Come on up to the loft

I've got a full tea kettle

I’m writing to you from my bed in the loft with my girl snuggled up next to me, and we’re watching Christmas movies. It wasn’t the plan for the day, but it was the pivot. She stayed home for a mental health day. I guess I could have gone on with my plans for the day, but to be honest, the only thing I missed was yoga and who really minds staying home on a foggy day like today?

So I made us tea and then mocktails in the fancy glasses. I hauled up boxes of cookies and rice cracker snacks. I held her hand while she scrolled on her phone. I worked and she did her nails. And now, now there is this. A small love letter to tell you about the things I am loving right now and to hopefully hear back from you. What has you leaning towards the light?

‘Water The Bones’ Review

“I hold my own weight now,"

MariJean Elizabeth

writes in this stunning, oracular work of reclamation. She weaves her way through biblical narratives and sensual realms like a woman who has come to truly understand what intricacies of awakening Saul missed on the road to Damascus.

If only that infamous apostle had had MariJean to meet him at his crossroads. Maybe then he would have met the wild nature of godd in what the author has breathtakingly titled "Bone Singers."

This book of poetry will unravel you, haunt you, and change the inner terrain of your life. Read expectantly.

St Lucia’s Night

If you, like me, were not raised Catholic you might not know much about Santa Lucia (or St Lucy), so I am delighted to tell you a bit about her lore. Last year in Wild Soul, we did a class on her mythology, and this year, we’re using the potency of her night to lovingly, powerfully sever connections we’re ready to release.

I have come to learn that in the more recent myth, Lucia was a woman killed while she was still very young. She was wildly subversive in her time, risking everything in order to bring food, medicine, and clothing to people who were in hiding. In order to fill her arms with supplies while she navigated the catacombs, Lucia placed a crown of candles on her head to light the way.

On behalf of love, she was physically scarred and burnt and then forever depicted with her gouged eyes on a plate. I like to think that, although Lucia may wander eternally blind, she had already learned how to feel her way through the dark. She has never been deterred.

This is a story of a woman who represents the sun, the return of the light, and whose enduring lore reminds us now - after all these years - that love is both offensive to oppressive powers and vital to the survival of humanity.

So although on Friday night we honor Lucia and the far older stories that shaped her, we also honor the young women like Bisan who still huddle below tarps in the rain and weep, who wake up again in the morning to place a metaphorical crown of candles on their heads. We honor the people who invoke the return of the light. We remember that archetypes outlast every empire. And if, in these weeks of waiting for the light to return, we see someone embodying Lucia, we can say their names. We can include them in our rituals, our visioning, our hope, our prayers, and our spells.

So pick up your match or your lighter. Close your eyes. Envision the dark night of our world. Remember that we are in the season of Yule and that Yule in the wheel of the year, as my friend

Natalie Stoemmer

has taught me, is nestled into the roots of the Tree. This is a time of survival, of huddling together and of simply making it through the dark.

In the spirit of self-liberation, I want to invite you to come over to Wild Soul on Friday night for a very special candle cord cutting. We’ll be gathering this time, not in an Inner Territory Journey, but in a ritual involving candles, twine, light, and intention.

We believe in our archetypes, in the immortal teachings of folklore, and in the cyclical magic of Nature. I hope you’ll join us.

Currently

• Reading This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

• Watching Black Doves on Netflix

• Listening to Trail Horse by Anna Graves

• Planning for Rootcraft Seasonal Herbalism Intensive

• Shopping for our second bottle of this favorite curly hair primer

• Re-reading this recent edition of The Joy Rise from

  Holly Ringland

• Non-Stop Laughing at this delightfully absurd review of a book

• Pinning everything that reminds me of Jonna Jinton’s incredible photography art of Lucia

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