welcoming Autumn
This is a newsletter in 3 parts. In Part 3, “Upcoming,” I discuss how to order a copy of Discovering Beauty Tarot. 🧿
Part 1: Welcome, Autumn
A prayer to begin.
I acknowledge the Earth and ground I am on, its stewards, creatures, those who call it home. I ask to keep the Earth, the G-ddess in my heart. I know She holds me, grounded in love, in safety. I welcome my wise and well ancestors and ask for their protection.
A big beautiful tree I like to lay my body on in the park, Paris
Welcome, Autumn.
I am grateful for the changing of the seasons. The sweet comfort of a cooler breeze.
I am grateful for our Earth, which, despite us, continues to be full of oceans and trees and pigeons.
Tarot cards in Central Park on the last Full Moon Eclipse
Today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
A painting in Marseille. It says “soul to soul” in Arabic, translated by my partner. May we pray to the children of Palestine for forgiveness.
I have not known how to be Jewish this year.
Free Palestine, over Paris
I am grateful to have one of my dear friends here visiting. To return to the water that which we will not continue to carry. To create moments of ritual where we try to imagine a better world.
Free Gaza, at the base of the Statue of Liberty, Pont de Grenelle
May we as Jews continuously raise our voices for this grave and un-G-dly injustice to be rectified. May we demand that it not be done in our names. May we claim our hereness by fighting against the machines of war and fascism, in our ancestors’ names.
May be pray to G-d for justice and peace.
Queer Power, in Paris, with the poem “I want a President” by Zoe Leonard
For this Autumn season, I pulled Temperance, III Air, and The Sun.
Cards for the Autumn
Temperance is about equilibrium. The equinoxes are these moments of balance between light and dark, the day and night in equal measure. And then on one side, III Air, a card of sorrow and heartbreak. And on the other, the flaming joy of the Sun.
So I am thinking about this state of balance between radical joy and heartbreak. How we hold both at the same time, how we cultivate balance somewhere in the middle.
The affirmation I am working with is,
I welcome paradox, I cultivate balance. I experience my joy and my sorrow.
I will add this to my morning prayer and have it written on a piece of paper next to my altar. I invite you to hold it with me as a point of gathering for this Autumn, as the Sun moves through cardinal Libra (Sept 22), fixed Scorpio (Oct 23), and mutable Sagittarius (Nov 21). As we reap our harvest and feel the balance of the equinox. As the wind blows and the trees shed their leaves and the nuts fall to the ground.
Part 2: The Summer
Persephone, in Paris
This summer began with Fete de la Musique in Paris. Hot, loud, beautiful, kind of uncomfortable.
bisous
I am lucky to have spent many summer days with kids and trees. We did yoga in the park. We ate dinner at picnic tables. We talked to swans in the canal.
ACAB + the Eiffel Tower
Icons
My pull for the Summer season was IX Air, IX Fire, and III Earth.
I was working on the ability to notice anxiety and use internal power to firm up boundaries, dedicating and rooting work in the needs of the collective, seeking and giving support.
Discovering Beauty Tarot, in sheets after printing
My Tarot deck was printed, stalled in production because of extreme weather, and then sent off to me.
A picnic with a dear friend
We walked and ran and danced. I pulled cards for other people. I did Tarot readings online. My partner is teaching me to like lifting weights again. We swam in the pool.
I learned more about the shapes my anxiety can take (IX Air). I learned about the places where my frontiers could use more fortification and clarity (IX Fire). And I worked with others to actualize dreams, plans, projects (III Earth).
I spent time at the Sea with one of my dear friends.
the Sea
I fell more in love with my partner, more in love with my family.
My cousin came to visit.
A flower from my cousin
And then, the decks set sail.
A deck, setting sail 🧿
I have just begun to process the experience of sending these off into the world. I wrote an update for Kickstarter where I tried to get some of it into words.
Prints, shipping
It is a culmination in this project that has lived at the center of me for a long while. The deck was created as I was going through divorce, parental estrangement, the ending of one life, and the beginning of something new. It coincided with the end of my first Saturn return.
The first thing I wrote for The Sun in my Tarot notebook, whose pages became the collages included in the extended guidebook
Getting to share Discovering Beauty Tarot with so many people is my dream. I am also exhausted — a little drained, a little jetlagged. A little brand new after these two Eclipses.
A truck on 14th Street
Part 3: Upcoming
I am grateful for the cool autumn breeze.
I am grateful that I got to bring Discovering Beauty to four different stores in person: Wooden Shoe Books & Records in Philadelphia, Gemtuitive in Boonton, NJ, Houss Freya in Montclair, NJ, and Scent Elate in my hometown of Manhattan. It is also in online shops, like Le Salon des Arcanes.
I am going to be doing another smaller shipment of decks and prints in November.
The pre-order store will open September 22nd until October 16th. Orders will lock on October 17th, and orders will be charged and shipped in the first and second weeks of November.
A birthday reading for my mom
I offer Tarot readings online.
I create illustrations and fine art as commissions.
I pull cards and write about them on the New and Full Moons.
I gather a small group of witches together at the New Moons in ritual. We will gather again on Sunday, October 19th. Send me a note if you would like to join us.
I had some photos developed recently of the show I put up of all 78 Discovering Beauty paintings back in March. I hope to show them all together again one day.
Thank you for being here. I will send another note like this one on the Winter solstice.
Until then, I am sending you love with my whole heart.
Sophia
she/her
