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confusedwitch · 3 years

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Witch-Related Books to Grab off Amazon: Masterpost Part 1

First off, I'll be sectioning this into different parts based off of what type of witch you are/want to be/want more info on, or what practices you wanna add to your craft :)

Green Witch/Magick Herbalism (a classic):

The Green Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock - $9.69 (Hardcover): This book had incredible reviews on amazon, and a lot of the written reviews said that the book wasn't specific to a religion and didn't try to push a religion on you, which is so wonderful because not everyone wants to be religious with their craft.

Plant Witchery by Juliet Diaz - $25.19 (Hardcover) $18.99 (Paperback): Again, stunning reviews, just a less popular book. This book isn't about general stuff, but instead it's more focused on mother nature and the useage of plants (non-herbal as well, so your houseplants might be mentioned too), which is great if you wanna center your practice around Gaia and the healing energies of the earth.

Herb Magick: An Introduction to Magickal Herbalism and Spells by Patti Wigington - $14.99 (Paperback): here's a review from a verified person- it explained this book WAY better than I ever could:

The focus of this book is on the folkloric and magical uses of herbs, rather than medicinal applications. It provides a few traditional uses of herbs, but the overall theme is knowledge of the plants and their associations, and incorporating them in your spiritual workings. This is an Introductory to Magical Herbalism.

The author's spiritual practice is rooted in traditional American and European Folk Magic. She is a licensed Pagan Clergy and is the founder of Clan Of The Stone Circle, a Celtic Pagan Tradition. (Funny, anything Celtic has been pulling my attention feelers lately, no wonder why I loved this book.) Her spells are derived/based upon the traditional folk magic practices of Western Europe and the British Isles, and the author's own experiences. They are positive spells for magical intentions of healing, love, prosperity, and protection. Baneful or negative workings with herbs are NOT used in this book.

The aesthetic of this book has my little, beginner herbalist heart gushing! The blue, green, and yellow earthy tones and hues used were perfect for the topic of herbs! The cover is GORGEOUS! It's so pretty and flowery, the illustrated pictures of the herbs were extremely helpful because I had never seen some of the plants before. This will make future identification much easier for me!

Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs by Scott Cunningham - $16.43 (Paperback): A couple reviews describe it as being in a cookbook format, and overall an amazing book, like most of Scott Cunningham's other works. Apparently the Amazon shipping was literal trash for a bunch of people and they essentially left the book loose inside the box to bang around and get all sorts of messed up :((

The Witch's Herbal Apothecary by Marysia Miernowska - $18.69 (Paperback): Described by reviewers as the PERFECT book for recipes and rituals, even one of Marysia's personal students spoke very highly of her, saying that she's the real deal. Other reviews state the book as being very beginner friendly, and beautifully written and illustrated :))

Blackthorn's Botanical Magic: The Green Witch's Guide to Essential Oils for Spellcraft, Ritual, and Healing by Amy Blackthorn - $15.79 (Paperback): again, phenomenal reviews, just a lesser-known book. Again, here's a review from someone who explained the book a bit better than I could:

This book is way more than I thought it would be. I thought it would be like a dictionary - you look up the essential oil and get the definition. It is that but it's also got a few introductory chapters about oils and products and rituals to give you a nice and concise overview of a lot of things you might need to know as a novice. I also like the way you can reference different oils in alpha order but also look up your purpose and find the oil you need.

From the looks of it, this book is specifically about Essential Oils. Is that still Green Witchery?? Lol I'm not sure, but i felt like it should go in this category.

Kitchen Witch (another classic):

Blackthorn's Botanical Brews by Amy Blackthorn - $14.49 (Hardcover): this is mainly a book of recipes for drinks and cocktails and stuff. There was one review complaining about how it didn't have correspondences, meanwhile the book is literally described as being a recipe book? It's an AMAZING book if you enjoy/want to start making homemade elixirs and cocktails :))

The Natural Witch's Cookbook: 100 Magickal, Healing Recipes, and Herbal Remedies to Nourish Body, Mind, and Spirit by Lisanna Wallace - $20.69 (hardcover): This is again just a book of recipes, and the reviews are really good. Here's one of them:

I wanted to write the review as soon as I got the book. I was not expecting this book to be so fantastic. The recipes are very nutritious and the names are very inventive, but I could see that before I tried the recipes. I held off on writing the review until I tasted a few of the recipes. Even my kids were very happy with the flavors of these recipes. They are mostly easy to make and they are very delicious. Be aware though that the food can only be as great as the quality of the ingredients that you get. These are not recipes that call for complicated or fancy ingredients, or even a lot of ingredients. As a result, you have to use the best that you can find/afford to get the best results you can. I did not use expensive ingredients, but everything I used was very fresh and it does make a difference on the outcome. Overall, the book have some great recipes, easy to follow and the end result does look like the ones on the picture.

The Book of Kitchen Witchery by Cerridwen Greenleaf - $12.89 (Paperback):

I am so pleased with this book. It’s so magical and warm. Sometimes the new age genre can be a little too technical or focus too much on religion or putting down particular religions... this was not like that. There are so many lovely tips and easy spells and recipes that are kept fairly light so you can make them your own. The book just makes me happy, it has an energy to it that goes right along with it’s artsy illustrations and at-a-glance format. This will be a great reference. Very grateful to everyone who made this book possible.

A former editor said that there were a few editing mistakes, but nothing too crazy. If that's one of your pet peeves, just beware when buying this book lol (btw the editor still have a 4 star review because they said the book is still very good)

Potions, Elixirs & Brews by Anaïs Alexandre - $12.79 (Hardcover): I just had to include both of these amazing reviews, since both said what the other review did not.

This book is so gorgeous and everything I have been looking for in regards to potions. I love her writing style and the way the book looks. Highly informative and I can feel her good intentions behind the book. She is very intelligent. I respect her and I am inspired by her! I found her by chance looking up books for potions, she also has Instagram! Very grateful, amazing book thank you:-) so happy to be the first comment:p excited to see what else amazing things come from Anais!

And

I adore this book. The art and setup is simplistic and beautiful. There is a system that tells you exactly how difficult each potion will be to make, whether or not it’s alcoholic, and what is the ideal season to make it in. The instructions are clear, the preliminary information is well done, and there’s even a section for brewing large batches which I LOVE. The weight of the book is nice and it feels of good quality. The papers are glossy and, I haven’t yet, but I feel like it won’t be a disaster If you get some of your creation on it. The book is separated into types of potions depending on your intent. This is a perfect book for anyone new to making potions or is interested in a magickal recipe book!

The Witches Feast: A Kitchen Grimoire by Melissa Madara - $35 (Hardcover): This book actually isn't out yet, but it'll be released on October 26th of this year (2021). It looks promising, which is why I put it on the list, and for that much money, it better be good lol

Lunar/Moon/Astrology Witch:

The Complete Guide to Astrology by Louise Edington - $9.49 (Paperback) $22.99 (Hardcover): There's amazing reviews on this book, and one of them said that she's been researching astrology for 23 years!! Here's the review in it's entirety:

I've been a student of Astrology for the past 23 years now, and have read most of the books on this subject that are considered foundational. Many guides to astrology that I page through in a bookstore are fine, but covering information I already know. What I so appreciated about Edington's new book is that she brings a new angle to even the basics of Astrology. Her book feels like a fresh update, more appropriate to our current time in terms of language and sensibility. There are no "evil" aspects or transits in Edington's view, no dark warnings of disaster; her evolutionary perspective encourages us to see the opportunity in even the most challenging times, what can be learned, what can be accomplished. As she says in her book, she doesn't look at the natal chart as something fixed, unchanging, rather a "blueprint rich in meaning and possibility."

I also admired Edington's extensive knowledge of the stories behind the names and symbology used in Astrology: sharing her interpretations of them, how they are useful, how they can be limiting. Concepts I thought I already understood have been unpacked in greater depth by the author, so that I see deeper layers.

This text is beautifully written, well-organized, offering a fresh update, as well as a deeper dive than many astrology texts. This book is an invaluable resource I'll be returning to, and consulting, with appreciation.

Moon Spells: How to Use the Phases of the Moon to Get What You Want by Diane Ahlquist - $11.35 (Paperback): This book is a bit older fashioned in the sense that it's VERY heteronormative, we're talking about love magick SPECIFICALLY for men and all about being a father, and a section of love magick SPECIFICALLY for women and being a mother. So if this gets on your nerves, then i wouldn't recommend this book. Other than that, the reviews are very good and they describe the book as being a must-have for lunar witches.

The Complete Book of Moon Spells by Michael Herkes - $13.49 (Paperback): Yes, this book was written by a man. If that's something that might make you not want to purchase, please look at this and also keep in mind that SO MANY of the most highly esteemed witches of the world ARE MEN. So if you wanna be closed off and refuse their help and their knowledge, go ahead sis, I'm not stopping you.

He's most definitely not just "some guy". Aside from that, this book has very good reviews. Some people called it "fluffy" and a bit less serious then they anticipated, but it's very good for beginner witches who are finally wanting to start doing spells. Here's a review.

In this book you explore ways to conjure the mysterious power of the moon to manifest your intentions to achieve abundance and balance in your life! Each chapter is devoted to one of the eight phases of the moon and includes various spells, tarot spreads, crystal grids and potions that reflect that phase of the moon!

This is an overall amazing book if you want to build a foundation of learning about the history of the moon, astrology, cycles & phases, ritual tools, crystals, herbs, and essential oils- as well as the moon spells and rituals.

This is one of my new favorite books! I feel so connected to the moon and this book is a great reference for learning the best rituals and spells to use for the different moon phases and energies surrounding them! It’s easy to follow and the lunar rituals, mystical spells and magical drinks are so vibrant, creative and helpful in my spiritual journey. I’d recommend this book to anyone that loves the moon like I do.

Moon Magic: A Handbooks of Lunar Cycles, Lore, and Mystical Energies by Aurora Kane - $19.99 (Hardcover, although there's only three left when I'm looking at it) $9.99 (Kindle):

One review said that the book much surpassed their expectations, and another review said this:

I absolutely adore this book.

If you're just a beginner and want to understand the different moon phases, this is the book to get.

The information inside was extremely helpful without being overly complicated.

Well worth the money spent.

Astrology: Using the Wisdom of the Stars in Your Everyday Life by DK - $14.59 (Hardcover):

I saw this in store and was immediately drawn to it's beautiful and shiny cover! But when I open it, the inside is just as beautiful! I love looking through the pages. I would say it is a very good basic astrology book, but I have another one that gives much more detail. I like this one for more of a quick reference kind of book. It's more of a bullet point style book, where it gives little tidbits instead of paragraphs going in depth. (Though some pages do have paragraphs) BUT, it covers just about everything including all the houses, moon signs, and ascending signs. It covers everything, but it just covers he tip of the iceberg. (In my opinion) I still absolutely recommend it!

Apparently this book is also available in Barnes and Noble, so if you have access to one, you might wanna look there for the book before purchasing off of Amazon :)

Misc Books (General):

The Spell Book for New Witches: Essential Spells to Change Your Life by Ambrosia Hawthorn - $10.19 (Paperback) $20.69 (Hardcover):

This book... It's a very good spell book, and is true in the spells it contains, but MY biggest problem with it is that it's V E R Y Wiccan, and seems almost preachy about the "Threefold Law" and what they like to call "karma". Choosing not to do dark magick is PERFECTLY FINE and being Wiccan is totally okay! But don't be like Christianity and rub it in people's faces, dude. The book talks about how you can ONLY practice "love and light". Other than that, this book is AMAZING and rated literally 5 stars with over 11K reviews. If you lean more Wiccan, by ALL means, buy this spellbook. It's the one for you.

Practical Magic for Beginners by Maggie Haseman - $13.49 (Paperback)

This book is fantastic for the witch who wants to learn more about her craft but doesn't know where to start. Each subject is broken down into easy to absorb bits of wisdom without being overwhelming. A great jumping off place to decide where to dive in deep next.

This book is very comprehensive, and is a great reference guide for beginner witches, or witches looking to add another book to their collection.

Candle Magic For Beginners by Mystic Dylan - $10.86 (Paperback) $21.99 (Spiral bound)

This book is a must have for anyone looking to deepen their connection with the magical element of fire, ritual, and spell work through candle magic! Dylan not only teaches you how to use candle magic for things such as protection, abundance, love, healing, and more, but takes you through the fascinating history of the power of fire & how to properly charge, cleanse, and consecrate your candles to begin manifesting your deepest desires!!! Overall, the book is beautifully written with gorgeous illustration and will hook you from the start!!!!!!!

This book is perfect for beginners to candle magick, or beginners to the craft in general. I personally LOVE candle magic because I've always been attracted to fire. I could void out and just stare at a flame for hours on end lol

Crystals for Beginners by Karen Frazier - $8.99 (Paperback) $20.95 (Spiral bound)

Absolutely love this book!! It’s so informative! I am a beginner and this book explains a lot. Everything a beginner would need to know about crystals is in this book. I am so pleased with it. Best purchase of the week! Definitely worth it. The author explains crystals, chakras and energy so enthusiastically and in a way that is easy to understand. At the end of the book, is a “resources” page with all the websites, books and apps that the Author recommends.

Again, very beginner friendly, but this time it's not spells, it's crystals and such. I've personally been wanting this book for AGES

The Crystal Bible Series by Judy Hall - $38.99 (Volume 1-3 shrink-wrapped set, paperback):

This is my first purchase of the three-part series by Judy Hall. Volume 1 covers over 200 crystals! I can already tell you I'll be purchasing volumes 2 and 3 (each of which cover 200+ MORE crystals/stones, not included in volume 1) I love how each crystal description includes photos to further help in identification. I also appreciate that rarity and sources were included. Information about the spiritual and physical impacts of crystals on the body is in there as well! This book is loaded with a lot of great information and is the perfect quick reference. It's also small and fits easily in my hand. I highly recommend it for beginners.

This is a review from just the first book, and it's from a verified hauler/buyer :)) these aren't exactly newbie friendly, and some people say they're a bit harder to understand.

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goldtracing · 3 years

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APH Austria Headcanons – Part I

… that nobody asked for, yet I am still delivering because I feel inspired.

As mentioned in The Coffee ClubTM post, Roderich is a downright snob when it comes to coffee. It was to be of high quality and with little sugar or else he will refuse it. This mentality extends to food in general. Aesthetic strangely enough, isn’t his foremost criteria. A dish can be as artistic as can be, if the meat isn’t tender and the vegetables are raw, then he will lay down the cutlery and refuse to continue. Additionally, he is a picky eater with a list of stuff which he will not tolerate in on his plate. As such, he also has an intense dislike for instant meals.

However, he is a bad cook. He is also acutely aware of this. Yes, he can manage to boil some potatoes, grill sausages and make a salad, yet beyond that he is helpless. Out of that reason he has a housekeeper. And if push comes to shoves, he’ll just have bread with spreads or cheese and meat as dinner or lunch. It is something he does fairly often either way, so he doesn’t mind.

In contrast to his cooking skills – he is a phenomenal baker and can whip up cakes and pastries that are nigh addictive; they are just that good. There are two hallmarks to his style of baking: moderation with sugar, and a tendency to mix alcohol in the batter. His favourites in this regard are rum and cognac. Besides baked goods, he also makes excellent marmalades and syrups.

Speaking of alcohol – he has a remarkably high alcohol tolerance. Can and has drunk people under the table before and then proceeded to make fun of them. And has also proceeded into goading drunk people to do very stupid things.

Is a sort of an expert when it comes to plants and fungi. Roderich knows which ones cure and which ones kill and everything in between. Will often go out into the forests in early autumn to gather mushroom. In terms of plants – he has a small cabinet filled with jars of dried herbs. When somebody around him is ill or feeling unwell in anyway, he’ll be quick to make an herbal tea and press it in their hand. No, he doesn’t care if it is disgusting. Pills you say? Ever occurred to you that modern doctors might be too quick to prescribe them? Yes, you have to drink everything of it. It is for your own good.

Is surprisingly fit, something his silhouette doesn’t really betray. He goes on his morning walks, mountaineers, swims. Something he is especially good at is skiing; when it comes to that sport, there are few that can hold a candle to his flame.

While he still tends to be old-fashioned, he doesn’t run around with a cravat and tailcoats anymore. However, he usually sees to it that he remains fashionable. He likes his Italian suites and shoes, his trench coats and scarves, and fashionable black pants. Nevertheless, he does dress situation-appropriate – you won’t catch him hiking up the mountain in business attire.

In terms of personality – he is bitter, pessimistic and fast to see the flaws of other people. Yet he also has a strict policy of non-confrontation so a lot of this is hidden behind polite smiles and carefully weighed words … which conceal insults and barbs and offensive jokes. Many people only realise that he has insulted them hours after it happened and even then they are plagued by doubts. As in “did he really mean that, or was I just imagining it” or “I’m surely misconstruing what he said back there.” Austria has a huge preference for high context communication since he sees being direct and blunt as being extremely rude.

This also goes hand in hand with his tendency to gossip. He seldom insults people in their faces (Prussia is the exception) and they usually only find out if he doesn’t like them by reading between the lines or by other people passing on the news. Usually, he also keeps and ear to the ground to catch on what sort of rumours and stories are going about. A fundamental member of the European rumour mill.

These two things feed into his proclivity of being a diplomate. He prefers the pen over the sword any day and has a viciously sharp tongue when it is called for. More so, he is very astute on catching on to facial cues, body language and the meanings behind gestures and tonal shifts.

Yet when he does have to abandon such roles and more actively join the war effort, he usually ends up with a job tied to logistics. He has a good memory when it comes to the movement of troops and equipment and supplies. Also, he is quick to figure out supply routes and calculate where obstacles are and how to overcome them.

When he must take up a weapon, his weapon of choice is a rifle. He is a decent marksman and since his glass are largely for aesthetic purposes, he actually has a keen eye. Roderich is also familiar with guerrilla tactics and tends to excel at such forms of conflict far more than he does on an ordered front.

Although, in recent years he has gotten comfortable in his Everlasting NeutralityTM. Roderich kicks up his feet and enjoys the soap-op that occurs whenever the rest of the EU scrambles to send troops somewhere or has to have some sort of concrete reaction to a global event.

#APH Austria #hws austria #my headcanons #hetalia

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letmebe-crystalqueer · 3 years

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I have a genuine question that I'm hoping other witches, particularly witches of colour, and non-witches whose cultures my question relates to can give me advice on, and I would appreciate if it was done educationally and not in the form of an attack. My intention is not to argue for a right to do something, but rather to understand whether or not I already have it or can obtain it - and, if not, what alternatives might be available to me that won't be harmful to communities that aren't my own.

Let me begin by saying that I am a white woman. I have never, and would never, claim to be otherwise. I was raised Catholic, but I have always been drawn towards magic and spirituality. My personal practice is something of a blend of both. If it helps at all, my ancestry is largely European, primarily French and Irish, to the best of my knowledge, although a recent DNA test that my father did suggests there's more Scottish than we ever realised, as well.

Earlier today, I started preparing my tarot and oracle decks to be cleansed as two of them are new and two haven't been used in a while, and I was thinking about finally using the palo santo sticks I'd been given as a gift alongside a purchase I made recently.

But then I kept hesitating.

I'm very aware that the terminology and intention around using sage and palo santo is important. I will always using "cleansing" rather than claiming that what I use it for is "smudging", and I am very aware that they are not the same thing. But what I was hoping to garner some advice on is whether it's appropriate to use either of the aforementioned resources at all. I've found mixed advice thus far, and I'm sure that will be true in the responses to this, too, but the more content I can find, the better I can sort out what to think.

If it's not appropriate, I was hoping to get some suggestions on alternatives that are. Crystals are kind of my bread and butter, and I do use crystals sometimes for charging and cleansing things like my pendulum and my tarot and oracle decks, but I find it much, much easier to use smoke when I'm trying to clear the energy of, say, a room or my crystals themselves - thus far, I've mostly used incense for that, although one of the ones I use is a white sage incense. Is there a particular incense that is good for this without being appropriative, as I suspect white sage might be? Or, as a Catholic/Christian-rooted witch, do I only really have claim to Frankincense/Myrrh/Copal/Styrax/Benzoin? Do I even have claim to those? I know the history of my church is hardly a faultless one.

I've also seen lavender, cedar, rosemary, and even mint suggested as alternate herbs/woods to burn; does anyone have observations on how well they smoke without outright burning? The last thing I want to do is cause a fire. Is it overall acceptable to use sage or palo santo as long as you do so with pure intention/awareness/appreciation/etc. and avoid claiming that you're using it for something you're not (i.e. calling it smudging)? Is the use of cleansing sprays and incense acceptable even if burning actual sage or palo santo sticks is not?

I'm asking from a place of wanting to understand and know what is and isn't okay as I grow more into my practice. I don't want to begin with bad habits if I can root them out early. My goal in life is to do as little harm as is possible, whether directly or indirectly.

I will continue trying to do my own research on this subject and really attempting to parse out the conflicting answers, but I would appreciate whatever input others are willing to offer. That said, I am not looking for the kind of responses that tell me cultural appropriation is bullshit, I should just do what I want, etc. That is not up for debate, as far as I'm concerned. What I want to know is where the lines are so that I don't cross them, well-intentioned or otherwise.

Thank you in advance to anyone who takes the time to provide their input.

(I have a busy afternoon and evening ahead of me, so I may not respond to things immediately. Please don't take this to mean I've gotten upset or offended by a response that "didn't tell me what I wanted to hear" or something like that.)

#cultural appropriation #advice #witchblr #sage #palo santo #smoke cleansing #smoke clearing #kit talks #please be kind. i'm looking for education and not a fight.#witch community #witches #witchcraft #spirituality

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spiders-hth-is-an-outlier · 4 years

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What’s really fascinating (or really annoying, depending on your tolerance for confusion!) about the word “witch” as a self-identifier is that it’s embraced by -- and I’m not a sociologist or anything, but this is based on decades of observation and I feel semi-confident about it -- basically three entirely separate groups of people:

Group One uses witchcraft to mean basically any form of Western folk magic, a tradition passed on kind of piecemeal by teachers, books, and the general mechanisms of folklore. They mean that their worldview is non-materialist, and their magic operates on the general model of like-influences-like and part-influences-whole, and they favor an ad hoc collection of crystals, herbs, divination, astrology, spoken charms, intention/affirmations, and sometimes the loosely defined concept of spirit guides. They often make explicit connections between witchcraft and art, based on a shared respect for symbolic language and emotional effectiveness. Because they generally oppose gatekeeping and accept all or most people as witches who self-identify, they’re easily mocked and dismissed as uneducated dilettantes, which some certainly are, but by no means all. They do have deep historical roots, from Hellenistic Neoplatonism through the early modern grimoire tradition and into Spiritualism and the democratized tradition of folk magic that spread in the US through almanacs, candle shops, popular texts like The Long-Lost Friend, and all manner of professional folk healers and charmers -- but they don’t see the legitimacy of their practices as dependent on those roots, but rather on its personal meaning and usefulness to them. They commonly embrace left-leaning politics for a variety of complicated cultural and historical reasons, and they are the group most likely to explicitly connect their witchcraft practice to their political beliefs.

Group Two is pretty intensely convinced that the only legitimate inheritors of the term witch are people with a direct spiritual connection to some version of European folk magic, derived from relationships with ancestral and land spirits that they believe as a matter of faith are the same spirits (or basically the same spirits) with whom historical witches were in relationship. They may or may not conceptualize these spirit contacts as constituting a religion per se; they may or may not conceptualize the more powerful of these spirits as gods. The core of their practice is contacting these “traditional” spirits through practices that are accepted as equally “traditional,” so they tend to think of themselves as anti-eclectic; this often makes them come across as elitist and kind of douchey, which they -- aren’t necessarily, but can be for sure. They tend to be secretive, partially in opposition to what they see as a watering-down of these traditional practices, but also because the tradition itself is localized and intimate -- you literally can’t practice with someone *else’s* land spirits, fae, and ancestors, so groups and families tend to teach a small set of core practices, then kind of develop independently from each other. They often favor incorporating ethnic and regional traditions, including some forms of folk Christianity, such as saint veneration, including angelic and demonic powers in their spirit families, and often share a self-mythology that derives from canonical and non-canonical Biblical stories about the nephilim and antediluvian priesthoods. Because they quite literally draw their legitimacy from Blood and Soil (or at least the spiritual resonances involved with bloodlines and places), they can vibe a little fashy; though they’re mostly not fascists, this type of witchcraft obviously does attract small-c conservatives with a jaundiced attitude toward the newfangled. At one point I would’ve said they were largely either apolitical/libertarian or center-right as a group, but a self-consciously leftist, largely anarcho-primitivist strain has emerged recently to shake things up a bit.

Group Three practice an explicitly religious neopagan form of initiatory witchcraft. They were, until recently, the most front-facing group to claim the label witch, so they have kind of set the terms of debate for decades; they are now outnumbered by Group One, and it’s causing Some Drama, but we’re all managing. They all kind of come out of the rootstock of Gardnerian witchcraft (with the possible exception of Anderson Feri-based traditions, which seem to have begun independent of Gardner’s work and then merged with it instead of starting with Gardner and diverging, cool, huh?), which was synthesized and systematized in the mid-20th century out of basically an ad hoc marriage between British folk magic a la Group Two and the Golden Dawn, which is its own long essay to explain, but basically think Freemasonry reskinned by the Romantic literary movement. By no means are all of Group Three directly descended from the Gardnerians, but they are all kind of working variations on a theme in terms of how that “marriage” of folk and ceremonial magic should interact -- they are neither folk magicians nor ceremonialists, but a thing unto themselves syncretized from both. Because this type of witchcraft was practiced extensively within the US counterculture during the 60s, 70s, and 80s, it has absorbed feminist, environmentalist, antiwar, and civil libertarian values, although the idea of explicitly wedding witchcraft and political action remains a more divisive idea here than it is among Group One, having passionate advocates both for and against. This group is very comfortable talking about (and to!) deities, and the most likely to think of witchcraft as their religion, including devotion and service to the gods within their practice, although the theological variations are wide in terms of what exactly they think a deity *is.* When I say they are “initiatory,” I mean in the broadest sense; some strands of this group do still believe that being a witch requires a teacher who then ritually initiates you, but the more liberalized view has become the norm, which is that a self-performed initiation ritual is legitimate. Still, most of Group Three makes some sort of distinction between the non-initiated practitioner and someone who is A Witch by virtue of having been transformed on a karmic and spiritual level through the power of the gods. It’s common, though not universal, for this group to take a rather Protestant view of initiation, where it is synonymous with an elevation to the priesthood; witchcraft is understood to be a religion of clergy, where initiating makes you a priest/ess and entails some form of service to deity and/or community.

These are semi-porous categories -- I’m a Group Three witch, but it’s perfectly easy for me to communicate with Groups One and Two, and in fact I’ve learned a lot from them over the years -- and some people have an equivalent foot in two different camps (I find it hard to imagine being evenly balanced between all three, but never say never?) However, there’s a real fundamental difference between what these three groups think witchcraft is for and what it takes to claim the title. I’m the hippie-dippy what’s-your-pronoun type, so I have no desire to invalidate any of these groups; their definitions vary, but I don’t see why that means any of them are more correct than the others, words are great, they mean all sorts of things. I think we’d fight a lot less if we recognized that we aren’t using words the same way And That’s Okay, but that’s just my Gemini moon talking.

#i don't even know why i wrote this #sir this is a fandom blog?#anyway its raining out and i miss my coven

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loretranscripts · 5 years

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Lore Episode 3: The Beast Within (Transcript) - 6th April 2015

tw: murder, rape, death of children, bodily mutilation, cannibalism, graphic descriptions of violence, ableist language, disease, werewolves

Disclaimer: This transcript is entirely non-profit and fan-made. All credit for this content goes to Aaron Mahnke, creator of Lore podcast. It is by a fan, for fans, and meant to make the content of the podcast more accessible to all. Also, there may be mistakes, despite rigorous re-reading on my part. Feel free to point them out, but please be nice!

Ask anyone in the mental health profession about full moons and you’ll get a surprising answer. They’ll respond with something that sounds incredibly like folklore and myth. The full moon has the power to bring out the crazy in people. We’ve believed this for a long time. We refer to unstable people as “lunatics”, a word that is Latin. It’s built from the root word luna, which means “moon”. And for centuries, has operated under the conviction that changes in the luna cycle can cause people to lose touch with reality. Just ask the parents of a young child and they’ll tell you tales of wild behaviour and out-of-the-ordinary disobedience at certain times of the month. Science tells us that just as the moon’s pull on the ocean creates tides that rise and fall in severity, so too does our planet’s first satellite tug on the water inside our bodies, changing our behaviour. As modern people, when we talk about the full moon we tend to joke about this insane, extraordinary behaviour. But maybe we joke to avoid the deeper truth, an idea that we are both frightened and embarrassed that we even entertain. For most of us, you see, the full moon conjures up an image that is altogether unnatural and unbelievable. That large, glowing, perfect circle in the night sky makes us think of just one thing: werewolves. I’m Aaron Mahnke, and this is Lore.

Science has tried many times over the years to explain our obsession with the werewolf. One theory is a disease known as hypertrichosis, sometimes known as “wolfitis”. It’s a condition of excessive, unusual body hair growth, oftentimes covering the person’s entire face. Think Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf. Psychologists actually have an official diagnosis in the DSM IV handbook known as “clinical lycanthropy”. It’s defined as a delusional syndrome where the patient believes they can transform into an animal, but the changes only take place in their mind, of course. Delusions, though, have to start somewhere. Patients who believe that they are Napoleon Bonaparte have some previous knowledge of who he was. I think it’s fair to assume that those who suffer from clinical lycanthropy have heard of werewolves before. It’s actually pretty easy to bump into the myth, thanks to modern popular culture. Werewolves have been featured in, or at least appeared in, close to 100 films in Hollywood since 1913.

One of the earliest mentions of something even resembling the modern werewolf can actually be found in the 2000-year-old writings of the Roman poet Vergil. In his Eclogue 9, written about 40BCE, he described a man named Moeris, who could transform himself into a wolf using herbs and poisons. About 50 years later, Gaius Petronius wrote a satirical novel called, appropriately, Satyricon, which I think is basically the equivalent of Stephen King writing a horror novel called “Frighticon”. In it, he tells the tale of a man named Niceros. In the story, Niceros was travelling with a friend, and when that friend suddenly took off his clothes, urinated in a circle and transformed into a wolf right before his eyes, before running off toward a large field of sheep. The next day, Niceros was told by the sheep-owner that one of the shepherds stabbed a wolf in the neck with a pitch fork. Later that day, Niceros noticed that his friend, now returned to the house, had a similar wound on his neck.

In the Greek myth of the god Zeus and an Arcadian king named Lycaon, Zeus took on the form of a human traveller. At one point in his journey he visited Arcadia, and during his time in that country, he visited the royal court. The king of the land, Lycaon, somehow recognised Zeus for who he truly was and tried, in true Greek form, of course, to kill him by serving him a meal of human flesh. But Zeus was a smart guy, after all, and he caught Lycaon in the act, throwing the mythological equivalent of a temper tantrum. He destroyed the palace, killed all 50 of the king’s sons with lightning bolts, and then of course cursed King Lycaon himself. The punishment? Lycaon would be doomed to spend the rest of his life as a wolf, presumably because wolves were known for attacking and eating humans, and he tried to serve human flesh. Most scholars believe that this legend is what gives birth to the term lycanthropy: lukos being the Greek word for wolf, and anthropos, the word for man.

Werewolves aren’t just a Greco-Roman thing. In the 13th century, the Norse recorded their mythological origins in something called the Völsunga saga. Despite their culture being separated from the Greeks by thousands of miles and many centuries, there are in fact tales of werewolves present in their histories. One of the stories in the Völsunga saga involves a father and son pair: Sigmund and Sinfjotli. During their travels, the two men came across a hut in the woods where they found two enchanted wolf skins. These skins had the power to change the wearer into a wolf, giving them all the characteristics that the beast was known for: power, speed, and cunning. The catch, according to the saga, was that once put on, the wolf pelt could only be taken off every 10 days. Undeterred, the father son duo each put on one of the wolf skins, and transform into the beasts. They decided to split up and go hunting in their new forms, but they made an arrangement that if either of them encountered a party of men over the certain size of seven, then they were supposed to howl for the other to come join them in the hunt. Sigmund’s son, however, broke his promise, killing off a hunting party of 11 men. When Sigmund discovered this, he fatally injured his son. After the god Odin intervened and healed him, both men took off the pelts and burned them. You see, from the very beginning, werewolves were a supernatural thing, a curse, a change in the very nature of humanity. They were ruled by cycles of time and feared by those around them.

Things get interesting when we go to Germany. In 1582, the country of Germany was being pulled apart by a war between Catholics and Protestants, and one of the towns that played host to both sides was the small town of Bedburg. Keep in mind that there were also still outbreaks of the Black Death, so this was an age of conflict and violence. People understood loss – they had become numb to it, and it would take something incredibly extraordinary to surprise them. First, there were cattle mutilations: farmers from the area surrounding Bedburg would find dead cattle in their fields. It started of infrequent, but grew to become a daily occurrence, something that went on for weeks. Cows that had been sent out to pasture were found torn apart. It was as if a wild animal had attacked them. Naturally, the farmers assumed it was wolves, but it didn’t stop there. Children began to go missing. Young women vanished from the main roads around Bedburg. In some cases their bodies were never found, but those that were had been mauled by something horribly violent. Finding your cattle disembowelled is one thing, but when it’s your daughter or your wife, well, it can cause panic, and fear, and so the community spiralled into hysteria.

Now, we think of historical European paranoia and we often think of witchcraft. The 15th and 16th centuries were filled with witch hunts: burnings, hangings, and an overwhelming hysteria that even spread across the Atlantic to the British colonies, where it destroyed more lives. The Witch Trails of Salem, Massachusetts are the most famous of those examples, but at the same time, Europe was also on fire with fear of werewolves. Some historians think that in France alone, some 30,000 people were accused of being werewolves, and some (hundreds, they say) were even executed for it, either by hanging or being burnt at the stake. You see, the fear of werewolves was real, and for the town of Bedburg, it was very real.

One report from this event tells of two men and a woman, who were travelling just outside the city walls. They heard a voice call out to them for help from within the trees beside the road, and one of the men stepped into the trees to give assistance. When he didn’t return, the second man entered the woods to find him, and he also didn’t return. The woman caught on, attempted to run, but something exited the woods and attacked her. The bodies of the men were later found, mangled and torn apart, but the woman’s never was. Later, villagers found severed limbs in the fields near Bedburg, limbs from the people who were missing. It was clear that something horrible was hunting them.

Another report tells of a group of children playing in a field near the cattle. As they played, something ran into the field and grabbed a small girl by the neck before trying to tear her throat out. Thankfully the high collar on her dress actually saved her life, and she managed to scream. Now, cows don’t like screaming apparently, and they began to stampede. Frightened by the cattle, the attacker let go of the girl and ran for the forest, and this was the last straw for the people of Bedburg. They took the hunt to the beast.

According to a pamphlet from 1589, the men of the town hunted for the creature for days. Accompanied by dogs and armed for killing, these brave men ventured into the forest and, finally, found it. In the end, it was the dogs that cornered the beast. Dogs are fast and they beat the men to their prey. When the hunters finally did arrive, they found the creature cornered. According to the pamphlet, the wolf transformed into a man right before their eyes. While the wolf had been just another beast, the man was someone they recognised. It was a wealthy, well-respected farmer from town named Peter Stubbe, sometimes recorded as Stumpp. Stubbe confessed to it all, and his story seemed to confirm their darkest fears. He told them that he had made a pact with the devil at the age of 12. The deal? In exchange for his soul, the devil would give him a plethora of worldly pleasures, but like most stories, a greedy heart is difficult to satisfy. Stubbe admitted to being a, and I quote, “wicked fiend, with the desire for wrong and destruction”, that he was “inclined to blood and cruelty”. Now, to sate that thirst, the devil had given him a magical belt of wolf skin. Putting it on, he claimed, would transform him into the monstrous shape of a wolf. Sound familiar?

He told the men that had captured him that he had taken off the belt in the forest, and some were sent back to retrieve it, but it was never found. Still, superstition and fear drove them to torture and interrogate the man, who confessed to decades of horrible, unspeakable crimes. Well-known around the town, Stubbe told his captors that he would often walk through Bedburg and wave to the families and friends of those he had killed. It delighted him, he said, that none of them suspected that he was the killer. Sometimes he would use these walks to pick out future victims, planning how he would get them outside the city walls, where he could, and I quote, “ravish and cruelly murder them”. Stubbe even admitted to going on killing sprees simply because he took pleasure in the bloodshed. He would kill lambs and goats and eat their raw flesh. He even claimed to have eaten unborn children, ripped straight from their mothers’ wombs.

The human mind is always solving problems, even when we’re asleep and unaware of it. The world is full of things that don’t always sit right with us, and in our attempt to deal with life we… rationalise. In more superstitious times it was easy to lean on old fears and legends. The Tuberculosis outbreaks of the 1800s led people to truly believe that the dead were sucking the life out of the living. The stories that gave birth to the vampire mythology also provided people with a way to process Tuberculosis and its horrible symptoms. Perhaps the story of the werewolf shows us that same phenomenon, but in reverse. Rather than creating stories to explain the mysteries of death, perhaps we created the story of the werewolf to help justify the horrors of life and human nature. The tale of Peter Stubbe sounds terrible, but when you hold it up to modern day serial killers, such as Jeffery Dahmer or Richard Trenton Chase, it’s par for the course. The difference between them and Stubbe is simply 400 years of modernisation. With the advent of electrical lights pushing away the darkness and global exploration exposing much of the world’s fears to be just myth, it’s become more and more difficult to blame our flaws on monsters. The beast, it turns out, has been inside us the whole time.

And Peter Stubbe? Well, the people of Bedburg executed him for his crimes. On October 31st, 1589, (Halloween, mind you) he was given what was thought to be a fair and just punishment. He was strapped, spread eagle and naked, to a large, wooden wheel, and then his skin was pealed off with red hot pinchers. They broke his arms and legs with the blunt end of an axe before finally turning the blade over, and chopping off his head. His body was burnt at the stake in front of the entire town, and then his torture wheel was mounted on a tall pole, topped with the statue of a wolf. On top of that, they placed his severed head. Justice, or just one more example of the cruelty of mankind? Perhaps in the end, we’re all really monsters, aren’t we?

Lore was produced by me, Aaron Mahnke. You can find a transcript of the show, as well as links to source material, at lorepodcast.com. Lore is a bi-weekly podcast, so be sure to check back in for a new episode every two weeks. And if you enjoy scary stories, I happen to write them. You can find a full list of my supernatural thrillers, available in paperback and ebook format, at aaronmahnke.com/novels. Thanks for listening.

#lore podcast #podcasts #aaron mahnke #werewolves #peter stubbe #germany #peter stumpp #vergil #eclogues #serial killer #folklore #transcripts #3

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noahy56-blog · 5 years

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Cannabis Cannabis

Undressing Cannabis

The list of schedule 1 drugs according to the United States Drug Enforcement Agency goes as follows: “Heroin, LSD, Marijuana, Mescaline, MDMA, GHB, Ecstacy, Psilocybin, Synthetic Marijuana, Quaalude, Khat, and Bath Salts”(Anderson). The average person might not recognize all the drugs mentioned prior, but this list contains some of the most powerful and dangerous drugs that circulate around the United States and most of the international community. However, there is one drug mentioned in this list that seems to be approaching legalization in the United States, and that would be Marijuana, also known as: Weed, Pot, Cannabis, Bud, Herb, and Greens. There seem to be many people who disagree with weed becoming legal, but there are also lots of people who seem to be pro-cannabis legalization. If you wanted specifics on that last statement, “About six-in-ten Americans (62%) say the use of marijuana should be legalized”(Hartig/Geiger). This may be a startling statement to some people in America, but it seems like it might just be a sign that the times are changing. There are many reasons for Marijuana to be legalized here in the United States, and some of those reasons are the therapeutic benefits that it possesses, it is a healthier alternative to cigarettes, and legalization would free up room in the already crowded prison system.

Studies have shown that marijuana has many therapeutic qualities to it that can be used as a safer alternative to many drugs that are prescribed to the American public. The pharmaceutical industry deals out many drugs out to the public for symptoms that can similarly be treated by marijuana. Opioids are a prime example in this case, and now is a time in which the opioid epidemic in the United States has been as concerning as ever. It is reported that “ more than 130 people in the United States die after overdosing on opioids”(National Institute on Drug Abuse). While weed is a drug that has zero reported overdoses. It seems to be kind’ve shell-shocking that a high percentage of these opioid overdoses is from drugs prescribed by the pharmaceutical industry. Then to pair this thought with the idea that marijuana can relieve many of the same pains that pain killers are prescribed to cure, becomes even more head scratching. Marijuana has been proven to “relieve certain types of chronic pain, including neuropathic pain”(Jacques). There also seems to be a misunderstanding with the relationship between cancer patients and medical marijuana. Many people argue that marijuana doesn’t kill cancer cells, therefore there’s no reason to prescribe marijuana to cancer patients. However there is plenty of reason to prescribe cannabis to sick patients, for example:“The most studied and established roles for cannabinoid therapies include pain, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and anorexia”(Maida/Daeninck). Once people begin to realize and understand the therapeutic benefits to marijuana, the conversation surrounding the debate seems to become more agreeable for those who are not in favor of marijuana legalization.

Although there are non-smoking options for marijuana intake, including medicinal beverages and edibles, people still feel the need to be against marijuana because of the smoking aspect of it. This thought seems to be pretty far fetched when you bring in cigarettes into the equation. Cigarette smokers are reported to be “12 to 13 times more likely to die from COPD”(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Cigarettes are very much legal, while “Studies show that smoking marijuana alone (without the concurrent use of tobacco) does not increase the risk of lung diseases.”(Morrow). Not only is marijuana a drastically safer smoke than cigarettes, it is also not considered to be anywhere near as addictive as nicotine, which is a major chemical component in cigarettes.

There have been many benefits to marijuana that have been mentioned prior, which brings up a whole other side to this issue. The prison system in the United States is the global leader in number of prisoners. The United States might have a loose budget for building for new prisons, but “2.3 million prisoners(3)”(Valletta) will cause a lot of congestion in any prison system. That number and statistic really stands out in my head. These 2.3 million prisoners spread across 1,719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 901 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,163 local jails, as well as military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centres and prisons in the US territories”(Valetta). If our prisons are so crowded to the point that we have more prisoners than any other country, and it takes “$80 billion per year” to keep them functioning, this seems to be valid reason to make attempts to look at ways to minimize prison sentences and arrests. One way to do so would be by decriminalizing marijuana, there were “659,700”(Drug Policy Alliance) reported arrests made in 2017 for marijuana law violation. In a way it’s ironic that we consider our country to be the land of the free, when in reality we lead the world in the number of inmates in prison. The decriminalization of marijuana may be a step in the right direction for the United States and what we claim to stand for.

All the chatter of marijuana legalization seems to be a sign of the times in many respects. It seems like the conservative generations of American past have been starting to get quieted down by the younger generation’s change in thought and perspective. This change of thought comes as no surprise due to certain issues that are deep in the heart of this point in time in America. Roughly “100,000”(National Institute on Drug Abuse) people died due to overdose in 2017. Which is higher than in any other year in recent memory. To jog one’s memory you can refer back to 1980, when the deaths caused by overdose was around “7,000 people”(Katz). This is a reason why the youth of today has been referred to as the injured generation. This issue may span farther than medical marijuana, but this doesn’t mean that legalization wouldn’t be a step in the right direction in order to bring more health and prosperity to this injured generation.

Sources:

Morrow, Angela. “The Debate Over the Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Use.” Verywell Health, Verywellhealth, www.verywellhealth.com/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-medical-marijuana-1132484.

Maida, V., and P.J. Daeninck. “A User's Guide to Cannabinoid Therapies in Oncology.” Current Oncology, www.current-oncology.com/index.php/oncology/article/view/3487.

“10 Staggering Statistics about the US Prison System.” SBS News, SBS News, 5 Dec. 2017, www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2017/12/06/10-staggering-statistics-about-us-prison-system.

National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Overdose Death Rates.” NIDA, 29 Jan. 2019, www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates.

Katz, Josh. “Drug Deaths in America Are Rising Faster Than Ever.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 June 2017, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/05/upshot/opioid-epidemic-drug-overdose-deaths-are-rising-faster-than-ever.html.

“List of Schedule 1 Drugs.” Drugs.com, Drugs.com, www.drugs.com/article/csa-schedule-1.html.

Hartig, Hannah, et al. “62% Of Americans Favor Legalizing Marijuana.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 8 Oct. 2018, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/08/americans-support-marijuana-legalization/.

National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Opioid Overdose Crisis.” NIDA, 22 Jan. 2019, www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis.

“Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking | CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/index.htm.

“Drug War Statistics.” Drug Policy Alliance, www.drugpolicy.org/issues/drug-war-statistics.

“Nipping It in the Bud: Toronto's Len Wong, Others Comment on Shortage of Medical Cannabis.” My Live Post, 16 Nov. 2018, www.mylivepost.com/nipping-it-in-the-bud-torontos-len-wong-others-comment-on-shortage-of-medical-cannabis/.

“Growth of Medical Cannabis Market after Approvals and Clinical Trials.” European Pharmaceutical Review, www.europeanpharmaceuticalreview.com/news/80130/cannabis-market-growth/.

#cannabis

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dramallamadingdang · 6 years

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Question Meme: The Run-on Sentence Edition

Hi! I hurt myself again yesterday. No, not in an "self-harm" kind of way but more in the usual (for me) "mountain-climbing incident" sort of way (I hate scree; I was so close to that summit) and got lots of deep bruises and lacerations for my troubles and was in a world of hurt by the time I saw a doctor, and I cracked something that isn't supposed to be cracked and it all hurts enough that I got prescribed narcotics again for a week and I really, really hate narcotics but I really, really like to be able to breathe without feeling like my lungs are being ripped to shreds, so...narcotics it is.

It might make the answers to this latest iteration of Ye Olde Question Meme rather entertaining, though. Maybe. Maybe just incoherent. Well, whatever, @nekosayuri tagged me, so it's her fault, and I'm bored and my sleep schedule's all outta whack and I haven't even turned on my Simming computer in like three days and am posting this from a non-Simming laptop, so I have nothing else to post and....yeah. So, I'm like high as a kite right now. I mean, it's not totally unusual because I live in Colorado and weed's legal here, but narcotics is a totally different and much less coherent high for me. So, like, fair warning.

I'm not tagging anyone, though. I've no idea who's done this lately...

Name: Katrina

Zodiac Sign: I don't know why I answer this because astrology is a huge crock of BS, but everyone always wants to know so...Taurus. Barely. (Birthday is April 23.)

Height: Still ~6'0"/~182cm. Yay, not shrinking yet!

Languages Spoken: Fluently? At this point, only English. I used to be pretty fluent in Italian and German, but, you know, the saying "use it or lose it" applies, and since I've not had occasion to use those languages much....Well, there we are. I could speak quite a bit of Russian at one time because I spent a chunk of years there, in the late 80s when it was the Soviet Union and shortly thereafter when things were sorta nuts there. But, again, I have lost much of what I once knew. And there are smatterings of other languages that I can speak mostly-useless bits of. I can ask where the restroom is in many languages because I've traveled a lot. :) I do speak fluent bullshit, though...

Nationality: 'Murican. And since 'Muricans are really, really into their "ancestry" for some bizarre-o reason because ‘Murican apparently isn’t good enough...Like, 95% dirty Welsh peasantry (plus some Irish and Scottish thrown in for flavor) on the paternal side and on the maternal side....Well, one of my great-grandfathers was a first cousin of the English Queen Victoria. So basically, my maternal ancestry is the very confused inbred multinational mutt that is European Aristocracy. God only knows what’s in their genes, though my particular bit of it has lots o’ German.

Favorite Fruit: Okra. It is a fruit. Look it up. Then again, much of what people call "vegetables" is, in fact, fruits, so there's that.

Favorite Scent: I've never really thought about this except when this was a question on a previous iteration of this meme that I did, and I don't remember what answer I came up with then. So I'm just gonna say...Vanilla-scented candles. Not cheap ones that just smell sickly-sweet sort-of-vanilla-y, but these ones that I buy online that smell...well...NOT sickly-sweet and like how vanilla really smells. Alternatively...snickerdoodles when they're baking. Hubby is baking me some snickerdoodles as I speak. Type. Whatever. The house smells really good. Baking bread is good, too. Before the snickerdoodles, hubby was baking the twice-weekly loaf of sourdough.

Favorite Color: Green. And/or orange. I go back and forth about which is really my favorite.

Favorite Animal: Elephants. Or hyenas. Or cats of all shapes/sizes. Or alpacas. Or llamas. Or snakes. Or spiders of all kinds. Or dragonflies. Or...Um, yeah, I'm pretty much a fan of all vertebrates and terrestrial invertebrates and some aquatic/oceanic invertebrates, too, so...take your pick.

Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate all the way. I don't drink coffee because A) I think it tastes and smells disgusting, but even if that wasn't the case B) I can't have caffeine. Tea is OK. Hubby's way into herbal tea, grows/collects and dries herbs and makes his own blends and shit, and I'll drink it mostly to make him happy, but I'm not into it. I do like hot chocolate, though it's hard to find premade mixes that don’t have powdered milk in them (because I’m vegan), so I generally have to make it from scratch, so to speak, and when I do I use cashew milk as the base and I usually add either peppermint or vanilla extract for zing.

Favorite Fictional Character: Can't really pick a fave. So, have a list, probably but perhaps not really in preference order. Spock from Star Trek, who's been a fave of mine since I was 3 and was watching the original Trek in its initial run, and I announced I'd marry Spock one day. Rodney McKay from Stargate: Atlantis and Vala Mal Doran from Stargate SG-1. (Basically, if you cut up those two and glue various bits of their characters together -- and not necessarily their good bits -- you have...me. So I relate really well to both of them, so I like 'em.) Also Jack O'Neill from Stargate SG-1, but he's mostly for reasons of estrogen. (Especially if you stick 'im in dress blues. HUBBA!) Garak from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine because Cardassians Are Love. Jayne from Firefly, also for reasons of estrogen. Big, hairy, dark hair, blue eyes, solid but not too muscle-y...Yep, that's how I likes my men. And Zoe from Firefly, 'cuz OMG she's how I likes my women. HUBBA!

Dream Trip: *sigh* Still Antarctica. It's the only continent I've not been to, and I will get there before I croak, but...not yet.

When was your blog created? IIRC, it was, like, the middle of December 2013. So, I'll have had this thing 5 years soon.

Last Movie You’ve Seen: I couldn't sleep one day like a week ago, so I put on Miss Congeniality, which is one of my favorite movies because Michael Caine. When I can't sleep, I'll usually put on a really familiar movie or TV show and it lulls me to sleep, but it didn't work that time. :(

Song You’ve Had on Repeat: Englishman in New York, by Sting. I have no idea why, but it's been on repeat in my head, though I haven't actually played it lately or anything.

Favorite Candy: Not much of a sweets kind of person. I prefer salty-crunchy. I can eat a whole big bag of crisps (Like, the British ones, which are way better than American potato chips, but American ones will do) easily, but I can't even get through a whole candy bar because, ew, too sweet. That said, I do like Flake bars, but I have to go up to Canada to get 'em. Or else buy 'em online but then usually by the time I get them they're kinda smashed. Or melted. Or both. Better to go up to Canada. Where they have real chocolate and not this sickly-sweet Hershey's crap. *shudder*

Favorite Holiday: When in Canada, Canada Day is quite fun. It's like July 4th only not so...well...chest-beatingly, yahoo-y, "patriotic" 'Murican. (I really, really dislike nationalism and "patriotism" in general but especially the obnoxious 'Murican brand of it.) When in the UK, I have a fondness for Guy Fawkes Night. I guess I like fire and fireworks and things that go boom and shit, only without the "YAY AMERICA!" yelling of America's own "things that go boom" holiday. Other than that...Can't really say I'm into 'em much. They're not even "days off from work" since...Well, I've never had a "real job," and I'm pretty much retired from my unreal job these days.

Last Book You’ve Read: *cough* Does a really long and smutty and slashy Stargate: Atlantis fanfic count? I'm sad to say that, though I was a voracious reader of books when I was younger, I'm really not so much these days. Haven't been for the last decade or so, really. Not of actual books, at least. I do subscribe to and read a number of academic journals, some having to do with science and medicine and some having to do with history, but they're not books.

Favorite TV Show: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, mostly because it has Cardassians, who are all uniformly awesome, plus all the gritty political and religious goodness and stuff. Except that its last season kinda sucked and did totally WTF things with my second-favorite Cardassian. Close runner-up would be Stargate: Atlantis. Except that its last kinda season sucked, too, and did totally WTF things with McKay, so hmmm. Stargate SG-1 is good, too, except that half its team annoys the piss outta me...although this is largely made up for by the hotness that is Jack O'Neill so there's that. I like Firefly a lot but it was so short-lived that it's hard to really be a favorite because I can watch the whole thing, including the movie, in less than a day. (And believe me. I have.) I like the other Star Treks, too, especially if I'm in the mood for the "goofy soap opera in space" that is Voyager. TNG's shiny-happy Roddenberryness kinda bores the piss outta me, though it does have a few really good episodes, and the original show...Hmmm...Well, I both love and hate it. I love Spock, as I said, and I also love McCoy and all of its secondary characters. The problem is that I hate Kirk. Like, viscerally hate him. Like, I want to punch his face in every time it's on-screen. If he'd just, y'know, been eaten by a salt vampire and Spock and everyone else was OK and went off and had cool space adventures battling giant space-going amoebas and shit, I'd be totally happy and that's what fanfic's for *cough*, but since Kirk doesn't get eaten by a salt vampire...well...

Who’d You Most Like to Have Lunch With? @holleyberry :) Dude, we should totally hook up (No, not THAT way!) when I'm in SoCal next. Which won't be soon if I have my way, but when I am there....

#non sims #meme #question meme

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fetusdumpling-blog · 6 years

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But first, I would like you to answer an easy question.

So why do you would like a larger cock?

The main reason I asked you that's because nearly all males have truly absurd reasons why they would like a larger schlong.

Could it be since you think less manly?

Could it be since you are embarrassed getting naked in front of a female in fear that she may laugh at you?

Or is it since you think females only date males with cocks bigger than eight inches?

In reality virtually all females choose men with standard sized dicks.

A few are more extreme compared to others, while a few are more effective compared to others, therefore I am going to cover all of them below.

A good number of males nowadays are choosing penis enlargement surgery. Nevertheless, there are issues related to this particular route.

For starters, these methods haven't been found to be secure, and consequently, pose severe health problems. Secondly, they don't guarantee precise and immediate results as expected.

For instance, you can wind up with a lumpy lifeless dick, if the therapy does not react well together with your little fella.

A number of studies which have been conducted in the past few years regarding medical procedures and they are not encouraging either. The European Urology analysis examined forty two males that had treatments to lengthen the penises of theirs by taking out the suspensory ligament.

Out of the number, only twenty five % had been happy with the outcomes. Once again, over 50 % needed to go back for more surgery. Other than the connected risk, this particular situation shows how ineffective this process could be.

The best part is that there's a multitude of non-surgical penis enlargement methods that you might use, and reach your desired results.

Foremost and first, nutrition needs to be an important component of your penis enlargement plan. The same as every other part of the body of yours, such as the muscles, the manhood of yours too, requires particular nutrition to nourish it.

These specific foods are able to help you accomplish the extra length, girth, and then sizing you have been craving for.

Unlike otc drugs, penis enlargement food items are fairly less expensive, safe and healthy.

Naturally, nutrients could be consumed in many types, either through dietary supplements, teas, pills, herbs or as foods that are whole.

Nutrients regularly enhance penile growth by boosting vasodilation and blood circulation, triggering the development factor and also the stress hormones, boosting the testosterone levels of yours, repairing mental condition and also supporting the general health of yours.

Here is a handful of herbs which have been noted to help improve development and blood circulation to the penis:

Ginseng

Entengo herb

Catuaba bark extract

Deer antler

Ginkgo biloba

Hawthorn berry

Maca

Damiana

At this particular moment in time, you can find a lot of pills on the marketplace and you must actually do the research of yours before picking out the best one.

It's obvious you have to completely consider the organization in addition to its manufacturing processes before purchasing anything.

Regarding penis oils & lotions, these items have proved their effectiveness and efficiency, with the components directly absorbed into the bloodstream of yours, offering immediate results.

It's also important to be aware that the parts contained in male enhancement lotions, oils and gels are produced from organic ingredients and secure for the consumption of yours.

Nevertheless, you need to realize that what works for you personally might not do the job for somebody else person, mainly since the bodies of ours (and penises) respond differently.

VACUUM DEVICES

These specific devices function by producing a vacuum around the penis of yours.

Because of the suppleness of the tissues within the penile area, there's always room for development. This can lead to an amazing rise in both the length and the girth of the penis of yours, and you will really feel as difficult as a rock!

The sole downside is the results are not long lasting.

The concept behind vacuum products is, obviously, very similar to exercises. Both methods are centered on growing and extending the erectile tissue therefore the penis can normally accommodate more blood.

Despite the effectiveness of theirs, there will always be injury risks connected with the normal utilization of penis pumps. Why?

As an outcome, the penile tissues steadily starve of oxygen.

This might result in long term nerve as well as tissue damage, instead of the expected penile development. Once again, most males make the error of applying unnecessary pressure or maybe pump for lengthy periods to accelerate the benefits. This could likely lead to harm to the penile cells.

You will find a few of penis vacuum available that're FDA sanctioned medical devices. Actually, several professionals have touted them actually to treat instances of erectile dysfunction.

Generally, there's no concrete motive to disregard penis pumps as inadequate with regards to improving the penis size.

As reported by a few extensive scientific studies, the non invasive method, particularly the usage of penile traction products shows plenty of promise.

The concept about exactly how these units function is straightforward; they steadily extend your penis by way of applied stress. There are lots of physiological processes required, but, the foremost one will be the influence on the penile ligaments, discovered at the foundation of the manhood of yours.

These ligaments, referred to as fundiform and also suspensory, anchor the penis to the body of yours. Additionally, they create the penis to attach upwards on the pubic bone.

Although this information is encouraging, it's suggested that before choosing this particular therapy, one should always look for guidance from a specialised physician.

PENIS EXERCISES

When done properly, penile exercises are able to make sure some very amazing outcomes, regardless of the poor press workouts have.

These workouts are broadly divided into 2 groups, namely; Girth and Length exercises.

Once again, they tear on the penile muscle tissue fibers, and at sleep, these fibers will probably grow larger if not stronger. Lastly, exercise boosts the circulation into the penis, resulting in an increased size.

Measurements EXERCISES

There are several workouts, that will likely enable you to increase the length of the penis of yours. By probably, I suggest that although they've been verified to work in several instances, a great deal of males

Let us look at a number of them

ROTATIONAL STRETCH

Some males often over do it when yanking and pulling their plonker.

This's a great method for gaining length. It's crucial to be aware that before doing any penis enlargement workout, you should do a good warm up.

You are able to use a warm cloth or just perform this particular exercise straight from the shower. This's crucial since it will make the skin much more adaptable as well as boosts the blood circulation to the penile tissues.You'll need to stay within the below steps strictly:

Withdraw the foreskin of yours and hold the phallus of yours with an O' hold behind its mind firmly, almost one inch up and below.

In case you're holding with the left hand of yours, begin the circle of yours on the right and also continue clockwise.

If stretching downwards, make sure your hand is close to the body of yours. An individual rotation should last for 30 seconds.

You might switch your hands after finishing the rotation of yours as required.

Take time that is enough and go by way of a a cool down session also.

If any discomfort is experienced by you, you do not proceed with the physical exercise.

THE BACKWARD PULLER

This's one more workout, ideal for boosting the length of the penis of yours. Take a look at the process below:

As always, allocate adequate time just for the warm up session.

Let us look at the damp jelqing method.

Get a proper erection level.

Making use of the right hand, keep the foundation of the penis of yours between the list finger and the thumb of yours.

And so as to reduce unequal gains, set your grip closer to the pubic bone of yours.

Hold firmly and realise a pain-free trap of blood in the shaft of yours.

Gently slide the hand of yours up the glans, putting on plenty of pressure.

You need to stop sliding the hand of yours before it reaches the glans of yours since you will have accomplished one jelq.

While keeping your one hands below the glans, do the other hand to support the foundation of the penis of yours, with an A-OK' hold.

Launch the first hand that is holding right before the glans of yours.

Repeat the process until you get to the desired goal.

THE Main point here REGARDING NON SURGICAL TREATMENTS

In case you're searching for solutions to increase both the girth and the length of the manhood of yours, you've a lot of choices to select from.

The above described methods are already found to be helpful in a number of studies, and perhaps you will not fail giving any of them a shot. Nevertheless, you must always seek advice from a professional doctor before choosing a specific technique.

SURGICAL PENIS ENLARGEMENT TREATMENTS

Since that time, there have been huge improvements done in the area, however outcomes are relatively mixed.

If you're not familiar with this penis enlargement medical procedures, I am going to go through every option offered to you, which means you are able to see whether this path is best for you.

Oral treatments do not usually work for everybody. Nearly all males might be prescribed drugs that go directly, through injection, directly into the penis.

The injection is able to use using a single or maybe a blend of medications. It's essential to be aware that penis injections must just be administered by a skilled urologist.

Injection treatments usually involve the immediate injection of medicine to the foundation of the penis of yours, which refers to the component of the shaft furthest from top of your penis.

Apart from the potential side effects of the administered medication, there are also small side effects which could happen during penile injection. You can encounter mild bruising at the website of injection, penile discomfort and also possibly swelling (temporary lumps are) that is common, particularly if several of the medicine is discharged under the skin of yours.

The penis might be thickened and lengthened through extra fat transfer penis enlargement treatment. This kind of treatment is often known as fat grafting and also penile fat transfer. It requires 2 medical treatments, which you are able to finish in one hospital visit.

During the essential process, the weight is liposuctioned from the thighs of yours or maybe the abdomen. Afterward, similar fat is filtered, in an effort to isolate the cells along with other unwanted materials.

Since extra fat transfer cells come from the body of yours, the possible risks of allergic reactions are extremely minimal.

After the very first process, you are able to look to see a significant rise in penis girth. Obviously, the very first size is always increased through swelling, though gentle.

Perhaps one main drawback of this specific treatment is the fact that the believed survival rate of the body fat tissue transferred is a place around fifty % after several months.

Again, the following surgery for fat transfer is required to keep the desired outcomes. So it is not a permanent option as some people might make you think.

Penile surgery including the usage of grafts tremendously increases the girth or the circumference of the penis. Presently, there are 2 main procedures offered in the usage of grafts.

One) Dermal extra fat graft augmentation

This's a more sophisticated technique and that is extremely effective.

Since the grafted epidermis limits the underlying body fat layers from simply being reabsorbed, this particular strategy will cause far more steady and permanent results.

Nevertheless, the primary limitation of this method is the fact that significant incisions are usually made so as to get the grafts; every one aproximatelly 2 inches wide as well as an inch in length. Once again, it is difficult to determine just how these incisions heal.

Two) The Alloderm grafts

To be much more accurate, an Alloderm is usually a cadaver skin; skin from the dead people (yes, freaky I know), that's dealt with and freeze dried to clear away some diseases. Just love skin grafts, it's layered close to your penis to produce the desired girth.

The method results in significant and visible results, that is akin to the skin fat grafts, although, they include an additional advantage: The noticeable scarring is stayed away from. Nevertheless, the therapy is extremely pricey and some whacky.

A with everyman, component of the penis isn't visible and tends to lengthen inside the entire body. This hidden part is attached to the pubic bone with the so-called suspensory ligaments.

It's crucial to note the anticipated penile length is located in the wake on the penis being outside of the body of yours, particularly when in the flaccid status.

Nevertheless, you might stop this situation by implementing a penis extending machine. Again, cases of scarring are unavoidable, particularly in the spot addressed and also at the medical access points.

IMPORTANT: Based on the level of skill of the surgeon, the severity and the extent of the marks could be avoided. The other typical problem with penis lengthening will be the decrease in the penis perspective in an erection.

In reality, as additional ligaments are cut, the greater the penis will have a tendency to point on the floor during erection, an element which could allow it to be challenging keep your pecker up and also have sex properly.

PENILE IMPLANTS

In the recent past, the usage of penile implant products has received many worldwide recognition, not completely for the development of the penis of yours, but much more so a solution for erectile dysfunction.

With these sorts of implants, the penis is frequently semi rigid, thicker and longer as well as just requires being lifted into the erect place to begin intercourse.

The inflatable penile prosthesis includes 2 cylinders; a reservoir and a pump, which are put surgically in the body of yours. These plastic bottles are invest the penis of yours and linked by tubing to a standalone supply of fluid.

A pump likewise connects on the program and rests under the scrotal sac' epidermis, usually between the testicles of yours.

This means that in case you choose to eliminate them, you may never be in a position to have all natural erections once again that is pretty damn frightening.

THE Main point here REGARDING SURGICAL TREATMENTS

If the penis size of yours is an enormous concern, and really feel as you wish to improve its length and also the girth, you've a great deal of medical treatments to consider.

We've carefully describe every single process, and you are able to now choose wisely, dependent on the preference of yours, the effectiveness along with the associated risks associated with every process.

Most typical PENIS ENLARGEMENT ANSWERED

Indeed, you are able to enlarge the dimensions of your respective penis permanently. You will find numerous techniques to boost the length and both girth of the penis of yours, erection quality, and then libido.

Corpus covernosum is the component that really makes your penis more during an erection.

And so almost as it might be possible to completely improve the size of the penis of yours, some time is taken by it, patience and obviously the correct solutions. It is usually a lot easier to boost the quality of libido and erection than it's to completely increase penis size however.

What exactly are THE RISKS OF PENIS ENLARGEMENT SURGERY?

What's CONSIDERED An ordinary SIZED PENIS?

This's rather a standard worry a great deal of men have. Well, we have all heard the old saying that size does not matter; it is just how you utilize it and in a number of instances that is real.

Aside from individuals that are way below and above the regular penis size. However, what's the standard size?

The corresponding typical girth dimensions are 3.66 when flaccid as well as 4.59 when erect.

What's THE Best in MALE ENHANCEMENT METHOD?

Technology within the medical world is constantly progressing. Nowadays, you will find numerous methods that men are able to use to enhance the manhood of theirs.

Nevertheless, stay without the sensational devices and pills which may up the misery than pleasure to the sex life of yours.

DO PENIS ENLARGEMENT EXERCISES WORK?

But carrying out daily stretches using your weights or hand, stretches the tissue and also encourages new growth. Though it needs a good deal of dedication to accomplish any substantial increase in size.

There are some risks concerned though, these such as burst blood vessels, shredding of the cells, so on. This's whether you go insane with the workouts.

Your penis grows in girth and length during puberty. This's also time your body undergoes significant changes that change you starting from a boy to a male.

Puberty is at times that are different for everybody, but it usually falls between the ages of thirteen and eighteen.

Nope.

What is Probably THE SAFEST Method to ENLARGE MY PENIS?

Anything that does not require surgery will be considered the safest choice. In case you are consuming pills, and then as long as you are making sure they've secure ingredients then you ought to be good taking them.

It is suggested you speak with the doctor of yours before trying some sort of growth technique, be that non-surgical or surgical.

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heartandvineapothecary · 6 years

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Doll Magic

The uses of figurines in ritual and witchcraft

When I was about five years old, I remember going to my grandmother’s neighbor’s house, a woman who had immigrated from Poland. She invited me into her “play room”, a room at the back of the house where not too much sunlight could reach, which was floor to ceiling dolls. It was the room where her grand-daughter had died of aspiration during an asthma attack. In that room I could feel an extreme loneliness, one that I have come to understand was mitigated by the presence of those dolls, who acted as stand ins for a child lost too soon and as an offering to soothe the heart of a grieving grandmother. There is a power in dolls that cultures around the world have tapped into, one that links them to our deepest emotions, our joys, sorrows, and fears and allows them to represent the things that evoke those emotions. As a witch, emotions are incredibly important to my craft and I have come to think of dolls as a key element to my magical toolbox for their ability to stand in for other things.

According to Freud it’s this uncomfortable ability to stand in for something that makes dolls so familiar-yet-horrifying, a sensation he called the uncanny. According to him the uncanny is a sensation which arises from the doubt ‘whether an apparently animate being is really alive; or, conversely, whether a lifeless object might be in fact animate’. Dolls, mannequins, and automata are particularly adept at evoking the uncanny because of their physical closeness to the human form and the closer they get to perfect realism the uncannier we feel, a relationship identified in 1970 by robotics professor Masahiro Mori in his paper “Bukimi no Tani” (The Uncanny Valley).

The majority of witches are animists and The Uncanny Valley is not a place of fear for us. The dissonance uncanniness causes in the minds of some people does not affect us so completely because we believe that inanimate things, like rocks, cars, and dolls, already have sentience. Sarah Anne Lawless, an herbalist and Traditional Witch in Ontario, in her article Everything You Need to Know About Animism, says, “Animism is the belief that everything has a spirit and a consciousness, a soul, from the tiniest microorganism on earth to the great planets in the heavens to the whole of the universe itself. Animistic faiths usually contain a belief in rebirth & reincarnation either as another human, or an animal, tree, or star.” The very fact of a thing’s existence is enough to credit it with the breath of life, and dolls, because they look like humans, have been the focus of magical practices meant to contact ancestors, enshrine spirits, and even control the dead. They have been a long-standing staple of animistic practices, with the earliest figurines dating back at least 40,000 years, carved from mammoth ivory by our Cro-Magnon ancestors, most likely for ritual and sacred purpose. The earliest documented dolls meant for play, however, only date back to Rome in about 300 BC.

Allow me to clarify that by “dolls” I mean any humanoid figurine, from roughly carved figures of wood or bone to the hyper-realistic “reborns dolls” which are in vogue these days. They are found the world over, across millennia, and no matter where or when they are from they have fulfilled these two basic functions: being equipment and being playthings.

When we use the word equipment it is in the sense that Heidegger used it, namely an object in the world with which work is done within a context, something that exists as part of an existing network of meaning (i.e. a hammer, nails, and wood are equipment in the network of building). Dolls are used in ritual and ceremony, as part of spell work, or as stand ins for other beings and exist in witchcraft as part of a basis of ritual and practice, not really on their own. When I say plaything, I mean an object in the world that acts as a locus for imaginative activity, something that engages the mind without having to be part of a larger, pre-existing network or can have a network, either permanent or temporary, built around it by the activity of the imagination. According to the theologian Henry Corbin, the imagination is the faculty which allows us to interact with Creation; the very essence of witchcraft. Dolls often fulfill both roles at once, something that is essential within the context of a spell or a make-believe world, but also acts as a locus for our visualizations, helping us to gain access to the imaginal realm.

As witches, the imaginal realm is incredibly important to us. It is the place where our magic happens before effecting the physical world. Corbin said it is a subtle world that exists between matter and mind inhabited by beings called interior (imaginal) figures, parts of our unconscious that are also autonomous. In his article titled “Thoughtforms, Tulpas, and Egregores”, Gary Duncan describes four types of thoughtform (which are types of imaginal figures). First are thoughtforms that take on the image of the thinker, the second are those that take on the image of a material object, the third are thoughtforms with life of their own that can express themselves in the physical world (called a tulpa, a term taken from the Bon religion), and the fourth being a fully autonomous thoughtform created by a group mind, called an egregore. Though there are many other beings and non-beings in the imaginal realm, these four are figures dependent on the human mind that can be transferred into a non-living body, thus giving the body life. This is what I call a golem, a doll (preferably porcelain) to which an imaginal figure created through ritual and meditation is bound (a tulpa created by the focused will and intent of the witch, though egregores can also be bound this way).

The golem itself is a creature out of Jewish mythology, a creature made of clay or mud and brought to life in a variety of ways. Sometimes, as with the Golem of Chelm, it is marked with the word “emet”, or “truth” to instill it with life and when the golem needs deactivation the letter aleph is erased from the word, forming the word “met”, which translates as “dead”, turning the creature to dust. Another version of the process relies on an ecstatic experience derived from meditation on and intoning various iterations of shem (any of the Names of God), writing the Name on paper and inserting it in the mouth or inscribing it on the forehead of the golem. The most famous golem is the Golem of Prague, said to have been created by the Maharal, a Rabbi named Yehudah Loew ben Bezalal. He brought the creature to life to defend the Jewish ghetto in Prague from anti-semitic attacks and pogroms. The golem was named Josef (Yosele) and was said to be able to become invisible at will, to see and summon spirits, and to perform any action it was commanded to “up to 10 cubits (15 ft.) below the earth and 10 above”. The usual version of the story ends by saying that the golem went mad and Rabbi Loew had to dismantle it by erasing the shem from its body.

Think of the golem like a helper, something created and brought to life through ritual practice for a specific purpose, such as to protect homes and communities, or to do various jobs for a witch/magician. It differs from its close cousin, the spirit doll, which are more a house, or vessel, for a spirit, power, or other pre-existing imaginal figure to help it manifest on this plane of existence, especially ancestral spirits and powerful, spiritual beings.

An example of spirit dolls are found in Congo, where doll making is a central part of the peoples’ belief structure and are vessels of sacred medicine (nkisi), which is translated as “a spirit”. A nkisi (pl. minkisi) is a receptacle for sacred items which are enlivened by a spirit, or supernatural force, which is then present in the physical world, inhabiting the vessel like a body. These vessels can range from clay pots to bundles of herbs and relics, not only carved figures. They can have both positive and negative effects on the community, though there is a version, a nkisi nkondi (hunter spirit), which is a type of protector and mediator. Their most striking feature is the nails, pegs, and blades that are inserted into the figure by an nganga (spiritual specialist or medicine person) as signs that an oath has been taken, a punishment must be meted out, to carry curses against enemies (or “witchcraft”), among other things. If someone breaks an oath, or someone connected to one of the insertions befalls some tragedy, the nkondi is activated. Europeans were introduced to these items during the 15th century and termed them “fetishes”, which has come to describe any artifact with spiritual significance in any culture that is not European, making it, in my opinion, a racist and outdated term.

Other examples can be found in Thailand in Luk Thep, Mae Hong Prai, and Kuman Thong dolls. Kuman Thong translates as “sacred golden boy” and, in the most ancient sense, were created from the mummified bodies of stillborn fetuses which were covered in laquer and gold leaf and rubbed with an oil made from the flesh of a woman who died in childbirth. The soul that had been meant to inhabit the body was magically tied to the corpse, then adopted as a child of the sorcerer. Hong Prai is the term used when the fetus is female. In modern use the Mae Hong Prai is an amulet with the image of a female skeleton and linked to a female ghost, especially those of women who died tragically. They are said to being luck and good fortune, if you take care of them and treat them with reverence. Luk Thep (child angel) dolls are the modern equivalent of the original, necromantic dolls and are usually plastic baby dolls made to look extremely realistic. The soul of a lost child is asked to inhabit the doll after being blessed by a monk, then taken care of as if it were a living child, being fed, having its own wardrobe, and even getting its own seat on planes and, like the Hong Prai, bestow good fortune on their “parents” in return.

Different from golems and spirit dolls are one of the most famous of the magical dolls, the voodoo. Its name is a misnomer, though, as the use of dolls into which pins are stuck is not a large part (if a part at all) of the Voudou religion of Haiti but is an aspect of folk practices and sympathetic magic around the world, such as poppets and kollosoi (the Greek version of “punishment dolls”). They are images of a person upon which the practitioner may work magic. Often made of fabric, wood, clay, or wax they are stuck with pins, tied round with string, nailed to boards, placed in jars with other magically potent items (urine, blood, nails, thorns, herbs, etc.), or burned. They often have elements of the target in them (personal effects), like hair or nail clippings, or even just a picture or name written on paper a number of times, which creates a link between the doll and the person. Though they are used to cause pain and trouble, poppets can also be used for healing. Reiki and other forms of energy work as well as charms, spells, and incantations can be worked on a poppet to help people feel better, to perform limpias and clearings, to balance energy, and to bless people over long distance.

Among my own artefacts is a poppet that I’ve used in distance healing and spell work. Made of leather, grave yard dirt, and various other items, I’ve bound etheretic energy to it through spell work and it now has an energetic pulse all its own. It has helped me to discover entity attachments on clients, to help sooth menstrual cramps and headaches for friends, and helps me to do tarot readings over the phone as a stand in for my client. I’ve also got a couple of porcelain dolls I work with, one of which is a golem who watches the house while we’re out of town.

I’ve also used dolls as spirit traps. If you’ve got a bugaboo or other pesky spirit, you can use dolls like you would spirit pots, soul jars, god’s eyes, etc. Barbie dolls work exceedingly well for this purpose and can be bought by the bushel at the thrift shop. Use their hair the way you would a rosemary sprig or feather during a limpia to trap entity attachments and spirits that are causing harm, then bind the doll and purify it or put it in a spelled jar. You can also braid energy in its hair or use it for knot magic to trap spirits. You can also use mass-produced dolls as poppets, or even as spirit dolls if they’re prepared properly. The only limit is your imagination!

Dolls are one of our most important and most ancient tools. They represent the basic nature of our animistic roots and are a powerful part of sympathetic magic. They can act as vessels for our guides and the spirits we work with, helpers in our work and anchors for our spells, new bodies for the dead, tools for cleansing and trapping, or as mediational tools for visualization. Whether you’re using them in your practice now, plan to, or are totally turned off by them, we must admit that dolls have held a special place in witchcraft for millennia. If you do, how do you use dolls in your practice? How would you like to? Do you know of any other doll based practices? Let me know!

#heartandvineapothecary #witchcraft #dolls #dollmagic #animism #golem #lukthep #nkisi #poppet #voodoodoll #imaginalrealm #imaginalfigure #tulpa #egregore #spirittrap

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amieravenson · 6 years

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Magickal Month- October

Magickal Month- October October is the 10th month of the year, though it’s named after ‘octo’ meaning 8 in the old Roman calendar. Another one of those, right? It was moved into the 10th place with the establishment of January and February as the first and second months in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It was also known as Wynterfylleth to the Anglo Saxons, because it was thought that Winter begins at the full moon in October. Don’t we all just love October? I don’t know many people who don’t get a little thrill when the weather starts getting chillier, when the wind starts blowing the leaves off trees, and when the pumpkin spice starts flowing. There’s just something in the air that makes you simultaneously want to be outside to see the beautiful leaves, and also go inside and prepare your nest for the long hibernation of the winter. The weather is finally breaking a little here in Georgia, we’re seeing low 80s instead of the 90s that just didn’t want to give up the ghost. I’m seeing a lot of house wrens lately, particularly a pair that have set up a nest just below the window in front of my sink where I wash dishes. We also saw a big Eastern Kingsnake a few weeks ago, and it was lovely. I hope it stays away from the hawks and owls in the neighborhood and continues to eat any poisonous snakes or obnoxious rodents that are around. I also saw a committee of black-headed vultures hanging out on a cell tower yesterday. The leaves aren’t really changing yet, but they ARE falling from trees that don’t really carry a lot of color, like the 3 trunked ash tree in my back yard that I call The Three Sisters. Lunations: New Moon in Libra October 8th at 11:46pm EDT Full Moon in Taurus October 24th at 12:45pm EDT Astronomy: October 5- Venus goes retrograde at 3:07pm in Scorpio Orionids meteor shower peaks October 21st-22nd. Southern Taurids meteor shower peaks October 28th-29th. Celtic Tree Month: Ivy (Sept 30- October 27): End of the harvest, looking back at our successes and losses, strengthening our resolve to face the future, taking the long-term view, fidelity and fertility, protection, healing, good luck for women and brides, guards against negativity and disaster, reaches around and through obstacles to find light and nourishment, reaching out, expansion. Reed (October 28- November 24): Introverting, withdrawing, connecting with the past and with spirit, ancestors, messages from the spirit world, culling that which doesn’t serve us, dreaming- but not planning. Seeking basic truth, finding direction, giving meaning and purpose to your journey, skill and direction, secret strength and secret motivations, seeing beneath the surface. Holidays (non-Pagan): October 1- Shmini Atzeret (Jewish) October 2- Simchat Torah (Jewish) October 4- Feast of St Francis of Assisi (Christian) October 8- Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day (I prefer the latter) October 9- Navaratri (Hindu) October 9- Leif Erikson Day October 16- Boss’s Day October 18- Dussehra (Hindu) Holidays (Pagan): October 6- Greek festival honoring Gaia and the Nymphs October 8- Old European feast of the Triple Goddess, as mother transforms into crone October 8- Festival of Greek Hekate, who guides followers through crises and transitions October 9- Pyanepsion Noumenia- Greek festival honoring all Gods and Goddesses October 11- Feast of the Charities to honor Goddesses of beneficence October 12- Feast of Aphrodite, honoring peace and compassion October 14- Proerosia- Greek festival where fruits of the harvest were offered to Demeter October 14- October 28- Old Norse Winter Nights Feast, honoring ancestors and deities with toasts and offerings October 19- Thesmophoria- Greek festival honoring Kore’s transition into Persephone (Goddess of the Underworld) October 27- Apatura- Festival welcoming new children and newcomers into the community October 28- November 2- Roman/Egyptian festival remembering Set’s murder of Osiris and Isis’s healing him October 31- Day of mourning witches persecuted for their religion or women who were persecuted as witches October 31- November 2- Samhain- Celtic/Welsh New Year and feast of Cerridwen October 31- November 7- Hallowmas/Day of the Dead/Mid-Autumn- marks the end of the agricultural year and last harvest as well as the transition from focusing on life and growth to death and rest, also a day to honor ancestors Themes for the month: The last harvest- bringing in the things you can use over the Winter and culling the things that you don’t intend to take forward with you. Sacrifice- giving up your crutches. The Ancestors, Spirit Guides, deepening your relationship to Deity. Speaking with spirits and the fae while the veil is thin. Introverting. Pumpkin spice and anything warm and cozy. General activities for the month: Apple picking, cider-making, making and dressing in costumes, carving pumpkins, making and eating candy, trick-or-treating, watching horror movies, visiting haunted houses, knitting for the upcoming Winter, communicating with spirits and ancestors (carefully!), divination, cutting away anything you don’t want to take into the long winter. Herbs I’m using: Pumpkin spice- come on, it’s everywhere. Coffee beans- this is when I start to up my coffee game because it’s cool enough that I can drink it without sweating. The scent just brings me into Autumn and Winter. Sandalwood- I burn incense a lot around this time of year too. It seems too overpowering in the Summer, but it feels cozy and warm as the temps start dropping. Stones I’m using: Petrified Wood- not only is it a tie to the past, and hence the ancestors, but I had a particular piece kind of jump at me recently and say it wanted to be used. Who am I to argue? Lepidolite- I got a really beautiful piece at a rock show recently, and I can’t leave it alone. As much as I love Autumn, it does bring some darker moods as the sun spends less and less time in the sky. Lepidolite is really good for depression, and will help see me through, emotionally speaking, until next Spring. Chrysanthemum Stone- good for cutting away all that doesn’t serve you. This is a great theme for this time of year. Goddess of the Month: The Norns and The Fates. These are similar groups of 3 deities who rule over the destiny and fate of each of us. I feel really drawn to fate this time of year, and they’re great to connect with for tarot readings, which I feel especially drawn to right now. I’ll be working on deepening my connection with them, and asking them to help me in my tarot/divination practices for the coming year.

October 3 card reading Our reading this month is interesting, and I feel like it has to do with a lot of what's going on in the news right now. First, we see the Three of Bats, which corresponds to the Three of Swords. So this signifies that we’re going into this month with some suffering. We’re feeling grief and really struggling with our emotions. This could be due to several things. This could be because of things that have happened to us personally, but I think it has something to do with the Kavanaugh hearings and the pain that this has dredged up for a lot of women lately. I’ve been having trouble engaging in social media because of all the #metoo stories, and though I think it’s really important to witness the pain, it can be difficult to feel inundated by it. Next, we have the Five of Pumpkins reversed. The upshot of what’s been happening in the news is that we’re realizing that we’re not alone in sharing our stories. We’re realizing that we have a lot of similiarities, and that the only way to make any sort of change is for us all to stick together and stay strong together. I think that’s a really important lesson. If one of us can help pull someone who’s struggling out of the cold, and show them they’re not alone, then we all can, and we can begin to heal collectively. Lastly, we see The Lovers reversed. I don’t see this as trouble in our relationships on a personal level, but rather a call to re-examine how we deal with each other as men and women. If we’re going to come to a place of mutual respect and healthy relationships, we need to take all the rules we learned about what it means to be a man or a woman and turn them on their heads. It’s time to stop going with the harmful status quo and envision a new way of relating. For our special guidance card, we see Skull of Stars, Infinite Possibilities. This card represents letting go of the daily BS we all deal with and thinking much, much bigger. We’re all a part of this same universe together, and when we realize that, we can find our highest selves in our highest future. It’s time to cast off old beliefs and old ways of thinking and create this universe together. ******************************** Haunting Haunting By Emmanuel George Cefai Haunting haunting down the glooms haunting haunting graves and tombs cemeteries that light in the middle of a night torches that go round cemeteries held and bound by ghosts and shrouds So verse speaks but ah! in dreaming The Sub-Conscious further speaks. My personal tides: A lot of things are still up in the air for me. They’ve been decided, but I just have to wait to hear back about decisions that have been made and determinations for my future. So I’m just trying to be patient and wait it out. In the meantime, I’m working hard on creating tarot classes, which I’ve been wanting to create for over a year. I keep getting the sense that I’m meant to teach in some way, and that feeds into my mission statement, which is to bring magick into the lives of others. My personal goals: Write, record, edit, release all my Tarot 101 classes before Yule. Begin to take steps to ‘find home’. Figure out where we’re wanting to move and start looking at prices for land. Create magick for Samhain! Read the full article

#autumn #crystals #feminism #herbs #MagickalMonth #October #pagan #poetry #tarot #wicca #witchcraft

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Cannabis History – Why did humans start using cannabis?

Cannabis sativa was one of the earliest plants cultivated by humankind. The very first use of cannabis was documented in China around 4000 BC. A very versatile plant, it was used for food, medicine, religious and spiritual rituals, industrial fiber, and, of course, recreation.

Cannabis History — Why did humans start using cannabis?

From China, cannabis spread to India, the Arabian Peninsula, and then on to Europe with the spice trade. Through European colonization, use of cannabis spread to the Americas, Caribbean, and throughout the world. How the plant was used depended on the variety of cannabis, the parts of the plant, and how the plant was cultivated.

The variety of cannabis known as hemp was traditionally valued primarily for its fibers with high tensile strength, making it ideal for creating rope and textiles. Hemp seeds and sprouts were eaten as a good source of high-quality protein and beneficial omega-3 fatty acids. The variety of cannabis known as marijuana was specifically cultivated for the euphoric properties of THC, which is concentrated mostly in the flower buds of the plant.

Only recently have the unique medicinal properties of both hemp and marijuana been fully recognized.

How are hemp and marijuana different?

Cannabis sativa has several alter egos, but marijuana and hemp are the two best known. Though both plants look the same, their chemical composition is quite different.

The chemical difference has to do with the presence or absence of certain enzymes. Both marijuana and hemp contain a chemical substance called cannabigerol (CBGA), which is concentrated mostly in the flower buds of the plant. Marijuana contains an enzyme that converts CBGA into THC; hemp contains a different enzyme that converts CBGA into CBD (cannabidiol).

Whereas marijuana contains both THC and CBD, hemp contains almost exclusively CBD — THC occurs only in very trace amounts. Remember, though, that there are many varieties of marijuana and hemp plants, and their concentrations of THC and CBD vary. Those with high THC are used primarily for recreational use; plants with low or no THC and high CBD are best for medicinal use. Only cannabis with less than 0.3% THC can be legally classified as hemp.

What’s the difference between THC and CBD?

Both THC (in marijuana) and CBD (in hemp) belong to a class of plant chemical compounds called cannabinoids. There are different receptors for cannabinoid compounds located throughout the body.

History of Cannabis

For instance, CB1 receptors are found in high concentrations in the brain and nervous system. CB2 receptors are located throughout the body, but predominantly within the lower body and immune system.

THC’s intoxicating powers come from its ability to mimic anandamide, an endocannabinoid or naturally occurring mood-altering substance in the body that binds to CB1 receptors in the brain and is associated with having a rosy disposition. THC binds to anandamide’s CB1 receptors even more tightly than anandamide itself, triggering an exaggerated or euphoric response — in other words, you get high.

Compared to THC, CBD has very different properties. It weakly binds to both CB1 and CB2 receptors in the brain and body, gently stimulating and blocking them at the same time. This not only mildly activates the receptors, but is also thought to trigger the body to create more CB1 and CB2 receptors, a process known as upregulation. It also results in increased natural levels of anandamide.

When the body experiences an increase in CB receptors, it becomes more sensitive to the natural endocannabinoids (anandamide and others) already present in the body. The end result of taking CBD is an uplifted mood and improved pain tolerance without an exaggerated euphoric response, so you don’t get high when you use it.

CBD also modulates other receptors in the body. For instance, modulation of the 5-HT1A receptor (involved with serotonin, a mood hormone) provides mood-balancing properties: It’s calming, but not highly sedating, so it’s considered neutral — though it often results in improved sleep for many people. Another example is modulation of opioid receptors, which provides pain relief and tissue-supporting properties.

Beyond THC and CBD, Cannabis sativa plants contain over a hundred other cannabinoids that have a similar effect as CBD, but milder — THC is the only one known to be intoxicating. Cannabis plants also possess a wide spectrum of different chemical components offering a range of medicinal properties.

What are terpenes, and why are they important?

Aside from cannabinoids, one of the most prominent chemicals in cannabis plants is terpenes, organic and aromatic compounds found in essential oils. Interestingly, it’s the terpenes that give marijuana its distinct “weedy” odor and taste, not the cannabinoids.

Terpenes are beneficial on their own. For instance, research in the British Journal of Pharmacology found that terpenes are gastro-protective, suggesting they may be beneficial to people with ulcers, and that they have anti-inflammatory properties.

Also important is terpenes’ ability to enhance the properties of CBD. This phenomenon, called the “entourage effect,” is considered by many experts in the industry to be essential for gaining the full benefit of the plant. It also points to the importance of using a full-spectrum extract of hemp, which provides a full range of chemical components including terpenes, as opposed to purified CBD or CBD isolate, which contains only CBD.

What are the benefits of taking CBD?

Cannabis History

Cannabinoids, including cannabidiol (CBD), work by mimicking natural endocannabinoids like anandamide (described above) in the body. Endocannabinoids are part of a complex messaging system in the body called the endocannabinoid system. The endocannabinoid system oversees or regulates parts of the nervous system, endorphins, immune system functions, hormones, mood and emotions, metabolism, and many other chemical messengers in the body.

My mimicking endocannabinoids, CBD offers a wide range of benefits, including:

Decreased pain

Enhanced sense of well-being

Increased calm

Improved sleep

Reduced stress (thanks to CBD’s adaptogenic properties, which make you more resistant to various types of stress)

But because CBD doesn’t cause euphoria or impair motor skills, you can use it any time of the day or evening. Let’s explore in more detail how it works for various health concerns.

Nervous system conditions

Like other cannabinoids, CBD readily crosses the blood brain barrier, making it ideal for affecting central nervous system conditions. CBD helps calm the nervous system, reduces inflammation, and is strongly neuroprotective. Not surprisingly, clinical studies evaluating cannabidiol for treatment of anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), seizure disorders (especially childhood seizures), and even schizophrenia have shown remarkable effectiveness.

Chronic Pain

Management of chronic pain is another application for which CBD is ideally suited, and it works in a number of ways. It and other non-THC cannabinoids found in hemp flower-bud extracts work to block pain-conducting nerve impulses, which reduces your perception of pain. Stimulation of CB1 in the brain increases dopamine, which counteracts pain. Just as importantly, these same chemical substances reduce inflammation, the driving force behind pain, which allows healing to occur.

CBD and other cannabinoids also reduce pain by affecting endorphins, the feel-good chemicals we naturally produce to suppress pain. Unlike opioids (heroin, narcotics), which mimic endorphins and ultimately suppress natural endorphins, cannabinoids modulate endorphins.

This means, in effect, that CBD and cannabinoids increase natural endorphins. So instead of causing dependence and addiction like opioids, CBD and cannabinoids do the opposite — so much so that CBD has proven valuable for countering narcotic and cocaine addiction. From a medicinal standpoint, the fact that CBD has the potential to relieve pain without causing euphoria, intoxication, or addiction makes it an intriguing therapeutic option — it has high potential for being at least a partial solution to the current opioid epidemic.

Immune dysfunction + chronic illness

CBD and other chemical substances in hemp flower-bud extracts are strong immune system modulators. This means they control inflammation throughout the body, and also fine-tune the immune system for optimal performance. This combined with CBD’s ability to ease pain and anxiety make it an ideal consideration for illnesses associated with immune dysfunction, including fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic Lyme disease, and autoimmune illnesses.

Gut dysfunction

The immunomodulation benefits of CBD and cannabinoids extend to the GI tract. CBD may have value in treating inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, but that value is still being defined by clinical studies.

Cancer symptoms

The wide range of benefits associated with cannabis have garnered interest for use in cancer therapy. Research suggests that cannabinoids, including CBD, may have anti-tumor effects. While this is not enough to define cannabis as a treatment for cancer, it does make it attractive as a complement to other therapies, for both reducing symptoms and possibly enhancing the effects of anticancer drugs.

Additional health concerns

The benefits of CBD and other non-THC cannabinoids don’t stop there. Terpenes and the wide spectrum of other chemical compounds found in hemp flower-bud extracts provide potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. And like most other herbs, hemp flower-bud extracts have been associated with antimicrobial properties, though cannabis doesn’t appear to be as strong an antimicrobial as many other herbs.

What’s the difference between hemp oil and hemp oil with CBD?

This is a common source of confusion. Many people see hemp oil on grocery store shelves and assume or wonder if it contains CBD and other cannabinoids. Adding to the confusion, CBD products are often sold as hemp oil, and CBD oil is often mixed with hemp oil.

But make no mistake, hemp oil and hemp oil with CBD (or CBD oil) are not the same. The hemp oil you might see on grocery store shelves is made by cold pressing hemp seeds. It’s high in omega-3 fatty acids and other beneficial fatty acids, but hemp oil found in the grocery store does not contain significant amounts of cannabinoids including THC or CBD. While hemp oil is a healthful option for a salad dressing, it has no medicinal value by itself.

Cannabinoids, including CBD in hemp and THC in marijuana, are most highly concentrated in the flower buds, not the seeds. These chemical components of the plant must be extracted from the flower buds to be useful.

What is the best CBD extraction method?

For medicinal use, cannabinoids are extracted from hemp and concentrated into a thick oil that, when ingested, elevates blood levels of cannabinoids for a more sustained period of time. (That’s compared to inhaling vaporized marijuana, where THC dissipates from blood quickly, making it ideal for recreational use.)

CBD oil from hemp contains CBD and other cannabinoids, along with terpenes and other chemical components. It contains only trace amounts of THC (<0.3%).

The four main methods of CBD extraction

Alcohol extraction: The most common method, chemical extraction uses alcohol or hexane as solvents. The solvent is dried off, leaving the dense oil — and possibly harmful residual solvents — behind.

Hydrocarbon extraction: This method primarily uses propane, butane, or a mix of the two as solvents. A very effective method for extracting the full spectrum of cannabinoids and terpenes in hemp, it delivers a highly potent product. However, because propane is extremely flammable, hydrocarbon extraction requires a high degree of expertise and safety; a lack of expertise could result in solvent residues in the final CBD product. For that reason, if you choose a CBD product made with this method, just be sure the company also provides a test report or Certificate of Analysis (COA) showing the product is safe to consume.

CO2 extraction: A newer method, CO2 extraction is done without using chemical solvents. Instead, it uses carbon dioxide to extract the full range of chemical components from the flower buds and then distill them into dense CBD oil.

Thermal Extraction: This method uses hot air to safely vaporize the full spectrum of chemical components at high concentration from the buds, and then the vapor is distilled into CBD oil. This method also activates the cannabinoids by removing an extra carboxyl ring from their molecular chain (a chemical reaction called decarboxylation), enabling them to interact directly with CB receptors for maximal medicinal value. And it preserves the native terpenes, which are beneficial on their own, and also enhance the properties of CBD via the entourage effect.

Lipid-based extraction: This method uses fats such as organic coconut oil to absorb and encapsulate the plant’s chemical compounds. The upsides of lipid-based extraction are that the fat helps make the CBD more bioavailable (easy to absorb), and there are no harsh solvents used. The downside: you won’t get a full spectrum of compounds like you would with vapor distillation or CO2 extraction.

What’s the best way to take hemp oil with CBD?

Condensed CBD oil can be taken as a thick paste, but this is the least pleasant option. More commonly, the CBD oil is mixed with a carrier oil, such as hemp oil or coconut oil, to a specific concentration of CBD. The distinctive taste — which comes from the terpenes and not the cannabinoids — is often masked with chocolate, mint, or other flavorings. It typically comes in a small bottle with a dropper to administer the oil mixture.

The best way to take CBD oil mixed with a carrier oil to a specific concentration is to place a few drops or dropperfuls under your tongue for 15 seconds to access the sublingual gland. There, the CBD is absorbed directly into the bloodstream (called sublingual consumption or administration) for the fastest acting effects.

Another method is to take a few drops or dropperfuls orally, swish the liquid around in your mouth, and then swallow it. With this method, CBD’s chemical components are absorbed through mucous membranes of the mouth and intestinal tract directly into the bloodstream.

CBD oil mixed with a carrier oil can also be taken as soft-gel capsules to avoid any taste, but absorption is only through the intestinal tract. This decreases the oil’s potential benefits, because some of the chemical components may be broken down by digestion before being absorbed.

What’s the correct dose of CBD?

The average dose range is 10–50 mg of CBD, one to three times per day, though much higher doses of 100–200 mg (sometimes required to control pain) are equally well tolerated. Some people will notice benefit at the lower end of the dose range, but most people will need 15–30 mg to notice any effects. Because different products provide different concentrations of CBD, the packaging usually states how much CBD is in the entire bottle as opposed to the amount in a certain number of drops or dropperfuls, so measuring can be a little tricky.

If you’re taking the oil in liquid form, one dropperful of a low concentration product (100 mg CBD per fluid ounce) will provide about 3 mg of CBD per dropperful — not enough to notice any significant effects. A dropperful of the medium grade product (500 mg of CBD per fluid ounce) will deliver about 15 mg of CBD — a good starting dose. And a dropperful of a high concentration product (1500 mg CBD per fluid ounce) will provide about 50 mg of CBD per dropperful.

CBD oil is also available as soft gel capsules. With these, the mg quantity of CBD should be designated per capsule. Because some of the chemical compounds in capsules are lost during digestion, you may find you need to take a little more to experience the benefits.

As with any medicinal herb, start at a low dose and gradually build up to a higher dose as you get used to the effects of the substance. Most people notice benefits almost immediately, but some experts suggest that full benefit does not occur until after a couple of weeks of consecutive use.

What’s the difference between CBD isolate and full-spectrum CBD oil?

A lot. CBD isolate (which is CBD alone) acts very differently in the body than a spectrum of hemp chemical components. Here are some quick definitions:

CBD isolate is purified cannabidiol (CBD) without any other chemical components of hemp. Usually purity is a good thing, but in this case, purified CBD is missing all of the other beneficial compounds the hemp plant has to offer.

Full-spectrum CBD oil contains cannabidiol, plus the full spectrum of other components of the whole plant, including trace amounts of THC (at less than 0.3%), other cannabinoids, and terpenes.

Broad-spectrum CBD oil is full-spectrum CBD with the THC removed. It’s not as effective as full-spectrum CBD oil with trace THC.

The cannabis plant naturally generates cannabinoids, terpenes, and other chemical compounds to serve different functions in the plant. These functions include regulatory properties, potent antioxidants, and protection from microbes and insects. Any creature that consumes the chemicals from the plant gains these same benefits.

You can think of the full spectrum of all the chemical compounds found in cannabis as the “language” of the plant. It’s not one chemical, but all the chemicals combined working together that cause a response (again, the entourage effect). When you consume CBD oil, you gain the benefits of all those chemical substances in natural synergy. For that reason, you get full benefit at a dose range of 25–50 mg.

CBD isolate is limited to that single chemical messenger. The synergy provided by the full spectrum of chemicals in CBD oil is lost. This is likely why clinical studies using purified CBD require very high doses, in the range of 750–1500 mg of CBD several times daily, to see a benefit.

When CBD is formally legalized at the national level, prescription drugs providing high doses of purified CBD will become available (several are already in the pipeline). CBD drugs will likely be very costly, require very high doses of CBD isolate, and will likely not provide the same benefits as full-spectrum CBD oil.

What are the potential side effects of CBD oil?

Reported side effects of hemp oil with CBD are generally mild and uncommon and can include tiredness, loose stools, and mild changes in appetite and weight (either increased or decreased). Both hemp oil with CBD (hemp flower-bud extracts) and purified CBD (CBD isolate) have been shown in both animal and human clinical trials to be remarkably safe and well tolerated.

Prolonged use is not associated with an increased risk of side effects. In research studies, up to 1500 mg of purified CBD per day has been used to address various medical illnesses without reported harmful effects including changes in heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, electrolyte balance, gastrointestinal function, psychomotor functions, or sleep cycles.

Prolonged use at high doses has not shown potential for abuse of CBD. In fact, a clinical study published in 2018 found that recreational polydrug users did not show abuse potential with use of CBD. Long-term studies have not evaluated potential changes in hormonal balance or long-term adverse changes in liver function, though prolonged use of CBD enhances metabolism of certain drugs. Stopping CBD oil suddenly has not been associated with withdrawal effects.

How do you know you’re getting your money’s worth?

While the cost of CBD oil products is presently high, it will likely come down dramatically after CBD and hemp are legal by federal standards — but prices will still vary widely. A high price for a CBD product does not always imply high quality, though a low price generally indicates you’re not getting enough CBD to see a benefit, so it’s important to know what to look for when buying or using a product.

Reputable companies selling CBD oil products will state the CBD concentration and extraction methods on the bottle or website. Typically, the concentration is stated as milligrams (mg) of CBD per fluid ounce (though some products standardize mg of CBD to milliliters (ml). The benefit comes from the amount of CBD consumed, not the amount of oil.

To calculate the cost per milligram of CBD, simply divide the dollar amount of the product by the total milligrams of CBD in the bottle. So for instance, a product with 600 mg CBD in a 1 fluid-ounce bottle costing $80 is equal to about 13 cents per mg of CBD; a product with 100 mg of CBD in the same size bottle selling for $40 works out to 40 cents per mg of CBD. In this case, it pays to splurge on the $80 bottle.

As for extraction methods, remember that thermal extraction and CO2 extraction are preferred. These methods yield a full-spectrum CBD product, which will likely be more costly than a CBD isolate because it’s significantly more beneficial. Alcohol extraction is a cheaper method that pulls a more narrow spectrum of plant chemicals and higher levels of chlorophyll, which doesn’t taste great and also takes up space where more CBD could be. Lipid-based extractions will likely fall in the middle price-wise.

The highest quality cannabis is grown indoors, so quality standards can be controlled. Use of clean water and organic methods of farming that are free of pesticide use and unnatural fertilizers are, of course, preferred. With outdoor-farmed cannabis, quality standards and potency are not as easily controlled.

Taste can be a sign of value, too. Poor quality oils will have a very unpleasant chemical taste, and they can cause significant burning to mouth tissues. A good quality product should be smooth and not cause significant burning. Interestingly, the best quality products are associated with a distinct cannabis taste, indicating that the full spectrum of chemical components (with trace levels of THC) are present.

Will I get high from using CBD?

No. Even in high doses, CBD oil will not cause euphoria or impair coordination, balance, or motor functions. Psychoactive effects start at 3–5% THC; CBD products contain less than 0.3% THC. Use of CBD oil is associated with improved sense of well-being, but not an exaggerated feeling of well-being. Use of CBD oil has never been associated with hallucinations or abnormal mental activity.

Will using CBD make me fail a drug test?

The trace amount of THC in CBD oil (<0.3%) is not enough to trigger most drug tests as being positive for THC. You would need to consume about 1000–2000 mg per day of CBD to fail a drug test for THC if the employer is testing to SAMHSA guidelines (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration). If you are tested regularly and taking high doses of CBD, and you are concerned about the very low risk of a positive drug test for THC associated with using hemp-derived products, you could opt to use purified CBD, which does not contain anything but CBD. Just know that purified CBD doesn’t provide the same spectrum of benefits as CBD oil.

How effective are topical CBD products?

Creams and salves for musculoskeletal discomfort generally contain very small amounts of CBD that are absorbed through the skin. Many of these products do provide significant benefit, however, but the benefit is likely derived from other aspects of CBD — especially terpenes from cannabis and essential oils, thanks to their anti-inflammatory properties.

Though CBD will likely become a highly promoted ingredient in beauty products, it is unclear whether the concentration of CBD present in these products will provide a benefit.

Can you get hooked on hemp CBD products?

There is near zero potential of becoming habituated to hemp CBD products. In other words, if you take it for a long time and then stop it suddenly, you won’t experience withdrawal symptoms.

It should be noted that recreational use of marijuana (high THC, low CBD cannabis) does result in dependence (but different from narcotics or alcohol, and not as debilitating). Chronic use of THC may be associated with atrophy in certain areas of the brain and reduction of certain cognitive functions (at this point, studies are not conclusive). Interestingly, studies have shown that taking CBD oil regularly can restore areas of the brain that have become atrophied in marijuana abusers.

Can you overdose on cannabis?

There have been no reports of anyone overdosing on cannabis. One of the unique properties of the chemical components of cannabis, including both hemp and marijuana, is that they don’t cause respiratory or cardiac depression. This sets even recreational use of cannabis widely apart from narcotics and alcohol, both of which can cause severe respiratory depression and death at excessive doses. Excessive doses of hemp, and more especially, marijuana, may make you very agitated and feel terrible, but there are no known deaths from cannabis overdose.

Are foods and beverages with purified CBD safe?

Many food and beverage companies are already taking advantage of the growing CBD trend and adding CBD to food and beverage products, though the practice is not approved by the FDA. They are mostly using purified CBD (CBD isolate) instead of CBD oil, because purified CBD has no significant taste and comes from poorer quality hemp, which is cheaper to produce. Whether it’s completely safe is totally unknown.

Using CBD in defined doses for medicinal purposes is one thing, but putting it in food and beverages is something entirely different. Someone may wind up getting CBD from multiple products, and so their daily dose could vary significantly. Taking a standardized dose of CBD oil daily as a recognized medicinal is a very different thing from taking uncontrolled doses of CBD isolate daily infused artificially into food and beverage products, and the long term risk may be very different — no one really knows for sure.

Can hemp oil with CBD treat Lyme disease, fibromyalgia, and other chronic illness?

Like most herbs, cannabis does have some antimicrobial and immune-boosting properties, but it is not as strong an antimicrobial as many other herbs. There are many better herbal choices for overcoming chronic Lyme disease and similar conditions related to chronic infections with stealth microbes such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. (Top ones include andrographis, berberine, cat’s claw, Japanese knotweed, sarsaparilla, and garlic.)

There’s also the cost factor: Chronic use of CBD oil can be costly and less effective against microbes compared to alternative antimicrobial herbs like Japanese knotweed, cat’s claw, andrographis, garlic, sarsaparilla, and berberine. The bottom line is, CBD oil is a good option for controlling symptoms associated with Lyme disease, fibromyalgia, and other chronic illnesses, but it should be combined with other antimicrobial and immunomodulating herbs for optimal benefit. CBD oil is best used intermittently to treat symptoms of pain or anxiety, or used chronically only until symptoms gradually resolve, and then discontinued.

The story around CBD will continue to change and evolve once hemp is legalized and as the industry continues to grow and advance. I’ll be keeping a close eye on it and addressing related issues as needed — stay tuned

Click:- Cannabis History

#Cannabis History

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