Putting the Broom Back Down

Ever wake up on day and realize you’ve been disassociting for months?

It’s like I dropped everything I was interested in and was working on to hyperfixate on one Fandom. I have spent the past 6 months religiously hunting down Thundercat comic books, action figures and swag. Nothing else has really mattered to me. Havent done witchcraft, haven’t read a regular book, haven’t drawn in months, haven’t even paid much attention to my garden. Done a little sewing to keep the hands busy but that’s about it.

Then woke up one day and was like “how the h*ll is it June already?” Like waking out of a good dream only to be crushed by existential dread. You know the kind where you look around at all your witchy paraphernalia and ask “why do I even have all this crap? I haven’t practiced in forever”, “there you are imposter syndrome we haven’t partied in a while.” I ended up throwing myself on my bed and saying “I am a terrible at this, laziest witch ever. I mean can I even call myself a witch if I haven’t even lit a candle in like three months?”

I had I thought, maybe I am just clinging to this lable too hard. I am putting to much pressure on myself to live a certain live style when I don’t really have the spoons to do so. So I took my altar down.

The energy shift was immediate. I felt like a burden had been lifted. It was a lot like that sigh of relief you let out after you clean out your closet and get rid of all the cloths you don’t wear anymore. It was freeing.

So what is the plan moving foward? Don’t really have one other than to get a few more tattoos over the summer and try to finish reading a few books on my to-read pile. I’ll tend to my garden and try to relax. The summer is for being lazy, it is also a time for exploration and having fun, so who knows where the next 3 months will take me.

Book Review: Hedge Witch Book of Days

Hedge Witch Book of Days by Mandy Mitchell

This book is a good supplemental read for beginners. Each chapter is a month of the year and full of ideas on how to celebrate. The celebration ideas are conveyed slice of life style, from personal antadots from the author, as such it has got a strong mom vibe. It reminded me of “Cakes and Ale for the Pagan Soul” in that it felt more like a collection of personal stories than a straight up witchcraft book.

The author is in the UK so the book is geared around thier seasonal changes. Luckily it’s not to far off from the weather of Ohio so it was still relevant to me.

As the chapters were by month, I took a full year to read this, reading each chapter at the start of the appropriate month. I highly recommend doing the same to streach out the fun and keep the material relevant.

Overall it give 3 out of 5 stars.

Batman Fan Art

I finally finished my Batman fan art poster. I normally don’t draw people so this was a big challenge for my skill set. My meduium was markers, on posterboard. This poster is a gift for my dad. The Adam West Batman was one of the shows we bonded over when I was a kid. I always loved how campy it was and how the color pallet in the show made it feel like a live action cartoon.

Working on this project kind of delves in tho that pop culture magic a bit with a Venn diagram side step into ancestor worship as geek icons like Adam West and Stan Lee are part of my Beloved Dead. They are the Bards and Heros of our modern mythos.

Below is my poster, and the insperation poster for comparison.

Also fun fact today celebrates my 4 year anniversary for this blog. Woot!

Thundarian Magic

So a while back I did a book review of Pop Culture Magic and while I was not a fan of the writting style the book had a lot of good concepts for using our modern mythos in magical practice. (So does the Webtoon ‘Trailer Park Warlock’, seriously its awsome go check it out) This post is about my personal exploration in this to type of magic. The Modern Mythos I chose to work with was my favorite cartoon Thundercats, specifically the 80s version. Don’t get me wrong I loved the 2011 anima style reboot too, but I love the original more. Something about that beautiful Rankin and Bass art style just speaks to me. Fun fact there are many nods to the ‘The Last Unicorn’ movie in the orgional series as well and that make my little nerd heart happy.

So for those of you not familiar with the story the basic plot of Thundercats is that they are refugees from an destroyed planet that have to build a new home on 3rd Earth. Despite being badass warriors they seek a peaceful existence amongst thier neighbors but the Evil Mumm-ra and his mutant henchmen keep messing with them. It is also a come of age story as the main character Lion-O thanks to malfunctioning suspension pod is essentialy a boy trapped in a man’s body (like that Tom Hank’s classic movie ‘Big’) and has to grow up emotionally and learn to be a good leader.

So how is this mythos relevant to me now. Well 1st off in my muggle life I am trying to figure how to advance my career and become managment material, as such revisiting the lessons taught in the show is helping me focus my will towards my goals. After all if what the other Thundercats teach Lion-o is to help him be a good king, they can’t hurt me in my quest to be a warehouse manager.

The second way I am using the Thundercats in my magic is by using them as motivation for my physical fitness goals. I channel Cheetrara’s speed when working on my running goals, and Pantro’s strength when on the rowing machine. The twins Willykit and Willycat are great for agility and balanced based exercise like yoga.

The 3rd way I am using the Thundercats in my practice is taking insperation from the magic being used in the show. For example I started using trigger phrases like “Sword of Omens give me sight beyond sight” when I’m trying to find missing stuff. Or channeling Tigra’s invisible powers when trying to hide from that one annoying coworker. I am about to rewatch the entire series for the 4th time in my life, but this time I plan on picking it apart for every little nugget of magical wisdom I can find in it. I also have aquired two Thundercat tattoos so far, the iconic black and red Cat’s head symbol and Tigra (got him Saturday yay happy fresh ink dance). I plan on getting the Sword of Omens done at the end of March, and I will get Mumm-ra when I hit my weight loss goal of 60lbs. For the record I also have tattoos from Discworld, Sailor Moon, Robotech, and Harry Potter, sooooo it’s a nerd thing. But also playing with Pop Culture Magic has brought even more power to my ink so woot woot.

Images below are screen shots from pinterest. The first is the version of Tigra I got, the second is the Sword of omens I will get.

I’m not dead yet…

I have been working ridiculous amount of hours in the mundane job here lately and have been too exhausted to do much of anything extra in my life. Only got about 3 chapters further in 1 of the books I’m reading. Haven’t picked up my sewing at all, and just been feeling meh in general. The youngest cat has been a complete terrorist and keeps waking me up about every 2 hours when I try to sleep. Linda is 2.5 year old demon tabby and spoiled brat of a cat. Yes she is fixed, and yes I’ve tried all the calming products on the market and yes she has 2 other cats to play with. She is just a sleep stealing goblin. Even before I had the one weird dream that Cuthulu was in my coffee cup.

Looks so cute and innocent.

I’m a caffeine filled zombie just trying to survive a shitty job and trying to figure how to buy my first house and start a esty store at the same time. It’s hard to find time sit down long enough to eat dinner let alone try and create a prosperity spell or do research on how to find the best home loan. I am the candle burning at both ends. Always taking on more projects than I can actually handle. I am either a workaholic or idiot.

On top of all that madness I am working on a commissioned piece of artwork, a recreation of a 1966 classic batman poster.

Work in progress