The luminaries
a little bit cringe, a little bit free
We spent sunset on Raven’s Roost atop the Blue Ridge last night. It was just one of those moments. The sun falling down behind the mountain between distant storms, we caught the beauty thanks to an intuitive spark I said “yes” to during a blah moment with the kids. We were entrenched and feeling “whatever.” Maybe we needed to sit at the top of something and feel a bit of awe at our own smallness. The whole world was suddenly a prayer when we got up there. A couple got engaged in front us, weeping and laughing and popping open a champagne bottle. My son said, “congratulations on your true love!” and I blushed, so suddenly happy, so far away from the devastation of shrugging through my own life, what had been going on earlier in the afternoon.
“Maybe that’s what God is,” I told a student of mine in my Writing Through Cancer class last week, “Being awe-struck instead of devastated in the middle of it all.” She had written a beautiful piece about a hawk that landed on her porch on the morning of a scary surgery. God is he that has the head of the hawk, a favorite line from the Chaldean Oracles.
Sometimes I am in nature and I feel ashamed that I “can’t make it go.” That used to happen a lot, before I believed that divine union could come to you through any number of things: a terrible void on a doctor’s MRI screen, the first and every tarot card turned over, reading Freud, reading Anne Boyer, reading astrology charts, reading the Bible, reading Simone Weil, reading Aleister Crowley (lol!!!! I still can’t believe I love Crowley, but I do!) The natural world is more of itself now, because I am more of myself than I have ever been, which is also weird to say, because I don’t feel at all like the “me” I used to be so beholden to. Wow, I’m so grateful for the change wrought by following a spiritual path that I didn’t know I had it in me to follow without cringing. I mean, I do sometimes still cringe. Kind of cringing now writing this. My entry into a meaningful world wasn’t easy. My exit out of secular materialism was the worst: a cancer diagnosis, a lot of rage, kicking and screaming, that sort of thing. But on the other side of my doubt was a freedom I didn’t know was possible. I’ve been trying to figure out how I talk about that freedom to other people, using the tools and languages that helped me: astrology, tarot, esotericism. That’s what the workshop below is about. Might be cringey! But I also think it will help you to feel more free, too, and, in the words of a dear teacher, help you “to grow what you care about” in a world that’s a bit bent on keeping all of us kicking and screaming. Details and link to register below <3
Workshop Offering
The Luminaries: Uncovering Your Solar and Lunar Patterns for Self-Liberation
Join me for a three-hour deep dive into the archetypes of the Sun and the Moon in the natal chart, esoteric psychology, and tarot. Let's step outside the frenetic pace of a roiling 2025 and delve into the most steadfast, inspirational, and personal of archetypes. The Sun and the Moon, in different but complementary ways, each provide us with our own unique paths to walk in life, as well as all the light we need to see the way. We'll explore the meanings and myths of the Sun and the Moon through human culture and history, in Hellenistic and psychological astrologies, and in association with tarot guides and the Tree of Life in the Hermetic Kabbalah.
I’m capping this intensive, lecture-based workshop at 12 students so that we can go deep into each participant's own life, natal chart, and patternings, pulling out threads for liberation from fear, excess suffering, and anxiety along the way.
Students will walk away with an understanding of their own astrological Suns and Moons as well as how those personal archetypes intersect with psychology, the tarot, and Hermeticism, in their day-to-day lives and more.
When: 2:30 - 5:30 pm ET on Saturday, August 23, 2025 (session will be recorded and available for viewing afterward.)
Where: Zoom
Cost: $120 at the "Solar Level" sign-up
$180 at the "Lunar Level" sign-up, which includes one-on-one tarot and chart readings with me, scheduled at a date after the initial workshop session.
That couple will never forget your son!