an eerie and sickly green. A spellcaster who does not properly care for an injury inflicted by such a beast can lose their ability to spellcast and/or die.

[ MAGE/ELVEN CITY - PATH OF THE ANCIENTS' CHOSEN ]

Mages worship the Ancients. The Ancients are a pantheon of gods that include deities such as The First Father, The First Mother, element based entities (water, earth, fire, air), The Fate Caller, Dawn and Dusk. These beings are believed to be as old as time itself and selflessly provide mages with their arcane abilities and vast knowledge. As for The Path of the Ancient's Chosen, the capital of the Mage kingdom is believed to have originally overrun by dark entities whose only goal in life was to consume as much energy as possible (you can think of them as eldritch horror beings that acted like super dangerous, magic-sucking ticks). Desperate to not lose the world they so lovingly created, the Ancients banded together to create powerful warriors to fight the dark entities. Shaping the warriors from magic clay, these first few mages were given pointed ears to better hear when the dark entities were approaching, eyes capable of seeing in the dark so they could not be ambushed at night and of course, the ability to cast magic in order to efficiently fight the dark entities. The dark entities still exist today but in smaller, beast like forms such as sickly glowing wolves and bears. The king of the mages is believed to be a descendant of The Ancients' chosen and undergoes a royal ritual when crowned to ensure they maintain the honor and blessing of the Ancients.

[ THE CROSSROAD RUINS - NEUTRAL GROUND ]

The crossroad ruins is an ancient city that forms a bridge between the mage kingdom and the steel-born kingdom. The ever-crumbling city is thought to be where the Ancients, the Forgemaster, mages and Steel-Born met to discuss the terms of a truce. The truce was struck in order to save the world from annihilation (read more about that below). Ancient books and graves of mages and stee-born alike can be found here.

[ STEEL-BORN/HUMAN CITY - GRAVE OF THE FORGEMASTER ]

Steel-born worship the Forgemaster, an ancient god who fought tirelessly to carve out a space for non-spellcasters to live in the world. The Forgemaster is not only responsible for creating humans but all non-magical creatures. Despite the many wars between the Steel-Born and the mages, the Forgemaster managed to initiate a truce between the two species that lasted long enough for them both to eradicate an ancient evil that threated to wipe out mages and Steel-born alike. Said ancient evil was a mysterious entity that consumed both magic and steel, making it powerful enough to destroy all magic and metal alike (as well as killing all related humanoids --if the entity continued to consume it would cause the end of the WHOLE world). Sadly the Forgemaster would die in the final battle against the powerful magic & steel consuming entity. The Steel-Born capital city is made out of the Forgemaster's legendary, gigantic metal corpse and is thought to be blessed by the Forgemaster himself.

[ TOMB OF THE ANCIENTS - ELVEN/MAGE RELIGIOUS GROUNDS ]

Tomb of the Ancients houses the deceased/earthly bodies of the Elven gods and is considered both a magical and holy site. The bodies of the following dieites are found here:

First Mother -- First humanoid shaped mother. She worked with other deities such as the First Father and elemental deities to create plants, animals and elves. She is primarily responsible for creating magical plants & animals (the human god Forgemaster made non-magical plants and animals).

First Father -- First humanoid shaped father. He worked with other deities such as the First Mother and elemental deities to create plants, animals and elves. He is primarily responsible for creating magical plants & animals (the human god Forgemaster made non-magical plants and animals).

Dawn -- Goddess of light, daytime, birth & healing.

Dusk -- God of shadows, nighttime & death.

The Fate Caller -- Extremely talented mage whose magical abilities rivaled that of even his fellow gods. Thought to be able to see the future via the infamous strings/web of Fate.

[stellarcobweb]

tbh . thinkin.

so. energywork related stuff basically

tl;dr my energy system is weird (/neu)

two of the systems of magic that i'm naturally talented at have been clairsentience (tbh i kinda joke abt being a dark empath but fully do not consider myself an empath at all. i'm just REALLY good at picking up on the energies of a place or person, esp in an inuitive way. i don't personally feel it though. the primary way i speak to entities, be they deity or spirit, is via impressions of emotion), and energywork (more on that in a sec)

HOWEVER. i do also consider myself an energy vampire, in a sense. primarily in the "i feel like my energy system is a bucket, and there is a tiny little hole in the bottom of that bucket constantly draining me bit by bit, so i need to intake more outside energy so that i can stop that gap and fill myself back up" kinda way. and tbf, while i have fed directly off of people before (with consent), i tend to fix my issue by just. filter feeding??? for lack of better term??? and taking the energy of food that i eat??? not to mention its a lot easier for me to upkeep my energetic body now that i'm not in an abusive relationship w an asshole abusing me in spiritual ways

either way, i was thinking about like. so, my energy has been read for me a few times before, and i remember the main things to stick out were like. its very sticky! it clings, and the like. tbh thats part of why i named my blog the way i did lol, i used to compare myself to spiders (and butterflies, tbf. and now moths LOL), not to mention i was directly told that my energy was a lot like that of a spiders. which tbh in combo with my tug towards the concept of thread of fate, weaving fate, the red string of fate, etc. kinda funny ngl. also one of the reasons why i learned how to crochet and shuttle/tatting lace AND kumihimo

but aside from that, i've always been like. inherently connected to the concept of stars, or the night sky. primordial void. that kinda thing. i like calling it primordial soup tbh. which does lend a voidy quality to the energy i have, alongside general dark stuff.

it also makes cleansing really easy tho! mainly in the. i'm not replacing dark with light, i'm just getting rid of the stuff not meant to be there, or that is kicking the balance of the place out of whack. or like. hrm.

when i'm cleansing my energy system, or someone elses, for example, i'm not clearing them of negative or positive energy, or destroying whatever lean or sway they have. i'm getting rid of any parasites, hangers-on, things that are harmful to said system. it gets complicated in situations w people sharing the body, but even then, i'm not weakening any ties there. which ig is an example of me being able to do very fine-tuned delicate energywork???? shit gets complicated and if you touch the wrong thing even slightly you can throw the whole system out of whack. also tbh i tend to view energy systems as connections of strings, one for each relationship you have to someone else, distinct memories that have left an impact, your energy systems linking up together, etc... very fascinating stuff tbh

tbh i also personally think its funny that like. i ascribe to the belief that i was reincarnated from a deity (not one local to this universe), who i tend to define as a Cosmic Creatrix of sorts. despite that, i associate myself currently mostly with destruction vs creation, though i can do either/or. destruction is just easier and more natural. honestly in terms of like explaining how i feel abt the whole thing: stares at Rukkhadevata and Nahida. it feels a lot like that situation. plus the other beliefs i have in regards to how exactly i was created, why i/she died, specific things i remember from that past life (not much)

idk its fun to think of these things

anyways all that to say that when i was still wiccan, i would only ever do new moon sabbats bc they felt better to me. more like home

[things-bright-and-fine]

I love the metaphysical community I'm in. I love the people, I love the experiences we share, but the one thing I cannot stand is the way that devotion to deities is downplayed, if not downright derided. Every time I've broached the topic of my devotion to the Theoi, I get hit with a "But we're the same as the gods. That's just recognizing your own divinity, babe <3" and it always makes me feel like I'm chewing aluminum foil.

I understand, of course. I'm based in Salt Lake City, so the trauma of religious devotion is very present in nearly everyone I meet, especially AFAB practitioners. I understand that, for many, they're looking for the power they were denied as women growing up in the LDS church, where their role was to be a helpmeet to their husband, the future god. So I wholly understand why looking for power in the self is essential for them, and I think it very well is a valid way of approaching Spirit.

But that's not my relationship with the Theoi. I was made for devotion. I've always had the fervent desire to serve something greater than myself, to align myself to something divine that's far bigger than me. I adored Catholic saints for this reason and, as I've written about before, despaired over the fact that I couldn't get this from Yahweh. But now everything fits, and I thrive in my belief that the Theoi are greater than me, that they do guide me because they're beyond my own capabilities. Do I see the humanity (for lack of a better word) in them? Yes, I do. But they are ancient and wise and powerful, and it's not only something I make sure not to forget, it's something I adore about them.

I don't dislike New Agery. I don't agree with it all, and I'm very tired of personality tests being used as divination, but it's not something I find offensive. I'm sure plenty of the Plato Bros would call me New Age-y as hell if I gave the details of my practice. But I do really dislike how much of it is wrapped up in focus on the Divine Self. I am not divine. I don't want to be divine. And I wish that I could speak more freely about my worship (I use the term "work with" in person, though I'm trying to correct that; but so many people have such a damaged relationship with the concept of worship that when I have said it, there's a very pregnant pause that follows.) without being chided for not recognizing my own divinity or not recognizing it as a mirror or whatever it is.

Anyway. Like I said, I love my community, and I don't disagree with the idea of pursuing the Divine Self if that's where you feel led. I just wish we had a broader idea of worship outside of going to church on Sunday to sing to Mormon Jesus.

[toujokaname]

Game master / Episode 16

Author: Akira

Characters: Kohaku, Hiiro, Aira, HiMERU

"Yes. HiMERU hates incompetence. It's pointless to get involved, and therefore a waste of time."

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[ Read on my site for a better viewing experience using Ois~su ♪ ]

Season: Winter

Location: Amagi's House

A few minutes later. In a room of the mansion, the final checkpoint of the courage test.

Kohaku: I took a lil look around the mansion.

Still, no soul in sight... Checked some nearby houses too, but they were all empty.

And that feelin' I've been havin' for a while's gone, too. What the hell's goin' on here?

Hiiro: This is truly an abnormal situation.

Before we knew it, everyone in this Amagi Village vanished. While we were following the designated route, they all disappeared without a trace.

Just like the staff of the paranormal program we heard about in the ghost story, they've all gone missing.

Aira: W-What's going on? Seriously, what's happening?

Is it because I called this place a backward village and made fun of it? Did I trigger the wrath of the Amagi God(?) of the Amagi Village and cause them to be spirited away or cursed?!

Hiiro: Calm down, Aira. This should be another phenomenon that can be explained rationally, logically.

The universe is governed by the laws of physics. There are no such things as apparitions.

HiMERU: HiMERU agrees with you as well.

Hiiro: Umu, I think Nii-san would also agree. He's a logical person, after all.

HiMERU: Then allow HiMERU to retract his prior statement and say that he has a different opinion from you.

Hiiro: Wait, why though?

Kohaku: Hehe. Still, we got caught up in somethin' strange, didn't we...?

Of course, this is part of the scripted setup by the producers, but doesn't it feel like more than just a prank?

Aira: I just don't get it... Even if it's a prank, it's being dragged out too long, and I can't grasp the intention at all.

I seriously think we got caught up in some inexplicable phenomenon.

Hiiro: Even apparitions must have some logic. Ghosts may be impossible, but the ones described in ghost stories remain in this realm because they have some kind of lingering attachments.

What could ghosts, or rather, apparitions, stand to gain by pushing us into such circumstances?

Aira: Like I said, it's a curse! We probably angered some divine entity by accidentally breaking a taboo in this backward village!

That's why we're being put in this scary situation! That's how it is, isn't it?!

Hiiro: Umm. We don't really worship any particular deity in my hometown, and so far we haven't broken any taboos to warrant such severe punishment...

Well, I mean, by inviting strangers from outside into our secluded homeland, we've already broken a taboo.

But if that were the case, we would've all been cursed as soon as we set foot in this village.

Aira: So, what's the deal? Explain it so that even an idiot can understand!

Kohaku: Ahaha, Rabu-han's like Crazy:B's Niki-han, huh.

Aira: Chances are you're not complimenting me, are you, Kohakucchi?!

Hiiro: Basically, this situation is highly unnatural. There's no logical explanation, it's too nonsensical.

To put it bluntly, it's a mess.

HiMERU: —Well, HiMERU's viewpoint does differ slightly.

Hiiro: ? What do you mean, HiMERU-san?

HiMERU: HiMERU has long harbored a certain suspicion.

He kept quiet until now, since he was warned in no uncertain terms by Rinne just before arriving here. Yes, HiMERU's nature is that of a person with a strong sense of duty who properly keeps his promises.

Kohaku: Settin' aside your usual self-praise, what's this suspicion about?

HiMERU: It's about that person called Akan.

Aira: Ahh, the producer in charge of Matrix?

I sorta sympathized, being an underachiever who got ridiculed by everyone.

HiMERU: Right. That AkanP is the organizer of this series of events, Matrix. The starting point of all the occurrences woven within this narrative.

And yet, for some reason, there's a bizarre lack of presence exhibited.

Like a ghost, hm?

Such incompetence is far too profound to allow for any meaningful actions—HiMERU thought that might be the reason.

Essentially, AkanP is no more than a mere faceless background character in this story.

Kohaku: Some brutal words ya got there... Well, HiMERU-han's been gettin' real irritated with that person, so I reckon his language's takin' a rough turn.

HiMERU: Yes. HiMERU hates incompetence. It's pointless to get involved, and therefore a waste of time.

"I've" spent my whole life discarding such worthless people without a second thought.

I thought that was the correct course of action. In fact, it's precisely because I carelessly reached out a helping hand to a completely useless fool that I—

Kohaku: Huh? HiMERU-han, talkin' in first person? That's rare.

HiMERU: —Pardon. Anyway, what HiMERU wanted to say is that AkanP is excessively incompetent.

Kohaku: Ain't that goin' too far? I guess Anzu-han's support was a factor, but Matrix seems to be gettin' a pretty good reception for what's been shown, right?

So, wouldn't ya call the project a success?

HiMERU: That's true. Perhaps that was unexpected for the mastermind behind this sequence of events—the culprit.

Kohaku: Culprit, ya say?

HiMERU: Originally, it was intended to be a much sloppier and utterly hopeless event. This Matrix, hardly anyone even took notice of it...

In other words, it didn't matter whether it succeeded or failed; it was meant to be an insignificant program.

Kohaku: Nah, ain't Matrix supposed to be a major event wrappin' up ES's first year? At least, that's the official story, right...?

HiMERU: What if that was just an excuse contrived retroactively?

The much-anticipated big event turned into a sucky project all because of the useless producer named Akan—

Kohaku: "Sucky"... Sometimes you talk real eccentric, HiMERU-han.

HiMERU: —And yet, contrary to that, was there not a fundamentally flawed plan to begin with?

However, with Anzu-san's involvement, that plan turned into something remarkably engaging.

As a result, ES took notice, and Matrix became a major event wrapping up the first year of ES.

Hiiro: In other words, according to HiMERU-san's conjecture, the order of events was reversed.

[ ☆ ]

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[brandwhorestarscream]

I have more ideas for Cult of the Primes (also considering other posts of this AU you post between me starting to type and me sending it in):

Maybe the cities dedicated to Megatronus and Prima are kinda swapped for a lack of a better term.

Like, Primes who succeed from Kaon/Megatronus's city are known for being some of the best Primes Cybertron (Primus's side) has seen and the city has exactly one known heretic that practically legend at this point, explaining why Kaon doesn't bring any more heretic Primes to Primus. They live in one of the harshest environment Cybertron can throw at them and they believe (and maybe it's basically proven) that worshipping Primus and Megatronus will protect their home from disaster.

Meanwhile, Primes who succeed from Iacon/Prima's city get some doubt from other cities whether or not they have Primus's best interests in mind considering the city has the most heretics. Like, 21 of the heretics were originally from Iacon and the next closest number is eight. The land Iacon inhabits is very bountiful, but they blame the fact they're close to the Unicron-worshipping cities as the reason why they have so many heretics. The rest of the cities don't really believe they because Vos is closer to a Unicron-worshipping city than Iacon and Vos only showed like four heretics. No where near the same amount as Iacon. Gossip mills say it's because mecha from Iacon are jealous of the other cities due to their prime being the so-called "first Prime" or even the fact that their city produces the most out of all the cities and should get special treatment. However, "it's just gossip, there's no reason to believe that" so it could easily be something else.

I can't for the life of me find the list we made for which Prime is for which city, but maybe each city produces something different that's traded with the rest of their side of Cybertron. Like, maybe Solus's city focuses on mining and smithing various tools made of the metal and gems they harvest from the mines like metal farm tools or gemstone jewelry. Maybe Megatronus's city has old coliseums and tunnels that they use to train various animals to help other cities with their jobs like cryo-pigeons with delivering messages through environments where comms aren't an option or volt-horses for helping pull equipment around. Stuff like that.

I might come up with more stuff later, but I don't have any other ideas right now so.

Heretics are to be rooted out, captured, and dragged in to be sacrificed and burned at the temples if they refuse to change their ways. Any who challenge the wills of the gods must not be allowed to proliferate, to spread their noxious ideals. If a heretic is found in your community, shoo them away and call for the church to bring judgement upon them, lest you be infected with their heresy and dragged down into the pits of hellfire for all eternity with them

Iacon having lots of these heretics despite being stationed just above the beating heart of Primus is so interesting. I like the idea of it being due to close proximity to Unicron's worshippers, but it doesn't really work with in-universe lore. After all, if they know that there are settlements that worship the Harbinger of Chaos... it wouldn't last long. The church would burn it to the ground and have them publicly executed for their crimes against the holy matrix

I'm also definitely here for the cities each having special commodities they produce correlating to their gods. Tesarus, the city of Solus Prime, is a city of artisans that treasure devotion through creation over all else. Everything they make is filled to the brim with their love for their goddess, endless praise and penace upon her holy name. Fine sculptures, vases, tapestries, weaponry, anything and everything that can be made by hand is best crafted in Tesarus 😌 I imagine Kaon as a city of warriors, with Megatronus Prime being their patron deity, Guardian of Warriors, and definitely one of the cities that has routine ritualistic sacrifices, in part due to the famous story of how Solus Prime was felled by their god's hand. Maybe they even have to offer a sacrifice to Tesarus, or vice versa, because of it 🤔 definitely smthn to consider

And finally, depending on whether or not we go with the sacrificial bride of Unicron idea, Kaon could perhaps have that aforementioned reputation due to their city producing two Holy Acolytes in a short span of time, one of whom later ascended to Sainthood. Kaon gets painted in a ridiculously good light, if we go that route

[shuffy-rph]

Nitpicking pt. 1: If it's going to sound foreign...

I've decided to make my first target of this https://profiles.rphaven.com/Azure%20Dragon . Now for the most part, I do like the layout design and I could see this in a professionally made website. But here's where things break down for me:

The character appears based on the Japanese version of the Azure Dragon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azure_Dragon), but they threw in Chinese at the bottom.

The left side where it lists the Four Symbols doesn't need the Hiragana. It looks decorative at best, but it doesn't really add to anything. Anyone who could actually read Japanese would go "why did this person write the name twice?"

In addition, the names of the other Four Symbols seem randomly there. Granted it looks like they wanted to have a list to link to other profiles, but only one other got filled out.

There's a random shout out, for lack of a better term, to Kiyomizu-dera (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiyomizu-dera). The Azure Dragon's only connection to the temple (from what my 5 minutes of Google University education is getting me) is it comes by to drink from the nearby waterfall. The temple's patron deity is Kannon (or in Chinese: Guanyin)

The traits splattered around randomly feel like just that, randomly splattered

Looking at the so-called "Baseball stats" on top, it starts to break down for me after "Serpent." I dunno, it just seems like without much other context it doesn't make sense. Well except for "Single", but on another point about that...

If you're going to put a partner status on a profile, you better be open to well, that kind of RP. However, I know the person behind this profile only really RPs with someone else. And does it even add to the overall character? No, not really. Unless I wanted a character to fall head over heels for them (which I don't), I don't really care about partner status.

So the tl;dr is the profile was made with random Japanese (and some Chinese for good measure) slapped on in an attempt to be decorative. I've also noticed I used "random" a lot, because at first glance, that's what it looks like. It's also really distracting to people who've spent maybe a year or two of formal study in Japanese.

[fernthewhimsical]

Copying an explanation I shared on Discord a while back:

So I have a whole pantheon of deities that I honour, and am devoted to three deities. To me, there are different "levels" of involvement, I suppose, when it comes to deity work. And let me start actually that the term deity "work" or "working" with deities is always a bit odd to me. You built a relationship, it's not like they are a boss *or* a tool to work with. But, in lack of better terms that is where we are at.

So. First level would be "working with" a deity. You ask them to do something, hopefully give an offering, they pull through, you go your separate ways. There is little to no personal relationship here.

Then we get what I call honouring, where you acknowledge the deities, give some offerings, perhaps recite a prayer on their holiday

Next is worship. You honour the deity, and built a personal relationship with them. Frequent offerings, deity communication through meditation or divination. Prayers, perhaps wearing devotional jewellery.

Last is devotion. You devoted yourself and part of your path to these deities. You work in their Name, or do certain tasks in their Name. Perhaps there is something you promised as part of the devotion, for example in my case with Nehalennia, it is to teach others that she exists. Plus all the things of the lower levels

asking for a friend *wink* *wonk* also u can just comment any specifics u do as a devotee to a deity too. i wanna know what u guys think about this

[nemetonian-brainworm]

i'm gonna use this blog to just keep a record of my experiences primarily. might as well start now

First and foremost, i was agnostic for a solid 22 years. that changed about 2 months ago. Additionally, I have always been interested in various mythologies as well as geology. Crystalline minerals are commonly used in practices of paganism and witchcraft and I can already identify, like... most of them. It's pretty sweet.

after begging the universe, or any entity listening, for a very obvious sign (because i am obtuse) that i was heading in the right direction, i found an item that will help me start a business. after discussing with some very un-spiritual people (who agreed THAT HAS TO BE A SIGN), i decided...... to start exploring spirituality.

very soon after that, i had an experience where i believe the Morrígan, Rhiannon, OR Nemetona reached out to me. at this point i'm leaning towards the Morrígan or Nemetona, but I plan to worship both at this point.

during that experience, i did a tarot reading. fair warning, my deck is weird. i picked it up randomly a long time ago before doing much research, so i apologize for the weird combos of imagery from... just a TON of different cultures for some reason.

Initially, i wanted to do a 3 card reading (or whatever it's called, i haven't touched the deck since admittedly so apologies if i'm rusty of terminology but i remember the meaning of the cards i determined very well) to determine who was trying to speak to me, as I had been feeling some sort of call for a long time.

While I shuffled, the topmost card (six of wands) fell out. I had been ignoring the urge to use my tarot deck for months at this point, so I laughed when i looked up what the card means. I thought, is my deck or whoever is communicating with me through it saying "ugh, FINALLY! i've been trying to reach you [insert car warranty joke here]"

Bottom row, left to right: First card was meant to represent why the entity or deity was reaching out. Second was meant to represent who was reaching out, same with the third. The fourth was meant to be clarification on who it was, but.... ended up seeming more like clarification on "why" again. I was rather confused by it.

I think the chariot represents either the Morrígan (because of her (i believe secondary) aspect as a war goddess) and Rhiannon because of her connection with horses.

The Hermit I am almost certain is representative of Nemetona, goddess of the scared grove. I mean look at it, there's trees all over the card. Leafless ones, sure, but hey. I have further reasons, but most of them are based on like..... feelings i had during this process, i never exactly heard any words from anybody or saw anything. Is that what it's "supposed" to be like when one first starts out for lack of a better term? Ah, I digress...

Here's the important, juicy part of the story:

I saw three black birds, likely starlings based on size (i was on a phone call at the time and stupidly didn't properly identify them), perched on a lowish powerline that hangs across my backyard. Now, they stuck out to me because the power line is low to the ground, and despite the fact that i was less than ten feet from these birds, they didn't seem scared of or even so much as BOTHERED by me. In fact, they seemed to be observing me. Creepy in any other context, but for some reason, I was chill with it. Weird.

Now, the birds REALLY threw me for a loop. The Morrígan is symbolized by ravens and crows and is a triple goddess, but Rhiannon has three black birds too (iirc either ravens or crows *sigh*). THEN I FOUND OUT YESTERDAY THAT THERE'S A DEITY KNOWN AS BRANWEN WHO IS ASSOCIATED WITH STARLINGS.

As a result, at this point, i don't know who it was and i've been considering getting my tarot deck back out to clarify. I'm afraid to, though, as I know one of the most important aspects of witchcraft and/or paganism is protection of oneself.

Guess I should figure that out first....

[bestiarium]

The Ayana [Oromo mythology; Ethiopian mythology]

Pretty much all religions have a god – either a monotheistic god or multiple deities – and sometimes those gods communicate directly with the people. Other deities prefer to send messengers, however, such as angels and spirits.

In the religion of the Macha people (a subgroup of the Oromo, which is a major ethnic group in Ethiopia), this role is given to the Ayana. In this religion, Waqa is the supreme deity who resides in the clouds. He is the creator god who made the world and the heavens, and the one who is holding up the heavens. When he wants to convey a message to the mortal world, he sends these invisible spirits to act as intermediates between him and the human world. In that regard, these beings play a role that is somewhat comparable to that of angels in Christianity. When an Ayana is created, it flows out of Waqa, being an extension of the god’s will.

Ayana also function as personal guardian spirits: they perch on the right shoulder of a human and bestow upon them their personality. When a child is born, their Ayana decides what traits and interests he or she will have. These guardians protect a family or a clan of people and are regarded as a kind of minor deities. Ayana can be male or female and have the ability to possess humans. I’m using ‘possess’ by lack of a more fitting term, but perhaps ‘inhabit’ is better. A person housing such an Ayana spirit becomes a Qallu, which is a function comparable to a priest or shaman. These people can perform special rituals to invoke or please the Ayana spirits. For example, the Qallu can bestow offerings upon the spirits. In one interpretation, these people are considered to own their Ayana. Though they are considered guardian spirits and divine messengers, Ayana are not always strictly benevolent. It is possible to invoke the name of an Ayana to bestow curses on others. When this happens, such a curse can be lifted through an elaborate ritual. If it is possible to identify the Qallu who owns the Ayana that was invoked, that person then serves as a judge to settle the case.  

Nabi, the primary male Ayana, predates humanity and is said to be the ancestor of the first humans. In one myth, a particularly horrible drought was plaguing the Oromo people. Given no other option, a man decided to sacrifice his own son. He prepared the ritual and drew his knife, but just when the dagger touched the boy’s throat, the people witnessed a lamb descending from heaven. It carried two objects: a spear (the war spear is the holy symbol of Nabi) and a kalaca (which is an iron cone and a religious symbol representing masculinity). Rain miraculously began to fall and the drought was over. The boy was spared and later bestowed the methods for summoning rain upon the people.

Similarly, the primary female Ayana is called Atete. Her holy symbol is a special belt made from leather, it is decorated with shells and meant to be worn on one’s shoulder. These belts are called ‘chachu��. The spirit Atete is also called Maram, a name that is thought to have been derived from the virgin Mary, showing the influences of Christianity on the Oromo religion.

Not all Ayana are associated with people, however. All things have an Ayana, and it is this spirit that shapes those things and makes them what they are.

Source: Baldick, J., 1997, Black God: The Afroasiatic Roots of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim religions, Syracuse University Press, 184 pp. Wane. N. N., 2009, A Glance at Africa, AuthorHouse, 96 pp. (image: Oromo people in traditional clothing. Image source: 101lasttribes)

[littleabriel-blog]

What I really didn't like? Neopagans would go on and on about how much they hated "Abrahamic" religions, didn't respect them, considered them "unnatural"...while calling their holidays Sabbats and practicing ritual that blatantly appropriated Kabbalah. And not once did I meet one who was willing to examine their hypocrisy in that regard.

Looking back on it now....yeah there are reasons why I left not one but two covens (the petty drama was the main reason in both cases, but the cultural appropriation and historical revisionism along with a severe lack of critical thinking didn't help) and stayed a solitary practitioner who worshipped a trickster deity and had some interest in Kabbalah (which is what led me to learn about Judaism and the rest is history).

To this day I can't hear someone call their spirituality "eclectic" without cringing because that word, as far as Neopagans go, means that you pick and choose spiritual practices like you're at a Chinese buffet and mash them altogether in one big appropriational stew.

There was a great site called Why Wiccans Suck that really put it all in better terms...I remember reading it and nodding along right with it. (The site is down now but I think it might be archived somewhere).

I think one of the big problems jews have in particular with neo-pagan appropriation of jewish rituals and traditions is that most of the things neo-pagans usually take from are dead dead super dead religions so it feels like a threat,

like you're taking care of a relative who's really sick in the hospital and you're pretty sure they're gonna make it through but as you're sitting next to their bedside a taxidermist shows up and tries to slip you a business card.

[that-spider-witch]

On “Dead” Cultures and Closed Spiritual Practices: Why Colonialism Is Still A Problem.

Let me start this by saying that, as far as my knowledge of Paganism and Polytheism as a whole goes, I’m what the internet witch community calls a “Baby Witch”. I’m stating this out of the gate because I know there will be lots of people, including witches who have more experience on the craft than me, who might decide to ignore what I have to say based on that fact alone, stating that I’m not knowledgeable enough to give my opinion about this.

Here’s the kicker: I’m a ‘baby witch’, yes, but I’m also a twenty-six year old Venezuelan woman. I’m an adult. I’m Latina. I’m a Christian-raised Pagan,but I’m also a Latinoamerican woman over all other things including that. I grew up on this culture, these are my roots. It is because of this background than I’m writing this post today.

Looking through the “Paganism” and “Witchcraft” tags of this website, I’ve seen a few posts throwing indigenous deities and spirits’ names around on lists alongside deties of open cultures. Yes, you can know better by doing your own research and not going by what just a random Tumblr user wrote on one post (as I hope its the case with everyone on this website), but the fact that pagan beginners are still getting fed misinformation is still worrisome to me.

There’s nothing like reading a so-called expert putting Ixchen (Maya), Xolotl (Nahuatl) and Papa Legba (Vodou) on the same damn list as Norse, Hellenic and Kemetic deities and tagging it on the tags aimed at beginners who might not know better to truly ruin your morning. I’m not mentioning user names here: If you know then you know.

To quote @the-illuminated-witch on her very good post about Cultural Appropriation: 

“Cultural appropriation is a huge issue in modern witchcraft. When you have witches using white sage to “smudge” their altars, doing meditations to balance their chakras, and calling on Santa Muerte in spells, all without making any effort to understand the cultural roots of those practices, you have a serious problem.

When trying to understand cultural appropriation in witchcraft, it’s important to understand the difference between open and closed magic systems. An open system is one that is open to exchange with outsiders — both sharing ideas/practices and taking in new ones. In terms of religion, spirituality, and witchcraft, a completely open system has no restrictions on who can practice its teachings. A closed system is one that is isolated from outside influences — usually, there is some kind of restriction on who can practice within these systems.”

A counter-argument I’ve seen towards this when someone wants to appropiate indigenous deities and spirits is to use the “dead culture” argument: Extinct cultures are more eligible for use by modern people of all stirpes. It is a dead culture and dead religion. It would be one thing if some part of the culture or religion was still alive, being used by modern descendants, but the culture died out in its entirety and was replaced, right? They were all killed by colonization, they are ancient history now, right?

Example: “If white people are worshipping Egyptian deities now, then why can’t I worship [Insert Aborigen Deity Here]?”

To which I have two things to say:

Ancient Egypt’s culture was open and imperialistic, meaning they wanted their religion to be spread. This is why Kemetism is not Cultural Appropriation, despite what some misinformed people might tell you. Similar arguments can also be made for the Hellenic and the Norse branches of Paganism, both practiced by people who aren’t Greek/Norse.

Who are you to say which cultures are “dead” and which are not?

Religious practices such as Vodou and Santería certainly aren’t dead, not that it keeps some Tumblr users from adding Erzuli as a “goddess” on their Baby Witch post, something that actual Vodou practitioners have warned against.

Indigenous cultures such as the Maya and the Mapuche aren’t dead, despite what the goverment of their countries might tell you. The Mapuche in particular have a rich culture and not one, but two witchcraft branches (The Machi and the Kalku/Calcu). Both are closed pagan practices that the local Catholic Church has continuously failed to assimilate and erase, though sadly not for lack of trying:

“The missionaries who followed the Spanish conquistadors to America incorrectly interpreted the Mapuche beliefs regarding both wekufes and gualichos. They used the word wekufe as a synonym for ideas of the devil, demons, and other evil or diabolical forces. This has caused misunderstanding of the original symbolism and has changed the idea of wekufe right up to the present day, even amongst the Mapuche people.”

For context, the Wefuke are the Calcu’s equivalent of the Familiar, as well as reportedly having more in common with the Fae than with demons anyway.

This and other indigenous religions are Closed because it is wrong for foreigners to just come and take elements from marginalized groups whom are still fighting to survive and that they weren’t born into. To just approppiate those things would be like spitting in their faces, treating them and their culture like a commodity, a shiny thing, a unique thing to be used like paint to spruce up your life or be special.

I know some of you are allergic to the word “Privilege”, but on this situation there really ain’t a better word to explain it. You weren’t born here, you don’t know what it is like, you are only able to see the struggle from an outsider’s point of view.

If a belief or practice is part of a closed system, outsiders should not take part in it. And with how many practices there are out there which are open for people of all races, there is really no excuse for you to do it.

Why Colonization Is Not “Ancient History”

If you have kept reading all this so far, you are probably wondering “Ok, but what does Colonization has to do with any of this?”

The answer? Everything.

With the general context of culture appropriation out of the way, let me tell you about why the whole “dead culture” argument rubs me the wrong way: Here in Venezuela, we have a goddess called Santa Maria de la Onza, or Maria Lionza for short, whom’s idol statue I have been using to illustrate this little rant. If you happen to know any Spanish, you might recognize the name as a derivative of Santa Maria, aka the Virgin Mary, and you are mostly correct: Her true indigenous name is theorized to have been Yara.

And I say “theorized” because it is a subject of hot debate whether she was really ever called that or not: Her original name, the name by which she was adored and worshipped by our ancestors, might have been forever lost to history.

That’s the legacy of colonization for you: Our cultures were stolen from us, and what they couldn’t erase they instead tried to assimilate. Our ancestors were enslaved, their lands and homes stolen, their artwork and literary works destroyed: The Maya and the Aztec Empire were rich in written works of all kinds, ranging from poetry to history records to medicine, and the Spaniards burned 99% of it, on what is probably one of the most tragic examples of book burning in history and one that people rarely ever talk about. 

People couldn’t even worship their own gods or pass their knowledge of them to their children. That’s why Maria Lionza has such a Spanish Catholic-sounding name, and that’s why we can’t even be sure if Yara was her name or not: The Conquistadors couldn’t steal our goddess from us, so they stole her name instead. Catholics really have a thing with trying to assimilate indigenous goddesses with the Virgin Mary, as they tried to do the same with the Pachamama.

On witchy terms, I’d define Maria Lionza as both a deity and a land spirit: Most internet pages explaining her mention the Sorte mountain as her holy place, but it is more along the lines that she is the mountain. 

You’d think that, with Venezuela and other Latinoamerican countries no longer being colonies, we’d be able to worship our own deities including her, right?

As far as a lot of Catholics seem to think and act, apparently we are not.

The Catholics here like to go out of their way to shame us, to call us “cultists”, to ostracize us, with a general call to “refrain from those pagan beliefs” because they go against the Catholic principles. Yes, the goddess with the Catholic-sounding name, a name she happens to share with a Catholic deity, apparently goes “against Catholic principles”. You really can’t make this shit up. (Linked article is in Spanish)

This is just an act of colonization out of many, of not wanting to stop until the culture they want to destroy is gone. Don’t believe for a second that this is really their God’s will or anything like that, they are just trying to finish what years of enslavement and murder couldn’t. They might not be actively killing us anymore, but they still want us dead.

So no, colonization is not some thing that has long passed and now only exist on history textbooks: It is still happening to this day. It is by treating it as old history that they can keep doing it, and it is by pushing the narrative that our indigenous cultures are “dead cultures” that they try to erase our heritage.

Because we are not dead. We are still here, we are alive, we have survived and we’ll keep on surviving, and our gods and goddesses are not yours to take.

¡Chao! 🐈

[linked-heroes]

Yandere Chain and the New Goddess of Courage

So a week or two ago, I got hit with sudden motivation and inspiration (thanks to posts by the awesome blogs of @luimagines, @yandere-linked-universe, and several ppl who sent things to them!) with a scene from one of my several yandere au ideas! So here is the first part of it! Ofc the wonderful Nordictwin helped me with this. She’s my partner in crime ❤️

Featuring my Oc Navya. (Note that this is a different au from the Usurper Queen piece that @nordictwin wrote for me)

————————

Navya feels herself settle, any doubts washing away at that moment. Sometimes you need moments like this to help accept and come to terms with things.

She is sick, no, she is furious of this little child and her mortal descendants harming, taking, and claiming what was hers.

Mine mine mine

How dare they take what's hers!

Navya breathes in deeply, and then lets it all out. She lets the small little ball of power and energy that has been dormant in her grow and spread out through her being. With slow confident steps, she prowls toward the mortal Hylia.

Kill her, spill her blood

End her reign before it can begin

With a sharp smirk, she speaks.

“Little goddess, do you know my name?”

The spoiled, defiant goddess opens her mouth, but Navya gives her no chance to respond.

“It’s Navya, in honor of the goddess of wisdom, Nayru. Funny, isn’t wisdom supposed to be yours? Yet you seem to lack it entirely.” Navya stops in front of Zelda, Sun, Hylia herself, for a moment before slowly circling her.

It would be so easy, a flick of the wrist and she could end Hylia here and now

Hylia makes a noise of offense “Now see here-!”

Navya continues as if the other woman hadn’t spoken.

“They say I was chosen by all three of the goddesses, and I was. I was named in honor of one goddess, who claimed me as hers. But do you know who it was who actually blessed me? Who, claimed me and in her blessing, declared me her successor? Bestowed upon me her power to inherit and take her place?”

Here Navya stops behind Hylia and turns to face her, to face the group of heroes in front of her, now behind Hylia.

She can see them all, ready to jump in and start fighting if they need to. They keep their eyes mostly on her, but don’t neglect to watch their surroundings for enemies (it breaks her heart to see them all so broken and battle ready, they shouldn’t have to be so watchful. They shouldn’t have to suffer as they have).

How dare they make her heroes suffer.

Navya slowly lets her power build, letting it slowly be felt by others. She can feel it seep into the air, and can feel the changes the magic is doing to her.

She can see the moment that Hylia senses her power, realizes what it is and what it means. The woman’s eyes bulge and she gapes at Navya. Her skin pales drastically before her face turns red and the defiant rage flares back into her.

That’s right child goddess, feel fear

Bow down to your betters

Navya doesn’t fight the cold smirk that slides onto her face.

She leans in and says:

“It was Farore”.

She can see her men, her partners, her heroes, (heroes just like her) all startle and focus all of their attention back to her.

Hylia, as typical of her, throws a fit. “No! You can’t, you have no right to them! They’re mine, I love them!”

Navya glares at the woman who was nothing more than a child.

“I am the heir of Farore, I am the Goddess of Courage. They are my heroes. You have no claim to what is mine little mortal goddess. They are blessed with courage, my courage, and you cannot have them.” She declares, power leaking into her voice and words. “You say you love them, yet all they have had is suffering and loss because of you. They have gained nothing from your so-called love.”

You hurt them!

I will make you suffer!

“They are my heroes! I chose them, I blessed them!” Hylia shrieks, her own power starting to leak out.

They were never yours!

“You condemned and cursed them is what you’ve done! Starting with First! You say you loved him, but he never loved you! You cursed him and part of his soul as he was dying! It brought him back as a deity against his will! And then when he tried to fight it, fight you, you cursed and exiled him into the mask!” Navya snarls, her rage building.

How dare you!

You took him from me!

“You can’t take them from me, You’ve already stolen Sky! And you have no right!” Hylia is shaking in her own anger, her power building and Navya senses it flowing into her hands, and immediately, she knows what Hylia was planning to do.

“They are mine Hylia, and I am theirs.” Navya smirks coldly at the young goddess in front of her and whispers, “and they will always choose me.”

The look of petulant fury bubbling under the surface is unbecoming on an otherwise pretty face. Poor girl, whoever she was before Hylia went and took over, Navya thinks. Sky has spoken of her compassion and sweet nature, but there is nothing of that now.

Instead Navya sees through Farore’s eyes the same brat she dealt with aeons before, acting the exact same way.

Of course it culminates as it always does.

The child lashes out when she can’t have her way, and the slap stings - no, it burns, the little shit had infused it with holy magic - as Hylia’s hand makes contact with her cheek.

Navya’s head snaps to the side and she can feel her skin blistering and bubbling and - fuck it hurts- she doesn’t doubt that there’s a handprint burned into her skin.

Navya sees Hylia raise her hand again, prepared to lash out even more (such a child) when she can’t think of anything else to do. What the goddess doesn’t realize is that Navya let her get the first slap in. Hylia has never been good at seeing the underneath, seeing how to use situations to her advantage. Hylia did exactly what Navya expected and wanted her to do.

So when her holy infused hand flies through the air to strike her again, it’s stopped.

Everything stills, as if time itself has frozen.

It is quiet.

Hylia stares at her, wide-eyed and pale, and by the Ancients, Navya can’t stop the smug, vindictive feeling that bubbles up in her chest when she slowly turns her head up and up and up.

Time smiles down at her, her wrist held in a vice grip that gets tighter… and tighter… and tighter.

Until she’s struggling, crying out in pain and discomfort, trying to reach Time’s hand and make him let go. Until that thin little wrist bends unnaturally, until it cracks like a dry twig and finally breaks and falls over, limp and useless.

Only then does he let go, still smiling, the perfect example of polite professionality.

That is, until he opens the other eye and the expression shifts to something a touch more deadly.

“Raise your hand against her again and it won’t just be your wrist that breaks, milady”.

The silence is deafening, and Navya… oh, Navya knows.

The paradigm - the world as they all know it - is shifting right in front of her, and it is glorious.

(Bells ring from somewhere unseen. A new era is dawning, with someone else in charge).

(She can’t wait to watch it unfold).