Dear ones -

Here we are - the final month of the year in the Gregorian calendar.

I’m writing to you from Ireland and here on Éire and Alba (the longer ago names for Ireland and Scotland), our ancestors would have acknowledged the new year as having already begun at Samhain, end of October, early November.

This season, instead of being a time of rushing and full schedules and celebrations, would’ve been recognized as the dark, lean times of the year -where food and fuel are scarce and necessary and we’re living off of our reserve tanks. A season of seeds being planted and germinating in the womb.

When I’m in right rhythm with my body and the seasons, I think of this as the season of “going into the cave”. We withdraw into relative safety and darkness, gathering around fires and hearths, to craft, sing, tell stories, rest, and dream into the coming year.

And the truth is, on a geological and evolutionary time scale, we are much closer to our hunter-gatherer ancestors than we imagine. On the longer time scale, I’ve heard it said that they’re the equivalent of yesterday, or perhaps the day before, to us. Which means while technology and industrialization have moved us along at speeds we can barely fathom though our minds seem to be keeping up, our bodies need those older rhythms. We start to fall apart if we don’t honor them.

From a burnout perspective, the way our modern culture approaches the holiday season is an absolute disaster. It’s so out of alignment with this natural rhythm it creates massive dissonance within us. And the more dissonance we feel, the more we feel stretched too thin, pulled away from center, and desperate. And there’s some evidence that this is not by accident. See, capitalism needs us to be, thrives off of us being, desperate. Desperate people don’t pause to be discerning. Desperate people reach for anything (food, drink, shopping, sex, social media, etc) to soothe them. Desperate people are easier prey. (If you think saying this is intentional is a conspiracy theory, read Stolen Focus by Johann Hari. He makes some compelling cases).

So if you are feeling the emptiness of burnout, if you are feeling pulled too thin or desperate, I invite you to take some deep breaths and do your best to invite the energy of going into the cave to guide your pacing and rhythm as you choose who and what to say your yeses and nos to.

I’m available for 1:1 support if that feels like it would be helpful.

In addition to my thoughts on the season, this is our beginning of the month email for December with:

• a tarot card for our little collective for the month;
• yesterday’s New Moon podcast episode;
• and upcoming events/ ways to work with me (Insight 2025 will launch this month for all your new year tarot inquiries!).

Our Tarot Card for December:

Reminder: I always encourage folks who get my readings to look at the card themselves first and notice what comes up in their bodies. What emotions or sensations are stirred? What thoughts and stories seem to pop to mind? What do you find yourself repelled by or drawn to? It’s all part of noticing how the images and archetypes of the cards are wanting to work with us.

Now for my interpretation: Bows in this Wildwood deck are the wands suit- connected to fire, creativity, life force energy. Threes are about stability, but not so stable they become stagnant. Where two holds a precarious balance which needs constant micro adjustments to maintain, three is integrated enough to allow for some rest.

When I look at this card I find myself drawn to the idea of the hand up, signaling ‘stop’, or calling out for some attention; hailing us, as it were. There’s an invitation. And the figure in the card (the third bow) stands with a healthy tree behind them, at the meeting point of two trails. And their robe has the two intertwining snakes (similar to the Caduceus symbol) - the symbol for health, balance of dual forces (light and dark, masculine and feminine, etc). The figure’s cloak becomes the wings usually on the staff the snakes entwine around.

So in addition to the invitation to pause and pay attention, to rest for a moment, there is growth and a sense of general rising movement.

Taken all together, this card feels like an omen of rebirth, of optimism, of beautiful harmonious life force energy. Perhaps the fulfilling of cycles and potentials - maturation. Given that this December begins and ends with new moons, with the full moon falling right in the middle of the month; and contains the midwinter solstice (the longest night and return of the light); there is a sense of containment and balance. If we can lean into that and root deeply into compassion and heart, we have the potential to enter 2025 from a more resourced and nourished place.

I look forward to seeing how this prediction plays out this month and welcome hearing from you if this lands either now, or later. Or, if it diverges from your own sense, I welcome hearing that, too.

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A New Podcast Episode:

A conversation, instead of just me!

I recorded this conversation with Tamy Roloff back in late August and I’m excited to finally release it all to you.

If you’re finding yourself curious about aliveness and aging (perhaps particularly if you’re a woman and grappling with questions around whether it’s inevitable that we start to dry up when we reach middle age), you might enjoy this conversation.

Tamy is a midwife, herbal tea maker and seller, and mother and grandmother who still finds herself full of life and juiciness. And so she had a lot to say about birth, perimenopause, travel, plant wisdom, spirituality, aloneness vs loneliness, and self-trust when we sat down to talk.

​Join us around the fire and let me know what you think!

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Ways to Work With Me This Month:

Wisdom Wednesday:

Due to travel and holidays, this is on pause for the months of December and January. Would anyone be interested in a group attunement for the midwinter solstice? Let me know. Perhaps we do that instead…

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Insight 2025:

Have you enjoyed or found the tarot readings in these monthly emails supportive or helpful? And do you find yourself wondering how we can bring the cultural pressure of ‘New Year Intentions and Goal Setting’ into a perhaps more fruitful and easeful alignment with our instinct to tap into the dreaming space of this season? Working with tarot cards and their archetypes can help us bridge that gap.

Insight 2025 is your chance to have your own personal reading(s) where we’ll use the cards to:

• orient you when you aren’t sure what’s next;
• challenge and affirm your sense of the ebbs and flows of your life;
• support your discernment in where and how you’re directing and using your energy;
• and restore a sense of nourishing wonder, meaning, and magic in your day-to-day.

Rather than adding more goals and external pressures and motivations, rather than jumping too far to a future outcome and trying to work backwards from there; the cards can help you tap into internal desires and prompts, dreaming from the bridge between your body and soul - the only place true change and transformation can be effected - the ground we’re standing on, right now.

There are a range of options from a single card pull to give you a theme or archetype to work with for all of 2025, to a monthly membership where you get a new card each month to support ongoing practices of listening to Mystery. All are delivered via email so no scheduling is necessary (and can make for lovely gifts!).

Sales will open on December 7th and run until mid-January and you can expect more emails and information on it as we go.

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1:1

I do still have a few more spaces for 1:1 work right now. These sessions are a great way to commit to your own aliveness - especially if you’re feeling empty and like life is lacking the meaning and nourishment you’re hungry for. If that sparks some curiosity, or a ‘yes’ of some kind in you, you’re welcome to let me know. I’m happy to chat with you about whether we’re a right fit at this time (and no, that’s not euphemism for “say all the ‘right’ things to make you think we’re a fit”).

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with much love,

Kate