#i spent wayyyy too much time on this

[buried-in-stardust]

打鐵花 (da2tie3hua1; struck iron fireworks) is a traditional folk firework that began in Henan and Shanxi, first arising in Queshan county, Henan and later circulating through the whole country. It had first appeared during the Northern Song dynasty, and was most popular during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

For Queshan struck iron fireworks, a two-layer pergola is built and covered with willow branches for performances, under which the molten iron is struck up with two willow sticks to create a rain of fire.

[eng by me + edited an ad out]

(On top of the information in the video, I have some more about its recent history under the cut.)

*Also, a note about one of the subtitles: I realized later that "going into battle without a shield" actually just meant going shirtless. I was only confused about this phrasing while translating because she didn't go shirtless, although that is for obvious reasons

Queshan struck iron fireworks had almost been lost before Yang Jianjun unearthed it again in 1988. It had almost died out in the early years of the Republic of China being established, after which there had only been three performances until 1988: 1952, 1956, 1962. Yang Jianjun had seen the 1956 performance as a 7-8 year old and later on as the director of a cultural centre, began digging up the skill and its history. In the process, he became an apprentice to Li Wanfa, who had been the last head of the Queshan Struck Iron Fireworks Society. He practised with sand and water, learning of its historical origin, its ancestral inheritors, craftsmanship and performance arts, but didn't touch the real thing until 1988. Through Yang Jianjun's efforts and investment, the first struck iron fireworks performance in more than 25 years took place in Nanshan Square (then a deserted area) in Queshan county.

Queshan struck iron fireworks are different from other struck iron fireworks in that it requires a wide area to perform, whereas others only needed a wall or could be hit straight up into the air, and it costs much more money to set up.

The names of inheritors are difficult to trace, and can only be traced back to the Qing dynasty during the Qianlong period, making Yang Jianjun a sixth-generation inheritor, and Jiang Xunqian (OP) the first woman and a seventh-generation inheritor.

[ecoustsaintmein]

Gwampa Wosie...let him rest!!!

[albino-parakeet]

Jwct Countdown May 18-19 prompt: Roadtrip

No clue when these take place. Maybe it was an anniversary road trip before Brooklynn’s “death” happened. Just wanted to draw the Camp Fam going to different museums I’ve been to. @campbenji

Museums referenced: Denver Museum of Nature and Science -> Sternberg Museum of Natural History -> Burke Museum (specifically them chilling at the Off The Rez Cafe inside, it has this really cool hangar door that opens)

This list of museums was almost longer but I really shouldn’t burn myself out so soon.

Timelapse undercut (The duration is about 9 mins since it’s all three in one. Feel free to skip around it):

Songs used in order: Evergreen by Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners -> With Me by Grand Pyres -> Somewhere Only We Know by Keane

Why these songs? Because they make me mentally flip through a photo album.

[junypr-camus]

The date is set!

A City Without Birds will be free as an e-book from Monday Nov 27 through Wednesday Nov 29!

Memories can’t be trusted in Seranid. Feisty Terry Silver learns the hard way when she’s forced to flee the utopian City of her childhood, charged with a crime she has no recollection of committing.

(Also potential new cover? I could swap it out before then if y'all like it)

Tagging:

@nanashi23, @steh-lar-uh-nuhs, @sm-writes-chaos, @macabremoons, @kaminokilljoy, @heymacareynaa, @malloen8c, @mantabanter, @bluberimufim, @alinacapellabooks, @delusionisaplace, @mantabanter, @bamber344, @frostedlemonwriter, @hessdalen-globe, @orangebluedot, @ghostreader16, @hallucien

[cherryapparition]

Bedtober Day 5: Cottagecore

Prompt list I'm following by OceanInSpace

[bojackandherb]

New Bojack request, but if your okay with it, can I requesta picture of Boj and whichever one of his MLP mane six you think would be his favorite? 👐

I never watched much of MLP, so honestly I was pretty stumped with this, so I used this post as inspiration. Hope u like it lol

[mysandwichranaway]

my catboy in a dress, as you asked o7 @sheridan-le-fanu

[placeapuppyinmyhair]

5 Daisy Jones & The Six concert headers + black and white dividers under the cut!

pls give credit if you use and do not repost

[gravemarksart]

Made some self-indulgent Solangelo fanart to celebrate the PJO series, because they're the best, and I felt like giving them some band tshirts. I know in my heart that Nico is a Soundgarden fan👍

[welcometobrightvale]

ok so i HAVE been going through the plot comic to edit it lol and. well i guess i can’t say for sure because we don’t know where it’s going. but either there are some plot holes or nyx is being incredibly suspicious

[leawesomesloth]

Collar feng xin but he’s from my bull!fx au ✨

[afearsomeartisan]

LET!!!! Her!!!! EATTTTTTT

[askaniritual]

my hyperpop gamzee fanmix

this is organized into a bit of an arc, starting pre-sgrub and going through the end of the comic. fwiw i focused more on vibes than lyrics to get the sound i wanted but i think both work

[starlightintermezzo]

The friendly sorcerer, Lukan!

[kaiserouo]

I want Houndy to be hugged by everyone.

[pinknerdybeing]

Hello, can you explain more about what willowgenic, parogenic and tulupas(?) are, maybe their differences and similarities as well? I've only ever heard about tulupas once before I stumbled across your blog, reading through your blog I can't help but feel lost😅

Thanks for asking! :D

I'll go through the basics from what I understand, but if you want to understand better than what I can say I recommend doing research yourself /nf (not forcing, it's not a common tone indicator so better specify XD)

I'll explain the best I can but can't guarantee quality ^^

They're all very similar, and often particular labels are up to personal preference- similar to bisexual, omnisexual, polysexual and pansexual for example.

I'll explain tulpamancy first, since that's the oldest term and the one I found out about first.

Tulpamancy is the practice of creating tulpas, or autonomous beings that I find are easiest to liken to imaginary friends. They're like imaginary friends, but aren't controlled by the person who made them. (Or aren't controlled consciously, though typically in these communities it's believed that they are their own conscious, separate being, at least to some extent.)

Tulpas are usually created purposefully, and I won't explain how because that'd take too long. There's a lot of tutorials online, or you can always ask how they're created in another ask if you're interested! However, some tulpas were unintentional, like normal imaginary friends that gained autonomy.

The definition I found that's the shortest is: "system that is [usually] intentionally created using thought-based methods. For some, this may also include some metaphysical parts, often in the form of energy work."

Tulpamancy does fall under the parogenic label, (alongside a few other practices), and some tulpamancers use it while others don't. Parogenic also generally describes systems, while not all tulpamancers consider themselves and their tulpa(s) a system.

I personally use the label "paromancy" since it doesn't imply us being a system as much, since I don't like calling us a system for a few minor reasons. It means pretty much the same thing though.

I'm shamelessly copying from the multiplicity and plurality wiki for this, but "A willogenic system is a system that was purposely created, or willed into existence, through psychological or spiritual means. It is a term for purposefully created systems that is not connected to parogenic systems or tulpa systems, due to the controversy of tulpamancy. Due to the nature of the term, it does not encompass systems that consider themselves to have used tulpamancy to create their system."

It's pretty much synonymous with parogenic except that it clearly rejects tulpamancy.

Now's the juicy stuff XD. The reason willogenic specifically excludes tulpamancy is because tulpamancy terminology is often considered to be cultural appropriation.

I don't want to get too into it, if you're really interested in the discourse it should be easy enough to find. Very simplifying it, some tibetan buddhists said and explained that the words for tulpamancy are cultural appropriation. At least one tibetan buddhist said that it wasn't cultural appropriation, and there were some other arguments on the pro-tulpa-terminology side. (If this information is inaccurate sorry, I don't have the time to go looking for this stuff, but it's definitely close to accurate)

There was a lot of discourse on tumblr about it, but from what I hear tulpamancy communities elsewhere didn't really get as much of this discourse there, and a lot of folks aren't aware of it really.

This obviously prompted people to use other terms, as to not do cultural appropriation. Parogenic is one of those terms, but the original definition of parogenic includes tulpamancy, so willogenic was created to totally exclude tulpamancy.

So the differences between them are: -tulpamancy vs parogenic: parogenic implies that it's a system, (but doesn't have to be) and also includes other similar practices. Parogenic as a term also definitely isn't cultural appropriation, while a lot of people consider tulpamancy (the terminology) to be cultural appropriation. -tulpamancy vs willogenic: willogenic also implies that it's a system (but doesn't have to be), and some tulpamancers say that "willing" their tulpas to existance doesn't suit them. Willogenic also excludes tulpamancy, because of the whole cultural appropriation controversy. -willogenic vs parogenic: willogenic clearly excludes tulpamancy. That's about the only difference I know XD

Sorry if any of this is unclear, I was trying to not make it any longer than it already was. Feel free to ask more questions, though I'm not particularily versed in the community/discourse aspects of all of those related labels!

And yeah my blog kind of requires the reader to be familiar with these concepts XD It's too difficult to explain it all the time.