Today’s audio is about devotion. In the midst of tenderness and surrender, I think about my why - what keeps me coming back to soul work, to life, and to connection with my guidance. I am willing show up messy, when I don’t feel like it, when I don’t feel good. It is an imperfect practice of my devotion to life.
Today’s message is for those who have been told they you are too sensitive, or too much. To those who have felt your perception and inner knowing a burden. It is an invitation for you to bring curiosity to your own guidance, in order for you to build genuine interpersonal connection with all forms of life around you. Your availability to life is an unbelievable blessing. It is the love that keeps it all together. The devotion that uplifts the powerless and holds close those in danger of losing their faith.
Thank you for your willingness to see. We need you. Thank you.
Meditative text of the week:
A message from the Creator, screenshot taken of a story posted by @__propehta__ on Instagram. I’m not personally familiar with this book but was moved by this passage. This speaks to that interpersonal relationship with creation I talk about in this week’s audio, the sense of aliveness that illuminates the path. It also makes me think of a phrase that came to me a few weeks ago: As I am seen by god, let it be so.
Other things I thought about this week:
I engaged slightly less with pop culture this week. But I did watch the movie Trap (2024) by M. Night Shyamalan. First, I’ll say what I did like about it: I truly miss the genre of mid-range-quality thriller that was much more prominent in the ‘90s. A movie that you would catch in syndication when you were sitting at home paying more attention to other things but maybe, like, Andy Garcia would serviceably show up in a movie that was watchable but ultimately forgettable. Trap has that kind of energy. We need more okay movies like that. Not everything has to be a big budget production or a meaningful treatise.
BUT! It is also hammy and implausible af. The acting is at times laughably bad. It is so trope-y it hurts. In casual conversation, I would call it garbage, but with nuance, I would say it’s a light step below mediocre for me. But nonetheless weirdly comforting still because of the aforementioned familiarity.
Also, Kid Cudi randomly shows up as a diva performer and I genuinely don’t know what side of the like/dislike spectrum his performance shows up on for me. The wig was certainly wigging though.
I rewatched The Batman (2022) which led me to start watching The Penguin (2024). First: The Batman feels like a wholly unnecessary movie to me, but I don’t find that part to actually be a problem. What it does bring to the table is what I think would be a more realistic portrayal of what Batman would be like irl: a creepy weirdo emo edgelord. Robert Pattinson looks quite literally like a fish out of water every time you see him in daylight or without the Batsuit on. Pale and gasping for breath. It works well in that regard. Its take on Gotham’s corruption is slightly fresher for a contemporary capitalist-critical world. Otherwise, it feels like it just rehashes old Batman tropes done better in other movies (Batman Returns (1992) and The Dark Knight (2008)). Having said all that, I do like it. It looks great visually and I do like the message at the very end.
The Penguin is decent! Colin Farrell is great, and unrecognizable in both his prosthetics and mannerisms. There are a lot of women involved in the production of the show - it was created by a woman and almost all of the episodes have had female directors so far. I wasn’t going to watch it, but I saw the headlines about how episode 4 earned one of the highest IMDb ratings for a superhero TV show ever, a 9.5. So after my Batman rewatch, I decided to give it a try.
Episode 4 of The Penguin is super revealing and important in terms of the lore of Sofia Falcone, one of the main characters, but I found it quite difficult to watch parts of it. A big part of the Batman universe is about the “crazy” villains that plague Gotham City. (Note: I don’t perceive what I’m sharing as spoilers per se, but if you don’t want to know anything about what happens, then I wouldn’t keep reading this paragraph) In this episode, we see how Sofia ended up in Arkham Asylum ten years before the events of the show, and the trauma she goes through there. It is rough watching the stereotypical, over the top depictions of madness, and women abused for being supposedly crazy! I wish media did better with these gritty set pieces by connecting them to commentary on larger systemic structures of sexism (i.e. “hysteria” as a diagnosis to control and dismiss the real problems and ailments women had/have) without leaning almost entirely on insane asylum tropes and the depiction of graphic pain and women losing bodily autonomy. I know that is asking too much of Hollywood. But I hoped that this episode would go a little bit further in making those connections considering the betrayal in Sofia’s story, to take it beyond torture porn. Others may say they do do this successfully in the episode. But to me it wasn’t enough. Cristin Milioti kills it in her role though. She is captivating.
Speaking of madhouse tropes, I thought about this in the context of my newsletter last week, with the Terence McKenna quote, “the fire in the madhouse at the end of time.” To me, that quote felt in alignment with my understanding of insanity in a world that is literally on fire, where bigots openly declare their allegiance to fascism, genocide destroys the lives of hundreds of thousands, and mystics and prophets try to talk about the possibility of love enduring in the midst of it all, taking guidance from our nature and non-human allies in this realm and the next. I also felt that it was a fitting quote considering my own relationship with mental health, or lack thereof, and the phoenix-like breaking free of those societal constraints and norms around wellness that are necessary to being a deeply feeling person in this world.
I have started sharing about my interest in pop culture because I want more for us in the media we consume. I want more nuance, more good faith conversations, more room to explore what has been systemically overlooked. So any criticisms I have of that Penguin episode come from this place of wanting us to think about the deeper roots of meaning of what we consume, what we are taught through it, and how we can have more connective dialogue outside of social media hot takes and arguments.
I’m not offering any neatly wrapped theses in these media thoughts at this time, but I do like to use this space to explore what comes up for me in the energetic field, whether it be through a channeled download or from pop culture. I want to make space for it all because it is an integral part of the world, and there’s so much we can learn from what we see as mere entertainment, especially in the highly propagandized West. So as long as it feels aligned, I’ll keep sharing my little thoughts here and there, and in the process you can get to know me, the person behind the witchery, a bit more. Because of course, the very act of living life is a daily spell, messy, imperfect, weird and all.
Anyway, that’s what I’ve got for this week. This is your usual reminder that my books are open for readings and mentorship.
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