Pagan Tropers Unite!

I would like to take a moment to issue a general Faerie Advisory for this evening. It's both Midsummer's Eve and a Full Moon, so please take standard precautions such as carrying iron and turning your clothes inside out before entering any wooded area.

I'm not by a wooded area, but I AM on an island and the sea is tricky, so I'll hold off on the beach visits for another few days.

I finally found a copy of Fires of the Faithful by Naomi Kritzer. All this reconstruction of Aslanism, and Redentori was right here!

I heart this.

Okay, so you know how Captain America is in my headspace and dragging me around to do patriotic things, like a patriotic Labrador puppy with a flag bandana on his neck?

There is a goddamn evil Cap doppelganger wandering around.

Not-Cap has been dropping in for a couple of weeks to screw with my head, but he seems to LIKE when I catch on and call for help, because all he does is laugh his ass off and run. At first I thought it was Loki, but when I called Thor to throw him out, he grabbed Mjolnir and went "WHO THE FUCK IS THIS?" which obviously meant it wasn't Loki this time.

Not-Cap's latest exploit was to drop in, talk to Brighid in a perfectly civil manner for a few minutes, and then fucking attack her. Ogma came in to help and he asked who Not-Cap was, to which he claimed "Steve Rogers." He wasn't even trying to keep a straight face, so Ogma called the real Cap over to figure out his identity, buuuut Not-Cap just ran off again.

After I ran into Not-Cap today, I got the Morrigan and asked if he was the Nazi-Cap created by Nick Spencer, but he laughed and said, "Honey, I was always here—just like your boy Steve. People like to ignore me, is all. Except for people like you. You have no. Fucking. Choice."

So that means Not-Cap is the embodiment of America's colonialism, genocide, and general hatred of non-straight, non-white, non-able-bodied men.

I asked if the Morrigan could kill him, but like the Dagda being unable to interfere with superheroism because "it's an American matter," she can't kill Not-Cap because he's a country-wide Hate Sink instead of a dick troubling one of her followers.

Consensus is that we can limit Not-Cap's damage right now, but not keep him away or get rid of him.

edited 24th Jun '16 11:43:14 PM by Sharysa

Also finished Arnold Arre's The Mythology Class which I'm surprised doesn't have a Trope page when Trese has one. (On my oath, all this summer reading is relevant to my spirituality!)

Wait, so (just for catching up) was it the Morrigan who put an end to your headcanon Jaime Lannister, Smoke Monster and possible Skinwalker from back when? (Wish I could remember where that post was, which dreamcast an actual Native American actor as Captain America, and had fanart of said actor in costume. Wonder if there's a deified Kamala Khan somewhere by now.)

Yeah, if I'm having trouble with spirits, I usually ask her to handle them by now. Jaime Lannister is actually Nuada Argetlam. (He's actually pretty cool, just hotheaded.) The smoke-thing was also killed by the Morrigan; the biggest spirit that was troubling me took the form of Gregor Clegane; and the possible-skin-walker was "just" a ridiculously powerful fairy.

I think I'm going to ask the Fox what to do about Not-Cap. Xe might be crazy, but xe's also pretty close to some Native American traditions.

Edit: My Cap cosplay is hitting a snag because somehow, I can't find a plain-ass navy track-suit for less than fifty dollars. What the hell are they made of, gold?

edited 26th Jun '16 1:06:15 AM by Sharysa

I had the oddest dream.

So, i somehow got the attention of this weird cult that took the form of Bad Communism and the leader (who was black) decided i needed to be killed for some reason. Cue me spending half the dream running and trying to hide from them.

Finally, he catches up to me in a library where he shoes me a book of grimoire-esque seal spells disguised as a book of mudras. I, being the magic geek that i am, point out to him that it wont work unless he gives it life. Cue me looking away and waving my right hand to avoid being mind-controlled.

While im resisting his spell, he tries to attack me so my mom (out of nowhere) hands me a big stick and i proceed to beat his axx. Then, i somehow lift him up and impale him on two of those pretty fence spike things that look like flowers.

So i cut off his head, which falls into the hands of one of his followers (a black boy). The kid seems relieved and i tell him to burn the head to ashes. I cut up the rest of the body, burn the pieces to ash, and seal them in a number of mason jars. And then its over.

I rarely dream about magic and when i do im always at a distinct disadvantage. Not so this time around.

I was victorious.

I notice a number of hoodoo/voodoo references in this dream too. But thats to be expected, i think.

Hey, neat! I had a dream about beheading a velociraptor. My therapist interpreted it as a step away from the cerebral and towards the holistic, accepting emotions or instincts are part of life. Could that be one meaning of your beheading dream, too?

(I took my velociraptor head to an old witch in the woods for safekeeping. If I didn't give it to the witch, it would grow back and make trouble again. Interesting that you entrusted yours to a kid.)

Um, so a couple of guys with rams' heads appeared in my headspace last night. I was trying to sleep through the dumbasses setting off fireworks at midnight two days too early.

I'm pretty sure they're Greek entities, so I asked Dionysus about them, but I couldn't hear their name/species clearly. Or maybe I was too freaked out. Or maybe I just haven't had proper sleep because of THE FUCKING FIRECRACKERS.

The ram-headed men are pretty nice, it's just that the whole "animal head" thing takes getting used to.

edited 2nd Jul '16 10:42:33 PM by Sharysa

How sure are you that they're Greek? Some of the Egyptian gods are depicted with rams' heads.

I originally thought Greek because Greek mythology has scads of animal/human hybrids, but I started researching Egyptian gods because they have a lot of desert/heat energy. They do seem to be Khnum the ram-headed god and his son Heka. Heka went back to human form because I've been freaking out for two straight days, but Khnum can't seem to take a completely human form for very long. The first time he tried to get his head to look human, his lower body turned satyr-like. He turned completely human after a lot of concentrating, but he can't hold it for more than a few hours.

I know I deal with animal spirits and animal-associated spirits a lot, but shapeshifting is way different from actual hybrids.

They react very strongly to the magical/creation aspects of their mythology, so that's probably why they're here, but they'll explain details after I'm done freaking out. Egyptian magic is strongly connected to singing/hymns and language, so maybe they came here because I'm a bard?

Khnum is upset that I don't trust him very much, even without the ram's head. At first I had to get Cap or one of my ancestors to fucking chaperone me when he and Heka came over because I thought he was Loki or a fairy trying to screw with me, and he got upset and I had to explain that "random (and often male) strangers dropping in and trying to pull shit on me" happens a LOT, and some spirits specifically put on the "nice guy" act so I let my guard down faster.

Also, apparently there's a LOT of modern Kemetics in California. There's a temple in North AND South California.

edited 3rd Jul '16 2:04:03 PM by Sharysa

Arcane Perfection is seeking articles by queer, trans, and intersex cunning folk! Deadline for submitting to this anthology is July 31.

Remember Mivi the Mudang I linked in the page before this one? Donate here, or read here more on how to help fund or facilitate Mivi's formal initiation, and help increase the presence and recognition of Asian traditions in the pagansphere.

On a more personal note, I wonder that there isn't more overlap between soulbonders and pop culture paganism. There may be a smidge more pop psychology, or it started with writers whose characters broke the fourth wall so it was more like as long as this phenomenon helps write the story and get the thing done then yeah. But the more vocal soulbonders right now really lean more towards spiritual, paranormal beliefs about it (such as, the appearance of a soulbond from source materials unknown to the bonder would validate information that said bonder was ostensibly unfamiliar with.)

edited 5th Jul '16 6:25:41 PM by Faemon

Would that I had money to donate, but I spent my last fifty on a Captain America cosplay. I'd have to wait a while or borrow money from Mom. :(

—-
This actually happened a week or so back, but I was pretty upset when it happened.

I met Peggy Carter one day. We talked about the state of America (please, gods, do not let Donald Trump get elected), and my goals as an artist/superhero. She LOVES that I'm basically a female, Asian-American, pre-serum Steve, and she wants to protect me from the dumbasses who won't accept that. Then Steve came up asking who I was talking to, and he saw Peggy for a couple of seconds before she just vanished. Straight-up dissipated, like a movie. So I'm freaking out going "STEVE, WE NEED TO FIND PEGGY BECAUSE THERE IS A 90% CHANCE THE FAIR FOLK GOT HER!" He just sighed and went, "Sport, Peggy's dead. Those are just memories."

I spent a while shoving this to the back of my head until I was bored in class today and couldn't ignore it. Cap noted that another way I'm like him is because we both hurt a lot.

In non-upsetting news, Cap's taken to calling me "sport/kiddo/boss" a lot, but not "honey, sweetheart, precious" or some other "soft" endearment. I told him that I don't like people constantly talking about how tiny and squishy I am, so he's apparently settled on terms of endearment for boys instead. Loki promptly mentioned that he calls me a cyborg, which is the first time he's ever made someone laugh without being mean about it.

To be fair, once Loki explained the nickname, Steve stopped laughing pretty fast. (I went through a crapton of operations/healing by the gods and ancestors when I first got to the Otherworld, Spirit-Me has been wearing a corset/back-brace for so long that I forget about it, and one of my ancestors made Spirit-Me eat a deer's heart because my own heart was a damn wreck. Therefore, I'm an emotional/spiritual patchwork, and in Loki's head that means "cyborg.")

By the way, I was checking back with my posts here to remember how the hell Dionysus went from "crashing in my head-space to sober up" to "hey there, wifey," and I read that last May, I went to my friend's Avengers-themed birthday party. It's only a week off from that post's date (May 4) and when I first posted about Steve Rogers showing up in my headspace (May 12).

And now Dionysus and I have a surprisingly good relationship, to the point where I trust his word on weird-ass shit like, say, "Is this dude/spirit/thing actually Captain America, or am I crazy?" (He is, and I'm not.)

Fucking hell, Cap's timing is on point.

I'm too broke right now to help more than a signal boost, too ): but Mivi's initiation is scheduled three years from now, so.

Aww, no Peggy. Hey, Cyborg could be a superheroic alter ego name, even though or especially because of the taunting/spooking origin. Like Ser Onion Knight. Or Batman.

Well, today was eventful.

Last night Dionysus and I were talking and he accidentally overloaded me with "crazy" energy, so he left me with Ariadne to cool down. I was so out of it that I kept yelling in his general direction to COME BACK, YOU FUCKER, I AM NOT FINISHED TALKING WITH YOU FNFAIOBNFDAJKNDJ KEY-SMASHING ARRRRRRRRGH.

This morning I was raging a lot less, but still yelling in Dionysus' direction, and someone came up laughing about what the ruckus was for. When I apologized for being loud because SEE ARIADNE, I AM TOTALLY CALM AND RATIONAL NOW, I realized it was Diana. Of Themyscira.

Contrary to my freak-out with Cap where I triple-checked with the Irish, Norse, and Greek pantheons, then clinched it with Brighid to make absolutely damn sure he was real, I just stared at her for a minute, went "Omg omg omg, DIANAAAAAA!!!" and I fucking fell over cry-laughing. To the point where I was crying in the real world, too.

Same reaction with Hippolyta. Mute staring, Squee, Tears of Joy. (It seems that to resolve the "blonde or black-haired" inconsistencies, she's appearing as a brunette.)

So I couldn't NOT offer them some breakfast because they're Greek, and they're also two of my favorite SuperHeroines. At first they were just wondering whose place Dionysus keeps crashing at when he's drunk, and then they wondered why Cap was hanging out with a squishy Asian-American bard, and then Cap said that Donald Trump is running for president and Diana went fucking ballistic.

I asked my brother Wes why the hell superheroes are coming to me as opposed to someone who can do something politically, and he said,'"Because we're superheroes, mei-mei."

And I'm like, "Wes, I know Cap called ME a superhero, but who said anything to you?"

He said, "You did. You made me a superhero."

So... that's news.

edited 6th Jul '16 2:36:33 PM by Sharysa

Fangirl news: Cap finally went "AVENGERS, ASSEMBLE" and called up Iron Man, Black Widow, and Hawkeye. (But not the Hulk. Tony said I'm too squishy to risk an accidental Hulk Out.) Thor attempted to talk like Marvel-Thor for fun, but it was hilariously bad. I was eating breakfast and wondering how to check if the rest of the Avengers are real. Tony asked if I had any booze, so that was handy. 1) It was 10AM, and 2) I'm too broke for booze anyway.

Multiverse news: SANSA STARK ran into my headspace terrified and crying for her family. At first I thought it was Brighid, but she said she is Sansa Stark of Winterfell, and that's when shit got crazy.

Danu/Cat Stark and Lir/Ned Stark attempted to calm her down, but she immediately told them that they can't trick her because she saw her father get beheaded and she knows her mother got killed by the Freys and Boltons. So they told her that they're the Mother and Father of the Seven Gods, and of course they'd look like her parents to her. Brighid added that she's the Maiden, which is why she looks like Sansa. Tony Stark told her that he's the Smith.

Tony and Steve are the only ones she'll talk to besides me. Mostly because seeing the gods who look like her family members constantly reminds her that they're dead. I tried to get her to eat, but she wouldn't touch anything until SOMEONE LIVING in her family showed up, and she also thinks she's in the Land of Faerie and my food is cursed.

Steve gave her a hug when she calmed down enough to let people come closer than five feet, but that made things worse. She can sense that he's not human (because of the super-serum?), so she freaked out yet again and refuses to talk to him anymore. Which is bad for Steve because he really really really wants to help her out, and now she thinks he's a fairy trying to rape/murder her. I'm pretty sure she'll know he's trustworthy if something bad happens because he will immediately protect her, but NOBODY WANTS TO PUT SANSA IN ANY FUCKING DANGER.

So... Sansa finally ate some food after two hours of me and Steve assuring her that my food is not cursed at all, then locked herself in a room. And now she's crying and waiting for her family. The door is guarded by Steve, because duh.

edited 7th Jul '16 1:52:50 PM by Sharysa

If im correct, racism is an entity (or group of entities) in the spiritual realm and im wondering if it could be destroyed if enough magic workers cursed the fucker/s. Im pretty sure there are at least two distinct racism spirits, one that feeds on hate and one that feeds on oppression. They both need to be dealt with.

But then, they may have too much historical momentum to be easily vanquished. I wonder how many curanderos, brujos, bokors, houngans, mambos, paleros, shamans, witch doctors, medicine people, cunning folk, and rootworkers it'd take to pull it off.

I'm so furious.

Yeah, I also wish fighting racism was as simple as a literal fight. But a lot of times, the only ones in the position to deal with racism on a large scale are the government, and the government is also ENCOURAGING racism. Right now, America's government can't even stop worrying about what bathrooms people use. And Black Lives Matter exists because the government ITSELF is committing atrocities on innocent people, through crooked cops.

—
Updates on Sansa: MATH of all things got her to stop hiding in my room. I was at class and she noticed I was bored as hell and typing on my laptop (we're working on graphs right now), and Sansa went, "This is a HORRIBLE way to learn! Why aren't you asking questions if you can't understand?" And I went, "My lady, I just want to pass the class and there's plenty of other chapters in the book. Also, what do you know about math?" She told me, "I'm a LADY. I have to run the castle if my husband is away."

She's also apologized to everyone for her day-long freakout, and now she's talking to Steve again. She asked if Steve is the Warrior of the Seven Gods, but Steve keeps telling her that he at least USED to be human, so that's what he calls himself.

Maybe Steve became a demigod somewhere along the line? Dionysus has constantly reminded me that his mother Semele is human, and that's why he's not as screwed up as a lot of the full-deity Olympians.

Now that superheroes are here to fuck up the lines between literally EVERYTHING I KNOW, I just feel weird. The more I try to hash out what the fuck superheroes ARE, especially with Tony versus Steve, the more it feels like Tony and Steve are mixed-heritage kids who identify with the completely opposite communities of human/god. Steve identifies solely as human even though he's been promoted to godhood, and Tony is subbing in as Sansa's god because he has the power to back it up.

That math part with Sansa made me laugh so hard.

I think id have a huge fanattack if someone like Michelle-Pfeiffer-as-Catwoman showed up in my headspace/heartspace. All of the figures i admire most are women/femmes so id be super surprised if a guy/masc showed up (which might make it more likely ha).

I'm probably attracting the male superheroes through my "One of the Boys" factor. I was a huge tomboy growing up and I still don't do fashion very often; I like wearing dresses, but I'm also really lazy, so I don't dress up very often. Pants and shirts are my lifelines, bruh. Also, I swear like fuck and use lots of slang. (Cap isn't happy with the first part.)

Hell, the main reason I'm writing my superhero play is because I love superheroes, but I want to smash the racist pitfalls that the genre has. I could have just written an essay about superhero stereotypes in a month or so, but LOTS of people are doing that, so I'm going to write about Asian superheroes kicking ass without kung fu.

U kno whats really funny? I was thinking just the other day that itd be kool if there was an east asian character whose fighting style was boxing lol; thatd turn that stereotype on its head.

Or a character who uses less wellknown styles like escrima or something. (Honestly, there arent nearly enough southeast asian characters in media.)

edited 8th Jul '16 1:28:28 AM by nekomoon14

Yasssssss, I'm putting so many South/Southeast Asians in my play.

Otherworld news: Cersei Lannister is hunting Sansa with a crapton of knights. She's definitely not Macha because 1) her hair's been chopped off due to her walk of shame, and 2) she doesn't give a semblance of a fuck anymore. Steve and I tried talking her out of murdering Sansa, but all of her children are dead and she wants the Starks to feel the same emptiness that she does.

The only good thing is that Jon and Arya are also looking for Sansa because we're hearing their voices from... Somewhere outside of this world.

Plus, Sansa has inevitably fallen hard for Steve because of his Knight in Shining Armor nature. And we're all encouraging it because SHE REALLY NEEDS A NON-CREEPY GUY after dealing with Joffrey, Joffrey's lackeys, at least half of King's Landing, the Hound, and Littlefinger for five years. (Plus, thank god Sansa hasn't come near Ramsay Bolton like in the show.)

Yes, Steve is horrified that he's the first decent man she's seen outside of her family since she was thirteen. We're all aboard the Crack Ship right now. Like, just give Sansa lots of hugs, Steve.

I hope Canon-Sansa's been warned about not!Cap...going around looking like Cap...

(This is all awesome from a Soulbond model of Otherworldly shenanigans, though, thanks for sharing!)

Still struggling with sort of using the right word in the right context. Like, damn it, Soulbonders, why isolate or rebel against the terms used by general fandom? The Soulbonder meaning of canon is the same as general fandom headcanon, and fandom canon is Soulbonder source. I wanted to propose the Otherfaith change the term for Unverified Personal Gnosis...because we're rebels, too...from headcanon to heartcanon. But now I wonder if that would be opposite helpful. Ehh, it's Hell Month in Western Faery; I'll mull it over until the Four Gods come back.

I'm putting in a request here for physical healing vibes for myself.

About a month ago, I was hit by a car on my bicycle. It was a low-speed collision and really all that happened was that I took a spill, but I picked up an assortment of minor injuries. Among them was some deep-tissue bruising on my shin, which resulted in persistent spots of inflammation.

So about a week and a half ago, I tried using one of those freezer gel packs on it to hasten the de-swelling and, well...I made things worse due to my inexperience. Basically I seem to have given myself a patch of frostbite. The skin where I had the pack is behaving like it's burned—it's hot, dry, red, and itchy around the edges. I think it's going to start peeling, and I just hope it doesn't peel too deeply too quickly. On top of that, I can still feel some of the original inflammation from the bruise.

So yeah. Some "hasten healing" vibes would be nice. Also any practical information about treating frostbite after the fact. I'd hate to have to show up like this at a doctor's office. In L.A. In July. That would be embarrassing.

eeeeep, i haven't the foggiest idea what do do with frostbitten deep tissue damage from a car accident but ((( healing ))) vibes to you!

edited 8th Jul '16 11:17:16 PM by Faemon