Hello Friends:

There's a story I remember of a revered teacher who is a guest in a small but clean home. The housekeeper brings him simple meals and serves him tea in the afternoon. The only possession he brings with him on his travels is an exquisite, hand-crafted cup, a gift from one of his students. It is his ritual to drink from it with enjoyment.

One day, while the housekeeper is washing the dishes, she drops and breaks the cup. She is devastated and embarrassed to tell the teacher. Finally mustering the courage to show him the ceramic shards, she falls to her knees, weeping and apologizing for her clumsiness.

The teacher lifts her up and replies with a smile: "The cup was for my pleasure. It was not made for suffering, even the loss of it."

This story sticks with me decades later during times of intense release of what I held dear. As someone with a moon in Taurus, I love my things. I would save money to buy the highest quality because it would last longer (very Capricorn!). And if someone gave me something they made (hello, younger Gabe's boxes of artwork), I would store it like an archivist.

I give those clothes hanging in the closet significance and personality, which makes them harder to give away. And that tendency reaches beyond possessions. I think of relationships I stayed in too long, hoping we might find a way to coexist with compassion. Sometimes my devotion to what something has meant makes it difficult to recognize what it has become.

This newsletter is for those feeling a change of season, outside or within: leaving behind patterns and ways of coping that no longer work, jobs that fulfilled a different version of you, or places that no longer feel like home. Here we’re settling into fall; my Southern Hemisphere friends are moving through spring. Wherever you are, change can leave you feeling a little under the weather, disorganized and even unmoored.

Lately, small acts of creativity have been helping me find my footing. May you find some solace and perhaps an invitation to make something here.

Activate Your Creative Muse

When I have no idea what to do, I find that putting on a song to dance to or choosing a marker to make a sigil can get the stuckness moving. My thinking mind tries to solve what to do next by thinking about what it has already done and all the things I "should" be doing. The body gives better clues. Thankfully, I've been fortunate to be invited into The Reclamation, led by Rainier Wylde, my creativity coach and mentor. Our cohort has been grieving what brought us to this threshold of wanting change, understanding our resistance, reviving our creativity, and finally finding our voice.

One week's exercise asked us to take 8 minutes to drop down into a creative expression, whether it's arranging something artful from what's in a drawer, drawing on a tablet, making a meal, or in my case drawing some magick sigils and writing a haiku that continues to unfold. Some wrote poetry and others recorded videos, while yet another started her oracle deck artwork. This has been really powerful for two reasons:

1) Do one small act of creativity. Don't overthink it or make it complicated. Make something.

2) This was the most powerful: Show the group. The feedback and comments are so supportive and nourishing with the right people.

Doing these daily expressions has opened up so much more in other parts of my life. I am revisiting a property that I have wanted from the very beginning for Soil to Soul Commons, my farm stop and cafe. Back in April, negotiating for the property became too complex and out of my price range, so I let it go. I have grown these several months having apprenticed on a farm, interviewed more farmers and producers, negotiated other leases, and learned from other food enterprise owners. Letting it go in April gave me room to learn. Returning now, I bring more experience, different questions, and less attachment to how it has to happen. Septic capacity and restaurant permitting still aren’t my idea of fun, but curiosity has made them more manageable.

I am creating habits of happiness. I still have a north star, but I’m paying more attention to the daily actions that help me move toward it: making something, listening to my body, asking a better question. Intuition, faith, and decades of experience are part of how I find my way.

Living and working beyond the conditioning of capitalism and patriarchy takes practice and support. I need mentors, therapists, and companions who share a vision of a more soulful way to live. We don’t get rid of our shadows and fears. We grow bigger than them with help.

To be open to new ideas and ways of seeing things, I devour art classes at The Contemporary at Laguna Gloria. This weekend's printmaking class taught me how to draw and carve on linoleum blocks and then make prints on a Takach Press. Moving my hands to gouge, scrape, poke, and curve on a rubber-like medium required a lot of concentration and patience. Thinking in reverse (preserve the black and remove the grey) and being in awe of the reveal is unlike any other feeling. I look forward to Storytelling With Mixed Media at the end of the month.

These experiences keep reminding me how much can shift when we have time to explore and people who welcome what emerges. That is part of what I’m creating with The Clearing.

A Rare Invitation

I have a favor to ask.

I’ve been off social media for a month now, and I’m putting more of my energy into relationships and community. After a hermit-like year, this feels like a meaningful return, and it’s how I hope the next gathering will find its people.

The Clearing is a private retreat for six people, November 6–8, at Wild Candy Farm in Wimberley, Texas.

Perhaps something in your life is asking for change. Work that once felt meaningful no longer fits. A role or relationship is shifting. A creative longing keeps returning. An inheritance has come your way changing your problem set. You may have some sense of what comes next, but haven’t had the uninterrupted time to consider it.

I’m creating this weekend for that tender space between knowing something is changing and knowing how you want to respond.

We’ll share nourishing meals, art, movement, conversation, and quiet on a 51-acre farm. Sky Cutler, the farm’s owner, will guide us through an immersive farm experience. There will also be time with me to explore your questions through astrology, Tarot, or mindful exploration. Each guest will have a private room with its own bathroom and kitchen or kitchenette, with space to retreat as well as connect.

My hope is that you leave having heard something of your own wisdom more clearly. What you long for, what you’re ready to release, or what deserves your attention now.

If someone came to mind as you read this, would you send them this invitation with a personal note? That small gesture would mean a great deal to me. And if that person is you, I’d love for you to consider joining us.

​Read more about The Clearing and apply here.​

Thank you for helping me spread the word.

Cosmic Weather & Events

There's some energy to do the hard thing this week and clarity for something you might have been struggling to know fully.

October 15 — Sun sextile Jupiter​
Ride the wave of optimism, generosity, and confidence. Say yes and enjoy the opportunity.

October 15 — Pluto stations direct in Aquarius​
Create tiny experiments from what you learned from months in reflection and shadow work. How do they serve the collective?

October 16th — Mars trines Saturn Rx​
Put your workout clothes on and keep your running shoes by the door. Use this energy to commit.

October 23 — Sun enters Scorpio; Venus Star Point: Venus meets the Sun: a symbolic turning point in our re-evaluation of love and value. Give an emerging desire some attention before deciding how to act on it.

October 24–25 — Mercury turns retrograde; Venus returns to Libra: Revisit conversations and assumptions. What is a better question?

October 25–26 — Full Moon in Taurus: Return to the body, the land, and what sustains you. What helps you feel supported enough to do something difficult?

Thank you for reading this far. I know your time is valuable and I hope you have found something here that is helpful on your path.

As always, you can Book a session if you'd like some cosmic guidance or strategy. Past and recurring clients get 20% off all single sessions. Reply to this email for the code :)

Love, plants, & planets,

Monica