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Needful Magic, nos. 18, 19, 20

Lin Tarczynski

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Neeful Magic, no. 28

Lin Tarczynski

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Needful Magic, no. 27

Lin Tarczynski

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Invoking the Solstice

This is an unpublished, undated Geranium Lake Properties comic with no title, no notes, but we are sure this is a portrait mask of Solitude, the Fourth Carthaginian Bodhisattva. We know this because the mask design is a facsimile of the one that Solitude wore in March 1987, in the story “Free Spirits in the Presence of Fate”. Today’s post is also the finale to the summer solstice project at…

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Observing the Proprieties of the Midpoint

A few days ago, I fell into a summer solstice project on the Bluesky social site. The project’s creator/manager Gavin Fox made it easy to take part, plus the requirements of posting one sigil per day for seven days (on my Bluesky account) readily aligned with my Needful Magic series. Today’s post functions as a work-in-progress update and a way to recognize and appreciate the promise of the…

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Apostasy Blues

Every day is father’s day in the patriarchy.

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The Heart That Fed, or The Illiteracy of Tyrants

Today I want to catch up a few dangling threads from previous posts, not so much to untangle them, but to twist them into yarn and knit them back into the ongoing whole. Way back in my first post about the Lesha-chikkahleem, I wrote this bit about how jackalopes view the future of Earth: “The Inultaru are generally convinced that the future for jackalopes will be female, and parthenogenesis will…

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"I have seen this evil before..."

“…and they were overcome by their own malice. They started a war but they lost it all. Did they forget that wars accomplish nothing but loss? I do not know. There will always be a few men who will call themselves the victors, but no one wins a war. This is a Great Axiom: No-one wins a war. There can be escapes – a few managed to get away with loot – some managed to get away with nothing but their…

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Three: Rožanyci

Icon Number Thirty-Six was identified by Yost with an asemic title, so there is an element of uncertainty about their identity, but otherwise he made it pretty darn obvious that these three masks represent the three goddesses known as the Fates. The Greeks called them the Morai, they were the Parcae to the Romans, the Norns to the Norse, and the Rozhanitsy were known under many names to the…

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Demalions in the Appendices #2

Issue #22 in the Icon series features a mask of one of the demalions of rust. Rust itself is an avatar of Entropy, which is the Great Mover – but not the Unmoved Mover – in Inultarumet mythology. The Inultaru do not accept Aristotle’s idea of the Unmoved Mover, mostly because jackalopes can readily wrap their minds around the concept that some things can just be, and do not need to be caused.…

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Let's Be Literary

There is a note that accompanies today’s Geranium Lake Properties comic: “I become winged and skim the waves, barely flying, and am blown along by the breezes of understanding – Philo” Written by Yost in pencil on the back of the original artwork. I don’t recognize the handwriting of the note, but I am really quite bad at that sort of thing. I can say for sure it is not my handwriting. The note…

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Asemic Mysteries

Needful Magic, no. 30 “I am not allowed to tell you how asemic magic works,” Idalladasseka Sumdannag said to Jack Loki. “Which is just as well, since I don’t really understand it yet. The essential quality of asemic writing is a paradox – it contains no meaning at the same time it contains every meaning.” Ida Sumdannag was a former apprentice to Wostim Gheyt Illuworna; she met Jack at the…

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Rainbow Gods

It was my mother who fostered my love of irises, and for the maximum sentimental effect I suppose the ideal date for publishing these iconic portraits would have been Mother’s Day. We are now at the bedraggled end of the iris blooming season, but that does not really matter anyhow. My small collection of iris plants were all newly transplanted last winter and then I neglected them, so they sulked…

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Landscapes & Shelter for Frogs, Part 2

Yost’s first design for the third album by Chansons de Geste. After the release of The Empty Space album by Chansons de Geste, Teri Ainsworth and Ross Kerrinza jumped back on the bandwagon of Bury Me Standing for A Good Magical Friend For Life album and tour. They continued to write songs together, music that was very different from the songs they worked on with Joe Baluende. (In case you did…

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Needful Magic, no. 30

Lin Tarczynski

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The Unnamed Haddock

From a series of posters Yost made for the Black Clatter Café and Thrift Shop. The word “motrose” (found in The Common Pryaer — which you may want to read before you read today’s post, but it is not absolutely necessary) is pronounced as “montrose” (like the community found in an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County) by most jackalopes, but there is a sizeable percentage who will pronounce…

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Demalions in the Appendices

No one who knows me would be surprised to learn that one of my favorite demalions is Imshakreyma Kachgaltha, otherwise known as the Sixth Vigor or the Sixth Force, otherwise known as cacao, otherwise known as cocoa, otherwise know as chocolate, otherwise known as Mask Number Twenty-Three in the Icon series. Chocolate is one of the most potent magicks in the Inultaru culture. Some jackalopes…