#native american woman rituals

[eaglestrong-falcon]

[dailyhatsune]

miku as my babaylan oc who is trans

babaylan research dump (mostly from memory so it’s gonna be pretty distilled):

babaylans are the lead shamans of indigenous filipino tribes (mostly northside, the luzon and visayas area, rip mindanao) that are responsible for practically every spiritual aspect of the community. only women were allowed to be babaylans, since, according to local mythos, women had more affinity to the spiritual realm.

however, what i find notable about babaylans is that their requirements also include transgender women! one does not simply choose to become a babaylan, instead, she has to train under a senior and go through a ritual before the anito (local spirits) deemed her worthy of representing them. the only exception is if a girl went through something that confirmed to the people immediately that she had anito approval. notably, trans women were also among the subset of girls who got to skip the selection process. this is my speculation but i like to think it’s probably because the locals considered the realisation that one was trans as anito approval. assigned female by duende

usually, i’m very wary of putting modern queer labels onto historical figures (we don’t know how they would identify now), but spanish colonial records noted that amab babaylans, outside of their ritualistic roles, would live like women (down to having husbands), were treated like women and were simply considered women barring the ability to bear children. if she walks like a woman, talks like woman…that didn’t stop the spanish settlers from misgendering them, though.

that being said, in present day, while there are still people out there practising babaylan rituals, they’re mostly men who only take on feminine appearances during the rituals, and live as men in their regular lives. this stems back from the spanish colonial period and we are not getting into that now this read more is long enougb as it is

personally i find this fascinating because, at least for what i was able to look into, trans babaylans were the only time i could look at a historical indigenous gender identity and definitively refer to them as lgbt. most other indigenous identities are either meant to be their own thing (not native american, but i remember reading discourse over whether two-spirit should be considered nb or as its own thing) or far too complex to be described with the western modern lgbt terms (although they generally present feminine, the hijras from india classify themselves as a separate third gender and worship specific deities from hinduism). maybe i haven’t looked hard enough but it’s so interesting to hear about old communities where women, and especially trans women, were basically the most important figures

anyway sorry for rambling. sometimes i like to ramble.

[blackwoolncrown]

Reading list for Afro-Herbalism:

A Healing Grove: African Tree Remedies and Rituals for the Body and Spirit by Stephanie Rose Bird

Affrilachia: Poems by Frank X Walker

African American Medicine in Washington, D.C.: Healing the Capital During the Civil War Era by Heather Butts

African American Midwifery in the South: Dialogues of Birth, Race, and Memory by Gertrude Jacinta Fraser

African American Slave Medicine: Herbal and Non-Herbal Treatments by Herbert Covey

African Ethnobotany in the Americas edited by Robert Voeks and John Rashford

Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect by Lorenzo Dow Turner

Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples by Jack Forbes

African Medicine: A Complete Guide to Yoruba Healing Science and African Herbal Remedies by Dr. Tariq M. Sawandi, PhD

Afro-Vegan: Farm-Fresh, African, Caribbean, and Southern Flavors Remixed by Bryant Terry

Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston

Big Mama’s Back in the Kitchen by Charlene Johnson

Big Mama’s Old Black Pot by Ethel Dixon

Black Belief: Folk Beliefs of Blacks in America and West Africa by Henry H. Mitchell

Black Diamonds, Vol. 1 No. 1 and Vol. 1 Nos. 2–3 edited by Edward J. Cabbell

Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors by Carolyn Finney

Black Food Geographies: Race, Self-Reliance, and Food Access in Washington, D.C. by Ashanté M. Reese

Black Indian Slave Narratives edited by Patrick Minges

Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition by Yvonne P. Chireau

Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry edited by Camille T. Dungy

Blacks in Appalachia edited by William Turner and Edward J. Cabbell

Caribbean Vegan: Meat-Free, Egg-Free, Dairy-Free Authentic Island Cuisine for Every Occasion by Taymer Mason

Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America by Sylviane Diouf

Faith, Health, and Healing in African American Life by Emilie Townes and Stephanie Y. Mitchem

Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land by Leah Penniman

Folk Wisdom and Mother Wit: John Lee – An African American Herbal Healer by John Lee and Arvilla Payne-Jackson

Four Seasons of Mojo: An Herbal Guide to Natural Living by Stephanie Rose Bird

Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement by Monica White

Fruits of the Harvest: Recipes to Celebrate Kwanzaa and Other Holidays by Eric Copage

George Washington Carver by Tonya Bolden

George Washington Carver: In His Own Words edited by Gary Kremer

God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man: A Saltwater Geechee Talks About Life on Sapelo Island, Georgia by Cornelia Bailey

Gone Home: Race and Roots through Appalachia by Karida Brown

Ethno-Botany of the Black Americans by William Ed Grime

Gullah Cuisine: By Land and by Sea by Charlotte Jenkins and William Baldwin

Gullah Culture in America by Emory Shaw Campbell and Wilbur Cross

Gullah/Geechee: Africa’s Seeds in the Winds of the Diaspora-St. Helena’s Serenity by Queen Quet Marquetta Goodwine

High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America by Jessica Harris and Maya Angelou

Homecoming: The Story of African-American Farmers by Charlene Gilbert

Hoodoo Medicine: Gullah Herbal Remedies by Faith Mitchell

Jambalaya: The Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals by Luisah Teish

Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care by Dayna Bowen Matthew

Leaves of Green: A Handbook of Herbal Remedies by Maude E. Scott

Like a Weaving: References and Resources on Black Appalachians by Edward J. Cabbell

Listen to Me Good: The Story of an Alabama Midwife by Margaret Charles Smith and Linda Janet Holmes

Making Gullah: A History of Sapelo Islanders, Race, and the American Imagination by Melissa Cooper

Mandy’s Favorite Louisiana Recipes by Natalie V. Scott

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet Washington

Mojo Workin’: The Old African American Hoodoo System by Katrina Hazzard-Donald

Motherwit: An Alabama Midwife’s Story by Onnie Lee Logan as told to Katherine Clark

My Bag Was Always Packed: The Life and Times of a Virginia Midwife by Claudine Curry Smith and Mildred Hopkins Baker Roberson

My Face Is Black Is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations by Mary Frances Berry

My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem

On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker by A'Lelia Bundles

Papa Jim’s Herbal Magic Workbook by Papa Jim

Places for the Spirit: Traditional African American Gardens by Vaughn Sills (Photographer), Hilton Als (Foreword), Lowry Pei (Introduction)

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Dr. Joy DeGruy

Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage by Diane Glave

Rufus Estes’ Good Things to Eat: The First Cookbook by an African-American Chef by Rufus Estes

Secret Doctors: Ethnomedicine of African Americans by Wonda Fontenot

Sex, Sickness, and Slavery: Illness in the Antebellum South by Marli Weiner with Mayzie Hough

Slavery’s Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons by Sylviane Diouf

Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time by Adrian Miller

Spirituality and the Black Helping Tradition in Social Work by Elmer P. Martin Jr. and Joanne Mitchell Martin

Sticks, Stones, Roots & Bones: Hoodoo, Mojo & Conjuring with Herbs by Stephanie Rose Bird

The African-American Heritage Cookbook: Traditional Recipes and Fond Remembrances from Alabama’s Renowned Tuskegee Institute by Carolyn Quick Tillery

The Black Family Reunion Cookbook (Recipes and Food Memories from the National Council of Negro Women) edited by Libby Clark

The Conjure Woman and Other Conjure Tales by Charles Chesnutt

The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham

The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks by Toni Tipton-Martin

The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, from the Washingtons to the Obamas by Adrian Miller

The Taste of Country Cooking: The 30th Anniversary Edition of a Great Classic Southern Cookbook by Edna Lewis

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study: An Insiders’ Account of the Shocking Medical Experiment Conducted by Government Doctors Against African American Men by Fred D. Gray

Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by Lauret E. Savoy

Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine by Bryant Terry

Vibration Cooking: Or, The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl by Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor

Voodoo and Hoodoo: The Craft as Revealed by Traditional Practitioners by Jim Haskins

When Roots Die: Endangered Traditions on the Sea Islands by Patricia Jones-Jackson

Working Conjure: A Guide to Hoodoo Folk Magic by Hoodoo Sen Moise

Working the Roots: Over 400 Years of Traditional African American Healing by Michelle Lee

Wurkn Dem Rootz: Ancestral Hoodoo by Medicine Man

Zora Neale Hurston: Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings: Mules and Men, Tell My Horse, Dust Tracks on a Road, Selected Articles by Zora Neale Hurston

The Ways of Herbalism in the African World with Olatokunboh Obasi MSc, RH (webinar via The American Herbalists Guild)

[cooki3face]

Community does not need this!! But they’re loud in the comments about how harmful this could be for the community and divination and other spiritual practices and traditions! Thankfully!! I was just talking about spiritual psychosis on my close friends on Instagram yesterday and then I see things like this and post just went viral of some woman absolutely losing it, snot running out her nose and everything over the eclipse.

The fear mongering and demonization of spiritual teachings, astrology, tarot and spiritual practices and traditions is about to start becoming very big. It was already a really prominent thing oppressors have used for ages especially against poc who practice forms of witchcraft or deity worship they brought with them from home. I was just watching a docu-series yesterday that highlighted how the native population on mt. Shasta were forced to leave and practiced ritual and held ceremonies in the caves of mount Shasta and those who colonized would go into those caves after they left and preform mockeries of their ceremonies and rituals as entertainment.

We’re about to step into a reality and time where spiritual people, practitioners and others within the community will be replacing celebrities and individuals of high rank or people who hold a lot of power in this world and I said before that the oppressor has a very specific recipe for oppression and trying to keep people (especially in the west) as unaware and as stuck in perpetual karmic cycles and systems as much as possible. And this is just yet another technique they use to discredit individuals with gifts. They use psychics and astrologers and others themselves to help them predict and interpret what’s coming.

They use these types of stories or ideas to fuel radical religious beliefs and ideas that are built upon fear mongering and hatred, they use religious institutions and manipulated versions of their Bible and beliefs and create division within the west. Vast majority of republicans are statistically uneducated and are conservative who hold onto heavy religious beliefs and views to back up, support and justify their actions and beliefs. Heavily similar to antebellum America and the justification of slavery and the mistreatment of African American people.

To add onto that, this movie about tarot does not accurately portray what tarot really is and how it works whatsoever but guess who’ll believe it and perpetuate it. Half the negative ideas that are swirling around about metaphysical, Wiccan or spiritual practices are due to pop culture and horror movies and the individuals who sit at their desks in the dark scribbling away these plots and releasing these movies.

[la-femme-au-collier-vert]

So you want to learn about Louisiana Voodoo…

door in New Orleans by Jean-Marcel St. Jacques

For better or worse (almost always downright wrong) Louisiana Voodoo and Hoodoo are likely to come up in any depiction of the state of Louisiana. I’ve created a list of works on contemporary and historical Voodoo/Hoodoo for anyone who’d like to learn more about what this tradition is and is not (hint: it developed separately from Haitian Vodou which is its own thing) or would like to depict it in a non-stereotypical way. I’ve listed them in chronological order. Please keep a few things in mind. Almost all sources presented unfortunately have their biases. As ethnographies Hurston’s work no longer represent best practices in Anthropology and has been suspected of embellishment and sensationalism on this topic. Additionally the portrayal is of the religion as it was nearly 100 years ago- all traditions change over time. Likewise Teish is extremely valuable for providing an inside view into the practice but certain views, as on Ancient Egypt, may be offensive now. I have chosen to include the non-academic works by Alvarado and Filan for the research on historical Voodoo they did with regards to the Federal Writer’s Project that is not readily accessible, HOWEVER, this is NOT a guide to teach you to practice this closed tradition, and again some of the opinions are suspect- DO NOT use sage, which is part of Native practice and destroys local environments. I do not support every view expressed but think even when wrong these sources present something to be learned about the way we treat culture

*Start with Osbey, the shortest of the works. To compare Louisiana Voodoo with other traditions see the chapter on Haitian Vodou in Creole Religions of the Caribbean by Olmos and Paravinsi-Gebert. Additionally many songs and chants were originally in Louisiana Creole (different from the Louisiana French dialect), which is now severely endangered. You can study the language in Ti Liv Kreyol by Guillery-Chatman et. Al.

Le Petit Albert by Albertus Parvus Lucius (1706) grimoire widely circulated in France in the 18th century, brought to the colony & significantly impacted Hoodoo

Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston (1935)

Spirit World-Photographs & Journal: Pattern in the Expressive Folk Culture of Afro-American New Orleans by Michael P. Smith (1984)

Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals by Luisah Teish (1985)

Eve’s Bayou (1997), film

Spiritual Merchants: Religion, Magic, and Commerce by Carolyn Morrow Long (2001)

A New Orleans Voodoo Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau by Carolyn Morrow Long (2006)

“Yoruba Influences on Haitian Vodou and New Orleans Voodoo” by Ina J. Fandrich (2007)

The New Orleans Voodoo Handbook by Kenaz Filan (2011)

“Why We Can’t Talk To You About Voodoo” by Brenda Marie Osbey (2011)

Mojo Workin': The Old African American Hoodoo System by Katrina Hazzard-Donald (2013)

The Tomb of Marie Laveau In St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 by Carolyn Morrow Long (2016)

Lemonade, visual album by Beyonce (2016)

How to Make Lemonade, book by Beyonce (2016)

“Work the Root: Black Feminism, Hoodoo Love Rituals, and Practices of Freedom” by Lyndsey Stewart (2017)

The Lemonade Reader edited by Kinitra D. Brooks and Kameelah L. Martin (2019)

The Magic of Marie Laveau by Denise Alvarado (2020)

In Our Mother’s Gardens (2021), documentary on Netflix, around 1 hour mark traditional offering to the ancestors by Dr. Zauditu-Selassie

“Playing the Bamboula” rhythm for honoring ancestors associated with historical Voodoo

Voodoo and Power: The Politics of Religion in New Orleans 1880-1940 by Kodi A. Roberts (2023)

The Marie Laveau Grimoire by Denise Alvarado (2024)

Voodoo: An African American Religion by Jeffrey E. Anderson (2024)

[whencyclopedia]

The Boy Who Saw A-ti'us

The Boy Who Saw A-ti'us is a legend of the Pawnee nation about a young man who is granted a vision of the Creator Ti-ra'wa A-ti'us (also known simply as Ti-ra'wa or as A-ti'us) and, through his faith, is able to see what others cannot and so saves his people from starvation.

American Bison Grazing in Montana

PD-USGOV-Interior-FWS (Public Domain)

The story works with the theme, common not only to Pawnee legends but those of many Native peoples of North America, of the poor young man who is rewarded by the Creator for his kindness and generosity toward others. Although boasting of one's accomplishments was not only accepted but also expected, from young men, humility was highly valued, and many tales from various nations warn against the dangers of thinking too highly of oneself. In this same way, stories from all Native nations – including those of the Plains Indians, encourage the values of modesty, kindness, generosity, and gratitude.

This story is an example of the latter, in which a poor orphan boy is taken in by a widow and returns her kindness by caring for her and her two children as if he were a member of the family. This is in keeping with Pawnee values and behavior, but it is noted in the text that the boy always brings any food he finds to the woman – not saving any out for himself – to be divided among the four of them. His selflessness is then rewarded by Ti-ra'wa A-ti'us with the vision that will change the boy's life and restore his people.

The story not only serves to encourage cultural values and faith in an audience but also as an origin tale in that it explains how and why the position of chief in Pawnee leadership, once held by women – since the first created human was understood as female – passed to men. Mainly, however, the focus of the tale is fixed on the importance of individual integrity and faith in the knowledge that, no matter how bleak a situation, the Creator is always present and prepared to offer help.

Ti-ra'wa A-ti'us

Ti-ra'wa A-ti'us ("Our Father Above") is the Creator God of the Pawnee who gave them life and the gifts essential for their survival including agriculture, the concept of clothing and ornamentation, fire, hunting skills and the animals to hunt, the power of speech and imagination, and the proper observance of sacred ritual and sacrifice. His wife is Atira ("Mother Corn"), an earth goddess (associated with Mother Earth), and all the other gods are observable as stars in the night sky, but behind all – and invisible – is Ti-ra'wa A-ti'us.

Ti-ra'wa created the expanse in the sky now known as the Milky Way but known to the Pawnee, and others, as the Path or the Path of Departing Spirits, which led one's soul home after death. Once arrived in the afterlife, the soul would live fully in the presence of the Creator, but he still remained invisible. The vision given in The Boy Who Saw A-ti'us would have therefore been exceptional to the original audience in that the god's presence could certainly be felt at any time, but he could never be actually seen, just like the wind.

Continue reading...

[harvardfineartslib]

November is Native American Heritage Month.  We recognize and honor indigenous cultures and worldviews that focus on living in harmony with nature as a part of a shared ecosystem. In this post, we bring you a watercolor painting entitled "Butterfly Dance" by Fred Kabotie (c. 1900–1986) who was a celebrated Hopi painter, silversmith, illustrator, potter, author, curator and educator.

The Hopi Butterfly Dance takes place in late summer to early fall in northern Arizona’s Hopi villages. It is a two-day ceremony for the harvest, calling for rain, good health, and long life for all living things. The dance is performed by young and unmarried girls, a ritual to learn what it means to be a young Hopi woman and her purpose within Hopi culture. On the day of the ceremony, the dancer wears a kopatsoki (headdress) and ceremonial clothing with her feet painted yellow, symbolizing the eagle’s yellow feet, so that she can dance lightly throughout the day. (You can learn more about Butterfly Dance in the essay written by Gloria Lomahaftewa on the National Museum of the American Indian’s website.)

Butterfly dance Kabotie, Fred, Native American painter, 1900-1986 [artist] Watercolor on paper 14 x 21 3/4" Native American, Hopi ca.1928 Repository: School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States HOLLIS number: 8001696092

This image is part of FAL’s Digital Images and Slides Collection (DISC), a collection of images digitized from secondary sources for use in teaching and learning. FAL does not own the original artworks represented in this collection, but you can find more information at HOLLIS Images.

[littlefeather-wolf]

Mary "Te Ata" Thompson Fisher

1895 - 1995 Lived to be 100 yrs old ...

Te Ata Thompson Fisher, whose name means “Bearer of the Morning,” was born Dec. 3, 1895, near Emet, Oklahoma. A citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, Te Ata was an accomplished actor and teller of Native American stories ... She received her early education in Tishomingo, and eventually went to the Oklahoma College for Women. While there, it was evident Te Ata had a natural talent for drama ... Her career as an actor and storyteller spanned more than 60 years. She worked as a storyteller to finance her acting career. She would tell Chickasaw legends, myths and chants, including performing rituals in native regalia ... Te Ata attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for one year. From there, she moved to New York City, where she met and married Clyde Fisher. During the 1930s she performed at summer camps in New York and New England ... In the prime of her career, she performed in England and Scandinavia, at the White House for President Franklin Roosevelt, for the King and Queen of Great Britain, and on stages across the United States ... Although Te Ata worked as an actor and drama instructor, she is best known for her artistic interpretations of Indian folklore, and for her children's book she co-authored on the subject ... Her world-renown talent has won her several honors including induction into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1957, being named The Ladies’ Home Journal Woman of the Year in 1976, being named Oklahoma's Official State Treasure in 1987, and having a lake near Bear Mountain in New York named in her honor ... She is also the subject of a video, God's Drum, the proceeds of which have supported the Te Ata Scholarship Fund for Indian students at her alma mater, the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha, Oklahoma.

Te Ata died Oct. 26, 1995, in Oklahoma City, though her legacy and influence on the Native American storytelling traditions continues to this day.

[evita-shelby]

Garden of Eden

Part iii

Cw: infidelity, mentions of sex, drama lots of fucking drama

Gif by @crackshipandcrap

Heaven Shelby is @call-sign-shark oc

(Prev)

(Next)

Gabriel has his distinctive features( and her coloring)and his premature birth is what moved his father’s heart to forgive her finally.

“I love you.” He had said without a hint of resentment or distrust. “Always have and always will.”

“We’re a match made in hell, Tom.” Eva had kissed him again as they enjoyed the quiet peace in her hospital room.

The witch doesn’t know who was more terrified, Eva who had never had a baby come earlier than the cards said or Tommy who had been about to tell her something before her back pain became a contraction.

As much as she is loath to admit it, this baby saved her marriage.

If it hadn’t been for him, Eva doesn’t know what would be of her knowing the wedding band on her finger won’t come off unless she’s dead.

But it’s easy to ignore the chains when you are happy, and she is happy with her children and her husband as her world tilts itself back into its right place in the months after Gabriel's birth.

Tommy ---unsurprisingly--- wins his election and had Eva cared about the feelings of the women he used like knives to hurt her; she would’ve been nicer to Jessie Eden who rounded up every communist to vote for him.

They are to celebrate this great achievement with a party they won’t forget.

Arthur and Heaven will be there.

And because she is coming, Tommy has decided he must stake his claim on his witch.

“Did you have to bite me?” Eva asks relieved to know no one will see it in the sexy number she’s gotten for the occasion.

“No one else but me is gonna be looking at you down there, Evie. If you’re a good girl for daddy, I’ll kiss it better when its over.” He said, burying his face in her stomach as they came down from that high she’d never trade for anything.

She had missed this, missed his neediness and unconditional trust and love.

As much as she had loved Heaven, she loved Tommy more.

Tommy was her soulmate; she couldn’t exist without him just as he couldn’t exist without her.

“Might lose a fork and return the favor during dinner.” She muttered and he agreed she should do it, mentioning with great fondness all those times he’d been handling business and she’d suck his prick like the good wife she is.

During one of the first campaign dinners, she’d snuck under the table and reminded him how good she was with her wicked mouth.

Eva had jokingly said she had gotten a sudden craving only he could satisfy and to this day she can’t look at white floor-length tablecloths without getting hot.

“I can lie and say we got a call from the American offices, that will give us all the time we need.” Her husband said as this pregame ritual ended.

They never got to do that.

Despite the awkwardness of two ex-lovers seeing each other and their husbands feeling the pinpricks of jealousy and other insecurities, the party is going fine.

Something is going make it all go to hell and Eva can’t relax because it has this feeling telling her it will be an unforgettable affair.

“You feel it too?” the French witch asks in her native language so only they ---and Thomas--- know what’s going on.

The last time she had a bad feeling this strong, she was shot by an Italian hired by Section D.

But everything is going great, too great. Like the calm before the storm.

In her anxiety, Eva bumps into someone and gets wine spilled all over her dress. Maybe it was that the witch thinks as she went upstairs to change.

But then Frances quietly pulled her aside saying a woman had come asking for her and her alone.

“Miss Stark is here.” Frances warns as she leads her to the kitchen and servant’s entrance and her wet dress forgotten.

This was the bad thing.

She knows it.

The witch knows exactly why Lizzie had the nerve to show up here after destroying their friendship by fucking her husband while their marriage was on the skids.

She knows what is waiting for her in the kitchen and yet Eva tells herself it might be something else.

And yet, Lizzie Stark stands there with a baby maybe a few weeks older than Gabe.

A little girl with a ruby red blanket with her name stitched on by Polly’s neat hand.

Eva hasn’t had a fainting spell in some years and suddenly it all came crashing down.

When she comes to, it takes Heaven and Ada to keep her from murdering Polly.

“You knew! You knew! You knew!” the witch seethed as the realization dawns on those gathered in the kitchens.

She had been brought upstairs, Lizzie taken to the cottage where the rest of the family stayed when they visited, and some lie is told to keep their guests none the wiser.

After her episode where she nearly throttled Polly, Polly who she trusted like an older sister, Polly who never kept a thing from her, she and tommy are left alone in their room.

“Evie, sweetheart.” He tries to calm her down, but she pushed him away feeling disgust at his touch. “I tried, but I---”

“But what, you knew you wouldn’t have a fucking leg to stand on when you made me beg for your love all those months.” The witch scoffed as she dried her tears and poured herself a glass of water and felt it shatter in her hands when her anger breaks it.

“I wanted to tell you, believe me, but I, I didn’t want to lose you.” He said justifying his fucking lies.

“She had a child, your child, Thomas!” Eva reminds him with a hiss.

In comparison to his fuck up, her fuck up looks minimal.

And it had been, Eva had not treated him differently, loved him just as she always did even when she escaped to Pebblebrock with Heaven for a weekend or two.

Lizzie had told him the day he called her to his office, and he’d told her it was over.

Lizzie had become his mistress because it hurt Eva. Lizzie had been amongst her first friends in Small Heath and that betrayal had hurt her enough to demand she never set foot in her house ever again.

Lizzie had held on to those feelings for him she had always had, and he used her weakness to hurt Eva.

Evie and I are going to give us another try; he had said looking at the coin that led him to his witch, we’re having another baby.

Tom, I’m pregnant, she had said in response.

Only Polly knew about Ruby and that picturesque cottage far away from Arrow, Warwickshire, Lizzie didn’t lack for anything.

She was free to live her own life and maybe one day Ruby would know her father and her half-siblings, or if her mother wanted to, have a better man to call father and not the fucker who only used her mother.

He had tried to tell her. He was going to that day Gabe was born, but he lost his nerve when he saw her look at him with the same adoration and love she had for him when Charlie and Diane had been born.

How could he ruin everything when they were finally happy again.

“I’m sorry, Evie.” He chokes on his words because he knows this is something she may not forgive.

Her affair didn’t result in a fucking child with his friend.

Her affair wasn’t the result of deliberate cruelty.

“If I wanted to leave, would you let me go?” she asks, and he stays silent.

The answer is no.

Tommy would never let her go, he’d rather kill her and himself than live a moment where Eva isn’t his nor he isn’t hers.

Even when he cheated on her to hurt her, his heart nor mind could ever entertain thoughts of letting her go and start anew with anyone else.

“We’re a match made in hell, love.” He said coming to sit beside her on their bed and cleaning up the mess he caused.

Whatever price she wanted him to pay, he’d pay it gladly.

One day she’d forgive him, just as he’d forgiven her.

[eaglestrong-falcon]

[the-trans-folk-witch]

Spirits within Part 2: The Heart.

The Body and its Passions: The Mid-World Within.

This post is the opinion and belief of one folkloric witch. It is not a historical reference post or source for proper study. It is just spiritual beliefs I have formed from what I’ve learned in history and from other trad craft traditions. This is not a part of all witchcraft traditions and is not a belief all people hold. Feel free to disregard what doesn’t resonate. If you like what you read please let me know. I am always open to topical discussions.

The midself, the talker, the talking self, the heart, the soul, and even the ego. These are all terms for this spirit within the body.

In part one of this series I discussed the Fetch. The spirit hidden within us and repressed by many world religions. Yet praised by the witch. In this post I will discuss the Heart. The spirit above the fetch or shade.

The heart as I prefer to call it is exactly as it sounds. It’s the heart. It’s your passions. It’s your ego. Some traditions view it as the talker. The part of you that does all of the talking and relaying your feelings to others. It is emotion and earthly relation. The most human part of yourself.

As all parts of the spirit, it is housed somewhere in the body. In my tradition is it in the heart and the throat area. It dictates my voice, my passions, and my distaste for the world around me. This spirit is not maligned like the fetch. Although it is jaded due to the state of the world we live in. In my tradition this spirit acts as a go between for my fetch and my ouranic (higher) self. It shares my feelings and work of my other spirits with the world around me. This is the spirit I use to converse with the divine and the unclean. The phone between worlds. It’s the spirit that opens itself up to experience. Mediums and psychics these days ignore the multiple soul idea, but this is the spirit within us that’s responsible for the “Clair-senses” despite my distaste for those terms. (Who even is Claire and why is she so aware??) the ability to see, hear, smell, taste, or feel spirit is all thanks to the heart. Unlike the other main parts of the spiritual body, this one is very physical for me. It is not only a spirit, but the spirit of my blood and bone itself. The spirit given to me by my ancestors.

In many African, Asian, Eastern European, and Native American beliefs, there is a concept of past lives. But past lives of then are NOT like the watered-down, new age, white, and western concepts as they are now. They were not cross cultural nor avoiding time periods. —You were not viewed as being a black woman in a past life and being a wealthy white woman who does yoga now. —They were ancestral. The spirit of your blood ancestors was this spirit which was and has been passed down through your blood. The heart of your grandparents is the same heart that pumps in the chest of your parents. It is the soul made by the coming together of a family. It is a spirit that has followed you forever. And it will follow your descendants. In my belief this can be transferred to anyone not blood related to you via blood ritual. The age old belief of cutting your finger and a friend’s before pressing them together to form a pact. This passes the spirit of your heart and your ancestors to the other. This is the Heart. This is ancestry and your past lives.

In the afterlife I view this spirit as becoming nature itself. Since it is so tied to the body, it becomes the earth as our bodies rot postmortem. It returns to the underworld or the world within. Where the dust that became bone resides. Where the ancestors and first humans were made. And part of it goes on in your descendants. whether born to you or transferred by blood, It lives on.

If it were to be seen, it would be in a mirror. In an obsidian mirror I have seen it myself. A glowing golden heart pulsing in my reflection. I watched as golden light flooded my veins all across my body. Watching it spread through me and around me. And even dripped onto the rabbit bones I was feeding my blood to. There it remained and continued to glow. A new family member and extension of myself was born. When you feed spirits your blood, they are you and you are them. But that is another post.

The Fetch as discussed in part 1 is viewed as a corrupted shade which all people have. Only the fetch is solely of the witch. The heart however is human in all ways. Witches, people, and animals alike have this spirit within them. Although they may have different passions and virtues to them, they all have the same function. They connect us to each other. They speak for us and feel for us. They are the most human part of us. The part that needs to be cared for with good spiritual hygiene. The part of us that needs to have a nice warm home to turn to in the dead of winter. A part that can be stained by the conjuring of dark spirits. It is not like the fetch. It requires our bodies to be cleansed to avoid illness. Just as the heart of the body must be kept healthy by eating a balanced diet, the spiritual heart must be fed good things too. It is the body. It’s the part that needs “grounding” or humanization. The part that should be reminded we are not spirits yet, but one-being for now.

[hedgewitchgarden]

On a crisp afternoon last spring, visiting student Yair Berzofsky found himself in the largest park in Prague captivated by the sight of a human effigy burning on a tall pyre. He took notice of the children in play armor who ran past him wearing giant purple hats and jousted with foam swords as adults drank, danced, and beat drums. The figure in the bonfire was part of this year’s Čarodějnice, a celebratory burning of winter witches. Berzofsky watched the woman’s frame crumple as celebrants took turns roasting sausages and marshmallows over the fiery branches.

“The witch burning was not the reason everyone came,” he later tells us, adding that the event was a testament to Prague’s “ability to not just rehash an old tradition, but to turn it into a reason to celebrate its heritage.”

At the end of each winter, Czechs and diasporic Slavs celebrate Čarodějnice, a variation of the ancestral Walpurgis Night—the Christian Saint Walpurga’s feast day, during which observers light bonfires to ward off witches in Europe and the United States. While some see a witch-burning parties as distasteful, as it recalls a dark history of persecution and murder, Čarodějnice harks back to similar pre-Christian traditions. Berzofsky fondly recalls the event’s warm and charming energy: “In a weird way, I felt at home.”

The witch burning evokes customs associated with Slavic gods and goddesses. As author Michael Mojhe describes in his writings, some deities in the Slavic pantheons lived on through equivalent Christian saints, but others were abandoned. Two critical examples are Jarilo, god of war, vegetation, and spring, and his oppositely aligned sister Morana, goddess of witchcraft,  death, and winter.

While Slovakians reimagined Jarilo as St. George during Christianity’s spread across Europe in the late 900s, Morana was not. This was partially due to the Catholic Church’s patriarchy but also because she lacked a counterpart in a Christian tradition vehemently opposed to witchcraft and a female god. The burning or even drowning of her effigy, much like the one Berzofsky witnessed, is a Pagan tradition both celebrating winter’s end and ritually recognizing her cultural death.

Like the continued celebration of Čarodějnice, this story follows those of Slavic descent reclaiming an ancient faith tradition—namely, witchcraft—that endured centuries of erasure from Christian institutions. Both of us, authors Emma Cieslik and Alexandra Sikorski, are from Polish American families and grew up in the Catholic Church. It wasn’t until Sikorski began researching contemporary Paganism that we learned of Slavic religious practices prior to the sweep of Christianity in Europe. Researching the contemporary reclamation of Slavic witchcraft as an aspect of cultural identity—especially when invasion and destruction threaten that culture, as in Ukraine now—has become for us a way to reclaim parts of our heritage we never knew existed.

The term Slavic, or the culture of Slavs, encompasses an ethnolinguistic group of multiple ethnicities and cultures that share similarities in food, language, and cultural practices across Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe. The Slavic world extends from Russia in the east to Czechia in the west to North Macedonia in the south. Beyond these countries are Slavic immigrants and their descendants, including both of us, who exist in diasporic communities around the world.

“In Slavic Paganism, there are broad practices, but there are also some specific to the regions within each country,” Stephania Short, a Slavic Pagan, explains. These specific practices are often what come under threat. Invaders have fought over and died for rich farmlands of what is now Ukraine for hundreds if not thousands of years, making Russia’s recent attack on its sovereignty feel like a continuation of centuries-old conflict. It may come as no surprise that a long history of Slavic immigration, religion, and war shaped various Slavic practices and traditions. For Short, part of her witchcraft involves connecting with her Ukrainian ancestral roots—an act made all the more essential by recent events.

“People are looking for ancient meaning,” says Slovakian tour guide Helene Cincebaux. “I think there’s a fascination with Slavic culture, the rituals—maybe the plants, the herbs, things they did. They were natural healers.”

Witchcraft and Paganism existed in Slavic regions long before Christianity found a home. Even when witchcraft faced persecution, its traditions persisted, reimagined within the constraints of the new dominant religion.

In the UK, the 1950s emergence of Wicca, a nature-based, Pagan duotheistic religion, led to the repopularizing of witchcraft and other alternative belief systems. In the same way that native religions varied across Slavic areas, the term “witchcraft” does not refer to a singular identity. “Witches,” including those who do not use this term but exist under the umbrella of witchcraft, participate in a variety of practices and hold diverse spiritual beliefs. These include contemporary Paganism, folk Catholicism, and Wicca.

Where one person uses tarot, another may not. Where one person views hexes as inherently unethical, another may not. Where one person venerates deities, another may not or may only venerate one. Despite this diversity of practice, some people avoid using the term “witch” because it was and may still be used as a derogatory label for people holding spiritual power outside Christianity, as well as those who exist outside social norms.

In Eurocentric and Americentric beliefs, the prototype for a witch is a woman or femme presenting person who is targeted because of their practices. during the second wave of feminism, some women turned to witchcraft as liberation from the patriarchy, finding empowerment in venerating goddesses. Together, they could create a community through common practices in witchcraft, such as yearly festivals that mark the passage of time. According to a survey conducted by researcher Helen A. Berger between 2008 and 2010, 71.6 percent of contemporary Pagans, including various religions and witchcraft, are women. The faith has also become a safe haven for some LGBTQ+ individuals.

Ever since Christianity spread to Slavic Europe in the 900s, people who existed on the margins of society were accused or and persecuted for witchcraft, including literate women and individuals with limb differences and disabilities. It became a scapegoat identifier for people the Church deemed dangerous or different. Similarly, queer researcher Mara Gold explains, “those accused of witchcraft were generally those that didn’t fit the norms of the gender binary, including [LGTBQ+] people and poor older women discarded by society.”

Polish photographer Agata Kalinowska’s monograph Yaga supports and holds space for LGBTQ+ individuals within witchcraft. The diary, which includes photographs documenting thirteen years of queer women’s spaces, takes its name from Baba Yaga, a ferocious witch from Slavic folklore. For Kalinowska, this title is important because it speaks to how Baba Yaga creates space for queer witches:

Now there are women in Poland who empower such figures of older independent women… women who know a lot about nature, power of plants, the importance of female and nonbinary friendships. They are Yagas, they don’t belong to the world created around beauty myths, they queer the system.

Witches of the Church

“A lot of witchcraft is heavily intertwined with Christianity,” explains Sara Raztresen, a Slovenian American witch. Although Christianity sought to erase native religions, many Pagan traditions became embedded in Christian practice. Converts tethered Pagan deities to saints with similar iconography.

After the Catholic Church arrived in Slovenia, locals began to identify Kresnik, the god of the sun, fire, and storms, with St. John and St. George. So Kresnik, the head deity of the Slovenian pantheon, is no longer as prevalent as the saints who inherited his role. Kresnik, St. John, and St. George are among the entities with whom Raztresen actively communicates.

On those days, she sets her altar with offerings associated with the deity with whom she intends to speak. For Kresnik, this includes herbs and flowers related to his role as patron of summer, such as chamomile and daisies. When the deity makes their presence known, Raztresen asks questions that are answered through the tarot cards she pulls, acting as a conduit between the two.

One of these practices is “kitchen witchcraft,” a broad practice that encourages intention and focus, using many on-hand food ingredients with magic and symbolic meaning. For kitchen witch Raztresen and others, their practices often involve using ingredients key to their ethnic backgrounds, such as meats, grains, spices, and more that are native to their ancestral homelands. Kitchen witchcraft and other ethnic household rituals allow people like Raztresen to connect with their heritage even if they live far away.

However, the intermingling of Christianity and witchcraft among Slavs doesn’t erase the stigma the Catholic Church perpetuates against witchcraft. Today many Slavic witches practice their craft as a form of opposition against religious institutions. Raztresen says, “[Church goers] all want you to do the white button-up collar thing in Church,” but there’s a great diversity of Christian practices that include elements of witchcraft and folk traditions.

Similar to experiences across the world, the Church inquisitors in Slavic regions interrogated, tortured, and executed a number of witches. Scholar Michael Ostling states in early modern Poland, the Catholic Church executed approximately 2,000 people for witchcraft, most from the lower socioeconomic classes. The best documented example of this persecution is perhaps the 1775 Doruchów witch trial in Poland, where the Church executed fourteen women, although historians have debated the year and number of victims.

Immediately, marginalized people and their loved ones, as well as other concerned citizens across Eastern and Central Europe started questioning these claims of witchcraft. It wasn’t until 1776 that Poland outlawed torture and the death penalty—partly in response to the Doruchów witch trial. Today, more than two centuries later, people like Raztresen are exploring how their own ethnic traditions are rooted in pre-Christian pagan and witchcraft practices. They are reclaiming how practices persecuted on threat of torture and death lived on through cooking, praying, and sewing traditions.

The Strength of Color

Stephania Short was introduced to spiritualism at the age of thirteen after watching her mom pull tarot. By ninth grade, she “didn’t necessarily believe in God,” and as the years went by, she grew more connected to her Ukrainian roots. She reached out to family members and went to her mom to learn more about Ukrainian cultural traditions and spiritual beliefs. Like Raztresen, Short practices her witchcraft to celebrate her Slavic heritage.

“Paganism kind of allows you to practice with everything that our ancestors would, so everything is based off of the land,” she says. Plants and herbs that are abundant in Ukraine, such as rosemary, are important in her craft.

Like herbs, colors hold meanings in Ukrainian witchcraft traditions. Short explains, “Red is a symbol of strength and protection. Gold symbolizes abundance and prosperity and good luck. Blue symbolizes peace and healing and just kind vibes all around.” With this knowledge, she now intentionally decorates her pysanky, traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs, with these colors to welcome the spring.

Deepening the importance of the color red in Ukrainian witchcraft, poppies represent strength and prosperity. Short aims to incorporate the flower into her spell work and practice “as a form of appreciation for [her] ancestors.” To Short, spells may be made with and for a diverse array of occasions and situations. She defines them as “basically manifestations: energy or intentions that you’re pursuing out for the universe to grasp onto.” Herbs, like rosemary or poppy, and flame may speed up this process. Even the color of the candles may impact the spell. “All elements you use connect to your intentions with the spell, as they carry their own energies.” For Short and many other Slavic witches, the study and practice of Slavic witchcraft involves learning the meanings behind these cultural beliefs.

When winter bleeds into spring, effigies of Morana are drowned or burned just as Berzofsky witnessed, ushering in new life. The Catholic Church banned this practice in the fifteenth century, so the residents of some Slavic countries replaced her with an effigy of Judas. But the custom of burning Morana lived on. Short’s cousin introduced her to Morana. Before, she hadn’t been aware that Slavic Paganism contained so many deities. However, she doesn’t “believe in gods and goddesses necessarily.” Instead, she views it as alluring and something she needs to acknowledge.

Short discusses Slavic and Ukrainian witch practices on social media, from beliefs surrounding native gods and goddesses to the use and meaning of native Ukrainian herbs in spell work. The importance of this has risen in light of the current war. “I’m maybe a little biased, but the Russians’ goal is to eliminate our culture,” she says. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian witch has become a symbol of solidarity for some—recalling the woman of the past who fights for her cultural heritage (her native religion) in the face of erasure and destruction at the hands of the Christian Church.

Images of Ukrainian witches appear on the Ukraine War NFT Collection and among Ukrainian cosplayers around the world, alongside messages showing the strength of Ukrainian people. Madame Pamita, a Ukrainian American witch and author of Baba Yaga’s Book of Witchcraft, explains that during the invasion, traditions and practices have grown more dear, more important to preserve. Ukrainians and other people in Slavic diasporas see the rediscovery of their traditions and practices as a healing tool.

Healing

Emblems of Slavic witchcraft have been interwoven with messages of Ukrainian solidarity, including motanka dolls, 5,000-year-old symbols of feminine wisdom and guards for families within Ukrainian folk traditions. Motanka dolls are talismans unique to each family and symbolize connection between familial generations.

Madame Pamita’s grandmother was a baba sheptukha (баба шептуха), a healer who made motanky (мотанки) spirit dolls, but her grandmother died before she was born. Although she heard about these practices, she never knew how to perform them. Others share a similar experience of unfamiliarity, but a mother-and-daughter team in British Columbia are changing that by creating and selling motanka dolls as a fundraiser for Ukrainian relief.

With attention on agency and the self, Slavic witchcraft encourages healing and identity formation. It focuses on reflection and connection. Even if they aren’t recognized as religious practices, the cornerstones of many Slavic witchcraft traditions can be uncovered in small Ukrainian dolls, Slovenian kitchens, and large celebrations. Ukrainians and their allies are preserving these traditions for solidarity, fundraising, and strength.

The presence of magic may not be obvious, but it is simply a matter of perspective. That perspective may bring people closer to culture they may feel disconnected from in diasporic communities or from being part of a marginalized people. It may bring them their own version of spiritual happiness and cultural enrichment.

Emma Cieslik is a museum professional in the Washington, D.C., area and a former curatorial intern at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

Alexandra Sikorski is a writing intern at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and a master’s student in public anthropology at American University. When she isn’t researching contemporary witchcraft, she enjoys dissecting material culture and design.

[xtruss]

Who Were The Tarim Basin Mummies? Even Scientists Were Surprised. The Enigmatic, Extremely Well-preserved Mummies Still Defy Explanation—and Draw Controversy.

— By Erin Blakemore | September 15, 2023

Hundreds of bodies have been excavated from cemeteries like this one around the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, a region of Western China. Known as the Tarim Basin mummies, these people lived some 4,000 years ago—and their ancient DNA has yielded surprising insights. Photograph By Wenying LI, XinJiang Institute of Cultural Relics And Archaeology

Though they died thousands of years ago, hundreds of bodies excavated in East Asia’s Tarim Basin look remarkably alive. They retain the hairstyles, clothing, and accoutrements of a long-past culture—one that once seemed to suggest they were migrant Indo-Europeans who settled in what is now China thousands of years ago.

But the mummies’ seemingly perfect state of preservation wasn’t their only surprise. When modern DNA research revealed the preserved bodies were people indigenous to the Tarim Basin—yet genetically distinct from other nearby populations—the Tarim Basin mummies became even more enigmatic. Today, researchers still ask questions about their cultural practices, their daily lives, and their role in the spread of modern humanity across the globe.

How Were The Tarim Basin Mummies Found?

Buried in a variety of cemeteries around the basin as long as 4,000 years ago, the naturally mummified corpses were first unearthed by European explorers in the early 20th century. Over time, more and more of the Tarim bodies were unearthed, along with their spectacular cultural relics. To date, hundreds have been found. The earliest of the mummies are about 2,100 years old, while more recent mummies have been dated to about 500 B.C.

One of the most famous mummies found in the Tarim Basin is the Princess of Xiaohe, also known as the Beauty of Xiaohe. Named for the cemetery where her body was found, she is remarkably well-preserved even down to her eyelashes. Photograph By Wenying LI, XinJiang Institute of Cultural Relics And Archaeology

Who Really Were The Tarim Basin Mummies?

At first, the mummies’ Western-like attire and European-like appearance prompted hypotheses that they were the remains of an Indo-European group of migrant people with roots in Europe, perhaps related to Bronze-Age herders from Siberia or farmers in what is now Iran.

They had blond, brown, and red hair, large noses, and wore bright, sometimes elaborate clothing fashioned from wool, furs, or cowhide. Some wore pointed, witch-like hats and some of the clothing was made of felted or woven cloth, suggesting ties to Western European culture.

Still others wore plaid reminiscent of the Celts—perhaps most notably one of the mummies known as Chärchän Man, who stood over six feet tall, had red hair and a full beard, and was buried over a thousand years ago in a tartan skirt.

Another of the most famous of the bodies is that of the so-called “Princess” or “Beauty” of Xiaohe, a 3,800-year-old woman with light hair, high cheekbones, and long, still-preserved eyelashes who seems to be smiling in death. Though she wore a large felt hat and fine clothing and even jewelry in death, it is unclear what position she may have occupied in her society.

But the 2021 study of 13 of the mummies’ ancient DNA led to the current consensus that they belonged to an isolated group that lived throughout the now desert-like region during the Bronze Age, adopting their neighbors’ farming practices but remaining distinct in culture and genetics.

Scientists concluded that the mummies were descendants of Ancient North Eurasians, a relatively small group of ancient hunter-gatherers who migrated to Central Asia from West Asia and who have genetic links to modern Europeans and Native Americans.

How Were They Mummified?

These bodies were not mummified intentionally as part of any burial ritual. Rather, the dry, salty environment of the Tarim Basin—which contains the Taklimakan Desert, one of the world’s largest—allowed the bodies to decay slowly, and sometimes minimally. The extreme winter cold of the area is also thought to have helped along their preservation.

How Were They Buried?

Many bodies were interred in “boat-shaped wooden coffins covered with cattle hides and marked by timber poles or oars,” according to researchers. The discovery of the herb ephedra in the burial sites suggests it had either a medical or religious significance—but what that religion might have been, or why some burials involve concentric rings of wooden stakes, is still unclear.

Mummified corpses were first unearthed in the Tarim Basin by European explorers in the early 20th century. Their Western-like appearance and clothing originally led researchers to believe these ancient people were migrants from Europe—but DNA later debunked that theory. Photograph By Wenying LI, XinJiang Institute of Cultural Relics And Archaeology

What Did They Eat?

Masks, twigs, possibly phallic objects, and animal bones found at the mummies’ cemeteries provide a tantalizing view of their daily lives and rituals. Though most questions about their culture remain unanswered, the burials did point to their diets and the fact that they were farmers. The mummies were interred with barley, millet, and wheat, even necklaces featuring the oldest cheese ever found. This indicates that they not only farmed, but raised ruminant animals.

What Were Their Daily Lives Like?

The Tarim Basin dwellers were genetically distinct. But their practices, from burial to cheesemaking, and their clothing, which reflects techniques and artistry practiced in far-off places at the time, seem to show they mixed with, and learned from, other cultures, adopting their practices over time and incorporating them into a distinct civilization.

Researchers now believe their daily lives involved everything from farming ruminant animals to metalworking and basketmaking—helped along by the fact that the now-desolate desert of the Tarim Basin region was once much greener and had abundant freshwater.

Researchers also believe that the Tarim Basin residents traded and interacted with other people in what would eventually become a critical corridor on the Silk Road, linking East and West in the arid desert.

But archaeologists still have much to learn about what daily life was like for these ancient humans, including who they traded with, what religious beliefs they adopted, and whether their society was socially stratified.

Most of the bodies were found buried in boat-shaped coffins like this one, with the site typically marked by oars. This coffin is covered with a cattle hide, suggesting that the Tarim Basin people raised cattle and other ruminant animals. Photograph By Wenying LI, XinJiang Institute of Cultural Relics And Archaeology

Why Are The Tarim Basin Mummies Controversial?

The amazingly preserved mummies have long fascinated archaeologists. But the Tarim Basin mummies have also become political flashpoints. The Tarim Basin is located in the modern-day Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, land claimed by China’s Uyghur minority. Uyghur nationalists claim the mummies are their forbears, but the Chinese government refutes this and has been reluctant to allow scientists to study the mummies or look at their ancient DNA.

In 2011, China withdrew a group of the mummies from a traveling exhibition, claiming they were too fragile to transport. Some research about the mummies’ DNA has been criticized as downplaying the region’s distinctness in support of China’s attempts to assimilate Uyghur people. Just as more remains to be learned about the enigmatic mummies, their future as political and national symbols remains disputed too.

[bodyalive]

On the Texas Border, Folk Healers Bring Modern Touches to Their Ancient Practice

Known as curanderas, they carry on a tradition long revered in local Hispanic culture.

By Edgar Sandoval

Photographs by Verónica Gabriela Cárdenas

Edgar Sandoval grew up in Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley, where Verónica Gabriela Cárdenas lives and where both covered this story.

Dec. 16, 2023

On a recent day, Chriselda Hernandez heard a knock at her door in the Texas border town of Edinburg. It was a college student who said she was suffering from a string of bad luck. A drunken driver had crashed into her car. Then someone broke into the new car she was driving and stole her laptop. “I need a limpia,” she pleaded — a spiritual cleanse.

Ms. Hernandez moved to an altar in her living room that bore an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Slowly, she mixed a concoction of sage and palo santo, a wood native to South America, and lit it with a match. Then she turned back to the young woman and waved the healing smoke over her body.

“You are holding on to something,” Ms. Hernandez whispered to her. “Let it go. There is no shame.”

For generations, Hispanic communities along the Southern border have turned to curanderas, or folk healers, like Ms. Hernandez, often seen in the popular imagination as old women with candles and religious icons operating in the shadows of society out of rusty shacks.

But the ancient healing art has entered the age of Instagram. More and more younger people are taking on rituals they learned from their grandmothers and deploying them against 21st century problems. They conduct limpias on public beaches, trade recipes online for blocking “envy energies” and sell artisan candles bearing the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in shops. Their clients are often college-educated, like Clarissa Ochoa, the young woman who went to Ms. Hernandez for help.

“I think it’s an honor to be a curandera; it is something very beautiful, but also very limiting,” said Ms. Hernandez, 42. “I feel like we are breaking those boundaries, that curanderas are just herbs and little old ladies. My calling is just to heal whoever I can.”

A culture of folk healing preceded the arrival of Spaniard conquistadors to Latin America and Mexico. Over time, curanderos, a term used for healers of both genders, began mixing Indigenous rituals with elements of Catholicism and influences from Asian and African folk traditions along the way.

The practice has taken hold in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, located a stone’s throw from the Mexican border, in large part out of necessity. Hidalgo County, home to McAllen and a majority Hispanic population, has one of the highest rates in the nation of people without health insurance, and many people rely on curanderas for lack of other affordable options, said Servando Z. Hinojosa, a professor of anthropology who teaches a class on Mexican-American folk medicine at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Mr. Hinojosa said many Hispanic residents also tend to be mistrustful of the medical establishment. This is especially true when it comes to mental health. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that while the number of Black, Asian and white people who have sought mental health care treatments has climbed in recent years, there has been very little movement among Latinos.

“There’s an element of distrust, but there is also structural alienation,” Mr. Hinojosa said. “They are a population that will seek affordable resources, and they will go to where the products are and where the advice is to be found.”

In the past, the medical establishment has warned people not to rely on folk remedies for physical ailments, some of which can be harmful. Many Latino children have fallen ill and even died after consuming such remedies known as albayalde, azarcon and rueda, powders often used for stomach-related illnesses that have been found to contain lead.

Curanderismo has become so accepted in the Rio Grande Valley that it is not unusual to see street signs and TV ads advertising folk healing services.

Ms. Hernandez said her great-grandmothers had both been parteras, or midwives. When she was a little girl, she said, she discovered that she possessed her own set of gifts; as she grew older, she said, she began interacting with an entity she believes to be the Angel of Death, Azrael. She works at a cellphone call center and lives with a girlfriend in a modern house in the suburbs of Edinburg, a city close to the border.

“You make it your own. There is no right or wrong. You do what’s right for you,” Ms. Hernandez said.

Another modern folk healer, Danielle López, 39, a former student of Mr. Hinojosa who said she also learned she had a don, a gift, as a young girl, has embraced the moniker of millennial curandera. She has combined the old traditions she learned from the grandmother who raised her, Consuelo López, and an aunt, Esperanza Rodriguez, with new skills learned at institutions of higher education.

Her academic record includes a master of arts in interdisciplinary studies with a concentration in Mexican-American literature, medical anthropology and Latin art history at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She is completing a doctorate in English with a focus on borderlands literature at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she is also a lecturer.

“For me it’s a continuity,” she said of her spiritual work. “I feel like we need it more now.”

It is not unusual for people to ask her for trabajitos, little jobs, including blessings, limpias and home remedies, when she is not buried in books. Not long ago, Ms. López got a request to bless a new business for a friend. When Ms. López cleansed the establishment with a bouquet of roses, six petals fell, prompting her to warn her friend that six people “did not have good intent.”

“They may say they are happy about her new business, but they are not.”

She also sometimes offers more science-based advice. When people tell her that they are feeling anxious or cannot sleep, she recommends that they cut their intake of sugar or caffeine. Because the advice comes from a curandera, she said, people tend to trust that she has their best interests at heart.

The concept of a curandera is so pervasive in Latino enclaves that in September the Texas Diabetes Institute, a state-of-the-art facility operated by University Health on San Antonio’s west side, a historical Mexican-American neighborhood, brought back to its lobby a sprawling wall-size painting, “La Curandera,” by the Chicano painter Jesus Treviño, who died early this year. The painting had been removed for restoration.

Still, when it comes to luck and matters of the heart, many people avoid professional help and turn to curanderas, because there is no substitute, said Sasha García, 39, a curandera who is known for her fire-red hair.

In northern Mexico, where Indigenous culture is not as widespread and the Catholic Church’s hold is stronger, Ms. García said, her ancestors often operated in the shadows to avoid the stigma associated with folk healers. By contrast, on the American side of the border, she not only feels freer to practice openly, but some Catholic priests stop by for her counsel, she said.

Ms. García welcomes clients at La Casa de la Santísima Yerberia in the city of Pharr, near McAllen, next to two imposing statues of La Santísima Muerte, skeletons each wearing red and black robes. Ms. García reminds people that while the image of La Santísima, a Latina version of the Grim Reaper, may evoke frightening emotions, death is to be revered.

“If you pray to her properly, she can heal and deliver love, freedom and wealth,” she said. “I only ask her for positive things.” (She laments that criminal elements along the border and in Mexico have appropriated the image.)

On a recent afternoon, Jocelyn Acevedo, 27, a frequent client of hers who runs a credit repair service, arrived for her monthly limpia. She had heard about Ms. García four years ago and after the first limpia, she said, she saw her business begin to boom. She was so convinced by the session that she since has regularly driven 60 miles from nearby Starr County, near the Rio Grande, for her sessions. She now has a tattoo of La Santísima.

Ms. García instructed Ms. Acevedo to rub three coconuts all over her body. Ms. García then broke them on the ground to release what she said was the negative energy her client had been carrying.

“Did it work? Of course,” Ms. Acevedo said.

Ms. García has embraced touches of modernity along with the old customs, including consultations now offered over FaceTime. Her clients have responded with their own offerings from popular culture, including a sign one brought in that now hangs on the front door: “Witch Parking Only.”

“No one listens,” Ms. García said with a smile. “The word may be becoming more modern, but we curanderas are still here. Just don’t park in my spot.”

Edgar Sandoval covers Texas for The Times, with a focus on the Latino community and the border with Mexico. He is based in San Antonio. More about Edgar Sandoval

[thewarmestplacetohide]

hi! i love your blog :D. this might be a weird one but do you have any recommendations for possession or demon movies that DON'T deal with Christianity or where Christianity isn't the solution? thanks!

thank you ❤️!!

Suspiria (1977; Italy): occult/giallo; the students of a dance academy begin to die horribly; no specific religion

The Evil Dead (1981; USA): occult/horror comedy; a group of college kids discover an occult tome while vacationing in a cabin; no specific religion

Hellraiser (1987; UK): occult/supernatural horror; a puzzle box that summons interdimensional sadistmasochists falls into nefarious hands; no specific religion

Evil Dead II (1987; USA): occult/horror comedy; a young man is beset by demons while staying in the cabin of an occult researcher; no specific religion

Army of Darkness (1992; USA): occult/horror comedy; after Evil Dead II, Ash finds himself fighting deadites in the Middle Ages; Christianity is there but not the solution

Noroi: The Curse (2005; Japan): occult/found footage; a paranormal investigator tries to tie together a series of bizarre events; Shinto

Evil Dead (2013; USA): occult/slasher/reboot; a group of friends run afoul of demons while trying to help their friend get sober; no specific religion

Jug Face (2013; USA): occult/cosmic horror; a young woman tries to evade fate in a village that worships a bloody thirsty entity; fictional cult

The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014; USA): occult/found footage; a documentary crew follows a woman dealing with dementia (warning: there is a racially insensitive aspect regarding Native American beliefs)

Baskin (2015; Turkey): occult/surrealist; a police squad stumble upon a horrifying ritual; Islam

Satan's Slaves (2017; Indonesia): occult; after dying of a strange illness, a woman returns for her children; Islam

The Ritual (2017; UK): occult; a group of friends get lost in an eerie Norwegian forest; fictional Nordic cult

May the Devil Take You (2018; Indonesia): occult; an estranged daughter seeks an explanation for her father's strange illness; religion not specified

8: A South African Horror Story (2019; South Africa): occult; a financially struggling family contends with sins of the past; South African folk religion

The Vigil (2019; USA): occult; a young man struggling with his faith sits vigil for a recently deceased man; Judaism

The Night House (2020; USA): occult/supernatural horror; a woman fears her home is haunted after her husband's suicide; fictional occult beliefs

Nevanji (2021; Zimbabwe): occult; a family turns to traditional magic to save their son; unspecified Zimbabwean religion

The Old Ways (2020; USA): occult; a reporter returns to her home in Mexico and is accused of being possessed; traditional Nahua faith

The Offering (2023; USA): occult; a man returns to his father's funeral home to try to repair their relationship; Judaism

Evil Dead Rise (2023; USA); occult; a boy accidentally awakens an ancient evil that plagued his family; Christianity is explicitly stated to NOT be the solution

When Evil Lurks (2023; Argentina): occult/supernatural horror; two brothers try to outrun evil after encountering a "rotten," someone spiritually gestating a demon; God is declared dead

[afledglings-guideto-witchcraft]

Does sage only work for those who are Native american? If no, why is it considered close?

Sage works for every one if the intention is there, sage is a good herb for cleansing your home of negative energy. However, WHITE sage is an endangered plant that is used in the Native American rituals called "smudging". Smudging, can only be performed by a Native American Shaman (or, medicine man/woman). Anyone else can use white sage, however it must be bought by a Native person, so long as you aren't claiming to "smudge" with it, the appropriate term for non Natives is "smoke cleansing" (which that can be found in practically every other open culture out there).

There are many other herbs that are great (and in my opinion, better, to use than sage).

Angelica, Basil, Birch, Cedar, Cinnamon, Clove, Eucalyptus, Juniper, Lavender, Mint, Parsley, Pine, and Popular are all excellent and not endangered herbs that can be used to cleanse negative energy.

Other ways to cleanse the home of negativity include: Cleansing sprays (water, salt and lemon with any of the herbs listed above) make an excellent way to cleanse without causing an asthma reaction to transpire.

Music cleansing (or bells) is also a good way to cleanse. Simply play any music that makes you feel energetic and happy throughout your home.

Opening up all of your doors and windows is also a good way to cleanse the home. This form allows the outside air to filter inside your home and push out the negativity.

The best way to cleanse a home is by literally cleaning it. Throw out clutter and cleanse your walls, windows and every surface of your home. You can use the spray method on your walls and surfaces and even sprinkle salt into your carpets, use the spray method on your hard floors.

There are so many creative ways to cleanse a home and yourself that do not appropriate and kill an already endangered herb, they'll also leave you feeling refreshed and assured that your home is now cleansed.