The Blog:
Herbalism, Cartomancy, and writing as a sacred craft
Words at the intersection of spectral science, ancestral citation, earthlove, and patternism.
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Surviving Capitalism with the Ace of Pentacles
Here's how to activate the Ace of Pentacles to find some stability in a soul sucking world.
Burnout is a Constant Under Capitalism
Burnout is a spiritual problem. Burnout occurs when your spirit asks for ease, and capitalism forces you to say "no."
Capitalism is a spiritual enemy. Capitalism is an enemy of wellness. Capitalism is an enemy of the body itself.
Six of Cups: A Stateless World is Probable
There's nothing wrong with spiritual strategies for self-improvement. But when it stops there, it might as well be playing sports, or doing skincare, or a Shein haul.
A commodity is a commodity. If it makes you feel superior to others instead of in service to your community, then it's bullshit.
The Church House is On Fire
I grew up in a African Methodist Episcopalian family, and we all felt a little snooty about that. I grew up seeing Black Jesus in my church, and if I saw otherwise when we visited other churches, I pitied them.
Hoodoo, Representation, and Repression
Annie from Sinners is the best representation of Hoodoo on screen this decade.
Wunmi Mosaku infuses her character with the strength of spirit, compassion, and community-mindedness I hope to see in any conjure woman. She also brings the full force of her classical training to bear on a script where all three women leads are underwritten.
No More F*cked Up Teas, Please
You would think something so simple was hard to fuck up. Yet I've noticed a rather widespread problem with teas on the market. Here are the two biggest ones
The Ace of Hearts :: The Light
Like a kiss, the Ace of Hearts is a catalyst.
It's among the most blessed cards in cartomancy.
Hearts are the suit of the priest class and human desires. Hearts emphasize the turns of fate around our emotional lives.
Sleeping and Surviving
Nervines are plants that could be beneficial to our nervous systems. They may nourish, soothe, or stimulate -- some in the long term, and others in the short.
Solidarity with The Swamp
The other colonizers, too, drained swamps because of their place as “almost mythical” sites of Black “resistance and rebellion.”
Historically, The Swamp has been a site of Black and indigenous solidarity, resistance, autonomism, magic, and medicine.
Cartomancy as Ancestral Citation
The truth is I've always been able to read without them. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.
Its a mark of the lineage. A long conversation between the dead and the living. To work the cards is to remember those who worked the cards.
In Praise of the Herbal Mind Menders
Mind menders are what I call the herbs that keep my mind well enough to go about my daily business. They’re all nervines, many with a tonic function — and they’re soothing to my body/mind as much as my spirit.
When you can’t fight back, your body keeps on fighting
Lenormand’s Whip and a spiritual theory on two decades of autoimmunity.
Hoodoos: It’s Your Spiritual Obligation to Care about Black Trans People
When you say hoodoo is liberation-centered, that's a promise.
Tarot’s The World and Kamala Harris
Tarot's World card bring us success, true success, far more lasting than the wins of The Chariot.
Yet they never feel as sweet as The Chariot in the moment, because The World requires you to keep your head down a long time.
Temperance: Spiritual Ableism, Healing, and Wholeness
The way we talk about healing in spiritual spaces can be fucked up! At best, it's vague and sprawling. At worst, its just straight up ableism.
Spiritual Sovereignty: Liberation is a Spiritual Practice
Spiritual sovereignty helps us maintain purpose-driven autonomy despite colonizing forces that work to create god for us in their own image.
Spectral Technologies 101
One thing my students in the newly renamed Intuitive Strategies Community know is that the best reader is a safe reader.
Strength: Boundaries & Protection
Strength wants us to take responsibility for the cycles that keep us non-consensually bound.
The Moon: Anxiety, Intuition, Tarot, and Ableism
"How do I tell the difference between anxiety and intuition" is the question I'm asked most as a tarot teacher.
It's an important one, and can often trace its roots back to a societal trauma: the conflation of spiritual gifts and madness.
The Moon is a manifestation of that conflation.
The Sun: Painful, Perfect Clarity
Have you ever been so depressed, hungover, or deep in grief that you’ve been like “fuck the sun?” Yeah, same.