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presenting my newest of favorite critters, the violet snail

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*for example, getting excited about changes from hrt, and then proceeding to feel bad because having gender euphoria makes you too presently aware of being trans, and because you know this particular thing would just be normal for a cis person

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[via]

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big things that are coming

in case you want to mark your calendar.

astrological new year - the sun into aries marks off the equinox, and the start of a sort of new year, as it goes from the beginning of the zodiac back around for another trip.

lunar eclipse - and that new year kicks off with the start of another eclipse season shortly after! so this will be a major period of change and upheaval, broadly speaking focused on relationships vs the self (although of course it always depends on your personal natal astrology.) this one is a full moon eclipse in libra.

mercury retrograde in aries - this retrograde goes from the 27th degree of aries to the 15th and goes from april fool's day (seriously) until april 25th. be very careful around hotheaded people and in situations where accidents may occur. apply your mercury retrograde protocols (review, revise, introspect, etc) to aries themes as much as possible.

solar eclipse - in aries on april 8, whereas the lunar eclipse focused on relationships this one is focused more on the self. it is volatile energy, so it is not necessarily advised to set any intentions you're really attached to, but rather have a willingness to change and be changed.

jupiter-uranus conjunction - this is exact on april 20 but you will likely feel it for a few days on either side, longer the more taurean/jovial/uranian you are natally. it is a sudden and/or major change, socially and/or personally, in a way that taurus is not typically associated with being a sign which is slow and stubborn to move. but jupiter helps ease the transition, and make it a good one rather than traumatic. so go with it! uranus is for the future. it will be pulling us, forcefully if need be, out of the past and into a new sort of mini-age. this happens only every several years and in taurus even less often. the last one in taurus was in 1941. taurus wants natural changes - i hope to see a shift or a major law passed towards something positive to do with sustainability, the climate, or the quality of food we are fed.

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Iil mushroom patch

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Happy trans day of visibility! Especially to those who have to live invisibly <3

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The reason the work you’ve done on how you feel doesn’t seem like it’s working is because you need to do it until it works. It’s never been “this strategy will pull you up” it’s always been “here’s something you can do that will END with you getting out of that hole” the climbing still hurts and the being underground still hurts but that doesn’t mean it’s not working

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Incredibly beautiful shot 😍

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Witchcraft: Apps

This post is to both encourage and perhaps assist tech witches who desire easily accessible resources. As always, take the information on these apps with a grain of salt, and always cross-reference your personal studies. Happy casting!

Moon: Shows you the current moon phase so you can align or schedule to most potent times to cast your intentions.

Seek by iNaturalist: Identifies Plants (Animals and Fungi too!) via their Camera or what you upload, helping you determine what you can potenially work with locally.

Runes Daily Reading: Gives information on Runes as well as Rune readings.

Runic + Tarot Divinations: Excellent for Tarot and Rune reading and resources.

Labryinthos Tarot Reading: A phenomenal amount of information on Tarot.

Tarot and Numerology: Numerology and Tarot based readings.

Angel Numbers Numerology: Helpful information on Angel Numbers and Numerology itself.

Numerology and Astrology: A fantastic fusion reading of Numerology and Astrology.

Co—Star Personal Astrology: An app that can give you a rough sketch of your birth chart.

Nebula: Horoscope and Astrology: Another app that can give you a rough sketch of your birth chart.

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Energy Based Witchcraft and Quick Practices

All right, so this is essentially the beginning of energy related witchcraft that I’ll be posting about as I try it and learn new things. Feel free to try out some of the stuff I talk about here but please remember that this is your journey and you can and should edit and tweak everything to best fit you.

Types of Energy

Reserved Energy

Reserved Energy floats either just above or below your skin. It should feel like it’s attached to you and resist most attempts to use it. It is minimally pliant, minimally workable, and mostly just exists as a backup or protection.

Latent Energy

Latent Energy is typically a ball of energy that is extremely malleable and easily visualized. This type of energy is more ‘for your use’. It can be visualized anywhere in the body; however, where ever it best seems to fit (i.e. a ball of energy in your stomach, chest, head, etc) is normally where it stays. Latent energy is great to work with to give yourself a better mastery over molding both Reserved and Latent energy.

Neighboring/Immediate Energy

Neighboring (or Immediate) Energy is an amalgamation of your energies and outside forces. It’s best visualized and felt by meditating. If you’ve meditated and felt like you were basically out of your own body and hazy, you’ve felt Neighboring Energy. It’s less you and, as a by product, significantly harder to work with. It’s not as difficult as Reserved Energy since that’s an active rejection to change, and this is simply difficult because you’re reaching beyond yourself.

Visualizing Your Energy

Visualizing energy can be a bit tricky, but seeing your energy, in my opinion, is equally important as feeling it. Being able to see and acknowledge your energy makes feeling and moving it so much simpler. There are a couple of ways to visualize your energy, so we’ll hop into those first:

First Plane Visualization (FPV)

If you close your eyes to visualize your energy and the first thing you see is your body, this is where you’re at. First Plane Visualization essentially means your energy best manifests itself to you as a physical part of you. Personally, I feel this makes it easier to work with Latent and Reserved Energy, but harder to work with Neighboring.

Second Plane Visualization (SPV)

If attempting to visualize your energy brings up empty space with your energy in some form or shape in it, congrats, this is you. This type of visualization makes it significantly easier to work with energy that isn’t yours but more difficult to work with your own as well. Your energy seems to best manifest itself as a construct in your mind, essentially on a different plane than your physical body. To use it, you have to get around your own barrier between it and physicality whereas outside energies that are already on your plane don’t need any extra work for you to work with them.

When you visualize your energy, you’re essentially introducing yourself and greeting it. In the same way you most likely wouldn’t hand a stranger a thousand dollars, your energy isn’t likely to do much for you if you don’t at least know it.

Moving Your Energy

Think of your energy as a muscle, if you never use it, it becomes that much more difficult to begin using and to strengthen it.  Please don’t expect to hop in, visualize your energy once, and suddenly have it do everything you want it to.

First try visualizing your energy with your eyes closed. Spend some time with it, don’t demand anything of it. Is your energy naturally calm? Does it spin lazily as you sit with it? Is your energy a spitfire, constantly flinging out strands of itself and wrapping around everything it can without leaving it’s basic shape? Who is your energy? What kind of personality do you get from it?

Try to learn and love your energy every time you visualize it. When you’ve got the image of your energy firmly in your head, preferably to the point where you can almost feel  it wherever it’s best visualized, try moving it. Try to get a strand of it to detach from the bulk of your energy and pull it towards you. If that’s difficult, simply work on moving the bulk of your energy towards and away from you (SPV) or around your body (FPV). This should honestly take awhile. Remember that you’re not simply trying to visualize it, but feel it. As it moves, you should feel it. Once you’ve got a mastery of that, try opening your eyes and doing it over again.

When you can move your energy in bulk or pieces with a bit more ease, I recommend pushing it to the surface. The easiest place to feel Latent Energy is between your palms. If trying to move your energy with in yourself simply won’t work for you, try this instead, then move back to that later. To push your energy to your hands for FPV, imagine it wherever it tends to manifest itself. Push it, either in whole or (preferably) in part, down or up your body and into your palms. If you need your eyes closed to direct it, by all means, close them; however, once you’ve got it comfortably in your palms, open your eyes and try to get used to keeping a hold on your energy with your eyes open. Allow it to do as it pleases within the space between your palms. Start out with maybe half a foot between your hands and slowly increase the distance as you grow more confident.

For SPV, visualize your energy and bring it towards you. Bring out either two bits of it, still connected to the whole, or the bulk of it towards yourself until it feels like you’ve stepped inside of it or as though it’s encompassed you. Carefully, without losing that feeling, visualize it (either with your eyes opened or closed depending on what works better for you) sparking its way down your arms and into your hands. If that’s too far to visualize, simply imagine it condensing between or in your palms for the get-go. Because your own image is less involved in your own energy, expect to have a harder time keeping it where you want it to be.

Energy, like most objects, rejects movement without force. When you move it at first, it may feel like it snaps back to where it started no matter what you do. Keep practicing and remember that it hasn’t really moved in years, so it’ll take some work to get it to move now.

Energy Exercises

We’re finally at the end of what I can share for the time being. I only have a couple of practices that I’ve been using lately, only one of which I’ll add here, specifically for Reserved Energy because that’s what I’m practicing working with currently. I will update this as time goes on but I do want to be sure before I give put any exercises. For example, one of them uses hunger as a basis and I don’t know how I feel about giving a purpose to staying hungry, so I’ll wait to add that if at all.

Exercise 1

Find a cold room or area, cold enough to give you goosebumps but not enough to shiver. Furthermore, if it’s outdoors, make sure there’s little to no wind. Wear short or no sleeves. Allow the cold to seep into your skin. Visualize your reserved energy; this may be a thin layer above or below your skin.

If it appears above your skin, give it intent, push it to separate you from the cold. In practice, this literally felt like a wash of lukewarm warmth sliding down from my head. The cold felt like someone holding an ice cube near my skin, but didn’t actually make me cold.

If it appears below your skin, incite it to heat itself. The cold should sink into your skin and meet that barrier of energy and fizzle out. I can’t tell you how it feels in practice because my Reserved Energy appears above the skin. If you try this out and are okay to share, I’d love to know how it differs.

Updates

I’ll either update or make new posts on this as I learn. I love energy based craft and I’ve got a lot more things I’m practicing that I’m not confident enough in quite yet to share…but soon. Here’s a mini-list of what you can expect in the future:

Moving Energy Into Objects

Visualizing Neighboring Energy

Using Neighboring Energy

Taking Energy from an Object

NOTE: All of the names I’ve given energy, energy types, etc were made by me simply to make it easier to refer to and talk about. If you call any of the feelings or activities something else, by all means, continue doing so. This is just what makes it easiest to understand for me.

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Fairy dust

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A reminder that not everything has a spiritual explanation.

Sometimes our dreams don't have a meaning. It's just our brains working through the day's events in a vivid way.

Seeing a specific type bird (or other animal) repeatedly? That type of bird could just be migrating.

We (yes I'm calling myself out here as well) like to try explaining everything in a spiritual or non- mundane way. It's nice to think that way at times, but not everything is that way.

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Pressed flower collage of a comet moth, by Helen Ahpornsiri