unwinding & rewilding ~ intuitive practices & ancestor connections
Greetings, amigo. Happy full moon!
It's the time of year when many of us focus on ancestor practices and connections. This is an incredibly powerful time for that work, and I hope you're creating spaces for it. It's no coincidence that many cultures see autumn, a season of decay and death, as a resonant time to connect with those beyond the veil.
(Before I continue, a CN: this love letter digs into some intense topics. Most of this missive is blissful and illuminating. But these are still intense times.)
This season is also a powerful time to amplify your spiritual gifts—partly because they are often connected to (or a continuation of) your ancestral patterns. Also because healing and blessing ancestors are powerful ways to clear the way for your spiritual gifts.
For many years, I spent most of October and November leaning into ancestral kinship. My introduction to these practices was in high school Spanish class, when learning about Día de los Muertos. Over the years, I've experimented with a lot of things.
My staple practices have always been altars, music, and handmade things to burn, like letters, collages, or other art. I've burned vision boards, buried stones in the ground, made up melodies on the spot with no words.
As a result of unwinding and rewilding, I've had actual, direction connection with my ancestors. Not metaphorical. I have heard them and I felt them. Sometimes seen them.
Unwinding like –
~ Studying from people whose practices are grounded in lived experience and wisdom – because there's a lot of shallow drivel masquerading as depth.
~ Deepening my cultural fluency and learning more about social justice – because nothing has liberated my spiritual gifts like releasing toxic beliefs and conditioning. Seeing my ancestors' shortcomings and harm, some of which I witnessed.
For example, my immigrant grandparents were frequently racist. I witnessed many of those moments. Now I recognize that they were coming from a place of ignorance and fear, and in my ritual work I send them a lot of healing and blessings.
~ Dropping sh*tty, toxic people who weren't fully resonant. Sometimes that choice brings a lot of grief and heartbreak, about a long shared history when things weren't so bad. But I've never regretted the choice.
Rewilding like –
~ Going to conscious dance spaces and allowing my body to do whatever it wanted – which created spaciousness I didn't know was available. Not to mention burning through old much and drawing in more ease.
~ Carving out time every day for intuitive practices. Card pulls. Pendulum swings. Moon circles.
~ Honoring the fact that I truly am wilder than my ancestors' dreams. In my mother's line, I am the 2nd person to attend to college, and only the 3rd to finish high school. I am the first woman for whom marriage was not a requirement to live an adult life. The FIRST.
I don't take for granted that I live in freedoms they never could have fathomed. I thank my ancestors for their sacrifices, and I bless them for their shortcomings.
~ Realizing how often I've stifled myself, and then made space to show up as my whole self. (More on that below.)
This combination of rituals, play, meditation, intuitive play, and embodiment spaces have amplified my spiritual gifts—both ones I've always known and the surprise ones that have developed more recently.
One of the surprises has been that ancestor kinship is ongoing. I connect, very directly, with those beyond the veil. No longer concentrated to a month or two, the way it was years ago. I hear them and I feel them. Sometimes I see them.
(A death midwife and teacher I really respect, Narinder Bazen, describes this capacity so beautifully, as a type of "numinous communication.")
Last week, a friend died unexpectedly. The day I learned of her death, I worked on my self-practice from Dive Into Your Deck (because I practice what I teach). Later, I shared in the FB group for the class how much that effort helped shift my energy. Way better than scrolling aimlessly online or finding a way to numb out the shock and despair.
Though I'm gaining ease with this kind of communication, I still get nervous. But I connected to my friend, easily, later that night. Which has been a blessing, as I process this loss.
So, to recap:
What got me to this point was an intuitive unfolding of intuitive practices.
In other words, NOT following specific templates or adhering exactly to someone else's example.
Because it's a crucial to have space for YOU. To decide, to interpret, to claim. If you're following another example too closely, you don't have space to notice the subtleties of your own experience.
For example:
~ If you're never uncomfortable – you're not truly expanding.
~ If you're never having fun, like the full body delight wonder orgasmic magic awesome gut-busting laughter ecstatic fun – you're not truly expanding.
~ If you never find YOU, because all the focus is to be a follower – nothing emerges.
When there's space for you, there's space for your intuition and spiritual gifts to emerge and expand.
Those spaces of play and exploration and curiosity and compassion, the unwinding and rewilding, led me deeper into mySelf and my spiritual gifts. They're also a reminder that I don't "do" magical or spiritual things.
I am magic and spirit.
Already. Just like you.
This is why I'm not prescriptive—why classes and 1:1 sessions have so many moments when YOU must decide what to do, how to interpret, what to claim, how to embody.
If you want support, this is exactly why Siderealchemy exists. Because I've been making my way my whole life, creating the spaces to determine what's truly in alignment, rather than obeying outside examples. I wish the same (not the exact same, but your version of) embodied bliss for you.
~ Class update: My intention is that Dive Into Your Deck and Light Your Lantern, my classes about intuitive expansion via tarot and oracle practice, will be available later this year as self-study. Stay tuned to these letters for the details.
~ New to the site: a testimonials page. Because I believe in social proof, and because learning about people's actual experiences can help you understand if we're a good fit.
(You might notice that most of them are anonymous—this is to respect the wishes of those who shared. The nature of intuitive work is often intimate and vulnerable; I don't pressure people to transgress their boundaries.)
~ 1:1 sessions are spaces for you to unwind and rewild, so that YOU emerge and expand.
NEW as of now – you have the option for dedicated time to sound healing.
If you've had 1:1 sessions, you know they are co-created. Depending on what's in flow, we have moments of guided meditation, movement, or other things. This just means that sound healing is one more option that's available for our time together. You'll get my voice + some mix of acoustic instruments.
So, as usual, you decide. If you want me to sing you to wonderland or some other dimensions, we can make that happen.
(Please note - this is not a soundbath with a spread of crystal bowls, as I don't currently have space to set them up while also leading an intuitive session. If you're interested in a 1:1 or small group soundbath, just let me know. I'm expanding the options in real time .)
Full disclosure about this change: I have been, until right now, falsely dividing my intuitive work from my capacity as a musician. I thought I had to separate them, and I can't even explain the reasons, because they don't make sense anymore. Thanks to nudges from both sides of the veil, I am showing up as my whole self.
Again, I wish the same-but-not-same insights for you.
All of this to say –
In this powerful, liminal time, I encourage you to explore and experiment. Unwind.
Light the candles. Dance barefoot. Make the altar. Bake the food your ancestors loved. Walk in the woods. Listen to albums on headphones. Rewild.
Feed your spirit, and theirs. See what emerges and expands.
Revelling in the waning light,
S.
--
Siderealchemy
she / her / hers