“In general…there’s no point in writing hopeless novels. We all know we’re going to die; what’s important is the kind of men and women we are in the face of this.”
— Anne Lamott
Its really funny and weird how, of all the european pagan mythologies, greek is the one white ppl know the most of by far.
Like, of course it makes sense, greco-romans were hailed as the peak of civilization by white european elites at least like, twice in history, but it’s still really wild like. We’ll know the names of every olympian and what exactly their deal is, know like 20 different random greek monsters who only appeared in like One Story,
but then u ask abt the british isles, site of a people who would eventually colonize the fucking world, and its like “uhhhhhh theres morrigan? Also some fairies. Is morrigan a fairy? I think there were some tree worshippers. Some dudes put blue paint on their body and had big shields i think?” and a book’s gonna claim there was an irish potato god and you’re going to believe them bcs you’ll be so wrapped up in the potato famine thing that you’ll forget potatos were IMPORTED FROM THE ANDES MOUNTAINS.
And then like folks will be familiar with like 4 norse gods maybe 5, know some words like asgard and ragnarok, but ask them who fenrir is and theyll be like “Is he important?”
Also if you ask them about germanic mythos they will draw a fucking blank bcs even tho the general public are familiar with at least a few germanic mythos things, we completely stripped out the germanic origins from them when we called them generic “fairy tales.” Same for france and the iberian penninsula i think. Also dont ask me which fairy tales come from where bcs i am a prime example of this, i do not fucking know, i just vaguely remember that they came from certain places and then spread from there.
Oh And absolutely FORGET about anything east of germany fucking forget about it. The slavic regions have a rich mythos and even ppl who are pretty knowledgable abt the stuff i said above won’t know shit about it, case in point, me! Go ahead! I know a bunch abt celtic stuff and norse stuff and a lill bit of german stuff, but ask me to bring up ONE slavic story! The only thing my brain is cookin up is that one about the lindwurm, and even that one i cant remember if its actually slavic!
Now Think abt how many white people claim heritage from places in europe that arent greece and italy. Think about how little those same ppl know abt their ancestor’s prechristian stories and beliefs. Im hispanic i know like one thing abt pre-christian spain and its that they had a funny word for fairies (i don’t even remember the name!), just as an example. Like isnt that fucking insane? You’d think a buncha colonizing douches competing with each other to take over the world would put a bit more effort into educating ppl abt the ancestral stories that set these guys apart from each other, but no, not really. And like dont get me wrong its not like this doesnt make sense. It does. The roman empire and later christianity overtook like all these myriad cultures years before colonialism and white supremacy was even a pipe dream, to say nothing about the internal strife that happened in the iberian peninsula and the british isles.
But at the same time, in recent years there’s been massive pushes to recover this lost culture (especially in those british isles places that arent england), and even with this effort, so much is unknown to a fuckton of people who, i repeat, claim heritage from these places. (In fact, one of those efforts probably set us back bcs it got caught up in bullshit ideology and mysticism and grabbed stuff from totally different people to support a bullshit point. Looking at you, nazis.) and it’s just kind of insane. Overall this is just a peak example to me of the hollowness and artificiality of the concept of whiteness. The master race can’t even remember their own ancestors, and ancient history had to be wiped away or made generic in order to support the notion that these people have something in common, and thus, something setting them apart from everyone else.
This is amazing, I wish more creative teachers gave this advice
"Stop saying 15 year olds with weird interests are cringe, they're 15" this is true however you should also stop saying adults with weird interests are cringe because who gives a shit
A brief masterpost of some of my advice posts for beginner witches and the episodes of my podcast dealing with the same. (There is UPG here, particularly where marked, as I base a good deal of my advice on my own experience and observations of other witches.)
Hex Positive, Ep. 04 - Advice for Beginner Witches (July 2020)
Hex Positive, Eps. 6-7 - Come In For A Spell 1 & 2 (Sept 2020)
Hex Positive, Ep. 12 - Witching From The Broom Closet (Jan 2021)
Hex Positive, Ep. 24 - Warding A Witchy Home (Dec 2021)
Hex Positive, Ep. 27 - When Inspo Takes A Holiday (March 2022)
I Feel Like I Might Be A Witch...But I Don't Know
I Have Mental Health Issues - Can I Still Be A Witch?
Can I Still Be A Witch And Use Magic If I Take Medication?
How Do I Teach Myself To Believe In Magic?
How Does Magic Work? (upg ahoy)
Will I Be Possessed Or Haunted If I Try Witchcraft?
What Are Some Things I Can Do To Get Started?
How Can I Start My Practice If I Don't Have Tools Or Books?
How Do I Organize My Study Materials?
How Do I Contact A Deity?
How Do I Worship My Deity If I Can't Have An Altar?
Tips On Working With Deities And Spirits (here be upg)
My Intuitive Spark Feels Low - How Do I Get It Back?
I'm In A Slump - How Do I Get Out Of It?
I've Reached A Stopping Point - What Do I Do Next?
My Candle Is Flickering - Does It Mean Something Bad?
How Do I Make A Magic Circle For Spellcasting?
What Happens If I Get Interrupted While Casting A Spell?
Do I Need To Maintain Positive Vibes For My Spells To Work?
What Should I Do If I REALLY Want To Hex Someone?
How Do I Know / What Do I Do If I've Been Hexed?
How Do I Become More Skilled And More Powerful?
How Do I Know When I'm Ready For The Next Step In My Practice?
Witchcraft Exercise - Quantifying Your Craft
Witchcraft Exercise - Dig Through The Ditches
Witchcraft Exercise - The Book of Lessons
Witchcraft Exercise - Home Brews
Tips on How to Visualize and Construct Basic Wards
Practicing Your Warding Technique
Cleansing Before Warding / Warding A Shared Space
Refreshing / Patching Existing Wards
Non-Appropriative Herbs for Smoke-Cleansing
Smokeless Cleansing / Other Methods
Recommended Reading & Book Suggestions
Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo we’ve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and it’s revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.
I need people to stop blaming the death of movies on “quips”. A quip is just a funny line of dialogue. That’s all. Like I just saw a post talking about quips and the death of movies and brought up Pirates of the Caribbean as an example of a better movie and yes it is but also that movie is FULL OF QUIPS. I just rewatched The Princess Bride. It’s all quips. Every single line. And it’s a masterpiece.
Movies suck when people don’t care about the art they’re making. That includes them not caring about their quips. Which is why a lot of comic relief dialogue ALSO sucks now. But the problem isn’t that funny dialogue exists.
Reminder not to edit while you write. You want to finish that story someday? Then stop editing while you write!
Fixing an obvious error/typo in the sentence you just wrote is fine, but we're not talking about that. Do not reread, do not continue searching for errors, do not even spellcheck in case that leads you down the editing rabbithole.
Finish the story. The clock is ticking on that muse and distractions waste precious time!
“Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.”
— Carl Sagan
Being a writer your brain is either
A) STUFFED TO BURSTING with ideas you have no clue what to do with or how to make them make sense
or
B) It's a black hole that devours every inkling of creativity in your cells and you are just hoping it'll consume you too
THERE IS NO IN BETWEEN