An Import of my Tumblr Blog
That is some deeply personal shit. Let’s just say I did something so horrible it made me totally question the person I thought I was. I saw the self as a fabrication. I flirted with Wicca and magick in my early twenties. I had set that all aside for many years. Then that event when I was 35 set me searching. I have been seriously practicing magick for almost a decade now.
I do. My old little hound mutt, and my beautiful baby girl, a 100-lb Alaskan Malamute that just adores me. Saved her from an abusive asshole when she was just a pup. They love to go sniff around the ancestor altar and they are always calm and well behaved in my temple. They often go in there at weird times for no reason. They’re probably talking to the spirits. After my old corgi passed away this summer, they were pretty shook up. But after I put his ashes on the ancestor altar they spent a lot of time in there and and they got better.
Something that really frustrates me when talking about goddesses, especially goddesses of love, is this constant rhetoric about not “sanitizing” or “limiting” them by focusing on their more feminine or gentle aspects. I’m not saying one should ignore any qualities of a goddess and many love goddesses do have serious warrior like qualities but I’m tired of the first thing said about them being “Don’t forget their warrior like aspects!!!” as if those qualities are the only ones that make them valuable and worth respecting and honoring. I’m tired of women only being seen as worthwhile if they are somehow ~tough~ and ~badass~. It’s incredibly patriarchal to value these warriorlike aspects over the soft more traditionally feminine qualities!
Love is radical as hell! Vulnerability is fucking terrifying. Being soft and kind and caring about people is SO hard and SO valuable and absolutely divine and venerable in its own right.
Violence and this really patricharchal concept of strength and valor and wisdom etc. are so fucking draining and I’m tired of people treating those aspects as so crucial to the concept of valuable womanhood.
So yes I worship love goddesses for their loving aspects! I value the lessons of gentleness! I don’t see love as meek or easy or passive and neither do they! Love is believing in people and their rights. Love is creating safe spaces. Love is taking care of people who need you. Love is volunteering your time and donating your money because you believe people and the world is worth it. Love is active. Love is hard fucking work. Love is making the effort to be a better person, to listen with compassion, to value other people’s needs. Love is self examination and healing. Love is admitting when you’re in the wrong and actively working to be better. Love is holding people accountable because you see both who they are and who they could be. Love is feeling broken and taking the time to cry and mourn and not take it out on other people. Love is feeling your feelings and processing your traumas because you care enough to want to feel ok again.
I am tired of fighting and anger and brute strength. I am tired of being told goddesses are being “watered down” if they don’t have these qualities. I am tired of love being seen as passive and easy and somehow not enough. Love is a verb, if it isn’t enough it’s because you’re not putting enough effort into it.
I very emphatically agree with the overall statement. However, I think it’s also very important to stop equating love and gentleness with femininity if we’re going to push back against the patriarchy. Because it kinda needs to be socially acceptable for non-women to not be assholes in order for them to not be assholes.
Besides that, in some some pantheons, the Love deity role is taken on by a male deity, because ancient cultures did not have the same gender roles. And they tend to also be very unappreciated or misrepresented in modern narratives for the same reasons.
So absolutely, we need to value things other than war. And this needs to apply to all genders.
Old Frater Threskiornis is feeling chipper tonight, so I’m gonna chime in. Fuck war gods. We have had enough of that bullshit. Don’t tell me you need a war god to fight against the patriarchy or capitalism. Just fuck all those war gods. I refuse to work with them. We need more love gods and goddesses and the transsexual ones as well. One of the reasons I never went full-on Thelemite is their love of Horus. Fuck Horus. Fuck Thor. Fuck Mars. Our only hope now is to bond together and watch this aeon of the fucking spoiled child go down.
Lol, do you know how witchcraft works? I’m not just selling tiny jars of honey (which are sealed shut btw, so it’s not for consumption). It’s a honey sweetening charm, meaning I add energy to make it more than just a “tiny bottle of honey”. Also, I pay for the tiny bottles, the packaging to ship, and each bottle comes in an organza bag, and on a loop so it can be put on a chain if the buyer wishes.
PS – If you think it’s easy getting honey into those little bottles, you’re crazy. It has to be done just so, or else honey gets everywhere.
UM EXCUSE ME. You’re paying for a smaller bottle which is more expensive, you’re paying for the chain, the fact that it’s all put together, and the TIME AND ENERGY AND WITCHCRAFT. If you’ve got a problem with it, *try* making your own – don’t be a dick on anon. By the way o have one and can tell that it’s made with a lot of love and care soooooo.
Thank you! ^_^ I’m so happy you like it! And anon’s like this are just haters e_e
Hi @beewitch! I don’t mean to take over your post. I just wanted to add something.
What people also don’t know or understand is that we buy things in bulk too (not sure if that applies to you, but a lot of people buy in bulk) and it takes a huge cut out of our paycheck. Not everyone can just be an etsy seller and work off of that income. A lot of us have full time jobs (some have more than one) and invest a portion of our money into supplies to make the products for our shops so we can make a decent living (or try to). I’ve seen a pack of tiny bottles in my area from $4-$10 (up to $20 online) and the quantity can range from 4 bottles to 24 depending on the store and brand. Michaels sells them for $3.99 and you get 4 in a pack. Sometimes I can get a really good deal at an estate sale or sale at a local hobby, craft, or witchy shop but I don’t see those sales often.
Pricing… I get it. This is something that I struggled with when I did my craft fair and opened my etsy shop. I knew how much money I spent to make one thing and I didn’t want to overcharge because I always try to put myself in shoes of the other person. I was thinking like a buyer more than a seller at first. But you need to think about everything that goes into it. Those hooks don’t always come with the bottles. Sometimes you need to buy your own. That’s another added cost. Sometimes a bottle breaks, so you have to buy another package. Another added cost. The necklace can be $4-$10, even more if you’re using real silver or gold. You don’t want your customers to walk around with a green line on their neck. Also, you don’t always get completed necklaces.. just the chain part. The clasps and jump rings also cost money and (in my case) need to be purchased separately. Don’t forget about packaging.. boxes, bags, tissue paper, cotton, artificial moss, crinkle paper, kraft paper, whatever you use to pack it. Plus the shipping labels and boxes or envelopes, the ink and paper for invoices. The business cards, thank you cards, coupons, freebies (unless I’m the only crazy person who gives away free stuff to people who purchase things in my etsy shop), and other added things – I like to use twine, little charms and a doily or piece of lace to wrap up the box for my customers. All of these things.. they add up real quick.
Let’s say you spend $100-$150 on everything you need because like I said, you need to buy things in bulk or in a pack. Trust me it’s possible to spend even more than that. Sometimes I spend $100 in just one shopping trip when I’m making my gemstone/crystal wire trees and jewelry and usually I have to go back a few days later and buy more. It’s not easy or cheap to start your own business, even on etsy. So anyway, you buy everything you need. But then you have to make it. It may look like it could take a few minutes but that’s not always true. You have to design it, measure it, cut/clip, put it together, fix whatever doesn’t work, make sure it’s nice, clean, and secure; and repeat. We put time, effort, energy (sometimes blessings, spells, etc), and care into the things we make.
So that $8 “tiny bottle of honey” (as you put it) may seem like it’s a steep price to someone who doesn’t understand everything that goes into it. But what you’re actually buying is worth more than $8. The shop owner, the person who is crafting it, is worth more than that. Their time and energy is worth more than that.
I didn’t mean to write so much but I’ve noticed people talking about the “high cost” of handmade products on etsy and they don’t really know what goes into it all. Or maybe they don’t care.
THANK YOU!!! All of this is so true, and a lot of people just don’t understand it. I love my Etsy shop and wish I could just make things full time, but I can’t live off of that. Even with all the sales I made over the holidays, with the discount I barely broke even 😢 Supplies are no joke and all the bottles come without the hook rings, and I make every chain myself to the specified size asked for. The organza bags are also included in every charm order free of charge, and I do put blessings and energy into EACH charm that is made to order. I don’t pre-make ANY of my charms.
On top of which, I work a full time job. So don’t tell me $8 is too much for something Input my heart and soul into making and offering to anyone that orders it.
I just really want to highlight that last line.
Don’t tell me $8 is too much for my heart and soul.
Never haggle with a wizard. Never, ever haggle with the old wise woman at the edge of the village. Don’t haggle with the witch of the woods. Be grateful you got some magick.
Ask me some questions about magick. I’m in that kind of mood. Ask me about my practice. Ask me about magick in general. What do you want to know?
Ilustración by Alejandra Acosta from “La cámara sangrienta” by Angela Carter. Chilean illustrator.
