“People who menstruate” includes cis women, trans men and nonbinary people who menstruate.
It also correctly excludes post-menopausal people, and trans women, neither of whom menstruate.
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Orange Shirt Day
Today is Orange Shirt Day, the day for remembering Indigenous children who died in residential schools and honouring the survivors.
It was organized by grassroots Indigenous activists for many years before it was officially adopted as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Continue readingIncluding trans people
One of the ways that the right and the centre tries to shut down discussion and debate is by dismissing it as “identity politics” and “the bickering of the left”. But what they fail to say is that there wouldn’t be “identity politics” if they were not constantly trying to remove the rights of marginalized people such as trans people and sex workers.
Continue readingHappy International Nonbinary People’s Day
Thursday 14 July is International Nonbinary People’s Day—a day for raising awareness and organizing around issues that nonbinary people face around the world since it was first observed in 2012.
Nonbinary people are nothing new. We aren’t confused about our gender identity or trying to be trendy—nonbinary identities have been recognized for millennia by cultures and societies across the globe.
It’s important for nonbinary people to be able to live, dress, and have our gender respected at work, at school, and in public spaces.
Continue readingCensing vs smudging
Non-occult books that inform magical practice
My magical practice has definitely been influenced by books other than specifically occult ones.
Continue readingBook review: Queer Qabala
Queer Qabala by Enfys J Book
Incredibly clear, beautifully written explanation of the Hermetic Qabala and its inherent queerness, expressed in the idea that there are three pillars (force, balance, and form), and that the Divine includes all genders and sexualities.
The book is written with style and wit by an expert in the subject. There are pathworkings to help you fully experience all aspects of the Qabala, and journal exercises to deepen your understanding of the worlds, spheres, and pathways of the Tree of Life.
All the aspects of the Tree are related to queer experiences and life events like coming out to yourself and others, and finding queer community. It explores both the wonderful and the scary aspects of being queer, including queer joy and sorrow.
This exploration of the many aspects of the Tree is grounded in a deep knowledge of the Qabala, and the overlapping Pagan and queer communities. This is a vision of Qabala that understands the importance of cyclicity: growth and decay, death and rebirth, darkness and light, immanence and transcendence, the manifest and the unmanifest.
It offers magical workings based on queer Qabala which relate to each sphere of the Tree of life and everyday experiences like getting a job or finishing a project. It is pragmatic and fun, accessible and inclusive.
This book will be valuable to everyone from beginners, who will find the subject thoroughly explored and explained, to people who are already working with Qabala, who will gain a fresh perspective on it. Sure to be a contemporary classic!
Place names
Indigenous people frequently and correctly point out that Indigenous place names in North America are based on geographical features or things that happened in that place, whereas settler place names in North America are either named after the first person to settle there, or a place in Britain or Europe. This is true.
What’s more, the place names in Britain and Europe are named after geographical features, things that happened there, Pagan deities, and previous inhabitants’ names for the place. So it makes no sense to transplant them to a place with different geographical features (though I assume people did it for nostalgic reasons).
Continue readingDrag
By Yvonne Aburrow
July 16th was International Drag Day, so it seems like a good time to look at the history of drag.
Drag is a subversive art-form that holds a distorting mirror up to societally-imposed gender norms. It is not the same as being transgender, and has a different history. The key difference between drag and being transgender is that drag is an impersonation of another gender for dramatic effect; being transgender is to genuinely experience being a different gender than the one that was assigned at birth.
Please note that, when talking about the LGBTQIA community in historical periods before the current terminology was devised, I have used more clinical terms or ones that reflected the understanding of same-sex love and gender-variance at the time, whilst avoiding slurs, obviously.
Continue readingThe Northumbrian Futhark
I have always liked the Northumbrian Futhark more than the Elder Futhark or the Anglo-Saxon Futhark. The extra runes in the Northumbrian Futhark cover some important concepts that are not dealt with in earlier futharks. My own rune set is this futhark.
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Dowsing for Divinity 