Dear friends,

The last few months have been undeniably cataclysmic. So much is breaking down, cracking open, and finding new form. As an individual and as a tiny, one-person business, I absolutely stand in solidarity with the movement for Black lives. Black Lives Matter. 

Like so many businesses right now, I’m called to be more forthright about what I believe in, my core values, and the greater movements I’ve learned from and that influence my work. 

Since the beginning of 2020, I’ve had the opportunity to take part in a transformative leadership development and creative facilitation program, led by the brilliant Anya Hankin. For several months now, I’ve been working closely with this cohort of womxn as we collectively identify, refine, and integrate our values into our work. I’ve been encouraged to develop a robust justice lens, one that can be woven into every aspect of my work. I’ve been called to clarify my core values, find ways to tangibly structure them into my practice and business, outline my commitment to justice, establish clear pathways towards accountability, and identify my long-term vision and aspirations.

This process has offered me invaluable insight into my business, my small web of influence, and the deeper work that’s mine to do –– the work that collapses time, reimagines what’s possible, repairs the harm of those who came before me, and nourishes the dreams of those to come. I’m grateful for the guidance of Anya and the rest of the cohort, my activist friends who always inspire me to do more, and the many wise voices I’ve learned from over the years.

A business that is in right relationship is a powerful vessel for change, magic, and healing. When our daily activities and livelihoods intersect with our joy, a just vision for the world, and a dismantling of harmful business as usual, so much is possible.

I invite you to take a look at the Values & Vision page I’ve recently added to my website. I call them values, but they’re really more like the core frameworks that guide my work. This page was years in the making, and elucidates some of the ways I hold my work as part of a greater vision. You'll also find some of the concrete ways I’ve structured these frameworks into my work. Like my entire website, this is a living page and will continue to evolve over time.

I deeply appreciate you taking the time to read this, and please feel free to reach out with any questions or thoughts. What has been coming up for you recently? What is present in your life? As a one-woman business rooted in relationship, I'd love to hear from you!  

Love, learning, and long, summer days,

Clare

“What if we cherished opportunities to take accountability as precious opportunities to practice liberation? To practice love? To practice the kinds of people, elders-to-be, and souls we want to be? To practice that which we can only practice in real time?... What if we embraced accountability as a reflection of our undeniable, incredible, tender humanity? As a magnificent example of what it means to be human and flawed and in relationship with one another? What if we welcomed the quickening of our pulse and the beating of our heart as signals of being alive and caring and what is most important to us: our relationships with each other?” - Mia Mingus

r e a l i z i n g / r e v e a l i n g / r e i m a g i n i n g

(astrology + resource redistribution)

“Some periods of our growth are so confusing that we don’t even recognize that growth is happening. We may feel hostile or angry or weepy and hysterical, or we may feel depressed. It would never occur to us, unless we stumbled on a book or a person who explained to us, that we were in fact in the process of change... Whenever we grow, we tend to feel it, as a young seed must feel the weight and inertia of the earth as it seeks to break out of its shell on its way to becoming a plant... Often the feeling is anything but pleasant. But what is most unpleasant is the not knowing what is happening... Those long periods when something inside ourselves seems to be waiting, holding its breath, unsure about what the next step should be, eventually become the periods we wait for, for it is in those periods that we realize we are being prepared for the next phase of our life and that, in all probability, a new level of personality is about to be revealed.” - Alice Walker

We all know by now that 2020 is a big year, offering up one life-altering moment after the next. These times are awe-full, overwhelmingly marked by both wonder and horror, hope and fear. Astrologically, we are living through a confluence of energy, the likes of which is only experienced once or twice in a lifetime (if that)—the kind of astrology that the sets the tone for generations to come.

Personally, I don’t believe that astrology makes us do anything. It doesn’t make us grow, or make us learn new things, or make us react in a certain way. Rather it sets an energetic tone, and how we respond to it is up to us.

As we undergo these massive collective shifts, each of us is navigating them in our own unique style. While there are certain energetic threads that are more or less the same for all of us, individually we feel and experience their impacts in vastly different ways.

There are many ways to grow. There are many ways to learn. There are many ways to heal. There are many ways to respond.

How we choose to live our lives, the intention and clarity we bring to our actions (big and small alike), particularly during these moments of massive uncertainty, unraveling, and reimagining, ripple far beyond our individual spheres, casting spells and calling in the future.

HOW ARE YOU DOING? WHAT ARE YOU CALLING IN?

Introducing: 2020 Cosmic Checkups, 30-minute sliding scale astrology readings exploring the energy of 2020, and how the real time planetary movements are provoking your personal birth chart, inviting reflection, action, and more. Now that we’re halfway through 2020, these readings are intended to be a space of integration and intention-setting for the months to come.

33% of the cost of each reading will be donated to the 40 Acres and a Mule Project, supporting Black foodways and land sovereignty in the Driftless region of Wisconsin.

Some of the themes we might explore include:

• Lessons in karma / right relationship: identifying blindspots and healing harm (eclipse season)

• Developing emotional literacy and recognizing when we project onto others (Mercury retrograde in the water signs)

• Activism and fighting the good fight, but also toxic masculinity, violence, and misplaced aggression + experiments in leadership and the relinquishment of control (Mars in Aries)

• Collective wounds and shadow, specifically related to governments, institutions, and systemic traumas (Pluto Saturn conjunction in Capricorn)

• Understanding our joy / sense of abundance and worth, the cost of it, reorienting + realigning (Jupiter in Capricorn)

• The failures of our systems and a false belief in stability (Saturn in Capricorn/Aquarius, Uranus in Taurus)

• Mortality, aging, death, grief, and existential fears (a series of Pluto Jupiter conjunctions in Capricorn)

• Collective hopes and dreams, but also collective fear, confusion, and delusions (Neptune in Pisces)

• Hope for the future, technology and innovation, and systems + humanitarian thinking (upcoming Saturn Jupiter conjunction and transit through Aquarius)

Remember: it’s ok to not have answers; it’s ok to not know. Our only task is to stay open, stay present, and stay with the uncertainty. We are in process.

There are limited appointments available at each pricing tier, so sign up soon! Once you purchase, you’ll receive your reading within two weeks. Available through the end of July.

I look forward to connecting with you!

c o n s t e l l a t i o n s :

(things I’m excited about)

• Twelve Talks for Collective Healing with Existing Together: “Part dharma talk, part performance, part astrology lesson, each of these talks is a way to spend time with yourself, to reflect on core human struggles, and cultivate a new vision with others.”

• Spiritual Activism 101 with Rachel Ricketts: a pre-recorded “class opportunity to observe sacred and spiritual conversation about how we can acknowledge our privilege, heal our race-related wounds and actively contribute to lasting and effective racial justice.”

• 101 Racialized Trauma Course with the Cultural Somatics Training and Institute, based on the work of Resmaa Menakem.

• Woke Without the Work with Rootwork Herbals: “an online workshop for Non-BIPOC Herbalists, who are seeking to move beyond optical support of our communities, towards active, tangible, and embodied practices of equity. An equity that is true, healthy and vibrant.”

• Wildcrafting: An Indigenous Perspective, an online class with herbalist Karyn Sanders.

• visions: a spotify podcast playlist I’m slowly putting together, exploring the intersections of justice, spirituality, healing, and connection to nature. Please send me your recommendations!

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