degringolade: (Default)
Degringolade ([personal profile] degringolade) wrote2025-12-09 05:35 pm

Diary: Trying Not to Worry

I have been stuck at home for a couple of days now. The current buzzword for "lots of rain" in the Pacific Northwest is "atmospheric river". It has been dumping rain here. I suppose that if I were a real Pacific Northwesterner, I would "damn the torpedoes" and don layers of raingear and savor those rainy moments.

Fuck that!

So I am inside more than is my preference. So lets talk about isolation in the modern world.

At my age, isolation is not the huge deal that it was in my salad days. Truth be told, isolation is preferred about ninety percent of the time. So there is an approximate 2 hour window every day where I do enjoy human interaction. It doesn't have to be much, a phone call or a greeting during a walk or a conversation with a neighbor while getting the mail does me just fine. But serious rain does limit the opportunities for these interactions.

I still kind of wonder about the place of conversations in settings like the one we are reading. I am enough of a geezer to remember sending and receiving physical mail and how important that was in maintaining connection. In the infantry, "mail call" was an important time and letters were cherished (or feared, depending on the correspondent). But they were always an important tie to the outside.

I was (am?) a science fiction junkie. But the sheer number of wannabe science fiction writers. I have been pondering an old Isaac Asimov tale "The Naked Sun". How much of the semi-isolation of communication via the internet is "good" for a person? This simple question then expands into something that was brought to my attention: What are the implications of folks using what is laughably referred to as "artificial intelligence" as a cope for lack of interpersonal communication?

Big can of worms there, I think that it might even require a formal sit down and ponder month.

ecosophia: (Default)
John Michael Greer ([personal profile] ecosophia) wrote2025-12-09 03:06 pm

Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 225

FranklinWe are now into the fifth year of these open posts. When I first posted a tentative hypothesis on the course of the Covid phenomenon, I had no idea that discussion on the subject would still be necessary all these years later, much less that it would turn into so lively, complex, and troubling a conversation. Still, here we are. Crude death rates and other measures of collapsing public health remain anomalously high in many countries, but nobody in authority wants to talk about the inadequately tested experimental Covid injections that are the most likely cause; public health authorities government shills for the pharmaceutical industry are still trying to push through laws that will allow them to force vaccinations on anyone they want; public trust in science is collapsing; new revelations are leaking out about just how bad the Covid vaccines are for human health; and the story continues to unfold.

So it's time for another open post. The rules are the same as before:

1. If you plan on parroting the party line of the medical industry and its paid shills, please go away. This is a place for people to talk openly, honestly, and freely about their concerns that the party line in question is dangerously flawed and that actions being pushed by the medical industry and its government enablers are causing injury and death on a massive scale. It is not a place for you to dismiss those concerns. Anyone who wants to hear the official story and the arguments in favor of it can find those on hundreds of thousands of websites.

2. If you plan on insisting that the current situation is the result of a deliberate plot by some villainous group of people or other, please go away. There are tens of thousands of websites currently rehashing various conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccines. This is not one of them. What we're exploring is the likelihood that what's going on is the product of the same arrogance, incompetence, and corruption that the medical industry and its wholly owned politicians have displayed so abundantly in recent decades. That possibility deserves a space of its own for discussion, and that's what we're doing here. 
 
3. If you plan on using rent-a-troll derailing or disruption tactics, please go away. I'm quite familiar with the standard tactics used by troll farms to disrupt online forums, and am ready, willing, and able -- and in fact quite eager -- to ban people permanently for engaging in them here. Oh, and I also lurk on other Covid-19 vaccine skeptic blogs, so I'm likely to notice when the same posts are showing up on more than one venue. 

4. If you plan on making off topic comments, please go away. This is an open post for discussion of the Covid epidemic, the vaccines, drugs, policies, and other measures that supposedly treat it, and other topics directly relevant to those things. It is not a place for general discussion of unrelated topics. Nor is it a place to ask for medical advice; giving such advice, unless you're a licensed health care provider, legally counts as practicing medicine without a license and is a crime in the US. Don't even go there.


5. If you don't believe in treating people with common courtesy, please go away. I have, and enforce, a strict courtesy policy on my blogs and online forums, and this is no exception. The sort of schoolyard bullying that takes place on so many other internet forums will get you deleted and banned here. Also, please don't drag in current quarrels about sex, race, religions, etc. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules. 

6. Please don't just post bare links without explanation. A sentence or two telling readers what's on the other side of the link is a reasonable courtesy, and if you don't include it, your attempted post will be deleted.

7. Please don't post LLM ("AI") generated text. This is a place for human beings to talk to other human beings, not for the regurgitation of machine-generated text. Also, please don't discuss large language models (the technology popularly and inaccurately called "artificial intelligence" these days) except as they bear directly on the Covid phenomenon. Here again, my finger is hovering over the delete button. 

Please also note that nothing posted here should be construed as medical advice, which neither I nor the commentariat (excepting those who are licensed medical providers) are qualified to give. Please take your medical questions to the licensed professional provider of your choice.


With that said, the floor is open for discussion.  
neonvincent: For posts about cats and activities involving uniforms. (Krosp)
neonvincent ([personal profile] neonvincent) wrote2025-12-09 08:21 am
Dan Savage ([syndicated profile] savagelove_feed) wrote2025-12-09 12:00 pm

Ghosted? Or Dumped?

Posted by Nancy Hartunian

A recent widow grapples with a surge in her libido. A gay man has been a top for all of his sexual life. Now that’s he’s a dating a man who wants to top him every now and again, can he learn to like it? On the Magnum, Dan chats with Kelly Foster Lundquist, Author … Read More »

The post Ghosted? Or Dumped? appeared first on Dan Savage.

Dan Savage ([syndicated profile] savagelove_feed) wrote2025-12-09 12:00 pm

Creepy Dancer

Posted by Patrick Kearney

Cisgender bi-female late forties, living in the Bay Area. My boyfriend and I have been dating six months and are very much in love. His friends party quite a bit, lots of drinking and other party favors, and we all enjoy feeling good on the dance floor. The first time I met one of his … Read More »

The post Creepy Dancer appeared first on Dan Savage.

kimberlysteele: (Default)
Kimberly Steele ([personal profile] kimberlysteele) wrote2025-12-08 10:52 pm

Trans is Violence

I have nothing against people who feel their gender does not reflect the way they feel inside. As a believer in reincarnation, I believe souls take turns as male and female incarnations, so it follows that sexual dysmorphia would be a natural outcome in a world where reincarnation is rapid, with little time between death and re-birth. My problems with trans began when it went from being a fringe choice to a mass agenda pushed upon young children by the greedy State. My objections arose when trans tried to become the new normal, wedding the pharmaceutical-industrial complex to public schools and monopoly media in a disgusting, fascist polygamy of propaganda and brainwashing. I began to hate trans when it called me a bigot for questioning castration hormones for boys and induced menopause and mastectomy for girls, perverts in taxpayer-funded libraries, chest binders at Target, and the erasure of women’s sports. I don’t like sports nor have I ever liked them, and if I never saw or participated in another sports game for the rest of my life, it would not be too soon, but I hate seeing sports taken away from girls and women. These girls and women love sports and cannot have them because of male fetishes and insecurities. Give them back, and while you are at it, keep dudes out of the girl’s locker rooms and toilet stalls.

TRANS IS MUTILATION

Usually I don’t shout my headings like a Boomer or some doofus from Fifty Shades of Grey, but I feel it is warranted here. Hormones are the tip of the trans-mutilation iceberg. Whether they are for an F to M (female to male) or M to F (male to female) transexual, it is not a good idea to take regular doses of opposite sex hormones at any phase of life. It is especially damaging to take hormones as a child. I had a friend who accidentally tampered with her own hormonal balance by starving herself and replacing meals with diet shakes and pills during puberty. She seemingly screwed up everything: the development of breasts, digestion, and moods. She never experimented with drugs, including diet drugs. Kids who screw with the polarities of estrogen and testosterone with actual drugs blow up their entire hormonal ecosystems before they are built, trapping themselves in a paradox of aged babyhood and permanent sexlessness.

It’s just Pat

Back in the 80s, Saturday Night Live ran a particularly cruel skit called It’s Just Pat featuring Julia Sweeney as an androgynous person named Pat. Everyone around Pat tried to goad him/her into revealing his/her gender. Pat was an insipid, nasal, whiny, and mostly unfunny caricature of a human being. In that way typical of overweight, stocky adulthood, it was difficult to make out Pat’s feminizing or masculinizing features. For Sweeney, the skit appeared to be a humiliation ritual, throwing it in the actress’s face that she was only one bad haircut or some extra padding away from ugly, androgynous freakdom.

Hormones make the man or the woman, but they also regulate digestion, mood, water retention, muscle, and fat. If fertility were the only concern in hormonal manipulation, it would be a small one. Most people who become trans start out gay, and baby-making has never been a primary obsession among gays in any era except our own. The trouble with trans is that hormonal manipulation via shots and/or pills do not make a man into a woman or a woman into a man. They make either gender that takes them into Pats, androgynous and riding the middle in the worst sort of way.

Chopped

I recently uttered a single, flippant sentence in an essay that I wrote about plastic surgery about how M to F trans who opt for a colon graft end up with a second, stinky butthole they must dilate every day for the rest of their lives. There is nothing unprovable about what I said, it is plain fact. Some M to F trans have parts of their harvested lower colon implanted as a faux vagina. Because the lower colon has the function of eliminating waste in the form of stools, it continues to have that function if it is implanted in the perineum. My comment triggered a thousand liberal Karens who immediately broadcast my essay to the entire free world. I wept all the way to the bank.

Castrati, court eunuchs, and female genital mutilation

For those who think castrated males and “cut” females are a new phenomenon, please consult the annals of history or at least Google and educate yourself. Since the dawn of imperial courts, said courts have made a habit of altering boys and men by amputating their testicles and penises. Castrated men, also known as eunuchs, were put into the service of elite rulers who used them, often for the duration of their neutered lives.

The Italian castrati were pre-pubescent boys whose testicles were often removed or more commonly crushed to render them impotent. The boy’s voice remained beautiful and high throughout his manhood. They were the lucky ones.

Cutting off the testicles alone is far less painful and dangerous than chopping off both penis and balls. I have four male cats, all of whom are feline castrati. Though they do not mark their territory in the manner of unneutered male cats, they piss like champions. Their healthy urine streams strike the sides of and top of their covered litter boxes.

The court eunuchs of ancient China and old Byzantium were not so lucky. It was custom for thousands of years to remove both cock and balls in a single, harrowing procedure that fewer than half survived. Those who did survive often lived long lives, but the procedure that took their penis resulted in a lifetime of catheterization as the wounded penile stub was prone to closing.

As to why eunuchs were so popular in dynastic China and other places, it is quite obvious. Eunuchs were useful. In the golden cage of the harem, emasculated men served as guardians and petty dictators over bevies of scheming courtesans. Eunuchs knew how to exploit their liminal situations in ways that their 21st century equivalents have yet to grasp. The last surviving eunuch, Sung Yaoting, lived from 1902-1996. His own father performed his castration when he was only 8 years old.

For approximately 2000 years, Chinese court eunuchs were made into eunuchs as a matter of punishment. Full penis and testicular castration was a traditional punishment used to place men as high ranking civil servants and to assimilate them into the court. The “crimes” involved to merit the punishment of castration could be rape, rebellion, or merely being on the losing side of a war. Because eunuchs had a great deal of power, kids from poor families such as Sun Yaoting were often volunteered by their own families. Often, men older than the age of 14 were killed and those who were still young were castrated. The procedure, traditionally done in a chair with the legs spread and the organs chopped off with a sickle-shaped knife, routinely rendered men and boys incontinent for life if they were part of the 30 percent who survived. Self-administered catheters and diapers were and are the eunuch’s reality for the duration.

What about the girls?

Women have always been used and abused for their fertility, and that is why only eugenicists like Margaret Sanger desire to “help” certain races to stop reproducing. In cultures that openly hate women, girls, and femininity with zero qualms, female genital mutilation is the preferred method of ending a woman’s capacity to enjoy sexual pleasure. The advantage of FGM is that it wrecks any sense of fulfillment or power for the girl and future woman without destroying her potential as a baby factory. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, one of the few intelligent people ever to emerge from Somalia, describes her own mutilation around the age of five by her own trusted relatives. This surgery, if you can call it that, was performed on the kitchen table with a pair of scissors and sewn up tight on the spot so she had to pee through stitches. As you can imagine, this disfigurement has caused her a lifetime of pain and suffering.

You have to pee through that

The trouble with trans surgeries and hormones is that they mess with urinary and waste systems while attempting to exclusively target the reproductive organs. Whether the transition is M to F or F to M, bottom surgery involves the shortening or stretching of the urethra. Adolescents and children who have not been sexually abused do not have any concept of the predicament of an aging urinary tract. For a woman, the first time anything penetrates the vagina and leads to an orgasm often heralds the last time peeing is normal, painless, and easy. Because the two pieces of equipment are so close together, the urethra is regularly irritated and often infected with UTIs that emerge after sexual activity. The beginning of sexual activity is routinely accompanied by frequent urination, burning, and a funny smell to the urine even if both partners start out as disease-free virgins.

Almost all men who reach a certain age get prostate cancer. Only vegan men seem to be spared. My not-young, vegan husband pisses like a racehorse. He has 100 problems, but his prostate is not one. Unless you maintain a strict diet free of animal flesh and secretions and an herbal regimen of urinary tract supporting herbs for decades, you will probably end up in an adult diaper as an elderly person.

Trans hormones wreak havoc upon digestion, cognition, and mood. The trans seeking person hopes surgery will complete the process, allowing her or him to emerge from the surgical cocoon to become a beautiful butterfly. Instead, they emerge as Pats, neither male nor female.

The reason the post-op trans person is 17 times more likely to commit suicide is because trans bottom surgery is more brutal than what was done to Qing dynasty brothel boys. At least 1 in 6 trans victims end up with searing, chronic pain that will haunt them until they die. In the creation of a faux vagina, vulva, and clitoris, the penile shaft is either inverted and stuffed inside the perineum or the afformentioned section of the lower intestine is crafted into a “vagina” and stuffed into the same area. The root of the penis is impossible to remove without killing the customer patient, and the castrated male is left with erectile tissue in the stump of his amputation. The stump has a manufactured wound-hole behind it along with reconstructed lumps of flesh as labia to cover the amputation. Unlike the Chinese court eunuch, he is condemned to dilating or re-opening his faux-vaginal wound every day for the rest of his life, lest the wound close and become septic. His shortened urethra is a recipe for permanent UTIs and premature incontinence. There is a high likelihood he will never orgasm again after surgery due to both his hormonal treatments (the same hormones are given to male sex offenders to make them impotent) and the painful, dysfunctional state of his amputated penis.

For F to M transitioning women, the process and results are even more ghastly and hideous. A woman or girl who goes through the F to M grist mill must harvest skin from another body part to form the sleeve or shaft of her future frankenpenis. The skin taken from her forearm (preferred), thigh, or back leaves a permanent track of shriveled, reddened burn that never heals, the searing brand of the surgeon who finances his next tropical vacation on the insurance payout. The urethra is stretched through the phallus, blithely casting aside its intended function purely for the sake of aesthetics. (Gee, when have we seen women subject themselves to bizarre and outlandish tortures and permanent damage in order to look a certain way before? That never happens) The frankendick will only work to function as a dildo with a pumping device. My research hinted at something referred to as “donor testicles”, and I am going to guess that means testicles are being harvested from nearly dead, male ICU patients who made the mistake of checking the Organ Donor box on their driver’s licenses.

A metioplasty involves cutting the clitoris (female genital mutilation) to unmoor it from its surrounding skin so it can stand at attention and function as a micropenis. Fake silicone testicles are added with more harvested skin. The result is the exact sort of “penis” that most straight women purport to hate and loathe, especially if said micropenis is attached to a gender neutral, Pat with a balding pate and a pot belly. Pat with a micropenis does not appeal to anyone, gay or straight. It’s almost as if lesbians prefer to be with other women.

TRANS IS ABUSE

Gays had a short moment in the 1990s when things were looking up. They were not yet free to marry, but they had gained a great deal of respect and clout in our civilization. The 1990s and early 200s showed us that gay is not that big of a deal and that anyone with a puerile interest in what consenting, mature adults do in the bedroom should probably seek help. Big Pharma had not yet cannibalized the populace to the point where it needed to use lesbian and gay children as cannon fodder in its never-ending war against the human race. Right around the time Big Pharma mated with government to create the Covid scare, we got the trans movement and the funneling of children into the medical system via subterfuge such as preferred pronouns and on-the-sly gender counseling. Fascism is the alliance of governments and corporations to create a de facto rule of law. Trans fascism was all the rage from 2016- 2023 until Dylan Mulvaney served as the straw to break the camel’s back by tanking Budweiser’s market share. Fascists cannot fascist if they cannot turn a profit, and Budweiser learned the hard way that its demographic of good old boys and sportsball bros were just as happy to drink Modelo and Miller. The name is irrelevant — it all tastes like carbonated gerbil piss, so why buy the one being hawked by the freak in womanface acting out a minstrel show of Venus flytrap femininity?

Men, as it turns out, try to become women in order to punish them. They have daddy issues galore but it is their mothers who drive them truly nuts. To punish women, they invade their private spaces and steal their trophies. Thanks to the trans movement, the physical superiority of men is now glaringly obvious in a way that was unclear in my Generation X. The strongest female athlete will always be beaten handily. If the point of sports is victory, there is no point to female sports. A group of amateur teenage boys beat the US Women’s Soccer Team, with the women scoring only one point in the entire game. They did this more than once. Switzerland Women’s National Team (it’s called football over there) went up against a group of boys, none of whom was over the age of 15. The women had their asses handed to them. Serena Williams, who is currently shilling her newly-emaciated Ozempic body, once boasted she could beat any male tennis player ranked outside the top 200. She was trounced by Karsten Braasch, who ranked 203rd and whose training “regimen” involved beer and cigarettes, beat both Serena and her sister, Venus, when both were at their physical peak in 1998.

Clearly the best sportswomen in the world are no match for a random, untrained teenager with a cock and balls. They are having their faces rubbed in their physical shortcomings, and though I should feel a grim satisfaction watching all the female jocks who ostracized and mocked me for sucking at sports when I was young, I don’t. They are getting their comeuppance and a taste of their own bitter medicine. Like me, they will never be good at sports. Not really. A man will always do a better job even if they train their entire lives. But just as I play piano and do not qualify or come even close to being the world’s greatest pianist, it does not mean I should give up playing or be mocked because I am not as good of a pianist as someone else. Women should continue being active in sports. Biological men and boys should be kept out of women’s sports so women can win fair victories against other women and gauge their own improvement on a fair grading curve.

F to M transitioners often come from abusive backgrounds. Many have been sexually assaulted and/or raped. They seek transition in order to avoid feeling vulnerable. This certainly seems true of the person formerly known as Ellen Page, who was passed around in the Hollywood System and now passively victimizes others by broadcasting her own brand of false transcendence. Sadly, the abused become abusers at a prolific rate, especially when abuse is of a sexual nature.

TRANS IS PERVERSION

The goal of transitioning is to run away from the weight of age and maturity or anything that looks remotely like it. The person formerly known as Ellen Page has no plans on aging into a bearded, wizened, beer-gutted fellow; no, Page wants to be the miniature version of her own imaginary biological son for the remainder of this articulation. She wants to be a boy, not a man. The man known as Rachel Levine would not dare to cut his hair short — to do so would prevent him from gaslighting the general public into calling him ma’am. Dude does not even look like a lady, and short hair would be far too honest, especially for an obese ex-Secretary of Health. Dylan Mulvaney said it himself: he wants girlhood for himself, not womanhood.

In the 1988 horror film Silence of the Lambs, there is an ostensible M to F trans character who captures, fattens and slaughters larger women with the goal of making their hides into a skin suit that he can wear while prancing about in front of a full-length mirror. Though the real serial killers Buffalo Bill was based upon — Ed Gein, Gary Heidnik, and Ted Bundy — were not autogynephiliacs (males who experience a sexual thrill from viewing themselves as females) but the Buffalo Bill character was depicted as tucking his equipment under crossed legs, enchanted by his own reflection.

The Buffalo Bill character was frightening because men who wear femininity as a costume are scary. A man who sees his XY chromosomal status as a cursed will always be perceived as wanting what he cannot have. To become a woman, he may exact revenge on women, killing them so that he can wear their skin.

Trans is an act of vengeance upon the polarities that make us whole. Being gay is reframed as such an extreme perversion, it must be erased so the formerly gay transperson can become technically “straight” in order to do traditional, penetrative sex. The gay woman has herself genitally mutilated show she can grow a penis out of her defective crotch and mate with other women as a man would. The gay man is castrated and wounded so he can become the quasi-feminine receptacle for another man’s sperm. I don’t know why anyone gets off on this but it is apparent there are entire autogynephiliac armies waiting to groom future autistic gay kids so they can join the ranks of the mutilated.

Rapists are still rapists even if they are autogynephilic men who have their junk amputated. Those who were straight and who raped or wanted to rape women to begin with found themselves in an ideal position from 2016-2023. The point of transitioning for many men was part sissy humiliation ritual and part espionage to see how the other half lives. There are straight men who seek a trans disguise to predate on lesbians, the final frontier for the dedicated misogynists. Losers who fail at being men must co-opt women’s causes and invade their private rooms. They depend upon cultural niceness mandates to defend them from the retaliation they deserve. They hate women and yet they want them and want to be them. Like Ed Gein, the serial killer who inspired Norman Bates of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, they hate and love their mommies in equal measure. They are not above terrorizing the fairer sex in order to satisfy their urges.

To the keyboard warriors at the ready whose fragile, broken minds are boiling over with verbal barbs and accusations of transphobia right now — go outside and touch grass. I am a rando on the internet. I do not think about you at all. Also, if you have read this far without trying to comment yet, you will soon find out that you are not allowed to comment on this essay without signing in. As I have said in the past, I am going to die without being bought. You cannot scare me and you cannot buy me off, so go away.

What I do want is to spread the message that mass acceptance of trans nonsense is over. We are done. We are now coming into a time where dangerous medical procedures of any sort will be questioned and investigated. The enlightenment is here. Allopathic medicine is fascism. Their unholy coupling with Big Government and corporate media in order to push the trans machine has been exposed.

Just a reminder that I will be taking my usual short, seasonal break from writing essays from December 19 - January 5 to rest and refresh the well of inspiration. I have put this blog's comments section to Dreamwidth Registered Users only for this moment and I will most likely turn on this same setting over my break. Thanks for understanding.

neonvincent: Ambassador Vreelak from DS9 (Fake!)
neonvincent ([personal profile] neonvincent) wrote2025-12-08 04:49 pm
neptunesdolphins: (Panzuzu)
neptunesdolphins ([personal profile] neptunesdolphins) wrote2025-12-08 09:42 am

Babylon Month: December/January

 In Babylon, the tenth month is called Tebetu, which occurs during the rainy season. Astrolabe B states, “The month Tebetu, the high festival of An, the month of the splendor of Inanna.” The Festival of the Boat of An (the Father of the Gods) is held during this month. This Festival commemorates the taking of the Mes (Note 1) by Inanna from Enki, the God of Wisdom and Fresh Waters. The Festival of the Boat of An (Note 2) could be regarded as celebrating the transfer of power from the Gods to allow civilization to begin among the humans.
 
Offerings of dates, chickpeas, lentils, and sesame oil are transported by boat (Note 3) from the temple of An to Inanna’s. (In modern rituals, a wooden boat is moved from the altar of An to Inanna’s.) They are made at night for An, and later for Inanna at dawn.
 
Going to where Enki lives in Eridu, Inanna gets Him drunk and steals the Mes. She departs in An’s barge from Eridu to Uruk, taking them with Her. Meanwhile, Enki tries to get them back but is unsuccessful. However, the Gods do allow Inanna to disburse the Mes.
 
After landing the Boat of An, Inanna sings, “Today I have brought the Boat of Heaven to the Gate of Joy. It shall pass along the street magnificently. The people shall stand in the street full of awe, in joy. The old men of the city comfort, the old women counsel, the young men strength of arms, the children joy. The king shall slaughter bulls, shall sacrifice sheep. He shall pour beer from a bowl. He shall have the šem and ala drums sound, and have the sweet-sounding tigi instruments play. The foreign lands shall declare my greatness. My people shall utter my praise.”
 
Notes:
Note 1. Mes are the divine decrees which establishes the world order. They range from objects (weapons) to emotions (terror) to culture (hair styles).
 
Note 2. As the Father of the Gods, An allows the transfer of power. Inanna using his barge is symbolic of this.
 
Note 3. Mesopotamians had full-sized barges for the Gods to travel in. They would row the barges from city to city for a processional of the God. Meanwhile, at the God’s temple, the boat was displayed with the statue of the God and the God’s treasures. Individual boats have their own names.
 
ecosophia: (Default)
John Michael Greer ([personal profile] ecosophia) wrote2025-12-07 09:51 pm

Magic Monday

dream it and then do itIt's almost midnight and so it's time to launch a new Magic Monday. Ask me anything about occultism, and with certain exceptions noted below, any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer. Please note:  Any question or comment received after that point will not get an answer, and in fact will not be put through.  If you're in a hurry, or suspect you may be the 341,928th person to ask a question, please check out the very rough version 1.3 of The Magic Monday FAQ here

Also:
 I will not be putting through or answering any more questions about practicing magic around children. I've answered those in simple declarative sentences in the FAQ. If you read the FAQ and don't think your question has been answered, read it again. If that doesn't help, consider remedial reading classes; yes, it really is as simple and straightforward as the FAQ says.  And further:  I've decided that questions about getting goodies from spirits are also permanently off topic here. The point of occultism is to develop your own capacities, not to try to bully or wheedle other beings into doing things for you. I've discussed this in a post on my blog.

(The image? I've finished the sequence of my published books; while I decide what I want to do next, I have some memes to share.)

Buy Me A Coffee

Ko-Fi

I've had several people ask about tipping me for answers here, and though I certainly don't require that I won't turn it down. You can use either of the links above to access my online tip jar; Buymeacoffee is good for small tips, Ko-Fi is better for larger ones. (I used to use PayPal but they developed an allergy to free speech, so I've developed an allergy to them.) If you're interested in political and economic astrology, or simply prefer to use a subscription service to support your favorite authors, you can find my Patreon page here and my SubscribeStar page here
 
Bookshop logoI've also had quite a few people over the years ask me where they should buy my books, and here's the answer. Bookshop.org is an alternative online bookstore that supports local bookstores and authors, which a certain gargantuan corporation doesn't, and I have a shop there, which you can check out here. Please consider patronizing it if you'd like to purchase any of my books online.

And don't forget to look up your Pangalactic New Age Soul Signature at CosmicOom.com.

With that said, have at it!  

***This Magic Monday is now closed, and no more comments will be put through. See you next week!***
degringolade: (Default)
Degringolade ([personal profile] degringolade) wrote2025-12-07 08:37 pm

Diary: Running on Empty

Sorry that I haven't been posting lately. It is just I got nothing to say while waiting for shoes to drop.

neonvincent: For posts about geekery and general fandom (Shadow Play Girl)
neonvincent ([personal profile] neonvincent) wrote2025-12-07 12:04 pm
neonvincent: For posts about cats and activities involving uniforms. (Krosp)
neonvincent ([personal profile] neonvincent) wrote2025-12-06 04:37 pm
kimberlysteele: (Default)
Kimberly Steele ([personal profile] kimberlysteele) wrote2025-12-05 09:01 pm
Entry tags:

Ogham Readings on Saturdays




I am happy to read your Ogham free of charge -- that's how I hone my divination skills. Please limit your reading request to four or fewer Ogham cards: though this can take many forms, here are some common ones (all of them are basically combos of 4 cards):

 
-a single three card reading for the week or month and a one-off, one card reading
-four questions about four separate items that require one answer (card) per item
-a one card reading to answer a specific question and a three card for a more nuanced question
-Two separate readings, two cards a piece exploring the positives and negatives of two different choices

I am happy to do Ogham readings confidentially via emails -- just email me at k steele studio at gmail during the allotted time/before deadline. I cannot answer health questions. If you have a question about health or another sensitive, private matter, provide a bunch of non-identifying information and the Ogham will be able to figure it out even if I don't. I'm serious... the Ogham actually tend to "know" things without me being privy to what is going on.

Please note I take time off during Solstices and Equinoxes for Druid stuff and because sometimes I simply need a break.

My next planned break is from December 18 - January 8.

I take reading requests from whenever this post goes up on Friday night until 8pm US Central Time Saturday.

For a more in depth look into how I read and interpret the Ogham's symbols, please visit my website druidogham.wordpress.com.

I am currently trying to minimize my use of PayPal. If you'd like to make a donation, I would be grateful if you did it here:

http://buymeacoffee.com/kimberlysteele

Your prayers of blessing to the deity/deities of your choice are welcome whether or not you can donate.

neonvincent: For posts about cats and activities involving uniforms. (Krosp)
neonvincent ([personal profile] neonvincent) wrote2025-12-05 08:20 pm
Dan Savage ([syndicated profile] savagelove_feed) wrote2025-12-05 04:16 pm

Struggle Session: Dildos and Randos

Posted by Dan Savage

Struggle Session is a bonus column where I respond to comments — just a few — from readers and listeners. I also share a letter that won’t be included in the column and invite my readers to share their advice. Q22 in this month’s Quickies column was from a “vagina-having person” who was wondering whether … Read More »

The post Struggle Session: Dildos and Randos appeared first on Dan Savage.

ecosophia: (Default)
John Michael Greer ([personal profile] ecosophia) wrote2025-12-05 09:35 am

Frugal First Friday

brussels sprouts in winterWelcome to Frugal First Friday! This is a monthly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up on the first Friday of each month, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course. 

There has been talk about releasing these posts in print format.  In case that turns out to be worth pursuing, please note: if you comment on this or any future Frugal First Friday post, you are giving permission for that comment to be included in print or other editions. This means, for those of you into the legalese, that by posting something in the comment thread you are granting me non-exclusive reprint rights to your comment, and permitting me to transfer those to a publisher or other venue. Your contribution will have your name or internet handle attached, your choice. 

I also have some simple rules to offer, which may change further as we proceed. One change from the earlier frame is that if you produce goods or services yourself, and would like to let readers know about them, you may post one (1) (yes, just one) comment per month letting people know, with a link to your website or other contact info. The other rules ought to be familiar by now. 


Rule #1:  this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc.  I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #2:  please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about.  Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.

Rule #3: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.

Rule #4: don't post LLM ("AI") generated content, and don't bring up the subject unless you're running a homemade LLM program on your own homebuilt, steam-powered server farm. 

With that said, have at it!  
Dan Savage ([syndicated profile] savagelove_feed) wrote2025-12-05 12:00 pm

After Action Report #7

Posted by Nancy Hartunian

Hear the harrowing tale of the masochist lad who walked into the dungeon and ended up getting flogged…a lot. Did he like it? Would he do it again? Listen and find out. Do you have a tale to tell? Write it up and send it in: Q@Savage.Love Do you have a comment for this show? … Read More »

The post After Action Report #7 appeared first on Dan Savage.

neptunesdolphins: dolphins leaping (Default)
neptunesdolphins ([personal profile] neptunesdolphins) wrote2025-12-04 09:08 am

Modern Roman Saturnalia Festivities (Annual Post)

I like to repost how to celebrate Saturnalia for an alternative to Christmas.
 
“Who knows not of the Golden Age of the carefree King? When no man subdued fields to his will or sowed grain in them or fended harmful weeds from the crops, which were to come when plenteous harvest filled the barns to last the year.” (Anonymous, Aenta)
 
Saturnalia, the most popular of Roman festivals, is a time of good feeling, gift giving and celebrating the returning sun. Lasting for seven days from 17 December to 24, this festival is wildly celebrated. People visit, feast, play games, and gamble. Normal restrictions of society are cast off, and drunkenness is encouraged.
 
The day before Saturnalia, I clean the Larium, the home altar. We all take showers to be clean for the coming festival. A part of Roman piety is cleanliness, which includes preparing for festivities.
 
The first day opens with the unwrapping of Saturn’s feet. In Ancient Rome, Saturn watched over the treasury. His feet was wrapped in woolen bands to prevent Him from leaving. If Saturn left, so did the treasury. (I use yarn for my Saturn’s feet.)
 
I make a morning sacrifice of pork. Later, I share a meal with Saturn in friendship. After shouting, “Io Saturnalia!” I begin to celebrate.
 
The second day opens with a bath. The pork is offered this time to the family Lars for helping the household. We also share a meal with Them. Later in the day, we play games such as Hearts. For the thrill of it all, we also buy lottery tickets.
 
On 19 December (the third day), we celebrate the Opalia to honor Ops, Saturn’s Consort. The Goddess of Abundance is honored for her part in the new harvest. One thing that we do is pray to Her while sitting on the earth. Our prayers are for peace, plenty, and protection.
 
Two other festivals that occur during Saturnalia are the Angeronalia (21 December) and the Larentalia (23 December). On the Winter Solstice, people pray to Angerona for relief from anxiety and pain. For the Larentalia, people honor Acca Larentia, whose lands become Rome.
 
Saturnalia is the time when people can speak their minds without having consequences. We have the “Airing of Grievances.” (Note 1) Everyone tells each other “what cheeses them off.” Afterwards, we have cookies to sweeten things again. (Baking cookies is something modern Romans do for Saturnalia.)
 
Since Saturnalia involves role-reversal, we have a day when we plot to smash the hierarchy. We wear Santa hats (which look like Roman pileus (Note 2)) and together ponder how to do that. We make fun of political leaders and imagine ourselves in their place.
 
Over the remaining days, we visit friends and have feasts. This goes with giving candles and other small gifts to each other. On the last day, Saturn’s feet are bound, and Saturnalia is officially over for another year.
 
Traditional decorations include garlands and wreaths. Houses are decorated red and gold, with hanging cutouts of suns, stars, and the faces of Janus. Outdoors, trees are decorated with food for the birds.
 
For traditional Roman foods, we feature pickled eggs and beets. Romans loved apples, so we serve them. Sausages were often given as gifts, so we serve them as well. For seasoning, peppercorns are heavily used in cooking the meals.
 
“Saturnus, our most sacred Father
By offering You, this incense
I pray good prayers so
That You be benevolent and propitious
To my friends, to me, to my household, and
To my family.”
(Cn. Cornelius Lentulus (Nova Roma))
 
Notes:
Note 1. This is similar to Festivus, which has the “Airing of the Grievances.” Festivus, created by Daniel O’Keefe, the writer in 1966, became well-known after being featured on the TV Show “Seinfeld.”
 
Note 2. Freed slaves wear the pileus. This cap became the symbol of Libertas, the Goddess of Liberty.