sandandlightning

[sandandlightning]

I will attempt to art this at a time but my recent habit of using "ready to fist fight God" as a Standard Measure of my physical and mental capabilities as my health has improved has led to a mental image something like:

Sekhmet, with boxing gloves: "AITE COME AT ME BITCH WERE FUCKIN SPARRING BUDDIES NOW"

The 'fist fight god' bit obviously comes from a very JRPG cliche narrative place, but I was suddenly struck with the thought 'you know, I say this a lot, but it doesn't feel particularly blasphemous, I don't think anyone I work with is bothered by it?' and the above just suddenly popped into my head. I thought others would enjoy this silly little 'were fighting God, but it's actually a God Approved part of the mental health regimen' take.

I mean, obviously, more than half of the types of entities I work with would be particularly fazed, some even more likely to respond with a very enthusiastic 'AND ILL HELP', but Sethian roots aside I DO work with more traditional or conservative (you know, by comparison. The bar is a wee bit low haha) deities, and I sort of got lost thinking about how it fit in there. As it turns out it was still some JRPG bullshit, but in the vein of 'COME PROVE THOU ART WORTHY MORTAL' than the BBEG was God the whole time.

And for those who were not on board with something like this seemed to just understand 'well, this isn't about me so I'm going to ignore it', not in an offended way so much as a sort of 'sir I am a casting class, please, go read a book.' vibe. Which is less of a matter of 'ArRoGaNt MoRtAl YoU ChAlLeNgE GodS?' and more 'why are you like this, this isn't my jurisdiction, go bother like Thor or someone else who has fun punching things-' that sort of the barbarian starting a bar fight: THIS IS SO FUN vs the wizard hiding under a table not for their safety but because they just don't want their Nice Robes to get stained agian and are just quietly reading while trying to ignore the chaos: how? How is this fun??? Dichotomy.

The duality of Do It for the Vine and Please Read a Book.

Which are not mutually exclusive by any means, but yeah.

[sandandlightning]

HEY EVERYONE!!! RESCINDING ALL OF THIS!!! PLEASE AVOID THIS EVENT, IT MAY NOT BE SAFE.

The short version: this event does not appear to vet the credentials of any of its panelists or speakers. While this would not be a problem for most convention like events, this is a religious event in which these panelists and speakers are being given a great deal of power and credence over large masses. I cannot in good faith support an event that has people claiming to offer services with literally no regulation.

So, after being told we would be welcomed with open arms there was a fair bit of internal organization nightmare. Which is par for the course, as a career 'con hermit' as I call it participating in many genres of events as staff, vendor, and panelist, I have seen Some Shit™ and don't expect things to be run smoothly.

I do however expect people to be honest with me and treat me with respect. Which was not the case here. Mind, personal grudges against one incompetent staffer does not a public condemnation make. It was learning though much of this that they accept all panels and speakers on a first come first serve basis and do not actual vet any of them (literally we were told she had already received paperwork for enough programming to fill the docket, and this we would no longer be considered, despite us attempting to submit as much repeatedly in 2024...)

The reason this is such a large concern is because of the types of services offered at the event. This isn't a fandom event where people are talking about lore theories and ships, this isn't a business event where people are offering technical advice where an under qualified panelist at worst ends in people walking out of their panel with disinterest and perhaps frustration at wanted time, this is a religious event. This is an event where people are claiming to have Reiki certifications, doing spirit work, leading meditations, and so on. People untrained or inexperienced in such crafts claiming to be experts can be dangerous to their patients. Case and point, I went to a guided meditation that was really just a long commercial for hand pans, and the lack of proper guidance in a trance state resulted in me having a panic attack and fully dissociating.

I now understand why the few panels I did attend were Like That. We were told this was due to a lack of attendance while trying to revive the event post COVID, but after dealing with the actual departments responsible for panels and speakers coordination, it was made clear they have no shortage of applicants, they sadly just don't seem to care. The lack of transparency in this case is also extremely concerning.

I'm not saying every person speaking for every God or speaking on their experiences with their patrons and religions needs to be gate kept, but I am saying the people at an event like this NEED to be sure everything is actually what it says on the tin. Someone want to host a seminar about their hot take on a synchretism of two divinities I don't agree with? Entirely their right to do so, please let it be labeled accordingly and not 'Generic talk about Eclectic Paganism :)' and more importantly, if someone is going around offering to fuck with people's energy to 'heal' them, I really REALLY don't think an organization like this should be taking a half asked corporate stance of 'well it was that attendees job to do due diligence not ours'. Giving problematic people soapboxes without strings attached or asking literally any questions is why America is now Like This, ffs.

I realize due to this being a marginalized community there isn't much an easy way TO vet people in such crafts, but again, this comes down to a like... Tag your shit level of basic fucking documentation. Just be sure people aren't promising things they don't have a right to, disclose actual qualifications if present, note years of practice in professional capacities, read a few things they've put out if they have. ESPECIALLY in a subculture already largely victimized by people with the privilege of being able to find self publishing putting stuff out there that has literally zero sources and at best causes divisiveness needlessly or at worst lures young practitioners into abusive situations.

I say, as a person on the internet spewing my faith and hottakes and UPG for others to take as they will, that there is apparently nothing different between a witchblr blog, witchtok, or pagan Pinterest board than the speakers and panelists at this event. Like the internet, they can claim and do and say what they want. Frankly, the internet sources have proven more likely to have actual sources attached, and more importantly ARE FREE TO ACCESS. So. Think about that at least.

Just got back from Free Spirit Gathering and it was an absolutely wonderful experience! People were so kind and accepting. I think I was moved to tears at least 4 separate times yesterday, all from people just being so genuinely kind.

FSG is a wholly eclectic, pagan focused but all 'like minded' spiritual event that lasts about a week. They have a number of different accommodations, from cheaper weekend and concert passes to cabin space and meal tickets. It is a family event, and honestly seeing all of the literal pagan children running around being adorable was extremely heartwarming. They have a 24/7 pool, workshops, merchants, concerts, rituals and an absolutely phenomenal nightly fire circle.

We only went for the weekend just to check it out- you never know how an event is gonna go or click or not- but we had a wonderful time and were aggressively recruited/adopted by staff after just mentioning once we were interested in vending ourselves. If you have the ability to travel to MD and can afford it I highly recommend attending! We'll be there as vendors and running a few hands on crafting workshops for the younger folk.

The event has been around for awhile (apparently! My guess is they haven't had much online presence until recently and that's how I've missed it) and the older folks running it are very excited and welcoming to the newer generations, wanting to share and pass the torch rather than closing the door behind them. They really want to make the space accessible and appealing to us millennials and gen z! It is also a very queer safe space- if any gender queerness is a part of or adjacent to ur practice this is a great space for you! They also have access ability services and 'bus' golf carts to help people get around the grounds.

[sandandlightning]

Ammit yet awaits those heavy of heart, but let it not be said that Set did not bid us to send them to her with haste.

[sandandlightning]

This might seem like a strange post for this blog, but as a hard polytheist who does support a canon, capitalist whipping, table flipping, mad at the government Jesus, I do find myself legitimately feeling a deep loss at the passing of Pope Francis.

May he rest well, and I am grateful for the work he did to ease the burdens of the less fortunate, one of the first clergymen of power in a long time to truly dedicate himself to this ideal that was once fundamental of a now politicized religion.

He was a good one, and while he had to do it in tedious, red taped political baby steps, he was trying to move things to a more progressive place, actually focused on helping the poor, and did what little he could to protect minorities like LGBT that were being persecuted by extremist branches of the church. I'm sure there are a lot of people who think he didn't do enough, but I believe he was doing all he could while navigating a truly complex system surrounded by people who would try to shut him down and see him illegitimatized at every turn.

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it on this blog before, but despite identifying as a pagan, demonalator, and lucifarian, my spouse is Catholic. And we work together because they, as I joke often, also believe in 'canon Jesus' over 'fanon Jesus' and say that 'whatever path helps someone become a better version of themselves is valid'. Which has seen them called unchristian and 'unable to call themselves catholic' by people both within and from outside of the church, but they seem capable of taking this gatekeeping in stride much more so than I ever have been able to.

Today all they managed to bring themself on the subject was "he was such a good man the Lord brought him home on Easter." It was poignant and stuck with me all day.

I can only hope whoever follows will be someone even a fraction as open minded, that he will not be replaced by someone immediately repealing and rolling back the rights for women and LGBTQ within the church, the decrees and crackdowns on corruption, and that this change will not contribute to the spiralling state of our world.

It is a sad thing that when a good man dies, my thoughts are more occupied by worry of what chaos will be wrought in his absence than being allowed to simply mourn the loss of someone who valued humanity.

[sandandlightning]

I don't know who needs to hear this but it's ok if you can't hear your deities talking, whether physically or mentally

It's ok if you don't dream with them

It's ok if you can't feel their presence

It's ok, darling!

They still love you. They love you very dearly, just as much as you love them!

[sandandlightning]

....y'all.

That game I was playing? The one that, and I have the stress this, purports itself as extremely historically accurate and the information within is all... History fun facts. Okay? So this isn't like... Liberties were taken so we could accommodate a JRPG plot situation. This is pop ups and alt text that states 'this is how it was in perpetuity, this is a real world fact.'

Tried to assert that Egyptians believed that

The Sun

Was powered by the screams of damned sinners.

I have been Kemetic for a long time and I cannot stress this enough, what. THE ACTUAL. fuck.

[sandandlightning]

Okay well, I just got keikaku means plan'd by, I shit you not, a video game deciding to liberally use ancient Egyptian. It's uh... Been interesting. I'm a little in pain tbh.

But I am going to use the opportunity to share some research/a hot take on a hot take!

the thing that really is getting me is this recent assertain that Kemet is a WHOLLY INCORRECT PRONUNCIATION and the ACTUAL ONE is... *Checks notes* ...kumat. (spoilers they're both technically wrong ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯)

So we use Kemet a lot. Here's the thing. Most Egypt writing systems didn't really do vowels so a literal transliteration of a hieroglyph is kmt. (Which is what the game is using which they really shouldn't be because it's not actually legible this is like a mid point for people romanizing something but anyway >>)

The reason we know what ancient Egyptian words sounded like is Coptic! This was more an every day system of writing (also later but we gotta take that) opposed to hieroglyphs. Right? Cool. It's kinda close ish to Greek. Like... Greek letters, but to the left.

And you might be thinking 'but if we have the Coptic name, we know how it's pronounced right?' well yes, but actually no, because sometimes people decide they've discovered something new about a dead language. Sometimes they are right, sometimes... Not so much.

In two versions of Coptic we got ⲭⲏⲙⲓ and ⲕⲏⲙⲉ.

So the x guy is (xehanort VC) like Greek chi and in this case K. The h is eeeeeeeeeeee like cheese. The m is fucking m- you can use this one to be asthetique. And the I is 'ih' like bit and the E is 'eh' like bet. Whith eh and ih bing very close.

So fun fact a t at the end of a word in Egyptian is often silent, so uh, if your wondering where that went, that's why.

So we're looking at something pretty close to the modern colonial Kemet. We drop the t and make the first e long and get keeme or kime or however ur gonna spell it.

BUT THEN IN 1997 SOME PEOPLE WROTE A BOOK

And in that book they were like, what if all the Coptic letters like X and Ø (theda basically) that have like, hint of hint of h COMPLETELY CHANGED THE VOWEL SOUND, INSTEAD OF ADDING HINT OF HINT OF H.

Mind you, they literally, in the book, don't even assert this as fact, but a strong possibility. They also use the word Kemet as an example and hit it extra hard for reason I don't understand after reading more of said book and other information on phonics and Coptic (by which I mean they change Khe- to ku but ALSO meh to mat and I am seriously confused where the t is coming from in this case, bc there is no t in the Coptic just the hieroglyph or hieratic. All other examples only change the first syllable.)

Oh and this is only addressing an older form of Coptic. A later one it is ⲕⲏⲙⲉ which like, there's no room for argument there. It's k-eeeee-m-eh keemeh/kime depending on where u are in the world and how you write it long eeeees

Anyway after this dropped a bunch of people started going 'um akchthuallyy' about the modern kemet romanization (which is not perfect admittedly, but like, it's close, recognizable, and easy to say) and even more recently we have... People accusing like... Only ignorant white people™ of using Kemet and not knowing it's 'kumat'?? Which????? I hate to break it to u friends, but the authors who came up with that pronunciation are also white people so?????

Anyway, this game I'm playing, I think, refused to put vowels in because they saw one wiki reference asserting a different pronunciation and went 'well, that's dicy, better just leave it out and offer two pronunciation' neither of which would technically be right because... They gave Kemet and Kumat. They also frequently replace arbitrary words with old Egyptian and have the translation with alt text and I am literally losing sleep over it, so here we are.

Enjoy... Very random prompted Egyptian infodump.

Edit: FORGOT TO MENTION it is written with weird hieroglyphs so neither ka or k nor kh sounds I am familiar with another reason Coptic is handy but like, my guys, there is no way the Mr M owl glyph is passive aggressively make the second half 'mat'.

[sandandlightning]

I did this painting of Ishtar | Ashtaroth as an offering for a ritual and got basically no recognition outside of like a passing 'oh that's nice I guess I spent like 8-12 hours on this pls I hope y'all appreciate more than my apparently crusty ass circle

[sandandlightning]

Let's talk about Wicca

Had a really weird interaction the other day. I don't know if I am Too Young™ or Too Old™ or what, but basically I ran into someone trying to... cancel it? The whole thing? I... have not heard that one before, so I wanted to ask? Talk about it? Start a conversation? Figure out a general what the fuck? Something. It left me a bit shook tbh. More details below the cut on my experiences if interested.

So what have y'all's experiences been? I want to hear from people. Has wicca treated you well? Poorly? Was it an awkward stepping stone to more focused disciplines like it was for many people I know? Was it where you settled? Did you interact with both good and bad groups? Is this 'canceling' of wicca a thing the kids are doing these days? Or another gen are doing these days? Like I just... I guess, I want to know where the fuck this all came from, because outside of a rep of being 'babys first magic time' I hadn't been aware of it being Problematic™

It started when I mentioned researching wicca in my early teens and preteens as many witches in my day did when on the start of their journeys. Not even saying that I practiced it (well, got cut off before I could say much) just mentioned it being a pool i was sticking a tow into to educate myself. Didn't huh, didn't think this would be controversial?

I was interrupted with a 'SO GLAD I never had to deal with any of that messed up stuff LOL' I was really thrown. No religion is perfect, wicca is no exception, but that was pretty harsh. I asked, and I got a lecture about how it was 'basically just an elitist cult started by two white guys appropriating a bunch of things from different cultures.'

So you know 0 to 90 a bit. No pulling punches. Aite.

Don't get me wrong, I'm fully aware that wicca is a neopagan movement that is incredibly modern and has cherry picked certain practices from our (or well, certain groups) ancestors. Like any movement there are groups that are catty and snobby and elitist, and ones that are chills and loosey goosey. Also you know, definitionally, most religions are started when 'some guy decided to write some shit down' it's what you do with that information that gives it meaning.

I never once interacted with wicca in a way that made it 'culty'. Vast majority of people I knew were solo practitioners int he late 90s through 2010s. Most people recognized it as a structure guideline and didn't yell at people for not following things to a letter- it just became a popular format for eclectic work that gave people *some* common ground while letting you plug in the obscure deities from different pantheons you clicked with without going the full reconstructionist route. That's how it was for me.

I never identified as a 'wiccan' but I definitely adopted lots of 'wiccan practices'. I like the wheel of the year- mostly because I live in a deciduous, four seasons environment and relate to Kemetic and fertile crescent gods with different seasons. It's easier for me to sort of match them to these 'weather appropriate holidays' than celebrate harvests in February on a Kemetic calendar.

I did but heads with the 'fluffy bunny' movement- dunno how much of a thing that still is or isn't. I'm pro curse, I'm also pro curse responsibly. I don't think I'm going to get karmic retribution for once again asking the spirits to do something about uh, certain politicians, ya know? I consider my 'cure' work more of a user feedback for karma to better identify appropriate targets. But it used to be a THING that people would like, completely patricide you if you 'used black magic' etc etc. burning some energy hoping a guy who cut me off in traffic get stopped at every red light is not really... Uh... Damnation worthy i don't think tho.

But this didn't seem to be about that? It seemed to be about well one, claims of cultural appropriation- which... I feel like in this case is just throwing that word around so you are harder to argue with. I mean I guess technically but also it's white people pulling from their own white ancestors so I am legit confused. It also falls into the category of 'america and Europe have very different relationships with their folk traditions and paganism' thing a lot of Americans aren't aware of. Like sure, we watered some stuff down, but wicca to me was always presented specifically as a like... Frame work, not end all be all?

It was also presented as people publishing these things wholly with malicious intent. Honestly? No idea. By the time I worked with wicca it was so divorced from the source material and it's own thing I legitimately don't know how to factor this. Best I could come up with was the sort of harry potter fan vs Rowling being a terf thing- some people are refusing to let her ruin this thing important to them and making it their own. Just because a guy started it at a time doesn't mean the modern variant is at all reflective of its current practice.

This interaction came off to me, honestly, as someone with a lot of ingrained elitism favoring only 'pure reconstruction' practice. Obviously, I did not like the implication I was lessor/naive/had done something wrong for so much as learning about a practice. That's... A dangerous hot take right there. Even if something isn't perfect you can learn from it, even if you don't use anything from it. Like... Come one.

[sandandlightning]

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Y'all I'm so confused. I've heard of door to door Mormons but not ask box Hindus???? What is happening?????? Yes I realize it's a scam but the concept of Hindu missionaries on Tumblr as a concept is absolutely sending me

[sandandlightning]

Women's Rights in the Ancient World

Aite this is a bit of a vent rant bc of getting in a passive aggressive non-argument with some other members of my circle about generalizing historical societies, so sorry for that, but anyway-

NOT EVERY ANCIENT CULTURE WAS A GROSSLY IMBALANCED PATRIARCHY.

And shocker, most of the ones that weren't were ~not white~

(a quick disclaimer though this rant doesn't really address far east Asia or Indigenous people bc these are not the cultures we were recently researching that sparked this >>)

Here's the thing, THE most sexist place in antiquity around the Mediterranean was Athens. Followed closely by Rome and other select parts of Greece. The whole idea of women literally not having rights, being traded as property through marriage, not even counting as citizens or being able to vote, having to conform to male dictated beauty standards etc. etc. started here. The modern western ideas of 'woman belong in kitchen' came from here and the British romanticizing Rome and Greece, and using their precedent to justify their bigotry.

Today, people STILL try to pull the 'well, it's always been that way' bullshit that is just factually false. There are plenty of times and places where there wasn't the power imbalance we see today. We have actually regressed in many ways in terms of civil rights. The suppression of minorities have waxed and waned throughout different cultures and civilizations.

Honestly, the biggest problem we have when talking about women's rights in the ancient world is that people seem to assume the answer is either 'perfect equality utopia' or 'worse than today' with no in-between and no acknowledgement of other context relevant to the time. Like, there were plenty of points in history where people developed a patriarchal dominated society, but women still had a variety of rights, sometimes to the point of them being honestly better off than most are in today's society. For example, times when only men could hold certain positions, but in positions without gender divide there was no pay gap, or even counterpart women only occupations that offered equivalent pay.

Which brings me to the actual point-

To say all ancient cultures of the middle east- Egypt, Mesopotamia, Akkadia, Babylon, Sumer- unilaterally had 'oppressive patriarchal societies' throughout the entirety of their history is not just factually untrue, but spreading harmful oppressive American, British, and Taliban propaganda using the 'its how its always been' narrative to suppress women and minorities.

Obviously, today, the modern countries in these locales suffer from severe human rights issues, and the narrative of it being 'tradition' is often pushed, and in America the narrative that this makes them 'backwards and unmodern' is used to breed anti-islamic sentiment. All of this Is Bad.

But if you start doing some real digging and pay attention to the actual years and dates listed for archeological evidence, you can easily see that women in the ancient middle east were quite well off for many periods.

Ancient Egypt and many neighboring middle eastern cultures lasted for millennia. Given we have gone from women not allowed to leave the house without a male chaperone to women congressmen over like, 200 years? Yeah, the state of women's rights changed a lot- and both improved and regressed at different points most likely.

We have factual evidence that, as early as the old kingdom and late as the middle, women had so many rights in Egypt that the Greeks were legitimately confused and sometimes appalled by it. Women could own property, run businesses, get a divorce, be a lawyer, be a scribe or priestess (two of the highest ranking professions in the culture.) and, obviously, we had female Pharaohs- probably a lot more than we realize, but I'll get into that later.

Egypt also invented some of the earliest birth control and spermicide. Egypt in ancient times was extremely sex positive- we've found scrolls similar to the karma sutra, and plenty of sex toys and pleasure guides designed for whatever equipment you're packing. Infidelity was frowned upon- but pretty much all cultures agree cheating is bad, so that's not really 'suppression', not when it's enforced equally. Pre-marital sex was also a bit of a taboo, but the institution of marriage was... Not a thing. 'marriage' was defined as 'you move in with your partner and legally agree on shared custody of future children. There were no religious ceremonies or weddings, it was a much more casual thing, and this divorce was also more causal (unless you were, you know, someone of noble blood, but that's a different issue entirely) marriage also happened pretty young, so 'pre marital sex being bad' was more... No you are too young to fuck, and if you want to bang ur gf move out of my house.

An interesting point about gender equality in Egypt is that certain jobs were gendered. But one, this was a limitation for both genders, and two, there was not a 'men have the strong jobs and are therefore better' narrative. This dichotomy had more to do with women held jobs within the city and men held ones requiring more travel, bc it was more convenient for a woman to be close by if there was a child. But again this wasn't used to prove women were lesser- 'female' industries would have women bosses and male floor workers with lower status than her, because it was a female job. Said boss was considered a competent and skilled leader.

Even more fascinating some sources point that a jobs gender was literally more important in society than your genitalia. This would mean that, born a woman, if you were determined to join a male only industry you 'just had to become a man', and that this wasn't necessarily considered a big deal. Were you a boy enamoured with weaving? Commit to being a woman and have your dream job. It's definitely not at all how we experience transness today- and probably one of few cases I will properly take the 'well it was different back then' mentality because boy that is legitimately a VERY different culture.

Pharaoh Hatshepsut is great evidence for this. She gets used as an argument for both sides of the gender extremes in the ancient world, conservatives arguing that in such a 'patriarchal' society she was desperately presenting herself as masculine to be taken seriously, and liberal takes going as far to cite that she must have been a trans man. But neither are really true. She had a male job, so was a man 'at work'. The biggest point against her being a transgender man by modern standards (and why I am using she/her) is her name. Pharaohs chose their own Pharaonic names when they rose to power, and her name is a) feminine and b) literally translates to 'lady of-'. I think if she was identifying as a man, even if the name was a feminine form due to societal pressure there were plenty of options that did not include a female specific title.

While not talked about there are a number of other female Pharaohs less well known that participated in similar drag while ruling. And likely many more who, without their remains, we have no way of knowing were AFAB because they were treated as a man in their role of Pharaoh in records. The famous Queens of Egypt, Cleopatra and Nefertiti and so on, are all from the new kingdom or later when Roman influence was robbing Egyptian women of their rights.

Which brings us to the next point- yes, there was, eventually, a time when women began losing rights in AE. Of course there was, given they don't have as many now. And what caused it? Fucking Rome! Raise your hand if you would like to see Caesar stabbed again (this isn't really directly his fault but he deserves it w/e)

The Greek and Roman influence of their own heavily sexist cultures, especially when Rome came to occupy Egypt during the Hellenistic period, saw Egyptian woman robbed of many rights and the gender dichotomy looking more like what you see in pop culture- women relegated to houses, being told to be seen not heard, so on and so forth. Cleopatra actively fought against this and this was a big part of her being a big deal! Most of our knowledge of what she was like, unfortunately, comes from Roman smear campaigns against her designed to make her look like an incompetent sex addict seducing her way to power (gee, that's not familiar.../s)

And that's another problem, a LOT of what we know about these cultures comes from extremely biased sources. We have accounts from Greece and Rome (which, given we have some of them complaining about Egyptian women, we at least got something concrete from them) and anthropological interpretations written by cis het straight white men going out of their way to drag both women and POC through the mud, and pulling everything through an unhelpful colonial Christian lense. We are, to this day, still recovering from malicious mistranslations and outright hiding, destruction, and discarding of evidence that contradicted what imperializing archeologists wanted to say about the ancient world. A famous example of this is intentional vandalism on chamber walls of the sphinx.

Friendly reminder that we have finally, definitely proven the pyramids were NOT built by slaves, and evidence towards this was repeatedly hidden to be able to enforce a narrative that 'great civilizations cannot accomplish things without slave labor' because people are fucking terrible. (The pyramids were built by some of the highest paid laborers in the country's history)

Similarly, across the sea to the east, Mesopotamian cultures that we have records of even older than dynastic Egypt, we have evidence of women with rights. Specific examples include important jobs like being appointed judges, owning land and property, initiating divorce and running businesses. Relative equality at least if not more so than today's standards persisted until around 2000 bc especially in Sumer. In later cultures a patriarchal social structure developed. However. Women still retained worlds more rights than the average Greek or Roman woman, or even women in Victorian England.

This is where we get to 'people not understanding the gradient' issue. Was there a patriarchal society? Yes. Did men have more rights than women? Yes. Was it to a barbaric level that was significantly worse than today? Not... Not really. Women in ancient Akkadia didn't have the rights of a 2025 liberal European nation with a female prime minister, but probably had the rights of American women around the 60s or 70s? Could we do better? Sure. Was it by definition worse than women are being treated under dictatorships where they're having their genitals mutilated at birth simply because it was further back in time? Absofuckinglytely not.

Also while we know men 'had higher social status' we don't know entirely what that entailed. There's a difference between 'lower status' and 'constant human rights violations'. Women could still initiate divorce (albeit with a slightly higher barrier to entry) own property etc. there were double standards in laws (penalties for women committing adultery were much higher than men, at some points including death. Which sounds like WOAH EXTREME SEXISM but this was a time and place where the death penalty was pretty fucking common. Shop lifting had the death penalty.)

Now, I'm not here to justify or say the power imbalance between genders in mesopotamian cultures was okay just because they 'were less bad than other things'. HOWEVER. I want to remind everyone that when you take away these incremental instances and blanket it as 'it was sexist so it's just as bad as other eras of sexism' you are ACTIVELY HELPING REINFORCE A HARMFUL NARRATIVE THAT ITS OKAY TO BE TERRIBLE BECAUSE THINGS HAVE 'JUST ALWAYS BEEN THAT WAY.'

Do not empower oppressors by altering history on their behalf. Yes, be mad at sexism and inequality, but don't reduce history to extreme black and white cases. Women in the modern middle east have far less rights than they did in ancient mesopotamia. Women in the old kingdom Egypt probably have more rights than women in most parts of America, but those same Americans have more rights than women in New Kingdom Egypt. Women in modern Europe and America definitely have more rights than women in the 1800s.

I wrote this today because of it being asserted that Sumer, Akkadia, and other mesopotamian cultures were 'completely patriarchal and this was just as bad as Greece and Rome, and they were using strong female goddesses to manipulate the populace.' this is just factually wrong. And alleging this is just feeding the oppressors in modern cultures more ammunition about 'backwards ancient brown people' or 'well this is how it's always been, you can't break tradition.' were there patriarchal societies among these cultures? Yes. Were they therefore exactly the same and 'just as 'bad' as every other 'oppressive patriarchy' that has existed? NO. STOP SAYING THAT.

Like. In the incident that spurred this rant it just, really felt like unhelpful radical feminism for the purpose of bitching about how men all suck and have sucked forever. That's not helpful to anyone. It also doesn't really feel like it needs to be brought up in an informative essay about Ishtar when the entire descent myth was only mentioned in passing.

And again, continuing to enforce the 'all ancient cultures were barbaric and worse than today' just gives ammunition to racists and sexists the world over. Don't erase the nuance, context, and spectrum of society in history.

[sandandlightning]

Crystal and Gemstone Cleansing Safety

I just wanted to do a quick PSA about cleansing gemstones in moon water! I had someone ask how to cleanse stone at a con recently and mentioned you should use sand for stones that can't get wet. They had no idea that was A Thing!

THIS IS A REAL SAFETY CONCERNS, SOME STONES BECOME TOXIC WHEN SUBMERGED!!

Stones, crystals, minerals, ect you should avoid cleansing with water at all costs:

-minerals ending in -ite (tend to get damaged easily/quickly, may become dangerous to touch while wet- like malachite- many soft enough to outright dissolve-such as calcite)

-minerals with copper or iron inclusions or base structure, such as turquoise and chryssocola (these will rust and destroy/alter the inclusions and even change the color of the stone, as the color is a byproduct of the metal)

-gypsum, tourmaline, desert rose, anything 'flakey' (will dissolve)

-opal (becomes cloudy/loses flash)

Minerals that can be damaged from long exposure but quick rinsing will not hurt:

-onyx and most jaspers (will risk coloration loss or fragmentation if soaked)

-moonstone, aventurine, and other feldspar (again cracks and bleed damage if soaked, loss of flash)

-aquamarine (causes cracks and fragments, don't soak)

What you CAN get wet and let soak no peoblem:

-anything quartz based (amethyst, citrine, ect)

-agates

-obsidian and other natural glass

-most high mohs hardness gems we are all probably too poor for (diamonds, emeralds, ect)

[sandandlightning]

Good afternoon! If you don't mind me asking, how did you first approach Lucifer and what is He like? I've worked with Set for most of my life and always felt a tug at the Luciferian current but something always kept me away. I find myself drifting back to the LHP after many years and something about your posts resonated with me. Would you be open to a dialogue? Have a great day!

I would absolutely be open to a dialogue! That is why I made this blog- in case any of my experiences happen to be helpful to others ^^

I was very intimidated by working with infernal divinities and LHP dork for a long time, but once I started working with them I found I didn't need to be- both in terms of the deities themselves and from the community of people working with them.

I did not start off my foray into lucifarian work working with Lucifer himself. Initially I meditated on lesser Goetic demons I felt close to. The first 'big' presence I encountered was actually Leviathan- after initially working with Bune they informed me how long Leviathan had actually been present in my life. From there it was sort of a matter of working with different minor or 'less scary' entities and being introduced to bigger more intimidating ones. Set himself helped with this process and encouraged me along this path.

I made the jump to reaching out to Lucifer directly on the spring equinox, which Demonolatry practices often holds as a holiday for him. I approached him by meditating on his enn with music, sort of putting myself out there to see what happened (a process that has seen me reel in a completely different entity than the one I was originally reach out to) but he responded almost immediately. YT music played into a song titled 'fallen angel' immediately and I was honestly shocked at how fast and on the nose it was.

He is exceptionally friendly and very empahetic- (I'm sorry, I need you to know he says hi, the aforementioned song just came on as I was writing this post) and he is very good at helping with feeling your feelings without guilt. If you have a history of trauma he will aggressively adopt you, especially if it is parental related.

My initial encounter with him had him venting a bit, in a sense- it was like he was trying to tell his side of the story. There was a lot of anger and sadness, but never at me, rather a general upset at injustice in the world that had afflicted both of us. It did not feel like some dramatic lamentation either, rather the odd familiar feeling of being a teenager, laying on the floor of a friends basement at 2 am in the summer, a video game still paused as you both got distracted just talking about life for hours. That part of the encounter was also surprisingly brief, before it organically moved on to more positive things, focusing on the good parts of the present rather than dwelling on the pain of the past.

If you were to completely remove him from his original context he would be purely a deity of the arts and creativity, like one of the muses or perhaps akin to Khnum or a less practical Ptah. I make and sell crafts and engage in more traditional art mediums on occasion and he gets SO EXCITED. He just wants people to make things. It is impossible to worry about if you are 'wasting time on a hobby' or 'something not productive', he will always reaffirm that the urge to make neat little bobbles because we can, to sing and dance for the sake of the act and not a performance, is what makes us human, and should be celebrated.

In a way there is a similar sort of energy to Set, in that there is this super intimidating air when they are being seen from a distance, but then this Big Scary Deity looks at you and makes the worst dad joke you ever heard and you can't help but feel at ease suddenly. Set is definitely more chaotic, Lucifer always feels very peaceful and serene, but gets easily excited. I think the biggest difference is Set, for me, has a baseline 'destructive' energy (not in a bad way, but in a, the desert is barren, death is a natural part of life, rain hell upon thy enemies sort of way, wrapped up in a healthy dose of that trickster flair.) where as Lucifer has a 'creation' energy. In my experience they get along extremely well.

Anyway sorry for long post >> hope this helps! Feel free to ask more/anything else/tell me to be more concise XD

[sandandlightning]

Ashtaroth | Ishtar Etymology

I have been wanting to do this post for a while! But have been putting it off because it's so detail intensive. >>

Astaroth, as is the most common romanization in modern works, is a goetic daemon with a fairly cut and dry pagan ancestry. The spelling Ashtaroth is closer to or more evocative of her etymology of origin- Astarte, which is another name for Ishtar or Inanna.

Ishtar, Astarte, and Inanna are all fairly ubiquitously agreed to be different names for the same goddess. Her cult was something extremely widespread across the near east in ancient times, with Ishtar being the Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian name, Inanna the Sumerian name, and Astarte the Phoenetian and Cannanite name.

I say these names refer to the ‘same’ goddess the same way many modern individuals view Zeus and Jupiter as wholly interchangeable- largely because it was not just one similar divinity but the entire pantheon and family structure shared between cultures with few differences besides names. However, as with any divinity who has been distinguished out to multiple identities, each name would still hold individualized minutia and slight specific connotations. I don't want that to get erased by trying to explore the broader spectrum of how this goddess or these goddesses have been connected and transformed as they have walked across cultures.

Astarte's name is the etymological origin of the Hebrew word astarot, meaning- and I say this tentatively as I am far from an expert on hebrew- progeny or increase, which comes from Astarte’s associations with fertility. Further, she is one of a handful of pagan gods directly referenced in the Bible. She is given as an example of an enemy god that is supporting enemy nations of the Bible's protagonists, in this case the Phoenicians.

Obviously, the nature of colloquial language doesn't seem to care about her bad reputation among Abrahamic religions. Despite being decried as a demon tempting man from the path of Yhwh, her name was shifted and adopted into the language. It's easier to see how ‘Astarot’, when carried through over the hundreds of years, was shifted into ‘Astaroth’ as occultists and priests tried to understand demons in the Bible.

Ishtar is, inherently, a very gender fucky individual, though despite this fluidity is very specifically a goddess and uses she/her pronouns in historic sources. Unfortunately it wasn't simple confusion, but rather the general rampant sexism of the time this research was being done that lead to Astaroth and every other demon in the Ars Goetia being demoted as male.

Ishtar’s holy symbol was an 8 pointed star, as she was associated with the heavenly body Venus, the morning star. (A friendly reminder the planets as we know them were considered as stars in ancient times, though they often held notable importance over other heavenly bodies further from us.) Similarly, the sigil for Ashtaroth prominently features a 5 pointed star, and is the only of the Goetic sigils to do so. So, it's easy to say that more than nearly any other entity Astaroth has the most direct and clearest tie to her pagan roots.

[sandandlightning]

Just got back from Free Spirit Gathering and it was an absolutely wonderful experience! People were so kind and accepting. I think I was moved to tears at least 4 separate times yesterday, all from people just being so genuinely kind.

FSG is a wholly eclectic, pagan focused but all 'like minded' spiritual event that lasts about a week. They have a number of different accommodations, from cheaper weekend and concert passes to cabin space and meal tickets. It is a family event, and honestly seeing all of the literal pagan children running around being adorable was extremely heartwarming. They have a 24/7 pool, workshops, merchants, concerts, rituals and an absolutely phenomenal nightly fire circle.

We only went for the weekend just to check it out- you never know how an event is gonna go or click or not- but we had a wonderful time and were aggressively recruited/adopted by staff after just mentioning once we were interested in vending ourselves. If you have the ability to travel to MD and can afford it I highly recommend attending! We'll be there as vendors and running a few hands on crafting workshops for the younger folk.

The event has been around for awhile (apparently! My guess is they haven't had much online presence until recently and that's how I've missed it) and the older folks running it are very excited and welcoming to the newer generations, wanting to share and pass the torch rather than closing the door behind them. They really want to make the space accessible and appealing to us millennials and gen z! It is also a very queer safe space- if any gender queerness is a part of or adjacent to ur practice this is a great space for you! They also have access ability services and 'bus' golf carts to help people get around the grounds.

[sandandlightning]

Theistic Luceferian/Theistic Satanist is probably the best umbrella term outside of the general Luciferian / Satanist labels. I don't care for exposure tagging, so idk what internet satanist terms to use.

Personally, I just call myself a Satanist because it's heavily baptist/christian where I live. Most people won't care to learn the differences or nuances of our religion anyway.

You've got both hands (I assume), so I don't see anything wrong with holding two umbrellas

Yeah. I don't want to flood an inappropriate tag which is one of the reasons I am asking. I don't wanna be That Guy.

I like holding lots of umbrellas! I'm not going to abruptly unsubscribe to the ones I am currently comfortable with, I just felt I needed better understanding before adopting this one. I definitely was also looking for a way to communicate the idea of infernal work to people who have no knowledge of it, but didn't want to do so in a way that was imposing or stepping on toes.(and I forgot to add to the og post the LHP has become such an inconsistent mess I am afraid of using it at all >>)

Thank u for the input ^^

[sandandlightning]

A dumb question from an old fogie about the newfangled lingo

By which I mean a 30 something who is out of touch with modern Tumblr and the broader pagan/satanic/witchcraft community after sitting in a corner for several years

As an eclectic pagan who has dealt with a lot of gatekeeping, and as a member of the queer community who has dealt with a lot of gatekeeping around labels specifically, I just legitimately don't know if 'satanist' or 'satanic' are accurate descriptors of my current practice, or if theistic satanists would find my using these labels confusing or uncomfortable. I like demonolater, I understand it and feel it fits, but like 90% of people don't know what the fuck that is. Theistic lucifarian? Sure, I love Lucifer, I work with him a lot, I'm polytheistic about it but it fits. But it also seems to be very fringe, like a much smaller bucket. And despite seeming self explanatory often requires a surprising amount of footnotes for people unfamiliar.

Like, I can callyself enby and acespec and so on, but sometimes it's a lot easier to just use the much broader 'queer'. I have no idea if people consider 'satanist' an umbrella in the same way or not, or if there is a proper umbrella for demon/infernal based practice. The biggest reason I hesitate to use the label is that, while I work with Lucifer and other infernal divinities, I don't really work with Satan. I mean, I guess just because I rarely worked with big names like Aset didn't make me less Kemetic?

But again I am not sure if that applies here. Largely because there is so much soup in the theistic vs non theistic satanic community. The other part being that my views on Satan as an entity/aspect are different from many others? I sometimes think of Lucifer in his 'aspect of Satan' and other demons the same way, but I don't want to like... Encroach on the space of theistic satanists who are venerating Satan as a specific entity or as the All. But I am very theistic. Polytheistic still, but just saying 'pagan' no longer feels entirely accurate.

There is definitely a place where the pagan and infernal divinity followers, who I want to group as satanists but am not entirely sure I should, overlap, and it is where I am, but there is def a feeling of leaving out an important part of myself by just saying pagan (the same way bi doesn't feel right compared to pan) and also not wanting to deal with people in pagan circles who would be bothered/offended/concerned by my work with infernal beings. And I am tired of saying theistic lucifarian electric pagan demonolater every time I have to describe myself.

And personal identity crisis aside, I also just wanna ask if I should be tagging some of these posts as theistic satanism or not? I avoided it in the past month simply because I felt weirdly unqualified to use the label, not because I have anything against it. But I couldn't help but notice the names of blogs liking my more recent posts often being Satanist identifying in some way. Hence my reconsideration and curiosity.

The longer I have spent interacting with Tumblr and social spaces again, the more it seems like satanism is, in fact, a fairly broad umbrella that people would be happy to include demonolatry or Lucifarianism under, with nitty gritty details of practice not relevant so long as it generally involves working with infernal divinities or largely infernal pantheon. But uh, my neurodivergence is not super well equipped to parse that kinda thing with only online circles to compare to, and that does not instill me with confidence. So u know fuck it I'm just gonna ask even if I look like an idiot ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ rip the fragile probably non-existent image of my having my shit together haha.

The tldr being:

How broad of an umbrella is 'theistic satanism' in modern colloquial usage? What does or doesn't fall under it?

Would people think it is appropriate to tag any infernal entity work posts as theistic satanism?

Are there other colloquial self identifying labels for infernal work I have just dead ass missed by being bad at the internet?