curious-kitchen-witch - Tumblr blog

[curious-kitchen-witch]

interesting how transmascs & transfems alike think losing weight is the answer to pass as our chosen gender.... almost as if fat people are never Truly afforded a passing gender regardless of trans status. as fat people we are never Truly seen as Men or Women. anyway fuck that notion & if u think u need to lose weight to pass that's the devil talking

[curious-kitchen-witch]

if you're just joining us, george takei is having to educate jk rowling on holocaust denial

[curious-kitchen-witch]

I feel like the people freaking out in the notes/tags about the walrus/fairy thing don't realize how many of their fellow humans firmly believe in the possibility of the fae being real. 😆

Like I don't mean certain they're real or anything, but moreso like "Oh yeah, that folklore might exist for a valid reason and I'm not completely ruling it out."

But I am completely ruling out a walrus being able to make it up the stairs to my apartment and fit outside my door, let alone navigate the hundreds of miles on land to my doorstop.

[curious-kitchen-witch]

DIFFERENT WOMEN'S BODY TYPES SHOULD BE REPRESENTED NOT BECAUSE YOU FIND THEM HOT OR SEXY OR WANT THEM TO STEP ON YOU BUT BECAUSE THEYRE NORMAL RAAAAAH RAAAAAAAAAH I DONT CARE THAT YOU WANT A BUFF WOMAN TO THROW YOU SHUT UPPPPPP RAAAAAAAAAHHHH

[curious-kitchen-witch]

Since there's somebody on this site insisting that Lilith should be considered open again, I'm just gonna mention that I have never seen an argument in favor of considering Lilith an open deity that didn't rely on a massive misunderstanding of ancient Mesopotamian beliefs, effectively blame Jews for patriarchy within Christianity, or appeal to fakelore from the Internet. Like if there's somebody out there who can make a compelling argument for why Lilith should be considered open without appealing to some kinda bullshit and is also Jewish I'd be happy to hear them out, but until such a person can give me a good reason to do otherwise, I'll be siding with the Jewish folks who considered Lilith closed.

[curious-kitchen-witch]

KOSA IS GETTING FORCED THROUGH ATTACHED ARE SCRIPTS FOR EITHER A DEM OR REP SENATOR CALL NOW PLEASE

[curious-kitchen-witch]

Reblogs appreciated~!

[curious-kitchen-witch]

“you should be at the club” i should be by the sea. i should be in the mountains. i should be awestruck and rendered speechless by the majesty of the natural world. if you even care

[curious-kitchen-witch]

There is this misguided idea that everything a witch uses for their craft must be based on something old or ancient. This can lead to the spread of misinformation about where many of these spells, rituals, and practices actually come from.

Many of our practices are actually fairly modern, and that is ok! Our practices don't have to be from ancient times in order for them to mean something. I think we need to learn where our practices come from and be more honest about their age.

Modern witchcraft practices are a good thing! We grow and change, and so should our practices. There is nothing wrong with mixing some old in with the new. We should be careful when claiming something is from the ancient druids if we aren't certain that it actually is.

[curious-kitchen-witch]

Jew here with a friendly reminder that:

Criticizing Isreal ≠ antisemetic

Supporting Palestine ≠ antisemitic

Believing in the Free Palestine cause ≠ antisemitic

BUT ALSO

A random ass Jew just living their life oceans away has nothing to do with the Isreal-Palestine conflict

Palestinian Jews exist

Jews that support Palestine exist (I am one of them)

Calling out ACTUAL antisemitism ≠ supporting Isreal

[curious-kitchen-witch]

Good Yule everyone!

[curious-kitchen-witch]

call me an old fashioned wizard if you must but I cannot stand modern apprentices using scribeGPT for everything. like bffr if thou cannot even compose a simple incantation in thy grimoire dos’t thou really expect me to believe thou can cast it?? thour’t not the scholar here…thine orb is

[curious-kitchen-witch]

Chakras

Chakra (चक्र) literally means "wheel" or "circle" in Sanskrit. The concept of chakras originates from Hinduism in Ancient India. These are focal points used in a variety of ancient meditation or yoga (योग) practices. These practices are collectively called Tantra (तन्त्र) [1]

Although the concept is frequently found in early traditions of Hinduism and are often mentioned in the Vedas, beliefs around chakras differ between various Indian religions. Buddhist texts consistently mention 5 chakras whereas Hindu texts and sources speak of 6 or 7 chakras.

Early Sanskrit texts speak of them both as meditative visualizations combining flowers and mantras and as physical entities in the body. Within kundalini yoga [2], various breath exercises, visualizations, mudras (मुद्रा) [3], kriyas (क्रिया) [4], and mantras (मन्त्र) [5] are focused on manipulating the flow of subtle energy through chakras.

Chakras are also present in Ayurvedic traditions [6].

The belief behind chakras is that human life simultaneously exists in two parallel dimensions, one is the physical body and the other is psychological, emotional, mind, non-physical (the subtle body).

The aforementioned subtle body is energy, while the physical body is mass. The psyche or mind plane corresponds to and interacts with the body plane, and the belief holds that the body and the mind mutually affect each other. The subtle body consists of energy channels connected by nodes of psychic energy called chakra.

The chakras -- in Hindu and Buddhist texts -- are said to be arranged in a column along the spinal cord, from its base to the top of the head, connected by vertical channels. Tantric traditions strive to awaken, master, and energize these chakras through yoga and often with the help of a teacher.

The esoteric traditions in Buddhism generally teach four chakras. In some early Buddhist sources, these chakras are termed as: manipura (navel), anahata (heart), vishuddha (throat), and ushnisha kamala (crown).

However, a system of five chakras is common among Classes of Tantra in Tibetian Buddhism. These five chakras are:

Basal (Element: Earth, Buddha: Amoghasiddhi, Bija mantra: LAM)

Abdominal (Element: Water, Buddha: Ratnasambhava, Bija mantra: VAM)

Heart (Element: Fire, Buddha: Akshobhya, Bija mantra: RAM)

Throat (Element: Wind, Buddha: Amitabha, Bija mantra: YAM)

Crown (Element: Space, Buddha: Vairochana, Bija mantra: KHAM)

The more common and most studied chakra system incorporates six major chakras along with a seventh center generally not regarded as a chakra.

The Chakras are traditionally considered meditation aids. The yogi starts from lower chakras and progresses to the highest chakra located in the crown of the head, in the journey of spiritual ascent.

In the Hindu Kundalini and Buddhist Candali traditions, the chakras are pierced by a dormant energy residing near or in the lowest chakra. In Hindu texts she is known as Kundalini, while in Buddhist texts she is called Candali or Tummo.

I have a feeling that I'm simply info dumping at this point so let me get the the main point:

Chakras are NOT a Wiccan concept

The concept of chakras has been around centuries longer than Wicca has been

Tl;dr: The concept of chakras is NOT a Wiccan one. It originates from religious Ancient Indian practices.

[1] Tantra: Esoteric traditions in Hinduism and Buddhism that developed in India mainly during the middle of the 1st millennium CE. The term tantra, in the Indian traditions, also means text, theory, system, method, instrument, technique or practice. A key feature of these traditions is the use of mantras.

[2] Kundalini Yoga: A type of yoga focused on channeling energy through the chakras.

[3] Mudra: A symbolic or ritual gesture or pose in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. Mudras have meaning in many forms of Indian dance and yoga. In hatha yoga, mudras are used in conjunction with pranayama (yogic breathing exercises), generally while in a seated posture, to stimulate different parts of the body involved with breathing and to affect the flow of prana and is associated with consciousness in the body. Mudras are also used in Tantric practices.

[4] Kriya: Practice within a yoga discipline meant to achieve a specific result. The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali defines three types of kriya, namely asceticism, study, and devotion. Such yoga is called kriya yoga. Kriya is a Sanskrit word that literally means "to do" or "to work".

[5] Mantra: A sacred utterance, a sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages. They hold spiritual and religious significance. At its simplest, the word ॐ (Om) serves as a mantra, it is believed to be the first sound which was originated on earth. It creates a reverberation in the body which helps the body and mind to be calm. In more sophisticated forms, mantras are melodic phrases with spiritual interpretations such as a human longing for truth, reality, light, immortality, peace, love, knowledge, and action. Not all mantras have literal meanings but rather are simply uplifting.

[6] Ayurveda: An alternative medicine system with historical roots in Ancient India.

Tagging: @crazycatsiren (Thanks for the idea!)

[curious-kitchen-witch]

The "Third Eye" - It's not what you might think it is

"How do I open my 'third eye'" is a question that I see very often asked around in the modern witch communities.

The real answer to that question is: long story short, you can't. You don't have access to the kind of training required for it. Unless you have access to legitimate and experienced teachers who really know this stuff back to back, who can walk you through every step of the process, and even then, there's no guarantee of success. It's not something that you can just "do".

The third eye is an ancient Hindu and Buddhist concept. It's not the "sight" or the "sixth sense" of western spiritualism.

The third eye refers to a gate or pathway that leads to the inner and supernatural realms, as well as spaces of higher consciousness. In Buddhism, the third eye symbolizes a state of enlightenment. The reason why it's said to be located in the middle of the forehead, is because it represents the enlightenment achieved through meditation, religious practice, and holy work. Buddhists regard the third eye as the "eye of consciousness", from which enlightenment beyond the physical sight is achieved. Do you know how hard it is to achieve any level of enlightenment? Pretty damn hard is the answer. Devout Buddhist monks and nuns will spend their whole lives working on it, knowing that it may or may not happen by the end of one lifetime.

The divine are the only beings that may come with their third eyes already open. In artworks of Buddhist deities such as Buddha or Guanyin, you will see an urna in between their eyebrows, portraying their third eyes. The god Erlang Shen of Chinese mythology, a nephew of the Emperor of Heaven and a celestial warrior, literally has a third eye, which he uses to see through all realms and dimensions, divine and mortal.

Mortals have to really work at it, if they really want it. But for mortals, no matter how hard you train, it may or may not happen for you.

Now, the third eye in Hinduism. Much thanks to my dearest Indian Hindu mutual @rue-cimon for providing the helpful information!

You can't just "open" the third eye.

Can you focus on the spot during meditation? Yes. Can you visualize it as a center of energy? Yes.

But you can't open it. It's not "opening the third eye chakra" that New Agers love to toss around.

In Hinduism, it is the god Shiva, who is said to have a literal third eye. Which is why the ajna chakra is so important in Hinduism. It is said to connect one with the Brahman (universe) and allow one to receive "messages" from the past and the future. Hindus will place a tilaka (similar idea as the Buddhist urna) between the eyebrows as a representation of the third eye, to emphasize the importance of the ajna chakra and in honor of Shiva.

Hindus believe that the third eye, when opened, causes complete obliteration (think of it as an apocalypse), and that ability lies only with Shiva. Do you really think that we, mortals, can have that ability? Or should have that ability? Probably not, if you were to ask a Hindu.

So if you were to go with the Hindu side of this: you cannot open the third eye, period. It may not even be possible with a Tantric teacher. And the teachers wouldn't be instructing you on how to "open" that eye, but rather to simply visualize it and be more attuned to it. The least you can do is focus on the spot during meditation. That's it. That's about the most you can do on your own. Focus on the spot between your eyes, let your mind be at ease, try not to visualize anything, and don't think or expect anything. Just focus. Focus on your breath, on the rise and fall of your chest as you breathe. Do this for up to 20 minutes. You might feel different afterwards, but that's not your third eye "opening". It's what meditation, true meditation, will do to your body and mind.

So, bottom line, folks: don't try to pry open your third eye. It's not going to work, and you might even end up getting yourself into a load of trouble in the process.

[curious-kitchen-witch]

My guys in mythology and deity tags, you need to start recognizing AI generated images, I’m serious.

[curious-kitchen-witch]

People are talking about not voting for Biden.

Again.

I'm just so tired of this argument.

I just can't do Trump again.

I can't.

His incompetence killed so many people. A panel estimated 40% of COVID deaths could have been averted.

One of those deaths was my mother.

She was killed because people didn't trust the vaccines and they didn't think masks were worth the inconvenience. That man could have gone on TV and said "This is the Trump vaccine and it is great." He could have sold fucking MAGA masks on his website. He had 100% influence over his dipshit followers and could have used that for the greater good. But he was too vain to wear a mask in public and bungled the vaccine rollout.

And now I worry some of my trans loved ones may not make it through another far right administration. They have this giant target on their back right now and conservatives seem determined to eradicate as many trans lives as possible.

I wrote a whole ass post about how I didn't care for Biden. I still don't. But when I try to imagine what a right wing administration would be doing right now... that seems like it would be a nightmare orders of magnitude worse than the current nightmare.

As someone with an untreatable chronic illness, I know the feeling of being presented with choices where all of them suck. And I have had to survive by choosing the least sucky option over and over.

It feels bad every single time.

I hate it.

And I still fucking choose.

It should be different. There should be better choices. I shouldn't have to choose the least bad thing among all bad things.

But there are people and things in this world I feel are worth sticking around for, so I continue to choose the least sucky thing.