forecast for the week of June 15 - 22
It takes a lot of time to be a genius.
real quick: Parts & Charts: The IFS and Astrology Podcast has officially launched!
and I have received notes on how this podcast feels soothing and simultaneously stimulating. We’re having a blast with this, and hope you listen in (on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, and other podcast listening apps — or watch the video version on Substack). We release a new episode each Tuesday and soon we’ll be publishing weekly horoscope episodes ;)
this week’s astrological transits, 6 of Cups, 7 of Swords, The Sun, and a (film)bibliomancy from Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
Sunday, June 15: Mars in Leo square Uranus in Taurus
Sunday, June 15: Jupiter in Cancer square Saturn in Aries
Monday, June 16: Moon Void of Course from 12:31pm - 1:09pm CT (take a nap, don’t try to push it)
Tuesday, June 17: Mars ingress into Virgo (we are now officially out of the Mars Retrograde season)
Tuesday, June 17: Sun in Gemini sextile Chiron in Aries
Wednesday, June 18: Jupiter square Neptune in Aries
Wednesday, June 18: Moon Void of Course from 4:34pm - 6:08pm CT (plan for open time <3)
Friday, June 20: Sun ingress into Cancer (Summer Solstice)
Sunday, June 22: Mars in Virgo sextile Jupiter in Cancer
Sunday, June 22: Sun in Cancer square Saturn in Aries
the memo
Gertrude Stein is a kind of Winnie the Pooh (“what’s your favorite day?” “today”) for me — I think about her often and, often, things that she has said or done act as instructions for me. Feeling the energy of this week ahead, and looking at the cartomancy and (film)bibliomancy messages as confirmations, I think about Gertrude Stein and setting positive boundaries.
So, Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo (an Aries Sun) collected modern works of art before modern art was cool and also while it was very cool. People wanted to come over to their parlor to see the pieces and they’d ring over and over and over to the point where Gertrude could barely think, let alone put pen to paper. So, she designed a positive boundary with the understanding that it was inevitable people wanted to come over and I am sure she loved to yap herself (Aquarius Rising, Aquarius Sun, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and a Virgo Moon): beginning in 1906, the Steins hosted a weekly Saturday evening salon at 27 rue de Fleurus. This was a confluence of incredible food, interesting guests, exciting debates, you-can-imagine-it. And so there was this flurry of activity from dinner time until the early hours once a week. Then, Gertrude was left in peace to do her thinking and writing during the week relatively uninterrupted.
'It takes a lot of time to be a genius. You have to sit around so much, doing nothing, really doing nothing.' - Gertrude Stein
Do you feel the energy in your body, already? There’s this defensiveness. A feeling of rushing but not necessarily the energy to focus it, right? It’s hard to tell if the energy is “high” or “low” — it’s more, like, sideways.
What do you do when you sense you need to pull back your tendrils in your life?
What is your first strategy for reallocating energy?
How do you prefer to cultivate more of a centered, integrated way of living without cutting off what brings you joy: friends, play, pleasure, Self-energy?
Do what you need to do. Cancel plans. Axe projects. Put up digital boundaries. Have the hard conversation. Avoid the hard conversation.
But do not lose sight of the most important parts of this finite experience to you. And, if I had to guess, these have to do with having fun with the people you love, enjoying interesting art and conversations, and feeling free to express yourself openly.
Maybe you, too, need to designate a night for a dinner party so that you can cultivate your own genius throughout the week.
movement practice
Yesterday, I walked 13,427 steps (according to my phone). This many steps brought me to the lake and back a couple times, around the Kohler Arts Center (where a poem of mine hangs up!), and around the most beautiful protest in Peace Park. It’s lovely to be able to walk around this city (Sheboygan) so easily from my house, and to have the textures of these neighborhoods, the water, the lush gardens, so easily accessible to me, someone so prone to staying in and spending the day in my own head.
I think about Gemini season as the bilateral stimulation season: use your hands, use your legs, use your lungs to process all that has gone through my head and body. And so maybe I didn’t write yesterday, but I stimulated the process of integration yesterday in many different ways.
annotations
“reading with a pencil” - practicing sharing what I think in the margins, practicing having conversations with another writer through space and time, including myself who might read my annotations years from now.
I am dueling annotations with the previous owner of Adrienne Rich’s “On Lies, Secrets, and Silence" and loving it. This through-space-and-time collaborator of mine has big blocky handwriting and mine is mostly indecipherable to me, but I want to write more clearly so that the conversation between us and Adrienne Rich is well-documented. In this passage, I underlined “asking women’s questions” where the other annotation artist underlined the rest.
I am thinking about questions only women can ask, as well as stories only women can tell. And what are the edges here? Knowing what I know about conversations that can be had when I am in the room and when I am not, what conversations do I want to start that only I can? I am being vague because I have assumed a false belief that in-progress screenplays should not be spoken about because of risk of theft or deflation by comment. So I will say here: I want the next movie I make to ask women’s questions, and ask them well.
influences
I’ve been centered and inspired by New Ancient (Madaline Golestani)’s intention-filled tapestries and banners. And especially this banner; contemplating Gemini’s rulership of the hands and how our hands are another tool to connect the mind and the heart. A way into expression of our human-divinity.
field journal
hello self—I have a triangle of burnt skin on my chest because I did not wear the best clothing to be out in the sun for as long as I was, and with as little sunscreen as I applied. It looks like a Disney Princess necklace or, like, a pink felted oblong triangle. It’s kind of cool, though it’s radiating heat.
connect
for people in the Sheboygan, Wisconsin area: I facilitate a monthly grief poetry workshop at WordHaven BookHouse. This month, we’re focusing on queer grief — all experience levels welcome. We call this grief tending in good company. A space for us to share and create openly. Nothing is too heavy for us to witness. We are here to practice holding and expressing grief together. Registration and info here.
for previous astrology clients: starting with those born in June, each month I am offering complimentary written readings to reflect upon this past year of life, and to contemplate how to work with the energy of this coming year of life. June babies, check your inboxes for this invitation to make sure my messages get to you 🌞
And of course: My books are open for Astrology 1:1 Sessions <3
