princeheathen:

jenniferrpovey:

Triggered by another post I didn’t want to hijack:

Excalibur.

In the legends, Excalibur comes out of a lake (although some versions have Excalibur as the sword in the stone, those are later…the sword Arthur pulls from the stone breaks and he goes to get a better one).

From the “Lady of the Lake.”

Here’s the thing.

In northern Europe in the Iron Age all the way through to the early Medieval period, most iron came from bog iron. It was hard to smelt, because it was a rather low grade ore, but you didn’t have to mine it and it was a renewable resource (in about twenty years you could just come back and get more, because it formed constantly).

Meaning that the iron used to make a sword came…out of water.

In most fairy stories, fairies don’t like iron. So the vision of the Lady as some kind of fairy or elf? Not likely.

The idea of her as a druid? Maybe.

But what’s far more likely is this: The Lady of the Lake was a smith.

But….but…

The Celtic deity in charge of smiths and ironworking was Bridget, a goddess. The mystical associations with the Lady would fit with her being a priestess of Bridget…and thus, a smith.

IOW, Arthurian people, maybe we should not be visualizing the Lady of the Lake  as a slender, graceful woman in a gown…

…but as a jacked smith in an apron.

@conversecompanion

I really don’t get why folks are so pressed over this Sephora witch kit business. It’s all just capitalism taking advantage of a popular aesthetic. People who really want to learn about witchcraft will, and those who just want to revel in aesthetics will do that too. I just, I really don’t get what the fuss is about.

The Signs and Knights

normal-horoscopes:

Aries: Knights in ornate silver armor with masks like a beak. Their unusual curved glaives resemble an outstretched cranes wing. Each piece of the maille, sharpened to a razor edge.

Taurus: Knights that run on all fours, a pair of axes strapped to their backs. They wear only hides, relying on speed and ferocity to keep them safe.

Gemini: The holy knights of a vast arid empire swathed in silks and scales. Heavy curved greatswords inscribed with the words of the prophet act as weapon and canticle alike. 

Cancer: The knights just below the surface of the mire. Wicker masks and wooden pikes waiting in ambush.

Leo: Knights frozen in place, like gargoyles still watching over the battlements where they stood guard for thousands of years, armor frosted white by the arctic wind.

Virgo: The royal guard ritually buried with their queen. Mummified flesh and tarnished bronze armor patrolling the endless halls of the great necropolis.

Libra: The banner-bearers of a great nomadic army. Their backs adorned with torches and horsetails, wicked barbed arrowheads rest on their shoulders, one for every rider struck down.

Scorpio: The knights bedecked in crows feathers. Rarely engaging in combat themselves, they use their long hooked spears to snag the corpses of the fallen and spirit them away.

Ophiuchus: The last of a now unrecognizable order of knights. A great axe warped by unnatural fire. All too familiar eyes.

Sagittarius: The royal guards that have protected the family for generations. Fine steel interworked with lace and taffeta. Weapons fashioned to look like sewing implements. 

Capricorn: The only of the pirates to return, whispers of voices in the deep. Shedding all man-made clothing, clutching only a dagger made of whale bone.

Aquarius: The legion that was melted down in the great furnaces, their weapons and armor reforged into something unspeakable.

Pisces: Knights that scaled the walls of the great cities. Leaping over the heads of the spearmen. Steel balls and leather slings viciously denting armor.