aubren - Tumblr blog

[aubren]

[aubren]

This was a fantastic book and one of the best Native fiction I've read

books ive read this year ➝ trail of lightning by rebecca roanhorse ✩✩✩✩

“I have died many times in many ways. It is not the dying that is so awful, as the knowing that you must awaken alone the next dawn.”

[aubren]

author: sorry I’m jumping on this bandwagon and writing a fic with the same premise as all these other fics

me, has read 500 fics like this one and is prepared to read 500 more: please never apologize for giving the people (me) what they (also me) want

[aubren]

I guess it’s my turn to say it.

This lecture has been issued so many times that the vast majority of spirit workers crossing these lines know better, so I’m just going to put a not-so-brief, highly specific reminder here (and I’m aiming this directly at shops):

Please stop with the inaccurate bullshit listings, actively trying to co-opt things you don’t understand.

Your random-ass American were-creature is not a skinwalker. You want to know why? Ask a Navajo.

Your carnivorous beast that is “sweet and gentle with their keeper” is nothing like a wendigo. Any Ojibwe or Cree will quickly set that record straight.

Your giant bird spirit is not a thunderbird and for fucks sake your water elemental panther spirit is NOT an underwater panther!!! The thunderbird is sacred. The underwater panther is sacred.

GTFO here with your plastic shamanism.

Every now and then a shop does spring up with a legitimate (and often known malicious) spirit from a closed culture. Here’s what you don’t understand though:  there’s a difference between spirit vessels and spirit traps. These legitimate, malicious spirits are likely captured rather than willfully bound, and I believe this is where half the community is getting this whole ‘spirit binding is slavery’ thing from. Some species want nothing to do with humans, and when you find one of those beings listed, there’s a good chance they’re trapped and angry. And there’ll be hell to pay once the binding weakens enough for them to get loose.

You don’t want to listen? Fine, get wrecked. 

For all the spirit workers who do use shops, do your research! When a conjuror lists a entity whose bio flies in the face of everything that species is, RUN.

When a conjuror does not publicly state their qualifications/experiences working with traditionally malevolent entities, RUN. 

A conjuror who cannot properly inform themselves on a species cannot properly vet that entity. If they don’t care about the cultural origins of an entity they do not know the correct way to interact with that entity, nor what it is truly capable of.

Say you are matched with an entity from a closed culture, and it’s the real deal/not an imposter, and you get along fine. Your particular experience doesn’t mean it’s okay for just anybody to interact with that species. There are communities that have been working with their spirits for as long as mankind has roamed the earth, and when outsiders who do not know the proper level of respect to show get involved – en masse, thanks to irreputable conjurors – you know what happens? Offense is taken and they stop wanting to work with humans, period. And it’s not fair to those of us for whom this is our birthright; to have some outsider come in and fuck shit up so that our traditional spiritual allies close their doors to us. IMO, when it comes to beings from closed cultures, not only should the conjuror be a member of that culture, but along with the spirit being vetted, the spirit worker should be vetted as well.

There’s more than a couple of people in the community just trying to make a quick buck and they do NOT CARE about your safety. And if you can’t understand that part of the reason people call out folks appropriating is due to sellers misinforming people and putting them in direct contact with dangerous beings, you too can get wrecked.

Culture vultures are the exact reason I won’t post anything in depth about Unktomi.

 I keep my head down and avoid most of the drama in the spirit community, but I am asking you now as an unenrolled Santee Sioux and Shoshoni (sheep eaters clan) native to please step back from our culture. It’s invasive at the least and desecration at the worst. Please grant us at least this small measure of respect.

[aubren]

june: pride month

july: 2 pride 2 month

august: pride month: tokyo drift

september: pride & month

october: pride five

november: pride & month 6

december: month 7

[aubren]

Standing Up From My Wheelchair in Public

I often bring up the ableist action of harassing/accusing ambulatory wheelchair users (as well as scooter, walker, crutches, and cane users) of “faking” because it’s something that happens ALL the time under the guise of “allyship” that people seem to WANT to remain oblivious to.

A person standing up from a wheelchair or standing without their mobility aid SHOULD NOT be cause for alarm, should not inspire accusations of faking, should not inspire you to say, “it’s a miracle!” in a mocking tone, or to ask me if I should “really be parked here”, or recommendations of weight loss so I won’t “need that chair anymore”, or whispering about how my karma is coming or how I’m going to hell for “playing with a wheelchair”; all comments I’ve received from strangers for just standing in public, getting my chair out of the trunk of my car on my own, or doing something as minimal as riding my chair while being young and smiling.

It’s prejudice; it lacks understanding to how diverse disability is, it uses a singular representation of wheelchair users to judge all wheelchair users. When people are called out on that ableism, those who do it will become defensive and claim to be acting in defense of disabled people because they truly deeply believe in the myth of a “faking disability epidemic", but hear this: non-apparent disabilities/invisible disablities, etc. are REAL disabilities and you are harassing the very people you are claiming to be advocating for.

For me, it is physically very difficult, painful, and risky to walk in the first place, the moments when I am able to, it takes alot of energy and concentration. Emotionally, it takes courage for me to get up from my chair in public; doing so causes anxiety that is parallel to what I would feel as a woman walking alone in the street at night. It’s a situation where I have come to EXPECT harassment and that is not okay. This is not how it should be, getting out of my chair in public should not have to feel like a radical act.

A person who gets up from their wheelchair might have limited ability to walk because they are rehabilitating, have dysautonomia, lung issues, heart issues, chronic pain, hypermobility, fragility of joints or muscles, fatigue, there are so many reasons for being an ambulatory wheelchair user and they come in all ages, sizes, colors, there is no one way, no one look.

[aubren]

Make sure to include EVERYONE in your pride. Disabled individuals matter. WE ARE HERE AND WE ARE QUEER 🏳️‍🌈💖💙

[aubren]

They see me crawling / reddit

[aubren]

Wheelchairs aren’t furniture.

• Don’t move them unless the wheelchair user in question says you can. Even if we’re not in them at the time! Shout-out to the nurse who, during my last hospital trip, tried to put my wheelchair in the nurse’s station, thus effectively stopping me from going TO THE TOILET without asking someone. And, of course, various shout-outs to people who thought *I* was furniture and moved my chair while I was in it.

• Don’t lean on them unless you have permission from the wheelchair user in question. Again, they aren’t FURNITURE. They’re part of us. Lean on stuff that’s stuff, not stuff that’s people.

• If you walk into someone’s wheelchair, while someone is in that wheelchair, you’re walking into a person. You’re jolting us, shaking us, and potentially causing us pain (I have chronic conditions, and YOU ARE HURTING ME). Do what you do anytime you walk into someone, and apologise. It doesn’t need to be any more than, “Oop, sorry,” it doesn’t have to be a big thing (please don’t make it a big thing) but ACKNOWLEDGE US jesus christ this is so alienating. I get walked into all the time and excepting my loved ones I can’t even remember the last time I got an apology.

Wheelchairs are not furniture. They’re assistive devices. They are, for all intents and purposes, part of us and it is frankly incredibly rude not to treat them as such.

[aubren]

the update (release: autumn) also adds wheelchairs!

[aubren]

“You walk at home? Do you even need your wheelchair?”

Yes, because walking in my own house is different than walking class to class at school. I don’t carry a heavy backpack at home. I’m not on a tight schedule at home. I can sit on the ground at home. I can ask my parents or siblings to help me at home. I can crawl on my hands and knees at home. I can lie in the middle of the hallway at home. I can sit on counters and tables at home. I can bear a lot of pain at home. I can show that pain at home. I can collapse in the middle of crawling up the staircase at home.

Don’t tell me or anyone else where or when they need to use their mobility device

[aubren]

If You’re Gonna Make Something Wheelchair Accessible, Don’t Make it a Thing

Here’s some examples awkward accessibility being a thing:

Your at a hotel that has a lift to get you from one sub-floor to another, but the lift can only be unlocked and operated by one specific person that the hotel now has to go find. Sure, they’ve made the entrance to the sub-floor is accessible, but now it’s a thing.

The buses are wheelchair accessible but the driver has to stop the bus, take 30 seconds to lower the goddamn ramp, move passengers out of their seats, hook up the straps and then secure you in the bus. Sure, they’ve made the busses accessible but now it’s a thing.

The restaurant has an accessible entrance, but it’s past the trash room and through the kitchen. Sure, the restaurant is accessible, but now it’s an insulting thing.

Here’s some great examples of accessibility not being a thing:

The train to the airport pulls up flush with the platform. I board with everyone else and sit wherever the fuck I want. Riding the train is accessible and not a thing.

In Portland, I press a button the side of the streetcar and a ramp automatically extends at the same time the door opens. I board in the same amount of time as everyone else. This is not a thing.

I get that it is difficult to design for wheelchair accessibility, but folks need to start considering the overall quality of the experience versus just thinking about meeting the minimum requirements.

[aubren]

Blood Magic

I know this is a touchy subject, and I’m really hoping that nobody get’s offended by this topic, but blood magic is a valid branch of magic that I practice and it has come to my attention that it’s really hard to find any good sources on blood magic. Keep in mind, I don’t claim to be any kind of authority, and this is all my personal practice. I’m more than willing to hear how others use blood magic, but please, NO SHAMING. If you don’t like blood magic, you’re free to state why, but avoid blanketed statements such as “it’s evil/wrong/sick/ect…” because, just because it’s not okay for you, doesn’t mean your morals and life experiences apply to everyone else.  

Overview

First and foremost, in my experience and learnings, blood magic is not evil. It is powerful. Big difference. Blood has a lot of connotations and associations tied to it, so it packs a bit of a metaphysical punch when you add it to a spell. What you do with that punch is all on you.

Physically, it is you. Or who ever the blood is from. This means a couple things. One, it is a stand in, and possibly the strongest representation of a person in spell work. Now, because it IS a part of your body, your blood only represents you, possibly family with blood ties, your blood can’t be used to represent another person. Also, using your blood in a spell will permanently tie the spell to you. As far as I’ve noticed, it won’t ever lose it’s focus on the target who’s blood is included in the spell.

The other thing I’ve learned about blood magic, is that blood holds “a charge”, be it intent, energy, or whatever, almost indefinitely. This helps keep a spell from fading over time. This is good, and bad. If you want a spell to last essentially forever, then use blood. I’ve come across spellwork from my grandparents that had blood, and it STILL had a very strong and clear intent attached to it. This also means that you have to actively dispel the intent and break the spell if you ever change your mind or decide you’re done with it. How you break the spell varies, depending on the spell itself and your practice, but it’s got to be a good, strong, solid break to the spell.

[aubren]

Same

[aubren]

Summoning a demon just for a cuddle session is valid

[aubren]

Summoning a demon just for a cuddle session is valid

[aubren]

YELLOWSTONE-“…the mist surrounding the bison was because they had just crossed a river. Their body heat in the cold air caused the water to turn to vapor.”