Amazingariadneisnotonfire - Porco Dio

not sure if you're still doing these but i literally love them and if you are still doing them then I'd love to see a Gaia moodboard !

thanks !

i've been away from here for a long time, but this request of yours made my day, thank you! i hope you like it as well💚

𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒂 ; 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒉 🌸🍃

[please reblog or like if you saved]

The Only Tarot Spreads You Will Ever Need in Your Life

Learn these, and forget everything else.

1. The Celtic Cross Tarot Spread

Gives you a comprehensive answer to any question

2. The Soulmate Conversation

Tells you everything about your soulmate

3. The Three Wishes Tarot Spread

Tells you which of your wishes will come true

4. The Two Paths Tarot Spread

Guides you towards making the right decision

5. The True God Shuffle

Reveals which higher power you are connected to

6. The What If Tarot Spread

Shows you alternate realities

7. The True Colors Tarot Spread

Shows you a person's true colors

8. The General Prediction Shuffle

Tells you about your life in general

9. The Life Purpose Draw

Reveals your life purpose in this incarnation

10. The Major Arcana Grand Tableau

Shows you the full year ahead

11. Your True Passion Tarot Spread

Reveals your true passion and how to live it

12. The Life Advice Shuffle

Gives you advice about life's many departments

13. The Sex Life Draw

Reveals your sex life with a current or future partner

14. The Past Life Tarot Spread

Reveals the truth about your past life

15. Allies & Enemies Tarot Spread

Reveals who your allies and enemies are

16. Your Future Children Shuffle

Tells you about any future children of yours

17. Sports Match Prediction Method

Lets you win meaningful bets

18. Age at Death Prediction Method

Tells you how long you will live

19. The High Priestess Tarot Spread

Answers any question about the future

20. The Time Prediction Method

Reveals the timing of any event

Treating Jupiter & Zeus kindly and respectfully despite what some old myths not brought into votive acts claim of the God(s) is actually a very important step towards dismantling misogyny within certain parts of the polytheistic community or communities that worship Jupiter & Zeus.

Not letting toxic people believe that the main God(s) of the Greco-Roman Pantheon(s) would ever support criminal treatment of others is a very important step towards barring the worshipping community from people as such. It is especially prominent with Pater Jupiter & Father Zeus as embodiments of Justice, but it’s sort of like that with all bigoted beliefs when they affect Gods:

Artemis & Diana and/or Athena & Minerva would never hate men, Gods are not hateful nor hate-driven. Hating an individual for their birth-given or chosen identity is against the rules of hospitality; your identity does not bring you Their ire. Thus, we do not wish for hateful individuals within the community.

Aphrodite & Venus would never hate trans, nonbinary, intersex individuals, and those who fall out of the gender binary in other ways than that - nor would They ever support bioessentialism. Thus, we do not wish for bioessentialists within the community.

Ares & Mars would never support oppression of the mistreated or violent aggression towards others, unless it’s a fight for self-protection. The Gods are not anyone’s way to deify and excuse oppression. Thus, we do not wish for militarists and warheads within the community.

Jupiter & Zeus would never support nor promote ideas of sexual assault in any form or any non-consensual limiting of one’s self-autonomy. The Gods are not a punishing power but rather They are loving hosts accepting of us as guests. Thus, we do not with for harassers, agressors, and/or assaulters within the community.

To agree with the harmful and slandering rhetoric is to give opressors power. Jupiter & Zeus deserve better.

WHAT IS SPIRIT WORK?

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spirit work is how it sounds, working with spirits. these spirits can be spirits of plants, people, animals, mythical beings/creatures, familiars, and otherworldly spirits. it is communing with these spirits, building a relationship with them (forming trust) and asking for their aid (be that in protection, spell work, etc). 

TYPES OF SPIRITS ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

now i should preface this with the types and branching of spirits is vast and wide, and it is dependent on culture, tradition, and religion. i am going to be focusing on animism and the undead spirits, but i will briefly touch on other important/highlighted entities. 

:  ̗̀➛ plant/flora spirits; spirits that are of trees, plants, flowers, rocks, etc. things found in nature that aren’t mammals or animals. most common/popular examples being nymph spirits.

:  ̗̀➛ animal/fauna spirits; spirits of mammals, bugs, birds, and reptiles - spirits of the animal kingdom excluding humans. 

:  ̗̀➛ house/domestic spirits; house spirits have the potential and possibility to be human, but they can also be non-human. domestic spirits (in rome they’re called domestici lares) are guardians of a household and generally the protectors of the home and even the hearth (depending on mythos and region). a common/popular example being saints. 

:  ̗̀➛ tutelary spirits; tutelary/guardian spirits are exactly how they sound, they’re guardians. these spirits can be guardians of a specific place (like a temple or holy ground, see Shi lions), graveyards (this can be any spirit but the most famous is a gargoyle), or of a person (like guardian angels, but any spirit could be a guardian, such as gryphs)

:  ̗̀➛ human spirits/shades; a human soul can and is defined many ways and varies from person to person and tradition to tradition, but human spirits (aka shades, ghosts, etc) can and do reside in our realm alongside the spirit realm (via transport, normally by liminal spots or the aid of a psychopomp, but some can travel on their own). 

:  ̗̀➛ vampiric spirits; vampiric spirits are spirits who drain energy in order to survive or gain strength. back in the day they were known to cause sickness, health issues, and low immune systems, etc. most common/well known spirits are vampires/vampyres, succubi/incubi, some umbra/shadow people, and as i like to call them - dream wyrms. 

:  ̗̀➛ infernus spirits; infernus spirits are those relating to the underworld, this can at times overlap into the demonic, but not all of the demonic are infernus. infernus spirits are mostly those who aid as psychopomps, but they can be the servants and attendants of infernal or chthonic deities. 

:  ̗̀➛ mythical creature spirits; mythical creatures or legendary beasts are those who are not of this plane and reside in the spiritual world. some can be worked with while some cannot (such as faer folk, a note about faer folk is that it’s best to just leave them alone, or yokai). 

:  ̗̀➛ familiar spirits; familiars are spirits/entities who are shapeshifters and sometimes called demons who create a pact with a practitioner/witch/mage/etc. in order to aid them in magical practice and even protection. 

BASICS OF SPIRIT WORK

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it’s important to know and note the basics of spirit work in order to start spirit work. so here are the foundations of what is needed to know for proper and safe spirit work. 

section i. cleansing

let’s firstly begin with what cleansing is and why witches do it. cleansing is a way of forcing negative energy out of an area or person. cleansing is an act that is sort of like a reset button. think of it like showering! you shower because during the day you collected dust, dirt, sweat, etc. and you want to be clean so you take a shower! cleansing is similar, you collect negative energy from weeks of active or inactive craftmenship and even spirits or other entities can latch onto you and your home which then drains your energy. cleansing is needed to keep your space clean and easy to manage energies. it’s important to cleanse yourself, your space and even items. cleansing is important for all magic arguably, but especially spirit work. there are plenty of methods to cleanse, the most popular is smoke (do note it’s important to not smudge smudging is a closed practice to natives and indigenous in north america). but there are other methods such as sound, air/wind, energy work, and water. 

section ii. banishing

banishing is also an important skill to have in your back pocket. banishing is is a more forceful means of cleansing. it’s to forcefully remove an entity and less “nice”. banishing can be done in rituals, spells, using fire (writing the name or being down and burning the paper), air (writing the name or being down and tossing it in the wind), earth (writing the name or being down and burying it), water (writing the name down and tossing it in the sea or river, drowning the paper, etc), etc! loads of ways to banish and more i didn’t mention! 

section iii. grounding

grounding is an extremely important part of spirit work. grounding keeps you in a stable mindset and energy wise keeps you balanced. ways of grounding can be dancing, shaking your hands and feet, stomping/jumping, meditating, taking a walk, listening to music, etc. 

section iv. circle casting/closing

circle casting is important, especially for beginners, it creates a wall and safe zone for yourself and the spirit. one of the easiest ways (physical circles) is to pour a circle of salt around you, candles or crystals at four points (in the position of a pentacle), etc. as far as mental/energy ones, some use their finger or a wand and do a complete circle around them, or, a circle and a pentacle (pentagram). while casting circles some people call upon and evoke deities, angels, the watchers/watch towers, spirit guides, elements, etc. for protection and ensuring safety. some believe you must cast a circle starting north and finish at west, some don’t. no matter where you start the circle you must start and end the circle at the same point, going the opposite direction than what you started with when casting, will close the circle. so if i casted my circle clockwise, i would close it counterclockwise and end at the same point i started with. 

section v. further protection

casting a circle isn’t the only method of protection that should be precautioned, there are also the means of protection such as layering warding (which is a lesson in itself). some examples of warding are; energetic wards, spell jars, spell bags, charms, crystals, sigils, and house guardians to name a few. you can also veil during spirit work, but it’s not necessary. 

section vi. boundaries

setting boundaries with spirits is super important, especially if they’re staying long term (but even if it’s short term have boundaries!) so say you don’t like it when spirits knock, establish the boundary politely of “i don’t like it when you knock at night or during the day, so please don’t do that.” remember, be polite, but be firm too. and if you want a spirit gone tell them sternly! 

section vii. what are vessels?

vessels are what ground spirits and help to stabilize them in our plane, a vessel can be anything too, such as jewelry, dolls, a pen, bones, literally anything. an anchor is similar to a vessel, but an anchor doesn’t “house” the spirit, more so provides it a free range and source of stability. conduits channel the spirits energy, it can be symbols, sigils or other iconography to channel and then utilize a spirits energy. these are all important tools and things to know when it comes to spirit work.

SPIRIT ETIQUETTE

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In General

:  ̗̀➛be assertive, but be polite

:  ̗̀➛ do not forcefully bind a spirit to an anchor, vessel, or conduit alike

:  ̗̀➛ always use consent when it comes to using vessels, anchors, or conduits

:  ̗̀➛ ask and negotiate, come to a compromise, have firm boundaries too

:  ̗̀➛don’t forget to feed and provide energy for any vampiric or even familiar spirits

:  ̗̀➛ make a schedule if you really need to/set reminders on when communication is and isn’t ok

:  ̗̀➛ don’t sell, show, or give away spirits 

House Spirits 

:  ̗̀➛ be polite 

: ̗̀➛ treat them like you would treat a living breathing human 

: ̗̀➛ when entering a house, i normally like to whisper a quiet greeting or even in my mind saying “hello”, “good day”, “good afternoon”, “good morning” etc. 

: ̗̀➛ depending on your belief, greet the house guardian 

: ̗̀➛ light a candle to them, do divination, learn about them! 

Graveyard

 : ̗̀➛ don’t take what’s not yours, it’s impolite 

: ̗̀➛ have manners, people from all centuries probably reside there 

: ̗̀➛ greet & give offerings to the guardian at the front gate (this can be a tree, a specific spirit, animal spirits, etc.) 

: ̗̀➛ treat them like they’re people 

: ̗̀➛ dont step on the grass (this is respectful to the dead and their families) 

Landmarks (i.e. lakes, forest, plains, oceans, etc.) 

: ̗̀➛ introduce yourself & say a greeting 

: ̗̀➛ spend quality time & respect boundaries

 : ̗̀➛ offer things that will benefit them / the area (i.e. water, compost, etc) 

: ̗̀➛ don’t be shy to strike up conversation and divination

This year's Saturnalia is in less than a week, meaning that the time of feasting and indulgence is not so far away either. Food was a very important part of the festivities in the Ancient Times because the entire holiday season in Ancient Rome was meant to give the people a chance of tasting delicious meals and otherwise indulging.

I am covering a few of the Roman Saturnalia recipes and, in order to give everyone a chance to celebrate, some modern recipes that match the theme and requirements of the holiday.

Some of the recipes included contain ingredients not everyone can eat, such as meats, nuts, or dairy. I will be offering substitutes for these ingredients. For cheeses, I'd like to suggest some recipes of dairy-free cheese substitutes you can make if you are allergic.

The first recipe I'd like to go over is Mustacei, or Roman Must Cakes. The first notion of it comes from Cato's De Agricultura where he says:

Mustaceos sic facito. Farinae siligineae modium unum musto conspargito. Anesum, cuminum, adipis, casei libram, et de virga lauri deradito, eodem addito, et ubi definxeris, lauri folia subtus addito, cum coques.

Translated, this recipe sounds like this:

This is how to make Mustaceos. Moisten 1 modius of wheat flour with must; add anise, cumin, 2 pounds of lard, 1 pound of cheese, and the bark of a laurel twig. When you have made them into cakes, put bay leaves under them, and bake.

While this recipe is relatively simple, the measurements is where difficulties arise since Cato uses Roman modius. There are many methods of making these cakes, here's the one I'd like to offer:

INGREDIENT LIST

400-500g plain flour (you can use gluten-free flour)

150-200ml of 2-3 day old grape juice (can be fresh)

1/2 tsp dried yeast (optional)

25-60g cheddar or pecorino cheese, grated (or vegan pecorino or cheddar)

2 tsp ground aniseed

2 tsp ground cumin

50-80g pastry lard or hard vegetable fat

olive oil

bay leaves (15 or 20)

DIRECTIONS

Prepare a bowl and add the grape juice in. Dissolve yeast in the juice. The yeast is optional, you can use just the must (grape juice).

Take a bowl, put in the flour, cumin, and aniseed. Mix. Add grated cheese into the flour mix.

Add lard or vegetable fat into the flour mix, mix until it comes together. Add the juice mix.

Knead until the dough is done. Roll the dough up and cover it with a towel. You can let it stay overnight.

Prepare and oil up your baking tray. Place bay leaves on it.

Roll the dough on a floured board until it's about 1 cm thick.

Use a pastry cutter to make individual cakes around 5 cm in diameter each.

Place the cakes on the bay leaves and bake for about 45 min at 180°C.

Serve warm.

The second meal idea follows another Ancient Roman cookbook, this time by Apicius, De Re Coquinaria. He says the following:

2Elixatas cucurbitas exprimis, sale asparges, in patina compones. Teres piper, cuminum, coriandri semen, mentam viridem, laseris radicem, suffundes acetum. Addicies cariotam, nucleum, teres melle, aceto, liquamine, defrito et oleo temperabis, et cucurbitas perfundes. Cum ferbuerint, piper asparges et inferes.

Which, if translated, sounds approximately like this:

Press the water out of the boiled pumpkin, place in a baking dish, sprinkle with salt, ground pepper, cumin, coriander seed, green mint and a little laser root; season with vinegar. Now add date wine​ and pignolia nuts ground with honey, vinegar and broth, measure out condensed wine and oil, pour this over the pumpkin and finish in this liquor and serve, sprinkle with pepper before serving.

Some people replace date wine with grated dates moistened with wine, some don't: that part is up to you. However, there are some general methods of cooking this recipe with modern measurements in mind:

INGREDIENT LIST

1 pumpkin, squash, or gourd

1 tsp peppercorns

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander seeds

3-4 mint leaves, shredded

1 garlic clove

3-4 tbsp vinegar

30-60 g dates, finely chopped

45-70 g blanched almonds, finely chopped

2 tbsp clear honey

4 tbsp Wine or Grape Juice

15-30 ml olive oil

Sea salt to taste

DIRECTIONS

Cut the squash or any alternative you're using. Place into a steamer or cook on the stove until done.

Remove the excess water. Transfer the pulp to a saucepan or skillet. Whilst the squash is cooking, grind the spices or prepare them if you're using grinded spices.

Add the mint and garlic, grind or mix together with spices. Add the mix to the squash.

Next add the oil, dates, almonds and the honey. Mix it all together.

Place the final mixture back on the heat and simmer for the flavours to combine.

Serve sprinkled with salt and black pepper.

The last recipe I'd like to describe is that of a beverage. You don't have to have any sort of alcohol to enjoy Saturnalia, this is completely optional. This is purely for educational purposes.

Disclaimer: Do not do this unless you are completely certain what you're of age, you're doing, and know how to properly store it.

In the original text by Apicius, or Apicio, the following is said:

Folias rosarum, albo sublato, lino inseris ut sutilis facias, et vino quam plurimas infundes, ut septem diebus in vino sint. Post septem dies rosam de vino tollis et alias sutiles recentes similiter mittis, ut per dies septem in vino requiescant, et rosam eximis. Similiter et tertio facies et rosam eximis et vinum colas et, cum ad bibendum voles uti, addito melle rosatum conficies, sane custodito ut rosam a rore siccam et optimam mittas. Similiter, ut supra, et de viola violacium facies, et eodem modo melle temperabis.

If we translate this passage, it becomes this:

Make rose wine in this manner: rose petals, the lower white part removed, sewed into a linen bag and immersed in wine for seven days. Thereupon add a sack of new petals which allow to draw for another seven days. Again remove the old petals and replace them by fresh ones for another week; then strain the wine through the colander. Before serving, add honey sweetening to taste. Take care that only the best petals free from dew be used for soaking.

INGREDIENT LIST

A bottle of dry white wine 1 1/2 cups of rose petals Honey, to taste

DIRECTIONS

Take a bottle of premade or store bought wine and pour into a large pitcher or jar.

Pluck the rose petals from the flowers and place them on a piece of cheesecloth. It's best to use freshly collected petals but you can use dry ones, too.

Tie the cheesecloth and submerge it in the wine, leaving to sit in the refrigerator for a few days up to week. After the time has passed, fish the sachet from the wine and replace with more fresh rose petals in new cheesecloth.

Repeat this twice, so the wine steeps for a total of three weeks.

Once it is done sitting, serve the wine with honey to taste (and optional rose petals for garnish).

Before we speak on modern dishes, I'd like to mark down a few honorary mentions of Roman foods that are taken from Ancient cookbooks and follow Ancient recipes but were not included in the list above to save space and time.

If you want to follow Ancient Roman recipes and have the ingredients to do so, you can make: Arrosto di maiale con salsa allo zafferano, Aliter Ius in Avibus, Dulcia Piperata, Chiacchiere, Globi Dolce, Prosciutto in crosta dell’antica Roma, and more. I will be linking all sources on these recipes as well as some cookbooks on my Navigation page.

I also want to recommend some wines as mulled wine was a very prominent part of the celebration. Here are some wine types, not brands, that I personally recommend for the Saturnalia: Chianti Riserva, Sangiovese, Primitivo, Nero d'Avola, Montepulciano, Pinot Grigio, Candoni Moscato. Only get those if you're an adult and know how to deal with alcohol.

These are modern recipes that fit the general theme of the Saturnalia. All of these recipes contain typical ingredients of the festive feast. You don't have to use meat, you can replace it with cauliflower, tofu, and any meat analogues you'd like. For sweets, you can replace eggs with yogurt or heavy cream whereas flour can be non-gluten. You absolutely can replace other gluten-containing ingredients with gluten-free alternatives, and replace nuts with crushed dried fruits or other ingredient with a similar texture.

Links to recipes will be in my Sources.

ANTIPASTO & MAIN COURSES

Rotolini di speck e fichi - Speck and fig rolls

Lonza di maiale in salsa di noci - Pork in walnut sauce Carré di maiale alle mele - Pork with apples Honey Garlic Pork Tenderloin

DESSERTS & BREAD

Struffoli - Honey Balls Noci Dolci - Sweet filled walnuts Crostata di mele - Apple crust cake Buccellati - Sicilian sweet fig pastry

Lievito madre or pasta madre - Classic Italian sourdough Libum or Focaccia al Formaggio - Cheese focaccia Focaccia morbida - Soft focaccia

Sources are in my pinned.

I've noticed something in the discussion around Gerard Way and trans identity that I am officially fed the fuck up with. While talking about Gerard's outfits from the second leg of the tour, people love to use use the line "clothes ≠ gender" as a gotcha for those of us who are keen to the fact that they aren't cis. This pisses me off for three main reason plus a fourth mini reason that's more of a history blurb than anything else.

Before we start anything, Gerard has been out as not cis for the better part of 8(!) years now. To not acknowledge that is doing them a disservice. Some of you have purposely chosen to ignore that fact. Right out the gate that's fucked up. Ok now we can proceed.

First off, you're right. Clothes do not, in fact, equal gender. I know this, and it sounds like you'd like me to believe that you know this. So forgive me for being a little confused when you go on anon after they're photographed wearing what you dub to be "masculine clothing" (i.e. anything that's not a skirt/dress with heels) and tell me I'm an idiot for implying that they aren't a cisgender man.

Secondly, the concept that clothes don't equal gender in only true to us very recently. If you think that Gerard Way, a 45 year old ex-Catholic Gen-X'er who grew up in an wildly conservative suburb of north New Jersey doesn't have a different relationship between clothing and gender than you, a 14-to-20-something year old who hasn't closed tiktok in three days and averages 0.3 minutes of critical thinking per week, then you're extremely delusional and self-centered. People are socialized in entirely different ways. As humans, our experiences are not in any way universal. What doesn't mean anything to you means everything to someone else. Maybe you don't equate femininity with skirts and dresses, but I guarantee you a 45 year old who has openly struggled with gender identity their entire life does in some capacity. This is not a bad thing.

Thirdly is that in your attempt to sound as woke and morally upright as possible, you're unintentionally (or intentionally, seeing as a considerable number of you are terfs,) discrediting and invalidating the way someone experiences gender euphoria because you personally don't get it. Gerard Way has only ever said "I don't use labels" in response to people implying that they're cishet. If your first reaction to seeing someone who could even potentially identify under the transfem umbrella experiencing visible gender euphoria in a dress is to say "oh well clothes don't equal gender, so I'm going to assume that he's a man in a dress until he explicitly outs himself", then congratulations! You're transphobic. Because that's the thing. When you use the rhetoric of clothes ≠ gender in that context, it becomes crystal clear you don't actually care about trans people. You just want to sound like the smartest person in the room. And you're willing to throw GNC trans people under the bus in order to achieve that goal.

I think people have forgotten big time that "don't assume my gender" originally meant "don't assume I'm cis", because now the way people interpret the rhetoric (don't assume my gender, clothes ≠ gender, I don't use labels, etc.,) and use it to prove a point only use it as if to say "it's inherently wrong and creepy to identify and acknowledge when people aren't cis. Cis is the default and the only safe assumption. Anything else is offensive and crossing a major boundary" and you can tell it's because they view transness as an insult to someone's character. We have to, collectively, stop viewing transness as an allegation you either have to beat or bear with. Alongside that, we have to stop assuming cisness.

this is my world and all i can think about

jack grayle, the hekataeon

Reblog if you think public libraries are important and should be maintained.

“After screaming, [Cassandra] calls out the name of Apollo sixth times, then again a seventh time, but the seventh time, by shifting the inflexion of the name slightly, she shows its etymology. Apollo’s name is cognate with the Greek verb apollesthai, “to destroy utterly, kill, slay, demolish, lay waste.” By crying out “Apollon emos”, Cassandra can designate the god as “my Apollo” and “my destroyer” at the same time in the same words.”

— Anne Carson, excerpt of Cassandra Float Can, from Float (via mythaelogy)