On Locating the Essential Questions
A guiding inquiry for the year ahead.
Dear Relatives,
I’ve run up against the limits of my current vocabulary, trying to move through something, to name a feeling that I don’t have words for. So, I turn to the practice of reflection to give it form, to clear the path. I watch Reservation Dogs to laugh, cry, and remember. In the thick of some strange fog, or mist, or threshold, I need anchors, and a map to trace it. I need a trail of evidence.
Fire likes to rise, dance, and move upward. It is hard to contain, but it will ride the air, and air will let it drift. The atmosphere that houses the weather is also home to us. It is the resting place of thought, communication, spirit, and breath. It speaks to the intangible web of being. As the Moon’s nodes move into a new dynamic, toward one of embodied service, the season changes, too. Cardinal becomes mutable; crops are harvested and stored and then life retreats, contracting back into itself, falling away, and returning to the understory—transformation by way of revolution.
Entering the final south node eclipse in Libra at 10* on October 2, a chapter comes to a close. What has been pivotal during this time? When has more information been essential to the story? For the last year, the nodes of the Moon have been guiding us through a collective lesson on the relationship between Libra and Aries, between Air and Fire, and between the identity of self and other. Luna’s teachings inevitability led to this moment, on the brim of shifting landscapes. Amid destruction and decay in every direction, the body of the Earth keeps a mark of our time as we make a way through, and in.
When I consider the immense loss (and all there is yet to lose), that feeling on my tongue reemerges. I try to get a sense of what it might be telling me, listening as well as feeling for it. I look for clues in the soil and the stars to direct my next steps—without the ground below me and the sky above me, I’d be lost. I am contained in the meeting place between the two, and if I attune myself I can make out a faint expression, I can sense it. It’s not an answer or a solution, but a question.
Water, on this rock, makes everything possible, and Earth has an affinity for process and ritual. Where the Earth and Water meet is a sacred junction: a seam between form and function. They are everywhere, entwined together and nourished by each other. We can take a cue from the elements, from the natural world, and our internal ecologies on how to make the way.
How do we want to be with each other?
This is the question—the practice—nestled on my tongue and in my heart. It emerges from the places where I am connected, by blood and land. It speaks to a yearning for home and kinship. It wraps around me, like interstitium, like mycelium, rooting me. The question is also a compass, giving direction and protection, to know the way in. Slowly, I am finding my way there.
I hope you are finding your way, too.
Eclipse blessings to you and yours!
With gratitude,
Christian
p.s. A song for you:
Updates
In the last newsletter, I asked if folks would be interested in joining a group program, for women and femmes, who want to transform their relationship with food. This is such a loaded question, I realize, and I am taking that to heart. At the moment, I am marinating on how and where to hold the space so that it can combine somatic practice with group study, and so that it can breathe and become what it needs to be. The eclipse, while intense, has helped give structure, and a better feel for what is possible. I’m nearly there and look forward to sharing the project in greater detail.
Reading
All the things. I took a detour on my fall reading journey to finish up We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto, by Alice Waters. I tend to be a circular reader, moving generatively between texts. Thus, I’m also making my way through Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by Lauren E. Savoy, who we read in the Nature Writing series.
Connect
If you’d like to work with me 1:1, I have several offerings available including breathwork, acupuncture (if you’re local), food therapy, and astrology. If you’re interested in a group practice, workshop, or podcast interview, I’m down! You can read through my current offerings here, or schedule and time to chat to discuss your needs and how we can collaborate.