July 2023: Laughing + Crying as Life Rushes Thru
Listen to this month’s offering as a podcast
Here in the Catskills, summer has officially arrived: the mountain’s thick green coat, ticks on every blade of grass + perpetual-damp-towel mugginess. The honeysuckle’s perfume has come + gone, + the frogs continue their nightly serenade. I wonder how this turn of season is finding you?
If you pre-ordered Tarot as Questions—it’s coming! We are aiming to ship pre-orders sometime in the next week or so…
Here’s the July scoop:
- I’ll be offering Tarot 101 on Saturday, July 15 at 10am est + Tuesday, July 18 at 6pm est—see what past participants have to say about this workshop!
- Join my new In-Person Tarot Circle at Cygnet’s Way in Kingston on the last Thursday of every month—this month: July 27—6-7:30pm est
- I’ll be filling in for Cory Nakasue on Radio Kingston’s The Cosmic Dispatch on Sunday, July 30 at 4pm est
My books are open for readings in July + check out the Study Tarot Series cohorts that are starting in the fall…
Thank you to all of you who continue to support my work in so many amazing + generous ways.
In love + solidarity + collective imagining,
shea in the catskills
You Might Be Interested
- My friend Perdita Finn is offering a FREE online intro to her work through the Shift Network on Wednesday, July 12 at 8:30pm et. I’ve been studying with her for almost 3 years + I cannot recommend enough her unique + earthy approach to working with the dead. Instead of “healing our ancestral lines” (who has the time!?), her approach emphasizes collaborating with the dead on our deepest desires + most intractable perplexities. Join her live online, or register to receive the recording.
Join me on a SURJ phone bank Saturday, July 15 1-4pm et/10-1pm pt—
we'll train you + make sure you have everything you need to make great calls. All you need is yourself (bring your nervousness, anxiety, etc.!) + a charged computer + phone. We’ll be calling the beautiful people of Kentucky about re-electing their excellent governor, Andy Beshear. You’ll feel better afterwards: I promise 🤓
- Liturgical Book Club: we’re only about 30 pages in to Let This Radicalize You—there’s still time to jump in + join us!
Intimacy [is] a site of knowledge production.
— Robyn Maynard
What’s Inspiring Me Now
- this gorgeous visualization of the ocean’s depths called The Deep Sea, made by Neal Agarwal
- What Shamayim Harris created out of the grief of losing her son Jakobi Ra: “With her savings and borrowed money, Mama Shu bought the house. And then slowly she began purchasing other lots on Avalon Street.”
- Breaking the Romance Myth: Rethinking Relationships and Desire, in which Jaime Grant + Dean Spade bust the myth of romance (not romance itself!) as the brass ring of our relationship constellations
- This conversation with queer poet Andrea Gibson, in which she talks about living amidst a terminal cancer diagnosis + many other incredibly beautiful + moving things: “I think all art is made by the dead.” She reads her poem Tincture at the end…grab some tissues!
- Scalawag’s Abolitionist Media Guide: a list of books, music, articles, and media clips that clearly present the harms of the carceral system and are already dreaming of creative alternatives
- Queer Portraits in History by Michele Rosenthal
- Lux Magazine: “The right is trying to win by using abortion bans, transphobia, and anti-gay bills to dominate American politics. Lux is the magazine turning back the culture wars.” And: “WE WANT IT ALL.”
Thanks to those of you who continue to send me your inspirations!
In the act of divination we have a chance to unweave, re-weave, to re-frame + reimagine + recreate that cloth that is our lives.
— T. Susan Chang
Laughing + Crying as Life Rushes Thru
I’ve been thinking about the Magician recently in terms of being a conduit: body-as-wand—receiving transmission as through a hollow bone—while staying grounded to the Earth that supports Life in every single way.
What makes that hollow bone constrict + dilate? How does constraint or constriction concentrate the Life that runs through it? How does the conduit get kinked like a hose so that Life can’t come through? How can it dilate? How can we hold how exhilarating + terrifying it can feel to experience Life rushing thru, bringing along what we’ve been longing for that we never thought it was possible to have, along with some things we truly, deeply do not want?
I had a chance to do 3-card readings last month at the Feast Day of Our Lady of Woodstock. The cards were loud; the people I was reading for didn’t need me to say much. Lots of questions had to do with longings, wishes + desires. + a lot of the tarot’s responses had to do with: how are we making ourselves ready to receive what we want? Are we ready? Is the channel open? I watched people wince (#relateable) as I asked them about their experience with receiving.
As someone who has been comfortable + sometimes even thrived within constraint, limits + structure, life has felt like a roller coaster this year. As I’ve made more space for myself to expand into the work + life I am longing for, Life has been coming at me fast + full. I’ve found myself joking with friends about laughing + crying from one moment to the next. Yet this feels wholly correct + true.
As I stumble through #thesetimes, I notice a feedback loop: What keeps my channel open, allows it to expand + soften, is letting myself grieve the many losses + changes, micro + macro, that Life is leaving at my heart. The longer we live + the more we love, the more there is to grieve. What also keeps my channel open is letting myself laugh, rejoice + celebrate. Kimberly Ann Johnson describes “hold-it moments”—when we experience something good and we hold it in our system, expanding our capacity for pleasure.
The feedback loop part is: As the channel dilates, there is more room for grief + ecstasy to flow through. As I keep letting the tears + the laughter through, I make more space for the wildness of Life, for the unexpected, the surprises—wanted + unwanted—to arrive.
What helps open your channel? Who are you laughing + crying with these days? What magic is Life sending through you #inthesetimes? If you weren’t afraid of what else might come with it, what deep longings would you call into your life?
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