This is a stupid question but I'm going to ask anyway thread

[Bastemhet]

whiporwill-o

are the 'universal' meanings for rocks and crystals, colors, scents, and plants really accurate, or is it more of a personal thing?

who really decided what means what? i mean, i own several books with the coorespondenses in them and most of them are very very similar with only a few different meanings.

I'm of the opinion that regardless of traditional correspondences, personal meaning plus the tradition one works in should supercede any other meanings. I saw this talked about in another thread somewhere else and many people came to different conclusions of how useful a crystal is depending on personal practice, regardless of what some books says the crystal should be used for.

Recursive Paradox

Of course the water gets so muddied by people conflating "personally offensive and stigmatizing" and "propping up and enabling systemic oppression by continuing the use of concepts that are built on oppressive and -ism sourced reasoning as their roots".

Very well articulated. I think this is a good way to approach things since the "it hurts people" p.o.v. fails to even rouse the sympathies of others, unfortunately. But I think both are equally important.  

[whiporwill-o]

Bastemhet

whiporwill-o

are the 'universal' meanings for rocks and crystals, colors, scents, and plants really accurate, or is it more of a personal thing?

who really decided what means what? i mean, i own several books with the coorespondenses in them and most of them are very very similar with only a few different meanings.

I'm of the opinion that regardless of traditional correspondences, personal meaning plus the tradition one works in should supercede any other meanings. I saw this talked about in another thread somewhere else and many people came to different conclusions of how useful a crystal is depending on personal practice, regardless of what some books says the crystal should be used for.

thanks 3nodding  

[Yanueh]

whiporwill-o

are the 'universal' meanings for rocks and crystals, colors, scents, and plants really accurate, or is it more of a personal thing?

who really decided what means what? i mean, i own several books with the coorespondenses in them and most of them are very very similar with only a few different meanings.

That's a question that's also bugged me for ages!

Another one that gets me is how people claim that the color of the crystal is what gives it its ability. If it's color, why not just use colored glass - or even crayons and construction paper? xd

One person made an ill-researched ad hoc and claimed that colored glass wouldn't work because the colorants weren't "natural" like the minerals that colored crystals. Yeah, man, glass colorants like chromium and iron are so synthetic. They like, don't give natural crystals like rubies or amethysts their color at all. rofl  

[AniMajor]

Yanueh

whiporwill-o

are the 'universal' meanings for rocks and crystals, colors, scents, and plants really accurate, or is it more of a personal thing?

who really decided what means what? i mean, i own several books with the coorespondenses in them and most of them are very very similar with only a few different meanings.

That's a question that's also bugged me for ages!

Another one that gets me is how people claim that the color of the crystal is what gives it its ability. If it's color, why not just use colored glass - or even crayons and construction paper? xd

One person made an ill-researched ad hoc and claimed that colored glass wouldn't work because the colorants weren't "natural" like the minerals that colored crystals. Yeah, man, glass colorants like chromium and iron are so synthetic. They like, don't give natural crystals like rubies or amethysts their color at all. rofl

That's a major issue I've had with the two books by Judy Hall I have. I wouldn't even have them if it wasn't for the pictures and divisions that she does that make them so useful for identifying and collecting.

Also, every singe rock entry has New Age buzzwords like "chakra", "angels", "vibrations", "Akashic record", and "third eye".

It's also the names of rocks that give them their power, apparently. Bloodstone heals blood disorders, celestite connects you to angels, merlinite connects you to every single magic worker that came before, moonstone helps with "female problems".

In some ways, I feel like she wasn't even trying.  

[too2sweet]

I think it's a combination of things that gives them their "abilities", and while color is part of it, it's definitely not the only thing. There is "color magic" but that's something else - unless they are just using the crystals for their particular color, and ignoring their other properties.

I like the book "Love is in the Earth" by Melody. It's definitely got the "new age" vibe, but it's very detailed.  

[whiporwill-o]

too2sweet

I think it's a combination of things that gives them their "abilities", and while color is part of it, it's definitely not the only thing. There is "color magic" but that's something else - unless they are just using the crystals for their particular color, and ignoring their other properties.

I like the book "Love is in the Earth" by Melody. It's definitely got the "new age" vibe, but it's very detailed.

i'll have to keep an eye out for that one. very detailed it very good in some instances. 3nodding  

[TeaDidikai]

whiporwill-o

are the 'universal' meanings for rocks and crystals, colors, scents, and plants really accurate, or is it more of a personal thing?

Some folks I know are more about "personal" understandings, others rely on common understandings which largely are sourced to older multicultural traditions and still others rely on what their traditions have to say about it.

Quote:

who really decided what means what? i mean, i own several books with the coorespondenses in them and most of them are very very similar with only a few different meanings.

Likely because they spawned from the same source.

Quote:

A fair chunk, certainly. Still, the abhorrent behavior of many doctors, backed by their medical employers, towards people with disabilities, trans folk and fat folk gives me the impression that the portion of the medical field that is rotted from the core out (from operating on concepts rooted in ableism, transphobia and fatphobia) is a large one. Perhaps even a mild majority. At the very least, it is a large enough amount of serious credibility reduction that medical sources can't really be taken without strong analysis as an objective source on such topics.

Which makes depending on the source of a word or concept (the source being the medical field) a risky move unless you've looked really really in depth into the roots of the word, its concepts and how that relates to the -ism in question (something that is tough to do if one has privilege on one of the axes in question). That's why I tend to counsel against making observations based on medical concepts with unthinking trust on things like the health of fat people, which trans people are actually trans or not and on mental illness and whether things like Autism should be treated.

With autism especially, the medical field's views are growing off of some really nasty seeds of eliminationism and NT-centrism.

I think this is a very fair position.

Quote:

That's certainly something that is a bit... off. Instead of that, a complaint that should be taken more seriously about observations is whether that observation is based on concepts which are, in and of themselves, rooted in the -ism's in question.

And certainly a person's (reasonably) objective observations are not in the least bit immune to being built on ableist (for instance) roots, whether they are based on medical concepts or not.

Of course the water gets so muddied by people conflating "personally offensive and stigmatizing" and "propping up and enabling systemic oppression by continuing the use of concepts that are built on oppressive and -ism sourced reasoning as their roots". A lot of times, activists will say the former about something when they mean the latter.

An attempt to appeal to people's empathy I suppose, but it's really inaccurate. Offense is not the issue. Boosting these systems are.

Again, fair observation.

Me thinking outloud:

I find myself in an interesting position when it comes to translating concepts into English.

For example, there is a host of behavior that is translated as "crazy" in English from the dialects of Rroma my family uses that range from mild behavior problems to dangerous actions to classic Simpson D'oh! moments. Which leaves me wondering in situations where the kind of -ism isn't culturally present in one, but the translation would evoke such, what is left when it comes to accurately communicating ideas.  

[whiporwill-o]

ok, so i have a really stupid math question.... ready?

what is an easy way to remember what a greatest common factor is and what a least common multiple is? i keep getting them confused and my test is tomorrow. crying

ack, math and biology tests on the same day! gonk  

[Kinky Zombie]

Here's my stupid question for now.

I was talking to someone about how I was reading Starhawks book, The Spiral Dance, and how I just started it.
Anyways, someone else had replied with: "Oh, you're a member of Reclaiming?"

So, my silly question happens to be, what does this person mean when they are asking me if I am member of reclaiming?  

[AniMajor]

whiporwill-o

ok, so i have a really stupid math question.... ready?

what is an easy way to remember what a greatest common factor is and what a least common multiple is? i keep getting them confused and my test is tomorrow. crying

ack, math and biology tests on the same day! gonk

Um, you could remember that the greatest common factor is a small number, while the least common multiple is a big number.  

[Ashley the Bee]

whiporwill-o

ok, so i have a really stupid math question.... ready?

what is an easy way to remember what a greatest common factor is and what a least common multiple is? i keep getting them confused and my test is tomorrow. crying

ack, math and biology tests on the same day! gonk

Greatest Common Factor is just that... it's the greatest ...common factor in a set of numbers. Just remember that factors are the numbers that multiply together to get the result.

ie: The factors of 30 are: 30, 15, 10, 6, 5, 3, 2, 1

So, writing the factors out for the two numbers and simply finding the largest, in other words, the greatest, that's common between them, is one way of finding the Greatest Common Factor.

Does that help at all? Understanding what factors are?

The Least Common Multiple is the exact opposite. Multiples are the results of taking the number and multiplying it by 1, 2, 3...

That is, the multiples of 4 are 4*1=4, 4*2=8, 4*3=12, 4*4=16...

Now, to find the least common multiple, you can use the same process. Just keep writing multiples until you find two that are common and stop. That is, 4 and 3:
3: 3 6 9 12...
4: 4 8 12...

So we find the LCM as 12.

Again, does it help to think of what "multiple" means to remember how to find it?  

[TeaDidikai]

Kinky Zombie

Here's my stupid question for now.

I was talking to someone about how I was reading Starhawks book, The Spiral Dance, and how I just started it.
Anyways, someone else had replied with: "Oh, you're a member of Reclaiming?"

So, my silly question happens to be, what does this person mean when they are asking me if I am member of reclaiming?

Reclaiming is a religious tradition that stemmed from Starhawk's work in much the same way Standing Stones stemmed from Cunningham and Wica stemmed from the New Forest Coven etc.

They're asking if you're a follower of the religious tradition. Which, since you haven't read the book, I would say no- for now at least.  

[whiporwill-o]

Ashley the Bee

GCF...
LCM...

yes, that helps me a lot! now if only i can't remember it. sweatdrop

edit: i hope you don't mind, i would like to copy and paste this to print off for my notes.  

[Yanueh]

Cattle mutilations and crop circles are both attributed to alien activity.

Does this mean aliens like vandalizing farmers?  

[Calelith]

Yanueh

Cattle mutilations and crop circles are both attributed to alien activity.

Does this mean aliens like vandalizing farmers?

Don't forget violating (read that a**l probing) drunken rednecks.