Me too. Thanks for the sentiment and I'm sincerely glad you found a good therapist you can trust. Does she know about your practice?
my therapist is a man, but yes. my old trauma therapist knew about it too. they think it's a healthy coping mechanism, but my current psychosis therapist likes to check in with me regarding it, because I've had religious delusions in the past. so he likes to check on my state of mind when practicing, to ensure its not detrimental to my mental health and recovery.
lol Funny, and glad to hear it. Honestly with your love of nature you sound like someone who would do great in a wildlife preserve.
yeah I'd love to work in a nature reserve. theres loads near me, one down the road I like to walk in. however I'd have to work officially with Cadw, these places aren't owned independently, and theyre largely left untouched besides maintenence like cutting down trees, and they use private companies for that. ive always wanted to visit the nature reserves in America, especially the PNW.
Also glad to see the standard offerings make sense. No crazy additives like bodily fluid; you'd be shocked at how often we keep coming across that on witchblr. I wonder why more of witchblr doesn't discourage that stuff. Maybe then we wouldn't wind up with period blood paintings of baphomet or whatever.
I mean I can kinda see where those witches are coming from. blood has always been used as an offering, and menstrual blood is very sterile. I personally think its a bit gross, especially painting with it, where it would go mouldy and stink. in my uni art course, we were shown an artist who uses his own blood to create life size sculptures. his first sculpture got all gross, so now he has to keep his work in very carefully regulated refrigerator units in galleries. so I think using period blood is weird, but downright gross when they paint with it and not use any preservatives or anti fungal techniques.
Sounds genuinely horrible. I'm sorry to hear that. Reminds me of the "dirty pillows" line from the mother in Carrie. In abstract that line is funny but in context it's not. It's part of protracted abuse from an unwell mother who finds her daughter's natural development to be sexually impure (only worsened by her supernatural powers developing).
Was it something like that, where natural development was harshly misunderstood? Or was the repression of a different stifling nature? The way you wrote that brings me to assume it was far worse than, like some parents, just banning Pokemon from the house because they thought Pikachu was demons.
I actually identified with Carrie a lot. it's hard to explain, and it comes back to me in flashes. it was just standard Catholic indoctrination and upbringing. when I came out as bisexual for example I wasn't allowed near my baby nieces and I had to eat food separately. to be honest I don't really want to go into it, it's still something I'm coming to terms with. it was very culty, just not an actual cult.
Again I'm sorry to hear that. Thankfully the marriage seems like a silver lining. Does your husband get involved in your practices?
my marriage is definitely my silver lining! I love my husband and my stepdaughter.
my husband is a bit of a skeptic. he enjoys hearing about my practice, we enjoy debating about how real it is. he's not sure what he believes, and I think that healthy dose of skepticism is good for my practice, as I can analyse my results through a critical lense and see if it was just wishful thinking. he enjoys observing welsh traditions with me though. he's a historian and archaeologist, he has a degree in them. so his work actually helps me with my work, like when he finds info on something that has been used in druid rituals or whatever. on our hikes we enjoy talking about it. its surprising how much science ties in with witchcraft. for example, we went to a lake and I loved swimming in it, I was convinced it was magical because of how good it made me feel, how clean the water was. turns out the lake is on top of an old iron mine, so the "magic" i was feeling was actually all the minerals in the water that made it so refreshing.