thoughts on wisdom and an invitation to join


Dear ones -

A few mornings ago I woke up with my heart-fire all but extinguished and the old hag of winter rattling around through the snow-dampened quiet and the bare-boned trees inside me.

One part of me immediately wanted to ‘fix it’ - to be back to feeling young and full of dreams and fire again. “Who am I if not the things I do?” this fearful part seems to ask. She carries a sneaky belief that, like a shark, if she stops moving the death will become permanent.

But a deeper part of me knows to lean ever so gently in.

This wiser part of me went through my morning rituals, hearing the call to close my altar space entirely. Then the call to reopen. It wasn’t enough to shift and refresh - something is needing to close out entirely to allow for rebirth. I grieved and released through my morning meditation and found refuge again with the hag, with the eternal quiet.

There is a wisdom in these rhythms and practices. In these eldering ways. And thanks to Stephen Jenkinson, I’ve been thinking about how it’s less the content of the wisdom, and more the tools and processes we have for becoming wise which are transferable between generations and deserve our devotion and sense of responsibility.

Here we land in the heart of my life's work: to sift through the ancestral wisdom we carry in our bodies, to craft ritual and ceremony again in old and rooted ways, so we might remember again, or not lose beyond recovery, how to become wise.

I’m just over two months back in the States after my four-month pilgrimage and integration is still happening. But there’s something coalescing within my various offerings around the ways we have to become wise - to unfurl ourselves into Life (and Death) like nature demonstrates, everywhere we look.

Something is coming through me which, at this time, is calling itself “Pillars of Ancestral Perceptions”. By which I mean: the practices and ways of being I feel are fundamental to a wiser, more relational way of belonging to, seeing, and speaking with ourselves and the world around us.

I’ll share more about those as the offers continue to come together and the time feels right, but in the meantime, these fundamentals, which have always to some extent been present in my 1:1 work, are really coming through in my newer group offerings.

After two months of exploratory sessions, our first cohort for Sanctuary is now enrolling and I can say with confidence, this is a powerful gathering.

Stemming from a heart desire I was feeling to find soul-soaked community places where we can come home to our deeper selves; and responding to a yearning I hear time and again from clients to make time to tune in, and to find other like-minded, like-hearted, soul-seeking question-askers they can feel at home with…

I crafted this monthly gathering as that place.

Designed to bring in some of the best elements from religious spaces but for us wild, witchy humans; informed by these ancestral processes for becoming wise; and rooted deeply into both our individual and shared spirits and humanness… there is magic here.

If this calls to you, I hope you’ll join us.

with love,

Kate

P.S. Enrollment for Sanctuary is open until March 26th and then won’t open again until at least the Solstice in June, possibly not until August.

P.P.S I’m super excited and honored to be a guest teacher in a six-month mentoring program run by friend and trusted peer Jaime Lehner: Women of the Earth - Plants, Consciousness, & Energy Medicine.

If you’re someone who has some experience working with plant medicines and is looking to: embark on a transformational journey that also teaches foundational knowledge about how to commune with plant spirits, navigate energy & consciousness, develop shamanic & spiritual awareness, hone your creative healing skills and facilitate inner and outer energetic transformation by radiating and sharing your unique medicine… this may be for you. I’ll be sharing on Ancestral Healing and Plants.

Jaime has a recording of a free class up on the program page so you can get a sense of her and what this is about and is happy to schedule a phone call to chat about it. You can let her know I sent you.

2923 Pine Spring Rd, Falls Church, VA 22042
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Hi! I'm Kate - an intuitive, medicine woman, and guide for embodied Presence

Are you a compassion warrior, culture worker, and rebel who cares deeply about humanity; who's tired of doing all the “right things” and still getting what you’re trying to avoid; and who feels trapped between burning it all down or dying but would rather be wildly, and sacredly alive? I'm an animist and ancestral wisdom guide; ceremonialist, and empath. And I love guiding other humans who want to use their burnout and purpose anxiety as a jumping-off point to journey into their shadows and the shadows of modern society in order to de-armor their hearts; remember a deeper, wilder sense of belonging to the world; and reclaim the rich and sacred spark of their aliveness. This newsletter contains wisdom nuggets, podcast episodes, and invitations to paid and free offerings from my business. All in support of remembering a more animist and land-based culture; holding firm to our humanity in a dehumanizing world; and living with compassion, vulnerability, and reverence.

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