IM LAUGHING SOOOOOOOO HARDDDDDDDD

The stunning rise of cremation reveals America’s changing idea of death

Cremation is now more popular in the United States than a traditional casket burial, and twice as common as it was two decades ago. What does that say about us?

Dude, some of the people quoted in this article are being real dicks about this!

“‘Some people want it over and done with. You wonder if they’ll come to regret that later,’ Moylan says of cremation. ‘With cremation families, a lot of them don’t want to know what we do or how we do it or don’t care to know what you can do with a cremated body. This generation just doesn’t want to do the three-day-long funeral home thing.’”

“‘People want the body disappeared, pretty much. I think it reminds us of what we lost.’ In the United States, Lynch notes, ‘this is the first generation of our species that tries to deal with death without dealing with the dead.’”

I agree with Caitlin Doughty:

“Caitlin Doughty, a mortician, advocate and author, says funeral directors haven’t done enough to address contemporary Americans’ wishes.

“‘The cremation rates are telling us something. They’re screaming at us that people are not happy with what is available,’ she says. ‘Cremation is more a rejection of the traditional funeral industry than an acceptance of cremation.’ She craves innovation and meaning: ‘We need safe, beautiful ways to engage with death.’”

Embalming and fancy coffins and overpriced services are what I hear people mentioning when they talk about not wanting to be buried. I personally don’t want to pay a bunch of money to have my body preserved beyond death and I don’t think that doing so honors death. I think it denies that death has happened. 

This ridiculous and somewhat insulting article is a gift link. Everyone can access and read in full.

Simple Witch Things You Can Do

○ burn your favorite incense or candle

○ walk around barefoot to connect with the earth

○ burn random candles as you please

○ cleanse your crystals

○ thank your crystals, pendulums, tarot cards, and other tools

○ give offerings to forest spirits or animals

○ draw in sand

○ paint your feelings

○ meditate on cleansing your mind

○ use your favorite essential oils !!

○ write down all the things you hate and burn it

○ listen to your favorite song, not caring about how many times it repeats

○ draw or doodle with an intention, similar to sigils, but easer to hide

○ love yourself

        witchcraft is what you make of it, if you make it hard, it will be hard

you will never be too much for someone who can’t get enough of you

STEM DARK ACADEMIA

I'm a little upset at the lack of stem in dark academia, so here's my list of aesthetic science things, STEM ACADEMIA (dark edition)

• relating a little too much to the mad scientist trope (and telling everyone "no, no I would never do anything like that, I just want to help people" but like imagine if we could resurrect people)

• rereading Frankenstein every year, specifically in the month of october

• "why is STEAM a thing?? Art? who that?"

• minoring in classics because you still like mythology and history and reading

• finding the science in art (why things make you feel a certain way, how they do that, what effect they've had on health and medicine) and finding the art in science (isn't it incredible that dna knows how to tell plant cells to break down chlorophyll and this makes the gorgeous fall colors)

• reading every book that mentions at all a scientist or has a character who is interested in stem (they are few and far between)

• enjoying the structure of math and engineering but thriving off the chaos that is science

• where are the mad scientist women? I need this

• people being surprised when you tell them you're majoring in something "really science-y" after being an absolute bookworm and musician all throughout your childhood and having to defend what your heart desires (no? just me?)

• CARDIGANS are peak stem culture

• "why aren't you a doctor? why aren't you going to med school? why are you doing insert reasonable science degree here and not becoming a doctor? don't you want to help people?"

• wanting to go into genetics but wanting to go into botany but wanting to go into theoretical physics but wanting to go into astronomy but wanting to go into geology but wanting to go into chemical engineering but wanting to go into astrophysics but wanting to go into wildlife biology

• for some reason having a huge obsession with morals, ethics, and philosophy

• watching true crime just for the forensic bits

• watching mythbusters as a kid

• LISTENING TO TCHAIKOVSKY, BEETHOVEN, BACH, AND MOZART those are the stem classical musicians change my mind

• doing all your homework and frying your brain then getting to read a simple book that really refreshes you

• you had the astronomy and archaeology obsession as a kid

• listening to synth wave instrumentals

• MITOCHONDRIA IS THE POWERHOUSE OF THE CELL

• when people tell you that one cool science fact they learned and you try your hardest to encourage them but girl that wasn't even close to being correct

• ScienceDirect and PubMed are your go-to databases

• having lots of intrusive, existential thoughts that sometimes suffocate you, because you know better than most how much dark dna there is or how small we really are in the universe or knowing how much math explains and how little room there is for free will or thinking about how we are made up of mostly four types of atoms

• reading science or math textbooks for fun

• reading the fountainhead by ayn rand when you were way too young and didn't understand it but now parts of it emerge from the depths of your memory and you are struck by the power

• watching marvel and x-men and jurassic park just because

• reading sci-fi because it's the closest thing to real science in literature

• knowing a little too much about radiation poisoning and how to really dissolve a body in chemicals

• wearing white to make up for how little your professors make you wear lab coats

(sorry, I don't know that much about technology and I'm a literal grandpa when it comes to using it myself)

A - Z Myth Aesthetics

Q - Quetzalcoatl

Inst @miguelfloresvianna

Just cleaned my bedroom and kitchen to take photos for a subletter & thought I’d post ‘em here because I haven’t posted in ages!

A Beginner’s Guide to Candle Magic

The very first spell that most folks cast happens on our birthdays. Someone lovingly purchases or bakes a cake for us and candles, representing our age, are placed on top. Those candles are lit and as we close our eyes, we are told to make a silent wish and blow them out.

Many believe that this tradition dates back to ancient pagan rituals. Our birthdays were considered to be important since they marked our entry into this world. The candles on the cake held great force and power and, once blown out, the wish was carried by the smoke and sent to the gods. The gods, in turn, would receive the message and grant the wish.

Candles are integral to spell-casting and are arguably the best and most inexpensive way to get started. Most of us have a supply of candles or tealights in our homes, and some light them at night while having dinner, reading a book or writing. However, candles symbolize elements - earth, air, water and fire and, if you have a desire in mind, all you need is fire and the intent to make it happen.

Candle colours and their correspondences

One of the most important aspects of candle magic is to use the right colour candle. Some spells are rigid and need a precise colour or shade of a colour while others are more open-ended. If you are unsure of which candle to use, always use a white candle - it’s a neutral and pure colour that can be used for anything. Here are the main candle colours and their correspondences:

White

Cleansing homes

Purifying spaces

Creating harmony

Invoking spirits

Improving communication with others

Summoning guides and angels

For use in every situation

Blue

Promoting restful sleep

Finding the truth

Gaining wisdom and knowledge

Invoking psychic visions

Calming emotions

Suppressing anger

Aiding meditation

Moving your house

Becoming more patient with others

Curing a fever

Having a better understanding

Protection

Red

Promoting strength and vigor

Rejuvenating energy and stamina

Conjuring willpower

Summoning courage

Inciting passion and sexual love

Sparking enthusiasm

Prompting quick results

Warding off enemies

Becoming more attractive to others

Pink

Healing emotions

Attracting romance

Becoming more caring

Inviting peace and tranquility

Healing rifts

Banishing selfish emotions

Protecting family and friendships

Invoking spiritual healing

Being more compassionate

Green

Accumulating money and wealth

Promoting prosperity and abundance

Accomplishing goals

Growing plants

Attracting luck

Negotiating employment matters and finding new jobs

Hastening conception and solving fertility issues

Casting out greed and resentment

Yellow

Increasing activity

Resolving health matters

Nurturing creativity and imagination

Passing exams and learning

Aiding concentration

Controlling mood swings

Protecting yourself when travelling

Persuading others

Healing problems associated with the head

Orange

Increasing energy and stamina

Improving the mind and memory

Promoting success and luck

Developing business and career

Helping those with new jobs

Clarifying legal matters and justice

Selling goods or houses

Capturing a thief or recovering lost property

Removing fear

Purple

Summoning spirit help

Bringing peace and tranquility and harmony

Improving psychic ability

Aiding astral projection

Healing

Easing sadness

Improving male energy

Summoning spiritual protection

Brown

Attuning with the trees and earth

Promoting concentration

Helping with decisiveness

Protecting animals

Amplifying assertiveness

Aiding Friendships

Bringing material gain

Gaining mental stability

Connecting with Mother Nature

Studying and learning

Silver

Summoning the Mother Goddess

Drawing down the moon

Connecting with lunar animals

Purifying female energy

Improving all psychic abilities

Aiding clairvoyance and the unconscious mind

Ridding negativity

Developing intuition

Interpreting messages in dreams

Banishing bad habits

Gold

Healing and enhancing well-being

Rejuvenating yourself

Improving intelligence

Bringing financial gain and wealth

Winning competitions

Attracting love and happiness

Maintaining peace in families

Cosmic ordering

Black

Protection

Strength

Banishing

Reversal

Hex-breaking

Choosing and cleansing your candles

It’s important to magically disinfect your candles before use - most are mass-produced across the world, often in less-than-ideal conditions and, because wax is a vessel for energy, every person that has come into contact with your candle has effectively deposited some of their energy into the wax.

There are many ways to cleanse candles before a spell and most folks have a ritual that works for them. Some people enjoy a prolonged ceremony of candle cleansing while others leave them in the garden to soak up moonlight. Below is a method of cleansing referred to as “anointing” and involves water and oils to prepare the candle before the ritual begins.

Step 1: Wipe Clean

Wipe the wax with a paper towel, removing all traces of debris and dust.

Step 2: Prepare a solution

Mix salt and water into a saucepan on medium heat. Once the salt dissolves, let cool.

Step 3: Intent

Standing in front of the sink, hold the candle in your left hand. Pour a small amount of the saline solution over the candle, being careful not to wet the wick. Take a fresh paper towel and dry thoroughly while saying:

“This magickal water cleanses thee,

With good intent and purity.”

Step 4: Inscribing

With a small paring knife or needle, scratch your full name and your goal into the wax. It doesn’t matter where you inscribe the words, and it’s not important that they’re particularly legible. Once the candle is lit, these words will burn away and give the spell more clout.

Step 5: Anointing

Pour some vegetable oil into a small bowl. You can feel free to mix in herbs that are associated with your spell’s intent. Hold the candle in your left hand again. Dip the first finger of your right hand into the oil and run it down the candle from top to bottom in a line. Say this invocation:

“This magickal oil anoints thee, with all things good, magickally.”

Step 6: Rhyming and Repetition

One of the ways we can add more power to a spell is by repeating the incantation over and over. Often, prewritten spells, both ancient and modern, will rhyme with some kind of poetic fluidity. Repetition will help enforce the message.

Step 7: Ending the spell

After repeating your spell the desired number of times, you will need to close the ritual. Choose one of the phrases below to say before looking upward and saying thank you.

“And so it is.”

“The spell is cast.”

“So mote it be.”

–

Sources other than my grimoire:

Robbins, Shawn, and Charity Bedell. The good witchs guide: a modern-day wiccapedia of magickal ingredients and spells. New York: Sterling Ethos, 2017.

♥ Indiana Jones Masterpost ♥

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Indiana Jones and the temple of Doom (1984) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992-1993) Chapter 1: My First Adventure Chapter 2: Passion for Life Chapter 3: The Perils of Cupid Chapter 4: Travels with Father Chapter 5: Journey of Radiance Chapter 6: Spring Break Adventure Chapter 7: Love’s Sweet Song Chapter 8: Trenches of Hell Chapter 9: Demons of Deception Chapter 10: The Phantom Train of Doom Chapter 11: Oganga, the Giver and Taker of Life Chapter 12: Attack of the Hawkmen Chapter 13: Adventures in the Secret Service Chapter 14: Espionage Escapades Chapter 15: Daredevils of the Desert Chapter 16: Tales of Innocence Chapter 17: Masks of Evil Chapter 18: Treasure of the Peacock’s Eye Chapter 19: Winds of Change  Chapter 20: Mystery of the Blues Chapter 21: Scandal of 1920 Chapter 22: Hollywood Follies

If there are any problems with any of the links please let me know :) [Movie/ TV Masterposts] [Comic Book Masterposts]