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 played it in taxis, in the middle of the night when we couldn't come down enough to sleep, and hungover on drowsy picnic days.
The game was simple: you say one thing you love about the other person and one thing you hate.
The game did not always go well and there was no safety net. But it was a ritual that taught me how to put difficult emotions into words.
I felt as though I was always in the eye of the storm and I loved it. I wanted to be on the edge of safety, to play risky games.
I was drunk with the power to say what I felt, to be authentic, to be real. It felt like walking on a tightrope, holding swords at bay with the power of my mind, or some other miraculous feat.
It felt like Storm Clouds.
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Libra III is Storm Clouds.
For some people that can be reassuring because it is so clear what is happening.
There are dark clouds gathering, there will be a storm. There is the possibility of aesthetic and sensory pleasure.
For some people it is more oppressive – they feel that air pressure change in a more intrusive and claustrophobic way.
It depends on your mood as to how you might interpret the storm clouds.
If you would like to transform your writing practice in the company of other creatives and magicians, join us for Atmospheres.
We will meet tomorrow at noon BST to swirl through storm clouds together and to write and share our work.
If you have been thinking about coming, but the times are tricky, I will be adding a UK evening option for Scorpio season, in addition to the weekly noon sessions.
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🍄 Fruit
Speculative Fiction and Sudden Moons
Cardinal air: speculation, madness, atmospheric strangeness.
Much of the transformation of the game from mundane to numinous is achieved through the intervention of a sudden moon in cosmic magenta which changes the landscape entirely.
Four of Swords
Cardinal air: chaos magic, willpower, telepathy.
The aerialist reminds us of the possibilities of this card, just as the telepathic lamb controlling the swords above her head: it is possible to wield mass, force, and energies that feel chaotic in the service of a singular goal.
Libra III: Storm Clouds
Cardinal air: eye of the storm, altitude pressure, inner strength.
It depends on your mood as to how you might interpret the storm clouds.
The Eco-Weird
Cardinal air: big mood, the mundane sublime, weird landscapes
Weird landscapes tell us so much about making the hidden aspects of life visible, and, about our interconnectedness with the natural world.
🦠 Spores
I have begun to experiment with using tarot not only to structure a novel but to decide what to work on. I have 36 novel chapters, each informed by the atmosphere of a specific decan and tarot card. I have been pulling cards to decide which random section of novel to work on. It has brought pleasure, play, and chance into the process.
𓍊𓍊𓍊 Mycelium
This cover version of Joni Mitchell’s iconic ‘Both Sides Now’ by Hole feels fitting for this week. These clouds are filtered through visceral rage; bruising and intense.
This decan reminded my the work of my former research student, Amy J. Stewart, on female aerialists. You can read her short piece here. ’Queens of the Air: Remarkable Female Aerialists Who Rewrote the Rules’
Whatever the reason for the rise in their success, with their physical strength and virtuosity, female circus performers helped challenge attitudes to women’s bodies at the time.
If you want to know more about the connections between aerialism and writing, you can listen to my interview with Mimi Zacharia and find out how she used aerial feats in her novel.
In this week’s Labyrinth, Kening Zhu shared a tool called ‘The Sword’ for Libra season, inspired by the sword cards. She asks, ‘What does the clarity feel like? How is it simultaneously a kind of violence and severing and a healing integration and binding together?' I love this question as we transition out of Libra season, and through the swords.
I wish you a week of daring feats, storm riding, and sudden moons.
Love, LJ
this is microdosing ceremony, a letter from my artist’s cocoon to yours.
find out more about rituals and writing on the ceremony podcast.
explore creative rabbit holes on my website.
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