#oracle stones

[iam-awake422]

[dailydccomics]

Birds of Prey and Titans 🎃 by Kelley Jones

[oceanmint01]

[palaeosinensis]

The Smilodon prospective oracle card.

[solarsystems-greatestpsychic]

You should be stoned in the town square

NOBODY WOULD DARE TO!

[supermarvelgirl15]

When they're protective of their boy wonder 💞

[digital-oracle]

Shout out stone tops who only like to fuck with their clothes on. as someone who is of the opinion that people are way sexier in a nice outfit than naked, holy shit sex where im fully exposed for a top that is completely dressed is the best kind of sex hands down

[mysterycitrus]

dc character combos that don’t really exist rn but definitely would if warner bros discovery handed me the wheel:

1. oracle and cyborg — bro this would be SO sexy. loss of personhood and autonomy + liberation through information and technology??? VISIONARY. they could talk about how their dad’s are kinda fucked up. they both love accidentally adopting children. i need a limited series STAT

2. starfire and poison ivy — litchrally the photosynthesis gang. womanhood and the violent loss of self and the unending horror of feeling. u want to protect what u love and u are feared for it. maybe they could kiss!! know their wrath!!!!

3. mr miracle and nightwing — oh! u can never stop performing! ur father is always with u and he has hurt so many people!! can u escape ur own fate? do u want to escape? u want the fighting to stop and yet u hold the sword. u also think tall women are super hot.

4. damian wayne and bart allen— i have no explanation for this aside from that it would be deeply hilarious

[pagan-stitches]

The Tools That I Use In My I-Ching Practice

This is not a “how to,” just a little discussion on tools I use in my personal practice.

First, I should probably address why on earth a Western folk witch of European descent and a very European practice uses the I-Ching.

(Secondly, I should point out that you don’t need any of this shit, just three pennies and access to the internet will work. This is a practice I’ve grown into over a lot of years.)

Until I came across Eastern philosophy, I was a militant atheist. Growing up in the Baptist South will do that to a kid who is different. We didn’t go to church. Mom was raised Catholic, her grandmother had been a novice nun who wasn’t accepted into the monastic life because of how sickly she was (she never recovered mentally) and one of mom’s aunts was a nun. Dad was raised Lutheran (though the Moravian side of the family is Catholic). Neither family approved of the Catholic/Protestant intermarriage. Both are from the Midwest and I’m pretty sure neither has yet to grasp the concept of “being saved,” they certainly never introduced it to their kids.

I honestly don’t remember how on earth I started reading the Tao Te Ching, but the nature imagery really spoke to me. Worshipping nature was something I could wrap my head around.

Taoism is not a closed system and is “generally understood as a very open and flexible philosophy with diverse interpretations and practices, meaning it readily adapts and incorporates new ideas without strict boundaries or a centralized authority to enforce orthodoxy.”

It is rooted in animism and folk belief and was my gateway drug to philosophy, religion, animism, folk belief and so on. Before long, I wasn’t just collecting translations of the Tao Te Ching, but also the I-Ching. And from there all sorts of books of philosophy and religion.

When I encountered “the Wyrd” studying my own Anglo-Saxon culture and partial ancestry I couldn’t help but recognize something of the Tao.

The Oracle Deck

The Westerner in me just really wants to shuffle a deck.

This is my second deck after my first deck just didn’t work for me. The images were too concrete and static. In the current deck, the art by Joan Larrimore is more fluid, organic and open to many interpretations.

I-Ching Coins

The coins are the only gift I can remember my dad picking out for me, usually he leaves that up to mom. I like to think of these old Roman coins as changing hands all over Europe and as being a conduit to genetic and cultural ancestors. You aren’t typically supposed to clean old coins before using them in folk magic, but I did clean these up enough to discern heads from tails.

I use a bizarre system of cards and coins. With the Oracle cards you don’t get changing lines, which can be an important part of the reading. So, I developed my own personal system to incorporate the lines.

I-Ching Casting Bowl

You can cast the coins on any hard surface. I like to use this turtle shell as a casting bowl because there is a form of divination in China that uses turtle shells that both predates and is associated with the hexagrams.

Turtle shells are also associated with the lunar calendar—and the moon, of course, has its own ebb and flow of changing cycles.

I-Ching Card Wrap

One of the tools I use is a wrap that I embroidered using Elizabethan black work filler on THE Taoist symbol. Yin and yang, heaven and earth—the balance and motion between them is the basis of Taoism and of the I-Ching (and really fucking everything 😉).

Its purpose is to protect the cards both spiritually and psychically when not in use. In Chinese folk magic, the color red is a symbol of good fortune, happiness, and protection. It's also believed to ward off evil spirits and negative energy. I also use a piece of jade in the tie which is also used for the same purposes. The coin pendant is a representation of the year of the ox—the year in which I was born. I picked it up as a souvenir in the Chinese neighborhood in Philadelphia.

I-Ching Cloth

I embroidered the cloth that I use, copied from a “jaw-dropping work of embroidery [that]was done by Me Èè and Me Tchoupi, Tai Dam women in the town of Muang Sing.” @friend-crow

The original piece:

The Tai Dam are an ethnic minority group of people who are mainly from northwest Vietnam, China, Laos, and Thailand. The Tai Dam practice ethnic religions that mix Buddhism and folk animism. They believe in spirits that can be appeased to avoid curses and receive blessings. They also practice ancestor worship. Many Tai Dam people are shamanists who believe in unseen gods and demons.

The use of variegated thread shows movement and change and is what really spoke to me in this piece and made me want to use it in my I-Ching practice—it is the Book of Changes after all.

Many people use a tarot cloth to protect their cards from wear and tear on a hard surface—for me it is as much to set a mood.

Sage and Lavender Candle

Speaking of setting the mood—I love me some aromatherapy. Sage and Lavender both promote calmness and mental and spiritual clarity.

Hag Stone

“Many believe that the hole [in the stone] is a gateway into the world of spirits and Little People. Medicinal broths and brews can be poured through the hole and the medicine will pick up blessing from the other world as it passes through.”

—Brandon Weston, Ozark Folk Magic: Plants, Prayers & Healing

I blow breaths through the hole onto the cards and coins before I use them to forge a connection between myself, the otherworld, and the cards and coins.

————

Again, these are just ways I add depth to my practice, if you are interested in the I-Ching you can get started with a few pennies and the internet.

[burn-this-bloggo]

Y'all fans of Reverse Falls? Wait until you learn about 2004's Dark Oracle

[dalekofchaos]

Injustice au:Batman's regime

Been thinking of an alternate Injustice where Batman goes bad and leads an authoritarian regime.

Injustice 2 continuation.

Instead of Joker nuking Metropolis and Superman killing Lois. What starts it off is Selina is pregnant and it's Bruce and Selina's wedding. Joker shoots Selina killing her and Bruce's unborn child. Joker leads them on a merry chase to Metropolis and then the nuke goes off in Arkham.

Bruce kills Joker.

Clark, in horror. "Bruce, what have you done"

Bruce, full of heartbreak and in a fit of rage. "What I should have done a long time ago"

Bruce regroups with the only surviving members of the Batfamily. Damian and Cassandra. And decides to do what he should've done a long time ago.

Bruce seeks out Ra's and Talia. Bruce finally gives in and agrees to lead the League Of Assassins. Bruce kills Ra's and takes the LOA for himself. Talia takes Diana's place as his lover and second in command.(while Diana thankfully isn't cartoonishly evil)

Batman is known as Khuffash(translates The Bat)

Art by Richard Quintero

Bruce's plans would be what Superman was in Injustice canon. Build a better world. Cleanse crime, end war and destroy everything Batman represented and make the Bat a symbol for the whole world to fear and if the Justice League dares to stop him, he will enforce his contingency plans on a world wide scale.

Bruce's regime council would be the following

Talia Al Ghul

Amanda Waller

Lex Luthor

Lady Shiva

Damian Wayne

Cassandra Cain

Huntress

Ocean Master

Raven

Cyborg

Villains implanted with suicide squad type bombs being enforced to follow the Regime

Bane

Solomon Grundy

Black Adam

Killer Frost

Sinestro

Deathstroke

He gives the Justice League a chance. Join him and help him bring justice and order to the world or die out with the cleansing fire.

The Justice League are the insurgency. They will stop their old friend or die trying.

Unbeknownst to Bruce, Barbara survived. She's been helping the Justice League with her Oracle network. Barbara broke through to Cassandra and Cassandra has been working on the inside out to save her father from himself.

And instead of Lex always working with the Justice League, it's Amanda Waller working with the League.

Bruce has Gotham rebuilt using the Wayne fortune and Arkham rebuilt set to imprison the Justice League.

Bruce imprisons almost all of the Justice League.

Clark causes a breakout and Barbara and Waller disable the bombs in the villains, thus causing the tide to shift against the regime.

Wonder Woman defeats Talia

Aquaman stops Orm.

Cassandra defeats Damian

Eventually the whole regime is neutralized, until it's just Bruce.

The villains have Bruce at their mercy and Bane breaks him. But to their misfortune, Bruce had planned for this and had a Lazarus Pit built in New Arkham. Bruce crawls into the Lazarus Pit. Game over. He destroys them one by one.

The final fight would be between Superman and Head of the Demon Batman.

Batman has Superman where he has him. And as he has his Kryptonite sword at Clark's throat, Bruce gives him TDKR speech

"I want you to remember, Clark…in all the years to come…in your most private moments…I want you to remember…my hand…at your throat…I want…you to remember…the one man who beat you.”

And then Cassandra stabs stops him. Together Clark and Cassandra take him down together.

Cassandra Wayne dedicates her life as the new Batman to clean up her father's mess and dedicating her life to making the bat to be a symbol of hope. While Damian swears revenge for his sister's treachery.

Bruce and his cohorts is kept in the bowels of new Arkham, being insured they will never escape, while Bruce vows to come back and finish what he started, while Clark vows he will be there to stop him.

[blueskittlesart]

Do you have any theories/thoughts on why the last dragon tear is on the Rist Peninsula? Like..lore reason wise? Or did they just pick that spot cause it has a fancy spiral? This thought hasn't left my brain for weeks.

this question got me thinking, because there are quite a few spots on the totk map that are significant lore-wise in that they mention locations in other games and/or were significant in botw, but rist penninsula isn't one of them. of the locations that the geoglyphs and tears fall on, a few of their names appear to reference characters and locations in other games, which is a common theme among minor location names on the botw/totk map. aside from the naming conventions, though, none of these places share distinguishing features with any map locations in other games. there ARE certain locations on the botw/totk map that are very clearly meant to correspond to the maps of other games/cycles, but those locations will almost always have both a specific name referencing the other map's location AND distinguishing features which mirror the features of the other map very closely if not identically. the geoglyph locations pretty clearly aren't that, so the names are likely just easter eggs. these locations also don't have any significance on the BOTW map from what I can tell, aside from the occasional shrine location, which is less important to the point i'm trying to make here but this is already full of useless information bc i did the research so i might as well give you all of it. the important point here is that none of the dragon tear locations are present in any other map of hyrule aside from the botw/totk iteration.

why is this significant? because it means that botw/totk era-hyrule is the ONLY hyrule in which these locations exist. this fact, combined with the fact that certain locations seem almost designed with their respective geoglyphs in mind (the most prominent example is cape cresia's shape being perfectly fitted to the scimitar glyph, but to a lesser extent the tabantha snowfield ganondorf glyph and the NW eldin mountains master sword glyph both finding large, flat spaces suited to their respective shapes, and, of course, the final tear dropping perfectly in the center of rist penninsula's spiral, suggests that these geoglyphs and these memories were tied specifically to the version of hyrule that we see in botw/totk. Whether this has greater implications as to how the timeline of totk plays out or if it's just an indication that zelda was holding on to her memories of the version of hyrule she grew up in is up to you.

that's all i've got in terms of concrete lore, but on a more artistic level i think there is definitely a reason the last tear falls in the center of that spiral. totk continuously uses an ouroboros motif--a snakelike dragon eating itself in a continuous circle. the four dragons circle the map in continuous loops, repeating the same route endlessly, likely for thousands upon thousands of years. the spiral of rist is somewhat reminiscent of that repetition to me, but with one key difference--it ends. there is a concrete end point at the center of the spiral. once you go around it a certain number of times, the circular motion stops. you're free of the cycle. the final tear, in which zelda begs link to come to her, to find her, to SAVE her, falls at the center of that spiral, at the end of a repeating pattern of circular motions. zelda, like the other dragons, has been trapped in an ouroboros cycle for thousands of years. unable to speak, unable to remember, unable to do anything but follow her same circular path through the sky. but zelda's fate is not actually so bleak and unchangable--she's not in an ouroboros, she's in a SPIRAL. all she has to do is make it to the "center"--to wait it out until link can find her and save her, and she will be human again, and that circular motion will finally stop, and she'll be free to live her life again, to truly move forward. the act of journeying to the center of the spiral to get the last tear is forcing the player to adopt that same circular motion that zelda has been experiencing all these years, and to find the relief at the end--a microdose of the bigger battle zelda has been fighting, and which they will soon have to fight, to get her back once and for all.

[nerds-yearbook]

Headhunter (Helen O'Hara) was introduced in Namor the Sub-Mariner 2, cover date May 1990. She was created by John Byrne. ("Eagle's Wing and Lion's Claw" Namor the Sub-Mariner 2, Marvel Comic Event)

[demigodoreo]

Tales of the Titans #1

[zelda-of-hyrule-tloz]

Echoes of Wisdom Headcanon Countdown

༺ Day 37▪︎ 62 Left

Rather than being the same incarnation, the Zelda in Oracle of Ages and Seasons is the successor of the Zelda in A Link to the Past. She bears a striking resemblance to her, OoT Zelda, and Marin (depending on what she's wearing, as her physical appearance seems to be a cross of each of them. In terms of Hyrulean history, she is less recorded and well-known in comparison to them. But with her sacred power to foresee evil, perhaps there are certain adventures of hers left unspoken...

[dailydccomics]

the Titans' day is about to get so much worse Titans: Beast World #4 art by Lucas Meyer and Romulo Fajardo Jr.