cainsbrood

[cainsbrood]

Nikolai Kochergin’s illustration for tale “Morozko”.

Ded Moroz (Russian: Дед Мороз; Belarusian: Дзед Мароз, Ukrainian: Дід Мороз; also Morozko (Russian: Морозко) is a fictional character similar to that of Father Christmas and Santa Claus and has its roots in Slavic mythology. The tradition of Ded Moroz is mostly spread in East Slavic countries. The literal translation is “Grandfather Frost”, but depending on the language it can also be translated as “Old Man Frost”. Ded Moroz is depicted as bringing presents to well-mannered children, often delivering them in person on New Year’s Eve.

[cainsbrood]

Southern Cunning is now available for pre-order! I’m so excited to have this going out into the world and sharing something that has been such a labor of love. Pre-orders are immensely helpful for authors so give it a gander! Here are some of the early reviews for Southern Cunning

“Born of experience and lived practice, Aaron Oberon’s honest, warm and insightful exploration of Southern Cunning illumines an immersive journey from the crossroads through the stories, rites, tools and substances of an operative witchcraft rooted firmly in folkloric potency, the ways of spirits and the power of place.” - Gemma Gary, author of Traditional Witchcraft - A Cornish Book of Ways

“A straight-talking, easy to follow take on folkloric witchcraft from the South, rich in personal anecdotes and practical tips.” -Lee Morgan, author of A Deed Without a Name

“This is the sort of book I wish there were more of, because it connects the living magic of the past with the living magic of the present without getting stuck on problems of lineage, authentication, or secrecy. Southern Cunning will be a valuable addition to the library of anyone with an interest in folklore, magic, and witches with a Southern flavor.” -Cory Thomas Hutcheson, host of the podcast New World Witchery

[cainsbrood]

My home city ❤️ I used to live right behind this cemetery

The snow was wonderful today. I spent time in Loudon Park and New Cathedral shooting video. I’ll post more when I’ve assembled it properly. For now, though, I just couldn’t wait to post this shot of Hans Schuler’s Husted-Kleinle flower girl.

Loudon Park Cemetery Baltimore, Maryland

[cainsbrood]

The Mischievous Tomte Spirits of Yule by Mat Auryn

[cainsbrood]

[cainsbrood]

poppin’ that bussy

[cainsbrood]

“Using the tools of collocational analysis, we explore the distribution and lexical relations of fairy, goblin, imp, and cognate terms within a corpus of approximately 17.6 million words of early-modern English. We found that imp, incubus, and familiar have well-circumscribed associations and are restricted to specific genres. However, goblin and fairy often appear in definitional or synonymizing phrases (e.g., ‘the fairies are spirits’), or, in contrast, are used in ‘indiscriminate pairings’ (e.g., ‘ghosts and goblins’) that serve to index a twilight domain of the spooky, the eerie, the unknown. We argue that the study of such preternatural beings is properly the study of rhetorical patterns. Goblins and their kin function as sites of contestation about other definitional schema: superstition, religion, magic”

[cainsbrood]

Can't afford to buy things for your garden?

*Re-posting, with new information

A store-bought bag of topsoil, a roll of landscaping fabric, or a bag of cedar chips doesn’t go very far if you have a large garden or a very limited budget. Here are some ways to create the materials you need for a beautiful, organic, productive garden, by both re-directing household waste, and foraging in your local area. I use a lot of these tricks in my garden to make it almost completely free for me to continue growing new things, and expanding the workable area every year!

For soil

Save your food scraps to create a rich compost for growing veggies and amending your soil. There are numerous options for every size of dwelling and yard. Small space solutions such as Bokashi and vermicompost work indoors and don’t produce bad smells, so you can keep them underneath the sink.Worm towers, compost heaps, and outdoor compost bins are a great solution if you have more space. The more you add, the more rich, nutritious material you can make for your garden. I like composting because it means I don’t have gross smelly garbage bags to deal with, because food waste is diverted. It seems like a lot of work at first, but it actually saves time, money, and transportation.

Seaweed or kelp is one of the best things for your garden, with over 70 essential nutrients, and acting as a weed barrier and a moisture-retentive mulch. I collect seaweed nearby on the beach with my bike trailer, or, when I go for a walk I bring a little home with me each time. It’s an absolute miracle for your soil.

Worm tower

Fertiliser

There are three things that are essential for plant growth. These are nitrogen for leaves and vegetation (N), phosphorus for roots and shoots (P), and potassium for water movement, flowering, and fruiting (K). Commercial fertilisers will give the relative concentrations of each of these compounds with and “NPK” rating. Plants like tomatoes also need calcium to produce healthy fruit. You can create amendments for your garden and soil at home so that you do not have to purchase fertiliser.

For nitrogen

Grass clippings contain 4% nitrogen, 1% phosphorus, and 2% potassium (NPK = 4-1-2).

Human urine contains 12% nitrogen, and it’s sterile. Dilute before adding directly to plants.

Legumes such as beans, clover, peanuts, and alfalfa fix inorganic nitrogen into the soil with mycorrhizal organisms and nodules on their root systems. Plant these crops every few years in rotation with others to renew the soil organically.

For phosphorus

Human urine is also a great source of phosphorous and trace amounts of potassium.

Ground up bones or shells add a slow-release phosphorous to the soil

Had a baby recently? Bury the placenta in the garden.

For potassium

Hardwood ashes 

Composted banana peels

For calcium

Break down all of your eggshells, or seashells you have found, in a plastic bucket, using vinegar. This creates a soluble calcium solution you can add to a watering can. 

Soil Acidity/Alkalinity

Many plants are particular about what the soil pH should be.

To make soil more acidic: add oak leaves, pine needles, leaf mulch, urine, coffee grounds or sphagnum. 

To make soil more alkaline: add wood ash, shell, or bone.

Mulch

Mulch is decomposing organic matter that adds nutrition to the soil, while simultaneously keeping out weed growth and retaining moisture. It also attracts worms, fungi and other beneficial creatures to your soil. Free sources of mulch include:

Leaves

Garden waste

Grass clippings

Straw (often straw bales are given away after being used for decoration in the fall. You can also plant vegetables directly in straw bales using a technique called straw bale gardening).

Wood chips (if you can borrow a wood chipper after you’ve collected some wood you can have attractive wood mulch for free)

Straw bale garden

Landscaping fabric

When mulch isn’t enough to keep the weeds down, many people opt for landscaping fabric. It can be quite expensive and inorganic-looking. Free solutions that both attract worms and can be replaced in small segments as they break down include:

Newspaper*

Cardboard*

Egg cartons*

Printer paper, looseleaf, etc. in thick layers*

*try to make sure you are using paper that has vegetable-based dyes, so you aren’t leeching toxins into the soil.

Soil density/drainage

If your soil is compacted and you have plants that require low levels of water, or excellent drainage, add sand. I don’t recommend stealing it from the beach, but ask around and you’d be surprised at how easy it is to get for free. Sawdust also improves drainage. Adding organic matter and mulch encourages worms, who also till and aerate compacted soil.

If the area still needs drainage, dig a hole and fill it with bricks or rocks to create a “dry well”

For drainage in pots, add crushed bricks, terra cotta pot fragments, packing peanuts, small stones, marbles, orsand to the bottom under the soil layer. I find these in construction sites, on craigslist, or at flea markets.

Pots and growing containers

If you have space, raised beds are a great no-dig way to establish growing space. If you are pressed for space (like working on a balcony) there are many cheap or free options for container gardens.

Creating raised beds allows you to build up the soil without digging. Free ways to do this include using rocks or lumber (like my DIY “lasagna garden” made with the sheet composting technique), using the “wattle“ method with sticks and posts you have found, using discarded straw bales, old bricks,paving stones, cinder blocks or really anything else you have lying around.

Hugelkutur raised beds, which fix carbon and provide drainage, can be made by stacking sticks and untreated wood, and then piling soil or compost over it. (Thanks milos-garden)

Rubber tire gardens retain heat in the night and allow for great drainage. They can also be painted in fun ways.

Herb spirals (here is mine: 1, 2, 3) can be built with stones, bricks, and other found materials.

I often use old cooking pots, barbecues, teapots, or other found objects as planters.

Making wooden planters is easy, and scrap or salvaged wood is also easy to come by. I’m not a fan of using wooden pallets for DIY projects, but they are also a free source of lumber for things like planters.

If you can track down peat moss, cement, and vermiculite, you can make an easy Hypertufa planter in whatever shape you would like, provided you have a form in which it can dry.

I’ve made hanging gardens out of soda cans.

You can build a self-watering container with a 2L pop bottle.

Start seeds in eggshells

Make biodegradable pots out of newspapers.

Wattle raised beds

Rubber tire gardens

Hugelkultur

An herb spiral

Hanging gardens in cans (2)

Trellises and supports

Many plants need external support, such as stakes of trellises, to thrive.

Rebar can almost always be salvaged cheaply or free and makes a great trellis, arch, or purgola 

Build trellises and supports out of the pliable young stems of plants like willow

Rebar trellis/arch

Living willow arch/trellis

Paving

Paving often requires a foundation of sand or another stable and well-drained substrate, and a covering of stones, bricks, or other weatherproof elements. Slowly collect stones over time, or free paving stone fragments to create a mosaic-type walkway. Often people give these things away on craigslist. I made a patio and fireplace out of free salvaged bricks, for example.

Salvaged garden walkway

Greenhouses and cold frames

Here is a gallery of greenhouses made out of salvaged windows and doors

A cold frame is easy to make with salvaged lumber, and plastic sheeting.

Window greenhouse

Palet cold-frame

Seeds and plants

Swap seeds with other gardeners

If you see a plant you like at someone’s house, ask for seeds or cuttings

Save seeds every year and build a library of options. Here is a great guide to seed saving.

Save seeds from foods you like from the grocery store: consider growing peanuts, ginger, garlic, peppers, or a walnut tree: all of these and more can be planted from store-bought produce.

Learn to take cuttings. There is a tonne of info on the web about basic cutting propagation, layering, (like I do with rhododendrons) air layering, and numerous other techniques to take clones of plants you like. This saves going to a nursery and shelling out big bucks for all the variety you want.

For cuttings, willow tea and honey are great rooting hormones/antiseptics/anti-fungal agents, which can save you $40 if you were thinking of buying commercial rooting hormone.

You can root cuttings in a potato! (See my methods for rooting “borrowed” plants here)

Air layering

Rooting cuttings in potatoes

—-

I hope this helps you build your garden outside of the usual capitalist channels! It can be a cheap or free hobby if you are willing to think outside the box, and maybe put up with things that don’t look as clean or crisp as a hardware store catalogue. If you have any further ideas, please add them! The more information the better.

[cainsbrood]

REBLOG IF NAZIS OFFEND YOU MORE THAN NIPPLES.

[cainsbrood]

“The Horned God of the witches, variously identified with Cernunnos, Pan, Janus, Dianus, Herne and Puck, was popularly known as the Dark Satyr or Man in Black in the medieval witches’ sabbath. He is linked with Sutekh-Set, with the Yezidic Shaitan, with the Islamic lord of the djinns Eblis or Iblis, the Greek Lucifer and the Hebrew Azazel. The Horned One of the Sabbatic Craft is the Great Serpent of Light who guides his disciples to the gnosis of the Supreme Awakening and the ultimate goal of unity with the Godhead.”

— Nigel Jackson and Michael Howard, The Pillars of Tubal-Cain, p.150 (via iopanosiris)

[cainsbrood]

21- Strega Nona

21- Strega Nona (1975)

Taking a mental health break from hyper-analysis to offer this pasta witch.

Strega Nona is the titular character behind the children’s book of the same name written by Tomie dePaola. The story is about an old witch who is renowned in her village for her remedies and matchmaking abilities. She hires a young helper named Big Anthony to assist her in her work as she is getting too old to work alone. One day, Strega Nona is cooking a magic pasta. Big Anthony doesn’t pay close enough attention, however, and while he sees Strega Nona singing a magic spell to produce the pasta, he misses the necessary spellcraft required to stop the production. The result is that macaroni noodles flood the entire town as the spell gets carried away. Strega Nona gives Anthony a fork saying “the punishment must fit the crime,” and makes him eat all of the pasta. The two characters, Strega Nona and Big Anthony, have appeared in nearly a dozen additional books by dePaola, however the first is the most well known, winning several awards for children’s picture books.

The moral of the story? Pay Attention. I love any time a witch, especially an older one, is shown in a positive light in a children’s tale. Even in a children’s book, the story conveys the wisdom and magic associated with witches, and goes so far as making Strega Nona a moral compass. She’s happy, kind, and well respected around town, the latter aspect greatly differentiating her from other witches in this series. While her personality is the inverse of the traditional witch, her physical appearance, as that of an old, frumpy, squat, and big nosed woman does fit the standard image. She’s shown with a cauldron (pasta pot) and various animal familiars surrounding her. Similar to the Witch from Room on a Broom (#75), La Befana (#68), and even Eglantine Price (#97), Strega Nona joins the ranks of positive witches geared towards and beloved by children.

[cainsbrood]

Erik Thor Sandberg

[cainsbrood]

“They say Jesus was a friend of sinners, but he didn’t describe himself that way. His motto wasn’t “eating and drinking with prostitutes and tax collectors.” Those were the labels used by the religious community, by the disapproving onlookers. What’s amazing about Jesus is that when he hung out with sinners, he didn’t act like they were sinners. They weren’t a “project,” a “mission field.” They were his friends. People with names. Defined as beloved children of the Creator, not defined by their sins. Icons of God’s image. His brothers and sisters.”

— Micah J Murray,  Why I Can’t Say ‘Love the Sinner/Hate the Sin’ Anymore

[cainsbrood]

Map of every European city.

[cainsbrood]

sketch/prayer to summon our pale companion. Roll on, void eternal. Happy birthday, everyone.

[cainsbrood]

“In ancient times the world of spirits was everywhere acknowledged because it was a matter of direct experience and open to all but the most insensitive. The world of spirits was as familiar to primitive man as is the dream world is to modern man. The spirit world became the later ‘spiritual’ world after undue emphasis on mans’ mental development had obliterated the astral world in which he originally had moved with as much ease as in the mundane world.”

— Kenneth Grant, from ‘Nightside of Eden’ (via haremask)

[cainsbrood]

The Aphrodisiacs Workshop has been a blast! Easily one of the most underrated matters in herbalism and sorcery, perhaps it’s now time to give it the relevance it once had. . . . #poisonpath #occvltacrafts #traditionalwitchcraft #pyreneanwitchcraft #catalanwitchcraft #sorcery #basquewitchcraft #brujeriatradicional #aphrodisiac #afrodisiaco https://www.instagram.com/p/BqSmot2HrLP/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ki89i0uwh9ec