beesandtreesblr

[beesandtreesblr]

Like, fuck, not just witchcraft but lots on Alchemy, Herbalism... I've found books I’ve only been able to get through interlibrary loan that cost upwards of $50 to purchase outright. 

Here's a link to a website that lets you download

F R E E witchcraft books

[beesandtreesblr]

By the way the numbers after a “deactivated” name aren’t just random digits. They tell you the date the blog was deactivated, as coded by tumblr

[beesandtreesblr]

i ask for substitutes a lot…but when are substitutes NOT okay?

[beesandtreesblr]

every time i see people trying to normalize fatness by sexualizing it i think of that post thats like “what are you gonna tell a fucking 12 y/o? dont cry dude youre so thick? stop it” bc like. truly. not only do i personally not want my body to be sexualized lol but also its so harmful to kids like?? being fat is normal in all contexts not just when youre in lingerie with a beat face looking pouty at the camera like can we talk about the variances in human bodies without resorting to making them normal only when theyre sexy, my god

[beesandtreesblr]

Saying that life is meaningless is like stepping into a wilderness and saying there is no shelter.

The fact that we have the ability and inclination to build shelter, to make meaning, is a message from the universe.

It says, "what you are will provide what you need."

[beesandtreesblr]

[beesandtreesblr]

everyone here hates when their posts blow up yet no one fucking hesitates to reblog already popular posts. no one shows that kindness and it's wonderful. a mutual understanding that op dug their own grave by being a top notch clown and that's their problem, not yours

[beesandtreesblr]

I was watching Shrek 2 and my wife and I were reflecting on how much transmisogyny was in it as jokes (e.g. “gender confused wolf” “ugly step sister” “women’s underwear” etc.) and it’s so extremely ridiculous to me the transphobes’ line that having positive representations of trans people (esp trans women) in children’s media would be “too confusing” for kids—because they are literally already making references to trans women in children’s media, they’re just doing it in the most offensive ways possible. Taking away all the empty cis rationalization of it, really they’re not arguing for kids to not see trans characters, they’re arguing that kids should see trans characters as demonized, fetishized, objects of ridicule and disgust. Like that’s literally the subtext in these “how do I explain this to my kids” conversations. They really mean “let me continue to explain this in ways that groom kids into hating trans people and themselves if they are trans”

[beesandtreesblr]

Please don't say the word goblin or other creatures that are obsessed with money, they're antisemitic (i know u didn't know don't worry)

I’m not an expert on folklore or Judaica, but I am a Jew who has taken some classes in European folklore, so I have a couple thoughts on this. “Goblin” is a generic term to refer to a lot of different mythical creatures, some of them mischievous, some of them friendly, some of them evil. Some goblins do share traits with antisemitic stereotypes (lookin’ at you, JKR … and also a lot of modern RPGs), and sometimes that is intentional antisemitism on the part of the people telling the stories.

But the term is still very, very broad, and there are so many different types of creatures that are called “goblins” that they can’t all be said to represent an antisemitic stereotype.

Shakespeare’s Puck is a hobgoblin, for example, and this was a book I read as a kid and enjoyed:

I would agree that we shouldn’t call other human beings “goblins” (because at the very least it seems pretty rude, if not potentially antisemitic?) but calling my mom’s dog a goblin because she reminds me of a funny little creature doesn’t strike me as problematic. I could be wrong here, but as someone who has read a lot of folklore, the term “goblin” could apply to almost as diverse an array of different creatures as the term “dragon,” and I would rather focus on critiquing goblin characters that use antisemitic tropes than removing the word “goblin” from the lexicon.

[beesandtreesblr]

Soil: keeper of the dead, giver of wealth

“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.” -Wendell Berry

In rebuilding a relationship with the natural environment, I realized everything starts and ends with soil. And in a pantheon of natural forces, soil transcends, the archetype of a deity of the dead and the underworld

It’s not just dirt, Soil is a collective being. In just one gram of soil can live 10 million bacteria [x]. Soil is home to the unseen. In its dark depths lives all sorts of minerals, microbes, fungi, and small creatures essential to our existence, but mostly out of view. These minions of the soil toil as the Great Decomposer. From fallen leaves, animal droppings, to the leftover kill of the coyote, beetles and bugs: in a great orchestration the collective soil transmutes dead matter into the nutrients for life. Working together the soil makes this life force available and assists in delivering it with the help of mycorrhizal relationships and others. Most all death (sans some humans) will meet soil in one sense or another and it is soil that is responsible for managing the dead, the transition to the afterlife, and offers possibly of resurrection.

My relationship with soil is quite intense and personal. I learned from a school of gardening that focuses on building and raising soil using no-till techniques to harbor a thriving soil community and thus a more productive garden. My wealth and wellbeing comes from the soil, in the form of food, and I n exchange it must be treated with respect. Much of my time is spent with the soil, working with compost, collecting mulch, cleaning animal manure, and gardening of course. This time spent is offering dedication to the soil which facilitates learning it’s lessons

The soil also plays an honored role when it comes to burying the remains of our animals. We try to use every last gift they bless us with but there are always unusable parts that are offered to the soil and we let it work its magic. The soil takes the bones and remains and transfers them to new life.

Burial plays a crucial role in my path: a way to give offerings to the land and harnessed as a useful form of magic. A direct connection to the soil, the underworld, and unseen forces. Along with bones, herbs, roots, charms, other gifts and ingredients (all safe for the earth) are buried and used to form bonds with these entities and execute spells and rituals.

There is no better time to honor this deity of the dead then during the Halloween season. As it is the end of harvest: decaying plant matter is given to the compost, blood to the earth, remains buried deep underground. The gardens are given compost, manure, and mulch to nurish and protect the soil. We are more in touch with the unseen and death is fresh on the mind. But soil is honored throughout the year. In midspring when planting begins, during summer when it is full of life meditating with its energy, or frozen solid in winter sleeping under the snow, there is always value in being connected to death.

[beesandtreesblr]

Rhianna Pratchett confirming her father wouldn't be a """gender critical""" activist (whatever the hell those GCs stand for) if he were still alive

[beesandtreesblr]

do you ever think about how if you dive into the ocean and go deeper and deeper you will pass through layers of darker and darker blue until everything is black and cold and the pressure will be so intense that it will kill you without protection but if you keep going you will find little glowing specks of light, and if you go up into the sky and go higher and higher you will pass through layers of darker and darker blue until everything is black and cold and the pressure will be so intense that it will kill you without protection but if you keep going you will find little glowing specks of light

[beesandtreesblr]

[beesandtreesblr]

“That’s why high school, or a crappy job, or any other restrictive circumstance can be dangerous: They make dreams too painful to bear. To avoid longing, we hunker down, wait, and resolve to just survive. Great art becomes a reminder of the art you want to be making, and of the gigantic world outside of your small, seemingly inescapable one. We hide from great things because they inspire us, and in this state, inspiration hurts.”

— One of the best articles I’ve ever read. Rookie Mag. By Spencer Tweedy. (via wildyork)

[beesandtreesblr]

bell hooks, All About Love

[beesandtreesblr]

“To make bread or love, to dig in the earth, to feed an animal or cook for a stranger—these activities require no extensive commentary, no lucid theology. All they require is someone willing to bend, reach, chop, stir. Most of these tasks are so full of pleasure that there is no need to complicate things by calling them holy. And yet these are the same activities that change lives, sometimes all at once and sometimes more slowly, the way dripping water changes stone. In a world where faith is often construed as a way of thinking, bodily practices remind the willing that faith is a way of life.”

— Barbara Brown Taylor (via h-o-r-n-g-r-y)

[beesandtreesblr]

Sometimes you gotta ask tho.

My pal and I have a good relationship bc we work at it.

Them: *uses the language of boundaries to get me to drop a discussion about where a piece of furniture could go for a party*

Me a while later: hey I noticed this is what you said earlier and it felt like you used the language of having a boundary just to get me to shut up

Them: I think I did do that- *explains they have a lot of feelings unrelated to me about the piece of furniture and we're feeling overwhelmed*

There's no such thing as "healthy people act this way with emotions". We all process. Many of us deflect or hide or aren't even aware of what our root issue is.

I needed time to be able to bring up an upsetting interaction we had. They needed some feedback to recognize there was something else going on.

It was tempting to leave it alone and just sit in how I was harmed and develope narratives of resentment (mine for them and them for me).

Be brave. Ask for clarity "I didn't like this; was anything going on for you?".

It's a necessary skill to relationship anarchy to see people as their own whole cosmos.

Even if there's a person you spend a large amount of time with, who you have great emotional and 'i also live many parts of your life with you' intmacies with.

We don't know the whole of people's lives and internal landscapes. We have to communicate. Be curious. Be brave.

Observing that someone is upset or is not in a good mood and immediately relating it to yourself, inferring that you are the cause of their bad mood is self-centered thinking. It’s easy to do this, especially in romantic relationships but you should really remind yourself that people have feelings and emotions outside of you. Anger, frustration, sadness etc. can be expressed while having absolutely nothing to do with you. That is okay.