DELANCEYPLACE.COM 12/18/12 – WE USED TO SLEEP TWICE EACH NIGHT
In today’s selection – for most of history people have had two periods of sleep each night, with the time in between being perhaps the most calm and relaxing part of their lives. Then came the lightbulb. This unexpected “two sleep” phenomenon was uncovered by historian Roger Ekirch when he began to do research for a history of the night:
“Something puzzled [Roger] Ekirch as he leafed through parchments ranging from property records to primers on how to spot a ghost. He kept noticing strange references to sleep. In the Canterbury Tales, for instance, one of the characters in ‘The Squire’s Tale’ wakes up in the early morning following her ‘first sleep’ and then goes back to bed. A fifteenth-century medical book, meanwhile, advised readers to spend the ‘first sleep’ on the right side and after that to lie on their left. And a scholar in England wrote that the time between the ‘first sleep” and the ‘second sleep’ was the best time for serious study. Mentions of these two separate types of sleep came one after another, until Ekirch could no longer brush them aside as a curiosity. Sleep, he pieced together, wasn’t always the one long block that we consider it today.
“From his cocoon of books in Virginia, Ekirch somehow rediscovered a fact of life that was once as common as eating breakfast. Every night, people fell asleep not long after the sun went down and stayed that way until sometime after midnight. This was the first sleep that kept popping up in the old tales. Once a person woke up, he or she would stay that way for an hour or so before going back to sleep until morning – the so-called second sleep. The time between the two bouts of sleep was a natural and expected part of the night and, depending on your needs, was spent praying, reading, contemplating your dreams, urinating, or having sex. The last one was perhaps the most popular. One sixteenth-century French physician concluded that laborers were able to conceive several children because they waited until after the first sleep, when their energy was replenished, to make love. Their wives liked it more, too, he said. The first sleep let men ‘do it better’ and women ‘have more enjoyment.’ …
“About three hundred miles away, a psychiatrist was noticing something odd in a research experiment. Thomas Wehr, who worked for the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, was struck by the idea that the ubiquitous artificial light we see every day could have some unknown effect on our sleep habits. On a whim, he deprived subjects of artificial light for up to fourteen hours a day in hopes of re-creating the lighting conditions common to early humans. Without lightbulbs, televisions, or street lamps, the subjects in his study initially did little more at night than sleep. They spent the first few weeks of the experiment like kids in a candy store, making up for all of the lost sleep that had accumulated from staying out late at night or showing up at work early in the morning. After a few weeks, the subjects were better rested than perhaps at any other time in their lives.
“That was when the experiment took a strange turn. Soon, the subjects began to stir a little after midnight, lie awake in bed for an hour or so, and then fall back asleep again. It was the same sort of segmented sleep that Ekirch found in the historical records. While sequestered from artificial light, subjects were shedding the sleep habits they had formed over a lifetime. It was as if their bodies were exercising a muscle they never knew they had. The experiment revealed the innate wiring in the brain, unearthed only after the body was sheltered from modern life. Not long after Wehr published a paper about the study, Ekirch contacted him and revealed his own research findings.
“Wehr soon decided to investigate further. Once again, he blocked subjects from exposure to artificial light. This time, however, he drew some of their blood during the night to see whether there was anything more to the period between the first and second sleep than an opportunity for feudal peasants to have good sex. The results showed that the hour humans once spent awake in the middle of the night was probably the most relaxing block of time their lives. Chemically, the body was in a state equivalent to what you might feel after spending a day at a spa. During the time between the two sleeps, the subjects’ brains pumped out higher levels of prolactin, a hormone that helps reduce stress and is responsible for the relaxed feeling after an orgasm. … The subjects in Wehr’s study described the time between the two halves of sleep as close to a period of meditation.
“Numerous other studies have shown that splitting sleep into two roughly equal halves is something that our bodies will do if we give them a chance. In places of the world where there isn’t artificial light – and all the things that go with it, like computers, movies, and bad reality TV shows – people still sleep this way. In the mid-1960s, anthropologists studying the Tiv culture in central Nigeria found that group members not only practiced segmented sleep, but also used roughly the same terms of first sleep and second sleep. … [Yet] almost two decades after Wehr’s study was published in a medical journal, many sleep researchers – not to mention your average physician – have never heard of it. When patients complain about waking up at roughly the same time in the middle of the night, many physicians will reach for a pen and write a prescription for a sleeping pill, not realizing that they are medicating a condition that was considered normal for thousands of years. Patients, meanwhile, see waking up as a sign that something is wrong.”
~This giveaway is in no way affiliated with Tumblr.~
Please read thoroughly before entering!
Hello lovely Tumblr folk! It’s that time again- I have a giveaway for you all. Last year ended great, so I thought we should start this year great! So I’m giving you the chance to win this large collection of items.
$50 credit that can be applied to anything in my shop.
amethyst & calcite cluster
labradorite palm stone
tumbled quartz
fluorite bunny
rainbow moonstone necklace (handmade by me!)
other tumbled stones
selenite wand
quartz wand
obsidian sphere
lapis lazuli sphere
labradorite heart
selenite tower
tiger’s eye cow carving
giant druzy heart
amethyst hedgehog
rainbow moonstone nuggets
chunks of labradorite
This has a retail value of $215 in addition to the $50 shop credit!
Rules:
You must be 16 or older. (If under 18 you MUST have parent’s permission)
You don’t have to live in the US to join!
You must be following me, so you can get updates if anything about the giveaway changes.
Please check out my shopand if you’re interested, you can sign up for my email newsletter here. (Totally not necessary or required, it’s just an option!)
DO NOT tag this post as giveaway. That will risk the notes getting messed up, and this will be ruined for everyone.
Reblog this post to enter. Likes count, too. No giveaway or spam blogs. If you reblog on a side blog, let me know in the tags what the name of your blog is that you’re following me with.
Please don’t spam people with reblogs- limit 2 reblogs per day. Last time I had angry people messaging me because people were spamming it a bunch :s
Each entry will be assigned a number and the winner will be chosen by a random number generator.
The giveaway ends Wednesday, February 28th at 6 pm Pacific time.
The winner will be messaged and must respond with their full name and address within 24 hours, or a new winner will be chosen.
Not everyone has the left hand of a hanged man to make into a Hand of Glory. I’ve concocted my own method to make one utilizing the same powers, just in different forms.
Boil a good amount of black wax. Add graveyard dirt, sesame seed, and crushed mandrake root, if you can manage to find it. Stir with the left hand. Remove it from the heat. Continue to stir the wax while it cools. Wait for it to become a semi-firm consistency. Take the wax and shape it into the image of a left hand standing upright. Have wicks, either braided by hand or bought, on hand. Rub them down with the fat of a chicken. Tie the wicks to a long needle or skewer. Draw the wick up through the hand, leaving a wick exposed for each finger. Let it cool and harden.
Light the Hand to stop someone from doing something, putting them to sleep, giving them nightmares, forcing them to face themselves, and opening ‘doors’ closed to you.
Intent: to rid yourself of the negative energy caused by another, to pour that negative energy back into them if they act maliciously again, to force them to reflect on their negative impact.
Ingredients: Dirt Taglock (an object that sentimentally reminds you of the individual. I suggest a photograph, drawing, sample of their handwriting, or their name written on a piece of paper) Onion Powder Chili Powder Thumbtack Tin foil Salt Sugar
Insructions: Safely burn the taglock and collect the ashes. Place a small amount of dirt in the jar first, to literally ground the spell. This as the base of the spell jar also symbolizes that everything henceforth will be growing out of the dirt and the individual. Add the ashes of the taglock next to bind this spell to them. Pour in some onion powder to strengthen the spell and chili powder expedite it and add a kick. Add a small piece of tin foil to force them to reflect upon their actions and acknowledge what they have done. Add a thumbtack – this is to cause misfortune or pain to the individual if the they bring harm to someone again. Mix together equal parts sugar and salt. Add this lastly to the jar. This should manifest a dash of mercy and empathy blossoming in them in the future, but with realistic expectations (ie, “take it with a grain of salt”). Tie a black string around the bottle neck and secure a black feather to the string. This symbolizes release and your letting go of the individual, letting them haunt your mind no longer. Thoroughly wash your hands with soap and water to cleanse yourself of any negative energy. Hide in a dark place (I suggest a closet corner) for seven days, then dispose of the insides and wash the bottle out with storm water or salt water.
[This is obviously my way of doing shit. There’s a lot of reasons I do things this way but I generally swear and curse and tell anything in my house to fuck off while doing the following.]
Open the windows and doors and clean the place up. Put shit back to where it’s suppose to be. Run laundry and do the dishes. It’ll take ten minutes top to clean the surfaces. Add some cleansing ingredients into the laundry if you feel it necessary. (I tossed in some salt and peppermint in a dark clothing load. Don’t put herbs in with your white or light color clothing. You’ll stain them. No, seriously, don’t.)
Throw salt. No, I’m not fucking kidding. Throw fucking salt. At mirrors, at windows, at doors, at the floor, at the computers, at the faucets, on the floor, and on the stripped bed.
Incense the fuck out of the place. This step varies for me. Sometimes I’ll use incense, other times herbal sticks, or asperging. It all depends on what materials I have on hand. Make sure you get all the rooms and entrances (including faucets, mirrors, computers, windows, doors, archways, and corners)
Wash the floors, doors, windows, and maybe even the walls. I use a mix of water + salt + lemon + whatever fucking ingredients I think need to be use (for prosperity, I’ll do a floor wash with different things than I would for a floor wash for protection.)
Pour a fucking drink. Usually I drink vodka. Sometimes I have homemade lemonade. Depends on my mood. Whatever. Toss some delicious fucking food in a pan/oven/microwave. Shit, it could be a sandwich. Make that shit and put it aside.
Take that drink with you and hop in the bath and/or shower. Use those bath products you accumulate and forget to use. If you don’t have any “borrow” some from a housemate. Or don’t. Whatever the fuck works for you. Pamper yourself. Put on music, drink your drink, and cleanse yourself. I tend to imagine the water taking all the shit and washing it down the drain.
Eat that delicious fucking food, sit your ass down and watch TV. Or read a book. Play a game. Take a nap. Pet the cat/dog/turtle/plushie. Surf the web (but avoid tumblr and social media. You don’t need that shit right now. You really don’t.) Do something for just you for an hour or two. And ignore all the other shit for a while.
There. Congrats. You’ve cleansed yourself and you’ve given yourself the break you need.
(For those eyeing this and saying “but I don’t actually need to clean the place, do I?” Yeah, yeah you do. Unless your home is from the pages of a catalog, you need to clean off what catches the eye. Counters, a simple sweep, dishes, and obvious “that’s not suppose to be there” should be sorted. It helps hugely. It’s a physical manifestation of the shit you need to deal with and going around cleansing the place and yourself but not cleaning the house at least on the surface is useless. Really. If you don’t believe me try it yourself. One day cleanse the house/room and don’t clean. A few days later do it again but clean first this time. You’ll notice the difference. Promise.)
So you’ve some nasty creepers hanging around. A ghost is rattling their chain and banging on walls. What a rude fucker. What do you do?
Summon your courage. Buck the fuck up. Look, ghosts are just dead people. They’re still fucking people. They might be assholes or they might be sweethearts. Don’t lump all ghosts together. I’m not saying don’t be scared because, fuck that, there’s invisible fucking people in your house. That’s nightmare fuel. But you can be scared and still be brave.
Get pissed. No, really. Get fucking angry. This sort of behavior isn’t acceptable. Think of alllllllllll the reasons you want them gone. Channel your inner Hulk if you have to.
Open ALL the doors and windows as much as you can. Make sure you can get to every single window and door in all the rooms plus the basement and attic if you have one. Even the closets, crawlspaces, cupboards, etc. ALL OF THEM.I’m not saying fling open that don’t and let Spot the Housecat get outside but even cracking it the tiniest bit will help. Clean the hallways and pathways as you’ll need to move as quickly as you can. Locking up said pets in their carriers, crate, cages, etc. during this is helpful too. You might want to chase out other people too. I find exorcising shit works best when I’m alone or with another woo~ person or two is helpful. You can get kids involved too, as I’ll explain in point 7.
Give a warning. Tell those dead intruders to get the fuck out. Threaten their ass with an exorcism.
Now get the chalk, salt, holy water, and rosemary herb stick. FYI, neither salt nor holy water works all the time but it works most of the time. For an herb stick get a bunch of rosemary and dry it together in a bundle. Ta-da. Pour some salt in your water to dissolve it. I find sticking the water in a squirt bottle or water gun works well. Figure out a system that works well so you can carry the herb stick, water, salt, and chalk. I find using a small salt pouch clipped to my pants by a carabiner works remarkably well.
Prep your protection shit. Get that shit ready to go. I tend to use rosemary, salt water, salt, chalk, and bay. Whatever works for you. Put it all in the same room you start in if you can’t carry it with you.
Chase it the fuck out. Yell and move as quickly as you can. Tell it to get the fuck out. It’s not welcome here and it needs to fucking go. Tell it all sorts of lies like if it comes back you’ll eat it or sic your familiars on it. IDK, just be as scary as possible. Start in the lowest portion of the house and work your way up. As you go, toss a light coating of salt at the windows, doors, closets, cupboards, etc. Spritz water in the same place as you’re throwing salt but also include the corners of the rooms and mirrors too. Slam door, window, cupboard, etc. shut. Now mark it with an ‘X’ in chalk. You could put a protection or banishing symbol up too. I just find the X easier. It should be clearly visible. If it isn’t, go back over it with the water. Do that with each and every room all the way up to the highest point of the house. It’s easier with more people and kids will have fun yelling at ghosts and throwing salt, squirting water, and slamming the windows and doors. If you’re lucky and have a third person available, they can come along behind you and lay on the protection right afterwards.
Make your home a fortress. Lock that shit up. Coat the glass, mirrors, faucets, etc with protection oil or water. Was the floor in a protection floor was. Go ahead and wash the walls and doors too. As you clean and protect each room, feel free to wipe off any of those chalk ‘X’s you run across. Make sure you bolster those defenses every so often to keep shit out.
What was that? You want to be subtle about it? Fine. Steep rosemary in salt water for 10-15 minutes. Pour that in a drinking glass and open one single window or door. Now go from each room as subtly as you can in step seven. Skip the yelling but just dab or flick the water. Be sure to get all the windows, doors, mirrors, and corner.
If this sort of spell doesn’t work, you’ll need to step up your game and become a Ghostbuster.
(BTW, I know this isn’t the same as the “Living People Version” but they have the same name in my book.)
ADDENDUM: In reference to the word “holy” previously being crossed out, I have commentary on why it was. (TL;DR: It was in reference to the very many holy water recipes that summarily are not created with a divine in mind and I forgot to explain the slight.) I have since uncrossed the word holy in deference for divinely created holy water.
The Sun Moon Star Tarot Spread is both simple and powerful. It reveals the identity one is attempting to project publicly and hidden natures dwelling within them. Should there be a conflict in this dynamic, a path to resolution is also offered in the spread.
Sun. The sociable self—the outward personality. What the individual naturally radiates to others around them. May also be what image they are intentionally fabricating.
Moon. The hidden self—the inward personality. What the individual is unaware of regarding their deeper, emotional self. If known to the individual, it may be what they’re trying to hide from others.
Star. Path of guidance—how the individual can improve. This card indicates a path forward. If the dynamic is bleak, this is what this individual would need to rectify a poor situation.
Amethyst's Archive 