Mystery Harvest - Jeremy Puma

Participation in the biosphere isn’t always “fun and games.” It’s not easy to get along with other organisms and species that have different ideas about how to use the resources we all need. Still, a referendum has been held, and the decision is clear. Most humans have voted to abandon the Environment. It's like BREXIT, but with much higher stakes.

The Political Machine opposes Nature.

This goes beyond the obvious crimes the corporate-enabled and fossil-fuel dependent United States government regularly commits against the environment, the climate, sustainable energy, etc. It's a deeper, more insidious problem based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of Nature itself.

Nature isn’t just a collection of biosystems outside of your house; it’s a process in which entities participate. Nature is an “exchange of goods and services” via a network of nodes and connections. We—humanity and everything we do, constructive or destructive— are part of it and dependent upon it. The Political Machine is trying to get you to forget that.

A Crowd of Unspeakable Adversaries don’t think they have to participate in this process. They believe that they get to dictate how this process works.

But I have even more bad news, friends. The fact of the matter is, regardless of how you voted, you can’t Leave. We’re all ultimately stuck here. We can close our eyes, put our heads in the tar sands and pretend that we don’t see, know or care what’s happening. Act like it’s somebody else’s problem to solve, fix, cleanup, and that we can simply ‘vote’ to exit, to walk away from the millions of years of Life Force that has moved inexorably towards the present moment, filling the environment with consciousness and the means to survive.

Those of us who see the value of recognizing the community, of participating in the intricate system of economies and networks that make up our biosphere, face a disturbing defeat. We understand that, for the majority, “going it alone” seems like the easy way. But there are more than a few of us who understand this differently….

So, we have to #Resist.

This doesn’t just mean that we have to go to protests, call our Congresspeople, organize meetings with like-minded resistors. It means we have to #Resist every single second of every single day. This sounds hard and overwhelming, but a lot of you are already doing it.

But we’re damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t. We’re between a rock and another rock, and in between is a bunch of other rocks. And some are on fire….

The thing is though, it could have been a garden, a paradise. Some say it started out that way, and that it was our error, our failure, our pride, our sin that separated us from it. I cant’ speak to what happened long ago — and whatever happened, the end result is the same. So, we have to make the most of it.

I hesitate to give anyone advice after everything that’s happened. After all the defeats and let-downs we’ve known — those of us who have kept watch, those conscientious objectors who weary of the war against participation in something larger, who see that no matter what, we will Remain.

But there are truths I’ve found which can only be seen close to the ground. The dog’s eye view. The worm’s eye view. The dandelion’s view. The truths of the weak, the small, the seemingly powerless. The truths of the soil and streams, the treetops and the layer of needles covering the forest floor. The truths of those who spend their lives getting eaten….

Those truths? Our Birthrights: the right to eat wild food, the right to sit in the sun, the right to not be harassed by poison, or by factory-made mosquitoes, the right to grow plants and collect clean water, the right to walk in the woods.

Our only way forward, and the only way to Make the Ecosphere Great Again, is to Take Back the Planet. And the only way to Take Back the Planet is to recognize that we are all Participants in our Ecology. We have to start small; the “big guys” and “fat cats” have the cash, and the votes, and the personalities. But, we have something they don’t. We have secret weapons passed down to us through the generations by invisible gray-robed elders who fought the same fight, who have always fought the same fight. We have ethics. And our ethics are our arsenal.

Our ethics are key ideals, basic patterns of interaction with the continuum upon which ‘wild’ and ‘urban’ fluctuate. These are our guides as we take our stand, and move within the community of Life:

PARTICIPATION. We are all participants in our biosphere, and should participate as fully as possible. For some people, this might be running for office. For some people it might be attending every march. For others, it might be sharing an insightful message on Social Media. For still others, it might simply be the act of not falling apart in the face of despair. What counts is the worldview of participation.

One bee with one grain of pollen can become an entire field of dandelions.

KINDNESS. Acting on one part of the biosphere impacts all other parts. Therefore, do as little harm as possible when interacting with fellow organisms. One of the hallmarks of the current Regime is base and wanton cruelty. By acting kindly, we #resist that cruelty, even if our act is as simple as a smile to a kid, or a little extra tip for our server, or a boop on a doggo’s snoot.

EDUCATION. Learn and observe prior to action, think and consider prior to activity. Education isn’t a TED talk; education means awareness. Use your ears, your eyes, your nose to ensure you’re acting deliberately. Learn from other people who have experience. LISTEN**, but also teach when asked.

RESPECT. Every species in a biosphere has the right of self-determination and our actions should impinge upon that right as little as possible. Question your assumptions; check your privilege. Ask yourself, no matter your landscape, what the value is in the terms “invasive species,” “immigrants,” “refugees.”

SUFFICIENCY. Take and leave only what is absolutely needed. Allow the possibility for new growth in the places you walk. Buy organic if you can afford it. Determine what is sufficient for you. If you have too much, give it to others. Share the surplus. Remember, in a Valuable System — think the forest — nothing is wasted.

CARE. Act as stewards of all of the places in the biosphere, be they urban or “wild” or in between. Remove the unhealthy and encourage the healthy. Care for others, but also for yourself. Care for strangers who don’t have the same privileges you do. Block trolls. Call out the haters, and if you see something, say something.

COMMUNITY. Share these ethics with other organisms. None of us are alone, regardless of the odious walls between us. Do magic together, even — especially — if they try to tell you that magic isn’t real.

Let the malevolent Adversaries stew within the bowels of their Cold Lodges. No matter the chains, no matter the prisons, no matter the decimation, you are one of the Good People, and wield the True Power.

We can do it. We don’t have a choice. In this, we will vote Remain, regardless of what the Powers believe they have decided for us, and will walk in the sun, and through the forest, for generations.

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Stop Trying to “Take Care of Nature”

We must take care of Nature!

“Be stewards of the Environment!” “TOP TEN WAYS TO TAKE CARE OF OUR PLANET”

What a nice idea, taking care of “Nature” (whatever that is)! It makes us think of cleaning streams, throwing litter into the proper receptacles, recycling at home, buying organic. All good, to be sure, but are they really “taking care of Nature?” These sentiments are so ingrained in environmentalist circles that it’s likely not many of us have really considered what they say about the worldview that produced them.

Essentially, saying “We must take care of Nature” implies that humanity has dominion over it.

“Take care of Nature” means “humans are responsible for keeping Nature healthy.” In reality, the opposite is true: “Nature” is responsible for keeping US healthy, because humans and “Nature” are part of the same System. Nature isn’t something you “Go To.”

Reframing how we see “Nature” is going to take some work.

“TEN REASONS TO ESCAPE TO NATURE” “GET BACK TO NATURE THIS WEEKEND!” “25 INSPIRING NATURE QUOTES TO MAKE YOU WANT TO GO OUTSIDE AND EXPLORE NATURE” “It’s time to get out in nature and explore the places you are helping protect.”

The implication, of course, is that Nature is something Other, something we don’t participate in unless we GO to it. This isn’t, however, the case. We absolutely NEED to see NATURE as something in which we already participate.

Nature isn’t just a collection of biosystems outside of your house; it’s a process in which entities participate. Nature is an “exchange of goods and services” via a network of nodes and connections.

Saying “Escape to Nature” is meaningless. It’s like telling an octopus to “Escape to the Sea,” or a bear to “Escape to the Forest.” It’s like telling a variable to “Escape to an Algorithm.”

You don’t need a tent or hiking boots or a long drive to the “middle of nowhere” to experience Nature; the fact is, you can’t NOT experience Nature.

What does this mean, exactly? It means there is no “Wild” versus “Urban.” It means that the value of entities isn’t in the entities themselves, but in the connections and exchanges between them. The better the connections and exchanges of mutually beneficial services in a system, the more value that system has. Valuable Systems — be they forests, cities, workplaces, rivers, the ‘soil food web’ — consist of entities working together to benefit all of the individual parts of the system.

Taking Nature out of the equation by separating it, framing it as something to “visit,” collapses the value function of the System called “Life on Earth.”

Understanding “Nature” as something in which we participate, not as an “Other,” is a kind of “gnosis” — a revelatory event that changes the way you see and interact with the world.

Really, when you look at all of the ways in which it is suggested that we “take care of nature,” they’re actually things like “fix the mess YOU ALREADY MADE.” Being a good “steward of the environment” means “Stop POISONING YOUR OWN FOOD.” “Taking care of the planet” means “DON’T THROW YOUR PLASTIC IN YOUR DRINKING WATER.”

Saying “Take Care of the Planet” is like saying “Take your indentured servant to the doctor after you’ve overworked and beaten him.”

It’s really an Imperialist concept with roots in Christian Dominianism. Environmentalists who advise us to be “stewards of the planet,” however well-meaning, come from the same place as those awful evangelical Christians who think pollution is fine since “God” gave us power over the whole Earth and the Second Coming is happening any day now so?

So, here’s an idea: instead of saying “Take Care of Nature,” how about we start saying “Treat Nature as an Equal?”

Rivers, trees, rocks, plants, animals, insects — these are all people, with the same intrinsic value as humans. Yes, we interact with them in ways that often change them, just as they interact with us in ways that change us. It’s because our relationship to Nature isn’t one of power or control; it’s a series of transactions among equals.

(Yes, sometimes those transactions entail one equal eating another.)

It’s a subtle distinction, a slight change in conceptualization, but I know from personal experience that making this change has profound impacts on the way we interact with the world around us. The more people who see other people as people, the better chances we’ll have to make it through the coming climate changes, together.

Most animist cultures have always known this. Maybe it’s time for the rest of us to catch on.

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Suggestions for Gardening in a Changing Climate

In a changing climate a garden and the humans who participate in it need to be reactive as well as proactive. The Wheel of the Year has come off its axle, and it’s up to each grower to figure out the best way to participate in her climate. Here are some possible approaches.

1. Be Okay with Losses.

Your garden is now officially an experiment. In order to figure out what works best, you’re going to have to deal with losses. If something doesn’t work — seeds don’t germinate, plants wilt in the heat or bolt or refuse to flower — be okay with that.

2. Do As Little As Possible.

Research no dig/no till methods for your soil. Fertilize sparingly. Water as often as you have time for, and if something you really want to survive needs it, but no more. Avoid installing crazy, expensive irrigation systems and use water generated on-site.

Plant strawberries or other ground covers that suppress “weeds” and basically mulch themselves.

Let some plants go to seed, but don’t pull them — see if they easily self-seed from year to year so you don’t have to “worry about it.”

When you figure out what works best with the least amount of effort on your part, do that. You’ll save time, energy, and money.

3. Grow from Starts.

Starting from seeds is a pain in the ass a lot of times. You never really know how they’re going to do, and it’s going to be harder to figure out what will grow as the weather gets weirder. Starting seeds indoors takes space and equipment. Instead of wasting effort on trying to grow your favorites from seed, just buy or trade for starts. Support your local nursery. Know how to save seeds, just in case, but make it easy if you already know it’ll work.

4. Plant Weird Seeds.

Plant unusual species in unusual places. Figure out what will work really well with the least amount of effort, and grow that every season. Try new plants and cultivars each year and explore different sources of food. Sow seeds randomly, in different areas, to discover which plants will grow in which conditions in your garden.

Don’t rely on natives! Over the next decades, who knows whether a species that’s survived in your climate for thousands of years will continue to do so? Try species from different, warmer USDA Zones. Are you in Zone 8? Try planting something that grows in Zone 9 or 10.

Also, get to know Analogue Climates. Visit this site to learn how to find climates with similar conditions to your own. Plants growing there should grow where you are, and vice-versa.:

https://open.oregonstate.education/permaculturedesign/chapter/the-climate-analogue-tool/

5. Only Plant Useful Ornamentals.

Oxalis is beautiful year round here in the Pacific Northwest. It’s also completely edible, and tastes lemony.

Research every single plant you plan to add to your garden — not just for purposes of care and cultivation, but also how they can be used. MOST ornamentals have uses.

6. Invite Them In and Let Them Grow.

My garden has been colonized by Yellow Dock, and I couldn’t be happier.

The leaves are delicious, the roots are medicinal, and I didn’t have to plant them. It’s a “weed,” but in among the baby garlic it won’t hurt anything.

I also have a large crop of “feral” turnips growing at the moment. I didn’t plant them (maybe they came from a bird, or in a cover crop mix?), but they had interesting leaves so I opted not to pull them either. Now we’ve been eating delicious turnip greens and roots all winter.

Instead of tearing out all of your “weeds,” let a few grow to figure out what they are, and incorporate them. You will probably be well rewarded!

7. Use Magic.

Make totems:

Crucifer up there has been watching our collards and kale all winter, and we’ve been eating them the whole time.We’ve also had a metric ton of bittercress — a wild Brassica — start to emerge early this year. Is it because of the totem?

We sprinkled ashes from our Yule Log on the garden, once each day on each of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Will it increase our soil fertility?

Don’t use magic in the garden because you believe it “works,” do it because you’re the kind of person who cares so much about your garden that you’re willing to try magic.

FIN

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Some thoughts on Nymphs and Dryads and “Nature Spirits”

I hate the term “Nature Spirit.” As I wrote elsewhere,:

Nature isn’t just a collection of biosystems outside of your house; it’s a process in which entities participate. Nature is an “exchange of goods and services” via a network of nodes and connections. Saying “Escape to Nature” is meaningless. It’s like telling an octopus to “Escape to the Sea,” or a bear to “Escape to the Forest.” It’s like telling a variable to “Escape to an Algorithm.” You don’t need a tent or hiking boots or a long drive to the “middle of nowhere” to experience Nature; the fact is, you can’t NOT experience Nature.

Calling a spirit a “Nature spirit” implies that it exists in a realm separate from ours and it's based on a history of colonialism (inasmuch as “nature” is something western “civilization” feels it can colonize/conquer). In fact, these entities dwell all around us at all times, regardless of where we're located.

Diving into Hellenistic spirituality from an ancestral/animist perspective has been eye-opening, and has led me to prefer the word “daimon” to describe these entities. It seems strange to say it, but the more I experience it, the more I can't help but compare it to East Asian animist/shamanic traditions like Shinto or Mu-ism. The concept of the “daimon” is incredibly similar to that of “kami,” since it can apply to any entity from the Olympian deities all the way down to a Hamadryad inhabiting a single tree.

There are still substantial differences; this isn't an invitation to appropriate cultural traditions that aren't one's own. “Daimon” does have more specific meaning within different Greek and Hellenistic cultures, and there are nuances. However, anyone interested in exploring/working with modern manifestations of the entities discussed in Mediterranean myth cycles would be well-served by looking at attitudes in Shinto-influenced popular culture (movies like “Spirited Away,” for example).

When it comes to “Greek” myth, pop culture tends to focus on the 12 Olympian daimones (Zeus and his fam) or Hercules, but to someone who embraces Mediterranean animism, the world is filled with spirits, and most of those spirits manifested in myth and folklore as “Nymphs.”

They dwell in rivers, streams, springs, fountains (Naiads and Hydriads), and the Ocean (Oceanids). There are star Nymphs, wind Nymphs, Nymphs associated with specific villages or cities, oracular Nymphs, and Dryads (probably the most well-known). There are also the Anthousai for flowers, Meliae for ash trees (said to be the original progenitors of humanity), the Melissae for bees. Nymphs can represent entire landscapes like meadows, glens, orchards, and groves.

Here's a list of just the Dryads known as “Hamadryads,” and the trees/plants with which they're associated:

Karya (walnut or hazelnut) Balanos (oak) Kraneia (dogwood) Morea (mulberry) Aigeiros (black poplar) Ptelea (elm) Ampelos (vines, especially Vitis) Syke/Sykea (fig)

Someone working with any of these plants could leave offerings to the Hamadryad in question but had to take great care not to harm them; damaging or destroying a Hamadryad's tree means killing the Nymph who lives therein, and came with social and metaphysical consequences.

Not every Nymph is known by name, of course; most are likely the kind of invisible nameless spirit found in animist traditions from around the world. They can choose to tell you their name, but tend to act anonymously underneath the bower or beneath the layer of leaves or between the feathers of a bird's wing. Nymphs can also kidnap humans, seduce them, make deals with them with questionable consequences. If this sounds familiar, it should; they're basically Fae.

A word concerning Nymphs and gender: they were considered universally female-presenting in Mediterranean cultures. There were also male-presenting daimones like Satyrs and Tritones, but I prefer to think of all of these entities as a class as existing on a gender spectrum. Coming from the perspective of a plant person, it's worth noting that some plants are pollinators, some are fruit producers, and many of the angiosperms of the world are biologically “self-pollinating.”

Given that this is the case, those interested in Mediterranean animism might consider identifying daimones (and the plants they live with) as they present themselves. A pollen producing tree might have a “male presenting” daimon where as a fruit-producing tree in the same species might present as a “female.” Conversely, daimones of self-pollinating plants are genderfluid and can present in whichever way they choose.

These are only some initial probings into the nature of daimones and Nymphs. Working with these entities— the same ones I've always worked with but contextualized the way my thousand-year-old ancestors may have done— is exciting! I'm looking forward to sharing more of this approach with you, and of course would love to hear your thoughts too!

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I've been going through some old dreams from a few years back and wanted to capture a few here for reference. Some of these may turn into actual projects!

I was at a Greek Orthodox Church and I was trying to get in but there wasn't enough room. I ended up having to stay outside with an older lady who was growing oxalis in her church garden. A huge procession came out of the church and then we all walked past a plaza with food trucks, down into these wild ruins. The old lady was there but she was way more feral looking. She lit some herbs on fire and put some of the ashes in her mouth and spit, and it was like that was the “true blessing.” Then I woke up and had the phrase “now I know where the hypogeum is” stuck in my head.

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I was waiting for the bus, heading to 'school' but it was the public bus system. One of the other people in the crowd was this girl (looked like Winona Ryder circa 1990) and she asked me if she 'knew' me from someplace b/c i looked 'familiar.' I said i didn't think so but she asked me to 'join her group' and so I hopped on a bus going to a different place than I'd intended.

We ended up in this coffeeshop district where she explained that her mother had been one of the leaders of the “Irish Resistance,” and was a full-on witch. the 'group' she was with was the continuation of this 'resistance.' as we were sitting in this cafe, one of the other members— an old man with white hair who looked like an Italian version of one-armed Mike from Twin Peaks— took me aside to explain that they were 'magicians' but not in the typical sense of the word. He showed me this blue cloak that was filled with 'secret inscriptions and spells.' Sadly, I can only remember one, which was a word you could use to 'push things away' (the word was 'MEFUNEY').

He confirmed that the girl's mom was a 'leader of the Irish resistance' and then showed me a hologram of her. She was an old woman, floating in a swirly cloud and smiling benevolently. he told me that she is 'La Befana.'

Then i was talking to the girl again, and she said her favorite place in the world was Tuscany, and named a city there. She said if i was serious about 'joining' then i needed to meet her again in a point between three locations that i'd need to work out by triangulating from the writings of '538.' She gave me this crazy stencil to use for making symbols to 'help understand.' she said I had to meet her there in exactly one year from this date, and was super adamant about it.

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I was hanging out with two “goths” who were actually pretty nice and cool. I was new to their area and asked them the best place to buy “occult” books. They told me it was surprisingly at Bartell's (local drug store chain) so we went. They did have “occult” books but they were all mass market and “glossy.” The goths apologized and I said I wanted to go check out a different bookstore nearby that I'd heard about. We went in and it was like “the perfect bookstore,” which is a recurring dream trope for me. They had shelves and shelves of old and amazing “occult” books. The one I ended up buying was this huge tome titled “Taraxacum officinalis” b/c it was a grimoire based entirely on dandelions.

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(A friend) and I are “hanging out” in a very “high mountain” landscape. Lots of grass/scrub/rocks, not much in the way of trees or shrubs. There's a huge rock formation nearby that looks like it could be either natural or human-made. All of the sudden we see a figure walking by. It's a dark-haired girl with dark skin wearing leather boots and a cloak, holding a staff.

She's walking with two guinea hens, but they're huge, like the size of geese. She also has a massive, furry mastiff dog like a Tibetan Mastiff. We approach her and 'chit chat' for a moment. She tells us her people all have two of these birds and a dog. She shows us that her walking stick is hollow on one and and can be played like a flute. I ask her name and she says she can't tell it to us.

She has to leave, and walks to the rock formation and descends into it— it's an entrance to the Hypogeum! She reemerges for a second and smiles, and points to the biggest rock with her staff. Words have appeared on the rock face, scratched in very deeply. I think they were:

**MAPUCHE | VATUNA ARATA | HA...F VERITA | XOCXO AITA | ITASJA NAXAD | SOILMOS IYANU | **

We realized she was sharing her name after all, and something something the first letter of each word (still needs decoding).

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Memories of a wild series of dreams where I was being instructed in some kind of technique by a curly-haired man wearing patchwork. We were overlooking the sea, on a cliff. Something about scales of colors, sounds, and letters— way different than the scales we use, and about how 'magic' takes place on a spectrum we can't see.

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This time I began in a kind of jungle? With a lot of palmettos. I pushed them aside and was standing on top of a cliff, but there was a kind of natural bridge with a small gap leading to another cliff. I had to jump over the gap (which was way above the ocean). On the other side was the entrance to the Hypogeum. I went in, and the scene shifted. I was looking down on a large, dark, almost amorphous entity and as I looked, it started transforming into the shape of Anthuor but was covered in tree bark. The stag's head sprouted two antlers, which branched into four, then 8, then kept dividing and dividing until i lost track of how many points were on each antler. When I focused on the tip of one of the now nearly infinite antlers, there was a tiny person. Each of the points of the antlers ended in some kind of entity— trees, animals, insects, humans. All of these entities interacted with one another as though they were separate beings walking across the surface of a map, but below the surface they were all connected to the tree-deer. The last thing I remember thinking is, “Don't deer eventually shed their antlers?”

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Walking through a forest and everything I looked at had the word “amak” written on it in that weird glowing blue moss stuff I've seen using the method. Like literally EVERYTHING. rocks, animals, plants, etc. I looked at my hand and it was written there. Then like the “inner Mavani” voice started to explain that an “AMAK” is a “dwelling place of the vimna (life force)” that “withstand.” So all of the “metadivinities” are like the most powerful of the amaks, but amaks dwell within every individual instance of something 'living.' it's different than 'consciousness.' when living things 'die,' their amak persists, and the 'stronger' the amak, the more likely it is to persist. One of the best ways for people to 'summon' an amak is by remembering it. When you remember, like a bird you saw, that's its amak you're remembering. Same with ancestors/ancestor spirits/etc.

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I was in a cave on the beach. The cave was 'fully furnished,' but everything on the floor would get wet at high tide. I had dozens of reference books for a kind of 'plant astrology' Mystery Tradition that looked like the Voynich manuscript. According to this tradition, each person has 20 plants which correspond to various personality aspects and grants them specific 'powers' once they are mastered.

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_A dream which featured a Quatrian info dump:

1. Once someone has done “the Method” enough times, it seems like entering the Hypogeum just requires “visualizing the entrance” and “walking in.” “The Method” is essentially a way to “pray” to the Hypogeum.

2. Quatrian prayer: in Ancient Quatria, “prayer” was common but anything could be prayed to. The most basic way to pray wasn't by reciting words, it was via creating a “scene” in your mind. For instance, if you wanted to ask Anthuor for help Withstanding a situation, you might visualize a stag using its antlers to push back against a floodgate, behind which is a raging river. Quatrian prayer books were collections of scenes or vignettes that we wouldn't recognize as 'prayer.'

3. The 48 primary Quatrian symbols are a musical composition and a set of story tropes. “48 is twice the total number of major and minor keys in Western tonal music (twenty-four), not counting enharmonic equivalents.” The symbols can be arranged and rearranged to make “songs” or “stories” that can impact reality. These are also “prayers” or “spells” (for example, “Barbaro/Cave/Human” could be a three note tune about overcoming ambiguity, or could be a 'vignette' of a person confronting Barbaro in a cave, or could be a story about a person walking into a cave and encountering Barbaro)._

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Quatrian Numerology for Modern Weirdos

The so-called “New Aeon English Qabalah” (NAEQ) has become the de facto numerological system for a lot of people involved in #magic(k), #witchcraft, #occultism, and the #paranormal. I'm not going to rehash its development or why it's so popular in current occultism; an excellent summary can be found at https://www.naeq.io/about/.

The basic concept is pretty simple and very universal: take an alphabet, assign each letter a number, add the numbers for a word or phrase, and compare it to other words/phrases with the same value to find correspondences/meanings. Similar systems exist for Hebrew (arguably the most well-known), Greek, Latin, and many other languages.

The thing about these systems is that they depend upon the specific cultures and traditions that used them. In practice, the Hebrew system of gematria, for example, requires a knowledge of Hebrew and the massive lexicon of number values produced within that tradition— they already have a cultural context. Using these systems outside of that context can mean glossing over complications (the NAEQ's relationship with Thelema and Crowley's “Book of the Law,” for instance), or even veering into cultural appropriation of traditions intended to be closed (many— not all, but many— Western appropriations of Hebrew gematria— and even the concept of “Qabalah” within Western occultism— fall into the trap of anti-semitism, a discussion for another time).

Thankfully, a less problematic system for determining the numerical value of words survives in the form of “Word Weaving,” a practice from ancient Quatria*, derived from the mythology and folklore of that extinct civilization (which also gave us the Oracle of the Hypogeum).

According to one understanding of Quatrian myth, our current universe emanated from a series of prior realities via a kind of 'pocket universe' referred to as The Hypogeum. The Entities (spirits/daimons/deities) found in the most well-known Quatrian creation story emerged from the Hypogeum in a particular order, and this order formed the basis for the patterns and processes of existence in the world of the senses.

The Quatrians also placed a large emphasis on music and song, and considered each Entity a “note,” tone, or phoneme, in a great composition of creation. Understanding the tones associated with each Entity allowed Quatrian Musician/Magicians (considered identical) to understand the relationship between seemingly disparate phenomena. Naturally, it followed that a number system would also develop based on these patterns.

The system which eventually rose to prominence was known as “Word Weaving” (“trelin deron”) in Quatrian. This system equates each Quatrian entity with the vocalizations made by human babies as they begin to speak. The vowel sounds, for instance, are usually the first sounds made by infants, so in Word Weaving represent the major Hypogeic Entities from Quatrian lore.

There are 28 sounds associated with the entities, which suggests a lunar/calendrical association. Each sound was also assigned to one of the phalanges of each hand to allow for a system of memorization and communication.

ORDER OF EMANATION	SYMBOL	PHONEME	NUMBER VALUE
1	Acho	A	10
2	Anthuor	E	20
3	Barbaro	I	30
4	Maiden	O	40
5	Musician	EE	50
6	Buorth.	OO	60
7	Mystery	U	70
8	Life Force	G	80
9	Light	M	90
10	Shadow	N	100
11	Earth	CH	1
12	Water	SH	2
13	Air	S	3
14	Fire	Z	4
15	Hypogeum	H	5
16	Sky	F	6
17	Mountain	R	7
18	Forest	Y	8
19	Plain	J	9
20	Animalcule	B	1
21	Fungus	P	2
22	Plant	T	3
23	Insect	D	4
24	Animal	K	5
25	Human	L	6
26	Stone Book	W	7
27	Wormwood	V	8
28	Golden Egg	TH	9

There is no 1-to-1 correlation between the Quatrian alphabet and our own, of course, so for the purpose of calculating the values of written words, it's necessary to assign values to letters which are already represented by other sounds. In the next post, we will take a closer look at the Entities and the numbers associated with each, and see how the calculations are made. Stay tuned!

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*As followers of Liminal Earth may be aware, Quatria exists as a genius loci without a loci, an egregoric civilization from the distant past (millions of years old). For more information, check out the “Quatria Theory” episode of Some Other Sphere.

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“Radical Animism” has never been this much “fun”

Back when I worked at well-known Internet Start-up Early Clues, LLC (now Early Clues Labs), we developed more than a few pioneering technologies in the fields of tech, magic, occultism, and quality customer service. We recently discussed one of the Early Clues rituals on #WUFO wufo.watch, and I was able to retrieve it from the company archives.

Here's the spec/White Paper. Give it a try, but, as we used to like to tell our clients at Early Clues, “Don't Say We Didn't Warn You!”

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Sure, you’re likely already familiar with the concept of Radical Animism. After all, as one of our Valued Clients™, you’re undoubtedly already experiencing the benefits of a newly upgraded Tree of Life 2.0 Module and running OpenQNL and CheirOS like a champ (Ed. See “The Early Clues Employee Handbook” for an overview of these exciting technologies). This is why we know you’ll be excited to learn of an amazing new discovery made by the expert Magicians on staff at Early Clues, LLC: Welcome to the World of Molecular Animatics.

What we’ve discovered is nothing short of revolutionary. Researchers in our labs, while attempting variations on traditional “Planetary Squares and Sigils,” found that the same principles could be applied to the standard, Legacy Reality “Periodic Table of the Elements.” You know the one:

Image Description: The Periodic Table of the Elements (not a “Dinner” table)

What the “human” developers of the Periodic Table didn’t realize is that they’d unwittingly created a Living Artefact, a “Synconjuriffic” tool that can be used to uncover the Sigil, Name and Number of any molecule found within Legacy Reality. As it turns out, every molecule that exists is governed by a Living Spirit, an actual sentience whose name is comprised of the component atomic symbols and numbers found on the Table. Somehow, the scientists who named the elements did so using exactly the precise phonetic sounds that make up the names of these spirits. And folks, that means a sweet deal for our customers!

We were able to iron out a deal with these Molecular Spirits, and they have agreed to allow our clients unlimited access to the Molecular World via the Science of Synconjury. We have a contract!

Allow us to explain. Suppose we want to know the name/sigil/number for the Spirit of Water. We simply look up the Molecular Formula, which is H2O, as we all know, and trace the sigil on the Periodic Table, adding a line for each instance of a particular atom:

Image Description: The periodic table, with Hydrogen and Oxygen circled in red and connected by a red line. The circle surrounding Hydrogen has two lines at the top, like horns.

See?

This gives us the sigil of the Spirit of Water. Its name is simply a pronunciation of the totality of atomic symbols. Its number is the addition of the atomic numbers (the ones on top).

Image Description: Two red circles connected by a red line. The left-most circle is “horned.” Text: “Sigil for the Spirit of Water, Hho.”

The number of “Hho” is 10 (1+1+8).

Here’s another example. This is for the Spirit of Sodium Carbonate (Na2CO3):

Image Description: The periodic table, with Sodium, Carbon, and Oxygen circled in red and connected by a red line. The circle surrounding Nitrogen has two lines at the top, like horns. The circle around Oxygen has 3 lines at the top.

Image Description: Three red circles connected by a red line. The left-most circle is “horned,” the right-most has three lines emerging from the top. Text: “Sigil for the Spirit of Sodium Carbonate, Nanacooo.”

The number of Nanacooo is 44.

How about a harder one? Let’s figure out the Spirit of Zinc Pyrophosphate:

Image Description: The periodic table, with Zinc, Phosphorus, and Oxygen circled in red and connected by a red line. The circles surrounding Zinc and Phosphorus have two lines at the top, like horns. The circle around Oxygen has 7 lines around it like the sun.

Image Description: Three red circles connected by a red line. The left-most and center circles are “horned,” the right-most has seven lines emerging from its circumfrence. Text: “Sigil for the Spirit of Zinc Pyrophosphate, Zn’Zn’Ppoooooooo.”

The number for Zn’Zn’Ppoooooooo is 146.

But, you may be asking if you’re a chemist-type person, what about compound molecules, those complex, advanced chemicals requiring parentheses in their formulas? Trickier, but with a little creativity, we can discern the sigil without too much trouble. For example, let’s look at the Spirit of Aluminum Acetate — Al2O(C2H3O2)4 :

Image Description: Periodic Table with an intricate series of blue and red lines connecting Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon, and Aluminum.

See how it’s done? The Synconjurer is encouraged to use a variety of palates and design components when “sigilizing.”

Image Description: Three blue circles in a blue oval connected by a blue lines. The left-most circle has 'horns' and another line extends from the bottom. The center and right-hand circles are “horned.” The right-most is enclosed in a red circle, from which extends a red line ending in another horned red circle. Text: “Sigil for the Spirit of Aluminum Acetate, Al’alo Chhhoo Chhhoo Chhhoo Chhhoo.”

And the number of Al’alo Chhhoo Chhhoo Chhhoo Chhhoo is, of course, 158.

So, how does one use this amazing new technology? Simple! In fact, how does one not use it? Next time you’re idling away the afternoon, why not summon forth the Spirit of Ethanol, Cchhhhhho, and get drunk together without needing to buy wine! Or, trace the sigil of Cccccccchhhhhhhhhhnnnnoo, whose number is 102, on the back of your neck and you can skip that morning cup of coffee! See how easy it is? Advanced users are probably already drooling at the implications for Gematria and Applied Ultraphysics, and as our Researchers learn to work with more advanced communities of Molecular Spirits, they’ll be sure to release patches and upgrades.

Everything has a Spirit, from the largest Brane to the Smallest Molecule, and now you can summon those Molecular Spirits via any Legacy Ontomanipulatory System (CrowleySoft, etc.) or via Early Clues’ Open Source Suite of Reality Manipulation Modules.

Molecular Animatics: Another fine product from Early Clues, LLC.

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Every Wednesday night, we host a Wednesday UFO Watch Party over at wufo.watch. Although it's ostensibly about #UFOs, it's become a kind of fun, playful laboratory for all kinds of #occult/#paranormal experiments using different theories and tools. We like to toss #spooky things at the wall and see if they stick.

To that end, here's a fun ritual we developed for using #fermentation as a litmus test for the presence of an entity/spirit/daimon/whatever term you prefer, which we invite into a bottle. Give it a try!

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This is a ritual for summoning an aerial entity into a container of UFO water. It’s based on a formula found in “The Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet,” the best extant version having been edited by David Rankine. This text was itself cobbled together from a wide variety of sources, including Agrippa, Bacon, and other members of the Western “cunning person”/magic tradition. I’ve also incorporated aspects of Hellenistic Quasi-Gnostic Greco-Egyptian magical practice in the section on determining the name of the entity you’ll be inviting into the vessel. For an example of this practice, see the (very fragmented) “Marsanes,” found in the Nag Hammadi collection. Familiarity with these texts isn’t necessary for this ritual, but if you wanna dig further, go for it!

Cover: “The Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet”

Image Description: A red book featuring an occult sigil/seal. the seal is in a white square, centered on the cover. The seal is a circle, surrounded by pentagrams and crosses, in which various magical names and words are written (Elgla, El, Melpas, Emmanual, Magister). Text: “The Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet. A 17th C. London Cunning Man's book of charms, conjurations, and prayers. Edited by David Rankine.”

I’m not going to get too far into the long-standing practices of trying to summon an entity into a container of some kind. Everybody knows about genies in bottles and lamps; this practice can be traced back almost as far back as people have been making containers and filling them with things.

This lil’ ritual is designed to be pretty easy and low-stakes (i.e. no risk of inviting in the wrong thing). It’s also meant to allow for self-determination on the part of the entities. Rather than forcing and threatening these entities, as has been traditional in colonialist/Christianist systems of magic, we are instead offering a fair exchange of services (from our POV), after which the entity will be free to leave. We’re not “capturing” or “trapping” anything; we’re providing a nice place for the entity to hang out and give us a hand.

We can talk about the actual metaphysics/ontology of “why this might work” some time, but this should work without going into too much detail. Feel free to change or modify the ritual based on your own traditions or understandings of these things. If you personally benefit from “spiritual cleansing” or preparation of any kind, you’re welcome to do so. This is “open source” and we’re releasing it into the wild for you to use in any way you see fit!

INGREDIENTS/SUPPLIES:

*UFO Water (click for instructions– should be at least a week old); *A clean container with a lid that closes (bottle, jar, take-out container, tupperware, etc.); *A piece of blank paper, preferably from a new package/journal/etc. but if not that’s OK; *A colored pencil, pen, crayon, marker, or paint (the color in question will be selected below); *A sweetener of some kind, approximately 1/7 the amount as your UFO water (i.e. if you have a cup of UFO water, you want 1/7 cup of sweetener– estimating is fine). Raw honey is best but use whatever you have on hand (maple syrup? coconut sugar? “Nerds” candy?). *A small amount of plant matter (living) that fits into your container, collected from your local area/neighborhood. Should be fresh, not something purchased from a grocery. Flowers are good, or green pine cones. Conifer needles are also really good. If you’re familiar with the planetary correspondences of your local plants, feel free to choose accordingly, but it’s not required. *A candle corresponding to the color of your chosen planet, or a white candle.

DETERMINING THE NAME OF YOUR ENTITY

This is probably the most complicated part of the ritual. First you’ll need to determine which Planet you’re interested in contacting. The idea is that the entity we invite into our vessel will assist us with the planetary aspects of whatever planet it’s from. While it’s dwelling in the bottle, it can be called upon for assistance or knowledge of that planet’s corresponding traits. the UFO water itself can be used in operations like scrying,

We’ll be sticking to the seven traditional planets from the Western tradition because there’s a large volume of literature surrounding them– feel free to look up full details, but the basics (including their colors) are:

Saturn – Time, cycles, ‘harvest,’ duty, long-term plans, shadow work, curses, etc. – BLACK Jupiter – Power, politics, government, money, law, employment, etc. – BLUE Mars – Strength, ambition, energy, force, protection (physical), etc. – RED Sun – Self-work, enlightenment, the arts, friendships, family, protection (spiritual), physical health, etc. – YELLOW Venus – Love, relationships, plants, growth, emotional health, etc. – GREEN Mercury – Intelligence, communication, learning, writing, networking, etc. – PURPLE Moon – Magic, occult, introspection, protection (mental), mental health, etc. – SILVER or WHITE

Once you’ve chosen a planet, it’s time to determine the name of the entity. In the Mediterranean tradition we’ll be using, each of the Seven Vowels of the Greek alphabet (A, e (short), E (long), I, o (short), U, O (long)) are associated with a planet as follows:

A – Moon e – Mercury E – Venus I – Sun o – Mars U – Jupiter O – Saturn

The consonants also have correspondences; for the purposes of this ritual, we’re going to use the ones associated with AIR signs (Aerial Entities, remember?):

R – Air K – Gemini X – Libra Ch – Aquarius

The name is made via a combination of vowels and consonants. So, for instance, if I decide to contact an entity from Mars, the name I’d use would be RoKoXoCho. The exact order of the consonants is open to personal interpretation/intuition.

This is a SUPER easy and condensed version of determining an entity’s name using phonetic correspondences. For way more on this process I HIGHLY recommend “The Greek Qabalah” by Kieren Barry. If you know how, or if you’re feeling frisky, feel free to modify this process. The following chart gives the correspondences found in Barry’s work:

A Moon N Virgo B Aries X Libra G Earth o Mars D Water P Fire e Mercury R Air Z Taurus S Scorpio E Venus T Sagittarius Th Ether U Jupiter I Sun Ph Capricorn K Gemini Ch Aquarius L Cancer Ps Pisces M Leo O Saturn

If you’re familiar with magical correspondences and want to play around with entity names, go wild, but for the purposes of this experiment, it’s recommended that you choose one planet and stick to it.

(P.S. This helps make sense of a LOT of those “Barbarous names” and Alien names from UFO literature, too!)

THE RITUAL:

1. Prepare your space and light your candle. Center and/or ground yourself and visualize a corridor of light pink energy opening between yourself and your chosen planet.

2. When you feel connected to your planet, place the sweetener, the plant matter, and your UFO water into your vessel. Close, seal, and shake until the sweetener has dissolved, then reopen the vessel.

3. Using a writing instrument colored according to the planet (see above, for ex. blue for Jupiter), draw the following figure. Replace the sigil circled below with a planetary sigil corresponding to your chosen planet (the standard astrological symbols are fine, for example, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_symbols, but if you know how to create sigils/kameas/magic squares and want to do so, go wild). Draw the face according to your own intuition. Write your entity’s name on the back of the paper.

Image Description: An occult sigil/seal divided into 12 areas via diagonal lines. Each area is either a triangle or a diamond. Each area contains a magical symbol, probably planetary. The topmost diamond is circled in red and is where your sigil should go. The bottom-most diamond contains a crudely drawn human face, and the bottom two triangles are filled with wavy lines.

1. Place the figure over the top of your vessel, and speak the following: “Greetings, [Entity Name]. I, [Your Name], wish to invite you into this vessel before me. I have provided sweet snacks as an offering, and request your presence within. In the names of ANTHUOR, ACHO, PERSEPHONE, INDRID COLD, ASHTAR [Feel free to replace with your chosen spirits/powers here], I invite you in. Let’s hang out, and help one another if we can. Descend from [Planet] into this vessel which has been prepared as a dwelling place for you, and dwell within for as long as the snacks herein remain. In exchange, I ask you to help me see things that cannot be seen, know things that cannot be known, and do things which cannot be done. Acknowledge your residence herein by the subtle agitation created by your presence, [Entity Name], and depart only when the snacks have been consumed. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide, and let us know if you have any questions.”

2. Visualize the face you’ve drawn on the paper slowly descending into the vessel and vanishing into the water.

3. When it feels as though the ritual has been accomplished, extinguish the candle and close the circle using your preferred method if you’d like. Next, seal the vessel but not too tightly, and place in a warm spot in your house with the paper. After a few days, shake the bottle; if the entity accepted your invitation, the UFO water should begin bubbling or fizzing. Once this happens, be sure the vessel is opened daily or is allowed to “burp” so it doesn’t accidentally explode. If no bubbles appear after a week, the entity did not accept your invitation. You can try again with a different entity or different sweetener/plant matter some other time.

4. As long as the UFO water is bubbling, the entity remains present within. Use it for scrying, for asking questions, for cleansing, and for general assistance with whatever the planet is associated with. Simply address the entity by name and ask for its assistance.

Once the water no longer bubbles, the entity has departed according to the deal you made.

Yes, this is a ritual that uses fermentation to establish a link with unseen entities. The week-old UFO Water has off-gassed any chlorine or other chemicals added during water treatment, which encourages the growth of beneficial microbes in the water during the fermentation process. The plant matter hosts wild yeast which devours the sugar and produces gas and alcohol as by-products, thus the bubbles. The entity invited into the vessel provides the “life force” necessary for this fermentation to happen.

Unless you are experienced with fermentation and have done so before, please do not consume this UFO water. That said, those who are experienced at the art of fermentation can experiment with using this method to summon spirits into sauerkraut or home-brewed beer or wine, or even sourdough bread!

Let us know what happens!

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This is very exciting! I've been looking for a return to long-form blogging, but was waiting for the perfect platform, and thanks to the #Fediverse, we MADE OUR OWN!

Granted, there's a bit of a learning curve here. Relearning #markdown for formatting is going to be tricky, and I'll be bookmarking this guide and maybe printing it out. I'm sure after some time it'll be easier. Practice practice practice!

Since this is my first post, I thought I'd share some of the topics I'll be writing about:

1. Paranormal theorizing and Liminal Ecology.
2. Plants. Plant magic, foraging, plant consciousness, cooking with plants.
3. Folk magic. DIY experimental rituals and ancestral investigation. Sicily/Magna Gracia, Orphism and Orphic-adjacent practices.
4. Tarot! I've been wanting to do a deep-dive into the Tarot of the Greek Magical Papyri, card by card, and this will be the place!
5. And, of course, random bullshit about whatever, which, really, isn't this what we all like to share on social media anyhow?

I hope you'll share your thoughts. Although weirdwords.org doesn't feature native comments, it's easy to respond to blog posts by subscribing to us on Mastodon and posting replies there. You can also find me at https://weirdo.network/@mysteryharvest.

So yeah, thanks for following and reading my lil' words. Hope you'll consider joining us if you're a kind weirdo! More SOOOON!

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