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[bcnedrah]

Derek Hale barely remembers his customers’ names beyond of breakdown of their bill and general summary of what was done to their car. Mentally he categorizes them by make, model, and problem. He’ll be grocery shopping with Eli and bump into Mrs. Toyota Crysler Fogets To Change Her Oil and let’s her rattle on about grandchildren before continuing withe his shopping. Or he’s making business deposits at the bank and Mr. Ford F-250 Rusty Transmission is trying to convince him to open a CD, but the line behind him is long.

But Light Blue Jeep FUBAR’d is Stiles. And not even Derek knows how Stiles keeps that thing running.

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For anyone who has finished the Bridgerton books I HIGHLY recommend the Hellions of Halstead Hall series by Sabrina Jeffries (who btw happens to be a huge inspiration to Julia Quinn!) The whole major plot point is that a family of orphaned siblings in high society have a year to marry or their grandmother will disinherit them all. To show she is serious, she also immediately cuts them off as well. The eldest, a marquis, has let the estate go into disrepair and ruin so they really need this money but don’t want to marry. How will they outsmart their grandmother?

It’s very much the same formula where there is different siblings, the Sharpes, for each book, in this case:

Oliver Sharpe, eldest of the siblings and Marquis of Stoneville, is the protagonist of book one “The Truth About Lord Stoneville”

From then on I’m not quite sure about the order but the rest of them are:

Jarret Sharpe, second eldest and one to take the helm of their grandmother’s brewery business.

Minerva Sharpe, third eldest and an accomplished author.

Gabriel Sharpe, second youngest and avid horse fan.

Celia Sharpe, the baby of the family who loves guns.

Overall, it’s one of my favorite romance series and it canonically takes place in 1825, when most of the Bridgerton siblings are already married so fanfiction overlapping the two universes is not out of this realm.

Go read and enjoy!

[bcnedrah]

Max and Rafe

[bcnedrah]

5 Simple Birthday Rituals

1.    Enchant Your Birthday Cake

This one is obvious. The tradition of making a wish before blowing birthday candles is probably the most common act of magick. Everyone does magick without even knowing! This year, at your birthday, do with intention. You’ll have better results.

Step by Step Guide

Before blowing the candles, close your eyes.

Formulate your wish in a simple sentence at the present tense, using only positive verbs. Here’s an example: “I am hired at my dream job”.

Visualise your wish into your mind’s eye. See your wish coming true. How does it look like? How does it feel? Involve your five senses.

Now, imagine that your whole cake is surrounded by a golden light.

Blow the candles while repeating your wish into your head. Trust that you have been heard. The Universe has your back!

As you eat the cake, continue focusing on your wish.

For better results, do not throw your birthday candles. Instead, place them into a safe container on your altar. Light them again while focusing on your wish. Let them burn out completely.

2.    Give Your Birthday Cake as an Offering.

After your birthday party, make an offering with the remnants of your birthday cake. Alternatively, if you have a lot of guests, keep a piece aside. This is something I never have done since I always eat everything (but I will do it next year for sure!). If, like me, you like cake too much, keep that in mind: the best offerings are the one that we value the most. And since you shared it with friends and family, your birthday cake is already charged with good energy!

How to Make an Offering

Call the entity that you are working with (it can be a God, a Goddess, an Angel, a Spirit Guide, or simply The Universe).

Place the cake in a small dish or in your offering bowl. Put it on your altar.

Describe your cake. Tell the entity that you are offering it in token of your love and gratitude. Read a short prayer if you feel like it.

Take a small bite of the cake to symbolically share it with the entity. Say thank you again.

Leave the rest of the cake on your altar for the rest of the day. The next morning, leave it in nature or compost it.

3.    Perform a Birthday Tarot spread.

This is the Sunflower Birthday Spread by Barbara Moore. I made this page in my Bullet journal to write down my reading.

As I wrote earlier, your birthday is a perfect time for divination since you are in a crossing point between the past year and the next.  For my part, reading the Tarotfor my birthday is an old tradition. Each year, I do the same Tarot spread, using the Mystic Faerie Tarot Deck that I received as a gift from my mother at 15 years old.  The Sunflower Birthday Spread depicted above comes from A Guide to Mystic Faerie Tarotwritten by Barbara Moore. If you already know her work, you will notice that this spread is very similar to her Astrological Spread (that can be found in her book Tarot Spreads) except that there is a Signifier card in the center.

How to Read it

This spread is made of 13 cards. The central card is a Signifier: it represents where you are right now. There are many methods to select the Signifier, but for this spread, simply draw it as if it were a regular card. Draw the Signifier first, then draw the 12 others.

Read each card separately. Then, include the central card for more insight.

Some positional meanings might be repetitive, but it’s a good thing! The repetitive meanings add up for a more detailed reading. Look at the interactions between the cards and you will surely learn interesting things.

4.    Honor your Higher Self.

According to the renowned occultist H. P. Blavatsky, the Higher self is “Atma the inseparable ray of the Universe and one self. It is the God above, more than within, us”. In other words, we all have a Higher Self; it is the purest part of us, made of unconditional love, that connects us to the Universe. Your birthday is a great time to connect with it and honor it. Here is a simple ritual to do it. You can find it in Witch School First Degree: Lessons in the Correllian Tradition by Rev Don Lewis-Highcorrell.

Ritual to Honor Your Higher Self

What You Will Need

Your altar

Your favorite incense

A candle of your favorite color

Your favorite drink

Your chalice (or favorite cup)

A Representation of your Higher Self (Tarot/Oracle card, drawing, printed picture, statue, etc.)

The Steps

Ground yourself. Breathe deeply. Light the candle and concentrate on the flame.

Light the incense. Say:

“O Higher Self, I call to You”.

Imagine that your Higher Self is in front of you. Its appearance doesn’t matter. Choose whatever appeals to you.

Talk to your Higher Self out loud. Say:

“I attune to my Higher Self. We are One. O Higher Self, I ask for guidance. Help me to see and understand the lessons of my life. Give me clarity and courage to learn them. Help me to learn them with ease and joy. I rededicate myself to the purposes for which I came into this life. Please guide me through them.”

Take the chalice. Imagine a white bright light shining from it. Say:

“O Higher Self, please accept this drink in token of my love.”

Drink the liquid. Visualise the white light entering you along with the liquid. You are now filled with warmth and joy.

Meditate for a few minutes. Imagine your Higher Self strong, healthy and happy. In this way, you are strengthening your bond to it.

When you are ready, say:

“O Higher Self, I give you my thanks and my love.”

Snuff the candles and incense. Record your experience in your Book of Shadows.

5.    Practice Gratitude.

When you are done, light a candle on your altar. Read your list out loud. Thank the Universe, the Goddess, your Guides, or whatever you believe in for their help.

A birthday is a time of celebration. Even it we don’t always receive gifts, we still receive a lot of things: birthday wishes, free drinks, birthday cakes and family dinners. After receiving all those things, take the time to say thank you.

A Simple Gratitude Ritual

For a few minutes, sit quietly with your journal.

Write down all the great things that you received for your birthday and during the past year. Make a list of at least 10. It doesn’t have to be material things and even the smallest count.

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[bcnedrah]

Women In History

I grew up believing that women had contributed nothing to the world until the 1960′s. So once I became a feminist I started collecting information on women in history, and here’s my collection so far, in no particular order. 

Lepa Svetozara Radić (1925–1943) was a partisan executed at the age of 17 for shooting at German soldiers during WW2. As her captors tied the noose around her neck, they offered her a way out of the gallows by revealing her comrades and leaders identities. She responded that she was not a traitor to her people and they would reveal themselves when they avenged her death. She was the youngest winner of the Order of the People’s Hero of Yugoslavia, awarded in 1951

23 year old Phyllis Latour Doyle was British spy who parachuted into occupied Normandy in 1944 on a reconnaissance mission in preparation for D-day. She relayed 135 secret messages before France was finally liberated. 

Catherine Leroy, War Photographer starting with the Vietnam war. She was taken a prisoner of war. When released she continued to be a war photographer until her death in 2006.

Lieutenant Pavlichenko was a Ukrainian sniper in WWII, with a total of 309 kills, including 36 enemy snipers. After being wounded, she toured the US to promote friendship between the two countries, and was called ‘fat’ by one of her interviewers, which she found rather amusing. 

Johanna Hannie “Jannetje” Schaft was born in Haarlem. She studied in Amsterdam had many Jewish friends. During WWII she aided many people who were hiding from the Germans and began working in resistance movements. She helped to assassinate two nazis. She was later captured and executed. Her last words were “I shoot better than you.”. 

Nancy wake was a resistance spy in WWII, and was so hated by the Germans that at one point she was their most wanted person with a price of 5 million francs on her head. During one of her missions, while parachuting into occupied France, her parachute became tangled in a tree. A french agent commented that he wished that all trees would bear such beautiful fruit, to which she replied “Don’t give me any of that French shit!”, and later that evening she killed a German sentry with her bare hands. 

After her husband was killed in WWII, Violette Szabo began working for the resistance. In her work, she helped to sabotage a railroad and passed along secret information. She was captured and executed at a concentration camp at age 23. 

Grace Hopper was a computer scientist who invented the first ever compiler. Her invention makes every single computer program you use possible. 

Mona Louise Parsons was a member of an informal resistance group in the Netherlands during WWII. After her resistance network was infiltrated, she was captured and was the first Canadian woman to be imprisoned by the Nazis. She was originally sentenced to death by firing squad, but the sentence was lowered to hard lard labor in a prison camp. She escaped. 

Simone Segouin was a Parisian rebel who killed an unknown number of Germans and captured 25 with the aid of her submachine gun. She was present at the liberation of Paris and was later awarded the ‘croix de guerre’. 

Mary Edwards Walker is the only woman to have ever won an American Medal of Honor. She earned it for her work as a surgeon during the Civil War. It was revoked in 1917, but she wore it until hear death two years later. It was restored posthumously. 

Italian neuroscientist won a Nobel Prize for her discovery of nerve growth factor. She died aged 103. 

EDIT

jinxedinks added: Her name was Rita Levi-Montalcini. She was jewish, and so from 1938 until the end of the fascist regime in Italy she was forbidden from working at university. She set up a makeshift lab in her bedroom and continued with her research throughout the war.  

A snapshot of the women of color in the woman’s army corps on Staten Island

This is an ongoing project of mine, and I’ll update this as much as I can (It’s not all WWII stuff, I’ve got separate folders for separate achievements). 

File this under: The History I Wish I’d Been Taught As A Little Girl

[bcnedrah]

fresh, clean no-terf version for reblogs!

Your mom and aunts aren’t on tumblr.  Please warn them about this as well. 

[bcnedrah]

my parents aren’t teaching me life lessons.

#i need some adults to TEACH ME SHIT ABOUT LIFE

[bcnedrah]

Magnus is likely 400-420 years old in this scene.

17,000 / 400 = 42.5 partners/year

42.5 / 12 = 3-4 partners/month

Not so crazy when you break it down

One Scene from a Favorite Episode for Each Season ➧ 2x06

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Attention non-artists who commission artists: don’t fuckin do this???

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Mycroft: *about duke of Tewkesbury* then you should marry her off to him. Maybe it will calm them both down a bit. 

Enola and the Duke as a married couple: 

-live in London 

-help Sherlock solve crimes

-Enola as the new Duchess of Tewkesbury surprises everyone when she traipses into important social functions having just chased some ruffian with dirt smudged on her face and her petticoats like five inches deep in mud 

-Sherlock at first is pretty sure the Duke is a “useless boy” as Enola told him but then one time his knowledge of flowers saves him from being poisoned so he’s like, okay, not so useless, I get it 

-Mycroft turns fifteen shades of purple when he finds out the Duke does most of the cooking and cleaning since Enola is usually too busy solving cases. But once, Enola tried cooking for everyone and mixed the salt and sugar up so no one lets her in the kitchen anymore. He hires them a maid and cook as a wedding present and to keep the duke from “embarrassment” as he says despite the Duke insisting he LIKES cooking and cleaning. 

-Whenever anyone says “Holmes” solved another case no one knows if it is Enola or Sherlock anymore, as she still uses her old surname undercover to be less ostentatious 

-society women who come to call on Enola often at first don’t like her but then their jewelry goes missing or some strange mishap and when their husbands won’t hire anyone, they turn to Enola. She builds connections through her mysteries and friendships and people slowly begin to respect her. 

-men come to their home thinking the Duke of Tewkesbury is the one related to Sherlock, and are often disappointed when they find out its this skinny scrap of a girl who is his wife but then when she solves the case brag about her to their friends about having used Londons most notorious Lady Detective. The Duke often gets irritated with this assumption and rants for ages about his wife being the best detective in London. 

-the first time she and the duke go to a ball, they get distracted by someone’s arboretum where the duke spends the whole night naming flowers and Enola steals some out for his own collection. Mycroft is mildly scandalized as he hears rumors of them spending the evening “stealing flowers all evening at the ball” which he thinks is a euphemism and  everyone else believes the young married couple snuck off to be intimate and lectures them about propriety and flowers not being taken but, in reality, the two were just honestly stealing flowers for the Dukes collection. 

-one time, Enola chases a criminal through the streets of London and the halls of parliament and passes her husband there. She stops to kiss him on the cheek briefly, and is like, “what’s for dinner” and he’s all, “I had the cook put on a pot roast” then she quickly goes back to chasing the ruffian and the duke, who is with one of his colleagues finds himself being stared at wildly, and he just grins and says, “That’s my wife.” 

In short, marriage does NOT calm them down. Not a bit. And its Mycroft’s worst nightmare. 

[bcnedrah]

The film Enola Holmes is bristling with flower symbolism, so it seems important here that the Viscount Tewskbury, Marquess of Basilwether gives Enola a pink rose. Sure, he’s high-key flirting, but most importantly, pink roses are more gentle than red roses, which explicitly symbolise romantic love. Pink roses symbolise gratitude and joy, they’re seen as a token of admiration and appreciation when given to someone.

Which very much makes sense given that the conversation prefacing this present involves Enola admitting she’d tracked him down because he’s in danger.

“I’ve come here because I’ve grown to like you more in your absence, and because, as it turns out, your life is still in danger.” “What’s made you like me more?” “Really? That is your question? Not ‘Who is trying to kill me?’”

Meaning that despite his blasé attitude, the Viscount Tewskbury, Marquess of Basilwether is grateful Enola is going through all this trouble for him; and he makes his appreciation known in the most Victorian England way possible. I just think this is a neat detail to include.

[bcnedrah]

Enola Holmes + Lord Tewksbury 

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A Tour of Paris – US Edition

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enola holmes had no business being as good as it is. feminism? a black woman calling out sherlock for “politics is boring” being a privileged as fuck take? enola’s companion is a teenage little himbo-in-training who likes flowers and plants? mycroft is a bitch? extraordinary. academy award worthy.

[bcnedrah]

▫️Back with some soft Sterek. :') ▪️

[bcnedrah]

THE QUESTION ISN’T: “WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?”, THE QUESTION IS: “WHAT AREN’T WE GOING TO DO?” | Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) dir. John Hughes

~pls don’t repost, this took hours~