siin

siin, 7 months ago to random

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

#ArtForSale #ArtistsOfMastodon #Kofi #SupportArtists #NailCollar #Jewelry #IndustrialFashion #Industrial

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, 7 months ago to random

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.

#Meditations #Mindfulness

iraantlers, 7 months ago to random

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

foggy river valley

siin, 7 months ago to Halloween

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!

#TrickOrTreat2023 #Halloween

siin, 7 months ago to magick

The most beautifully bleached bones I've ever been able to accomplish. Event prep in the studio, which I've affectionately named #TheeOtherworld

#Siin #RanchoDeLaLibertad #VultureCulture #Magick #Talismans #OccultArt

The same skull as the previous picture, alongside some straight small branches and fox leg & pelvic bones on a wooden workbench. There is a triangular talisman made of a fox femur and some of the branches in progress to the right, still in the process of being tied

siin, 7 months ago to magick

@WyrdingWays

Meditations | 10-30

I didn't want to work on your request until I had something meaningful to say, and until last night I just... didn't.

Because I'm sure you've heard tips from other people about setting energetic boundaries, but like what does that even mean? Purification rituals are cool, but they aren't necessarily restorative and in and of themselves require energy to work.

But last night was strange. Suddenly, out of the twilight darkness settling over my house, I became suddenly and inexplicably overstimulated. It took me a moment of focus to realize why, as there were really no stimuli beyond the sounds of our footsteps walking in from outside, and the usual visual stimuli of objects in my house. The TV wasn't on, we weren't playing music, no one was talking to me.

But someone, or rather, many someone's, were talking to me. It was as though I walked through a doorway into a packed room, and everyone was trying to greet me at once. Except I couldn't tell who was speaking, I could only hear the roar of distant voices. And I'm using terms we can all understand, it wasn't quite so apparent what was going on. The stimuli was more like energetic frequencies trying to tune to my channel rather than actual audible voices, but I think you all get the idea.

This is something I've struggled with my whole life. I've always had an issue finding balance between shutting down connection with the worlds around me (if we choose to distinguish states of existence as different worlds entirely as is common) or not knowing how to shut out influences that weren't positive or that I just couldn't figure out how to channel at all.

It dawned on me that perhaps so many people have a hard time finding connection with the Divine, or the land, or even themselves, because we really are able to access communications from beings who exist in other states when we truly connect, but that's probably a thought for another time.

I've never really understood the concept of spirit work, I guess because I've never intentionally channeled spirits, they've always just accessed me somehow, and I don't know why or how that is, but it just is. So when you asked me to write about how to care for yourself when intentionally engaging in this kind of work, I was a little stumped. But I think what I realized last night, since this was on my mind already, is that the most crucial component of protecting yourself from energy drain when engaging with these spirits or beings in other states of existence is a proper, regular practice of engaging with them.

That sounds counterintuitive, but I've learned that access points are like muscles, and that the more you engage them, the more you can really feel what or who it is that you're speaking to or channeling. I'm quite early on this journey of finding balance and finding healthy ways to channel these beings' communications, but this has been the single change that has made a world of difference in my ability to not feel just... exhausted and almost even violated after engaging with these beings. Lots of practitioners say "learn to set energetic boundaries" (or the same in different terms), but I've found few resources (and by no means have I exhausted all options) on what this means or how to do it. The best guess I can hazard is that like anything this takes practice, but learning to set boundaries against influences that try to chime in while you're channeling the spirit you want to seems to be the most important thing you can do, and it takes practice to be able to distinguish between communications from different entities.

I hope that this was a worthwhile read, this is a space I have a strange relationship with because I don't feel as though my perspective is the same as many. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I know that this veers from "energetic self care" so to speak, in that it doesn't have any tips for restoration after a session, but perhaps it'll help nonetheless.

#Meditations #SpiritWork #Magick #Paganism

khthoniaa, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to Halloween

deleted_by_author

siin, 7 months ago to random

So, as much as I wish that income weren't a necessity, and as much as I hoped to remain out of the commercial world entirely, I'm actually quite excited to share that I just created a ko-fi for people to purchase jewelry, art, and other custom items to be announced soon!

You can, of course, also send donations if you'd like to fund larger, more ambitious projects. Anything that you send will be used to further projects on this land and will make me able to continue building this sanctuary and providing space for those who need healing & connection in this way.

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

#kofi #ArtistsOfMastodon #ArtForSale #Siin

khthoniaa, 7 months ago to random

deleted_by_author

Julian_Invictus, 7 months ago to random

That wee bisexual coffee shitpost still cookin hella Fedi Numbers.

siin, 7 months ago to art

Wearable art, anyone?

I've decided to sell this rave mask I made in 2020. It would look absolutely incredible on most adults, I have a teeny skull and so it's too big on me. This is also a really incredible piece for modeling, even if you never wear it out of the studio. The chain is adjustable, and should fit most people.

This mask will not (I repeat, will not) provide protection from airborne particles and will only minimally repress the escape of your own airborne particles. If you want to wear this to an event and mask, I recommend wearing a light mask underneath it.

DM me if you're interested. Because this is a prototype, it's vegan and also a little cheaper than I would typically sell something like this for. I'm asking $100 or, if you're in love with it and you DM me first, I'm willing to haggle.

#ArtForSale #ArtistsOfMastodon #Art #Mask #RaveGear #MaskUp

A person models the mask from before. It covers most of her face, including nose and mouth, and extends down beyond the chin. The mirrors reflect the sunlight, and bits of her environment can be seen in the reflection.

ai6yr, 7 months ago to Arizona

"I Ate All Your Precious Golf Worms And I’d Do It Again": "I also understand water well enough to know that this entire Sun Belt thing is unsustainable for you. It'd be a tragedy, in the Greek sense—I am a javelina; of course I read the classics—if your hubris weren't so self-insistent. I know I'll have the last laugh. " #arizona #water #golf #javelina #nature https://defector.com/i-ate-all-your-precious-golf-worms-and-id-do-it-again

siin, 7 months ago to random

Is there anything in particular you'd like to see me write up a meditation about? Something gnawing at you, something you'd like a framework to help you start digging deeper?

I have so many in my mind right now but they're all over the line of what I'm willing to post online. In the meantime, I'd love to fill the gap with something useful to someone, if possible 🖤

#Meditations #Ruminations #Mindfulness

siin, 7 months ago to shortstory

The first tattoo I ever saw done was an initiation tattoo for a gang.

Tattooing in my life has only been commercial for short periods at a time. When I had to leave LA the first time, for instance, I went through a period where I walked to the local white hipster American traditional shop and got flash from an artist I thought was cute once every two weeks pretty much without fail. No matter how hard I tried, though, it never gave me the feeling that the tattoos I saw in my youth gave me. Commercial tattooing is necessarily void of communal initiation, void of rites of passage, void of the sense that you earned it.

And I don't intend to diminish the incredible artistry and skill in commercial tattooing. There are millions of artists in the world far, for more masterful at this medium than I, that's for sure. I'd be honored to learn from any one of these new masters I'm sure. Theirs are not clients who want the things I've mentioned, their clients are art collectors: ever more discerning and ambitious. And they themselves are artists. True artists, worthy of their title.

But the rest of my life was spent at barrio "tattoo shops" -- studios in someone's house, a homemade kit pulled out in a car. Or the real shops that made it through the ringer of county and city health codes and existed legitimately, masters of black and grey slinging ink for kings and captains of war. Masters who learned in alleyways and cars, their own garages, or from other masters who made it to legitimacy from their own set (of these there are many). These were artists, and holy men. Keepers of knowledge, of stories, keepers of titles. The marks they gave had power beyond the ability of most of you to comprehend.

But I'd left this world, this life. I lived suspended in a different one, suspended in a different culture. The last correspondence with a friend who'd gone to jail told me that she'd rather be where she was than where I was: invisible, a life erased. Attempting and failing mostly to integrate into a society I phenotypically passed into but for whom my attempts at assimilation were always discordant and wrong. She said that at least in prison she still had respect.

I've wanted to engage in the sacred practice of tattooing since I was 13 years old, but never knew how to start. Those willing to be my mentors were long gone, the path to survival ultimately took me from the path to my purpose. I sought new mentors in commercial shops, but never seriously. For those years I didn't have much to say, for those years I was mostly silent. I could never ask for what it was I needed.

A few years ago a mentor was sought: someone with a background kind of like mine, but she doesn't know it completely. But she wasn't ready, because she's too good. She's a master because she knows there is always so much more to learn.

But she told me to read, and I read the canon. The canon reads of sailors and circus freaks, punks and soldiers, and it's wonderful. But it's reductive, it's culturally incomplete. It largely ignores tens of thousands of years of Indigenous tattooing, tattooing that looked a lot more like what I grew up with.

I had this revelation, then, that I would not join the ranks of commercial tattooers. That my purpose was not, after all, to work a bed in a shop. I learned on a machine, because coil machines were friendly to me, but I quickly became obsessed with just a needle in my hand.

And this practice of mine grew from memory, from the advice of people I love, people who are much better artists than I and who practice professionally. And also from the advice of ghosts, people who once saw wide eyes and who invited me in to see how they worked. People who told stories of prison tattoo rites, who told stories of war, and who passed into these stories forever to be remembered by the survivors.

My client list stays small for these reasons, because ultimately I am not the person you come to when you just want something beautiful and grand on your skin. I am the person you come to when you want to commemorate a rite of passage with drumbeats and incense and bleeding, when you want to meditate or cry or pray while you go through this ritual. I am the person you come to when you understand what all this means, and when you are searching for spiritual initiation, and when you've earned it.

#Siin #Inkwork #Tattooing #OccultTattoo #Tattooer #ShortStory

siin, 7 months ago to random

Finally got the studio-in-progress organized and it's workable, although I'm definitely still looking forward to getting tipis together and having a better ceremonial space for tattoos.

To-dos include hanging art, setting up a space for my illustration & flash portfolios, sanding and refinishing my workbench, and getting some fitting and dedicated linens for the futon.

#Siin #RanchoDeLaLibertad #Workshop #Studio

siin, 7 months ago to bluesky

I've been on BlueSky for 10 minutes and... (An Essay)

I get it now. I used to be like "Why can't people just stop using Twitter/Instagram/WhateverTheFuck? If they need social media, why can't they just use Mastodon? Why doesn't Pixelfed get more users? It's literally the same UI".

But I get it. I've been on BlueSky for what? 10 minutes? And I can feel my brain chemistry changing. Mastodon is a coffee shop. It doles out caffeine. You still get the little dopamine hit when you get notifications, you get that kind of substitute for human interaction that feels nice. But Twitter and BlueSky and Instagram and these apps from companies with access to inordinate amounts of data to build algorithms designed by psychologists to literally be As Addicting as Possible? These apps are dealing meth. But they've pressed it like ecstasy and made it cute. They've made it socially acceptable. But let me tell you something.

Ever since I logged onto BlueSky, I've been thinking about it. I don't think about Mastodon all day. "Oh my god what should I post next? What will get me followers? Would this be funny? Is this on brand?" I don't think about it. I come here because I have interactions with people without the pretext that they're engaging with me to get engagement in return. Because sometimes in my life I feel isolated and because this substitute for human interaction feels nice.

I thought I'd get BlueSky (despite their horrifying privacy policy - more on that later) because there are some Things Going On that make me need to get a little more serious about making money. But fuck, if this is the only way? I'm taking a vow of poverty, or getting a day job.

Because then there's their privacy policy. Access to websites you visit before and after, identifying information about your device, purchases you make, and it goes on. But even that level of invasive access should give us pause, right? I have a lot of things set up on my computer that mitigate some of that access, but then let's think about how we give the app access to our photos and videos (all of them, not just what we post in the moment), our device's camera and microphone (not just while we're using it) and so on. And then think about how our society grooms us to believe (and maybe in some circumstances this belief is true) that we need these sites for access, for engagement, to make money.

The price of not working in a warehouse is every piece of information we can reasonably gather about you to use and sell however we please, for whatever purpose, indefinitely, and it never expires and we don't pay you for it.

This is exploitation and my ancestry makes me pause, horrified, at what this information will eventually come back and do to us when inevitably the wrong person/group gets ahold of it. And that's pretending like we even know who has our data and what they're doing with it, right? Because we don't know. We really don't. Call me paranoid, say that I shouldn't worry if I have nothing to hide, give me all of the excuses you've been programmed to give about why we should not worry about a surveillance state that we pay for. Then come online and rant about how dangerous governments are and fail to see the irony in it all.

And I'm a hypocrite. I bought in, too. For personal gain. After criticizing others for years for doing the same thing. It's true. But the interesting side effect is that I've gained so much insight into why we're so addicted to sensationalism, why we're so addicted to these sites, why we're so unwell in general. The kinds of things my feed is inundated with, especially since I haven't curated it yet and it's showing me what it wants to? My god. We cannot have a healthy society when this is what we're consuming all day every day. There is no way to be a healthy person, I believe, when consuming this all day every day.

So anyways. As always, perhaps a bit sanctimonious. But I'm a little dumbfounded at the experience of all of this after years off of corporate social.

#BlueSky #Meditations