Othermagic Prompts Challenge

othermagic:

In an ongoing effort to encourage community participation and provoke thought in regards to alterhumanity, we’ve decided to make a prompts challenge in a similar style to other 30-day challenges floating around the community.

What makes this one so special? For one, you don’t need to do all of them. Ever. No pressure on 30 consecutive days of answering or doing things if you start it, you can pick it up and use absolutely any of the prompts for inspiration in any way you like! Do them all at once, do them whenever inspiration is low, do them all multiple times over.

Secondly, this is broken up into question prompts and activity prompts. The question prompts follow the same general lines as a lot of other community challenges go, but rather than asking about your identity and how you figured it out, they’re specifically tailored to the idea behind this blog: learning more about yourself as “other” and applying it to magic and daily life. The activity prompts, on the other hand, are ideas to try out, things to do and make and research and generally allow you to become a more active participant in your own self-discovery. Of course, there may be some overlap between the two types of prompts, but otherwise they’ve been categorized as best as possible. It’s also worth noting that any mentions of kintypes can be replaced with hearttypes, soulbonds, etc. if you so choose.

If you take up any of these prompts or ideas and post them on Tumblr or another website, please notify us or use the tag #othermagicpromptschallenge so we can see what you’ve done! We’d love to know and see what you guys do with this.

Question Prompts:

• What part of
  your identity has had the most influence on your craft or things you’d like to
  work with?
• Do you work
  with any deities or entities from another life? If so, who (so long as you’re
  comfortable mentioning it)? If not, is there anyone or anything you’d like to
  reach out to again?
• Have you
  remembered anything that can be used for magic in this world? If not, do you
  know of anything from related sources (books and folklore related to kintypes,
  your source/canon or things similar to it) that you’d like to try out in this
  world or on the astral?
• Have any
  other books, movies, pop culture sources, or mythological sources influenced
  the way you practice?
• Do you know
  if you spoke another language? If so, have you attempted to recreate or relearn
  it in this life? If not, have you attempted to make a conlang (constructed
  language) or conscript (constructed script) that fits the feeling of your
  species/culture?
• Have you
  made any crafts or recipes related to your kintype or constructed from
  memories? If so, what are they? Share pictures or details if you’d like!
• Have you picked up any hobbies, skills or talents because of
  your kintype (e.g. sports, musical instruments, etc.)? What are they? If not,
  what would you like to pick up?
• Do you remember anything about other inhabitants of your
  world/plane/planet/dimension/timeline/etc.? What sorts of relationships did you
  have with them, personally/individually or as a group/species? Would you ever
  want to work with them in any capacity again if you don’t already?
• Was there a specific form of artistic expression (visual art
  techniques such as specific methods of sculpting or painting, musical
  instruments, song, dance, types of poetry, architecture, etc.) that doesn’t seem
  to have an equivalent here to your knowledge? If so, have you been able to
  replicate it to any degree?
• If you remember there being magic in your world/plane/planet/dimension/timeline/etc.,
  could you use it? If so, do you remember how it worked or how it felt, and have
  you attempted to recreate it?
• Have parts of your practice changed after you found out
  about your otherness? Have any parts stayed the same?
• Is there some part of your practice or your understanding of
  self that you’re having difficulty with? If so, what is it, and how can you
  make changes to it so you can continue to grow and explore? Are there things
  you haven’t given much thought to that you should consider? (For example, if
  you find yourself thinking mostly about people you used to know or the way you
  interact with your deities/other spirits and beings but not much about how your
  kintype affects you on a day-to-day basis or what sort of society, if any, you
  used to live in. Or vice versa.)

• Has
  anything you questioned that turned out not to be a thing stayed with you in
  some ways? Has it influenced your craft or lifestyle or hobbies? If so, what
  and how?

Activity Prompts:

• Make a
  conlang or conscript for your species or culture. If you already have one, make
  a variation or make one based on another species, culture, or group you
  remember.
• Make sigils
  using your conlang/conscript and test them out.
• Make sigils to represent your kintypes as you experience
  them and use them as meditation aids for self-reflection and deeper
  understanding of yourself.
• Create a spell, ritual, potion, bath bomb, etc. intended to
  help you connect to the energy and qualities a being, creature, character, etc.
  that is NOT a kintype in any way so you can incorporate their positive traits
  into your life. (Note that this will in no way make you that thing, just more
  like them.)
• Make sigils of your home world/plane/planet/dimension/timeline/etc.
  and use them to carry the energy of “home” with you, or use them as
  focus tools while astral traveling or projecting.
• Use any aesthetic posts or moodboards you might have saved
  up around your blog/desktop/phone storage and use them as active meditation
  tools.
• Make a list of positive traits of your kintype that you’d
  like to embody more as well as negative traits you’d like to diminish and work
  on.
• Put together a set of clothing or accessories that remind
  you of your kintype, and enchant them to serve as a glamour/shadow shift
  inducer when worn all together.
• Find, modify, or make a recipe of a type of food or drink
  you used to have or a substitution if there’s no equivalent here (such as souls
  or animals that don’t exist here) or if you have specific dietary needs that
  don’t match that of your past self.
• Make a list of magical correspondences for your kintype(s).
  Add things like crystals, herbs, colors, household objects, animals or mythical
  creatures (if you aren’t one or making correspondences for one), weather
  phenomena, etc. that you associate with yourself.
• Find historical/folkloric accounts, stories, fictional works
  (including fanfiction for fictionkind if you’re comfortable with it) and
  compare and contrast your experiences and memories with the author/creator’s
  portrayal. PLEASE do not directly involve the author/creator in any way (such as
  direct tagging or saying these things in the comments if applicable) and don’t
  attack anyone over differences in experience or perception.

• Find
  home decor ideas, items, and/or DIY that will help you feel more at home (this
  includes things like pillow dens, blanket caves or nests and similar). Make a
  Pinterest board, a post with links and/or images, a bookmarks folder, or even a
  physical collage/idea board of things you’re most likely to be able to do or
  buy in your current living situation.

• Look into stories, movies, or other media about shapeshifting
  or not quite fitting into a human world that aren’t directly related to your
  kintype(s) and compare and contrast your thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
• Make a playlist of songs that you associate with your
  kintype(s) and use it for a shapeshifting ritual or experience.

Probably gonna try doing some of this over spring break. Might be plenty of fun.