Treacherous / Gold Rush

This is about 20 minutes from my house.

Just Texas things…

Photo by me

just showing off my two favorite cuttings i’ve been growing this summer ☀️🌱

pothos ‘njoy (3 months of rooting)

philodendron brasil (4 months of rooting)

Can we please talk about how the bridge to Coney Island is a reference to Jake, John, Harry, and Calvin?

Jake: “Were you standing in the hallway with a big cake, happy birthday”

John: “Did I paint your bluest skies the darkest grey?”

Harry: “And when I got into the accident , the sight that flashed before me was your face”

Calvin: “But when I walked up to the podium, I think that I forgot to say your name”

Maybe while re-recording, she was reminded of the moments when her past relationships went downhill. I find this all really interesting and I knew that the bridge was important but I think I see it now. I could be wrong, but it’s fun to theorize ✨❤️

So a few days after I posted this I also just realized that

“And do you miss the rogue, who coaxed you into paradise and left you there?” could possibly be about Tom!

( Edit: omg thanks for all the likes and reblogs! I’m new to tumblr I just started my account a few days ago to vent and talk about Taylor so all the love on this post is so sweet❤️ thank u all!)

Note to self and any who wish to note it:

Sometimes it's best to not have a predetermined tarot spread and instead while shuffling your deck ask the question out loud, including details, emotions and even what you're hoping the answer will help with and allow your intuition to tell you what cards to draw, what formation/order you should flip them in and how many cards you will need.

Herbology Lesson One

Basics need-to-knows (vocabulary and conversion)

To an outside it might seem like a mess of random herbs, crystals, and whatever other witches brews are out there, but there is a method to our witchy madness! (well… sometimes.) 

Simple Herb Conversion Chart: 

Measurements

of herbs aren’t always going to be the same / may not always suit your personal needs but that’s ok because magic (and maybe a little science) Measurements of herbs can vary between Parts / Drops / or Millilitres. If your needs aren’t met from the chart below, it also provides an example on how to find the answer you’re looking for: 

~ 1 mL - 20 drops  ~ 5 mL - 1 TSP or 100 drops ~ 30 mL - 1 Fluid Ounce ~ 1,000 mL - 1 Liter

Basic Plant Terminology: 

Vocabulary

is an important part of witch craft too. Although, let’s be real, Hermoine could be a little

much

at times, the gal undeniably knew her stuff! These are some basic plant vocabulary words to hopefully help bring the words you’re reading from Gibberish back to English: 

~ Annual - Plant with one life cycle

~ Biannual - Plant that flowers, then seeds, then dies

~ Bulb - Storage organ for underground 

~ Deciduous - Tree or Shrub that loses it’s leaves annually (at the end of the season)

~ Dormant - Alive but inactive

~ Evergreen - Foliage stays on year round and sheds it’s leaves at intervals (through out the year)

~ Hardy - Tolerant year round climate in an area (IE: Hardy in Zones 1-3)

~ Perennial - Plant that has more than one life span

~ Rhizomes - Roots

~ Root - The plant stems below the ground

~ Taproot - A thick main root system

~ Umbel - Flat topped or rounded flower cluster from the flower’s central point

~ Whole Plant - The plant above the ground

~ Whorl - Three or more leaved flowers from the stem at the same level (3 encircling flowers)

ASTRO NOTES LONG WRITE UP(6)🌸

•water risings tend to have a lot of trauma especially in the realm of emotions due to their water houses falling on the cusp of air/earth signs and their “water rising” is merely a unconscious reaction to the trauma they see in others—hence why they come across as either nurturing or mysterious as that is their response to the trauma they experienced.

•Virgo and Gemini have a natural connection and can easily interpret the ideas and concepts that the other is making out.

•the sign born in the year of that designated Pluto sign tend to be the most mature and or intense of the bunch. The elements aligned with that sign as well to a lesser extent. Ex. Pluto in sag gen; Sagittarius placements and or sun in sag born during this time are far more intense then they’ve previously been and have a more raw Plutonian energy along with the Leo and Aries of this generation. Cancer/Scorpio/Pisces born during the Pluto in Scorpio generation are far more intense then they’ve been and so on. This applies as well to signs sextile/trine the sign itself. And even more so for signs square and or opposite in close degrees.

•your Lilith sign and the house it’s sits in shows where you will face your greatest battle. It also shows what brings the darkness out in you. Ex: Lilith in the 8th might start to find themselves becoming more ravenous and even controlling once sex is involved. Lilith in the 4th might find that family brings the worse out of them and might be the types to grow hatred toward communities and even churches once introduced.

•5th house: is the more simple you, the playful you and the you people date within the first few months.

•The 7th house: is the you people notice immediately, the you that’s out of your line of sight! They see this in tandem with your rising which creates a contradiction. A Capricorn rising seems stern but also in need of comfort. A cancer rising seems nurturing but also out of reach.

•Your 8th house: is the you that appears once trust is reached, the you after years of being with someone. This is why marriages change and relationships transform because the real us comes into play.

•Your 8th house is your traumas so you want to deal with this before settling down with someone as they’ll make center stage.

•Juno in Scorpio or in aspects to Pluto can show that you need and crave transformation in your relationships and may even force breakups and or tension in order for you and your lover to constantly grow.

•Neptune above the ic can show highly attuned spiritual abilities but can show a lack of grounding to this world and even someone who isn’t really here.

•Pluto below the ic can show a native who’s in tune with their power as well as themselves.

•Pluto above the ic tends to project Pluto’s traits on to others whilst finding it hard to see those traits in themselves.

•venus is how we want to be pleased sexually and what arouses us in a seductive manner. Mars is how we go about expressing our sexuality and or what turns us on in a more lustful way. Ex mars in Virgo will be turned on when they feel as though they deserve it and when their s/o is gentle and sensual with them. Whilst their venus in Scorpio will be at their mercy if they’re intense and overwhelming along with that.

•earth risings are very intune with their sexuality and have a very big appetite for sex due to their water houses being in fire signs! So sex is both a passionate yet emotionally fulfilling experience for them.

•fire risings tend to get lost in the act of sex and can have trouble separating the experience from their ego and that of their lovers due to their water houses being in the sign as well causing their more fiery tendencies to disappear once in love! Which is often why people can wonder why fire signs become more submissive and or passive aggressive once in love.

•sun square Pluto can produce someone who’s both magnetic and soulful but also someone who’s extremely intense and someone you’ll never be able to control no matter how cunning and manipulative you might be—they just always know what’s happening even if they don’t say a word.

•moon square Pluto is someone who has a complex and even destructive emotional world! They can see through the hidden in others and can be very good parents because of their ability to see the pain in others.

•mercury and venus square Pluto are cunning in social situations often able to bewitch a crowd with nothing more than a smile but what they succeed in the public they lack in themselves and can have a hard time understanding their own motives and or desires

•mars square Pluto are very cozy in they sexuality! Be it same sex or otherwise! That being said they’re extremely private and those that aren’t necessarily “out” yet May shy away from someone who’s asking them to do so early on as they like to have control over what they put out into the world especially something as sacred to them as who and what they fuck.

•sign lords can vastly influence how a sign is expressed! Ex: a aqua moon in the third decan is ruled by Uranus and Venus correct? Now place Uranus in the 10th house(Capricorn/Saturn influence) and venus In the 6th house(Virgo/mercury influence) this person is going to come across far more grounded and even more serious/somber than most aqua moons. Or take a Aries moon in the first decan which is ruled by mars correct? Let’s put their mars in the 12th house and have it be mars in cancer—so this native is far more emotionally cautious and receptive than most Aries moons along with maybe their Aries moon already being situated somewhere like the 10th house which adds grounding to all of this.

•12th house is sex on instinct! It’s what you already know how to do and what you desire on a soulful level. 8th house is how you have sex in order to merge with someone! This is the real way you have sex when you are connected to someone. The 4th house is how you crave to be treated during sex! This is how you nurture during sex and or can give insight as to how gentle and or loving will be about the act based on their upbringing.

•Pluto/mercury/Neptune/venus/Saturn in the 7th can have really nice butts be it any gender! Mercury/Neptune and Saturn are more petite and small but Shapley whilst Pluto and venus are more plump and or curvy.

•having more than 4 planets in someone’s 8th house is a sign of a karmic meeting and something that needs to be resolved between the two. Having two or three planets in someone’s 2nd house romantically can show deep loyalty and love that creates an unbreakable bond as well as a connection based on equal give and take out of wanting to do so not out of needing to do so. Planets in one another’s 11th house even if it only hits once can show deep familiarity and love between two people as friends and lovers!

•in synastry it’s good if the house your personal plants fall in is present in synastry or of the similar house elements. Ex: venus in the 6th house would love 2nd house and 10th house synastry and to some extent water! Mars in a fire house might love a lot of 5th/9th/1st house!

•the signs your personal planets fall in are also important! For ex: a Aquarius moon might like mercury aspects and venus aspects in synastry or even Saturn. Or someone falling in their 11th/3rd/7th Houses.

•SYNASTRY IS FELT BOTH WAYS. House person feels it as if they were the planet and planet person feels it as if they were the sign itself! Both parties and how they react to one another depends on if they like one another, the nature of the relationship and wether or not they’re comfortable with the themes associated with the house overlay in question! So if one of you is more Plutonian and the other is more airy you’re going to feel that 8th house overlay differently from one another but you’re both still feeling it.

•composite and synastry progressed show how you guys have grown overtime and it doesn’t replace the natal synastry or composite it just shows how those energies have grown to manifest as time has gone by. Composite mars in the 3rd moving to the 2nd house I’m progressed shows that you’re growing to be more patient with one another as well as putting more value into security and comfort with one another! Less into “brainstorming” and more into sensual moments with each other. You’re still talkative and bubbly as you were but it’s channeled more into the theme of security and you’ve learned to allow one another to speak!

•NO ASPECT DETERMINES WHO YOU ARE! It’s a blueprint to yourself! Like a map of sorts so you do with it what you will but using the aspect as an excuse for your tom foolery is not what astrology is for it’s for self discovery and positive growth!

•Gemini sun struggle less with remaining focused on situations than Gemini moon and Venus.

•cancer sun is more emotive than cancer moons

•Aries suns are less impulsive and Carry a more relaxed energy than that of Aries moons who are far more impulsive and even energetic than their counterparts.

•Capricorn moons and Scorpio moons along with Aquarius moons aren’t the types to say they love you first and would rather show you than tell you.

•sun in the fire houses heals very quickly and have a high vitality. Sun in the earth houses have very sensual and intune body chemistry making it easy for them to sense issues in their bodies. Sun in the water houses can have influential energy even to the extent that it can feel like a wave washing over when they’re around—but they also seem less “here” than the rest of us. Sun in air houses often read body language better than anyone! Which is part of what makes them so likable in crowds because of how well they use this skill to navigate around them.

Mushroom Rules and Taboos

Mushroom season is in full swing! There are a few topics one should always avoid when talking with mushroom hunters. I’m a moderator on a mushroom identification group of about 30,000 people, and if you start talking about one of these topics, your post or comment will be deleted! Here are a few rules one should follow when talking with fellow mushroom hunters (and yes, I know these sound like a cross between Karen complaints and fae rules). 

1. Never ask for someone’s mushrooms spot. Asking for someone’s mushroom spot is tantamount to declaring you’re going to steal all of their mushrooms and leave them with nothing but severed stipes! This is very rude and hurtful. If you really need a hint as to where to find certain species, instead ask something like, “at what elevation in what mountain range did you find these?” That will allow the forager to give you a general answer, and won’t force them to give up their secrets. A kind forager will respond to, “Where is your mushroom spot?” with something like, “400m, Cascade foothills.” A less forgiving forager might stuff a wad of moss down your throat.

2. Do not argue about or even mention “cut versus pluck.” Whether you cut a mushroom from the ground with a knife or pluck it with your fingers has no significant effect whatsoever on the health of the mushroom population or how many mushrooms will come up the next year. There is a common misconception that cutting mushrooms with a knife is less damaging, but this is untrue. Cutting and plucking both don’t cause any harm! You’re just removing a fruiting body, and the real body of the mushroom is formed by mycelia underground. People feel really strongly about cut versus pluck, even if they know the different methods have no real effect on the fungi. Some people prefer to cut so others know they were there, or to keep their baskets clean, while others prefer to pluck to leave less visible debris in the forest, or to take more edible fungus. Either way: it should never be brought up. It’s a bannable offense in some groups - think, “We! Do not! Talk! About! The! Orangutan!”

3. Do not scold people for picking mushrooms they do not know the species of. This is called “pick shaming” in mushroom hunter communities. Sometimes, well-meaning folks will scold people for picking mushrooms they don’t know because they think it’s “wasteful” to pick a mushroom if they do not intend to eat it. This comes from a good place, since they’re obviously environmentally-conscious, but it also shows that they don’t know much about fungi. They are not plants! Revisit point 2: picking or cutting mushrooms has no effect whatsoever on the health of the fungus. More importantly, a lot of mushrooms need spore prints and a view of the entire specimen, from the base to the top of the pileus, to properly identify. In fact, to identify many toxic Amanita species, you must look at the volva at the base of the stipe, which requires pulling out the entire specimen. New foragers should indeed pick mushrooms to identify them - this is how they should learn. 

4. This is more of a pet peeve, but: do not ask “is this edible?”  or  “is this magic?” before you know what mushroom species you’re working with. Few things irritate me and other mushroom experts as much as seeing a picture of a toxic mushroom with the question, “Edible?” but no request for id. There are three reasons for this: First, I don’t want to be responsible for whether you eat a mushroom and get sick from it. I can tell you what I think it is, and there’s a 99.99% chance I’m correct, but if I’m either wrong or you have a particular sensitivity to that species (and many people do to common species like Laetiporus conifericola), I don’t want to get the blame for “telling you it was fine to eat.” Many mushroom hunters make a point of giving only the identification and letting the requester research edibility on their own for this reason. Second, me telling you if something is edible is not helping you learn to identify or hunt mushrooms, it’s just giving you a cheap way to repeatedly stick Agaricus foundinmyyardicus  on the forum and have someone else id it for you. Third, and more importantly, why are you putting things in your mouth if you don’t know what they are?  WHY?! What is wrong with you?! Mushroom maggots are also edible, but you would not eat them! 

5. Do not make unverified claims of mushroom medicinal use or, worse, offer medical advice unless you’re a trained and licensed professional. You can say, “There are some studies I found in this peer reviewed journal that indicate Trametes versicolor might be promising for such-and-such use,” but do not say stuff like, “Turkey tails cure cancer!” or, “Susan, I hear you had the flu. You should drink Ganoderma oregonense tea to boost your immune system!” Don’t risk poisoning someone, messing with their medication, or spreading pseudoscience by suggesting they use a mushroom for medicinal purposes unless you’re a trained medical professional. A forager who has casually read some journal articles is not a trained medical professional!  

6. Don’t mock folks for asking for confirmation of an “easy to identify” mushroom species. You’d be surprised by how many people misidentify species that are as “easy” to identify as Cantharellus formosus. I would much rather forty people post chanterelles and one accidentally post Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca while asking for confirmation than forty one people blindly eat their mushroom haul, thinking they’re chanterelles, only for one to get sick on Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca. Be responsible, and remember you were a beginner once, too. 

7. In identification groups, don’t give a definite identification unless you’re 100% sure of the mushroom someone is asking for an id of. If you’re unsure, say something like, “Looks like Laccaria bicolor,” or, “Compare to Amanita augusta.” Don’t say, “That’s Xerocomellus zelleri” with certainty unless you’re willing to bet on your mother’s life it’s Xerocomellus zelleri. This usually isn’t a big deal, but there was a bit of a kerfuffle on one of the mushroom forums a few years back when someone said, “That’s a matsutake!” about a deadly Amanita smithiana, and then proceeded to argue with David Arora, a legend among mycologists and the author of identification books like Mushrooms Demystified and All that the Rain Promises and More, upon being corrected. 

8. When identifying mushrooms, always use scientific names. Common names are colorful and easy to remember, but different species might have the same common name, or other people might be unfamiliar with the common name you’re using. Some species don’t even have common names! It’s totally okay to give both a scientific name and a common name, though, if the common name exists. 

Basil - Magical Uses

Gender: Masculine Planet: Mars Element: Fire Deity: Vishu, Erzulie Plant type: Annual

Uses: Calm tempers, banish evil from home, bring luck, prosperity, harmony, mend lovers' quarrels

Sprinkle some in the corners of a room to remove negativity, protect the home, bring good luck

Carried in pockets or on the doorsill/ cash register attracts potential customers

Used in exorcism incenses and purification baths

Sprinkle over who's asleep to bless the relationship with fidelty

Used in love divination, put 2 fresh leaves on a coal, if they burn quickly is a harmonious relationship, if they crackle there are quarrels, if they fly away it's not a good pair

When gifted it brings good luck to a new home