The Feast
Dear Friend, Last week I was away for a few days and had the chance to eat many delicious foods. Black chickpeas, scallion pancakes, and tofu with hand-...
Scorpio Season and The Glittering Dark
Dear Friend, Today is Scorpio season, and we get the chance to journey into the glittering dark where we can find so much treasure. The archetypes for...
Storm Clouds
Dear Friend, When I was in my late teens, there was a game I played with my friends, and with one friend in particular. It was simply called ‘the game’. We...
Skating in the Dark
Dear Friend, In my last letter, I wrote to you about tiny jars – the careful, procedural work of distilling things into potions. In the Libra II ritual, we...
Zone Rites and Tiny Jars
Dear Friend, Since I have begun to pay attention to micro-seasons, I have discovered that there is infinite meaning in a single moment. Exploring the...
Art and Mourning
Dear Friend, Becoming an artist requires the practice of mourning. Without decay there is no new life. Thank you to the lovely friends who sent pictures of...
Libra Season and Chaos Mushrooms
Dear Friend, Every time I have walked into the woods in the last couple of weeks, I have seen mushrooms sprouting everywhere. Fungus is notoriously difficult...
Bruise Violet
Dear Friend, Pressing on a bruise reminds you that you are fragile but you are alive. This time of year is beauty and melancholy. The sweetness of Venus and...
Electricity in the Workshop
Dear Friend, In September, even though I no longer teach in the classroom, I feel the pull of the writing workshop. The electric thrill of walking into a...
Blackberrying
Dear Friend, We are in that liminal moment when summer ends and autumn begins. Sex, abundance, melancholy, and harvest, become mingled. This week, I...
The Craft
Dear Friend, The first day of September is so Virgo-esque. School is back, fresh notebooks are opened, sweaters unpacked. Virgo I is all about The Craft....
Blood + Jewels
Dear Friend, Last week, I wrote about paying attention to micro-seasons. You can read more about that here. The most important takeaway is that you don’t...
Fantasy in Leo
Dear Friend, It is high summer with all of its electrical storms, madness, and melancholy. It is the season of fantasy. It has also been my birthday. I have...
Writers for Gaza
Dear Friend, I have only one thing to share today – a list of places to get help, as effectively as possible, to Palestinians in dire need. I am grateful to...
Finding the Key
Dear Friend, Every creative project has a key that unlocks it. For me, the distinction between the true key – the one that means you are unlocking the right...
Artmaking, Anxiety + Affinities
Dear Friend, Anxiety is something that has yet to be differentiated. If I open the news and read multiple dire stories about global disasters and...
Blood-Red Berries + Wild Fire
Dear Friend, Since I last wrote to you there’s been a shift from Scorpio to Sagittarius season. Autumn deepens, and the day I love most – the winter solstice...
Invocations + Unknown Pleasures
Dear Friend, I have been thinking deeply this week about invocation. I am working on my seasonal theory of storytelling, and I am currently focusing on...
Dreams + Transmissions
Dear Friend, I can’t wait for tomorrow’s Dreams + Transmissions event. I hope you will come along if you can. I will be celebrating the publication of The...
Fostering Creativity
Dear Friend, This week I wanted to share some creative projects I have been working on about fostering creativity. I recently read Claire Keegan’s novella,...
Fantasy + Internal Retreat
Dear Friend, Creativity doesn’t always arise from safety and ease. This week I have been thinking about artists whose singular fantasy worlds emerge...
Diving Into the Wreck
A couple of weeks ago, I was out walking when I heard the sound of a plane approaching very low in the sky. I began, without thinking, to run. So did a...
Winter Tomatoes
My friend told me that she had a dream about winter tomatoes; grey-green pebbles that wouldn't ripen. My initial interpretation of this image was that to...
Writing Isn't Always Safe
Ceremony has been on an unexpected hiatus for the last few months while I worked on a piece of writing that possessed me: a letter to loved ones that stated...
Love, Love I Have Hung Our Cave with Roses
I have always loved these lines from Sylvia Plath’s poem ‘Nick and the Candlestick’: Love, love,I have hung our cave with roses, With soft rugs— She was...