thebajoranwitch

[thebajoranwitch]

[thebajoranwitch]

It's really funny when people think Iran is a desert cause we literally have forests in the north?? The Caspian sea is right up there?? Buddy they're still shoveling snow in Sabalan lmaoo

Visual reference:

Sabalan mountain, Ardabil

Masal, Guilan

Saravan forest park, Guilan

Caspian sea

[thebajoranwitch]

hey yall:

the southern appalachians are facing catastrophic damage after hurricane helene, what people have been calling a thousand-year storm. the region will forever be changed by this event. entire towns have been washed away, there are currently no open roads out of much of the region, and power and cell signal is scattered.

across the southeast people have been running supply drives and fundraising to get aid into the affected areas. mutualaiddisasterrelief and mergoat.mag on instagram are currently platforming a lot of supply drives and updates. please also check their posts if you’re not in the southeast- there’s lots of groups accepting donations right now to fund supplies for people on the ground.

this photo is out of asheville, nc

[thebajoranwitch]

Day 2 of anonymously popularising the Dimorphodon Macronyx:

They are stockier than German pterosaurs which shows a lot of variation in the species.

(Tag this with “dinosaur” and “Dimorphodon”)

Here’s one for the palaeontologists.

[thebajoranwitch]

why I (a person of science) believe in a higher power

I know my updates are completely all over the place but I was just talking to my partner about how science and theism cannot only coexist but can compliment each other so wonderfully, like the way that patterns arise mathematically and how galaxies form, how we became sentient. I remember a line from a lecture from professor Brian Cox we attended together

”humanity is the universe trying to understand itself”

Now, Cox is known for being a staunch atheist but I think that this line and indeed the sentiment encapsulates it beautifully. For me, for my partner, faith and science are not two separate parts of our lives, they are connected inextricably.

He is a physicist and he uses the example of how the laws of physics are so perfect for life that it is as if it’s planned.

I’m in earth science and the beauty of evolution and of the conditions of earth, of life itself seem to just call out that someone is there.

you might disagree with me, you might partially agree, you might totally agree. I kept this a little bit vague for people of all faiths who are in STEM fields to maybe connect with.

so for those who need to hear it: it is ok to bring your god/s into the lab (as long as they wear goggles 😉)

[thebajoranwitch]

what do you think

In Deep Space Nine, the first of September 2024 is the date of the beginning of the Bell Riots, when homeless people who have been forced into small districts with little to no support or security rose up and ended the separation. This is called by Benjamin Sisko and is, in canon, a massive, though grim, step towards the United Earth that we see in Trek, and later to the federation.

I’m writing a prayer for a ritual that I am doing tomorrow and I will be sharing at least a version of this prayer in case there is anyone else who would like the inspiration for their own practice, but I will ask, since I usually write it in bajoran, would you like to read it in English or Bajoran?

[thebajoranwitch]

sorry about the wait, things came up and there were some translation issues but here is the English version at least

[thebajoranwitch]

Happy Bell Riots!

To celebrate, do one of these things this week:

-donate to a homeless person

-engage in volunteer work or activism for the poor

-register to vote

-listen to someone in a bad situation and help in any way you can

-go to GoFundMe and find a campaign to donate to which will help keep someone housed and fed

-heck, maybe some of us could get together and demonstrate?

Come together and say: this is NOT okay, this is NOT something we choose to just accept as the way things are. We want to be better than this. We want the Star Trek future where you don't have to earn the right to life.

[thebajoranwitch]

it’s August the 30th, 2024

[thebajoranwitch]

what do you think

In Deep Space Nine, the first of September 2024 is the date of the beginning of the Bell Riots, when homeless people who have been forced into small districts with little to no support or security rose up and ended the separation. This is called by Benjamin Sisko and is, in canon, a massive, though grim, step towards the United Earth that we see in Trek, and later to the federation.

I’m writing a prayer for a ritual that I am doing tomorrow and I will be sharing at least a version of this prayer in case there is anyone else who would like the inspiration for their own practice, but I will ask, since I usually write it in bajoran, would you like to read it in English or Bajoran?

[thebajoranwitch]

Normalise actually researching the gods you are "devotees" of.

[thebajoranwitch]

[thebajoranwitch]

As a vegetarian, this is very inaccurate. We actually have Tofu, we reject meat eating concepts. and I’m not being anti vegan because some of my best friends are vegan.

(ok but, joking aside, I am actually vegetarian and I do actually have vegan friends and the news that vegans and vegetarians are conflicting now baffles me? Seriously? Just for the record I, and most other vegetarians and vegans do not care what you eat unless it’s like, uranium, in which case please stop because that is not good for you)

do they like. have beef with each other

[thebajoranwitch]

a simple feeling

[thebajoranwitch]

Thank you Marcus Aurelius

stop letting miserable people on the internet convince you that you must have a concrete, well-constructed opinion on everything that has ever existed.

[thebajoranwitch]

For my fellow Trekkie practitioners of other species/traditions/however you wish to identify it

Kator-Dva: Vulcan Spirituality

I gave myself the task of collating information to create a, at least somewhat, cohesive understanding of Vulcan spirituality, mythology, and polytheistic religion in order to create something that one could use within their own spiritual practice (or as simply a way to improve immersion within fan creations). This big ole post is the result.

I used Memory Alpha, Memory Beta, the Vulcan language dictionary (found here), the Kir'Shara blog and this Tumblr post as references. While the foundation of this information is canon, I must admit that most of it comes from my own understanding of how polytheistic systems and Deities work and what I felt made sense for a living religion featuring living Deities working within the broader Vulcan philosophical understanding (including concepts like Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations, Kaiidth, meditation, etc etc) and what I would expect a desert dwelling people to have incorporated into their religion and system of spiritual metaphors. To this end, it made sense to deify the planets and stars in the Vulcan solar system and to place water as a center of importance, especially in ideas of hospitality and gift-giving. The sharing of water seemed, to me, like a symbol of the sacred establishment of guest-host relations, friendship, and frith. Tea, as a beverage made mostly of water with just some plant detritus, would be an extension of this central importance of water and this is why it features heavily in a lot of Vulcan ritual.

Vulcan polytheism is similar to that of the Ancient Egyptians' in, just as the Egyptians had an understanding of the Atum or Atum Ra as the Supreme God from Whom the other Gods and all of creation continually flow, so too do Vulcans have a Supreme God in the form of Ekon, who is the Cosmic Mind, or the universe thinking itself into being. Vulcan polytheism is also similar to Old Norse religion in that they both have 2 pantheons of Gods (the Norse boasts both the Aesir and the Vanir, while Vulcans have Ek- tam'a-ta and Ka-ta-pak).

Most of the spheres of influence for each Deity was divined by me based on knowing only a sentence or so about each and extrapolating from there. While I did not make up the names, the functions of the Deities of the three stars in Vulcan's trinary solar system were invented wholesale based on the idea that each Deity would be connected to a season, a kind of fertility (flowers, crops, and livestock) and to a type of light/heat (the white light of inspiration, the red light of the hearth, and the flickering, unstable light of sexual/creative passion).

A last note before I get into the meat of the post: I used f, m, and n to refer to a Goddess, God, or Goddex respectively.

Sha Ka Ree (the Great Oasis) is the place from which all creation rose. A fountain and gushing water stream emanating from the mind of Ekon. It lies at the center of the Cosmos

Deities:

Ekon (n): supreme oneness, nirvana, ecstasy, clarity, the cosmic mind, wellspring of creation, the mycelium network personified, consciousness, kash-tepul (psionic energy),  source (shu-pal), IDIC, the universe (stukhtra)

Ek- tam'a-ta, "All-Spirit (animating energy)-Grouping", aka the main pantheon:

T'Khasi (Vulcan) (f): fertility, life, civilization, freedom, nature, creation, creativity, marriage, wisdom, order, wife, light, motion, noise, music, epiphany, t'hy'la, magic

-married to T'Khut

T'Khut,"the Watcher" (f): trickster, wife, marriage, pon farr cycle, pleasure, death, vision, mystery, entropy, chaos, liminality, sacrifice, darkness, balance, stillness, secrets, privacy, t'hy'la, cycles, vision, divination

-T'Rukhemai "the Eye of the Watcher" aka T'Khut's moon

Shariel (m): death, transformation, fear, change, renewal, rebirth, rot, divination, prophecy, destruction 

T'Kay (f): trickster, fire (She stole from the Deities of the 3 suns and brought to mortals), humanity (vulcanity), mortality, liminality, freedom, expression, humor, revolution, revelation, queerness, discovery

T'Vet (f): warrior, duty, obligation, oaths, expectation, dignity, grace

Khosarr (m): war, masculinity, power, strength, conquest, the body, exercise, healing (physical)

-husband to Akraana

Akraana (f): privacy, mystery, devotion, femininity, witchcraft, the mind, telepathy, mental connection, mindmelds, way-clearing, healing (mental)

Natara (m): water, generosity, abundance, oasis, Sha Ka Ree, offerings, gift-giving, love, group obligation, family, expectations, bonding, healing (spiritual)

Reah (f): the underworld, death, grief, bereavement, sorrow, comfort, ancestors, family line, guardian of katras, guidance, the unknown

Ny'one (m) and T'Priah (f), together form Terish (n) "Combination" or "Completion", a mystical living unity: fertility, union, oneness, intimacy, bonding, the universe, spectrums, marriage, renewal, completion, links, childbirth 

Alam'ak "White Eye" aka Eridani A, brightest star and the one Vulcan orbits (n): flowers, life, connection, fertility, light, heat, the desert, summer, epiphany, knowledge, enlightenment 

Behr'ak "Red Eye" aka Eridani B, in binary with C (m): livestock, fertility, autumn/winter, the hearth, illumination, inner vision

Czar'ak "Wandering Eye" aka Eridani C (f): crops, fertility, spring, sexuality, heat, passion, fever, pon farr, outward vision, blood, menstrual cycle, lust

Ka-ta-pak, "the Inner Chorus", pantheon dealing with emotions. Each couple is a mirror image of the other, the shadow of each other. The first in each pair are planets in the Vulcan solar system:

Tel-Alep (m): curiosity, knowledge, intellectual pursuits, drive, pride

Alep-Tel (m): bitterness, cynicism, ignorance, stubbornness, arrogance

Kir-Alep (n): peace, acceptance, serenity, wisdom, optimism, vitality

Alep-Kir (n): apathy, pessimism, ill health, black thoughts, jealousy, weakness

Valdena (f): love, joy, beauty, lightness, pleasure, delight, fullness, gift-giving, hospitality, freedom, grace

Dena-Vel (f): covetousness, envy, jealousy, control, subjugation, domination, hunger, lust

Kal-ap-Ton (m): grief, enduring love, journeys, separation, acceptance, letting go, forgiveness 

Tyr-al-Tep (m): brooding, lack of forgiveness, possessiveness, resistance to change, fallow, holding onto the past, nostalgia, anger

Ket-Cheleb "the Destroyer" or "the Blood Drinker" (killed His counterpart) (m): rage, fury, loss of control, the plak tow, kal-if-fee, challenge, violence, revenge, brute force, blood

Spirits:

Rushan: air spirits, preside over smoke offerings and incense

Fletan: water spirits, preside over liquid offerings as well as any gift-giving in general

Gratan: desert spirits

Sreman: mountain spirits

Sirshos'im, "Soul Eater": will-o'-the-wisp type fire spirits/demons who prey on hapless people lost in the deep desert, devouring their katras (possibly comes from the idea that if one is lost out in the lonely desert, they probably die alone and unable to place their katra into another vessel before death)

Giidas: guardian spirits. Ancestors/lares (lars familiaris)

Holidays:

Rumarie: festival of fertility involving nudity, orgies, hedonism, and riilan grease

Kal Rekk: day of contemplation, solitude, atonement, and silence

Tal-Shanar: festival not permitted to outsiders. Meditation on Vulcan's violent past with rituals to usher in long lasting peace. Contemplation of IDIC and Ekon. Ancestor cult holiday for honoring Surak

Uzhaya Wak-krus, the season of renewal: A spring festival and time of reflection and restorative meditation and exercises at the beginning of the calendar year. Honors Czar'ak

Ho-rah, "ritual":

Fullara: rite to suppress a memory and the emotions associated with it

Kahs-wan: Vulcan maturity test. Rite of passage wherein a child is left to fend for themselves in the desert, specifically Vulcan's Forge (the location of Surak's pilgrimage) 

Kohl-lodzh'a: new year ritual. Kohl-lodzh'a means "meditation clay". They are miniature tablets adorned with one word or sentiment carved in ritual script that is to act as affirmation for the coming year ("peace" or "sochya" is most common) before being hung in the household shrine as a focus for meditation. Sometimes the tablets are annointed with scented oils

V'Shal: traditional ceremonial engagement dinner where the perspective mate is evaluated by the other's family

Van-kal t'Telan: the ceremony of bonding

Relevant Vocab:

Vai: "holy"

Kohl-tor: "meditation"

Kol-Ut-Shan: "IDIC"

Loshirak: cross legged (lotus) meditation posture 

Lesh'riq: kneeling with feet tucked under buttocks meditation posture

Tho'san stone: stone seat a Vulcan sits on for meditation in front of their firepot

Savan-don-tak: "teachings"

Tei: human tea

Theris: Vulcan tea 

Van-kal: "ceremony"

Eglus: "religious shrine"

Odva: "religion"

Za-vel: "relic"

[thebajoranwitch]

A reminder: if you were taught that mosquitoes in general are useless to the environment and could be eliminated “without consequence”, then you were taught incorrectly. People still regularly comment this silly notion on my posts with absolute confidence. Our goal is reducing risk to humans, NOT eliminating the dangerous animal altogether.

You don’t have to like irritating, gross, or dangerous animals (most people do not), but if you are ever arguing for the extinction of an entire animal species try to remember the natural world is unfathomably complex in ways none of us can predict.