The monarch butterfly devours milkweed to absorb its poison to use as its own. They are beautiful, and when nature threatened them, they refused to dim their colors or hide. They learned to swallow poison and not only survive it, but weaponize it.
Do not let other people poison you. Do not let other people prey on you. Do not dim your colors for another. Survive. Thrive. Be beautiful in spite of them.
Aries: A harbinger of death and ill tidings, a specter of ill fortune across almost every culture on earth. Very pettable.
Taurus: Something long lived. So long lived that its scales have layers like the earths crust. Long forgotten weather systems trapped beneath its hide.
Gemini: One of many, or many of one, or a single part of a larger but singular whole. The roots go deep.
Cancer: Four black wings like a storm, talons remarkably like whaling hooks and a face of flawless white porcelain.
Leo: An artificial guardian that completed its job too well. It fears fire.
Virgo: A collector of the blind and lost. Those who could see its face would never trust it.
Libra: What used to be worshiped as a god of the hunt, now trapped in a tangle of roots and cabled under a post-soviet radio tower.
Scorpio: Something that can speak several things at once. Its voice is maddening but it desires companionship.
Ophiuchus: Something that seems to think it is a doctor of some sort.
Sagittarius: Bits of feeling and memory from a thousand thousand wearers simply expanding to fill the space.
Capricorn: Something that learned its purpose and then proceeded to hunt and kill the person responsible.
Aquarius: A memory of something. As it moves it leaves an afterimage.
Pisces: Something that was never supposed to happen, an accidental production of a horrible process. Beauty from nothing.
1. I took the petals of four roses and placed them in a large pot. Put enough distilled water to cover the roses, not much more as to not dilute the water.
2. Heat to a simmer on a medium/low heat. Cover and let simmer for 20-30 minutes until the petals are pinkish.
3. Strain into another pot, let it cool before putting it in a jar or container to store.
Bonus: To make some facial mist I put 1tbs of the rosewater into a 2oz spray bottle and fill the rest of the bottle with distilled water.
Athena blessed her with the ability to protect herself and men beheaded her for it.
That’s actually a really intetesting intpretation of it I hadn’t thought of. Most people seem to think Athena turned Medusa into a gorgon as punishment for defiling her temple, but thinking that she did so to protect her from being abused again is interesting and I like it!
Athena’s hands were tied. Yes, she was a powerful Goddess, but she was very much a woman in a “boys club”, and the true offending party (don’t think for a moment that Athena blamed Medusa for being raped in the temple, Athena knows better) held all the cards. There was nothing that Athena could do to punish the true criminal, and she was expected to punish Medusa by everyone else. What’s a Goddess to do when she cannot punish those who need to be punished and is expected to punish not only the truly innocent party, but her most beloved follower? Use that incredible brain power she had to protect Medusa at all costs, and of course the men would see it as punishment, to be have her beauty stripped from her and sent to live in the shadows. Medusa should have been KILLED for supposedly defiling the temple, whether she truly did or not, but she was given the gift of life, and the ability to protect herself and her daughters (who she bore thanks to Poseidon). This is why Medusa’s image was used to signify woman’s shelters and safe houses.
Medusa means “guardian; protectress”, and she was.
Amethyst's Archive 