#paganism — Public Fediverse posts

Ancient word of the day: Hedgehog

The ancient word for today is hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus. In the Middle Ages, writers didn’t make reference to hedgehogs, but to urchins. This term for the spiky diminuitive animal is still favoured in some English dialects. We still have the lingering remnants of this etymology in the form of sea urchin, which is literally a sea hedgehog.

The word urchin came to England with the Norman invasion and was derived from the Latin word ericius. Before the Norman conquest, the animal was known by the Anglo-Saxon name Igl.

Other names

Furze-pig – Devon

Hotchi-witchi – Romani

Hodmedods – Norfolk

Ouriço cacheiro – crafty pig
or porco espinho’ – spiky pig in Portuguese

”Thorns shall grow in their palaces, nettles & thistles in their strongholds … there shall the hedgehog build, dig, be there at home and bring forth his young ones.” Taverner’s Isiah 34, 1539.

The hedgehog was a symbol of Christian humility

The Speculum sapientiae, or Mirror of Wisdom is an ancient tale of beasts in Latin. In one tale, a passing goat sees its reflection in a pond and declares himself very handsome indeed. A hedgehog trundles along afterwards and reproaches the goat telling him that profound humility, not vain boasting are what makes animals truly noble.

Read more: The British Library Digitised Manusripts

Content Catnip

Ancient word of the day: Hedgehog

The ancient word for today is hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus. In the Middle Ages, writers didn’t make reference to hedgehogs, but to urchins. This term for the spiky diminuitive animal is still favoured in some English dialects. We still have the lingering remnants of this etymology in the form of sea urchin, which is literally a sea hedgehog.

The word urchin came to England with the Norman invasion and was derived from the Latin word ericius. Before the Norman conquest, the animal was known by the Anglo-Saxon name Igl.

Other names

Furze-pig – Devon

Hotchi-witchi – Romani

Hodmedods – Norfolk

Ouriço cacheiro – crafty pig
or porco espinho’ – spiky pig in Portuguese

”Thorns shall grow in their palaces, nettles & thistles in their strongholds … there shall the hedgehog build, dig, be there at home and bring forth his young ones.” Taverner’s Isiah 34, 1539.

The hedgehog was a symbol of Christian humility

The Speculum sapientiae, or Mirror of Wisdom is an ancient tale of beasts in Latin. In one tale, a passing goat sees its reflection in a pond and declares himself very handsome indeed. A hedgehog trundles along afterwards and reproaches the goat telling him that profound humility, not vain boasting are what makes animals truly noble.

Read more: The British Library Digitised Manusripts

Content Catnip

Ancient word of the day: Hedgehog

The ancient word for today is hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus. In the Middle Ages, writers didn’t make reference to hedgehogs, but to urchins. This term for the spiky diminuitive animal is still favoured in some English dialects. We still have the lingering remnants of this etymology in the form of sea urchin, which is literally a sea hedgehog.

The word urchin came to England with the Norman invasion and was derived from the Latin word ericius. Before the Norman conquest, the animal was known by the Anglo-Saxon name Igl.

Other names

Furze-pig – Devon

Hotchi-witchi – Romani

Hodmedods – Norfolk

Ouriço cacheiro – crafty pig
or porco espinho’ – spiky pig in Portuguese

”Thorns shall grow in their palaces, nettles & thistles in their strongholds … there shall the hedgehog build, dig, be there at home and bring forth his young ones.” Taverner’s Isiah 34, 1539.

The hedgehog was a symbol of Christian humility

The Speculum sapientiae, or Mirror of Wisdom is an ancient tale of beasts in Latin. In one tale, a passing goat sees its reflection in a pond and declares himself very handsome indeed. A hedgehog trundles along afterwards and reproaches the goat telling him that profound humility, not vain boasting are what makes animals truly noble.

Read more: The British Library Digitised Manusripts

Content Catnip

Ancient word of the day: Hedgehog

The ancient word for today is hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus. In the Middle Ages, writers didn’t make reference to hedgehogs, but to urchins. This term for the spiky diminuitive animal is still favoured in some English dialects. We still have the lingering remnants of this etymology in the form of sea urchin, which is literally a sea hedgehog.

The word urchin came to England with the Norman invasion and was derived from the Latin word ericius. Before the Norman conquest, the animal was known by the Anglo-Saxon name Igl.

Other names

Furze-pig – Devon

Hotchi-witchi – Romani

Hodmedods – Norfolk

Ouriço cacheiro – crafty pig
or porco espinho’ – spiky pig in Portuguese

”Thorns shall grow in their palaces, nettles & thistles in their strongholds … there shall the hedgehog build, dig, be there at home and bring forth his young ones.” Taverner’s Isiah 34, 1539.

The hedgehog was a symbol of Christian humility

The Speculum sapientiae, or Mirror of Wisdom is an ancient tale of beasts in Latin. In one tale, a passing goat sees its reflection in a pond and declares himself very handsome indeed. A hedgehog trundles along afterwards and reproaches the goat telling him that profound humility, not vain boasting are what makes animals truly noble.

Read more: The British Library Digitised Manusripts

Content Catnip

Ancient word of the day: Hedgehog

The ancient word for today is hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus. In the Middle Ages, writers didn’t make reference to hedgehogs, but to urchins. This term for the spiky diminuitive animal is still favoured in some English dialects. We still have the lingering remnants of this etymology in the form of sea urchin, which is literally a sea hedgehog.

The word urchin came to England with the Norman invasion and was derived from the Latin word ericius. Before the Norman conquest, the animal was known by the Anglo-Saxon name Igl.

Other names

Furze-pig – Devon

Hotchi-witchi – Romani

Hodmedods – Norfolk

Ouriço cacheiro – crafty pig
or porco espinho’ – spiky pig in Portuguese

”Thorns shall grow in their palaces, nettles & thistles in their strongholds … there shall the hedgehog build, dig, be there at home and bring forth his young ones.” Taverner’s Isiah 34, 1539.

The hedgehog was a symbol of Christian humility

The Speculum sapientiae, or Mirror of Wisdom is an ancient tale of beasts in Latin. In one tale, a passing goat sees its reflection in a pond and declares himself very handsome indeed. A hedgehog trundles along afterwards and reproaches the goat telling him that profound humility, not vain boasting are what makes animals truly noble.

Read more: The British Library Digitised Manusripts

Content Catnip

#TheHeirsLair #OneTakeMan #InOneTake #Review #BookReview #ARCReview #StarTrek #SidMeier #Pirates #Piracy #GoldenAgeOfPiracy #RepublicOfPirates #Gateway #GatewayEpisodes #AlternateHistory #History #RomanHistory #RomanEmpire #Christianity #Paganism #WorstToBest #Quiz #Politics

#FediCoven 2026 Q7: What have seasonal changes taught you that books or teachers could not?

I've learned more from nature in general that I ever would have in school when it comes to many subjects. I allow myself to truly feel (and love) the changes during the year, throughout the seasons, and that alone has done a lot for me. Just as we as people change, Mother Earth does as well throughout the year. Change is good. It cleanses and renews.

#Pagan #Paganism #Wicca #Wiccan #Heathen

#FediCoven 2026 Q6: What relationship do you have with the moon and its phases, and how does that show up in your craft?

Ever since I was little, I've always felt connected to the moon. That hasn't changed, nor will it. The moon plays a big part in my practice, as I'm sure it does for many others as well. I usually work my schedule and spells around its phases.

#Pagan #Paganism #Wicca #Wiccan #Heathen

Olivia and I were driving back from Trumansburg to celebrate summer bounty last week and I saw this flower universe in front of Indian Creek Farm

#photo #photography #Lughnasadh #lugh #flower #trumanburg #bloomscrolling #zinnia #indiancreek #paganism

Stone monument in dedication to Mithras (2nd-3rd century CE)

@historyartifacts

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

I spent the drive up to Little York working on a lecture about the magic of blessings which primed me such that every time someone said "Enjoy the 4th of July" it exploded in my brain like a firework

#photo #photography #fireworks #paganism #religion #pagan #blessings #magic #july4 #littleyork #4thofjuly #independenceday #america250 #250th

I spent the drive up to Little York working on a lecture about the magic of blessings which primed me such that every time someone said "Enjoy the 4th of July" it exploded in my brain like a firework

#photo #photography #fireworks #paganism #religion #pagan #blessings #magic #july4 #littleyork #4thofjuly #independenceday #america250 #250th

I spent the drive up to Little York working on a lecture about the magic of blessings which primed me such that every time someone said "Enjoy the 4th of July" it exploded in my brain like a firework

#photo #photography #fireworks #paganism #religion #pagan #blessings #magic #july4 #littleyork #4thofjuly #independenceday #america250 #250th

I spent the drive up to Little York working on a lecture about the magic of blessings which primed me such that every time someone said "Enjoy the 4th of July" it exploded in my brain like a firework

#photo #photography #fireworks #paganism #religion #pagan #blessings #magic #july4 #littleyork #4thofjuly #independenceday #america250 #250th

I spent the drive up to Little York working on a lecture about the magic of blessings which primed me such that every time someone said "Enjoy the 4th of July" it exploded in my brain like a firework

#photo #photography #fireworks #paganism #religion #pagan #blessings #magic #july4 #littleyork #4thofjuly #independenceday #america250 #250th

I went to the Sacred Wild Gathering at Smith Woods in Trumansburg, NY which has lots of Red Elderberry which was used by Native Americans and you have to cook before you can eat

https://sacredwildgathering.org/

#photo #photography #smithwoods #trumanburg #sacredwildgathering #plants #bloomscrolling #elderberry #woods #fruits #paganism

Tha a' bhliadhna a' tionndadh — the year is turning.
Five days to solstice. The magnolias are browning at the edges and dropping their saucer petals on the red clay; the fireflies have started their slow Morse in the wet dark. The old wheel doing what no congress can repeal.
#Solstice #Phenology #Nature #EarthBased #Druid #Paganism #SouthernUS #Seasons #Mindfulness #SlowLiving #FolkTradition

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.

It could be a game review

https://legends.house/it-could-be-a-game-review/

Ah-ha! I did manage to find something for #DoorsDay 😁

What I've noticed is that I seem to be more drawn to doorways and portals, than doors themselves. Might have to start an offshoot : #DoorwayDay maybe?

Anyway, this is Kilpeck Church, south of Hereford (circa 1140). It has a famous Sheela-na-Gig ... alongside 80-something other gargoyles of pagan significance, with some interesting folklore

#photography #architecture #churches #paganism #AncientPlaces #sacredsites

MOLOCH APPROVES

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/2010231/moloch-approves

Brave, brave Sir Diocletian

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/1993197/brave-brave-sir-diocletian

Brave, brave Sir Diocletian

https://piefed.social/c/roughromanmemes/p/1993195/brave-brave-sir-diocletian

A Pagan Case Against Lawns: Rethinking the Tyranny of Turf

https://pagangrove.wordpress.com/2026/04/09/a-pagan-case-against-lawns-rethinking-the-tyranny-of-turf/

It was a pleasant surprise to discover that the new #Academic Anthology "Rethinking the Qur’ān in Late Antiquity" has a few chapters on Ancient #Arabian #Polytheism

#AncientArabia #Antiquity #LateAntiquity #AncientNearEast #ArabianPaganism #ArabianPolytheism #AncientReligions
#Pagan #Paganism #Polytheist
https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111342306/html

Join Us for Our Monthly Dinner Gathering! 🍽

Orange County, California Pagans, Witches & Heathens

✨ Date: Wednesday, November 12th
✨ Time: 7:00 PM
✨ RSVP: Meetup.com/OCPagan

Connect with fellow #Pagans, #Witches & #Heathens over great food & conversation! All paths are welcome. 🔮✨
#paganism #witchcraft #heathenry #druidry #pagancommunity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nelYRpzhqzo

Thank you for being there at the premiere of my new video clip L'Ankou!
Now it's all yours to stream, watch, listen to and enjoy :) hope you like it!

From the woods with love,
Quentin

#music #musicvideo #folk #paganfolk #paganism #bretagne #vosges #forest #hurdygurdy #nature

Friendly #Advice for Beginning #Heathens

https://wildhunt.org/2025/08/friendly-advice-for-beginning-heathens.html

#pagans #religion #paganism #nonchristian

Happy Lammas Day .

#lammas #lughnasadh #wheeloftheyear #pagan #witch #witchcraft #witchesofinstagram #mabon #litha #harvest #wicca #imbolc #samhain #witches #yule #ostara #beltane #paganism #magic #pagansofinstagram #magick #wiccan #lughnassadh #witchyvibes #magia #goddess #nature #love #august #firstharvest Lammas Day is a festival celebrated in many European countries including Britain. On this day, roti made from the first crop of wheat is offered in the church.…

https://itsmostamazingindia.wordpress.com/2025/08/01/happy-lammas-day/

Happy Lammas Day .

#lammas #lughnasadh #wheeloftheyear #pagan #witch #witchcraft #witchesofinstagram #mabon #litha #harvest #wicca #imbolc #samhain #witches #yule #ostara #beltane #paganism #magic #pagansofinstagram #magick #wiccan #lughnassadh #witchyvibes #magia #goddess #nature #love #august #firstharvest Lammas Day is a festival celebrated in many European countries including Britain. On this day, roti made from the first crop of wheat is offered in the church.…

https://itsmostamazingindia.wordpress.com/2025/08/01/happy-lammas-day/

Happy Lammas Day .

#lammas #lughnasadh #wheeloftheyear #pagan #witch #witchcraft #witchesofinstagram #mabon #litha #harvest #wicca #imbolc #samhain #witches #yule #ostara #beltane #paganism #magic #pagansofinstagram #magick #wiccan #lughnassadh #witchyvibes #magia #goddess #nature #love #august #firstharvest Lammas Day is a festival celebrated in many European countries including Britain. On this day, roti made from the first crop of wheat is offered in the church.…

https://itsmostamazingindia.wordpress.com/2025/08/01/happy-lammas-day/

White wine for the Goddess this Freya-Frigg's Day.
#pagan #paganism #norsepagan #freya #frigg #goddess #freyasday #FriggsDay #friday #writer #writing #altar #sacredspace

🌙 Join Us for Our Monthly Pagan Dinner! 🍽️

OC Pagans, Witches & Heathens
✨ Date: Wednesday, February 12th
✨ Time: 7:00 PM
✨ RSVP: Meetup.com/OCPagan

Connect with fellow Pagans, Witches & Heathens over great food & conversation! All paths are welcome. 🔮✨

#Pagans #Witches #Heathens #pagancommunity #paganism

Hail Freya-Frigg!

Wrapped in the mists of Fensalir,
Concealing all save that which must be seen,
I cast my offering to the inky water,
My troth, a vow by deed affirmed;
Through salty haze,
I see the ancient Queen,
And eyes transfixed,
I yield, yield,
To wyrd’s entwining way.

#pagan #paganism #norsepagan #freya #frigg #heathen #friday #FriggsDay #freyasday #writing #writer #fate #wyrd #druid #oldgods #poet #poem #poetry

Oh! I almost forgot to share a new find that I intend to add to my Orphic/Eleusinian Mysteries resource list:

Not only have I found a poetic translation of the Orphic Lithica, someone was very kind to transcribe the messy PDF into something more readable!

Enjoy!

Original PDF Translation: https://www.academia.edu/42010690/The_Lithica_Orpheus_on_Gems_taken_from_Natural_History_of_Precious_Stones_and_Gems_by_Charles_William_King

Transcription: https://whtwnd.com/minormobius.bsky.social/3kyjzt5c3422j

I'm always on the lookout for other translations, so if you know of a more literal/accurate one, please consider sending it my way! It would be hugely appreciated!

#OrphicMysteries #OrphicLithica #pagan #paganism #polytheism #religion #classics #crystals

With the sunset, the sacred space cleansed with incense and a fresh floral offering made to Freya-Frigg for the coming Freya-Frigg’s Day.

#pagan #paganism #norsepagan #altar #sacredspace #freya #frigg #writer #friday #freyasday #FriggsDay #heathen #spirituality

Defynnog Yew in Defynnog, Wales

Estimated to be more than 5,000 years old, this yew may be England's oldest.#yewtrees #gravestones #graveyards #cemeteries #sacredspaces #worldsoldesttrees #worldsoldest #celtic #paganism #ancient #trees #section-Atlas
Defynnog Yew

This is going to be a very, very horrible and lethal timeline/reality to just be a mundane human without any occult or esoteric knowledge or psychic and magical abilities in. Considering the rate of survival for “normal” people, I do not envy them. My husband and I are very sensitive to magical and psychic energy. For my husband, it boosts his divinatory and precognitive abilities. He will suddenly start having visions and will develop an interest in refining his astrological skills. For me, it makes me very hungry as a vampire and dark. If you are a regular human, you are pretty much screwed. If there is a nuclear war, and you are a regular human, you will probably die.

I think that’s how magical skills and psychic abilities will probably spread. I think it will spread through natural selection following a nuclear war. That’s why I think magical organizations trying to make the world more magical through their magical operations being horrified that we are teetering on the collapse of civilization shows how asinine and short-sighted their goals were. Evolution works through survivorship.

It’s conventionally asserted and believed that magic shifts probabilities. Shifting probabilities, even on small scales, changes the stochastic aspects of radiation. The number and energy of radiation particles detected at a given location and time fluctuate randomly due to various environmental factors. In addition to that, when radiation interacts with matter, such as in scattering or absorption processes, the outcomes are probabilistic. That means that a magician who has a latent ability to shift probabilities and the implicit desire to live will shift probabilities so that high-energy radioactive particles are unlikely to hit and shred their genetic and cellular physiology. A really neat way to visualize this is to create a DIY cloud chamber and record it and have it in the vicinity whenever you do any magical operation. If your magic has a bit of power, it will interfere with the background radiation via changing the ionization energy of what you see in the cloud chamber. You will be able to see it.

Want to prove Einstein’s Special Relativity? Build this.

I try to keep the woo down and avoid using buzzwords as buzzwords. A field is a structured set. In mathematics, a set is a collection of distinct objects, considered as an entity. A field is a structured set. A structured set refers to a set equipped with additional elements or operations that give it a specific organization or arrangement. So, we can say that a psychic field is an organized collection of entities that possess subjective characteristics, i.e., qualia. The properties in the topology of that field would have values.

If we say that each property or cell of that field is at equilibrium, then a wave is when one cell is not at equilibrium and propagates a change. It spreads a change to the other adjacent cells that push them out of equilibrium. If you have a grid and all the values are 0, a wave would be a change in values from the first row and first column from left to right. It would wrap around each row and changes the values from 0 to a different value, too. That is a wave. The ability for one psychic entity to propagate a wave of change to another is the potential energy, i.e., dunamis, and the actual changing of those other things is energia. There are analogs to potential and kinetic energy on a psychic level.

While it may seem like I am some flavor of animist, I am on the fence about that. I frequently say that will is analogous to mass in that mass is a property that resists acceleration. Will is a phenomenological property that when you try to get someone to do something, their will intervenes and resists you. Consent is a property where a person’s will does not act to stop you. When someone explicitly violates a person’s consent, they are acting against the will of that person. Psychic phenomena imply a more fundamental, higher-dimensional phenomenological domain. From that perspective, a table has a psychic aspect to it where it can experience and observe itself. But, when I act on that table, the table cannot resist me. It has no will. Conscious entities have a will. An entity that is a body of experiences is not necessarily conscious and doesn’t necessarily have a will. It’s still energy to be ordered, where it begins to have a will when it interacts with my will. It would be analogous to massless energy — light. So, manipulating psychic energy that comes from the existence of tables and rocks would be like manipulating light. It has psychic energy that emerges from a subjective characteristic of experience where the rock reflexively perceives itself, yet it has no will. Mythologies, stories, and fictions are ways that we can organize this energy, where the seed of its emergence as a conscious entity comes from collective will.

Earth has an atmosphere of gas around our planet. Psychic fields are coherent and cohesive in the same way gas or liquid is. Similar to how there is a flow to liquids and air currents, there is a flow to our consciousness. In the same way this gas can heat up in such a way that it drives air currents and streams and creates storms and all sorts of other meteorological phenomena, energy added to the psychic atmosphere of our planet can do similar things. Because my husband and I are highly sensitive to this, we experience an increase in our abilities and an alignment of our personality traits in certain ways. There’s a huge psychic storm building up. I wonder if it is cyclical. Something similar happened a few years ago, so I wonder if the cyclical spiral society finds itself in beneath the heavens is being mirrored above in the heavens.

#anarchism #anarchist #anarchists #anarchy #Animism #animistic #Astral #astrological #astrology #chaosMagic #chaosMagick #conspiracyTheories #conspiracyTheory #cults #divination #dystopia #dystopian #egregore #egregores #energyWork #godforms #Metaphysics #nuclearWar #occult #occultism #pagan #paganism #paranormal #psychic #Psychokinesis #servitor #servitors #vampire #vampires #witch #witchcraft #WorldWar #WorldWar3 #WorldWarIII #WW3 #WWIII

St Mary's and All Saints Church & Holy Well in Dunsfold, England

An ancient yew tree and holy well nestle beside a remarkable 13th-century church.#water #wells #religion #sacredspaces #trees #medieval #churches #paganism #celtic #holywells #section-Atlas
St Mary's and All Saints Church & Holy Well

#witch #wicca #witchcraft #pagan #paganism #modernwitch #cottagewitch #witchesofmastodon #herbalwitch

Kali, Mahakali, Bhadrakali, Kalika; a Hindu Mother Goddess of war, anger, time, change, creation, destruction, and power.

She emerged from the goddess, Durga, who is a goddess of protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars.

Despite her fierce and relatively fearsome appearance, she is considered the divine mother, the dark mother, and the terrible mother -- she is a compassionate goddess that wears a garland of severed heads and a skirt of arms or nothing at all.

Her hair appears wild, disheveled, and her eyes are red with the burning fires of rage. She is often depicted with blue black skin and a red tongue that sticks out of her mouth under fangs, which continues to paint a picture of a wild woman, or, as some would say, a demon.

Much like all dark goddesses, she may appear as a demon and not a loving goddess, but she is misunderstood. She is, in my perspective, a goddess of duality, where she transcends the rigged boxes human dub as good and evil.

Her true nature is misunderstood due to her appearance.

She is more than willing to do the dark deeds required to destroy evil and grant freedom. She destroys our physical ego, thus destroying the attachment to our temporary vessels, our physical bodies and attempts to show us that we should enjoy life because death is inevitable.

Kali Ma is the consort to Shiva, who is the Destroyer AND the Transformer -- both a reminder that life is temporary. Kali's rage is only quelled by Shiva when she becomes lost in anger and violence. Together, they destroy illusion, the ego, and the illusion of duality.

People call upon her in battle and she is often depicted with a sword that represents knowledge and destroys ignorance, and a severed head that represents liberation from our ego or the attachment from our physical bodies.

She came from the Goddess, Druga, who called upon her to defeat a demon named Raktabija who produces clones with every drop of his blood that hits the ground. She defeated him by drinking every single drop of his blood and ate each of his clones.

Kali is revered as a destroyer but is worshiped as a creator. Despite appearing in countless violent stories, she embodies a complex duality, thus she is multifaceted. Women turn to her for fertility while artists call to her for inspiration. This beautiful goddess is called upon during the most critical times when an action must be taken because she is an intense and highly capable goddess who is ready to take on all the suffering and torment of the world.

What I love about Kali is that despite transcending duality, she is exactly what I feel duality truly is because she is embraced as a violent warrior ready and able to destroy anything and anyone through any means necessary while also being a compassionate and loving goddess.

There is soooo much more to this amazing goddess that I could get into, just because of how much I can connect to her, but I advise those interested to do the research to her stories. The more I read about her, the more connected to her I felt.

Have something to add? I'd love to hear more ♥

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

#witch #witchcraft #witches #witchy #goddess #kali #darkgoddess #demon #demons #demonolatry #Pagan #paganism #occult

The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other species are biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother, not an opportunity -- then we will treat each other with greater respect. Thus is the challenge, to look at the world from a different perspective. ~David Suzuki

People rag on David Suzuki all the time but he is correct. He was raised in a tiny mountain town not too far from where I live. The land is alive and when you grow up running in the forest, wading in the rivers and lakes, wandering the wild flower meadows, you understand the spirit world is real, alive and part of you.

#LandSpirits #mountains #spirituality #paganism #animism

Are you religious or spiritual?
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSRTYNSh9/
#religion #spirituality #pagan #paganism #esotercism #witch #witchcraft #beliefsystems

[...] 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

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