*play me*
New Chelsea Wolfe!! Fuck Yes! I love when she leans into folk and acoustic

🔮 July Energy Reading 🔮

Overall Energy: The Vision – Read the card description below, the energy this month is really about finding our purpose outside of what we’ve been conditioned to be and want. Release preconceived notions, talk to your inner child, what is calling to you?

To Release: 8 of Swords – With the 8 of swords in the release position, the universe is asking you to stop getting in your own way. With The Vision as the overall energy for July, there’s a message that you’ve been clouding your vision through fear, anxiety, and hesitation. You’re being asked to not wait and just begin. Whether what you begin now ends up being where you end, it doesn’t matter. Through starting you’ll find your way, you’ll find your vision.

Maybe you have the vision but don’t know how to bring it into fruition. Or it seems no matter how hard you try life keeps getting in the way. Don’t let outside noise or fear of perception keep you from taking a leap of faith.

To Remember: 9 of Wands – We’re being asked to remember that the only way out is through. There are times to fight and times to lay down, now is not the time to put down your sword. Keep you sight focused on what’s to come on the other side, don’t be afraid to place boundaries, don’t be scared to defend your decisions. The walk is long and tiring, there will be times of failure and doubt, but moving forward is the only way to make change.

To Look Forward To: The Artist – In this deck there are 2 extra major arcana cards, the artist and the well. The well is the source of inspiration and the artist is the creator who uses that inspiration to create in this world. Through other clarifying cards, the message here is that once you stop getting in your own way and stand your ground, on the other side is clearer sight of what your true vision for your life is and how to execute it. If you try, if you push, there is reward.

Spirit Guide: The White Buffalo – The white buffalo is a powerful symbol in many Native American cultures tied to a prophecy of abundance and hope. The legend of the White Buffalo Calf Woman is central to the Lakota people’s and many others beliefs and rituals. It is said in a time of need she appeared and taught the people Seven Sacred Teachings and ceremonial prayers to achieve spiritual balance and honor mother earth. When she left the tribe was left with abundance and no longer struggled for food. In 2024, a white buffalo was born, a powerful symbol of balance being restored to earth and reminder that we can choose to live in consumption or reciprocity with the land. Either way, mother nature will restore balance with or without us. In my guidebook for this deck, the card is meant to represent that manifestation is real but you must stay grounded in order for it to come to fruition. For this particular message I feel it is a reminder to dream and find your vision that aligns with the greater good for all and for the planet. How can you make your dreams a reality and still serve others? How can you stay grounded and honor the world through your vision?

White Buffalo Calf Woman: The Origin of Culture Through Prophecy
The Legend of the White Buffalo Woman

Charm: The Butterfly – The butterfly is a powerful reminder of the fragility of life. They are here for a short time, yet always make their mark and contribute to the larger ecosystem. This July, look for a butterfly to remind you all is possible and that while we are here we are meant to make our mark for the good of all.

Summary – IF YOU DON’T TRY YOU’LL NEVER KNOW.

climate news?

Well, well, well another heat wave and summer temperatures the highest we ever seen another year in a row. Here’s the thing, this is how it will be from now on. The temperatures will get hotter and the humidity won’t let up especially in the midwest and along the east coast. Across the world many different places are used to dealing with extreme heat on a regular basis and humans how found a way to adapt by sweating. But what happens when we can’t? That’s the alarm many climate scientist have continued to raise as wet bulb temperatures rise around the world.

Wet bulb temperatures are “a measure of the heat stress in direct sunlight, which takes into account: temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle and cloud cover (solar radiation)” according the National Weather Service. At 35 degrees celsius/95 fahrenheit wet bulb temp, the human body can no longer cool itself even when shade and water is provided and prolonged exposure becomes deadly. Because of the extreme mix of high temps and humidity, our bodies aren’t able to cool themselves by sweating because the sweat can’t evaporate into the already heavily saturated air. I tell you this because in the last decade New York City was reclassified as a subtropical climate making it basically Florida. Not only are we as humans unable to adapt to the rise in temperatures, neither is our infrastructure like AC or electrical grids or our phones that were built for extremely different climates.

And now not only is the temperature during the day extreme, but climate scientist are worried because the temperature is not cooling off at night. Which is vital for us, animals, plants, crops, and infrastructure to be able to withstand the heat during the day. If there is not respite, there is no resilience.

We must take heed, it’s not just hot, it’s dangerously hot. Take extreme weather warnings seriously, wear sunscreen, drink extra water, and honestly stay indoors if you can. Reach a hand out to those you know that don’t have access to AC and offer them some respite. The only way out is through and together.

We see climate change as this scary, far off, dystopian outcome. But the reality is we’re living it, it’s changing right before us. It won’t be like an asteroid hitting the earth changing everything at once, it’s gradual and quiet until everything we’ve known is nothing like we see before us. If you think you know what climate change is, you don’t. Check out this babblings podcast episode from last summer to better understand⬇️

🌛 Movie(s) of the Month 🌛

{star crossed lovers}
In The Mood For Love (2000) & Like Water For Chocolate (1992)

Welcome to July Movie Club! I’m so excited we made it through half the year and I hope it’s been as fun, entertaining, and purposeful for you as it has been for me! For July we’re looking at the archetypal themes of Cancer and Leo. I went back and forth a lot on how to approach this, and not make it seem too similar to themes we’ve already dissected. As we get into the later of half of the wheel of the year, you start to see some repetition in themes, it’s just often focused more outwardly than inwardly.

Thinking about Cancer and Leo I thought about the planets that ruled them The Sun and The Moon. I wanted to lean into the romantic sides of both of these signs, and thought about how The Sun and The Moon have been mythologized throughout time as lovers forever circling each other but never in the same place at the same time, the original star crossed lovers.

In both In The Mood For Love and Like Water For Chocolate, we see lovers that share a deep and enduring connection, yet through circumstance and obstacles, they are never able to truly live in harmony. These star-crossed lovers are doomed to yearn and watch each other from a distance. Just like The Sun and The Moon, they long to be together but time and space won’t allow it.

🌸 reading club! 🌸
ending spring & summer curriculum

summer reading curriculum: sex & power
*tw: violence, sexual violence both mentions and graphic depictions, abuse*

It’s time to start our next quarter and thematic focus. For our summer quarter which runs July – September we’ll be focusing on themes of sex, power, control, and shame. Pulling from my own TBR we’ll read three books that center around these themes.

First we’ll read Nasty Work by Ericka Hart. Ericka uses years of researching and experience as a sex educator to break down how systems of power use sex, gender, and pleasure to control the masses. My hope is to use this book to build a foundation of knowledge and language that we can use to as a lens to view the other two books through.

Then we’ll be dipping our toe back into fiction first by reading My Dark Vanessa which is about a young women grappling with the ramifications of being groomed and having a relationship with her high school teacher. I want to use this book to understand grooming, the more covert version of power exertion that exists in these scenarios, and identify how systems of power enabled her abuser and opened her up to harm. Because it jumps between the past and present we can analyze the enduring harm and shame that results from this sort of abuse of power.

Lastly, we’ll read Beloved by Toni Morrison. Considered one of the great American novelists, in Beloved, Morrison tells a story of former slaves, specifically the protagonist Sethe who escaped to Ohio as she is haunted in the present my her dead baby and by the past horrors she endured during slavery. With Beloved, we’ll be focusing on systemic powers and how violence against the body, particularly sexual violence, was used as a means of control and domination during slavery in the United States. Like Dark Vanessa we’ll also be analyzing the long standing effects and how one tries to find liberation or regain personal power through sex.

July Reading: Nasty Work

What I’m curious about:

Instead of offering specific questions ahead of time, I want everyone to use the reflection questions Ericka so thoughtfully included throughout the book (I believe at the end of each chapter) to help us engage with the work and get us thinking deeper about our own subconscious beliefs.

But overall I’m curious about exploring how systems of power use sex, pleasure, and gender to control us. How we can decolonize our views of sex and pleasure. And how we can explore pleasure to find liberation. Can’t wait to dive into this one!

Supplemental Material:

• Decolonizing the Language of Sex (Rethinking “Clean,” “Dirty,” and the Words We Inherit): https://www.phoenixrisingcenters.org/blogs/decolonizing-sex-language-clean-dirty
• Pathways to Decolonizing the Sex Industries: https://www.communitypsychology.com/decolonizing-sex-industries/
• Books:
  • Body Autonomy: Decolonizing Sex Work and Drug Use
  • Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture

♾️ summer playlists! ♾️

I feel like the music I listen to often changes with the seasons and the season of life I’m in. And for me there’s something about this summer that just feels fun, despite the impending doom of climate change or atrocities across the world. I think there is a sense of change on the horizon for me personally, but for us all. I’ve been really called to music that feels spiritual in nature and touching a part of my internal world that can be hard to explain with words. On the other hand, I’m also feeling drawn to a rougher sound like new music off of Slayyyter’s latest album or oldies from some of my favorite bands. Both of these sounds feel cathartic in different ways, so I created two playlists for this summer. Because sometimes I want to dance under the strobe lights in a dark club, other times I want to dance in the woods. Typically I label playlists by the age I am making them to remember and archive how I felt in a particular moment.

I wanted to share what I’ve been listening to and will this summer, maybe you’ll find a song you like, or I’ll inspire you to make your own to archive this moment in time through sound.

I’ve also been really into listening to dj sets, mixes, and independent radio shows on YouTube. I love not being in control and just letting cool people who know music better take over the vibe. Sometimes I want to be told what I want to hear and it’s been a great way to get more artists in my library. I have to say switching over to YouTube, not even Youtube music, has been so refreshing and honestly I get some of the best music recommendations and introduction to new artists than on any other platform. YouTube is also a really good listener and puts together great mixes of stuff they know I love and something new.

xoxo,

Ali Ann