I was a little late to the Hozier party. I mean I loved Take Me To Church and I laughed at the dark forest prince memes and I even reblogged them, but I figured it was all kind of a tumblr exaggeration.
Then I listened to his album, wherein he sings about:
decomposing in a field with his love and getting eaten by foxes
being dug out of the dirt by his love, who he implores to kiss him “like real people do”, implying that neither of them are real people
observing the world as an outsider (“happy to lie back, watch it burn and rust; we tried the world, good god it wasn’t for us”)
rising from his grave to crawl home to his love
“the bog man”
and I realized, no, he’s just Like That.
are you telling me all of those are real songs and not just aesthetics tumblr made up
Listen, I didn’t believe it either, but that’s absolutely what I’m telling you.
white people aren’t allowed to say poc anymore bc they don’t know the difference between an adjective and a noun. now they have to spell it out, and it’s spelled “PEOPLE OF COLOR,” since a lot of you also don’t know what these abbreviations even stand for
white people can reblog this, especially if you have a lot of white followers
bc a lot of ppl in the notes have seemed to miss the point:
poc stands for people of color and person of color. “pocs” is wrong.
it’s not “poc characters,” it’s characters of color.
it’s not “poc men” or “poc women,” but men of color (moc) and women of color (woc).
This is not a competition. Take it slow, enjoy the journey. You do not need to learn every crystal correspondence within a week.
Keep a journal/Grimoire/Book of Shadows if possible. Fill it up as you go. Do not just put the information somewhere to wait until you “have time” or “have more energy” (although these, and many more, are understandable reasons). It is less work to do a little all the time than try to catch up all at once.
You don’t need to be anything to be a witch. You are one, regardless of your gender, skin color, religious interests… If you think you’re one, you are. Witchcraft is a path, a tool, not a religion.
Wicca and witchcraft are not the same.
It is totally okay to take breaks. Setting aside your craft doesn’t mean you can’t come back and continue where you left off.
YOU are the most important tool. You do not need that expensive cauldron, or those rare herbs that have a double-digit price. Of course, supplies are needed for more complicated/powerful spells to help you out, but they are not necessary.
If your path changes, that is okay! If you were first interested in spells but then decided to focus more on deities and their worship, that’s okay!
On that note, it’s also okay to not know what your path is.
Like all people, witches have their opinions about various things. Listen carefully to both sides, research, but in the end make your own opinion that fits with your morals and worldview. Neither side is necessarily wrong, but both can be true.
Trust your gut/intuition. It knows a lot. If someone says X has Y correspondences, but in your opinion has Z, then this is true to you.
When researching things, remember to be critical and not trust everything you read blindly. Cross-reference.
Educate yourself on closed religions, slur words, racist symbols, appropriation of cultures and their words (see:smudging, chakra…) Do not be angry at yourself if you have used them before – you are always learning and growing as a person.
When in doubt, ask. The community is friendly and many are more than happy to help you. Asking never hurts, but don’t treat others as your Google.
Do not abandon science nor common sense. Witchcraft is powerful, and certain areas have direct influence (using herbs, for example), but it does not replace healthcare, therapy, or otherwise being healthy.
Practice safety. There is a reason why people tell you in rituals/spells/etc. to do things to protect yourself. When doing witchcraft, you are dealing with great powers and energy – sometimes that might be malicious.
Also, some general things like fire safety, checking for crystal toxicities in various substances, and herb properties are important to keep track of – these are physical things that can seriously harm you; and definitely work. Do not doubt that.
Do not lose yourself. While witchcraft gives us great power, it sometimes makes us lose ourselves. One might become so absorbed in their path that they forget things like eating, checking on friends, doing hobbies, and so forth. This path is part of your life, but your life does not consist only of the path.
Have fun! I believe this is one of the most important things. Witchcraft does not need to be serious; it can be Legos, glitter, pop-culture gods, sigils doodled with eyeliner… The possibilities are limitless!
the “your top songs of 2018″ spotify playlists are out so u know what that means! send me a number between 1 and 100 and i’ll tell u what that song is on my playlist
Whenever I look back on the early episodes of Avatar: the Last Airbender, I realize that Iroh was probably acting a little ridiculous on purpose. He knows that Zuko still has fresh emotional wounds from his cruel, uncompromising father and sadistic sister, and the one source of softness and warmth in his life, his mother, is long gone. Iroh always tried to be a friend to Zuko, but now that his nephew has been scarred and banished, he tries to be goofy and funny and carefree so desperately hard because all he wants is for Zuko to smile and relax again. If making a fool out of himself is what he has to do, he’d do it a hundred times over.
how dare you give me iroh feels all these years later
that, and it gives him cover to slow things down.
he doesn’t want to capture the Avatar, but he can’t tell Zuko that; he needs time to help his nephew get out of the mindset Ozai’s abuse taught him.
nobody’s going to listen to him if he just tells them to stop – it’s too blatant a betrayal of the Fire Lord’s wishes – but he can play the buffoon; when they get too close, he can lose a piece of his pai sho set and delay the entire operation to replace it.
because he’s a loving uncle, and this is what Zuko needs on that level; but he’s also a genius strategist and an experienced conspirator, and this serves his purposes on a few levels
there’s even a pretty damn direct implication that he’s doing this deliberately. it’s easy to miss at the time, because you don’t have the context, but that first time we see Iroh delay Zuko and the soldiers chasing Aang? it is, as I mentioned, when he loses a piece of his pai sho set, only to realise he’d been carrying it all along
specifically, it’s the White Lotus tile – the one that gave its name to the order of benevolent meddlers he’s secretly been a member of this whole time. there’s no way that’s a coincidence.
Pretty sure I’ve said this before, but Uncle Iroh is possibly the most brilliantly sophomoric character ever written.
teakepp 