#magic

Shapeshifting: 100 Days (44)

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

Tying Up Loose Ends

Day 44:

A little more work today on the Grey panel of the shrug. I counted my hearts and flowers for Pride: 129 in the current batch.

Shapeshifting
by Beth Weaver-Kreider

Before I was born I was a little owl
gliding over moonlit fields
listening with the dish of my face
feeling my way through air
as a fish feels the water
which is both its existence
and its road.

When I die, I will curl into the womb
of the World, the coils of my snake body
sliding through the passages of earth
which will be both my pathway
and my truth.

#The100DayProject
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Poppets: 100 Days (38)

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

Tying Up Loose Ends

Day 38: 

I made a few more hearts and flowers, and finished two more poppets tonight, so I have ten in a batch waiting for the next set when Radiance runs low. I won’t dress them all just yet. You can find my Little Protector Dolls at https://www.herbsfromthelabyrinth.com/shop/spiritual-tools-altar-items/magical-tools/little-protector-dolls/

April is when I get caught in project overlap, when the 100 Day Project continues, but here comes National Poetry Month, and I must write a poem a day! They may end up being short toss-offs mostly this year, but we’ll see. Rule Number One for me is that I am free to create garbage. Something good always comes out of the process.

#The100DayProject

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Vasilisa the Brave: 100 Days (32)

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Tying Up Loose Ends

Day 32: On Which I Tell You a Tale

In one of the old tales, the child Vasilisa is sent out into the woods by her wicked stepmother to ask for fire from Baba Yaga, the witch of the woods. Brave Vasilisa does not go alone, however: she is guided and aided by the tiny poppet she carries in her pocket, a doll made for her by her mother before she died. The doll carries her Mother’s Magic. When Vasilisa becomes overwrought at the impossible tasks that Baba Yaga (the Initiator in this story) sets for her, her poppet tells her, “Do not worry, Vasilisa, for the morning is wiser than the evening.”  In the end, the doll helps Vasilisa win her fire from Baba Yaga.

I make poppets, too, like Vasilisa’s mother, and sell them at Radiance. For #The100DayProject, I decided to make twenty, so I will have some on hand next time they need a new batch. My poppets are made of fabric scraps and embroidery floss and lots of love, filled with the energies and ideas I am pondering as I make them.

#The100DayProject

@dothe100dayproject

What I Want from Men: 100 Days (26)

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

Tying Up Loose Ends

Day 26:

Here is what I want from my beloved male allies right now:

1. Listen to women. When you feel an urge to explain or contextualize men’s speech and actions, just don’t.

2. Amplify women’s voices. In your speaking, and on your social media.

3. Know that, no matter our own histories—from boundary-crossing to harassment to coercion and violence—the stories are hitting us hard right now. The ground of the narrative today is our bodies. We might be feeling vulnerable, fierce, invisible, endangered, dangerous.

4. We don’t really want to deal with your feelings about it all right now. Do your own emotional labor.

5. Speak up, dammit. Call your brothers to account, for their sexist jokes, their boorish behavior, their silence.

6. Stand up for trans and nonbinary folks. They take so much of the weight of gender hatred perpetrated by men.

*****

I spent some time today organizing some scrap fabrics, cutting pieces for the 20 little dolls, and braiding up a couple little people. I’m also playing with free-form crochet on a neck-piece. 

#The100DayProject

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Little Protectors: 100 Days (25)

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

Tying Up Loose Ends

Day 25:

One quarter of the way through the project today.

Starting on a new project today, getting another set of Little Protectors Dolls ready for Radiance. On my initial project list, I gave myself the goal of twenty. I have pieces cut for seven bodies right now, and I can get fabric laid out to cut another fifteen or so in the next couple of days. I braided one doll this evening, just so I could say I had done something other than just organize materials.

What magic shall I call upon for this batch of feisty protectors? Little Girl Dragon Energy. Old Woman Rising Energy. Fierce Mother Bears Energy. Ancestor Rescue Energy. Waving Goodbye to the Patriarchy Energy.

What magic are you calling upon for yourself in these days of turmoil and uproar?

#The100DayProject

@dothe100dayproject