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norse pagan prideposting

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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

— Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Sages

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Jewish Progress Pride flag, from Keshet!

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Prototype for a tassel design I'll be making soon with some other charms attached..? Fishy evil eye

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I identify myself as a pagan and a witch, and have been trading tarot for over 20 years. And this is completely accurate. It is a new lens through which to view a situation, and chewing on both what is happening and what might happen through the lens of those symbols allows pattern recognition and intuition (same thing in many cases) to come forward.

"I don't believe Tarot is real, but it does work"

Expand on that, king (genuinely curious)

I feel like…

okay, so it’s a lot like conceptual art, or like introspective meditation, at the risk of sounding pretentious

Like. It’s not so much about “the cards are a portal to a higher wisdom that knows more than me” thing- it’s more of a, “given the symbols drawn, could I interpret them posing a question or possibility or suggestion?” Followed by, “is this applicable to my current context? COULD it be?”

Like.

I don’t lay out á tarot hand and say “ah yes, the devil and the tower, I am about to be betrayed”

But I MAY lay out a hand and say, “okay, devil and the tower. Something treacherous and danger. Am I approaching a treacherous or risky situation in my life? What might be a tipping factor? Am I being deliberately reckless? Maybe I should spend some more time working on X project I’ e been thinking of before spending money on it” or “you know what, I HAVE been kind of uncomfortable with X thing, I should say something” or “yeah okay I KNOW Tom from work sucks to work with, I KNOW, yeah maybe I should consider ways of handling that”

Less of a magic oracle, more of a tool for doing literary analysis on real life. Like simplifying everything and laying it out flat so I can gain some distance to untangle my problems without in-your-head crap like projected feelings and social obligation getting in the way and muddying the waters.

So like. I don’t think tarot cards can legit tell the future, but I DO think that self-reflection, mindfulness, and consideration sometimes allow us to predict and calculate our own circumstances.

So, IMO- It’s not real. But it works

If that makes sense

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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

— Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Sages

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The Jewish people, tiny, vulnerable, lacerated, having stood face to face with the Angel of Death, still survives, and prays, and gives thanks to God. Somehow faith outlives every attempt to destroy it. Its symbol is not the fierce fire that burns synagogues and sacred scrolls and murdered lives. It is the fragile flame we, together with our children and grandchildren, light in our homes, singing God's story, sustained by our hope.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"tl, "The Flame of Faith That Has Survived All Tyranny," article in The Times 12/19/2008

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She is so beautiful

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Scenes from Kabbalat Shabbat

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Happy Shabbat to all jews around the world, its not saturday but im going offline🕯️

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“Conversion to Judaism is often conceived in religious terms, but religion is only one aspect of Jewish identity. One cannot become a Jew through subscribing to a set of religious beliefs, any more than one ceases to be a Jew by losing one’s faith. (We do not speak of “a lapsed Jew”.) Hence converts are normally spoken of not as converts but as proselytes, a Greek term which originally meant “immigrants”. To become a Jew is essentially to join a people.”

— Nicholas de Lange, Judaism (2003)

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submitted to me with the request to stay anonymous, op wants to show off their torah hot dogs

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I read a piece today that described the tradition of Judaism as one of Memory.

It is not just a religion or an ethnicity. it has been built up from the very beginning as a tribe that struggled through the desert to learn how to find their way through life.

A group of people that saw the rise and fall of small and large empires and tribes. They formed traditions that helped them survive. That kept them from assimilation.

And when they were scattered across the globe, their memory never faded.

From Ashkenazi to Sephardic, to Mizrahi to Ethiopian, they not only passed on the survival and tradition of their current way of life, but they passed on tradition from the very beginning.

We remember things as if they happened yesterday. We still mourn the fall of the temple as if we were on that long trek into Babylon. We still remember the bitterness of being slaves in Egypt. Is it any wonder that the Shoah still feels like it was not even one generation away?

Memory as a culture is such a unique and amazing thing. It brings everyone together and puts us all there at each moment.

As someone with memory issues and time problems, being able to count my weeks by the Sabbath has helped me stay grounded. Being able to say "I was at Sinnai" or "We left Egypt" has helped me to put myself into the tradition and understand this amazing tribe.

Every step of the way, we were all there and because of this, we remember.

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Q: Why haven’t you said anything about the shooting, DYMX?

A: Because I’m running out of ways to say that we warned you. We told you that violent rhetoric on the right and the left would lead to antisemitic hate crimes and violence. And with every escalation we sounded the alarm again.

We have spoken until our voices have grown hoarse; I know I have.

And now? Now when blood is spilled on the streets of the capitol of the United States in a clear antisemitic hate crime, now you want to hear what I have to say?

I’ve said all I can. You chose not to listen.

So tell me, what are you saying about it?

May their memories be for a blessing.

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Is a Jewish Necromancer using soul energy taboo?

WWC Follower Asks:

My character is Ashkenazi Jewish and living in modern America (raised in New York, moved to the Pacific North West). He has magical talent, which presents itself in auto writing (speaking with spirits using himself as a conduit), and necromancy/death magic. I understand the Torah forbids it, and the Talmud acknowledges its existence, and read a previous answer you did regarding it. I intended to add this aspect to my character because prior to writing this magical talent, as the plot unfolded while I wrote, the character was already established as Jewish and I did not wish to erase that from him. His personal arc/story itself has a strong point of residual hauntings and healing from the past, which was how the mediumship came to exist. At this point, I am writing it as he is learning his talent, and he intends to do as little harm to the dead as possible (he will not be reanimating people). In addition, necromancy can also work in this world as a form of animancy (using the soul) to do magic. My character is against taking that energy from others (as is it is common for necromancers to take the energy of the deceased by force), and instead will tap into himself, or utilize it if it is willingly donated by another person. It possible to make this work? Are there any severe taboos involved with the idea of using soul/life energy to fuel magic that I have missed in my research? What’s your personal threshold for this idea?

One very culturally Jewish way to handle it would be if he has to bulk up and eat a lot of nourishing Bubbe ("eat eat!!") style meals when he's gonna talk to the spirits or sheydim or whatever bc he's using his own life essence to fuel the connection like "if i want to do this i need to eat 2 helpings of brisket first".

That leans heavily into emphasizing that he is drawing on his own energy, maybe he has to eat enough food for himself and the dead person too, and not sapping the strength of another (an antisemitic trope)

-Shira

I absolutely LOVE the idea of him eating for the dead person, and I think it’s Jewish by vibes even if not drawing on something specific from text (that I know of). I definitely would be wary of any magic where the other souls are diminished by working with him even if he doesn’t do it intentionally, but it sounds like you’re already on that.

I wonder also if he might take upon himself the responsibility to recite Kaddish for the deceased people he works with, to make up for disturbing them--especially if rather than recite the prayer on his own, he attends a synagogue service or gathers a minyan (prayer quorum of 10 adult Jews) to recite the prayer “Correctly,” since, some very sweet Tumblr lore aside, Kaddish is one of those prayers not traditionally recited without a minyan.

-Meir

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Sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone and read that book that's more than a decade or even century old to learn more about magic and witchery.

You have to interact with literature and media that isn't within your own echo chamber.

You need regular confrontations with opinions and ideas outside your own bubble otherwise you. will. not. grow.

You must be able to read things critically, knowing that picking up a book and reading it does not equal you believing every word.

Learn about how others view the world, learn how people's beliefs work, learn how to intake information without assuming that every bit of information is on a binary of "good" or "bad" information.

This is the witchy version of me telling you, lovingly, to go touch grass.