themilophant

[themilophant]

Also, in answer to an earlier question, Janet Farrar is still alive and kicking, and her thoughts have changed a lot since 1981, like most of us! Her book Progressive Witchcraft from the early 2000s is still a bit dated (because early 2000s...), but it not only addresses a lot of things people might find objectionable about her early work, but also more importantly lays out a clear case for why British Traditional Wicca, like any living tradition, should be constantly examinating and challenging itself to grow.

It's really easy to look back on Craft elders and imagine them fossilized at the moment they got published, but the truth is not only was that A Different Time, but many of them were awfully young then! I had a lot of intensely held opinions at 30 that I'm glad no one is shackling me to at 48.

I thought you were joking when you said that the Farrar's books were outdated but holy shittt, even for 1970s wicca/witchcraft those guys were like full gender heterosexual white magic ye harm none thing, I was also seeing their interview were christian kids interview them, and boy it is hard to watch, but on to my question kskk, do you know if they changed later down?,like Janet seems to be okay sometimes,I can't find anything of them on their "controversial views" except their later polyamorous relationship (wich come to think of it I would love to hear their gender rationale on that), and also, how do you personally (if you do so) reconcile this type of author?, like there is no doubt that they are important in craft history, but now they kinda do more harm than good.

Hi Anon! I'm sorry if you've been waiting for a bit, you know how Tumblr is.

So one thing it's important to remember is: back in the 1970s and 80s a religion where women run the show was very progressive. Feminism got bolted onto Wicca pretty quickly once it hit the American West Coast and Starhawk wrote The Spiral Dance. Things like worshipping a goddess who didn't need a man around to tell her what to do were really unusual for the time. All this hippie-dippy shit like being naked in your rituals and such was far out, man, not like those totally square and boring Christians.

The problem is that, like many older people who were once cool and progressive, they just kind of stopped where they were in the 70s and 80s and didn't really......well, progress past that point. This leads to things like statements like that one in A Witches' Bible where they think that actually gay people are perfectly OK in ritual (this was a bit of a controversial point at the time) as long as they act like their biological gender, which is hilarious to us in 2024 because they obviously conflate being gay with being trans in some bizarre fashion. This was progressive for the time. It comes across as incredibly ignorant today. And of course, if their ideas did change, well, the book is already out there, people are reading it, and you can't go back in time and change something that's already been published. You can add notes or amendments to further editions, but I don't believe they ever did that, and Stewart Farrar died in the early aughts.

I find the polyamory thing to be pretty cringe, NGL, because I am a judgmental and suspicious piece of shit and think that an awful lot of the time polyamory is a tool used to make younger women sexually available to older men - good Lord, the age difference between Stewart and Janet - and that's very distasteful.

In my opinion the Farrars are probably the stodgiest and most conservatively-written books you'll find from that time period, and they're a good example of what coven-based Alexandrian Wicca looked like at that time, but there were a lot of more relaxed writers out there at the time and LOTS more a few years later. My primary complaint with A Witches' Bible is rather specifically that asinine Oak King / Holly King thing which they made up entirely and then ineptly shoehorned into the Wheel of the Year, where it just doesn't fucking work, and then everyone else just kind of went with it. No! It sucks and is bad, don't do it!

Do I think they do more harm than good? No, I don't. I think that anyone fairly new to Wicca shouldn't read this book first thing out the gate because it sets a lot of very unrealistic expectations, and because it's pretty old - Eight Sabbats for Witches was published in 1981, which makes it a few years older than me, and The Witches' Way in 1984, which makes it a year younger than me, and TBH there's much newer and fresher material being published every year. I would much sooner recommend someone like Thorn Mooney to new person interested in traditional Wicca.

[themilophant]

The coming of spring and summer. 🌼🌸🌿🏛

“Then bright-coiffed Hecate came near to them, and often did she embrace the daughter of holy Demeter: and from that time the lady Hecate was minister and companion to Persephone…” -Hymn 2 to Demeter, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Ed.

For the fans of the stories revolved around Demeter, the Greek goddess of harvesting agriculture (crops, grains, food and the Earth‘s fertility) and her spring daughter, Persephone out there, along with her accompanying goddess, Hekate of the crossroads, night, moonlight, ghosts and witchcraft; here are some illustrations that were inspired from the style of Greek colonies in Magna Graecia, Southern Italy, and other simpler pottery variants from mainland Greece and its islands.

[themilophant]

[themilophant]

It's that time of year again.

I was at a witchy meeting and one member once again did the "they stole our holidays" wail because Ostara and Easter were both approaching. Now, I'm going to put aside for a moment the idea that one culture can steal spring from another culture, as if there aren't many celebrations at this time of year because something else dawned on me.

I've know my fellow witch for a decade now and she seems to have a limited understanding of Christian and/or Catholic theology along with a broad view of what is "pagan."

When she looks at Easter, she sees Easter Sunday and the giving of Easter baskets and search for Easter eggs and other details that were continued by various cultures as they moved to Christianity and sees that as signs of a stolen holiday.

What she misses is the Catholic concept of 40 days of fasting and sacrifice that proceeds Easter Sunday. The significance of Good Friday, the one day the church doesn't consecrate the Eucharist so there is a church service but not a Mass in the Catholic church. Then the attending of midnight vigil or Sunday morning Mass.

That is an awful lot of lore to work through in order to steal the idea Easter bunnies, eggs and baskets.

A Catholic priest's idea of a proper Easter celebration really isn't going to look as pagan as she imagines.

Which is often my whole problem with the "they" stole our holidays. Who is the "they?" Because the church itself may have had less involvement than we imagine. What we're more likely seeing is simply folk traditions moving with the people themselves.

The church didn't steal Easter Bunnies.

The church brought death and resurrection. The people said "great, and we have these bunnies we can use."

[themilophant]

[themilophant]

Happy Floralia! 🌿🌸 I did a drawing based on the fresco of the Roman goddess Flora from Stabiae!

[themilophant]

[themilophant]

🍇 - 🍇 - 🍇 🍇 - 🍇 - 🍇 🍇 - 🍇 - 🍇

Dionysus Stimboard

[themilophant]

'Persephone' s Journey ' by Cate Simmons

[themilophant]

An emissary of Demeter reminds us that even when we cannot be together with our loved ones in person, we will see them again someday, one way or another. And in the meantime, their memories keeps us warm.

—

Demeter (associated with Ceres in Roman polytheism) is a Greek goddess of agriculture, the harvest, the earth, and the cycle of life and death. She is often depicted with poppies or bundles of grain, and snakes are one of Her sacred animals. Her daughter is Persephone (Proserpina), Who descends every winter to the Underworld. Demeter awaits Her return, year after year.

[themilophant]

The Gods are not trans allies.

The Gods are not trans-friendly.

The Gods do not ‘support’ queer people.

The Gods ARE trans. The Gods ARE queer.

The Gods are transgender, They are transsexual. That is a fact. ‘Trans’ means ‘beyond, across’.

The Gods are beyond gender. Beyond sex. Beyond flesh. Beyond normality and norms— thus, They are queer. They are trans. They are on the other side of gender, of sex— on the side we cannot even begin to understand.

The Gods are transsexual and transgender and queer not (only) within our human understanding of transness— They are not trans in the way we humans are trans.

But They are still trans. They are the original transness. The ultimate transsexuality.

Transness as a transition from a state to another state, from a form to another form— from Their divine form to one we humans can behold without being consumed by Their inherent queerness. From Their divinity to words we humans can attempt to understand and think of without being utterly lost in the enormity and infinity of the divine.

Transness as a journey, a constant state of evolution within the world— evolution of the world itself, for the Gods are the world, are beyond time, beyond space, yet constantly changing.

The Gods do not love trans worshippers despite their transness, despite their queerness. The Gods love trans worshippers for their transness. They love us because we are trans. Because we are queer.

As we defy norms, we become closer to Them— trans people are humans, mortals, but I firmly believe that there is something inherently holy in transition. To change yourself, to think the limits of the body and to alter your own flesh is to create, is to destroy. To understand how limitless the world is— how flesh and sex and gender are human things, social things, that are made by us and can be expended and transgressed— is to take a step towards the Gods.

The Gods love you. You are made in Their image. Or maybe— you make yourself in Their image. And that is beautiful.

[themilophant]

"I am determined to be as hopeful as humanly possible. I just keep breathing, and calling the Muse, and coming to the community fire."

--Phyllis Curott, interviewed on the podcast Around Grandfather Fire

[themilophant]

I’m so ready for the spooky season, you don’t even know 🎃 Etsy Instagram

[themilophant]

Demeter goddess of the harvest, 09-2023

[themilophant]

WIP - Dionysus in bull form

[themilophant]

my portable working altar! I suppose it counts as a travel altar as well even though I keep it in the box so my cats don't mess with it 😀

the box is from my A5-sized Archer and Olive bullet journal that I repurposed for this. using the third picture as reference and going roughly left > right and up > down, this is what I keep in it:

✨ burning plate ✨ brush pen ✨ sewing kit: birthday candles (blue, green, yellow, pink), thread (white, red, black, green, blue, brown), matches, buttons, scissors, needles ✨ salt and pepper packet ✨ planetary representations in wax seal and crystal chip form: Sun (gold seal; tigers eye), Mercury (orange seal; apatite), Venus (light green seal; malachite), Moon (silver seal; moonstone), Mars (red seal; carnelian), Jupiter (blue seal; labradorite), Saturn (brown seal; amethyst), Neptune (teal seal; lapis lazuli), Uranus (purple seal; clear quartz), and Pluto (black seal; obsidian) [seals stored in white organza bag] ✨ glass candle holder ✨ chime candle holder turned small offering cup ✨ selenite plate ✨ 6 clear quartz points ✨ strand of chili peppers for protection ✨ wand ✨ planets bracelet ✨ lighter ✨ small envelope for the crystal chips/quartz points ✨ colored paper (light pink, pink, purple, light purple, light blue, blue, green, yellow green, light yellow, yellow, orange, red, brown, white, gray, black) ✨ geomancy set ✨ match incense (sandalwood) ✨ tarot card holder turned into holder for burning and selenite plates ✨ painted mat

the match incense is the only thing I purchased specifically for this box, I already had everything else I needed. I’ve used this box since putting it together and the only things that do not fit in there are my tarot cards, dnd dice, workbook, and notes! and I will probably add a coin in there too. I'm quite happy with this set up! :)