polyteleology

[polyteleology]

If you want to have a look at the ATU (Aarne Thompson Uther) Index of Folk Tales:

The Multilingual Folk Tales Database (which includes the ATU Index) is saved on the Internet Archive

The Kalevala Society Foundation has PDF copies of the 2nd printing in 2011: Part I, Part II, and Part III

GUYS THIS IS AMAZING

SERIOUSLY

6000 YEARS

STORIES THAT ARE OLDER THAN CIVILIZATIONS

STORIES THAT WERE TOLD BY PEOPLE SPEAKING LANGUAGES WE NO LONGER KNOW

STORIES TOLD BY PEOPLE LOST TO THE VOID OF TIME

STORIES

[polyteleology]

This is all excellent advice, but I have one minor quibble: In some situations, the presence of fear can be a good thing. You should listen to fear the way you would listen to any other warning.

Like OP, I do NOT recommend allowing fear to control you, to guide your actions. But fear is your body’s way of telling you that you could be in danger. Its voice is to be heard and respected even if it should never be allowed to lead you. Its presence is a signal that there could be danger ahead.

What to do if witchcraft suddenly gets way too intense

1. FINISH WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

► DO NOT walk away from an uncompleted ritual

► DO NOT walk away in the middle of a spell

Grab your notes and close everything down. Dismiss any spirits or entities you are working with. Close down the circle. End the ritual. Diffuse the energy of the spell and close it down. If you were enchanting an item, announce over it that it is closed and nothing more may come in or out.

Spells and rituals are little portals of power; if you leave one open without closing it, all sorts of things could get screwy and come through.

2. End any spooky/witchy atmosphere immediately.

Blow out all the candles.

Put out all the incense.

Turn on all the lights.

Turn off spooky chanting music. Turn on some happy music or better yet, a non-supernatural television show or movie you love.

If you were enchanting an item, immediately put it in salt.

3. Don’t destroy the items/notes you will need later.

Trust me, do not throw away the spell you wrote or the objects you were working on. If things go wrong in the future you will need these to fix the problem.

► Immediately write down exactly what happened. Write down every deviation from the spell that you did. Write down exactly what you said and saw during any visualizations. Write down exactly when things started to get freaky.

► If you were enchanting an item, keep it in a black bag filled with salt until you are ready to deal with it.

4. Cleanse.

Use an energy cannonball to purify the space you were working in. Burn rosemary and bay leaves to fumigate the area, or spritz a premade water solution if you can’t have smoke. Pay special attention to all ritual tools.

If you feel the need to, cleanse yourself by visualizing the power of the smoke enveloping you and driving away any bad vibes; or take a shower if you really feel something has gone wrong.

5. Get out of the area you were working in.

Go to another room. Leave the house if possible. Seek the company of others or turn on the television if you are alone.

6. Do mundane things for a while.

Eat a nice meal. Drink a big glass of water. Go for a jog. Do some chores. Put anything magical totally out of your head. Absolutely do not focus on how weird things just got.

7. When you are ready, return to the area you were working in.

Relax yourself and judge the energies within the room. Are things still ‘creepy’? A heavy-duty cleansing is in order. Do you feel as if someone else is there? Open a window and command it to leave - if it does not, more fumigation or a banishing is required.

Judge your ritual tools and determine if they will need additional cleansing. If you were working on an object, determine if it has been corrupted or if anything is wrong with it. If so, put it back in the salt and deal with it as soon as you can.

8. Take a break from witchcraft for a couple of days.

9. Figure out what went wrong.

Fear is never a good thing. There is a difference between embracing the darkness and being afraid.

► Fear can be caused if an entity showed up you were unprepared to deal with.

► Fear can be caused if your intuition (or perhaps a spirit ally) was warning you that what you were about to do was a really bad idea.

► Fear can be caused if you tap in to powers that overwhelm you.

You need to figure out what went wrong. It isn’t a situation where you can say “oh well” and try something else later - because you screwed up, and next time you may not get an adequate warning before things go to hell.

[polyteleology]

One thing that I think not enough polytheists hear or know: You can say no to having gods in your life that chose you. Whether they stumbled upon you or they have known you for multiple lifetimes you are not obligated to keep them. You can forge your own path and follow your own vision of your practice, faith, and/or who you want to be.

Also: you can have relationships with gods that you approached in this lifetime that are just as fulfilling as the ones with gods you’ve known for multiple lifetimes.

[polyteleology]

Maybe don’t totally divorce Irish folklore/paganism from the reality of Ireland and Irish history please thank you

seriously, you think we can’t tell when you are faking knowledge of Ireland, but YIKES we can.

[polyteleology]

Emma Christian: “Vreeshey, Vreeshey”

This song appears on her album Beneath the Twilight.

A translation of the lyrics can be found here:

Vreeshey, Vreeshey, tar gys my thie, Brighid, Brighid come to my house.

Tar gys y thie aym noght. Come to my house tonight.

Vreeshey, Vreeshey, tar, o tar, Brighid Brighid come o come

Gys y thie aym noght. To my house tonight.

O foshil jee y dorrys da Vreeshey, O open the door to Brighid

Lhig da Vreeshey çheet stiagh. And let Brighid come in

Vreeshey, Vreeshey, tar oo Brighid Brighid come o

Gys y thie aym noght To my house tonight.

[polyteleology]

Agus Lugh caomh-gheal, cro-gheal, cra-gheal, Ga go dhiona, ga do chaomhna, ga do charamh Le treuin a laimhe, le nimh a ghaise, Fo sgaile drilleanach a sgeith.

“The Spear of Lugh,” from A Circle of Stones: Journeys & Meditations for Modern Celts (Erynn Rowan Laurie)

Translation:

And may Lugh kind-[bright], strong-[bright], red-[bright] Preserve thee, protect thee, provide for thee, With the might of his hand, with the point of his spear, Under the shade of his shimmering shield.

(The author translates “gheal” as “white,” but when I’ve seen this word in other contexts, it has meant “bright” or “brilliant,” and I find that more appropriate.)

[polyteleology]

Thereupon She Entered

Thereupon She entered And on the right hand: wonder And on the left hand: hope To the north of her red rock To the south of her climbing sandy hills To the east of her croft in ruins To the west of her crashing sea Thereupon She entered Singing that pierces time And Her long gown, wetted In the pink soaked sand Clung to my entrails And Her hands swept down Like a hawk upon the heart She the Lady of Hoy She the Lady of Callanish She the Lady of the Western Isles Lady Brede, Lady Wildness, Lady Mother of the Sea She the yearning that pierces the heart Always calling.

-Ani Greenwood, posted at Stone on the Belly, a blog for Brighidines in the Daughters of the Flame group.

[polyteleology]

From a 9th century Irish manuscript, the phrase ‘massive hangover’ (Latheirt) written in the ancient Irish text Ogham. The monk must have been having a very rough day…..

Source 

[polyteleology]

Prayers to Venus:

I work at the Getty Villa, and as part of our summer Roman Holidays event, we have an altar to Venus set up, with blank tags so that people can leave prayers to her. I’m not sure if the museum expected the response we’ve gotten, but it’s been really lovely and touching to read all the prayers.

[polyteleology]

“It is flattering when people are drawn to one of my paintings without knowing the mythology that influences it. By far, this painting is the one I have been asked to talk about the most. ‘What is this about?’ Or often ‘What the hell is going on here?’

“The short answer: This painting is my veneration of art itself. I can not express in words the ways that artistic work gives my life meaning, and the act of creation and creative flow is the state of existence that I strive to be in daily. It is the closest I personally feel to sublimity.”

I love this painting and have it at my personal home shrine. Here’s the artist’s discussion of what it meant to her to create it.

[polyteleology]

[polyteleology]

Larger painting here.

Pierre Amédée Marcei-Béronneau, Orpheus in Hades, detail (1897).

[polyteleology]

talk to me about brigid of the sorrows– the keening woman, glorious but mournful. brigid of trauma. talk to me about the way she lost a son and a husband and a homeland, the way she has been through unimaginable pain and loss that cuts right to the bone and somehow, always she is shining and always she makes the room to care. 

[polyteleology]

BETTER SHIT TO PUT IN YOUR GRIMOIRES THAN THE BASIC SHIT EVERYONE SAYS:

Maps! Maps! MAPS! If you're a death witch, get one for the cemeteries you visit and mark gravestones/areas you've practiced in! Garden witches! Map out your gardens! Green witches! Map where you find specific herbs in your area! Lunar witches! Mark the best spots to go look at the sky! Make a key! Take notes!

Recipes for COMPONENTS! Write down how to make the mixtures you use in spells often- A special salt mixed with herbs and put under the moon, a mixture of oils for protection, the herb mixes sachets you keep making to add to sachets, whatever!

For green witches- press samples of stuff and glue them in! Go to an arboretum and ask for permission to take leaves to press, they'll usually let you take some- add them in with your notes about trees

Cool ways to make spells! I make spells in envelopes and on empty spools, what are some ways you do?

The local plants in your area and what they do. You're not going to be likely to find chrysanthemums to forage in Missouri, but you will find creeping charlie and prairie plants. What can you do with a thistle?

When you celebrate a sabbat, write down what you did and include samples! Ribbons from your Beltane altar, a pressed sample of your lemmas harvest, a scrap of your Yule decorations. Maybe do a spell and tape the remnants into your grimoire in a plastic baggie

Learn how to make an envelope out of paper just by folding it, how to string seeds, how to dry plants, how to macrame rocks and hang them from your window. Find those little witchy skills and write them down.

How to incorporate your hobby into your magic. Sigiling origami paper, weaving knot magick into your crochet, making blessed bookmarks, etc

Substitutes! Rosemary, rose and clear quartz are good for most things, but there are more substitutes to be used that are more powerful. Roanoke bells are good substitutes for bluebells, apparently.

Correspondences of odd things. Turns out different kinds of cats have different correspondences, huh.

Superstitions and such from where you're from.

For kitchen witches: easy to alter recipes. An egg noodle recipe that takes herbs really well, a simple bread recipe that can be dressed up for spells or rituals, how to make a good pie crust that you can sprinkle nutmeg in or whatever you desire.

Or: What foods go good with what herbs. You'll make a better apple pie (and get the benefits of apples, nutmeg, and cinnamon together!) If you know how your herbs taste together with your cooking. (Most kitchen witches know this stuff, but for a green witch who likes to make teas or a sea witch that likes to make soup, etc, this is important)

[polyteleology]

Mercury Retrograde Negation charm

I’ll be making more of these since I’ve had such good success with it. Do not repost pictures, don’t remove captions. Reblogs are fine