#the trans folk witch

[the-trans-folk-witch]

Post Herbalist, Pre Pre-Medical traditional Witchcraft: a Joke but a reality.

Before I hand feed you my BITTER solar-infused coffee-induced rant, let me give a few ( comically self made) definitions: *see notes

Post Herbalist witchcraft: "energy work**" and magics that are performed by peoples with no means, funds, or ability to obtain herbs and knowledge of herbal medicine for magic and health. This loss of knowledge is due to colonization, fear of herbalisms ties to witchcraft, and the push for modern"white medicine. Note*- I fucking hate the term energy work, yet the magic itself is very very real and used by me.

Pre Pre-Medical witchcraft: -Not to be confused with Pre-med schooling in preparation for grad school.- Pre Pre-medical is what I call the average knowledge of modern medicine that the average person can obtain by ways of public K-12 schooling and the internet. Its place in witchcraft is the knowledge of medicine and the dangers of herbs and or anti-vaxx/med dangers within magical communities. In essence, Pre Pre-medical witchcraft is the belief in modern medicine as well as magical healing methods. Not to be confused with holistic healing which is utter bullshit when taught as completely factual in organized religious spaces.

With these definitions explained less blurred in the mind of the greater trad witch community, and ignorant tumblr onlookers, I move on to my spiel.

As a professional witch, conjurer, seer, and drama queen, I struggle to find a home amongst communities that have watered down witchcraft for a younger, whiter, and less informed audience. Gone are the days of nuance and professionalism. Today is now ruled by forever-beginners, eternal-newbs, and influencers turned teachers. With this post I hope to separate the wheat from the chaff and find the cream of the crop.

To practice witchcraft in a time where herbs are expensive yet taught as the only means to perform spells; and at a time when cities and suburbs have ruined free access to native plants; I find myself performing more prayer and power based magics. No longer do i spend money on herbs, candles and the like. Nor do I plan to purchase the land required to grow my own. I invest in verbal charms, prayer, writing, movement, and my own bodily secretions. I jokingly call this "Post herbalist Pre Pre-Medical witchcraft."It is more informed and rooted in history than generic "energy work". And is less concerned with the consumerism that is forced upon modern witches via herbs and more. The joke is the name is so humorously long and ignorant that it kind of works. I expect the internet will love it considering you folks love putting every adjective before "witch" such as "solar witches" and "crystal witches". Although I suspect people looking for such titles do not have the attention span to read this wordy blog post.

In 2020 I challenged myself to go a year without spending a dollar on my magic. Here we are in 2024 and I'm still going. Yes I use plant materials. Yes I buy things for spirit offerings. But no. I don't have a huge cabinet of herbs and candles. I fully rely on my spirits, my witchflame, the land, and my body to produce magic. No money required. I could spend another fifteen paragraphs explaining how to do so. But alas, i don't care to share. As I said, I am done engaging with forever-newbs who are at the same place they started in witchcraft ten years ago.

I hope my short yet long* rant leads you to... something useful

*note: this is actually a very short read. But in the modern internet sphere we are all unable to process information that's not in video format consisting of no more than 2 minutes. so this is a long post nowadays. hehe im really on a soap box today. sorry im so bitter.

[cantva190]

ATTENTION CHRISTIANS By: Gaylor Moon  https://www.facebook.com/gaylorm00n

[gaaaaaaaayypr]

Sex in the city but for lesbians:

Yearning in the Forest

[misspjsuperior]

Some have thought my Vulva Mary to be some crazy absurd thing, some comically, others seriously with accusations of new age blasphemy. Others revere her but too often alongside anti trans rhetoric. But mystic Christian vulva art goes back centuries and also was more popular in the past in association rather to Jesus Christ which therefore naturally then creates trans undertones to the body of Christ. With the consideration of parthenogenesis in which the self conceived offspring is always born female I can feel a trans masc essence to Jesus Christ, bolstered by medieval art in reverence of the Side Wound.

I am by far not the only or first:

“ -this tradition reflects the mystical notion that the body of Jesus is “the body of all bodies” and that it therefore encompasses both traditionally masculine and feminine characteristics.

…

I can understand how, to people who aren’t historians of medieval religion or art, the suggestion that medieval Christians in western Europe frequently imagined and depicted Jesus’s side wound as looking like a vulva might sound bizarre and ridiculous. Nonetheless, this is something that they incontrovertibly did. To understand why they did this, we must first take a look at their historical and cultural context.

The Gospel of John 19:32–37 describes Jesus’s side wound as follows, as translated in the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVUE):

Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. (He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth, so that you also may continue to believe.) These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, ‘None of his bones shall be broken.’ And again another passage of scripture says, ‘They will look on the one whom they have pierced.’

It is not very difficult to see how medieval Christians might have perceived an opening in a person’s body that bleeds, secretes a clear liquid, and is penetrated as in some sense analogous to a vagina—especially when you consider the fact the Latin word vulnus, meaning “wound,” sounds very similar phonetically to the word vulva, meaning “vagina.”

On top of all this, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries CE, the metaphorical idea of Jesus as a mother became extremely popular and influential among western European Christians, especially among those who were more mystically inclined. Female mystic writers seem to have found this idea particularly appealing.”

[goldengoblink]

The Swiftshiver Shardstone

[little-witchys-garden]

Rules for the Woods

Always carry something for trade, something for protection and something for offering.

[violet-hearth]

Reflecting On My Craft 3 Years Later ...

Between 2019-2021 I was incredibly active among witchcraft spaces especially on tumblr as a folk practitioner. Since then I stopped posting, deleted the page and focussed focussed on my degree and activism, not being able to find the energy or space to share any other parts of myself online. I took a break from larger, less day-to-day practices, I am chronically ill with phobia disorders and high anxiety that can make my days stressful and conserving energy was important to me for a time. 

Three years later and I feel like I’ve grown so much having had this break. I’m slowly easing myself back into larger parts of my practice and connecting aspects of myself I thought could not connect with folk magic into my witchcraft. Being queer and disabled, sometimes there is a feeling of disconnect or a strong, desperate clinging onto religion and spirituality, but I’m learning that I can make a path for myself that is modern, accessible, and still connected to traditions. Folk practices and magic are traditions but they’re also living traditions, they adapt to changes in land and in times. 

A book that has helped me in bound is Queering Your Craft by Cassandra Snow. Whilst it only really touches on foundational practices, I found comfort in the way Cassandra talks about redefining and queering concepts to make them more accessible to us. They are also a disabled, gender queer activist and it’s now a book I reopen time and time again when I feel a little lost or scared. 

So, what has changed? 

I am still working a lot with plants but with a stronger tie to art and sympathetic magic 

Using magic and herbalism more for my anxiety, usually this is through just carving space to be more gentle with myself 

Hearth magic is now a focus, I am big on hospitality, kitchen magic, creating a sacred space within my home and my neighbourhood. This has taken over pretty much my whole practice, this is where the sympathetic and art magic has tied in. I love using oils and incense to set the mood and vibe of my space before a guest comes in, I use drinks and food to layer these intentions and vibes, I bring gifts to friends’ house of foods and teas and infused alcohols and body butters I make at home, I make them soup when they’re sick and sleep spell bags when they need rest 

Queering my practices, moving away from a strict ‘this is how things MUST be done’ to understanding what each ingredient is for, why it is used and finding these meanings in other household items. My nana uses vinegar for everything when cleaning, I can just add a little of my current cleaning solutions and it will do the same job for example

Divination is new to me! I used to exclusively go off the sky for working out the weather, this isn’t divination as such but some of it is superstition and some of it is probably based in science and tarot. I love tarot but I want to try something new, so have begun to study carromancy and dipping my toes into it 

Queering my craft

This is where things get a little less traditional. I’ve begun to modernise practices in a way I know will upset people. I don’t work with familial ancestors as such, but I venerate and remember cultural ancestors - in this case pioneers of queer rights, queer martyrs, I light candles on anniversaries of deaths and have a dedicated windowsill where I keep queer books and want to further honour the activists who came before me. 

I also use queer symbolism a lot more especially for love, self-love, protection, or anything specifically to do with my queerness or the queer community local to me. Lube has been interesting to work with, hanky code colour symbolism before I go clubbing, charming carabiners, embroidering my strap harness etc. Beyond the practicality of this in my life as an urban-based queer person, it’s just fun. So much art and chanting and singing and dance and fashion can be tied into urban practices that still honour community, culture and tradition. Nothing is stopping me from having both a queered protection spell and a more traditional amulet. It has given me a deeper appreciation of the multitudes we hold as people, the many communities we can be a part of and the many faces we wear throughout our day. 

What Next?

I want to use this blog just to occasionally share things, I’m probably not going to share any cultural practices since a lot of them are just ‘shit my family does that is in my dna now’, but I feel comfortable talking about the more modern practices I do, some of the recipes and basic formulas I have and created, and the occasional post about my journey into practices I am only just beginning. 

My main focus however will be on queering the home, queer hearth practices and carving out spaces for ourselves spiritually and physically. 

I cannot wait to share more x 

[thatspanishwitch]

☀️ Good day everyone!

Name is Cape, I'm 22 years old, I've been practicing for 7 years now and I'm an omnist pagan of mixed decent -Zera Yisrael Sefardí, Moro/North African Andalusian and regular spanish White (celtiberian)-.

🌊 The north of Spain has a lot of folk practices and mythos that the south does not have, with this side vlog I want to figure out what little the south has and put it in a comprehensible list for any Spanish witches out there -and for myself-, this being said northern mythos and such will not be excluded and I will try to do a synchronism of sorts so that beings with different names, but that are the same/have little differences -which will be noted down-, are also taken into account.

☄️ This being said, yes I will be patriotic, but I will not tolerate facism/facha ideology here, and if I do catch anyone that thinks that way following me I will block you. This is not negotiable.

🌿 This is also a grimoire of sorts since I will be adding my own spells, correspondences and such, some of this will be UPG, have that in mind; in that same note I will most probably be posting about my deities too -be it memes or serious stuff-.

·˚ ༘₊· ͟͟͞꒰➳ TAGS:

Masterlist

Origin:

#og - original posts

#revlog - self explanatory

General:

#info - self explanatory

#spells - self explanatory

#meme - self explanatory

Personal:

#my perils - me speaking about life, nothing specific

My Deities:

#🐍 - Loki's tag (norse paganism)

#☀️ - Apollo's tag (hellenic paganism)

#🌿 - Cernunnos' tag (celtic paganism)

#🐙 - Koro-sensei's tag (pop-culture paganism)

Last updated 12-May-2024 Separators are mine

[fvneral-m00n]

Living people eat dead mushrooms...

Living mushrooms eat dead people!

Living people eat dead mushrooms....

Living mushrooms eat dead people...

[elhoimleafar]

EM Spring Awakening WORKSHOP. I/III

Having an outstanding time teaching Cleansing methods and Protective ways of folkloric magic from South America during my workshop 'Auras & Shields' for my 6th time here at Easton Mountain Retreat Center during the 'Spring Awakening' event for gay/bi/trans/queer men.

Also, introduce my upcoming book 'Dream Witchery' (check on AMZN, which is available for pre-order). And talking about the decolonization of our magic and how to create safe, diverse spaces for BIPOC and LGBTQ members in events and other places.

Check my book Dream Witchery here: https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Witchery-Recipes-America-Witches/dp/0738774758/

And my next event OUR SORCERY HOUR focused on diversity and sorcery for just $40 (eight workshops for the price of one). Here: https://elhoimleafar.com/oursorceryhour/

[thecapuchinonerd]

Romance plot cliches are Overused; So I Gave them a twist with a little LGBTQ+.

Fantasy Genre

"The Knight has come to rescue the princess from the evil witch"

Nah, dude! this is my girlfriend and she is teaching me healing magic to help my kingdom to afford healthcare

oh...okay! could you check my Granda? please? I'm doing this so I could afford a doctor

Sure honey

"The Wizard Has kidnaped the princess and here comes the knight to challenge him... again"

So valiant knight, we meet again, It is admirable how to come every time, but I will not give up without a fight

You! sorcerer! your power knows no bounds! how dare ye take the princess yet again!

He likes you! you great Himbo! "The princess screams from the other side of the room " And I am not being kidnaped, we just hang up!

Hildegard! "The wizard blushes" I do not!

it okay Zebedee "the princess comfort him" Aurelios likes you too

Your...your Highness!

"The MC is kidnapped by a fae court; Turn out the MC was promised marriage to the fae king in exchange for fortune/magic/pay for a crime."

Welcome to the fairy court human, I see you are confused, let me clarify, you are now my bride and the time has come for our wedding.

What no!!

There is no escape! Your father has promised you to me since you were a child!

Im a Trans Man, my dad was a deadbeat, you can't trust him

ah, I see them...If you excuse me I need to see someone, have a nice day

"The alpha king-dominant silverback with too much chest hair tells you that the star has chosen you to be his next mate and your smell has captivated him"

No thanks, I never wanted kids so I tied my tubes as soon as I turned 18.

But I choose you! YOU NEED TO!" she takes out her pepper spray" ARRRGGH!!

Go f your self dude!! Hello, Magic Control! there is a rampaging werewolf and he is breaking the no-harassment order!

[samwisethewitch]

Homemaking, gardening, and self-sufficiency resources that won't radicalize you into a hate group

It seems like self-sufficiency and homemaking skills are blowing up right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic crisis, a lot of folks, especially young people, are looking to develop skills that will help them be a little bit less dependent on our consumerist economy. And I think that's generally a good thing. I think more of us should know how to cook a meal from scratch, grow our own vegetables, and mend our own clothes. Those are good skills to have.

Unfortunately, these "self-sufficiency" skills are often used as a recruiting tactic by white supremacists, TERFs, and other hate groups. They become a way to reconnect to or relive the "good old days," a romanticized (false) past before modern society and civil rights. And for a lot of people, these skills are inseparably connected to their politics and may even be used as a tool to indoctrinate new people.

In the spirit of building safe communities, here's a complete list of the safe resources I've found for learning homemaking, gardening, and related skills. Safe for me means queer- and trans-friendly, inclusive of different races and cultures, does not contain Christian preaching, and does not contain white supremacist or TERF dog whistles.

Homemaking/Housekeeping/Caring for your home:

Making It by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen [book] (The big crunchy household DIY book; includes every level of self-sufficiency from making your own toothpaste and laundry soap to setting up raised beds to butchering a chicken. Authors are explicitly left-leaning.)

Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust [book] (A guide to simple home repair tasks, written with rentals in mind; very compassionate and accessible language.)

How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis [book] (The book about cleaning and housework for people who get overwhelmed by cleaning and housework, based on the premise that messiness is not a moral failing; disability and neurodivergence friendly; genuinely changed how I approach cleaning tasks.)

Gardening

Rebel Gardening by Alessandro Vitale [book] (Really great introduction to urban gardening; explicitly discusses renter-friendly garden designs in small spaces; lots of DIY solutions using recycled materials; note that the author lives in England, so check if plants are invasive in your area before putting them in the ground.)

Country/Rural Living:

Woodsqueer by Gretchen Legler [book] (Memoir of a lesbian who lives and works on a rural farm in Maine with her wife; does a good job of showing what it's like to be queer in a rural space; CW for mentions of domestic violence, infidelity/cheating, and internalized homophobia)

"Debunking the Off-Grid Fantasy" by Maggie Mae Fish [video essay] (Deconstructs the off-grid lifestyle and the myth of self-reliance)

Sewing/Mending:

Annika Victoria [YouTube channel] (No longer active, but their videos are still a great resource for anyone learning to sew; check out the beginner project playlist to start. This is where I learned a lot of what I know about sewing.)

Make, Sew, and Mend by Bernadette Banner [book] (A very thorough written introduction to hand-sewing, written by a clothing historian; lots of fun garment history facts; explicitly inclusive of BIPOC, queer, and trans sewists.)

Sustainability/Land Stewardship

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer [book] (Most of you have probably already read this one or had it recommended to you, but it really is that good; excellent example of how traditional animist beliefs -- in this case, indigenous American beliefs -- can exist in healthy symbiosis with science; more philosophy than how-to, but a great foundational resource.)

Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer [book] (This one is for my fellow witches; one of my favorite witchcraft books, and an excellent example of a place-based practice deeply rooted in the land.)

Avoiding the "Crunchy to Alt Right Pipeline"

Note: the "crunchy to alt-right pipeline" is a term used to describe how white supremacists and other far right groups use "crunchy" spaces (i.e., spaces dedicated to farming, homemaking, alternative medicine, simple living/slow living, etc.) to recruit and indoctrinate people into their movements. Knowing how this recruitment works can help you recognize it when you do encounter it and avoid being influenced by it.

"The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline" by Kathleen Belew [magazine article] (Good, short introduction to this issue and its history.)

Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby (I feel like I need to give a content warning: this book contains explicit descriptions of racism, white supremacy, and Neo Nazis, and it's a very difficult read, but it really is a great, in-depth breakdown of the role women play in the alt-right; also explicitly addresses the crunchy to alt-right pipeline.)

These are just the resources I've personally found helpful, so if anyone else has any they want to add, please, please do!

[entangledwitch]

oh btw this is the wild bunch of misfit witches i hang out with, if anyone is curious

we're a diverse group with many different traditions and we like to combine them for our celebrations, both in public and in private. we are fiercely pro-LGBT+, antidiscrimination, and neurodiversity-affirming.

if you're around Utah and you wanna attend a Beltane or Samhain ritual, tune in for a monthly pagan Sunday service based on the Wheel of the Year (which we livestream on fb for the general public), or just get to know/hang out with some really awesome folks, check us out!

[fairyweeb202]

Going to the old folks home to say happy Thanksgiving to my papae, its so awkward to go there as a very gay trans punk polytheist because .. well a bunch of very old conservative catholics yaknow

[goldengoblink]

The Spites of the Wyldwoods are sinister and friendly. Sometimes they are mischievous, while other times they are regimented and take up arms.

“Good they are at the slaying of men with silver and gold blades”.

[transbookoftheday]

Trans Horror Podcasts

My post about trans horror books last year was much more popular than I expected, and since I've recently fallen in love with fiction podcasts and audio dramas, I thought I'd make a post about trans horror podcasts as well.

If you like trans horror, please give these a try - especially if you enjoy listening to audiobooks!

Hello From The Hallowoods:

Come walk between the black pines! In this award-winning queer fiction podcast, an eldritch narrator follows the increasingly connected residents of the forest at the end of the world. It's a bittersweet story that explores queer identity, horror genre tropes, and finding hope in humanity's last moments.

Hello From The Hallowoods is my absolute favorite podcast! If you only listen to one podcast from this list, please make it this one - it's so beautifully written and super queer! Also: season 4 starts today!

Trans main characters include:

our nonbinary eye-affiliated podcast host

a nonbinary "Frankenstein's creature"

a transmasc ghost

a genderfluid storm witch

a trans woman who can visit other people's dreams

multiple characters using neopronouns

Camp Here & There:

Good morning, campers! Camp Here & There is a weekly horror comedy podcast tuned in to the loudspeakers of a small midwestern sleepaway camp plagued by supernatural terrors and natural disasters. Sydney Sargent, resident camp nurse, cheerfully reports on all the terror we must face with a big smile. Let’s hope there’s nothing weird about that!

Sydney is a trans man.

Dos: After You:

Things have changed. Deck has fallen in love with someone who isn't human, and leaves a hungry house behind to see him again. Will he be waiting for you? The world has changed… but what about him? Dos: After You is a queer urban fantasy/horror audiodrama available in both English & Spanish

Deck is a trans man.

Jar of Rebuke:

Follow Dr. Jared Hel's journey as he works to re-discover his forgotten past and finds his place within the small Indiana farm town of Wichton and the cryptozoological organization he works for called 'The Enclosure'. These audio journals, and other recordings, dive deep into Midwestern US cryptids and folklore while also telling a mystery about identity, queerness, neurodivergence, and community.

Jared is nonbinary.

Spirit Box Radio:

Spirit Box Radio is an award winning, horror audio drama podcast about a radio show for enthusiasts of all things arcane. Follow Sam Enfield a former postboy with no experience in the arcane arts, who finds themselves forced to take over running the show, following the disappearance of the previous host. Sam soon discovers there are more than ghosts haunting the show, and finds himself amidst a mystery which threatens everything he knows about the world beyond his tiny basement broadcast studio, and maybe even himself.

Sam is a trans man.

The Silt Verses:

Carpenter and Faulkner, two worshippers of an outlawed god, travel up the length of their deity’s great black river, searching for holy revelations amongst the reeds and the wetlands. As their pilgrimage lengthens and the river’s mysteries deepen, the two acolytes find themselves under threat from a police manhunt, but also come into conflict with the weirder gods that have flourished in these forgotten rural territories. This is a world where divine intervention takes place through prayer-markings scratched into stumping-posts, and offerings are left squirming to die in the flats of the delta. This is a world of ritual, and hidden language, and sacrifice. This is folk horror, and fantasy, and a dark road trip into the depths of unusual faith.

Faulkner is a trans man and Paige is a trans woman.

The Magnus Protocol:

The Magnus Archives 2: The Magnus Protocol is the prequel/sequel/”sidequel” to the internationally renowned Magnus Archives podcast. The Magnus Institute was an organisation dedicated to academic research into the esoteric and the paranormal, based out of Manchester, England. It burned to the ground in 1999. There were no survivors. Now, almost 25 years later, Alice and Sam, a pair of low-level civil service workers at the underfunded Office of Incident Assessment and Response, have stumbled across its legacy. A legacy that will put them in grave danger. If this intrigues you then it is our pleasure to welcome you to the Office of Incident, Assessment and Response. Make sure you pick up your badge at desk and report to your line manager before sitting down. Oh and stay away from I.T., seriously.

Alice is a trans woman.