#paganism — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #paganism, aggregated by home.social.
-
What does the Minoan Wheel of the Year look like? How can we celebrate life's passages via Minoan ritual? Discover all this and more in Ariadne's Thread! Book details, including a full list of the seasonal rituals and rites of passage and plenty of places to buy the book that aren't named after a South American river: https://www.lauraperryauthor.com/ariadnes-thread
-
What does the Minoan Wheel of the Year look like? How can we celebrate life's passages via Minoan ritual? Discover all this and more in Ariadne's Thread! Book details, including a full list of the seasonal rituals and rites of passage and plenty of places to buy the book that aren't named after a South American river: https://www.lauraperryauthor.com/ariadnes-thread
-
What does the Minoan Wheel of the Year look like? How can we celebrate life's passages via Minoan ritual? Discover all this and more in Ariadne's Thread! Book details, including a full list of the seasonal rituals and rites of passage and plenty of places to buy the book that aren't named after a South American river: https://www.lauraperryauthor.com/ariadnes-thread
-
What does the Minoan Wheel of the Year look like? How can we celebrate life's passages via Minoan ritual? Discover all this and more in Ariadne's Thread! Book details, including a full list of the seasonal rituals and rites of passage and plenty of places to buy the book that aren't named after a South American river: https://www.lauraperryauthor.com/ariadnes-thread
-
What does the Minoan Wheel of the Year look like? How can we celebrate life's passages via Minoan ritual? Discover all this and more in Ariadne's Thread! Book details, including a full list of the seasonal rituals and rites of passage and plenty of places to buy the book that aren't named after a South American river: https://www.lauraperryauthor.com/ariadnes-thread
-
Stone monument in dedication to Mithras (2nd-3rd century CE)
Archaeologisches Museum Frankfurt, Germany 🇩🇪. The museum has a lot of stone dedications to Mithras, whose cult was popular in the area.
Inscription and German translation in alttext.@histodons
#paganism #mythology #MythologyMonday #religion #ReligiousStudies #Altertumswissenschaften #LinguaLatina #antiquité #AncientReligions #LateAntiquity #AncientHistory #antike #epigraphy #MuseumArchive #glam #AncientArt -
Another pitch for my Relics class, boosts appreciated:
Though I focus on the Christian cult of relics, I also discuss similarly powerful objects from ancient Greece, the ancient Hebrews, and the Islamic world. It's a great introduction to magical and memorializing objects throughout the premodern Mediterranean.
https://kentnavalesi.neocities.org/AncientMedRelics
@histodons @medievodons #history #AncientHistory #histoire #histodons #medievodons #islam #paganism #ReligiousStudies #religion #judaism
-
We saw lots of Plantain in the lawn at Upper Treman sitting in the circle for the Sacred Wild Gathering
https://sacredwildgathering.org/
Not to be confused with that thing that looks like a Banana, my wife says Plantain adds resilience to trampled lawns
#photo #photography #plants #plantain #lawn #bloomscrolling #seedspike #macro #tremanstatepark #paganism #pagan #notabanana
-
Sisyphus is taking forever!
https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/2124206/sisyphus-is-taking-forever
-
Battle of The Beanfield
There are certain moments in modern British history that seem to sit just beyond the edge of official memory. Events that everybody vaguely remembers, yet somehow never quite make it into the comfortable national story we tell ourselves.
The Battle of Orgreave is one. The miners’ strike is another. The poll tax riots. Hillsborough. Brixton. They linger in photographs, old television footage and the memories of those who were there, carrying the uncomfortable reminder that Britain is not always as civilised, measured and orderly as it likes to imagine itself to be.
The Battle of the Beanfield belongs firmly in that category.
Forty years on, it remains one of the most controversial policing operations in modern British history. More than 1,300 police officers confronted a convoy of around 600 New Age Travellers attempting to reach Stonehenge on 1 June 1985. By the end of the day, dozens of people had been injured, hundreds had been arrested and an entire way of life had effectively been marked for destruction.
What happened in that Hampshire beanfield has never been the subject of a full public inquiry. Yet for many people who witnessed the decline of Britain’s traditional industries during the Thatcher years, the images remain painfully familiar.
I grew up in Yorkshire through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. I watched pit villages hollow out. I watched steelworks close. I watched communities that had existed for generations suddenly find themselves described as obstacles to progress. There was a language that emerged during those years. Certain groups became “the problem”. Miners. Trade unionists. Travellers. Alternative communities. Anyone who stood outside the increasingly rigid idea of what Britain was supposed to become.
That is one reason the Battle of the Beanfield still matters.
To understand the confrontation itself, we first need to understand the strange, colourful and often misunderstood world that produced it.
The Stonehenge Free Festival began in 1974. It emerged from the wider countercultural movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining music, environmentalism, spiritual exploration, political activism and communal living. Over the following decade it grew steadily, becoming one of the largest free gatherings in Britain. By the early 1980s thousands of people travelled to Stonehenge each summer to celebrate the solstice. The festival attracted an eclectic mix of punks, bikers, druids, musicians, environmental campaigners, anarchists, hippies and families living on the road.
The people who became known as the Peace Convoy were not a single organisation. They were a loose collection of travellers, festival-goers and alternative communities who spent much of the year moving between free festivals, protest camps and temporary settlements. Some were escaping unemployment. Some rejected consumer culture. Others simply wanted a different way of living. Many travelled in converted buses, coaches, ambulances and vans that doubled as homes.
To their supporters they represented freedom, creativity and resistance to conformity.
To their critics they represented disorder.
By 1984 tensions were reaching breaking point. The Stonehenge festival had become enormous. Estimates suggested attendance reached around 100,000 people. Concerns were raised about damage to the archaeological landscape, litter, unauthorised trading and open drug use. English Heritage, which had recently taken over management of the site, came under increasing pressure to act. Local authorities and police forces were equally determined that the gathering should not continue in its existing form. A High Court injunction was obtained to prevent the 1985 festival from taking place. The state had drawn a line.
On the morning of 1 June 1985, the Peace Convoy left Savernake Forest and began moving towards Stonehenge. Around 140 vehicles carried approximately 600 people. Many were families. Children were travelling alongside adults who had spent years living on the road. They knew there would be police opposition. Few appear to have anticipated what was waiting for them.
Police had prepared extensively.
The miners’ strike had ended only months earlier. During that bitter industrial conflict police forces had developed new methods of coordination, rapid deployment and large-scale public order operations. Senior officers later openly acknowledged that lessons learned during the strike had informed preparations for dealing with the travellers.
A four-mile exclusion zone had been established around Stonehenge. Roadblocks were prepared. Officers from multiple forces were assembled. Some estimates place police numbers at around 1,300. Others suggest even higher figures by the end of the operation.
The convoy encountered its first major roadblock near Shipton Bellinger, several miles from Stonehenge. According to police accounts, some traveller vehicles attempted to push through the blockade and rammed police vehicles. Travellers and independent witnesses tell a very different story. They describe a convoy seeking negotiation before finding itself trapped and surrounded.
Whatever happened during those first moments, the situation rapidly escalated.As vehicles attempted to leave the road and move into adjacent fields, police began smashing windows and making arrests. The convoy became scattered across farmland. Families were separated. Children became lost in the confusion. What followed would become one of the most infamous confrontations in modern British policing.
Television footage remains difficult to watch even now.
Officers in riot gear strike vehicle windows with truncheons. People are dragged from buses and vans. Terrified children can be seen inside shattered vehicles. Journalists and witnesses described police hitting men and women indiscriminately. Several accounts alleged pregnant women and individuals carrying babies were assaulted during the operation. Numerous vehicles that functioned as homes were systematically damaged.
The Earl of Cardigan, whose family owned Savernake Forest and who had followed the convoy on a motorcycle, later provided testimony that proved deeply damaging to official police narratives. He described officers rushing vehicles with drawn truncheons, shouting at occupants and creating scenes of intimidation and violence that contradicted many early police claims.
Journalists present that day reported similar concerns.
ITN footage captured scenes that shocked many viewers. Photographer Alan Lodge later described the event as an ambush rather than a battle. Others argued the very name “Battle of the Beanfield” created a misleading impression of two evenly matched sides. One side possessed riot shields, command structures, communications systems and overwhelming numerical superiority. The other consisted largely of civilians living in vehicles.
By the end of the operation, 537 people had been arrested. It remains one of the largest mass arrests of civilians in modern British history. Most of the charges eventually collapsed or were dismissed.
That fact alone raises uncomfortable questions.
If hundreds of supposedly dangerous lawbreakers had been lawfully apprehended while carrying out serious criminal acts, one might expect hundreds of successful prosecutions to follow. Instead, much of the legal case simply evaporated.
Years later, travellers successfully pursued civil actions against Wiltshire Police. Damages were awarded for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and property damage. One police sergeant was convicted of actual bodily harm arising from the events of that day.
Yet despite these outcomes, there has never been a full public inquiry.
Perhaps that is because the Battle of the Beanfield was about more than Stonehenge.
Looking back now, it feels impossible to separate it from the wider atmosphere of Britain in the mid-1980s. This was a country being transformed at extraordinary speed. Traditional industries were disappearing. Unemployment was soaring in many regions. Entire communities were fighting for survival. Alternative lifestyles increasingly found themselves portrayed as threats to public order rather than expressions of individual freedom.
For many people in mining and industrial areas, there is a recognisable pattern.
First comes the language.
A group is described as troublesome, outdated or undesirable.
Then comes the media narrative.
Then comes the justification.
Then comes the force.
That does not mean every traveller was a saint, any more than every miner was. Human beings are messy. Large gatherings bring problems. Some attendees at the Stonehenge festivals undoubtedly caused damage. Some individuals within the traveller movement undoubtedly committed crimes. A serious historical assessment has to acknowledge that reality. The archaeological concerns surrounding Stonehenge were genuine. Local residents had legitimate complaints. Authorities were entitled to seek solutions.
But none of that explains the scale of what happened on 1 June 1985.
The images of smashed homes, frightened children and riot police advancing across fields continue to disturb because they seem wildly disproportionate. They suggest a state determined not merely to enforce an injunction but to send a message.
And the message was received.
The traveller movement never fully recovered.
Legislation introduced during the following years increasingly restricted nomadic lifestyles and unauthorised gatherings. The Public Order Act 1986 and later the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 created new powers that made life significantly harder for travellers, free festivals and eventually the emerging rave culture.
In many ways the Beanfield became a blueprint. The same language used against travellers would later be applied to ravers, squatters, protesters and environmental activists. Alternative communities were increasingly framed not as citizens exercising freedoms but as public order problems requiring management.
Yet the legacy of the Beanfield refuses to disappear.
Songs were written about it. The Levellers turned it into a folk-punk anthem that introduced a new generation to the story. Hawkwind referenced it. Writers, filmmakers and activists kept returning to it. Every summer solstice the memory resurfaces among those who remember what happened.
Perhaps that is because the Battle of the Beanfield sits at the crossroads of so many larger questions.
Who gets to occupy public space?
Who decides what constitutes a legitimate way of living?
How much power should the state possess when dealing with communities that reject mainstream norms?
And perhaps most importantly of all, what happens when governments begin to see certain groups not as citizens but as enemies?
Forty years later those questions feel remarkably current.
The travellers who set out for Stonehenge in 1985 were not trying to overthrow the government. They were trying to reach a festival. They were trying to celebrate a solstice. They were trying, in their own eccentric and imperfect way, to live differently.
Many paid a heavy price for that.
For those of us who grew up watching pits close, furnaces go cold and communities written off as inconvenient relics of the past, the Beanfield feels like part of the same story. Different people. Different landscape. Different politics perhaps. But the same underlying lesson.
When power decides a group no longer belongs, it rarely begins with dialogue.
It begins with exclusion.
Then comes the roadblock.
Further Reading
Andy Worthington, The Battle of the Beanfield
Christopher Chippindale, Stoned Henge: Events and Issues at the Summer Solstice, 1985
Emma Hallett, BBC News, Summer Solstice: How the Stonehenge Battles Faded
Tony Thompson, The Observer, Twenty Years After, Mystery Still Clouds Battle of the Beanfield
English Heritage, Stonehenge 1977–85: A Dig in Time and a Confrontation
Copyright © Mysterious Times 2026. All rights reserved. This article may not be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form without prior written permission from Mysterious Times, except in the case of brief quotations used for review, criticism or scholarly reference.
#1980sBritain #1985Events #AlternativeBritain #AlternativeCommunities #AlternativeLifestyles #BattleOfTheBeanfield #BritishCounterculture #BritishFolklore #BritishHistory #BritishProtestCulture #BritishSociety #BritishSubcultures #CivilLiberties #CivilRights #ContemporaryHistory #CounterculturalHistory #Counterculture #CountercultureHistory #culturalHeritage #CulturalResistance #Druidry #EnglishCountryside #EnglishHeritage #FestivalCulture #ForgottenHistory #FreeFestivals #FreeSpiritBritain #FreedomOfMovement #Hampshire #HiddenHistory #HistoricalAnalysis #HistoricalConflict #HistoricalControversies #HistoricalMysteries #HistoryFeatures #LongReadHistory #LostBritain #MargaretThatcher #MiningCommunities #ModernBritishMythology #ModernFolklore #ModernLegends #MysteriousTimes #NewAgeMovement #NewAgeTravellers #Paganism #PeaceConvoy #PeopleSHistory #PoliceHistory #PoliticalHistory #ProtestHistory #ProtestMovements #PublicOrder #RoadProtestHistory #RuralEngland #SocialChange #SocialCommentary #socialHistory #SocialJustice #SolsticeCelebrations #SolsticeTraditions #StatePower #Stonehenge #StonehengeFreeFestival #StonehengeHistory #SummerSolstice #ThatcherEra #Thatcherism #TravellerMovement #TravellerRights #TravellingCommunities #UKHistory #UndergroundBritain #UnofficialBritain #Wiltshire #WorkingClassHistory #YorkshireHistory -
Apologetics: Flippin’ Fatwa Friday – The Bible vs. The Quran: Surah al-Baqarah Verses 156-158.
Last time on Flippin’ Fatwa Friday, we covered three issues, talking about good works, the Ka’ba, and jihad. Today, we’re sort-of back to talking about the Ka’ba, though we’ll more specifically be looking at another big part of the Hajj. Let’s take a look at this:
156. Who, when a calamity befalls them, say, ‘Surely, we belong to Allah and to him, of course, we return (and in his will is our peace).’ 157. It is they upon whom descend the benedictions from their Lord and his mercy, and it is they who are guided aright. 158. The Safa and Marwah (- the two eminences near Ka’ba) are certainly (two) of the symbols of Allah, so he who is on Pilgrimage to the house or performs ‘Umrah (- a visit to Ka’ba), there is no blame on him to perform Tawaf (- to run between) the two (eminences), and he who remains thoroughly dutiful and chooses to do good deeds spontaneously, the surely (he will find) Allah is Appreciative and rewards ever good deed done. Surely, Allah is All-Knowing.
I’ve already talked about the pagan origins of the Ka’ba and the Black Stone, but one of the things I sadly forgot to mention was how the Hajj also includes running between two small hills, the Safa and Marwa, seven times. This verse is the only time where this practice is mentioned, and it isn’t really elaborated on in the Quran.
The pagan origins of this practice aren’t something that can only be found through spending hours flipping through history books or scrolling on Google. It’s readily admitted in the hadiths that this practice stems from Arabian pagans. For example, Sahih Bukhari 4496 says:
Narrated `Asim bin Sulaiman:
I asked Anas bin Malik about Safa and Marwa. Anas replied, “We used to consider (i.e. going around) them a custom of the Pre-islamic period of Ignorance, so when Islam came, we gave up going around them. Then Allah revealed: “Verily, Safa and Marwa (i.e. two mountains at Mecca) are among the Symbols of Allah. So it is not harmful of those who perform the Hajj of the House (of Allah) or perform the Umra to ambulate (Tawaf) between them.”Stange how pagan customs were never absorbed into Judaism or Christianity by God. Why would Allah make a pagan custom something that is mandatory in Islam?
The reason for this has much to do with what I’ve mentioned in previous posts about the Hajj. It was all to gain a following. Muhammad knew that these customs were important to the people groups he knew. It wasn’t something they would give up easily. Thus, he simply absorbed them into Islam to make it more palatable for them.
Until next time,
M.J.
#Allah #Arabia #Bible #Blog #Christian #Christianity #faith #FlippinFatwaFriday #god #hadith #Hadiths #Hajj #history #Islam #jesus #KaBa #Marwa #Muhammad #Muslim #OpinionPeice #Paganism #Quran #Religion #Safa #Writing -
Touch Grass: A Pagan Take on this Online Insult
What if “touch grass” is more than an internet insult? This Pagan reflection explores how stepping away from online noise can become a small spiritual practice—one that brings us back to land, body, season, and the world still holding us.https://pagangrove.wordpress.com/2026/05/13/touch-grass-a-pagan-take-on-this-online-insult/
-
Archaeoethnologica: Runestones in their Religious Contexts / As Pedras Rúnicas no seu Contexto Religioso
+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/02/as-pedras-runicas-no-seu-contexto.html
#NordicStudies #Archaeology #viking #Scandinavia #runes #HistoryofReligions #paganism #christianization #gemanicreligion #talks #audiovisuals
-
Archaeoethnologica: Runestones in their Religious Contexts / As Pedras Rúnicas no seu Contexto Religioso
+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/02/as-pedras-runicas-no-seu-contexto.html
#NordicStudies #Archaeology #viking #Scandinavia #runes #HistoryofReligions #paganism #christianization #gemanicreligion #talks #audiovisuals
-
Archaeoethnologica: Runestones in their Religious Contexts / As Pedras Rúnicas no seu Contexto Religioso
+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/02/as-pedras-runicas-no-seu-contexto.html
#NordicStudies #Archaeology #viking #Scandinavia #runes #HistoryofReligions #paganism #christianization #gemanicreligion #talks #audiovisuals
-
Archaeoethnologica: Runestones in their Religious Contexts / As Pedras Rúnicas no seu Contexto Religioso
+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/02/as-pedras-runicas-no-seu-contexto.html
#NordicStudies #Archaeology #viking #Scandinavia #runes #HistoryofReligions #paganism #christianization #gemanicreligion #talks #audiovisuals
-
Archaeoethnologica: Runestones in their Religious Contexts / As Pedras Rúnicas no seu Contexto Religioso
+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/02/as-pedras-runicas-no-seu-contexto.html
#NordicStudies #Archaeology #viking #Scandinavia #runes #HistoryofReligions #paganism #christianization #gemanicreligion #talks #audiovisuals
-
Archaeoethnologica: Runestones in their Religious Contexts / As Pedras Rúnicas no seu Contexto Religioso
+INFO in: https://archaeoethnologica.blogspot.com/2026/02/as-pedras-runicas-no-seu-contexto.html
#NordicStudies #Archaeology #viking #Scandinavia #runes #HistoryofReligions #paganism #christianization #gemanicreligion #talks #audiovisuals
-
Being a Cult Member Invited To Speak at a -Con For Other Cult Members Is Not The Flex You Think It Is
All I am going to say is that being part of a convention that is really a conference for chronically online, insufferable reply-guy cult members is not the flex that you think it is. Neither is missing a psychiatrist appointment to argue with conspiracy theorists on Reddit.
Yes, that actually happened. A person involved in that Discord really did miss a psychiatrist appointment just to argue with strangers on the internet about *checks notes* the Anunnaki. To be fair, they were arguing against the typical high strangeness, but mentally sane people are not missing medical appointments to argue against high strangeness online and then telling everyone about it on Discord, xer (I am using neopronouns because I don’t know their gender).
That’s all I have to say about the state of fuckery in occulture. If you know, you know. Missing a psychiatrist appointment to argue with strangers online is, clinically, a symptom of obsession—but whatever.
Only losers join esoteric cults—oh, excuse me, occult lodges. It’s like feeling smug about being invited to speak at a Scientology convention. No insight. None to be found. I honestly think they believe they are more than just a creepy religious fraternity, like any other creepy religious body in America.
-
Being a Cult Member Invited To Speak at a -Con For Other Cult Members Is Not The Flex You Think It Is
All I am going to say is that being part of a convention that is really a conference for chronically online, insufferable reply-guy cult members is not the flex that you think it is. Neither is missing a psychiatrist appointment to argue with conspiracy theorists on Reddit.
Yes, that actually happened. A person involved in that Discord really did miss a psychiatrist appointment just to argue with strangers on the internet about *checks notes* the Anunnaki. To be fair, they were arguing against the typical high strangeness, but mentally sane people are not missing medical appointments to argue against high strangeness online and then telling everyone about it on Discord, xer (I am using neopronouns because I don’t know their gender).
That’s all I have to say about the state of fuckery in occulture. If you know, you know. Missing a psychiatrist appointment to argue with strangers online is, clinically, a symptom of obsession—but whatever.
Only losers join esoteric cults—oh, excuse me, occult lodges. It’s like feeling smug about being invited to speak at a Scientology convention. No insight. None to be found. I honestly think they believe they are more than just a creepy religious fraternity, like any other creepy religious body in America.
-
✨ Славянский Звук Силы: 32Hz & 963Hz для Исцеления и Гармонии 🙏
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3iBZt8mEYo
#СлавянскаяМузыка #ШаманскийБубен #Исцеление #ОчищениеДуши #Здоровье #Энергия #Гармония #Медитация #БетаВолны #Чакра #Сердце #Природа #ДревниеТрадиции #SlavicMusic #ShamanDrum #Healing #SoulCleansing #Health #Energy #Harmony #Meditation #BetaWaves #Chakra #Heart #Nature #AncientTraditions #Folklore #Paganism #SlavicMythology #Vibration #SoundTherapy #ВируснаяМузыка #Шаманизм #СлавянскиеТрадиции
-
32 Hz + 963 Hz | 🔮 Сила Шаманского Бубна для Очищения Души и Тела
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNoPFR91ALo
#СлавянскаяМузыка #ШаманскийБубен #Исцеление #ОчищениеДуши #Здоровье #Энергия #Гармония #Медитация #БетаВолны #Чакра #Сердце #Природа #ДревниеТрадиции #SlavicMusic #ShamanDrum #Healing #SoulCleansing #Health #Energy #Harmony #Meditation #BetaWaves #Chakra #Heart #Nature #AncientTraditions #Folklore #Paganism #SlavicMythology #Vibration
-
> Astaroth: From Ancient Goddess Astarte to Demon of Forbidden Knowledge
Episode webpage: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/drangelapuca/episodes/Astaroth-From-Ancient-Goddess-Astarte-to-Demon-of-Forbidden-Knowledge-e398r92
#Witchcraft #Paganism #Esotericism #ChaosMagick #Magick #Occult
-
Calling all those who signed up for The Wheel of the Year - Lammas Yarn Box, it's time for the big reveal!
Introducing 'Lammas', a 100g skein of hand dyed 100% British Bluefaced Leicester 4 ply high twist sock yarn. There are two skeins in each box.
Included in the box is a a Wendy Andrews Lammas card, soap, sunflower stitch markers, sunflower buttons and a packet of tea.
Happy knitting!
#yarn #knitting #crochet #indieyarn #indiedyer #handdyedyarn #lammas #pagan #paganism #thewheeloftheyear #harvest
-
Most Online Chaos Magick Is Naming Mnemonic Variables
No matter how intricate your sigil is, it’s still just a semiotic identifier—a signifier. You could call it x, and it would carry the same ontological weight. Sigils point to concepts, entities, or they act as a signature. At the end of the day, you’ve just created a decorative label. Sigils are glyphs, not alphabets or languages like Theban, Celestial, Enochian, or the Alphabet of Daggers.
Sigils made using Austin Spare’s method aren’t languages—they’re stylized abstractions. You’re not writing a sentence in some hidden tongue; you’re making a visual variable. A graphic tag with no linguistic scaffolding. There’s nothing to “read” in it—no syntax, no grammar, no pronunciation. Just an intentional scribble pointing toward a thought.
Compare that to Theban, Celestial, Enochian, or the Alphabet of Daggers. Those are actual alphabets. Magical languages. They follow consistent letter-for-letter substitutions. They can obscure meaning—because there’s real meaning to obscure. You can encode texts, chants, names. They operate like ciphers, because that’s exactly what they are.
Spare-style sigils don’t encrypt—they erase. When you compress a phrase into a symbol, you’re not hiding language, you’re letting it go. You’re collapsing intention into a single mark that doesn’t depend on literacy, just mental association.
Magical languages at least do something. They obscure. They encode. Run a sentence through Theban or Celestial, and you get something arcane-looking and unreadable—because it is, unless you know the key. That’s the point: symbolic misdirection. Encryption with intent.
Sigils, especially the Spare-style ones, don’t do that. You’re not concealing a message; you’re flattening it into a shape. It’s not code—it’s a label. A name tag. You take a phrase, compress it into a glyph, and suddenly it’s a “magickal symbol.” But it’s really just a symbolic pointer—a variable, like in programming. And just like with variables, the more convoluted the name, the more annoying it is to use. If your sigil looks like a spiky eldritch mandala, congrats: you’ve made a beautiful, unreadable label.
Honestly, watching people crank these out like they’re reinventing the arcane wheel—when they’re just decorating the same psychological placeholder—it’s almost a relief. The more time someone spends designing a stylized faux ceremonial symbol symbol for “money now please,” the less likely they are to be doing anything dangerously effective. A lot of what gets called “chaos magick” online is really just overdesigned variable naming by people who think the aesthetic is the spell.
Sure, sigils, metaphors, and myths all operate symbolically—but they don’t hit the same. A sigil is a symbol boiled down to a label. A shortcut. It points to something. A mythology doesn’t just point—it breathes. It moves through story, layers, archetypes. That’s why mythic metaphors and ritual drama land harder: they’re not just signs, they’re immersive systems of meaning.
A myth doesn’t just say “this is like that.” It binds symbols into patterns. It creates tension, resonance, transformation. Allegory can carry cosmology. Sigils don’t do that. They’re more like programming variables—arbitrary labels you assign meaning to. Useful? Sure. But flat. A box with a name. Writing “dragon” on the lid doesn’t conjure the force of a real dragon narrative.
That’s why stories, dreams, and rituals move people—and sigils usually don’t, unless you’ve already decided they will. Metaphor speaks to the deep mind. It speaks with symbols, not just about them. Sigils? They’re like filing tabs. Metaphors are the stories inside the folders.
So yeah—they’re both symbols. But one is a placeholder. The other is a living structure.
Exactly—whether you sketch a swirling, ornate sigil or just scrawl an x, you’re still tagging the same conceptual box. The content doesn’t change just because the outside is fancier. That’s the point: the sigil isn’t the thing. It’s the pointer. It’s the tag that says, “this is where I stored that intention,” or “this represents that entity.” It doesn’t gain power because it looks more esoteric.
People get caught up in the design and forget the purpose. A sigil doesn’t summon anything by itself—it’s a reference. It’s not the payload. You’re not conjuring a spirit with the shape; you’re doing it with the meaning you’ve assigned. The symbol just helps you focus—like putting a label on a folder.
This is why making the sigil “look magickal” is mostly cosmetic. Dress up the label all you want—it still opens the same box. The real work isn’t in the glyph; it’s in what the glyph means and how your mind interacts with that meaning. So yes, swap the sigil for an x—the box still holds the demon. All you’ve changed is the font.
Fediverse Reactions
#Archetypes #ceremonialMagic #ceremonialMagick #chaosMagick #Crowley #demons #Discordians #egregore #egregores #exemplification #fascist #grimoire #grimoires #HermeticOrderOfTheGoldenDawn #hermeticism #hyperSigils #invocation #JungianArchetypes #magicalLanguages #magick #mythologies #mythology #myths #occult #occultism #occulture #Ontology #ostension #pagan #paganism #paranormal #paranormalCommunities #postmodernism #poststructuralism #Semiotics #sigil #sigilMagic #sigilMagick #sigils #sorcery #urbanMyth
-
🌲Yule 🎄Winter Solstice ❄️☀️ Saturnalia 🎉
Both Yule and the Winter Solstice share the same day making it an extra magical year.
❄️⛄️☀️
Best wishes from my family to yours.
#WheeloftheYear #WOTY #Yule #WinterSolstice #paganism #pagan #Wicca #witchcraft -
So now my path finds me joining the Isle of Wight Order of Druids after a very timely mention of them over on Bluesky. I was at first hesitant. Many frown upon mingling the Norse and the Celtic. But a long time ago, I first heard of these Old Ways via the Celts. Thus I forge my story.
#pagan #paganism #norsepagan #druid #druidorder #spiritualjourney #ancestors #oldgods #writer #poet
-
Identifying as a Pagan, feminist, Witch, and anarchist is possibly a way to alarm great segments of the general public, but at least it keeps me from sinking into a boring and respectable middle age.
Starhawk
#anarchism #anarchy #anarchist #feminism #feminist #paganism #pagan #witchywomen #starhawk #anarquismo #pagananarchism
-
'A pagan doesn’t need to know that they’re a pagan, one might say — even if their adversary does.'
Reformation Day Vs. Halloween: October 31
https://hyperallergic.com/961521/the-battle-between-halloween-and-reformation-day/ via Hyperallergic
Image: Piero di Cosimo via Koninklijke Brill online
#ReformationDay #Reformation #Protestantism #Protestant #Halloween #Paganism #Pagan #Europe #Art -
Happy Imbolc, everyone! 🌟🌱🕯
(Or Candlemas, or Brighid's Day, or whatever name you call it by.)
#HappyImbolc #Imbolc #Candlemas #Brighid #Brigid #Pagan #Paganism
-
Deleted the previous version of this as it once again showed up as a reply to someone else.
Please boost. I will follow nearly anyone who posts about the following:
#Muppets
#FraggleRock
#SesameStreet
#Disney movies and shows
#SofiaTheFirst
#ElenaOfAvalor
#TheLionGuard
#StarTrek
#TMNT
#Ghostbusters
#RealGhostbusters
#TeddyRuxpin
#JaneAndTheDragon
#bunnicula
#theWanderingInn
#AnAmericanTail
#Fandom in general
#Witchcraft
#Paganism
#Mythology
#Fantasy
#Food
#Recipes
#jokes -
I'm excited to share today's #blog post with y'all, because it touches on a subject I post about here a lot: moongazing!
I also include one of my lunar meditations at the end; try it out and let me know what you think!
http://pathwaysandprophecy.com/2023/05/30/watching-the-night-sky/
#moongazing #stargazing #astronomy #astrology #moon #lunar #meditation #druid #druidry #pagan #paganism
-
Interest hashtags:
#ScienceFiction #Fantasy #WorldOfWarcraft #Polytheism #HellenicPolytheism #GreekPolytheism #Paganism #StarTrek #StarWars #DnD #ComputerProgramming #DoctorWho #TenthDoctor #MotherlandFortSalem #StrangerThings #TheSandman #Witchcraft #Magic #InitiatoryWicca #LGBTQIA #NonBinary #Trans #Transgender #Asexuality #Aromanticism #AroAce #ADHD #Neurodivergence #Disability
-
[...] Cada equinoccio pronuncio los misterios tal y como debe hacerse,
nunca me abandonan las serpientes [...]Cálido equinoccio, bestias mías.
Dad la bienvenida a la incipiente oscuridad y llamadla dulcemente "hermana".✦ Foto por/Photo by @luaquirogapaul
✦ Versos: "La habitación de las ahogadas", @velvetmolotov[CW: nudity/desnudez]
#witchcraft #paganism #pagan #equinox #equinoccio #photography #model #NSFW #nudity
-
Is Krampus really a Norse Pagan deity, the Anti Santa Claus fighting the Christmas spirit or Saint Nicholas Companion?
Find out by watching Dr Angela Puca's latest video. 🤓📖#krampus #krampusnacht #krampusnight #krampusiscoming #antisanta #paganism #christmas #weihnachten #holidays
-
Sweet equinox, my witches 🌒🌕🌘
---
Dulce equinoccio, brujas mías 🌒🌕🌘(Marked the illustration as sensitive because eye contact)
#illustration #art #mastoart #eyecontact #witch #witchcraft #paganism #occult #equinox #equinoccio
