Home is Grounded
What Gear Are You In?
Back from a wild Fall of travel, which enriched me and fed my travel bug, it feels good to be home and settling in for the winter. As Katherine May says in her beautiful book, Wintering,
“Doing those deeply unfashionable things—slowing down, letting your spare time expand, getting enough sleep, resting—is a radical act now, but it is essential.”
I am slowing down, in spite of all the noise about “the season.” I could enumerate all the “stuff” that makes up my life, and it might seem like a lot (I would argue anyone could come up with a daunting list of their life’s activities and chores), but there is an internal motor deep inside me which can downshift, and this season it feels right to operate in first or second gear, no need to speed.
When I was in Guatemala, I watched a young woman work on her backstrap weaving, a piece of fabric which would take about four months to complete, strand by strand, six to eight hours a day. Knowing my own knitting vagaries, I don’t have the concentration or patience for this kind of work, but it inspires me as a kind of meditation, a meditation which in this case serves to feed her family. But if I could harness just a fraction of her peaceful demeanor, which I am sure derives in part from this act of weaving, I and those around me would really benefit from it.
The Year Ahead
I love the end of the year and the beginning of the next. I lean deeply into my tarot practices, choosing my card for the year and pulling cards for each month of the next year, what is known as a year ahead spread. The card and the spread give me a map for how I want to intentionally consider my movement through the seasons. I got really lucky this season, as my partner in crime, fellow tarot reader Laurie Blackwell and I decided to share our card of the year decision process with a larger audience on December 28th. Here is the link if you would like to sign up.
We will also be releasing a tarot based gift giving guide at the end of the week, with links to our favorite decks, candles, jewelry, and books. Look out for links and ideas on Instagram all month long.
I have added a Year Ahead Spread tarot reading to the offerings on my website:
For the first time I’m also offering gift certificates. I have had a beautiful web site for over a year, but have been hesitant (ok terrified) to go in and learn how to manipulate it myself. I finally broke down my fear barrier (out of necessity) and got in there. It’s not as hard as I thought it would be and is kind of empowering.
However you choose to move through the end of the year, I hope you take the time to breathe, to think about intentions for 2024, to rest, to love those around you, and to remember to let your engine idle when it needs to.
Card of the Week—The Hanged Man
I consider this to be one of the most spiritual cards in Tarot. The figure is suspended upside down, but it is of his own free will. His leg is crossed behind him to form a triangle (a trinity) and his face is calm with the yellow light of illumination behind him. Blue and Red are opposites on the color spectrum and indicate the need to consider options, to take time to meditate on what is important before moving forward. The number twelve is associated with the twelve months, the twelve astrological signs, the number of Christ’s apostles and Tribes of Israel. The number twelve is deeply spiritual and reminds us of the importance of prayer and meditation, however that shows up in your life.