Hello, dears -

I wanted to hop on here and remind you that we're at *last call* for both our Winter Solstice online round house tomorrow and the in-person ceremony in Winchester, VA on Sunday. Registration for both closes tomorrow morning.

But along the way, I noticed how much work I'm having to do to stay centered in myself and the type of seasonal life I want to live. And I thought this was a great opportunity to pull back the curtain a bit and share a bit of my process with you.

So, take a deep breath and land with me here for a moment, yeah?

I don’t know about you… but things are a lot more chaotic in my life and work right now than I like them to be and it feels like the worst kind of trickery to be here sharing about bringing Beauty and meaning back to the holidays while I’m running around, too frantic to eat, sleep, or breathe. Struggling to cram it all into the days. Feeling the burnout creeping closer.

I’m needing to take a big ol’ dose of my own medicine.

But I suppose that’s also part of why I can speak to the challenges of straddling the ever-widening gap between this crumbling world and the one I’m aiming to participate in building. I can speak to it because I’m living it. Every day.

So what is the medicine I use in these times? What are some of my practices for staying rooted and present while straddling worlds? What do we do when either our inner season is different from the outer one, or when society’s demands are different than how our animal bodies are responding to the natural season around us?

The first is the pause. The acknowledgement of what actually is (best if we can keep it to sensations, not interpretations; ie “heaviness”, not “exhaustion”, etc).

So… for me: buzzy, heart racing, muscles around my eyes feel stretched taut.

Ok. Got it. Noticed and, even deeper, witnessed. They start to quiet just a bit.

Then there’s widening out to give some context - it’s too easy to let our modern and societal fixation on the personal cause us to forget that we are relational beings, existing in wider contexts which affect us.

For example: Winter is a time to slow down, to hibernate, to dream and create and rest. The holiday season as modern life celebrates it is a time of excess, of more-more-more, of go-go-go, of “be merry, dammit, or something’s wrong with you!”-type pressure. It’s going to feel stressful navigating those opposites. We’re going to feel like the party-poopers if we feel sad or angry or are melting down from over-stimulation. But our responses aren’t wrong, even if they aren’t socially acceptable. They just may be showing us this way of spending the season isn’t ideal for us.

Another example: I noticed this morning when I look at my astrology that the Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Venus are all in Sagittarius right now. Now, I’m no expert in astrology, but from what I know about it, Sagittarius is a fire sign that’s always looking ahead to what’s next, always aiming for the future. And because of that, the tension between the individual and the collective can be highlighted in this sign. Balancing my needs as one person, designed the way I am, with the needs of the family, the friend circles, clients, etc.

Now, we don’t look to this context so we can place blame somewhere and throw up our hands and be done. We do it to remind ourselves that life cycles through things and all lessons and gifts ebb and flow. We do it so we can avoid throwing ourselves under the bus for things that aren’t personal failings. We do it so we have the option to both have our own backs and know that we’re still a part of something bigger. It’s a “both-and” stance - I honor my needs and what’s right for me while also doing my best to show up for friends and family.

Now check in - has anything shifted? Does anything feel more grounded?

I’m feeling a little more settled in myself. It’s not that life is suddenly easier or the to-do list is shorter. It’s that I’m less fragmented and therefore have more capacity within it.

And once we’re a bit more centered, we can also make some more conscious choices. We can be a bit more discerning. Does everything need to happen? Can some things be dropped off the list? How much do we actually need to track and hold? Where can we throw perfect out the door and let it be good enough? Where can it become less about The Doing and more about Presence and sharing a state of being?

But to even begin to answer those, we need to account for how much we’re actually expecting ourselves to do.

As an example, I’ll peel back the curtain a little more: Within the last week and a half, I helped my brother move into a new house, drove back across the country, am trying to help get holiday decorating and baking done… all while also selling three different offers.. all while also trying to rest and enjoy the season. All of which have tangible logistics as well as deep emotional and spiritual layers to tend to.

See, most people don’t realize how much work goes into the preparation of offers like the winter solstice ceremony I’m leading on Sunday. There’s the layer of the physical world logistics that need tending to - finding the right space, all the conversations and navigation of personal and logistical dynamics with the host of that space. There’s setting up the registration and all the materials needed to let people know it’s happening (plus the time required to then let everyone know it’s happening). Getting supplies ready. Making sure there are snacks and the right supplies to ensure attendees have their physical needs taken care of. Those all require planning, running errands, transporting it on the day, and set up.

But then there’s also the level of energy and Spirit that needs tracking and deep listening. Even before the ceremony is announced, I listen for the call of it, I listen for the wording and themes to announce it and invite people in. Then once I announce it, like a fire, the spark is lit. But will it stay lit? That requires feeding - of my attention, of people signing up. And as people sign up, I can feel it. I can feel their energies begin to weave in with the energies of the land where the ceremony will be hosted and the other Presences that are hoping to feed and be fed by the ceremony. This is a period of flux and emergence - some energies dance around the edges, deciding if they’ll join or not. Some enter, some leave, some want to linger without entering and need to be cleared. I’m checking in and tracking all that in the weeks leading up to the ceremony. And as I track that, more of the shape and themes and Holy Beings come forward in more clarity. So I start making offerings to them, courting them on behalf of the attendees. Again, all of this long before we actually gather in-person. It’s not an exaggeration to say that, between the physical and the spiritual level, hundreds of hours go into preparing for one three-hour ceremony, and then holding space for the energies as they slowly close and integrate in the days afterwards.

So that’s a peek behind the curtains over here.

Now, I’m not here to glorify busyness and hustle. Fuck that. But I also think that we don’t even realize how much we’re trying to get done all the time until we list it out. And our lists aren’t complete until we acknowledge all the layers (tangible, mental, emotional, spiritual, personal, communal) that things are happening on.

It’s a lot.

What’s considered “normal” in this day and age is, arguably, too much.

I’m also aware that as an example of navigating the ebbs and flows of life and listening deeply and with discernment, preparing for ceremony is a pretty extreme one. Most people don’t need to listen this deeply in most parts of their lives. But I share it partly as a mini-education and also to highlight that even in our everyday lives, we are always operating on multiple levels. As you prepare for the holidays, there are the physical logistics and then there are the spiritual and emotional ones. And when we get so caught up in the physical ones we ignore the emotional and spiritual ones, things tend to feel even more scattered, more hollow, and more liable to overwhelm us into exploding, melting down, or shutting down.

Even if you don’t consider yourself a particularly sensitive person, some part of your awareness if tracking the non-verbal communications of others. Because even if you “aren’t sensitive”, you are relational.

And in many ways it’s actually the spiritual and emotional layers of our existence that help us feel the most human, the safest. When harnessed with the right physical nurturing and tending, those layers create spaces where we can actually thrive.

So we are always tracking them.

But I also believe the skills it takes to straddle these multiple layers of our existence also help us straddle a world that’s on its way out with the one that’s on its way in.

Just something to consider and explore…

(I shared all this as the beginning to a Substack post, too. So this has been a repeat for any of you who are subscribers over there. I also offered a tarot reading for the collective for tonight's New Moon in Sagittarius over there. You can check it out here. It's a good example of what an Insight 2026 reading from me will be like, should you be considering getting one of those. And if not, the New Moon reading might help you find some clarity in this moment in time) <3

Whether you join me for an offer or not, I'm sending you warm blessings for the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and blessings for a pause before an abundant harvest for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere.

May we be the change we're wanting to see,

Kate

​

​

P.S. These are a couple of songs that slow my heartbeat, nourish my soul, and add beauty to my days right now:

Karine Polwart's "The Path That Winds Before Us":

​

​

Ronan O' Snodaigh's "Calling All Angels":

​

​

and the beautiful collaboration of Beth Porter, Jackie Morris, Jim Molyneaux, Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart, Kris Drever, Rachel Newton, Robert Macfarlane, and Seckou Keita - "The Lost Words Blessing":

​

​