Dear ones -

Happy Spring Equinox!

A day of balance between light and dark. A time of planting seeds. Winter may still make an appearance from time to time until the cross quarter day of Beltane (or May Day), but the tide has shifted and Spring is here. The sun is getting stronger. Early flowers are blooming and trees are starting to bud and blossom.

A few weeks ago, a Scottish woman quoted to me: “Oak before Ash, you’re in for a splash. Ash before Oak, you’re in for a soak!” An old folk rhyme predicting how wet the Spring would be based on which tree budded before the other. She was excited because she’d seen an oak tree budded out that day and hadn’t yet seen buds on the ash trees. Whether that proves true… we’ll see. So far we’ve had almost a week of pretty solidly sunny weather which is a pretty good run in these Northern Isles.

Today I sent out the PDF to folks already registered for our virtual round house gathering this Saturday. It’s got prompts to encourage a deeper connection with this time of year where you are, and in ways your ancestors might have celebrated the season. It’s not too late to join and get your copy. Join us?

I’ve also been sitting longer with the German story of the Frog Prince. It’s the story we’ll be exploring together on Saturday. And not because the moral of the story is “you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince.”

Fun as that idea is, it strikes me that a message like that isn’t meaningful enough to warrant this story surviving and being passed down for as long as it has been (when the Brother’s Grimm collected it, it was already old - a piece of oral tradition they transcribed).

Like other fairytales originating from oral traditions, the stories were most likely layered entertainment, education, and cultural record and instructions. If you’re going to commit something to memory to tell again and again, it would be most useful if it serves multiple purposes. Like a basket, it should be beautiful and functional.

So, when are frogs loud and most obvious? Spring.

Frogs are omens of Spring.

If we start there, what might the Frog Prince offer us about our role as humans in this season of the year? How might this story help us find our rhythm and align ourselves with the seasons? We’ll see if we can begin to answer those questions on Saturday. You can find out more or grab your spot here.

I also want to address the fact that the world is topsy turvy-feeling right now. And I’m noticing that’s affecting me. And I suspect it’s affecting you.

It’s important to acknowledge this because this moment is an invitation and a potential collective initiation.

But if there’s one thing the old stories can teach us, it’s that initiations aren’t inherently successful. It actually takes great preparation, skill, HEART, and a whole community praying and supporting through the process for someone to come out the other side initiated.

I offer this because sometimes I need reminding that while doing things in the external world is hugely important, the inner work is deeply necessary, too.

Tending your burnout, honoring the seasons - however you’re aligning yourself with aliveness - in these times is not frivolous. Nor is it something we have the luxury of putting off, either. It’s actually all the same battle - one we're undertaking on behalf of not just ourselves, but also our loved ones and the ones yet to come.

Remember, burnout is not the disease. It’s the symptom.

It’s a symptom of dehumanization. It’s a symptom of being fragmented, of being one of many in a society of the living dead. It’s being caught in incomplete initiations, without the necessary guidance to complete them.

So, no, none of the work I offer is an obvious answer to the acute challenges of these times. My work can't promise to protect the vulnerable and disenfranchised. It can't promise to directly change public policy, or stop bombs from falling, or innocent people from being picked up off the street and incarcerated or worse. It can't even promise the dubious but righteous simplicity and reassurance of any sort of moral purity. Hell, nothing I offer can even promise that your life will be sunshine and rainbows when we’re done….

What I offer is nuanced, complex, subtle, and at times challenging. But it’s also life-changing and beautiful. What I offer is a way to reconcile with the wounds of the past in order to liberate its wisdom; so we become more relationally competent, aligned, and capable as we create a new world from the inevitable ashes of this one.

So we come alive and foster more aliveness.

So we can stay human in the midst of the storm.

I have a suspicion, if we can do that… we can protect each other and support each other. If we can hold our humanity in the great unraveling, the bombs will stop falling; the hoarding of resources will end.

We will be operating at a completely different frequency and everything we create will reflect that and the world will respond.

But that’s what I think is needed.

I would genuinely love to hear from you: what are you needing right now as the world crumbles around us? What’s something you wish someone called up and offered you right now? What’s something you wish a leader would say? Feel free to respond here and share what that is. I’ll do my best to commiserate or point you in the direction of some support if it isn’t in my power to offer it.

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with Love,

Kate

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P.S. Fanning the Embers events can be attended singly or, for greater impact, as a series. If you wish to attend the whole year of seasonal round house gatherings, signing up for all of them now will get you a discount.

AND I’m still offering a sale on 30-min FULLY REMOTE energy sessions until the end of the month (they must be purchased before April 1, but can be scheduled now until mid April). At an agreed-upon time, you lay down to rest and receive. You can gently state any hopes or intentions out loud or in your mind to yourself and your energy fields as we begin. Then you let go and trust in the unfolding. And at the end you’ll get a voice note from me sharing what I sensed and what I did. These sessions are often favorites of folks who feel like being in front of someone (even on Zoom) leaves them feeling like they have to be “on” or have it together in some way. In a fully-remote session, there’s no chance to perform, no need to check in on me. It’s time just for you.

Most folks who do these sessions report feeling a deep internal shift - towards rest, yes, but also towards more flow and sensitivity and connection and being in their own bodies and aliveness.

If this is of interest, book yours here and use the code ECLIPSE20 for 20% off.