More Great Gatsby + Natsby Edits

more Great Gatsby + Natsby edits

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things to add to your journals

song lyrics for a specific mood

spotify codes for favourite songs

receipts from a trip

envelope for gifts from any small children you know

pages to press flowers in

ticket stubs

fortune cookie readings

daily three-card tarot pulls

watercolour paper for art

page cutouts

watercolours just in general

pressed flowers

other dried herbs

sketches (taped or glued in)

morning/evening routines

colour in the leftover paper backing from stickers and glue/tape it in

friendship bracelets that may have broken or come off

grocery lists or other shopping lists (glue in if written on other paper)

book quotes

block poetry (you'll have to take a page out of a book for this)

mental health goals

halloween: candy wrappers

fabric scraps

family recipes

different textured papers

stamps

coins

Some topics + prompts for your grimoire or book of shadows

books you want to read

local folklore / mythology / legends

the wheel of the year

plants you have in your house or garden (their care, properties, uses, draw them etc)

theban alphabet

days of the week and their correspondences

write about a deity you worship / are drawn to

draw art for / of a deity you worship or are drawn to

colour magic

the elements

write about the crystals you own (draw them, write their properties, correspondences, uses, how it makes you feel etc)

how to make your own crystals

your birth chart

your sun, moon and rising sign

natural medicine (as a chronically ill witch I love natural medicine NOT AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR PRESCRIPTIONS! for example I take all my prescription meds and then if I'm having period pain I might drink some raspberry leaf tea)

positive affirmations / mantras that you connect with

how to manifest

history of witches

deities in a certain pantheon you're interested in or drawn to

write about a spell you've done (how you did it, why you did it, how you felt, the results of it, what you would change if you did the spell again etc)

chakras

write about a dream you've had

tarot reading tricks and tips

moon phases

sabbats

zodiac signs

family tree

poetry / songs / quotes you connect to (i like to find ones that make me feel powerful or witchy, or remind me of certain aspects of my practice. a song i like for this is rhiannon by fleetwood mac and i'm going to post more things like this regularly on my page)

feathers and their meanings

simple everyday magic

recipes

some ideas for the next sabbat you plan to celebrate

tarot spreads you like

write about a tarot reading you've done (any prep you did, the deck you used, the cards you pulled, your personal interpretation of the cards based on the art and how you feel, the meaning of the cards, how the cards relate to the questions you asked, final reflection on how you feel the reading went)

interesting mythology

tree of life

glamour magic

money bowls

crystal shapes and their meanings

grounding techniques

cleansing

protection

banishing

cord cutting spells

essential oils

types of divination

planets and their correspondences

angel numbers

witchy wishlist

go to supplies and ingredients (herbs and things that you use regularly)

favourite crystals

working with your inner child

if you've had a really good or particularly insightful meditation session it can be nice to either draw or write what happened and how you felt during it

witchy arts and crafts and diys you want to do

altar ideas

read a witchy book / watch a witchy video and take notes

write about your ancestors

witchy things to incorporate into your daily routine

what is a tower moment

witchy reset / self care days

the history of the area you live in

veiling

how to make your own incense sticks

shadow work

shadow work prompts

ok, that's all the ideas I have for now and I hope that helps someone! I'll be posting some pages from my grimoire and some more prompt / topic ideas in the near future which I'm really excited for.

P.S. please remember that everyone's practice is their own and you should do what feels right to you while respecting that other people have their own beliefs (as long as they're not hateful).

I would watch this movie

I want to know what happens to the Barbies that aren't played with anymore. The ones who get thrown away or sit at the bottom of a box. Or the ones who people get a little more creative with, like cake toppers or... otherwise.

It seems to me like everyone in Barbieland is someone actively being played with, alive because they have a connection with a human. That's why they all got brainwashed; their counterparts are still active in the human world.

And we saw a few discontinued dolls in Weird Barbie's house, but I'm talking about Barbies and Kens who are still sold but end up never played with.

You think they stay in Barbieland? What if they have to go to the human world once they know they're not played with anymore? Or do they take a flight out if BAX somewhere else? Is there a Barbie retirement village they go to? Do they just live out their days away from Barbieland and can't go back since they're not played with?

Or do they die? Is there a Barbie graveyard somewhere with all the discarded dolls? Or do they just fade away? What if, rather than physically dying, they lose their spirit, doomed to wander the world around Barbieland an empty shell, never to be played with again?

This makes me feel so much better. I only recently suspected that I might be autistic after a lot of research. I can't get a formal diagnosis because my parents don't believe that can be their kid. And they don't trust mental health professionals either, even though I've made it clear I would like to see a therapist/professional.

I don't think a lot of people realize what self diagnosis is or why it's so important.

A lot of neurodivergent people can't access a formal diagnosis. Some people can't afford it (that feels so fucked up to say... Why is medicine something we have to *afford?*). Some people can't find a doctor in their area who can diagnose them. Some people are living with family members who won't let them see a doctor or get diagnosed. And the medical system is infamous for its prejudice against women, people of color, the lower class... Especially in regards to disabilities that aren't always clearly visible, where patients can easily be written off as lairs about their own health.

These are people who have spent their entire lives struggling with things that come naturally to everyone else. For the longest time, they didn't understand why nobody else feels like screaming when the lights in the store are too bright, or why everybody seems to love communicating with secret body languages or hidden messages, or how other people can keep up with keeping the house tidy and taking care of their health and maintaining jobs and relationships when all that stuff is so complicated and exhausting.

One day, they happen to come across an autistic person discussing their experiences, and they relate to it a lot more than they feel they should have. "That's not an autistic thing, right? Doesn't everyone do that?"

Then it clicks. Maybe it is an autistic thing. And maybe they're autistic.

So these people spend a long time reading about autism to find out, "Is this what's going on? Is this why I'm struggling?" They take their past and hold it up to the light, studying it more than anyone else has cared to do before.

The voice of doubt in their head, and maybe those around them, insist, "No, you're faking it for attention. You don't look autistic. You don't deserve help. Stop pretending."

But they can't forget. All of the things that happened before, all the stress and fear and sadness they've experienced suddenly begin to make sense.

Finally, they realize: "I'm not just too stupid to understand people. I'm not just too whiny about the noise and the lights around me. I'm not just too stubborn to let go of routines. I'm not just too impatient to stop fidgeting. I'm autistic."

They might seek a doctor to confirm. They might not. Getting a formal diagnosis is incredibly difficult for many people. But ultimately, the point of self diagnosis isn't to get other people to acknowledge that they're autistic. It's for their own benefit. Now that they know they're autistic, they can start looking for ways to make their life easier, to accommodate for themselves when nobody else will. Knowing what your needs are is the first step towards fulfilling them.

Sure, there might be people who fake things for attention or think they're neurodivergent when they're not. But I think it's better to trust someone about what's going on in their own mind and give them support than to assume that they're just diagnosing themselves for fun or to harm neurodivergent people. It's better to risk helping someone who doesn't actually need it than to not help someone who actually does.

For me, personally, the main reasons I'm pretty sure I'm autistic are A) I have autistic family members, some who are formally diagnosed, and autism tends to run in families, and B) I have a lot of the characteristics of autism such as strange sensory needs (especially regarding clothes and other physical textures), strong need for routine and predictability, stimming, special interests I'd pour my life and soul into, and an inability to read weird allistic social cues. But I don't have a formal diagnosis. I currently live in the US and can't afford to go through the medical system. Even if I could, I'm AFAB and might be denied diagnosis on the basis of my sex. And even if I weren't, I live in rural Nowhere-ville and the nearest doctor who could legally diagnose me is several hours away.

I need people to understand: I didn't decide to call myself autistic for shits and giggles. I didn't just go, "Ooh, autism looks fun and quirky, I wanna be that!" I have good reason to believe I am actually autistic, but I currently can't get a formal diagnosis. I'm not a "fake autistic" just because I can't currently get a doctor to look at me and go, "Yup, that's autism" and give me the doctor's note.

I saw the Barbie movie.

One thing I did not expect was to have Feelings about what it is like to be a neurodivergent woman.

This wasn't even really addressed in the movie directly at all (aside I guess from having "weird Barbie" who lives separately from everyone else and takes in the "broken Barbies", and all of the super-positive and "uplifting" Barbies who were supportive of each other were OPENLY rejecting her because of things that were beyond her control and didn't even make her harmful to their society, just not entirely Like Them...)(okay I guess I lied, I guess they did address it and it didn't really click for me until now). (I'm still leaving that sentence in because I'm so shocked at how the point of this post is how minimized I have felt as a woman, TO THE POINT I APPEAR TO HAVE MINIMIZED THE WOMAN I CAN ENTIRELY EMPATHIZE WITH.)

Anyway. It was made EXTREMELY clear by my peers from literally day one that I was Different. I mean, I'd had one-off interactions with kids before kindergarten, but going to school was the first time I was seeing the same group of children every day.

I remember being utterly baffled. Many kids seemed to understand what to do already. Most kids were friends with someone by the end of the first day. One of my most vivid memories was from the first day almost 30 years ago, when I turned to one of the girls -- her name was Sofia, she had waist-length black hair, and her name card was a laminated piece of letter practice paper. I asked her, "How does everyone know this already?"

Her answer was that she went to preschool, and for the longest time I thought that was it. I thought that was the only reason why I didn't Get It, and never Got It from then until I graduated and from then until after I got and quit my first job and moved onto my second job (where there happens to be A LOT of neurodivergent people and I seem to get it a lot better now). It didn't occur to me that there were other kids who admittedly didn't go to preschool, who didn't have the same problem as me, and other kids who did go to preschool (because believe me, I was asking) who DID have the same problem as me (and looking back I remember at least one point where the teacher had to address the class about bullying people who were "different").

Moving from childhood into adolescence, it was made EXCEEDINGLY clear to me that I wasn't simply a Different Person, but moreso a Different Woman. It was made apparent that I was NOT an object of desire, and I did NOT deserve to think of myself as such in any way, shape, or form.

I didn't simply ignore makeup because it was expensive, and a little confusing, and somewhat of a sensory difficulty. I ignored it because I didn't think it was for me. I wasn't allowed to be one of those girls. I didn't only ignore fashion because clothes shopping was overwhelming and I couldn't spend that kind of energy in the morning putting together an outfit (not that I had a cohesive closet anyway). I ignored it because of the giggles I heard behind my back when I DID try to camouflage as A Normal Girl, because of the comments like, "Look at her wearing that belt like she thinks she's cute."

It affected me so much that I frankly didn't see myself as a "real woman" until I was in my (LATE) twenties. It's not that I didn't want to be a woman, it's that I didn't think I was allowed to feel like one. I was absolutely convinced that my husband would someday discover this "secret" about me -- that I wasn't a "real woman" -- and leave me. I literally thought he was lying to me about being attracted to me.

This did eventually change with work on my self-esteem, but one of the results is something that still persists to this day -- I feel simultaneously constrained by the societal views of women, while being almost entirely unable to relate. I went into that movie and left, today, realizing that I STILL feel like I'm Not Allowed to feel like I have some of these problems.

I've never been cat-called (though I have been screamed at by people on the street for not being desirable enough of a woman in public). But I HAVE been dismissed as an overdramatic woman by medical professionals, when my husband wouldn't get the same treatment. I've never been harassed for my number, but I HAVE had men harass and belittle me at the mechanic for saying "no" to them, who then promptly stopped the moment my husband walked into the shop and came up beside me. I've never been told I'm too pretty to be smart, but I HAVE had men refuse to talk to me and seek out my less-experienced male coworkers for answers instead.

So I drove away realizing that this dichotomy still exists for me. I couldn't relate to Barbie crying because she didn't feel pretty enough, because I've never felt like that pressure actually applied to me -- it was just always made apparent by my childhood peers that I wasn't, and didn't deserve to even worry about whether I was attractive enough. And I realized that these other pressures were the same way -- I didn't feel the pressure to be the perfect leader, because of course I couldn't be that. I didn't feel the pressure to fit in perfectly, because of course I just already couldn't.

I want to do extraordinary things, not because people expect that of me as a woman, but because people think I CAN'T as someone who is Different and Not Like Them. People are SHOCKED when I eventually adapt to a social situation (like a new job), and show that I can contribute at the same level as other people once I learn what I'm doing.

Kind of like how the Kens didn't even bother with Weird Barbie, she was just forgotten in her weird house, and she ended up being the one to help them all. And then at the end, when the Barbies realize what they've done to her, they apologize and she just sort of goes, "Eh, that's how it is."

I don't know. It's just a very weird place to be. And it can all probably be summed up by the fact that I didn't even register her experience as something I could entirely relate to, until I went to write this post about the experience that I entirely relate to.