I’ve said this before, but we’re living in a conceptual golden age in music. One of my favourite bands of the moment is @greenlungband, and this is the package you get with their new album, ‘This Heathen Land: A Journey into Occult Albion’. A map, a workbook full of scribbles, a cover that pays tribute to mid-20th century books out on Penguin and its imprints, and a whole concept introduced in the first seconds…
Hey all my #supernatural and #occult homies and #horrorFam. I am looking for book recs of general knowledge re: #ghosts and #hauntings. Something that lists a lot of cases, along the lines of something like "50 haunted places" and stuff of that type.
Any recommendations? I need to start research for a series of podcasts.
Do you have some #books you recommend that really inspire your #worldbuilding ? I always say when writing fantasy pulling inspiration from occult sources can go a long way to helping you achieve that esoteric nature of the arcane.
Some occult texts are riddled with misinformation and misdirection purposefully and knowingly included by the author. Sometimes called "blinds," their purpose is to obfuscate the secrets contained within the text, and to prevent or sabotage the work of the uninitiated who attempt to use the text without the proper knowledge, training, or experience.
:pentagram: Pagans, Polytheists, Witches, Occultists, Spiritualists, Astrologers, Diviners, and Mystics of the Fediverse :pentagram:
Below is a list of users who self-identify with one or more of the labels above. This list is intended to make it easier for us to find one another across the Fediverse!
I'm gonna make a list of accounts belonging to witches, pagans, occultists, astrologers, and related fields to make it easier for us to find each other.
Please comment below if you want to be included!
It'll be opt-in only; you'll only be added if you ask to be.
In many legends, the best place to find the Devil is at a crossroads, which is where Faust made his famous pact. The crossroads represents the person's monumental choice, which direction they're going to take. Is it the road leading to Heaven or to Hell? #FolkloreThursday#mythology#folklore#occult#Devil#demon#Faust
I'm seeing so many more #tarot posts popping up under the hashtag. I've not been as active on here recently-- #chronicpain has been kicking my ass, but it's really nice to go through the feed and see more discussion around this topic.
So for all who've been posting recently, thank you, because more activity is the only way we can lay claim to there being space for us on here. 💜
I’m seeking an expert in geomancy, ley lines, and occult practices involving the land to speak at an online event on 15 June. Anyone you’d suggest? Can be skeptic or believer, as long as they can explain the concept! It’s a paid gig, and the audience is mainly writers.
It's for my next Writing the Occult, which is about connections to the land - so if you have other suggestions that fit that theme, I’d also love to hear them.
The sacred cannot, ultimately, be turned into a source of profit without innately becoming profane. The degradation of true spirituality is only furthered by the new age zeitgeist that proclaims that the sacred can be purchased in cute magick shops, without a thought given to its origin, its ethics, its source. Everyone is seeking their personal gnosis, everyone is learning the vocabulary of esotericism and magick, and yet very few remain above the temptation for easy answers if only you can pay for them.
A friend of mine sees exchanging tarot readings for money as an energy exchange: the client worked for that money, and you are putting energy into giving them a reading, and therefore it is a fair exchange to exchange the reading for money. I think that is a valid standpoint, and I don’t necessarily see the problem with exchanging readings for money. After all, I sell candles and other items that may be used for spiritual purposes, just like those magick shops I criticize. But aren’t those just party favors & parlor tricks, in a way? The root of spiritual attainment lies not in handmade candles or tarot readings, but in inner work and true connection. All else are just tools, to be used reverentially or not depending on the holder.
Innately the reading that you give to a friend whom you know, are connected to in multiple ways, and who does not pay you will be more true and more useful than the reading you give to a stranger for the purpose of garnering income. There is no way to turn spirituality into your job without necessarily sacrificing the genuinely connected aspect of it: you must market it, you rely on it for your life, and therefore you will compromise at some points, whether you do on a daily basis or not.
Whilst I am in a tricky position regarding the need for income, and I recognize that most people would rather do what they enjoy doing for income rather than something they don’t enjoy doing or that they feel is unethical (a preference which I can most definitely relate to), I think that there is definitely a point at which we cannot purchase our spiritual attainment or our healing, where these things must come from people who love and understand us. At a certain point our ceremonies and rituals must not be transactional if they are to be real tools for inner work and genuine connection.
And perhaps this background is unnecessary, as after all this is a treatise on tattooing and not meant to persuade anyone as to the ethics or rightness of selling spiritual goods and services. Here the background is meant to only describe the flow of ideas that have brought me to the following conclusions:
I: I will not accept money for tattooing rites, but you must bring me an offering of value.
Money purchases things of value, but is not, in and of itself, valuable. It once perhaps stood for something valuable and existed as a convenient way of standardizing the value of that thing for transactional purposes. In the US, that “thing” was gold. Although, despite the fact that gold is valuable for some uses, gold as a signifier of “value” idealistically is not in and of itself any more valuable than paper currency.
Things of value are things that can be used, eaten, grown, perceived. Things of value include fresh food, acts of service or assistance, building materials, seeds, plants, livestock, blankets, cookware, and so on. Art can also be valuable in certain circumstances, as an exchange. Healing work, live-in community, these things are tangible in their own way and produce a far greater rippling impact than simply handing over cash. These are things that could be paid for with money, but would then exist in a contextually different space. Exchanging a healing or transcendent tattooing ritual for side-by-side work on the land, for example, strengthens a bond. Exchanging a healing or transcendent tattoo for money that I then pay a stranger with to do work on the land does nothing but furthers the purely transactional and self-serving nature of our reality.
Offerings of value should be discussed ahead of the tattooing rite, and agreed on by both parties. The offering should be accessible to you, the tattooee, but should also indicate the extent of the work expected to be done by me, the tattooer.