#folk belief

[hagoftheholler]

Something I feel like people getting into folk magic need to understand, for many people of many backgrounds, is folk magic started as a means of survival. It was struggle magic, and it is still struggle magic.

Where I'm living now and where I'm from, people planted by the signs to ensure their crops wouldn't go bad before harvesting. People used ocean water to soothe joint and muscle pains when they got old. People studied the native plants for medicine and were mindful to only take what was needed. People did little rituals and minded their grannies' words to keep their good luck. If they didn't know how to do something (or couldn't), they went to people who did.

Learning folk magic to reconnect with ancestral traditions from before your time is valid. Learning folk magic to connect with and work with the land is valid. There are many valid reasons to take up folk magic. Still, understand that folk magic is survival, and folk magic is community.

[dvudushnydiaries]

Custom also forbade them to whitewash the walls of the room in which the person died ("in case the soul of the deceased is resting in a crack in the plaster"). The belief in the possible return of the dead was so widespread in the Carpatho-Rusyn homeland that tales on this theme have been retained in all the villages. According to the stories, the late relative most often returned to pick up his or her favorite things, such as a pipe, tobacco, or a musical instrument. These things were usually laid upon the grave in order to prevent any further return of the dead.

Via carpatho-Rusyn.org

This little tidbit pulls at my heartstrings

[this-is-me19]

They had more! Had to share.

More Southern Folk Magic

A follow-up to my post on Southern Folk Magic. Many of these are known, but I want to put all the ones that I’ve heard in my life in one place. 

To find a lost thing: Trap an insect under glass and recite Luke 8:17. The insect will point you in the direction of what you’ve lost. 

Never accept a gift from one who practices magic, not even through someone else’s delivery. Give nothing to them and take nothing from them lest they be able to work magic on you. 

For a fertile harvest season, make love on the freshly turned fields. 

If you wake up exhausted, dirty, or with your hair tangled it’s because you’ve been ridden by a hag. Make a dummy to lie in your place the next night and go off to salt the hag’s skin. 

Visitors must leave your house through the same door they came in.

Never tell a dream before breakfast. 

Keep reading

[japhers]

icy peepaw

[hymnsofheresy]

what are your thoughts on your religion stealing every single one of its holidays from pagans? xo

That in order to relieve themselves of guilt and discomfort, white people create and believe narratives that deprive their European ancestors of any autonomy whatsoever. Casting their ancestors as victims of the church rather than active participants.

[otaku553]

Need to write a 4000 word essay and take a neurobio final before I’m done with the term and both are due Thursday so we’re going back to the procrastination doodles again

[mythalism]

just thinking about this poem and solas

[mamaangiwine]

Native American spirituality isn't your jumping off point for New Age. It's not your resource for New Age talking points. Our myths are not your's to mine for "proof" for your conspiracies or to change for your "prophecies". Our spirituality has nothing to do with "vibrations", negative of otherwise.

Stop trying to swallow Native American spirituality. Stop using it to justify your surface level spirituality.

Most of all, stop acting like New Age is the natural successor to Native Spirituality- we're the natural successors, because we're still here.

[viperwhispered]

Too Hard

Woop part 2 of the trip inside Jamil's head. Part 1 here.

The next time Jamil caught sight of you on campus, his first instinct was to turn around on his heel.

What a stupid thought to have because of you.

Besides, that would only make him more conspicuous, not less.

So, when your eyes met his, Jamil gave you a short nod in greeting. He would’ve left it at that and kept on his way, had you not walked up to him.

“Hi Jamil! How’s it going?” you said with that impossibly disarming smile of yours.

Why was it so difficult to look at you like he normally would? You had no right to make him feel so stiff, so unnatural.

On autopilot, Jamil exchanged a few pleasantries with you - those lessons from his parents had been instilled too deep in him for him to falter too badly in a simple exchange such as this. Still, Jamil quickly excused himself by telling you he still had to find Kalim before his next class.

Jamil didn’t miss the way your smile faltered. Had you hoped to get something out of him?

“Oh, okay. I’ll see you two later, then.”

Something about that irked him, though Jamil did not allow himself to dwell on it further.

His heart really had no business still racing as it did when he walked away, unaware of the frown on his face.

Just act normal. That’s all he needed to do.

After all, he had no time for dwelling in silly fancies.

If Jamil had been acutely aware of you before, it only seemed to worsen now that he was making a conscious effort to not act any differently with you. In fact, the harder he tried to keep you out, the more you invaded his thoughts, unsettling him.

The most innocuous words from you looped in his mind, and even the simplest actions caught his eye. For goodness's sake, he’d found himself staring at you while you were queueing up in the cafeteria the other day, not even doing anything other than standing around and looking bored!

For once, Jamil found himself grateful for all his duties. At least they provided him with something else to occupy himself with.

After all, if he was busy enough, it was difficult to think about those bright eyes of yours, your sweet laugh, or the way you bit your lip while thinking.

Still, sometimes it felt like no matter which way he turned, you were there, ready to throw him off-kilter. Not like it was his fault that often the most convenient route to class intersected with your daily routines. Or that your face seemed to jump out from any crowd, catching his attention.

Which certainly did not help his basketball performance. Jamil certainly did not recall you having such an interest in sports before, yet suddenly you were always there, distracting him. What had changed?

Could you possibly-

Jamil scoffed to himself, forcing his thoughts back on track for the nth time that day.

He picked up the tray of food and started taking it to Kalim. After dinner, he’d need to help Kalim with his homework, there were some housewarden tasks that would need dealing with, not to mention the preparations for the next-

Jamil froze in his tracks.

The voice he heard was quiet, but it was unmistakably you.

Really, it should not have come as such a surprise to him. You had become a rather frequent visitor to Scarabia, and Kalim often invited you to stay for meals. In fact, Jamil had started planning the dorm’s meal prep with your tastes and dietary restrictions in mind, just in case.

Jamil rounded the corner with strange exhilaration, his heart fluttering needlessly.

Yet, his mood evaporated when he saw you.

Why did you stop talking and look so guilty as soon as you caught sight of Jamil?

Jamil knew that look you gave to Kalim, had used it himself a thousand times. The one telling Kalim to keep quiet about something.

What could there possibly be that you would be comfortable sharing with Kalim, but not with him? That would give Kalim reason to sit so close to you, a comforting hand on your shoulder?

Jamil's mind raced with possibilities, yet could not settle for any single explanation.

He’d have to ask Kalim about it later.

Jamil gave you a short, polite greeting, his eyes lingering on you in an attempt to read what you were hiding.

“If I’d known you were coming over, I would’ve prepared something for you to eat as well,” Jamil said, already thinking about which parts of the dorm’s dinner to spruce up for you.

“Oh, no need, just figured I’d pop by. I’ll get out of your hair soon enough,” you said, something sheepish about your expression.

As expected, Kalim asked you to stay and dine with them, and with just a bit more persuasion you agreed - though not before telling Jamil that he should join you too and have himself a breather.

And since Kalim agreed with you, Jamil soon found himself sharing a meal with you and Kalim. Yet, even as he sat down with the food, his mind raced.

Had you been getting particularly close to Kalim lately? But surely Jamil would’ve noticed such a thing. Maybe someone from the dorm had been giving you trouble? But if that was the case, then surely you could let Jamil know about it, too. Unless for some reason you did not want to? But if it was something that concerned Kalim, then sooner or later it was bound to concern Jamil, too.

All the while, Kalim was talking to you about this and that, the latest topic being the animals kept on the Asim estate.

“I’ve got some pictures, let me show you!” Kalim said with an excited grin.

Only, a thorough patting of his pockets and a look around confirmed that Kalim’s phone was nowhere to be seen.

Jamil pinched the bridge of his nose. Where had Kalim left it this time?

Before Jamil even had the chance to say that he would handle it, Kalim sprinted off. Jamil hesitated for a moment, automatically halfway up from his seat, before he decided that leaving a guest unattended would be a worse offense than not helping out his master.

Jamil slumped back down with a sigh, mentally tracing the path Kalim took today, trying to recall the last time he saw Kalim handle his phone.

“Breathe. He’ll manage,” you said. There was the faintest of smiles on your lips, and Jamil could not decide if it was knowing or amused. Perhaps both.

Somehow, despite his frustration, Jamil’s own lips wanted to curl up too.

“Hmm. Maybe he will.”

Sure, Jamil could’ve called Kalim’s phone, to make it easier to find, but it was not that urgent, was it?

Jamil took another bite of his food, keeping an eye on you from the corner of his eye.

How was his mind so empty and so buzzing at the same time?

“You know-”

“So-”

You looked at each other, both just as surprised that the other had spoken up at the same time.

Even your surprised look was so-

“You first,” Jamil said. The way you bit your lip... Jamil had to raise a cup to his lips, slowly sipping his drink.

“Just… Feels like it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen you be still, you know. Or exchanged more than two words with you,” you said. You were attempting a light, joking tone, yet it was quite clear there was more to it.

“You say that like it would be unusual for me to be busy.”

He was not prepared for the way your soft sigh tugged at his heartstrings.

“No. It is not.”

You were both quiet after, poking at your meals. Normally, Jamil would’ve cherished such a moment of peace, yet this particular silence between you two was decidedly awkward.

Where was your usual chatter? Why weren’t you looking at him like you usually did?

“If you’re worried about me, don’t. I’m fine,” Jamil said, some softness creeping into his tone despite his best intentions.

“That's what Kalim said too,” you said. Yet the way you looked at Jamil made it clear you were still skeptical.

Wait.

Had you clammed up earlier because it had been Jamil you had been talking about with Kalim? That Kalim had comforted you about?

The thought twisted his stomach into knots.

Eta: you can find part 3 here, part 4 here, and finally part 5 here. Hasdhfsdf the way I fought with that last scene I swear. I don't even want to know how many versions I went through, trying to figure out how to say what I wanted without rubbing it into your face or making it too veiled. The joys of trying to convey things through a limited pov. Hopefully it came out reasonably balanced in the end. Rip to all those sentences that were lovely on their own but didn’t work for the whole. Hopefully I can rehome y’all one day. I do have thoughts for part 3 and part x (might be some chapters between those two as well, who knows at this point), so maybe we'll see those at some point, too. Tag list: @colliope @crystallizsch @diodellet @jamilsimpno69 @jamilvapologist @twstgo If you'd like to be tagged for future works, let me know! (Just be aware that sometimes I do also write nsfw, though you can certainly ask to be tagged only for particular kinds of works.)

[zu-is-here]

<– • –>

[tanuki-kimono]

Wara ningyô (straw doll) kept at Tono Museum.

Those effigies were once hung on ropes (michikiri) by roadsides and village entrances to ward off evil spirits bringing pestilence (疫病神 yakubyôgami). They were sometimes accessorized, like this one bearing a daishô (katana set) and a fearsome (oni?) face mask.

Waraningyô are also a staple of folk magic alike voodoo dolls, especially those related to eerie uchi no toki mairi ("Ox-hour shrine visits", ie witching hour).

[tales-from-a-little-witch]

Haunted house rules:

Always have a extra chair at the table, in case you have an uninvited guest, may they be human or not.

It’s always wise to be polite.

[sergle]

BRO, CRANE FLIES DO NOT EAT MOSQUITOS......... "skeeter eaters".... THEY DO FUCKALL. they eat plants... until they become adults. and then their mouths are too small to eat at all.

[tehriz]

what is the niche belief specific to your field that renders a person instantly unfuckable

for me it is being an oxfordian

[raviollies]

Theta is an incredibly old Hag having been able to survive for a millennium, her true age unknown as she herself stopped counting. Thus amongst Hags, not only does she rank as a Grandmother but a very powerful one at that, her only misfortune having been the last of her coven, the group having cannibalized itself in a struggle for power.

Such old Hags exist but are a rarity, and in some isolated pockets of rural areas they are worshipped as deities of the natural cycle of decomposition and as the group for life. Though this practice is few and far between and generally discouraged in favour of the standard pantheon and generally labeled as a false or old god. Their domains consist of ancient forests older than civilizations, not unlike Silvanus, though where they differ is that the Fae have a propensity to grant wishes and desires, for a price of course, rather than keeping a distance for the sake of balance (Often times this involves body parts [ a la what Auntie Ethel does in BG3, where they would be granted sight or hearing through your body] or living beings).

Theta's reasoning for pursuing Blythe is nothing special - she was simply seeking out Elven women with a potential, ones that have not awakened or honed their magical skills as to be molded and influenced (She sees it as teaching a chick to fly).

Like other Hags, Theta believes in the obscenity of love; patron of obsession and possession. She encourages Elven mages to cannibalize their lovers - and is staunch in the belief that consuming another grants their power. Whether or not that belief is fact or fiction is dubious.

[15-lizards]

✨ riverlands using weaving as a form of prayer do you see where im headinf with this. riverlands folk catholicism of the faith you know ….. do you have any other thoughts about what practices would be like in the home vs the septs . Does that question make sense i worry it doesn’t

No wait I’m seeing the vision…weaving and needlepoint while they pray to imbue whatever they’re making with a protective energy from the gods so that the blanket or dress or whatever keeps someone safe or brings in good fortune. And this seems a little pagan to the septs but ppl still do it anyway in their homes and outside of the Faith as an institution.

Veneration of saints that are not technically recognized by the faith but are still prominent figures within the religion so it’s tolerated. Basically folk heroes they might pray to for intercession

Also veneration of the dead/ancestor worship bc the riverlands are stuck in time and ghosts are almost as tangible as the living! Holy days where they give offerings to their deceased and pray for their spirits to come and give them guidance

A lot of Irish folk practices are really fitting too. The cross of st Brigid, the idea of holy wells, the blessing of a ribbon by a saint to that they will be protected throughout the year, etc etc. lots of leftovers from the time of the old gods mixed in with the doctrine of the new