silverthornwitchery

[silverthornwitchery]

The hard truth about occultism and witchcraft is that you genuinely do have to be willing to lose your mind. That’s not me romantisizing mental struggle or psychosis.

The thing no one talks about, at least not honestly, is the threshold one passes in initiation, where the mystical, psychological, symbolic and literal merge. When I say you have to be willing to lose your mind, I mean you have to be willing to accept the possibility that you may in fact be crazy. Your worst possible fear, none of this is real and it’s all happening in your head. What will you do if you realize you’re simply crazy? The wise man will turn away, but the initiate, the alchemist, will be unphased.

All people who dabble with spirituality and occultism will eventually meet this threshold. When things actually start working, when your spells yield results, when the impossible occurs and you truly have no other explanation. When the Gods finally respond. Be willing to lose your mind, be willing to experience things you cannot explain. And be willing to talk to yourself with the honesty that you simply cannot know. That’s what makes your faith and pursuits worthy.

The most talented and most powerful witches and magis are those who do not flinch when the impossible occurs. They no longer question themselves about the absurdity, they no longer wonder if any of this is real because they know it doesn’t matter. And that’s why they’re so powerful, they have complete faith that their work is very real. And when someone challenges that, they don’t crumble, they rise. Because the challenge in that idea is worthy of pursuit itself. Maybe we are crazy, maybe this is just in our mind. The significance however, that is real and that stays, regardless.

Yap yap yap

We talk a lot in this community about the concept of “awakening” to your psychic abilities. Sensing energy, having divine intuition, telling fortunes and affecting the world through intention. But we hardly ever expose that before those gifts explode, there is always a period of what feels like insanity. The mind interrogating itself. Sensitivity to the mystical. It feels like being given access to the background code of your simulated reality, and realizing that the same code is written into your flesh, mind and soul.

Tldr. Witchcraft is very aesthetically pleasing, very pretty. We often don’t show the very ugly side of it, the white knuckles, the tears and chaos. Inviting these forces into your life is not trivial, not at all. They will force you to change and they will force you to lose your mind, even if only to teach you how to find it.

Every few months a friend of mine who is also a witch will come to me and express that she thinks she’s losing her mind again. And I smile because I know that she must be growing so much, getting so much more powerful. And a couple days ago, when I went to her and expressed that I was losing my mind again, she laughed too.

“Welcome to the next phase of your journey with Lord Lucifer!”

and her saying that immediately made everything click. I’m still being tested and cultivated. This bought of insanity is surely far from the last i will experience. Getting this far and surviving means I am not only advancing, I am continuing to grow into the role I was meant to serve for him.

Anyways, if you get to that point in your practice where you feel like you’re at your breaking point, I won’t fault you for stepping back. That’s the logical decision.

But I can also assure you, you are not alone. They mystic floats in the same waters the psychotic drowns. It may feel like you’re drowning and struggling, you may in fact just be learning how to tread water. and if you think you’re beyond this phenomenon, if this has never happened to you.

Oh, just you wait.

[silverthornwitchery]

Happy mother's day to Diana,

She who has been with me all my life,

Who taught me to embrace how the gods and their names & forms overlap and interweave

Who leads me down the path of Aradia

[silverthornwitchery]

Legend of Diana

Diana was the first created before all creation, in her were all things, out of herself, the first darkness, she divided herself into darkness and light, she was divided. Dianus, her brother and son, herself and her other half, was the light.

And when Diana saw that the light was so beautiful, the light which was her other half, her brother Dianus, she yearned for it with exceeding great desire. Wishing to receive the light again into her darkness, to swallow it up in rapture, in delight, she trembled with desire. This desire was the dawn.

But, Dianus, the light, fled from her, and would not yield to her wishes; He was the light, which flies into the most distant parts of heaven, the mouse which flies before the cat.

Then Diana went to the Fathers of the Beginning, to the Mothers, the Spirits who were before the first spirit, and lamented unto them that she could not prevail with Dianus. And they praised her for her courage; they told her that to rise she must fall; to become the chief of goddesses she must become a mortal.

And in the Ages, in the course of Time, when the World was made, Diana went on Earth, as did Dianus, who had descended, and Diana taught Magick and sorcery, whence came witches and Magicians, and all that is like man, yet not mortal.

And it came thus that Diana took the form of a cat. Her brother had a cat, whom he loved beyond all creatures, and it slept every night on his bed, a cat beautiful beyond all other creatures, a fairy; he did not know this.

Diana prevailed with the cat to change forms with her; so she lay with her brother, and in the darkness assumed her own form, and so by Dianus became the mother of Aradia. But when in the morning he found that he lay by his sister, and that light had been conquered by darkness, Dianus was extremely angry; but Diana sang to him a spell, a song of power, and he was silent, the song of the night which soothes to sleep; he could say nothing.

So Diana with her wiles of Witchcraft so charmed him that he yielded to her love. This was the first fascination; she hummed the song, which was as the buzzing of bees, and the spinning of the wheel; the spinning wheel spinning life. She spun then the lives of Men, and all things were spun from the wheel of Diana. And it was Dianus who turned the Wheel.

[silverthornwitchery]

NEW STATUE FOR MOTHER!!!!!!

[silverthornwitchery]

Diana Syncretisms In My Path: (some UPG, some attested. Not marked though, do your own digging) Feronia Damatura/Demeter/Ceres Isis Artemis Hekate Luna Selene Proserpina Persephassa Trivia Triformis Ashtoreth Asherah Astarte Anat Nemesis Druantia Dana/Danu Nemetona Flidais Arduinna Abnoba Tanit/Tanith Tana Uni Fauna Jana/Iana Ariadne Arianrhod Aradia

[silverthornwitchery]

even if Diana-Demeter syncretism isn't historic, I feel like Diana-Damatura rolls off the tongue nicely

[silverthornwitchery]

Adding to this: Isis-Astoreth-Tana/Uni as THE goddess, THE god in this would be Serapis-Baal/Tammuz-Tanus i think? the names right now are VERY clunky, moreso than I'd like them to be. Clunkier names just dont run off the tongue well. I'm wondering if there's any historical Diana-Demeter syncretisms as well, which I feel if we take the Stregheria approach of Diana as Great Goddess, could work. That would in turn have Proserpina/Libera be syncretic with Aradia, which with both ruling over freedom, makes a lot of sense thematically

interesting food for thought: Isian Stregheria as my approach to the Witching Gods? Isis is syncretic with both Diana and Ceres, two goddesses of whom I feel an immense pull to (and through syncretism, Ceres could be seen as the mother of Diana when we look at the syncretism of Diana and Proserpina), further more both Diana and Ceres/Demeter are syncretic with Ashtoreth. Isis-Diana-Astoreth as the Queen of Heaven Isis-Demeter-Astoreth as Earth Mother or something along those lines, the only issue would be finding one word name to syncretize them with.

[silverthornwitchery]

interesting food for thought: Isian Stregheria as my approach to the Witching Gods? Isis is syncretic with both Diana and Ceres, two goddesses of whom I feel an immense pull to (and through syncretism, Ceres could be seen as the mother of Diana when we look at the syncretism of Diana and Proserpina), further more both Diana and Ceres/Demeter are syncretic with Ashtoreth. Isis-Diana-Astoreth as the Queen of Heaven Isis-Demeter-Astoreth as Earth Mother or something along those lines, the only issue would be finding one word name to syncretize them with.

[silverthornwitchery]

Teach your kids to respect animals!

Teach your kids to leave animals alone if they walk away!

Teach your kids to put down an animal if they are struggling to escape!

It’s not that hard to teach kids that animals are living things and not toys!

[silverthornwitchery]

Diana worship kinda day

[silverthornwitchery]

"Wicca" vs. "Witchcraft"

All too often I read blogs on Tumblr & other social media speaking with great authority as to what does or does not constitute "Wicca" and "Witchcraft", usually setting these words in opposition.  The problem is that the meanings of words change over time.  I've been involved in the modern Neopagan movement for about 50 years and I've seen this change.  Today, if someone uses either of these words you can't make any assumptions about what the speaker means.

In the 1930s, almost no one called themselves a "witch".  "Witch" was a negative word, used as a slander against others. 

When Gardner met a coven in the south of England in 1939, those folks were calling themselves "Witches" and described their practice - a blend of magic & spirituality - as "Wicca".  He had no reason not to take them at their word.  Thus, through his books,  Witchcraft/Wicca entered the modern world as synonymous terms and as a blend of magic & spirituality in Britain right from the beginning.  These people were what came to be called "Gardnerians".

In the early days of the Witchcraft movement in America - in the late 1960s-80s - we used “Witchcraft” as the name for the largest Neopagan movement, with “Wicca” (an Anglo-Saxon word) referring specifically to Witchcraft traditions from Britain (as opposed to those from other countries – like Strega from Italy – or those recently invented or developed).

We also used synonymous terms like “the Craft” (or even the adjective “Witchen”) quite freely, expecting others to understand.

Then - in the US - “Wicca” became synonymous with all modern Neopagan “Witchcraft”, whatever its source, due in large part to folks preferring to use one W-word rather than another W-word when coming out to their parents or coworkers.

And then some started using “Wicca” to refer to a religious practice largely devoid of magic, unlike “Witchcraft” (inspired, I’m sure, by the usage of the terms in the TV show Charmed).

The folks that used to be known as “Wicca” started calling themselves “British Traditional Wicca” to once again refer to a certain subset of Witches.  (Or "Wica" with one "c" to refer to the tradition that Gardner joined.)

Now, there’s a “British Traditional Witchcraft” that is quite distinct from “British Traditional Wicca” - identifying itself mainly as a magical tradition.

This is all fine, if confusing, but it's important to understand that Witchcraft in the modern world started as a religious/spiritual practice, and the folks who wanted to use Witchcraft in a secular magical sense came later. They may argue that "Witchcraft" is universal and pre-Wicca, but that is only true in the sense that English-speaking anthropologists applied the term to negative magic in the cultures they encountered.  NONE of the people in those cultures would have called THEMSELVES witches!  Doing so could - and still can - get them killed.  Using "Witchcraft" in this way is perpetuating an oppressive, colonial stereotype.

The meanings of words change over time.  Nowadays, many use "Wicca" to refer to any form of Witchcraft that includes religious or spiritual components and "Witchcraft" to refer to a secular magical practice.  Usually, it is the later group that is using "Wicca" in a derogatory way to address the former group.

These words have had so many meanings over a relatively short time that they have become all but useless as describing a particular group or practice, even though there are many writers who will assert that "Wicca" or "Witchcraft" mean "this and only this".  

In all cases, when someone says "Wicca" or "Witchcraft" you have to respond by asking "What do you mean when you use those words?"

By "Wiccans" do you mean:

-- Gardnerians, based on the first published use of the term “Wicca”, or

-- people descending from the tradition Gardner joined (incl. Gardnerians, Alexandrians, Central Valley Wicca), all of which should properly be called “Wica”, or

-- any Neopagan Witch Tradition descending from Britain, or

-- any "New Age" Witches, or

-- anybody who uses the word ‘cause its easier to to tell family-members than “Witchcraft”, or

-- anyone practicing Craft in a religious or spiritual way?

By "Witches" do you mean:

-- the folks in Britain who first brought modern Craft to the public's attention, or

-- the same thing as "Wiccans" (however you are using that word), or

-- anyone practicing Neopagan Witchcraft, or

-- anyone practicing folk magic anywhere in the world who claims the name for themselves, or

-- anyone practicing folk magic anywhere in the world whether or not they would want to be called a "Witch", or

-- anyone called a "witch" by oppressors, as the many victims of witch persecutions in Africa and Asia, most of whom would reject that term?

(I'm sure there are more usages for these words out there. These are just the ones that come to mind.)

The meanings of words change over time. These days, it's especially hard to keep up.  This makes it all the more important for us to be careful with how we use those words and how we understand them when they are used by others.

[silverthornwitchery]

Dua Sutekh, mighty and powerful defender of the Solar Barque! Glory to You of the Loud Voice, who shakes the very heavens and reigns over the lands! Dua Sutekh!

Finally got over my perfectionism to finish this devotional piece! Hopefully the quality isn't atrocious lol. A special thank you to the Per-Maat server on discord, they were instrumental in finding resources to depict everything as accurately as possible!!

+10 points if u find my signature, im experimenting with different versions!! close-ups of Lord Sutekh, the corselet, and sha below the break!! my next post will just be the progress pics of this piece lol

once i figure out how to do prints i'll probably add this to my altar :3c

[silverthornwitchery]

Proserpina as moon goddess.(X)

[silverthornwitchery]

Proserpina being a moon goddess and ceres being the earth is honestly such a creative twist on the original story, which made me wonder are there any other retelings which interpret the story of her abduction differently.

There are far too many versions! Empedocles may think of Hades and Persephone as earth and water. In late sources (mostly by christians author), Demeter is the plain and fruitful earth, Hades and Persephone are the sun and the seed, or the sun and the moon. There's also a silly explanation that they're all mortal, a rich countryman drowned with a girl when he kidnapped her, so the girl's poor mother built a cult in her sadness.

But for me, the version given by Plutarch is unsurpassed.

And what is told of Cora, that she is sometimes in heaven and in light, and again in night and darkness, is no untruth, only time has brought error into the numbers ; for it is not during six months, but at intervals of six months, that we see her received by the earth, as by a mother, in the shadow, and more rarely at intervals of five months ; for to leave Hades is impossible to her, who is herself a ' bound of Hades,' as Homer well hints in the words, ' Now to Elysian plains, earth's utmost bound.' (Plutarch, on the face which appears on the orb of the Moon, 27)

[silverthornwitchery]

me circa 2019: why is Diana appearing to me as a Hekate statue I saw? Arent they different? They gotta be different because soft polytheism is bad!! me, the past 6 or 7 years of working with and worshipping her: *time and time again slapped in the face with the overwhelming amount of historical and folkloric syncretism, paralells between mythos, witchcraft and trial folklore, and a whole lot of other stuff that's basically her telling me they are the same goddess* ah

[silverthornwitchery]

Section of my altar dedicated to Hekate-Diana, Witch Mother and Primordial Creatrix, also known as the Night and the Cosmos.

[silverthornwitchery]

the warrior cats graphic novel adaptation exists as a separate entity from the books to me. it removes the weird romance between spottedleaf and firepaw. it acknowledges sibling relationships that were never canonically addressed before. it lifts a lot of the ableism behind cinderpaw becoming a medicine cat. it's made by a married sapphic couple. they draw cloudkit like this:

really it's an improvement overall and i like it completely on its own. this is what the people deserve after putting up with over 20 years of misogyny and ableism.