Dear ones -

There’s a lot of upheaval in the world and it feels surreal to be alive amid so many unfolding crises while also going about the mundane of our days. I’m naming that because while political activism work doesn’t feel like it’s my best contribution to these times (but guiding people to stay human does), I don’t believe in bypassing either. I believe we have to hold the tension of wondering if we’re doing the right things and enough of them; alongside loving the people around us, tending to the work in front of us in the small and ordinary-seeming ways. Superheroes don’t exist. They aren’t coming to save us and we don’t have to be them. We do, I suspect, need to remember to keep acting in the big and small ways we feel moved to… in the direction of Love.

So, that said, It’s time for our beginning-of-the-month overview email.

This is a little bit of a long one with:

• some musings from life in Scotland right now;
• our monthly tarot card for the collective;
• announcing last week’s podcast episode;
• a new free offering that’s been in the works for almost a year and is finally live;
• and then some quick reminders of some other stuff coming up.

Feel free to skip around as your interests dictate.

Some musings from my life right now:

It’s February already. Here on a rural peninsula in Scotland it's been a handful of days now with the waves crashing against the shore and hail coming down intermittently today. But the sun is also getting stronger and warmer and the wind has fewer teeth than it did even a few weeks ago. I’m really living the Scottish story of the battle between the Cailleach (the fearsome, old Hag of Winter) and Bríde/ Brigit (the youthful goddess of spring and summer).

In the old Gaelic tradition, February 1st is known as Imbolc (translating to “in the belly”) - recognized as the very beginning of Spring.

In one version of the story of the Cailleach and Bríde, the Cailleach has seen that Bríde will fall in love with her son Angus and so she takes Bríde prisoner and sets her to thankless and impossible tasks. But a prophecy of Spring arrives in a bunch of snow drops and Bríde begins dreaming of Angus and he of her. He rides across the ocean from the Island of the Ever Young (Tír na nÓg) to Scotland to find her and rescue her. They fall immediately in love, but the Cailleach isn’t ready to give up her reign yet and she bangs her blackthorn staff against the ground to keep it frozen and, with wild winds, chases them away. From the early days of February until May 1 (Beltane), when Angus and Bríde’s reign officially begins, they battle back and forth with the Cailleach. The hag eventually tires, lays her staff under a holly tree, and drinks from the well of youth before retiring to rest until it’s her time to come back at Samhain at the end of October.

There are many versions of this story and many of these types of stories around the world to explain the remind us of the turning of the year. To hold us to the right timing for when we hunt/ forage/ tend crops and animals.

And the lessons of these types of old stories happen on multiple layers - they can be read archetypally and psychologically - as lessons in how to age or be with our own internal seasons. Of when and how to “winter” and when to open ourselves back up to a more potent flow of aliveness and abundance.

They can also be read as cultural guidelines of how to live in a good way with a specific place; on how and when to move through initiations and ceremony (and why those are important).

They can help us look for clues about how our longer-ago ancestors viewed and interacted with the world.

Recently, I’ve had the honor to sit in on workshops and courses with some humans doing incredible work to go well beyond the psychology of these old Indo-European stories; wondering instead about the coded language of the cultural instructions in the stories. There’s a lot of research involved, a lot of seeking connections informed by indigenous teachers from Turtle Island (the Americas) who were raised with more intact cultural practices and memories. Some guess work, too. And I feel those stories tumbling around inside me like stones, bumping against my own lived experiences and the whispers I hear from the land and my Unseen guides; awakening more remembering, deepening my understanding of what it means to be human in a good way.

Seems like a potent lesson in these times of self-serving, short-sighted, and exploitative geopolitical upheaval. Empire and technocracy cannot and will not teach us how to be good humans. We have to look for other teachers.

I have no doubt these lessons will make their way into my work and what I share with you all in their right timing.

Our February tarot card:

Five of Arrows - Fives are often the snags and conflicts which jolt us out of a stability which has become complacency and keep us growing. Arrows are connected with the element of air and our thoughts and beliefs.

As I look at this card a few things jump out at me:

1 - “Sin” is an archery term which just means “to have missed the mark”. There is a lot of ugliness on display in the world right now. And righteousness serves no one. Where are we, as a species, missing the mark? What thoughts and beliefs do we hold (in our personal lives and in our collective endeavors) which lead us to act in ineffective and harmful ways? To miss the mark? (Which also begs the question - what is the mark? If we’re missing something, what’s the missing thing we should consider redirecting our aim towards which might prove more fruitful? Or, much like beginner drivers who tend to go where they're looking, the same could be said for where we're aiming. If we're hitting something different than what we think we're aiming for, where do we need to redirect our gaze? ).

2 - The old stories are full of examples and warnings of what happens to humans who don’t complete initiations; how their hungers and desires then cause them to wound others. Completing initiations on the other hand, seems to allow our hungers and desires to be a source for generating more aliveness. In this day and age, most of us reach adulthood not having been initiated. Which means we aren’t actually adults. Our inner children and their clumsy fears, hungers, and desires are running the show. This contributes to us missing the mark and being trapped in the loop of working so hard… and getting more of what we’re aiming to avoid or get out of. What might shift in your understanding of what’s happening in your life or the world if you were to look for those uninitiated children behind the actions? Would that open your eyes to some new possibilities, or at least an idea of where to look for next steps?

3 - Finally, what if we’re the ram/ mountain goat right now? It might be worth looking up what rams or mountain goats signify in your part of the world or noticing what jumps out to you as you look at the animal: what energy or sensations seem to arise in your body, what memories or associations bubble to the surface? Once you have a sense of what the figure might mean for you/ us: what arrows seem to be flying around, aiming to wound us? And how can we either embody the qualities of the animal to avoid them? Or, perhaps, those qualities are what’s under attack, in which case, how can we protect those qualities from those who are shooting to kill?

Last week’s podcast episode:

For last week’s new moon and in the run up to OracleFest, I shared a “cross-over” episode I did with Kate Graham (you might remember her from episode 40) on her Oracle Mountain Chat series.

If you haven't already, you’re welcome to check it out to hear me chat about:

• titles and roles like “oracle” or “shaman” in modern times;
• why I think the practice of animist kinship might have kept our ancestors from experiencing burnout;
• how our disdain for our pre-industrial ancestors might keep us disconnected from wisdom and possibility;
• the call of these times to reclaim our humanity and what practices might bring us there;
• what forces are shaping us and how they leave us feeling broken and flawed;
• our purpose individually and as humans;
• the one practice I’d like to suggest or invite people into in these times;
• some more of my own “healing journey”
• …and more

P.S. OracleFest was a lovely weekend and it was such a honor to be with a quite impressive lineup of speakers, carrying a lot of integrity, who covered a wide range of approaches to visionary and spiritual work in these times. I know Kate’s planning more OracleFest events through the year (including some in-person ones) and so you may hear more from me about those if I am once again a speaker.

P.P.S. To those of you who are joining us here after OracleFest, welcome.

New free offering:

BIG NEWS! (I’m super excited to share this with you this month)

For the last 11 months or so (and with the encouragement of Tad Hargrave of Marketing for Hippies), I’ve been working in the background to distill how I see my work and the world, and what I’ve learned on this journey so far, into what I’m calling a Starter Kit.

Designed to help folks figure out if my work is for them, the Starter Kit also contains:

• support for an intentional, ceremonial beginning to a journey of burnout recovery;
• assessments to orient you and your patterns in a more animist and ancestral framework;
• and a mini library of guided meditations and practices to offer some basic tools and skills you might find helpful at this moment in the journey.

It’s free and will be offered to folks newly signing up to this email list. But I also wanted to share it with those of you already here.

You can find it here.

I would recommend carving out 3-5 hours over the course of a few days to a week or so to complete it, though you may wish to take longer with it.

If you know anyone who might resonate with my approach and benefit from it, you are most welcome to share it. If you do share, please share this link instead so they get on the email list and get introduced to here properly: https://www.wildsacredjourney.com/starter-kit

And if you go through it and are open to sharing, I welcome hearing about your experience: questions, feedback, things you really liked, things you couldn’t follow or didn’t land. That sort of thing. No pressure, but if you have the capacity and willingness, that kind of information is massively helpful for me to ensure it’s a helpful resource for people.

Finally, upcoming events:

Short notice, but Wisdom Wednesday is back this month after a break for the winter and happening tomorrow (the first Wednesday of the month). If you’re wanting a low-key space to gather and rest, receive an energetic attunement and nervous system reset, as well as ask questions or be in conversation around animist, ancestral topics, you’re most welcome.

It’s PWYC with half of what comes in being donated to a different community-based or grass roots organization supporting environmental stewardship or indigenous rights every month. This month we’ll give to Adopt-an-Elder: an organization focused on supporting traditional Diné (Navajo) elders living on reservations in Arizona and Utah and working to keep cultural traditions alive. I believe they are also offering additional support in the wake of ICE targeting and detaining Navajo people.

That’s plenty for now.

Be well, dear ones. Hold each other close and keep fighting for Love.

​

with you,

Kate

P.S. Next month, March, the next round of Sanctuary will open for registration and I’ll be hosting a 90min- 2 hour offering for Spring Equinox. If those spark some initial resonance, keep them in mind. More details will be incoming.