@siin@pagan.plus
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

siin

@siin@pagan.plus

ritual handwork tattooer & multimedia artist curating transcendent experiences

site in progress:
https://artofsiin.wixsite.com/siin

creating a sanctuary in the desert #RanchoDeLaLibertad

desert inkwitch, practicing magick in blood and bones
attempting to exist tangential to social reality (and mostly failing)

books closed for all but referrals
support: https://ko-fi.com/lacasadebrujas

#InkWitch #LandWorship #Siin #SacredTattoo #InkWork

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

kristinHenry, (edited ) to art
@kristinHenry@vis.social avatar

Hey folks!

Please do NOT report artists for sharing links to where their art is available to purchase!

Just DO NOT be such a jerk!

If you want artists to keep sharing their work on mastodon, this whole "absolute no commercial posts at all" attitude has to stop. There is a huge difference between a big corporate ad campaign and an individual artist posting a link to their own art shop.

Edit/Update: Well, this blew up. I'm muting now, and won't see replies.

siin,
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

@kristinHenry If we want people to move off of corporate social, artists, artisans, sex workers, and so on need to feel like they can still make a living. IF the goal is to get people to move from corporate social, this just has to be acknowledged and we have to find ways to accept that sometimes people might share links or solicit sales.

siin, to permaculture
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

Desert Winter 11-26

Welcome, winter! Welcome, crisp pink mornings and cerulean full-moon evenings by bonfires dug into the sand, burning away the year's resolutions and warming bare blue feet.

Welcome, winter! Welcome openness and all day outside, coming in red-nosed and panting.

High desert winters are harsh and yet somehow mild, with biting dry winds and freezing nights, but tolerable chilly days and not much snow. We're around 2000ft above sea level, so we don't have quite as harsh a season coming as those who are higher up in the valley.

The climate here is tricky: it's dry, with a moderate growing season, but the extremes of summer & winter make it a little tricky to choose crops & sustainable shade trees that can survive both the extreme heat and the severe cold. Many species that are touted as being "drought tolerant" and that are popular are unlikely to make it through the freezing nights and occasional frosts. Succulents and cacti are included in this: I've noticed that once the liquid in their pads freeze they're unlikely to survive. It'll be interesting to see how our agave, aloe, and nopales do this winter now that they've had a few months to establish themselves. I know that they're possible to grow, because there are many, many homes here that have enormous specimens of all three. So I'm optimistic, we'll just have to see how it goes.

Last year, wild things began to sprout in October, including a wild species of lily, wheat and other grasses, and a kind of daisy. This year, with significantly less rain, I haven't seen a single lily shoot or a single daisy flower, and the wheat that began to optimistically poke its head out after the single August storm has stayed brown. There's an urgency here, amplified in my mind by the tourist hype: off-roaders will be making noise and carving up topsoil for the next month or so en masse, and camper vans and Subarus have taken over nearby Joshua Tree, making the most of camping reservations they made last year and milder temperatures in the park for bouldering and hiking. Some visitors come with respect for the delicate altered ecosystem, many with the misconception that this land, if left alone, will itself save desert tortoises and chollas, and spring forth abundance. Some come with the misconception that this land is useless, and all it's good for is spewing gasoline and destroying native grasses with rubber tires.

This winter will be full of making plans as we weather the weather and the influx of visitors. We have a plan to try to buy some vacant land nearby to expand our regeneration efforts, and in the spring hope to (finally, we hoped to this year but weren't ready) introduce ruminants and poultry to help manage our existing property.

I recently watched a video of Cedar Springs Ranch in the high desert of Western Colorado, and the owner said something along the lines of us needing to become the animals that once managed this land. Settlers eliminated the bison & buffalo that trampled grasses, grazed & spread manure, and the beaver that once dammed streams and slowed down water. So we must be the bison, we must be the beaver. Through holistic management of livestock and thoughtful earthwork, we can coax life back here while maintaining the existing ecosystem.

So, anyways, this is a long, rambling update/rumination as the seasons change and my mind is full of considerations, possibility, and energy to work through cooler days.

siin, to random
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

it never stops
this feeling worthless
and falling from grace.
men are always angry,
she said
it's in their goddamn genes
maladaptive mutations
all blamed on you
you you you you
you disrespected me
you rolled your eyes
you talked back
you weren't down
you sighed
you made me feel like maybe I need to look inside
but I can't because of how I learned to treat you this way
"you don't know how it feels"
the fucking irony
we carry your pain, you men
it came first from our fathers
next from our brothers
then from our partners
we carry the hurt tenfold
yet you think its yours alone
like that absolves you of something
of the work of healing
like it's your god given right to be healed by a woman
while you make us meaningless
while you feed us your anger
and then doubled
when we dare
to get angry

?

Cat_LeFey, to random
@Cat_LeFey@pagan.plus avatar

OMG, I just realized it's my fediversary! A whole year and I have more followers than I did on the other site, same amount of people voting in my Friday polls, my feed is basically the same stuff- cool fiber art, witchy shit, nature being its horrifyingly beautiful self. I was not out looking for a replacement for Twitter, but that's how it's turned out.

It's weird to think back on how I was so upset about leaving Twitter, how silly of me! I have confirmed that joining this space, for me, was the right decision.

siin,
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

@Cat_LeFey we're glad you're here! Thank you for sticking with us 😋

siin, to paganism
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

Final on the first knuckles, going over the lines I'd made with the cutting technique. In preparation for upcoming rites 🖤

siin, to random
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

I've added candles & membership tiers to my shop!

Candles can be customized with herbs you choose, and charged with an intention if you desire, or you can pick from a few select combinations charged for more common intentions.

Membership tiers include access to special requests like custom sigils that can be physical or digital, or meditations written specifically for you on request.

Higher membership tiers can also join my Session group, and get a few other special goodies like once monthly single-run prints in the mail.

As we prepare for the season, I feel inspired to create things that are meaningful, and I will so long as I have this energy to do so. It's also important I maintain some kind of income, especially as food, fuel, and energy continue to increase in cost.

If you need a little magick, or feel that you'd like your gift giving to come from independent artisans this year, I'd love to create you something. If there's anything not listed here or in my shop that would make your day, feel free to message me 🤍

Thanks for reading! Blessings ~

https://ko-fi.com/artofsiin/shop

Julian_Invictus, to random
@Julian_Invictus@pagan.plus avatar

I wish I could encourage my friends to abandon bad habits and build up good ones without being accused of being a Prescriptivist or a control freak. Makes me feel like we can't possibly be friends based on anything more than similar likes and dislikes, which feels shallow and meaningless. Were it not for my partner and my beloved Celestial Twin, surely I'd have lost myself to despair and loneliness by now.

siin,
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

@Julian_Invictus Being a human amongst other humans is always so hard. We're all so frail with our defensiveness and other psychological nonsense. Glad you have a couple beings that you feel a deeper connection with, that makes a world of difference.

siin, to paganism
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

Something spurred my partner to begin building a temple to Osiris, and this temple site was the location of the altar we erected for our Dia de Muertos celebration. It was fitting, the idea that offerings were being made both to our ancestors and the god who watched over the underworld.

The altar I hand painted with symbols related to Egyptian, Western occult, and Meso-American systems. This practice of ours is growing oddly eclectic, but somehow feels placed and connected with the landbase despite its tenuosity of place literally.

The temple site itself is an island 14 feet in diameter, hand carved from the land and built up by my partner. The 'moat' around it is encircled with rocks, and he likewise created a spiral path off of one of our walking paths to enter the temple. We've planted four marigold plants and a date palm at strategic points along this path. You enter the temple from the East, and face West as you worship.

There are plans to build a structure here, but for now it is freestanding, an altar in the middle of our land, in the middle of the desert, covered still in marigolds and offered seeds, petals and incense.

This morning my daughter & I walked out there, and sat with the altar for the first time since the event. I offered new flowers, seeds, and scattered petals. My daughter made herself busy arranging flowers on the ground in quite an intentional way, although she can't tell me about the designs in her head yet. I sat and meditated for a few moments below the altar, as the sun rose over the valley.

I think that this is to become a daily ritual. It's been a long time since I've properly engaged in prayer or ritual on a regular basis, and even my once-daily meditation practice has become "here and there, as I have time". There is something so powerful about structured practice, and I really don't know if I can explain why.

This might become a thread of other updates with regards to my spiritual practice, since I feel as though a lot has shifted in the last few months.

siin,
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

@Julian_Invictus You're right. We're learning every day, seeking guides, and doing what feels connected & true. Thank you for this, I appreciate you.

siin,
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

When I shifted away from calling my practice "chaos magick", because it had shifted away from being that, I was wary of ever adopting the term "witch", despite the fact that the textbook definition was semi-accurate and that it's a common descriptor. But quite honestly, the way that I used to describe my practice most recently, as ancestral cultural practices, wasn't accurate either.

There are aspects of our practice that are very loosely and tangentially related to pre-Catholic Mexican practices (and for me more personally, Sicilian beliefs or practices, although my scholarship is lacking here and it's kind of hard to explain why I even say this, but I'll try later), but to say that our practice is ultimately based on these is inaccurate.

I think that what I've been trying to convey, or to honor, is that I've been following a complex set of experiences which have left me with impressions of these practices, but not necessarily the practices themselves. That the embeddings I've had into various kinds of spirituality amongst groups or people I've been involved with have opened the door to a kind of connection and a kind of openness to the wisdom kept closely within their practices. However, I think that I've miscommunicated and inadvertently conflated this impression with the real thing.

Meanwhile, my practice has developed along a different trajectory as experiences with guides and teachers continue to occur. Based on the actual, tangible actions within this practice, there is more than just worship occurring. The practice of magick itself has been a central part of my practice for years now, and for this reason I plan on re-introducing my practice and using the term "witch" as a descriptor.

That still feels strange, and I can't quite put my finger on why. By definition, it is accurate: a practitioner of magick, the tangible practice of which is usually rooted in pagan or neo-pagan systems.

But it's complicated, because much of the education, especially in the last year and a half, on these systems has come from guides and not books, from intuitive action and not grimoires.

This path has been complicated, but perhaps that's normal. Perhaps many of us here have found that once we open the door to wisdom, to spirits, to gods, to guides ancestral and not, that we find ourselves exploring a little, feeling out our own intuition and learning little by little what the right direction is, like someone groping about in the dark with the tiniest candle flame to guide them.

siin,
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

@REEL Yes! To say that 'purity' is the goal would be to detract from the power of all syncretic belief systems, and beyond that: the reality of syncretic belief systems oozing and bleeding their way across cultural lines, taught in half, talked about, used as inspiration, molded and remolded, and so on. One of the things I found so inspiring about the Psychic Bible (my first real introduction into magick or the occult) was the "use what you have, use what makes sense to you" mentality. Levi says to forge a blade under Jupiter using iron! I don't have a forge! I didn't know when Jupiter was out! Where does one get iron? But, I have paper and a pen, I have candles and wax, I have flowers and incense, I have stones and shattered mirrors.

Christians have had the privilege of not being concerned about the degradation of their culture and therefore have had the foresight and understanding that adaptation of their practice is crucial to their survival. Why did the new Jesus movement happen at all? Why do progressive Christian churches hang LGBTQ+ flags? Evolution, adaptation. The Church wants to survive, it wants to be fed.

Sometimes I think we can learn from that: sometimes our practices, too, need to evolve and adapt. Remembering the old ways, passing them down, but letting go of control, for once the old ways were the new ones, too.

There's a conflict between getting in touch with ancestral practice and day to day reality, sometimes. And it isn't to say that one can't attain to their ancestral practice 100%, I think that it is possible depending on your access to teachers, materials, information, language, etc. But purity becomes harder and harder as bloodlines become blurred, as affiliation becomes confusing, as assimilation makes this or that no longer resonant, as we adapt practice to legailty and social norms (one example that comes to mind is of modern Santerias who no longer practice animal sacrifice but who adapt and create substitutions instead).

And I agree with you that the blend IS the magick! Such power comes from adaptation, autonomy, agency, sovereignty, taking control of your own practice, learning from many teachers, listening to many guides, and so on.

siin,
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

@lifewithtrees @iraantlers @nathanlovestrees I second this! Foraging for meaningful totems is how I built up my first altar. It gave me something to connect to, and helped me create a regular practice (that waxed and waned over the years, as things do)

siin, to paganism
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

Are there any ways in which you find you can effectively integrate your values or spiritual practice into typical consumerist holidays?

I guess I'm mostly speaking to those in the US right now as we approach "thanksgiving", but Christmas is widespread as well and I feel like the dread that's setting in for me probably is relevant to many of you outside the US as well.

Since we moved back down from Oakland and started seeing our families more, we've tried to assimilate into holiday traditions because that space for families to gather is important to us. However, this year we're really burnt out from the misappropriated focus of these holidays and trying to recenter them on things that feel resonant, while still enabling our families to get together and share tradition. It's a hard balance, and quite frankly I'm not sure if it'll be successful.

I'd love to hear if anyone else has ever straddled this space, and how you've navigated more traditionally focused family members' feelings whilst staying true to your values?

siin,
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

@SpiritBearDreaming This is absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing this wonderful ritual.

I think it's quite amazing that you also found that friends & family members felt comfortable joining in. I'll definitely be considering ways in which we could bring family together into our Solstice rituals.

Thank you again, hearing how your circle used to celebrate the Solstice feels very inspiring.

Cat_LeFey, to random
@Cat_LeFey@pagan.plus avatar

It is an extremely windy day, with storm clouds gathering above.

I took advantage and did some wind cleansing- just standing out in the yard with my arms raised. I let it wash away all the stale ick that accumulated from being stuck in the house for a few days, and I'm feeling refreshed.

siin,
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

@Cat_LeFey Oh what a brilliant idea, I must do this immediately while we have blustery weather but not too much dust blowing around!

siin, to KindActions
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

For the next 72 hours, all prints on my kofi are "pay what you want" with a minimum of $1. That's right, that means that for the cost of shipping and a dollar, you could get a limited run print that will never be printed again!

I wanted to make them free, but kofi won't let me. Still, this is a really great deal. If you've had your eye on any but the cost has been prohibitive, now is the time to take them off my hands.

https://ko-fi.com/artofsiin/shop

siin, to random
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

I think it's time for a big post purge on my page, later. If there's anything you really want to save, now's the time!

I'll be keeping all posts with photos attached relevant to art & spiritual practice, but removing extraneous text posts and some reboosts to make my page a little more navigable

siin, to magick
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

Dia Sacrificia was transformative, and incredible.

The postponement of the event led to a smaller turnout, which ended up being a blessing. The tight group forged quick bonds, and was more open to ceremony and participating in the rituals than I think they would have been otherwise.

A 40 foot heptagram was carved into the earth, a fire dug out into the middle, candles placed for each of the seven planets. In this space we ended ceremony, warmed bare feet by the fire, made offerings to the earth.

I hand painted our altar, which my partner built on Friday, a temple to Osiris and to our ancestors, who were most certainly with us throughout the evening.

The meditation I led brought us into connection with the true nature of time, of different states of Being, with our ancestors, with our guiding spirits,

and the ritual I performed, my first performance in years, a ritual self-tattoo, commemorated years of transformation and spiritual work, and was rejuvenating in ways I can't even begin to describe.

All were welcome, all joined the following day in meals and communion, in cleaning up and drying marigolds, in play and laughter.

Like shaping the earth, shaping a life takes years, but it feels as though we are on a wonderful path with wonderful people, and I am so grateful.

So, a few photos from the morning after, to share what I can of the experience.

An old white porcelain claw foot tub, seen from above. A bouquet of marigold flowers sit on the sand beneath it. Inside the tub is water, turned a semi-translucent black from tattoo ink. Rose petals, rosehips and rosemary float in the water. The sun graces the water from behind the tub (from the perspective of the photograph), creating reflections and shadows in the flowery black water

siin,
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

The tattoo that I received/gave myself in ritual, a commemoration of spiritual attainment.

I have plans to extend the ceremony, to add to this and even it out with handwork when it heals: to turn it into a long lasting sigil, an earned adornment.

This tattoo was done using a cutting technique that I do not offer to clients for many (kind of obvious) reasons.

siin,
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

@khthoniaa Thank you so much. I'm so grateful that it's meaningful to others, that I share these little ramblings about my work. 🖤

siin, to random
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

After wrestling with the decision for a while, I've decided to offer my favorite one-off piece for sale: the nail collar!

I have plans to make something similar in the future that fits my current lifestyle a bit better, but in the meantime, this piece truly deserves a life off the shelf. It's something I'm very proud of having made, I think it's beautiful.

To purchase:
https://ko-fi.com/s/427c7fa8c4

The same woman as before, this time in 3/4 view with her face visible. The collar is shown from a different angle, and it's more clear how far the nails stick out from the collar. She poses in front of a painting, a red torso is visible covered in black snakes

siin,
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

@iraantlers You have such a way with words, and such deep perception. Thank you, as always. This gave me chills, the good kind 🖤

siin, to random
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

One thing that's been unexpected but wholly fulfilling and important as we take this week to prep for our unorthodox Dia de los Muertos event has been cleaning.

For maybe 8 weeks, I wasn't getting any cleaning done but the basic laundry/dishes/spot sweeping, and dust and bloodstains and residue from the heightened emotions were gathering in corners, across floors, and under furniture.

I don't think that we realized the magnitude of what this meant. We kept giving ourselves the space to let things go, and I think that in those moments we needed that space to just let the balls drop. But this week, it became apparent that it was more than just dust accumulating in the corners of our household. Our daughter, who's been sleeping through the night since she was a year old, stopped sleeping. Everyone was cranky, not working cohesively, inexplicably frustrated at all the little things. I was constantly feeling overstimulated, overwhelmed, and was picking up feelings and thoughts that didn't feel like my own, but was trying to just force them out and push through.

One night, after trying for five hours to get my daughter to go back to sleep, I woke my partner and told him that it was his turn, that I needed some sleep. When I woke in the morning, he told me that when he asked her what she needed she wouldn't sign like normal, she would just point to different spots in the room repeatedly. He had the thought to smudge the room with some sage we have from a friend's garden, and he said that she fell asleep right after.

So Tuesday, I deep cleaned the interior of the house, threw open the curtains which had remained closed for weeks, recharged the saltwater & palo santo charms I keep on our front altar and in the hallway to the bedroom, and re-arranged and recharged elements of both altars.

And then we spent Wednesday cleaning the patio, hanging our new sign, cleaning the outdoor bathrooms, sweeping and picking up the studio.

And then, last night, our daughter finally slept through the night again. Our actions have been more cohesive, our patience less thin, and overall the house feels lighter, brighter, more positive.

It made me really stop to think about the influences behind our feelings and actions, and how infrequently we think below the surface or the story we're telling ourselves. Cognitive behavioral therapy tells us that the way we feel about things and react to them is largely shaped by our childhoods and specifically our childhood trauma, but we rarely stop to consider the ways in which other external forces influence our behavior in ways we might not realize at first.

So, as we push forward through this most liminal of weeks which, for most, ends tonight, but which, for some, keeps going through the 6th, I challenge you to sit and meditate on the things that may be influencing your mood, your stress, your sleep patterns, your reactions.

iraantlers, to random
@iraantlers@mastodon.online avatar

w/ @microtones https://mastodon.social/@microtones/109800423044798330

foggy river valley

siin,
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

@iraantlers @microtones ahhh these feel like a breath of fresh air. I can taste it

siin, to Halloween
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

Happy Halloween!

This seems like such a cute idea, and such a fun break from the intensity of this week's physical and spiritual preparations.

So! If you comment "Trick or Treat" on this post, you'll get one of the following as determined by a coin toss:

Treat:
🖤 A personalized sigil to protect you from malevolent spirits
🎃 A short, personal, stream of consciousness poem

Trick:
😈 Halloween dad joke

I probably won't get to most of these until tomorrow, but I'm excited to see what you all get!

siin,
@siin@pagan.plus avatar

@khthoniaa Treat!

autumn rages onward towards November
what was there to remember?
find yourself down by the river
holy baths of whispering streams

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