June 2025: protecting what's precious
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. —Alice Walker
Listen to this month’s offering as a podcast
ps: the new Covid variant is super contagious! 😷
Dear Friends,
Here in the Catskills, the peonies are about to pop open, the mountains are thoroughly enrobed in every shade of green + the bears are out + about. I wonder how this run-up to the solstice is finding you?
Here’s what I’m up to in the next couple months:
- Elena Solano + I continue our online arts-based research project with Trust in Care Saturday, June 28 at 2pm est. This series is offered by donation, + you don’t have to have attended previous ones to participate. See what participants had to say about it so far…
- my online workshops are on the calendar thru September—I would love to see you there!
- I’m thrilled to announce my inclusion as a contributor to this year’s issue of The Rebis; the theme is The Devil, + I am beyond chuffed to be in the company of so many of my tarot heroes 🥹
- In-Person Tarot Circle at Cygnet’s Way in Kingston: Sunday, June 29 at noon + Tarot 101 will happen at the Kingston Library Tuesday, July 15 at 6pm. N95 or KN95 masks required + provided for all in-person events
My books are open for readings this month + it’s also easy to purchase gift readings for the people in your life.
Thank you to all of you who continue to support my work in so many amazing + generous ways 🙏🏻💚
Love + rigor,
shea in the catskills
❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥 ps: my friend + conspirator Elena has spent the last few months supporting me during a challenging time—including a mental health crisis—using a harm-reduction approach. This work is time-consuming, takes deep relational skill + care, + is not valued by the larger culture. I am re-posting Elena's GoFundMe here. (I have artwork + other goodies for sale that support this GFM + Elena has new artwork for sale as well!) ️
I know many of you have already donated, + I'm so grateful. If you are able to donate again: wonderful. If you haven't donated yet, this is the perfect time. I know there is so much need right now, everywhere, and: even small amounts matter so much. If you can share this GoFundMe with your networks with some personal words, that can multiply the impact 🕸️
I also want to acknowledge with great gratitude + tenderness my friends Nina + Liz, who have been a life-saving support to me during this time ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
you might be interested
- The Whole Archive of Martha Crawford’s Community Discussions, including Living With Mortality, Negotiating Moral Injury, Dreamwork as Praxis, Discernment and Emotional Function, + many more
- Looking for a playful wormhole to get lost in? My dear friend Kelsey is available for watch-purchasing-consultation—for yourself or for someone you love—via this super-fun form. I took it for a spin + was pretty blown away by her recommendations! I think I’m going to go with this one…or maybe this one 😂
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resistance + refusal
the US is experiencing institutional collapse at a speed and scale that are difficult to understand
here’s what you need to know
- May Day demonstrations
- Ben Cohen et al doing what needs to be done
- this Gallatin School grad (my alma mater!); NYU is withholding his diploma for speaking out against a genocide funded by our tax dollars, + Columbia students
- trolling as protest + resistance 🤌🏻
- protesters pushing back against the cops
- a teenager does what the Democratic Party is too craven to do
- see how many billions of dollars in Medicaid funding will be cut from your congressional district; includes a link to call your rep + tell them to protect these essential public services from the billionaire ghouls
- The Antidote to Fascism is Mindfulness with Danielle Moodie + Jared Yates Sexton: “There’s a need to find the things that nurture and replenish us as we withstand the onslaught of authoritarianism, but we also have to learn to sit in discomfort so that we can decide what we want our lives and the world to be.”
- the people of Omaha rejected anti-trans bullshit
The public library is one of the very few remaining public places in this country where you can spend an entire day without spending one penny. You can spend hours studying, working or daydreaming in a library. Then you can leave with an object that has the power to unleash your imagination and transport you into another world, so that you can see clearly that another world is possible. That’s magical and filled with revolutionary possibilities. And that’s why any attempts to cut back on library hours are actually a declaration of war on the commons and on our communities. Libraries are places where people not only connect to resources but with other people.
—Mariame Kaba
what’s inspiring me now
- Ann Friedman on libraries
- the short documentary Quilters on Netflix
- ransom notes from the GOP, a project by Mariame Kaba
- Shogun 😭 I was not prepared for that first head to come off!
- an artist using her platform
- Hilma af Klint’s botanical watercolors
- human beings creating beautiful things
- A Quiet Storm: an online art gallery showcasing the artwork of people living with severe ME/CFS
- Heart as Political Principle: “From the moment we enter school or church, education chops us into pieces: it teaches us to divorce soul from body and mind from heart. The fishermen of the Colombian coast must be learned doctors of ethics and morality, for they invented the word sentipensante, feeling-thinking, to define language that speaks the truth.”
- people’s obsessive special interests
- Explore Livecams: explore 200+ live streams of nature doing its thing—from waterholes in Africa to eagle nests in North America (h/t Dense Discovery)
protecting what’s precious: 9 of wands
This is the last installment of my musings on the tarot’s Minor 9s as we live into this Hermit year…
The power of the 9 of Wands is leaving it all on the field, holding nothing in reserve. The power of the time is now, this very moment calling us into total engagement with change. The power of adaptations that allow an endeavor to come to its fruition.
The 9 of Wands is the power of giving all our efforts their due by attending to the final stages, the power of knowing it’s not over till it’s over (+ that it’s never actually over). The power of knowing that the end of one thing determines the flavor + shape of the next. The power of how we finish + attend to closure determines how + if all that came before will be received, metabolized + integrated.
The power of the 9 of Wands is realizing our partnership with the seen + unseen forces that have contributed to where we are, revering them by giving our utmost by staying totally inside of the process. It is the power of sticking with the hard parts when we’re tired, worn out, frustrated, or just bored with it. The power of digging thru the ashes + finding the ember that’s still glowing + giving it air + life, so that the fire can blaze up again + see us thru the final stretch.
The 9 of Wands is the power of protecting what is precious to us, defending our creations, longings + inspirations against boredom, pacification, distraction, meaningless drama + chaos. It is the power of restarting the engine after we’ve stalled out. The power of a long game to make something new from the collapse of systems + structures. The power of keeping our eyes on the prize, of not settling for cosmetic improvements or half-measures, of remembering over + over to center the very heart of things.
The power of the 9 of Wands is knowing who can help us stay accountable to our values, visions + desires, of calling in help for the homestretch, of sharing the vision so we don’t have to carry it alone. It is the power of steadfastness + resilience practiced with others, the power of discerning what is ours to do alone + what can never be accomplished solely by our individual efforts. It is also the power of life’s hard knocks to make us bitter + brittle, to push us behind fences + walls, to spend all of our precious energy defending our little patch of mine.
The 9 of Wands is the power of protecting the glowing heart of life, of never letting it go out, of keeping it burning in the dark, in the cold. It is the power of letting our endeavors change us, sand off our rough edges, tenderize us. It is the power of an immense, organized body to demand its liberation, the parts of the whole changing places, tapping in + out, carrying the ball over finish lines, no matter the obstacle, no matter the cost, generation after generation until we all get free.
_________
from 78 Faces of Power
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