binchtids

[binchtids]

The USAmerican imagination cannot consider land that is multi-purpose.

A corn field is Corn, an endless monoculture, and all other plants must be eliminated. A residential area is Houses, and absolutely MUST NOT!!! have vegetables or fruits or native plant gardens or small livestock. A drainage ditch is only a drainage ditch, and cannot harbor Sedges and native wetland plants, A sports field is for A Sport, and let no one think of doing any other event on that field, shops and storefronts must have their own special part of town that everybody has to drive to, which requires parking lots...and God forbid we put solar panels on roofs or above parking lots or anywhere they can serve an extra purpose of providing shade, instead of using a large tract of perfectly fine land as a "solar farm."

Numerous examples. But it is the most annoying with agriculture. The people who crunch all the numbers about sustainability, have calculated that a certain percentage of Earth's land is "Used up" by agriculture, which is troubling because that leaves less "room" for "Wilderness." It is a big challenge, they say, to feed Earth's humans without destroying more ecosystems.

Fools! Agriculture is an ecosystem—if you respect the ways of the plants, instead of creating monoculture fields by killing everything that moves and almost everything that doesn't. Most humans throughout history, and many humans today, sustain themselves using a mixture of foraging and agriculture, and the two are not entirely different things, because all human lifestyles change the ecosystem, and the inhabitants of the ecosystem always change themselves in response.

Even if you are a hunter-gatherer that steps very lightly in the forest and gathers a few berries and leaves here and there, you are being an animal and affecting all other parts of the ecosystem. By walking, breathing, eating, pooping, drinking, climbing, singing, talking, all of those things affect the ecosystem. If you gather leaves to sleep on, that affects the ecosystem...if you pile up waste, that affects the ecosystem...if you break a tree branch, that affects the ecosystem...if you start a fire, if you create a small shelter, if you cut a path, that DEFINITELY affects the ecosystem.

This idea, that human activity destroys the ecosystem and replaces it with something Else, something Not an ecosystem, is so silly. "But you just said that even the earliest most technologically simple human societies altered their environment!"

Yes, I did. Because we believe that "pre-agricultural" humans could have no effect on their "wilderness" environment, we ALSO believe another false idea: That when humans affect an environment, they destroy "Wilderness" and change it to something else, like Agricultural Land, that can never have biodiversity and never benefit many life forms.

I think it is the European idea of agriculture that it always involves people settling down and relying on a few special plants that are domesticated intentionally and grown in specially dedicated fields. After all, this idea of an agricultural lifestyle, is in contrast with the "hunter-gatherer" lifestyle, which is assumed to be what humans do before they "figure out" agriculture. The European mind imagines "pre-agricultural" folks ignorantly bumbling about, thinking plants and animals conveniently pop out of nothing for their benefit.

Bullshit! I shake my head in disappointment when I see websites describing Native Americans using wild plants as if those plants just-so-happened to grow, when those same wild plants just-so-happen to thrive only in environments disturbed by humans in some way, and just-so-happen to have declined steeply since colonization, and just-so-happen to be nonexistent in unspoiled "Wilderness" locations, and (often) just-so-happen to have an incredibly wide range where they either once were or are incredibly common, making it very...fortunate that they just-so-happen to have a wide range of uses including food, medicines, and materials for clothing and technology.

Accidentally of course, without any human impact from the humans that were impacting everything. /s

"But if it wasn't an accident, how did it happen?" Here is how to understand this idea: Look at the weeds! The weeds will teach you.

Look at the plants you always see growing without being planted around human buildings and roads, and learn their history. Often you will learn that these plants have many marvelous properties, and have actually been used by humans for thousands of years.

In fact, some of the most powerful and difficult to control weeds, were once actually some of the most essential and important plants for human civilizations to depend on. The dreaded Kudzu, in its home in East Asia, was one of the main plants used for clothing for over 6,000 years, and not only that, it has been cultivated for food and medicine for millennia. You can make everything from paper to noodles out of Kudzu! And Amaranth, the most expensive agricultural weed in all the USA, produces edible and healthy grains as well as several harvests of greens per growing season, and several species of the genus have been fully domesticated and formed a staple crop of Mesoamerica.

Meanwhile...some people have come up with this neat "new" idea called Polyculture, which is where you plant a field with two crops at once and somehow get better yields from both of them. WITCHCRAFT! Unrelatedly, there are other ideas like "Cover Crops" and "Agroforestry" that for some reason have the same beneficial effect.

Wow...It turns out, sterilizing the whole environment of every plant except one crop...isn't actually a good way to do agriculture in many places in the world.

Just think about it from an energy point of view...

We have some places used for "Agriculture," where we wring the land as violently as possible to squeeze green vegetation from light energy.

And we have other places for Other uses, where we spend massive amounts of fossil fuels mowing, chopping, poisoning and trimming to STOP the land from producing its incredible bounty of green vegetation.

And in the agricultural fields, we spend even MORE resources killing the unwanted plants that grow spontaneously

This system is hemorrhaging inefficiency at both ends. It simply isn't a one-to-one conversion of land and fossil fuels to food energy. The energy expenditure of agriculture is mostly going into organizing the vegetation's energy into the shape and configuration we want, not the food itself.

In the Americas, indigenous agricultural systems involve using the plants that exist in the environment to construct an ecosystem that both functions as an ecosystem and provides humans with food, clothing, and other important things. This is the most advanced way.

Most of our successful weeds are edible and useful. A weed is simply a plant that is symbiotic with humans. My hypothesis of plant domestication is that it was initiated by the plants, which became adapted to human environments, and humans bred them to be better crops in response. Symbiosis.

Humans did not pick out a few plants special to intensively domesticate out of an array of equally wild plants, instead they just ate, selected, and bred the plants that were best adapted to live near human civilization. That is my guess about how it happened.

Just think about it. Why would you try to domesticate teosinte (Maize ancestor?) It sucks. Domesticated plants in their wild form are usually like "Why would you put hundreds of years of effort into cultivating this?" Personally I think it's because the plant grew around humans and humans ate and used it a lot because it was abundant. So we co-evolved with the plant.

Supporting this hypothesis, there are many crop plants that mutated and evolved back into weeds, like "weedy" rice, "weedy" teosinte, and "weedy" radishes. Also weeds develop similar adaptations to crop plants to survive in the agricultural environment.

Consider Kudzu. Everyone in the USA knows it as an invasive weed, but since ancient times in China, it was a crop that provided people with fabric from its bast fibers, food from its enormous starchy roots, and many medicinal and other uses. Kudzu is not evil, it simply has a symbiotic relationship with humans, and just as any other species might serve as a biological control, the main biological control of kudzu in nature is the human species.

Think of the vast fields and mountain sides of the South swallowed by thick mats of Kudzu covering lumps that used to be trees. Think of the people toiling away to clear the Kudzu, while wearing clothes made of cotton that was grown in a faraway place using insecticides and depleting fresh water, using energy from their bodies that came from crops grown in fields far away.

Now imagine people working to harvest the Kudzu, to cut the new vines and dig up the starchy roots and use the plant the way it is used by the people who know its ways. Imagine the people using the starch from the Kudzu root to make flour and noodles and sweet confections. Imagine workers processing the vines into thread which is woven into fabric. The hillsides and fields flourish with plants that used to be suffocated, and hillsides and fields in faraway places also flourish with their own plants, instead of being made to grow cotton and crops to provide for the needs the Kudzu provides for.

Imagine the future where we accept our symbiotic relationship with the plants!

#kudzu

[binchtids]

#make a riding crop or bridle and giddy up

[binchtids]

more painting practice. A centaur in the morning light. Reference is Cristian (who has the best smile) via fatfotoref.com and @fugitiverabbit

#dio

[binchtids]

Why does basil smell so fucking amazing

[binchtids]

young artist posting your work online, heed my warning. im holding your face so gently in my hands, you have to stop caring about numbers right now and start caring about making the weirdest and most self-indulgent art you possibly can

[binchtids]

Prayer to Dionysus

Dionysos of the vine, rich-tressed god of wine, potent and lusty, unmixed, undiluted, with full force you come to us, vital and robust, rich and strong and surprisingly sweet. Dionysos, I praise and honor you, I thank you for your blessings.

Ivy-bearing Dionysos, god of the green, of the power of root on stone, the force of life that will make its own way in spite of all who labor to hold it back, no will or work can bind your might. I praise and honor you, I thank you for your blessings.

Dionysos of the deep earth, of the dark world, of the unknown expanse beneath the black soil, beneath solid stone, of mysteries you know much, of death and of what lies beyond. God of secrets, I praise and honor you, I thank you for your blessings.

Dionysos the inspiring, granter of words of prose or poesy, words heard best by the drunken and the mad, words forgotten with the passing of night and delight. Bacchus, granter of rare transport, I praise and honor you, I thank you for your blessings.

Dionysos Soter, holder of the hearts of men, you free us from the cares of the world, each brilliant frenzied moment a shining jewel, each glimpse of the sacred more precious than gold. I praise and honor you, I thank you for your blessings.

Kindly Dionysos, granter of good to men and women, giver of gifts to all who seek your blessing. Gracious Dionysos, accepter of offerings great and small, friend of mankind, I praise and honor you, I thank you for your blessings.

#dio #prayer

[binchtids]

Sources on Dutch deities masterpost

I've been researching the Dutch pantheon (if you can call it that) for about 13 years now. I had dreams of writing a book, but I don't see that happening. So instead I am sharing the sources I have amassed with your all. I'll keep updating this when I have the spoons. If you have sources that I don't please get in touch!

[D] means that the source is in Dutch. *means that I know of its existence but have not gotten my hands on it yet.

General Books and Articles: Antwoord op de vraag, door het Zeeuwse Genootschap de Wetenschappen (book) – Jona Willem te Water [D] Over de beoefening der Nederlandse mythologie, naar aanleiding der jongste tot dat onderwerp betrekkelijke geschriften (book) – Johan van der Wal [D] Verhandelingen over het Westland (book) – Derk Buddingh [D] Nederlandsche volksoverleveringen en Godenleer (book) – L. Ph. C. van den Bergh [D] Goden van de Lage Landen (book) - Gardenstone/Gunivortus Goos [D]* de Goden der Germanen (book) - Jan de Vries [D]* Volksgeloof en Volksleven (book) – H.W. Heuvel [D]* Friese Volksgebruiken weerspiegeld in Europese Folklore (book) – Dr. J. van der Ven [D]* Folklore der Lage Landen (book) – TJ.W.R. de Haan [D]* Teutonic Mythology vol.1 to vol.4 (books) – Jacob Grimm Teutonic Religion (book) – KveldúlfR Gundarsson* Godinnen van eigen bodem (book) - Ineke Bergman [D]* < please verify everything

General Links: Reginheim - Forgotten Gods Het Rad [D] (also an extensive book list available) Goden van eigen bodem [D] < so good! Stam van de Vos [D] < please verify everything

Baduhenna: the Annals (book) - Tacitus Baduhenna, Godin van het Slagveld (PDF) [D]- W.A. Braakman De alde dyk (PDF) - Anneke Koers [D] Hoe de Godin verdween uit Oldholtpade (direct .doc) - W.A. Braakman [D] Taaldacht (webpage) - Baduhenna [D] War-goddesses, furies and scald crows: The use of the word badb in early Irish literature (webpage with link to PDF) - Kim Heijda The Valkyries and the Irish War-Goddesses (JSTOR) - Charles Donahue

Nehalennia: Deae Nehalenniae (booklet) - Kooijmans, L. & Stuart, P. e.a. [D] Nehalennia, AO Reeks 1340 (booklet) - P. Stuart [D] Nehalennia. Documenten in steen (book) - P. Stuart [D] Nieuw Licht op Nehalennia (book) - Annine v.d. Meer [D] De Drie Dames uit Duitsland (book) - Annine v.d. Meer [D] Wat is Nehalennia zonder schip (book) - Dimp Nelemans [D]* Nehalennia, godin van de zeekust (book) - Gunivortus Goos [D]* Nehalennia, het laatste offer (fiction) - Martinus de Kam [D] Nehalennia; De geheimen van de lichtkracht ontrafeld (book) - Demi H. Quins [D]* < please verify everything De Nehalennia reliëfs (article) - H. Hardenberg [D] Over de naam van de Godin Nehalennia (article) - J. E. Bogaers [D] Waar bleef de Nehalennia verering? (article) - H.J.M. Thiadens [D] Nehalennia, een Zeeuwse Venus (article) - Frank de Klerk [D] Nehalennia, taalkundige oplossing voor een Zeeuws raadsel (webpage) - P.A. Kerkhof Nogmaals Nehalennia (archive) - E. Thevenot, H. Hardenberg [D] Once More Nehalennia (JSTOR) - H. Wagenvoort Nameless or Nehalennia (archive) - Frank Jenkins F.S.A. The Journey of the Souls of the Dead to the Isles of the Blessed (JSTOR) - H. Wagenvoort Nehalennia and the Souls of the Dead (JSTOR) - H. Wagenvoort Livius.org (website)

#dutch stuff

[binchtids]

Your body is an ancestor. Your body is an altar to your ancestors. Every one of your cells holds an ancient and anarchic love story. Around 2.7 billion years ago free-living prokaryotes melted into one another to form the mitochondria and organelles of the cells that build our bodies today. All you need to do to honor your ancestors is to roll up like a pill bug, into the innate shape of safety: the fetal position. The curl of your body, then, is an altar not just to the womb that grew you, but to the retroviruses that, 200 million years ago taught mammals how to develop the protein syncytin that creates the synctrophoblast layer of the placenta. Breathe in, slowly, knowing that your breath loops you into the biome of your ecosystem. Every seven to ten years your cells will have turned over, rearticulated by your inhales and exhales, your appetites and proclivity for certain flavors. If you live in a valley, chances are the ancient glacial moraine, the fossils crushed underfoot, the spores from grandmotherly honey fungi, have all entered into and rebuilt the very molecular make up of your bones, your lungs, and even your eyes. Even your lungfuls of exhaust churn you into an ancestor altar for Mesozoic ferns pressurized into the fossil fuels. You are threaded through with fossils. Your microbiome is an ode to bacterial legacies you would not be able to trace with birth certificates and blood lineages. You are the ongoing-ness of the dead. The alembic where they are given breath again. Every decision, every idea, every poem you breathe and live is a resurrection of elements that date back to the birth of this universe itself. Today I realize that due to the miracle of metabolic recycling, it is even possible that my body, somehow, holds the cells of my great-great grandmother. Or your great-great grandmother. Or that I am built from carbon that once intimately orchestrated the flight of a hummingbird or a pterodactyl. Your body is an ecosystem of ancestors. An outcome born not of a single human thread, but a web of relations that ripples outwards into the intimate ocean of deep time.

Your Body is an Ancestor, Sophie Strand

[binchtids]

David Cambell, The Whore of Babylon, Illustrations of Prophecy, 1840

#gpoy

[binchtids]

Source details and larger version.

Here are all the vintage images I’ve so far encountered that, for one esoteric reason or other, are categorized as “occult.”

[binchtids]

Carl Larsson - The Vine (1884)

#dio

[binchtids]

Yes, there is prayer and worship in temples. In librations poured for the gods, in altars carefully set up with statues and candles and offerings.

But there is also prayer on her water bottle, in the way it is covered in stickers that subtly (and not-so-subtly) represent and remind her of her gods. Whenever someone asks what the stickers mean, she smiles.

There is prayer in the little devotions they leave behind on their computer, in the code they've been working on for days. They leave dedications and praises after two forward slashes (like arms raised to the sky) — secret to most, but not to them. Not to their gods.

There is prayer on the inside of his jacket, the one he always wears to teach. Stitched above his heart are the names of the gods he calls out to the most. He touches his chest, letting out a breath before addressing his class.

There is prayer in the charms that hang from her rearview mirror. There is prayer in the way they gesture wildly while telling a story. There is prayer in the little symbols he traces on fogged-up glass.

And the gods are always happy to see it.

[binchtids]

Marble statue of the jackal-headed god Anubis (Hermanubis), associated with mummification and the afterlife, holding the Caduceus of Hermes in his left hand, dating from the 2nd century. Now in the Vatican Museums and Galleries.

[binchtids]

nasa: we're going to shoot three rockets directly at the sun during the total eclipse. for study and research purposes.

me: oh cool

nasa: we have named the rockets apep. this stands for atmospheric perturbations [in the] eclipse path.

me: oh cool

nasa: apep is also the ancient egyptian deity of chaos and darkness, who ceaselessly seeks to extinguish the sun. we launch these rockets directly at the sun in the name of apep.

me: oh... cool?

[binchtids]

Cosmic Reminders

If you haven't finished your to-do list this week, know you are right on time.

Give yourself a break. Mercury is retrograde.

We're supposed to be out eating magic mushrooms and divining what will happen next year, not working a 9-5 that literally chokes the joy out of life.

Yeah, you can show this note to your employer as an excuse, if you wanna.

[binchtids]

Odd Stone #2 by joctaviothomas on Flickr.

[binchtids]

theory aside I believe it is important that your witchcraft be, first and foremost, Cool As Fuck. it needs to slap. if you don't have something that you're like "yeah this is just plain awesome" what are you doing. live a little