astraeaboann

[astraeaboann]

Eyes of the forest. Aspen trees

[astraeaboann]

do you ever think about dead versions of yourself that are fossilized in someone else's mind

[astraeaboann]

Arp 273, Galaxy Rose

[astraeaboann]

[astraeaboann]

Accept that good won’t last, and acknowledge that bad won’t either.

[astraeaboann]

bought this gem secondhand and can’t get over how stunning it is 🪐 reblog is okay, don’t repost/use

[astraeaboann]

Hey btw, here's a piece of life advice:

If you know what you'd have to do to solve a problem, but you just don't want to do it, your main problem isn't the problem itself. Your problem is figuring out how to get yourself to do the solution.

If your problem is not eating enough vegetables, the problem you should be solving is "how do I make vegetables stop being yucky". If your problem is not getting enough exercise, the problem you should be solving is "how do I make exercise stop sucking ass". You're not supposed to just be doing things that are awful and suck all the time forever, you're supposed to figure out how to make it stop being so awful all the time.

I used to hate wearing sunscreen because it's sticky and slimy and disgusting and it feels bad and it smells bad, so I neglected to wear it even if I needed to. Then I found one that isn't like that, and doesn't smell and feel gross. Problem solved.

There is no correct way to live that's just supposed to suck and feel bad all the time. You're allowed to figure out how to make it not suck so bad.

[astraeaboann]

Mt. Rainier, Washigton, USA by Filemon & Mickey

[astraeaboann]

mentally I'm here

[astraeaboann]

[astraeaboann]

When Five finally makes it back home with his siblings, finally makes it back to the right timeline, he finds he’s still holding his breath. 

“Is it really over?” He thinks out loud. 

“I guess there’s only one way to find out,” comes Luther’s response. 

So they do. And everything seems…normal?

But as much as Five wants to sleep for ten days straight, he can’t help but feel on edge. He spends his time visiting each sibling, popping in for dinners or briefly making sure they haven’t felt anything out of the ordinary. One day Allison asks him if he actually wants there to be an approaching apocalypse. His eyes fall onto Claire who’s catching him up on High School Musical the Musical the Series.

“No,” he answers. “I really don’t.” 

They make time for family dinners every Sunday. They still bicker and maybe swing some fists every now and then, but everyone is fast to apologize and laugh again. With room to breathe again without high stakes, the hurt finally begins to heal. They had been family before, but it slowly begins to feel like a real family. 

And for the first time, they really get to know each other. For all the crap they gave Luther about the moon, they listen as he shares the misery and loneliness and betrayal he felt. Allison describes her time as a Black woman in the 60s without her voice. Literally. Viktor tells them about what it was like growing up powerless only to end the world twice. How he lost his memory and found the one he loved only to lose that too. 

Klaus manifests Ben (who is still a ghost but as alive as he could get) and together they tell of their adventures growing up and the cult Klaus accidentally created. In between laughs, they also learn about Klaus’s harrowing experiences with drugs and death.

And Five? He has over 40 years of stories, and at first he doesn’t want to share any of it. His time in the Apocalypse, his time in the Commission, murdering for the sole purpose of survival in order to get back to his family—it’s not a side to him he wants his family to know about. 

But at the same time for reasons he can’t explain, he does want them to know. For the first time, he wants to talk to his family, the family he worked tirelessly to save. 

Little by little, he does just that. Every now and then he will start a sentence with, “Back in the Apocalypse…,” during dinner or his visits with them. Silly ones at first, like the time he had the nasty Twinkie. The time he sang all the Beatles songs he could remember and pretended he was having a concert. The time he found Umbrella Academy action figures and reenacted missions with them. 

When he’s alone with another sibling, he starts sharing some of the hard stuff too.

He tells Allison how starved during his first winter alone and hallucinated that she had helped him find food. When he woke up he found himself in a storage house full of canned goods and bawled his eyes out.

He tells Diego about the first time he killed someone. How the scariest thing was that he wasn’t shaking. 

He tells Viktor how he sometimes still wonders if he deserves everything he got for messing with time in the first place. How he’s afraid that one of these days he’ll wake up and be alone again.

He tells Klaus about the time he thought about giving up and ending it all. 

He tells Luther about Dolores. About how even though he knew he was crazy for talking to a mannequin, Dolores was the better part of him that salvaged his sanity.

He tells Ben (and Klaus, by default) that his biggest regret is not being there. That he tries not to think about how things might have been different if he’d stayed.

Slowly, slowly, bit by bit, the tension eases from his shoulders. He stops worrying so much about the world ending and how to keep everyone alive. Instead, he spends his time going to the park with Claire, helping Diego and Lila with the babies, having midnight food outings with Klaus, and listening to Viktor play his music.

At their weekly family dinner, Luther tells Five he has a present for him and pulls out a box of Twinkies, saying, “I know you want to try one.”

Five gives him a practiced glare and says, “I would rather swim in a pot of boiling oil.”

Before, his family might have stared at him like he grew two heads, but now they laugh and think his retort is hilarious. Luther opens the box and pulls out a bag of marshmallows instead, and Five can’t help but crack a smile. 

One day they ask him what his plans are—what’s next for the oldest sibling.

Five warms his hands on a hot mug of coffee. “I’m tired of thinking about the future,” he tells them. “Right now, I just want to spend time with my family.”

That earns him plenty of “aww”s and “You’re such a softie, Five.” He waves them away and tries to duck out of their hugs, but they get him in the end. And even if he could teleport, he doesn’t want to.

He hadn’t been looking for happy, but he found it anyway.

[astraeaboann]

“Ho amato così tanto alcune persone che cercavo di capirle anche mentre mi ferivano.”

[K.Reeves]

[astraeaboann]

Limited edition prints available 🐈‍⬛🖤

[astraeaboann]

PYROMANCY AND HOW IT WORKS FOR ME

Now, i don't claim to be an expert pyromancer, and i definitely dont know any asvanced skills with it, but this is how i use pyromancy in my craft.

- first i light my chosen candle

-> can be any real candle, yes even a scented candle, yes even a tea light candle

- then, once its properly lit (i usually light it and wait a couple minutes) i ask the flame if there are any entities present

-> I work with more than just deities, so i ask for entities. An entity is any being ("good or bad") thst is currently in your working space

- if the flame becomes higher or cackles or makes any sort of big movement/change, i take it as a yes

-> if theres little/no movement, i take it as a no

-> -> its totally ok. If you dont have any entities around you at the moment, they may come in later or may just be shy. Or maybe there's no one around, that isn't your fault. Think of it as a scheduling conflict

- after that, i like to ask if theres multiple entities (same rules apply) (i usually only ask yes or no questions but theres other types of answers for more skilled puromancers, i just dont know/use them)

-> if you want, you can ask if the entiry is a deity, and if it is, you can go down a list of deities you work with to figure out whos there

-> -> usually, you can figure it out by the way the flame dances, idk i just get a feeling i know who it is, but this might be a more advanced skill so i recommend asking

-> -> -> also, if you want to stidy the flame and the way it moves, write it down, and then compare it to the way other deities more the flame, that can help you figure out who is there faster

- usually after this, i just leave the candle alone. I talk to it about my day and other random things.

-> keep in mind some deities might be really involved and move the flame alot, while others are naturally more quiet and harder to spot

-a couple times during my session (esp if its a longer one) i ask if theres an entity there, because sometimes theres a different entity, or multiple at the same time, and i like to be aware of them,

- when its time to turn off the candle, i say a thank you to whoever was there, and if there were entities that didnt manifest with the candle, i thank them too and i tell them theyre more than welcome to use the flame.

-> to turn off the flame, theres many different ways to do it, i just blow it out, (theres a misconception that Deities get angry if you blow put the flame, thats not true they dont care)

--------

Hope this was helpful, let me know if you have any questions or you need clarification on something. If you have any post requests and want me to make a post on a witchcraft topic, let me know (send an ask, send a message, send a reply on one of my posts...) and ill try my best.

[astraeaboann]

Witch things to add in your room, poor person edition

Fuck it Most of witchcraft people tell you to buy shit. So here's some stuff u can do for free

grab some sticks from the ground, bind them together in a shape you like, add intent (usually protection), hang it up

make a flower crown, add protection intent, dry it out, hang it up. protection spell and real ward. regularly recharge intent.

dry plants, set warding intent, hang them up.

crushed eggshells on your window sill to prevent bad energy.

wear a bandana or veil somewhere on your body, sometimes i use mine as belts, to protect from bad vibes.

paint your nails in the color meaning you want. mine are pink for self attraction rn

when you light up a candle always ask if theres a spirit or entity there, pyromancy skills can be learned through google, tumblr, and tiktok.

Regularly clean and rearrange your altar if you can't practice everyday, this keeos the space clean and shows entities around that even if ur not active, you're still a witch

A cup of water can be an offering to anyone, imagine being an entity and you can't have water at all for centuries??

If you have glasses, draw a sigil on them while you clean them (i usually wash mine with soap and water to make it extra clean ((and dry with paper towels)))

Give your wall art jobs. Sure they can be decorative, or they can be extra eyes to watch you while you sleep to make sure no one messes with you. (Ive had so much wall art fall in the middle of the night and turns out smth was trying to get in my room...)

If you have black-out/thick curtains, let the sun in!!! I keep them tied during the day so i can use natural light and ease up my electricity bill

Change ur bedsheets semi regularly, it doesn't need to be every week, but keep in mind bedbugs and other entities can get trapped there... or even try to get there to make your sleep unrestful.

If your room is a bio-hazard, at least make pathways so you can walk without injuring yourself.

Thats all i have for now <3 blessed be and fuck capitalism

[astraeaboann]

Marks of growth as a person and practitioner in witchcraft spaces:

-not feeling the need to constantly correct others

-knowing when and how to offer a dissenting viewpoint

-being content to disagree without engaging in debate

-fact-checking information before passing it along or incorporating it into your practice

-questioning your assumptions and decolonizing your thinking

-understanding that no two practices are the same and that the experiences and opinions of others do not need to govern your path

-understanding that practices not your own or contrary to your own can still be valid

-being able to describe your current beliefs without putting down others or defaulting to discussions about religious trauma

-focusing on comprehension, learning, and exploration rather than consumption

-understanding that "witch" is a gender neutral term and that anyone can be a witch if they choose to

-understanding that safety is more important than visibility

-understanding that magical practice does not have to be constant

-Developing personal beliefs and practices that may align with existing traditions but may not match them precisely

-Developing a reliable bullshit detector and employing it regularly

-Diminished desire for constant validation from outside sources as to whether you're "doing it right"

-diminished desire to overshare or aestheticize your practices, instead focusing on what works for you rather than what looks pretty enough for social media

-diminished desire to Do All The Things At Once and instead focusing on the areas where you are comfortable / interested and taking things at a reasonable pace

-being aware of the problems in the community and doing your best to not contribute to them

-being aware of the New Age pipeline and staying out of it as much as possible

-embracing science and history and common sense alongside magical learning and spiritual beliefs (if you have them)

There are lots of others, but these are some of the ones I've noted in my own journey. Just some things to consider.

Happy Witching and Keep Growing!

[astraeaboann]

A customer contacted our team with questions, and then finished their email with: "I am daunted by the complexities and unknowns." I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.