Blessings, beautiful souls —
I know I keep saying this, but there is something about this October, man… Something is emerging that I have not quite been able to name – but maybe I’m not meant to name it. I am endlessly pulling Major Arcana cards for my daily pulls (literally every day). Very transformative healing is happening. Doors are being closed while others are being opened. My identity as The Liminal is settling, rooting itself, becoming One with me. The Council continues to present themselves as essential to this big picture (even taking over other sessions now). New names are offered to me and humbly accepted. My oral (trance) channeling is strengthening. I am transforming – and yet, at the same time, have no need, desperation, or want to know what I will become. I just am and will be. That knowing is enough.
I sit in this space of action and inaction without guilt, trusting it will all unfold as it is intended to. I cannot put into words what I feel is happening within me; I just know it is beyond me and a part of me. I know that doesn’t make sense to read, but it makes sense to embody. Even my husband feels a shift within him and recognizes that things are getting weirder with me. There is this longing in me to write it, to share it so that others may step into it as well, but I don’t know what words to write. I don’t know how to explain it. There is just something about this month that is, very clearly, important. And I’m not sure what I am meant to do with that; perhaps just accept it. There is something rapidly unfolding, and I brace myself for the wave of it all.
I recently watched this YouTube video and found it extremely poignant, so I saved it to share here:
As someone who is living her life offline, it all resonated with me; and when I saw the image of The Lord of the Rings on the title screen, a book I’m reading at this moment, I was reminded that Tolkien once wrote about his own personal philosophy and guidelines for consumption. This aligns quite perfectly with my recent blog post on intellectual consumerism. Essentially, he encouraged others to do the following:
1. Consume what nourishes your imagination, rather than what merely occupies your attention.
We live in an information age where the richest folks gain their wealth off of your attention. Your attention has become currency, and where you spend it really defines how you are nourished. Because what you consume is exactly that – being consumed energetically by all of you – your mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical self. I even channeled a message about this in one of my newsletters:
Can you speak to the idea of Attention Investment more fully?
“It is quite obvious: where you put your attention is where your soul is bought. Yes, we state that again: you are selling your soul to whatever has your attention. It sounds extreme from the human perspective of selling your soul (as this has always been associated with darkness) and perhaps it evokes a little tinge of fear, but that is not the intention with the message. You are intended to reflect more honestly: your attention is an investment of your spiritual growth and human expansion. Where you put it defines how you are shaped. So, where will you invest it? Imagine you have ten coins and are invited to a market where there are ten booths awaiting your spending. You cannot leave this market without spending all ten coins. You have ten booths with ten things to consume but each one has an impact on your mental, emotional, spiritual – and even physical – being. The Social Media booth fools you into feeling connected but provides you with internalized fear, jealous comparison, a sense of being inadequate, but also a comforting dialogue with a single friend. Will you spend it at the Social Media Booth? And then we have the Presence booth – when you spend your coin here, you will feel gratitude, grace, authentic connection – but you might have a little bit of boredom thrown in there. Will this get your money? Reflect on what is worth your attention – where the pros outweigh the cons, where the grace grants you spiritual Alignment rather than duality and disconnect. You will run out of coins eventually – and they all must be spent.”
Interestingly enough, my WordPress editor ‘crashed out’ as I was pasting that message; something doesn’t want to lose your attention investment. Something thrives off of keeping you distracted. But what you should be asking yourself as you consume content is: Does this content deepen my understanding of myself, others (through Unity and not division), or Spirit, or am I consuming it simply because it’s available?
I am reminded of something that was sent to me (and something that also led to the reconciliation with my old best friend): this Instagram post of ‘the warzone’ happening in France. First, that’s not the reality of all of France; it’s just being sold as such to occupy your attention and distract you from the misery you feel in your own country. Second, some of the videos are quite literally “fake news” – they’re videos from the summer following a football win (and not the riots related to high schools happening in some places right now). This is just intended to occupy your attention because the more you stay distracted in the loop of fear – especially fear of “what lies beyond your country lines” – the more you contribute to the mindless consumer culture and scrolling culture that keeps you trapped in despair and unhappiness.
2. Return to what matters rather than constantly seeking something new.
Consumption asks: What else can I read, watch, acquire, or learn?
Cultivation asks: What am I doing with what I have already encountered? How has it changed my thinking?
We don’t need to check another book off our To-Be-Read list just to say we did it. We can return to the familiar and gain new understanding from it, by looking at it under a new lens, with new, grown eyes, with greater discernment. It’s why I reread the Lord of the Rings (almost) every year; every time I read it, something new emerges.
Sustained engagement with one subject is how one dissects the pearls of wisdom that are within it.
3. Leave room for wonder, reflection, and independent thought.
Non-fiction informs us. It provides us with information, we receive it, and that’s the extent of the spiritual exchange. Fiction allows us to experience. When we open a fantasy novel, we enter a world that asks nothing of us except our willingness to inhabit it. We are not necessarily looking for answers. We are not trying to become better versions of ourselves. We are simply experiencing another reality through our imagination. And paradoxically, that experience can transform us more deeply than deliberately pursuing transformation!
This third point is a great reminder to myself, especially as I stay stuck in an endless spiritual non-fiction loop (I am a mood reader). Yes, spiritual non-fiction informs me and allows me to become a better verson of myself, especially for my clients, my family, and my friends. But at the same time, I enter it with an expectation and my blinders are on for the entire reading experience. Fiction allows me to just be taken away – and within that flight, I may find myself changed! That is because the wisdom is encountered rather than directed and instructed.
We learn about courage without reading a book about courage (like Frodo Baggins). We encounter grief without studying the psychology of grief (like when Gandalf fell). We experience loyalty, sacrifice, love, hope, and the complexity of moral choices (throughout the LOTRs) without anyone presenting them as lessons.
And Tolkien believed that fiction and faery tales allows us to recover our ability to wonder. He felt that over time, the familiar becomes invisible to us, because we stop noticing the extraordinary qualities of ordinary things. There is an enormous industry (ie. social media) that thrives on selling you the idea that you constantly need to be improving yourself (or buying something to do so). We don’t always need to be informed, consume information, purchase the thing, know the thing, and store data… sometimes we just need to wonder.
I do not need to know more, consume more, or even understand more to continue becoming. I can simply be – and that seems to be my ongoing lesson.
If you wish to support my work further, have a look at all my books, journals, and decks, available here. If you want to work with me as a spiritual healer or wish to have a tarot reading with me, check out my services through Seeking Celestial Grace and Awakened Little Souls.
xx C
