Witch || Hunt

Fangophilia Taro: Full Arm Armor (2013)

ALT

Healer || Knight || Witch

Going to be here for the next few days. I plan to also do a dash clean-up for this blog, mainly focusing on dead/inactive blogs and those who have not reached out in any capacity over the past year since establishment. Mainly to keep it clean and my circle smaller, and to tweak abit just for my comfort. This will be happening within the next week or two.

Watching, oil painting by Kim Jakobsson

Decapitation/headlessness is in general association with a manner of rite and ceremony, much like with cremation concerning ancient death rite, the eternal cities and even death rite birds. While this HC will not discuss that fully just yet, it made me think back upon some of her practices, some other tidbits and where that may connect in even if for reasons distinct to her. Thinking back upon the very strong symbolism apparent in heedlessness as connection to death rite and preformed through a manner of ceremonial execution via decapitation to further enshrine the spirit of the one executed. Other details hinting back at the practice are apparent. From the sacrificial axe, to the headless knights that protect the mausoleums, and how thier armor is bedecked in feathers that strongly elude to a connection to death rite birds and what that means etc. Now, taking this into thought-- the skull (or lack there of) is of partial importance regarding uses of bone in her magic, materials and spellcraft. As a result, I've since come to the conclusion that she would be a keeper of heads in some manner or another. Be it for funerary rite/burial act, spirit work or spell work. As you'd expect, there is relevance in such actions concerning where she came from and further assist in cementing part of her role. Much like the skull, many bones serve a function for various purposes for her. Such as for binding, calling spirits, burning, divination, communion processed into char... this is also eventually done to tend Ghostflame before she was able to fully muster it... The skull holds a unique function and purpose. On the one hand: depending on who and what you, you're either kept in reverence, properly burned and scattered, or placed in your final resting place in regard to her law. Your skull painted/etched into in accordance to rite, and cared for for as long as it remains within her possession or within your burial grounds that she. That is... if said skull simply isn't as a unique ingredient as a summoning tool-- or as a serving point of severing soul from body. — Side note: Her time as The Witch Knight stood as testament and contributed heavily to the solidifying of some of these practices. It was during this period she would take the heads from various lords, enemies and other specific targets... and just about anyone who came to hunt her down. The act of decapitation became strongly associated with her during her extensive 'revolt'. When it came to collecting or making use of any of it, what wasn't broken down into char and used, was aptly discarded rather than kept... for she revered none if very few of them. The very few that were kept during that "era" was done so for unclear motives and purposes.