Thank you.

Why ‘female-presenting nipples’ matter

When I was 10, my mom made me wear a bra and it felt like a punishment for being different.

When I was 10, I took the bra off when changing for gymnastics and accidentally dropped it in the school hallway. A teacher picked it up and said, “Oh, this must belong to you” and handed it back to me in front of everyone. I quit gymnastics.

When I was 11, I thought maybe the boobs would be okay so long as they didn’t get any bigger than would fit in my hand, so I kept measuring it, but they did.

When I was 12, I started wearing two or three sports bras to smush them down, until one day a classmate said, “Are you wearing two bras?!” while laughing.

When I was 13, a boy told me he wanted to squeeze my boobs “until they popped.”

When I was 14, I got cast in a play as an older character and a classmate told me I got the role because I had boobs.

When I was 17, my mom told me to return a swimsuit because it would be too distracting for my boyfriend’s father.

When I was 21, I got properly fitted for a bra and everyone felt the need to tell me how much better my boobs looked.

When I was 26, I got pregnant and my immediate fear was that my boobs would get bigger.

When I was 28, I got shamed for trying to feed my screaming baby in public without a cover.

When I was 28, people asked me “why are you bothering to use a breastfeeding cover?”

When I was 30, people gave me weird looks that I wasn’t yelling at my kid for putting their hand on my boob.

When I was 31, I avoided going to the beach or pool because I didn’t want to have to deal with boobs in a swimsuit.

When I was 32, I got asked, again, “why don’t you get a breast reduction?”

When I was 33, I watched a 5yo girl get shamed for running around in sweltering heat without a shirt on and had to reprimand a bunch of tween boys who thought it was okay to shame her for doing something they do all the time.

When I was 34, my kid kept patting my breast and saying “Mommy’s squishy breast!!” They will never see me express any shame about tits, because I want them to have a different mindset than I had. Yes, boobs are nice! They’re squishy! They’re fun! That’s the end of that.

I’m 35 and no longer give a fuck. I don’t care anymore. As a teenager my tits were covered in stretch marks. They’ve been engorged with milk. My nipple changed shape with pregnancy. Give it another couple decades and my breasts will probably be all wrinkly. It’s sexual when I’m using it sexually. I don’t fucking care, and I won’t be ashamed anymore. 

Every time a policy or cultural hangup treats people with breasts differently, it fucks us over. 

Tumblr’s new policy makes an active choice to participate in this culture of shame. By classifying “female-presenting nipples” as explicit material, Tumblr has taken a stance that any chest or breast that differs from a male default is worthy of shame and unavoidably sexual. The idea that breasts are shameful and unavoidably sexual is exactly what fucked me up for so much of my life.

Stop shaming people for having bodies. 

I’ve been seething in rage thinking of this all day and @aibidil put into words what was reeling in my mind.

Our bodies are not porn.

Astro Poll

Do you prefer Placidus or Equal House (or other like Whole Sign)?

I feel like, planets in houses are more accurate with Placidus.

But houses in signs is more accurate with Equal House.

Anyone else have an opinion on this?

Consider the different house systems as different kinds of lenses - you’re observing the same chart but in a slightly different way.

Placidus houses depict our subjective experience of our own charts (consider its prominence within psychological astrology)

Whole Sign houses depict what the “cosmic blueprint” for our life is - but not necessarily our subjective experience of our charts.

Additionally there are certain techniques that will only work with certain house systems.

If you’re using almutens you may want to use Alcabitius houses.

If you’re doing zodiacal releasing you’ll need to use whole sign houses.

Dr. Jenn Zahrt, of Revelore Press, popularised this approach of using technique appropriate House systems - she calls it the ‘Open House System’.

Tyche-Fortuna Roman Imperial Period mid- to late 2nd century A.D

MFA

Drugs – Blue Lotus

You knew this post was coming, right? Let’s get some points of order out of the way. First, yes, you can do magick without drugs. Why you would want to remains a mystery to me. Drugs are not a “short-cut.” The use of entheogens by spiritual practitioners goes all the way back through pre-history. I think it’s pretty inconvertible to say that drugs have been a part of most religions. All the way from the wine you drink at a Catholic mass to ayahuasca. If you want to argue that all of those magi were wrong, take it somewhere else.

Point of order number two: The creator of this blog does not condone the use of illegal drugs. Please follow all local laws when imbibing substances. Those using substances should be of sound mind and body. When in doubt, consult a physician. I highly recommend doing as much research as possible before taking any substance. Please see: Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) http://www.maps.org/.

With that out of the way, I’m actually going to talk about a drug that is legal in all fifty U.S. states – blue lotus.

The Egyptians obsessed over blue lotus, also known as the blue water lily, aka nymphaea caerulea, which grew along the banks of the Nile. The blue lotus is perhaps the most common motif in Egyptian art, appearing throughout all phases of Ancient Egyptian culture. While the lotus has multiple symbolic meanings in Egyptian culture, and remains a powerful symbol in many traditions, especially Hindu (albeit a different strain), the obsession with the lotus probably has a lot to do with its psychedelic properties. Records of Egyptians drinking lotus steeped in wine, eating lotus, and smoking lotus are numerous.

The active ingredient in blue lotus is aporphine, a substance not yet well researched or understood. Numerous psychonauts report that blue lotus has effects similar to MDMA – with the user experiencing heightened emotions, particularly feelings of connection to others, and a warm-fuzzy feeling. Unlike MDMA, lotus is not an amphetamine. In fact, it acts as a sedative, and has been useful for some in eliciting lucid dream states.

I tried blue lotus a few times a couple of years ago, making a tea of lotus stamens with about 5g per cup of tea, steeped for about ten minutes. I can attest to the similarities with reports of MDMA use, although those effects were extremely mild. Overall, a great way to relax.

I’m gonna go a little deeper this time, having just purchased 28g of dried lotus stamen from my favorite source for legal herbal psychoactives, Bouncing Bear Botanicals. Full disclosure, yes, that’s an affiliate link and if you purchase using it I get a discount on future orders. Any instructions to be found on using blue lotus are all over the place. Everyone seems to have a slightly different opinion. Some believe the flowers are best, some the stamens. Some used prepared tinctures, others fresh. I’m using the stamens again because it makes sense to me that the stamen would have the highest concentration of the plant’s chemical byproducts, but I can be totally wrong. All I know is it worked last time. I may try using the dried flowers in the future.

My intentions for my mere 28g are as follows:

Use 20g to make a lotus wine. I’m doing this by merely pouring off some of bottle of sweet riesling and adding the dried stamens. I really looked for an Egyptian wine to use, but it being an Islamic culture now, exported Egyptian wine is a difficult find. The choice was made simply to offset some of the bitter aspects of the lotus. I’m going to let that steep in the fridge for two weeks, try some, and then let it steep for two more weeks before removing all of the dried plant material. I also intend to eat a pinch of the used plant material when I drink the wine to try and heighten the effects.

I’ll use 5g to make another cup of tea. To honor my gods and ancestors and help cover the taste, I will brew it with an herbal tea imported from Poland, made of apples and rosehips. I’ll let the lotus steep for fifteen minutes, and this time will also eat a pinch of the used lotus to strengthen the effect. Keep in mind, IMHO the taste of the blue lotus ain’t that bad, but it’s not that great either. I’ve had worse.

The last three grams I will mix with my regular smoking herb, and give that a try.

So expect some trip reports in the near future, and probably some more history on the blue lotus.

Sarah Anne Lawless has helped many of us and provided us with free resources on her blogs and social media pages.

Recently she named several prominent abusers in the Pagan Community to keep people, especially those new to it safe.

Now her livelihood is being attacked.

Sarah supports her two young sons through herbal medicines.

Please share this.

Please help her by purchasing one of her amazing designs on Society 6 or donating through her GoFundMe.

Please, as a community we have to show this harassing her that this is unacceptable.

When people come forward they should be protected and supported.

They shouldn’t be punished and attacked.

If you’ve ever posted a blog posts of Sarah’s or reblogged it please reblog this. Please spread this. Please help her.

Lawless still needs our support. She has done the bravest thing anyone can do. She’s called out abusers to keep them from harming others. Now she’s paying a price for that, which should never happen. Support Sarah Anne Lawless. Support survivors.

Holy Hell, I can’t believe I missed this. This is horrific.  From the depth of my heart, please please please, help this great lady out. If you can’t donate, reblog and share where you can.  She’s has done and is doing incredible work for the community. Her career has consisted of giving people voices and spaces when there were only whispers and corners. She’s continuing that great mission and facing down the toughest issues. Help her. 

Here’s a link to the gofundme

It’s important to know what natal houses a planet rules when checking transits. This is to avoid wrong predictions/interpretations e.g. “Transit Venus conjunct Venus so obviously something great in my love life!”

This would be true if Venus ruled over 5th, 7th and maybe even 1st, 4th or 10th. It’s less likely if it rules houses like 3rd and 8th, if you catch my drift?

This actually goes so far as that when a certain planet is triggered in a transit, it always involves the houses it rules over. If you have Mars ruling your 2nd and 9th for example, whenever you have an important Mars transit those two houses will jump into the focus of or with that transit. Even the transiting planet counts for this. If the moon disposits your 5th house the transiting Moon always relates to that.

Let it be known.

From Recueil d'Antiquités by Antoine Mongez, 1904.

Here’s my collection of vintage fauns, satyrs, and other woodland deities.

Context: Weblog | Books | Videos | Music | Etsy

Let me just ask the police..

Stele for protection against evil people by Austin Osman Spare, 1955.

The Mediterranean at night.

The lovely goddess of the starry sky, Nuit. –  Jeszika Le Vye

“I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunset; I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky.”

― Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law

Come unto Me. Come unto Me.

me when somebody says they’re a cusp

Same stars, different constellations • r/Astronomy https://ift.tt/2AIt8aB

Same stars, different constellations • r/Astronomy https://ift.tt/2AIt8aB