January Woo Corner

Good morning glories, artists, weirdos, hoes, wonderful creatures, and happy freakin new year!

Low-work December has drawn to a close, and given it's gifts abundantly. If you're new here (hi!! come on in!) and don't know what low-work December is, you can read about it here and I HIGHLY recommend trying it out sometime. It takes a lot of work, but I'm ravenous for the feast of doing absolutely jack shit nothing by the time it comes around each year.

It also means by the time we reach the first Monday in January I'm chomping at the bit to get back to work. That is what I'm doing right now, this very moment. It's delicious.

These monthly newsletters are where I attempt to briefly summarize all the corners of the internet that I whisper to, because we all have busy lives and if you miss something, you'll have a chance to see it again. If you're here for the functional woo of Woo Corner, you'll find it at the bottom of this email. Otherwise grab yourself a tasty beverage and sit down, stay awhile. You are very welcome here.

On Desire:

thank you RJ Muna for the original photo, it was exactly what I wanted

From December 26-30, I released my first free minicourse, a guided 5 day journey designed to re-acquaint you with Desire. AKA so we can know WTF we want! I loved creating this SO much, and I got beautiful feedback about it.

I also know that it sucks keeping track of emails to "come back to" so I put the course into an easy-to-bookmark teachable course. It includes all the audios and the transcripts. You do have to have an account with teachable to access it, but it's still free99.

So if you wanna try out the course without keeping some emails unread in your inbox, you can find it here:

Desire on teachable

On the Audacity Works Podlycast:

Audacity Works is a podcast inspired by and dedicated to the working artist, the creative entrepreneur, and generally doing the damn thing. This exists on the premise that the world belongs to those who have the audacity to believe their lives have value. I created this to inform, inspire, and frankly- because I have a lot to say.

New episodes go live every Wednesday at 6am EST! December's aural hugs include:

Episode 162: "The Cavalry Isn't Coming" with Adam O'Keeffe - a long awaited interview with filmmaker and author Adam O'Keeffe on managing a team on big group projects, advice for applying for funding, and how he's such a chill MF.
Episode 163: Changing Habits (#$%#!) - I quit vaping, so I used this opportunity to answer a question from a listener on how to walk the line between white-knuckle discipline and giving ourselves grace
Episode 164: Winter Solstice Rituals - a little buffet of delightful options to sample
Episode 165: A Christmas Story - literally just a story about Christmas from circa 1993
Episode 166: WTF is "shadow work"? - an episode by request, defining this oft bandied-about term, as well as what you can expect from me in the coming year

On the Patreon:

Half lovely, half horrible- this month's Patreon post was inspired by the Norse goddess Hel, who has long ensorcelled my imagination. I read about her first in a rain-soaked magazine I found on a bench on my college's campus. I had been wandering around in a cloud of self-loathing (you'll excuse me, I was 18) because I'd had the gall to make a mistake of some kind.

Reading about Hel somehow surged the electricity in my brain in exactly the way I needed to realize I was not designed to be without flaw. I realize that it seems obvious to us now as the educated, worldly people we are now, but conditioning is a bitch. If it weren't perfectionism would not be a problem for so many artists and creators.

So I'll leave you with this, and you can read the rest on the patreon:

What is the body that cast no shadow?

And without further ado:

Woo Corner for January 2025

I've decided to change things up again this year. Rather than use the same structure every month like I have the past few years, I've decided to pull cards for you according to instinct each month. So some months there might be one card, some there might be three. I might use different decks, I might stick with my favorite (it's Thoth btw).

Let's see what happens...

Once I got grounded and cleared my house of any buggery that did not belong to me, I was feeling animals. So I chose two animal decks that have been gifted to me, and drew according to this design:

on the left, what we should focus on this month
on the right, advice on how to accomplish this focus

Lions first! (get it?)

Element of fire. Driving force: self mastery.

I guess try not to die of shock that the first card of the new year is self-mastery, right after we spent all of December doin that good self-reflection, and deciding what we wanted to change in the coming year. I think the cards are trolling us a bit, if I'm honest. Like they're saying "hey you know that stuff you decided you wanted to do? Do that."

As well, being of the fire element, what has been identified as valuable has been driven by desire.

Touche, lion, touche.

Now something I will say about self-mastery or mastery of any kind whatsoever is that we MUST accept and begin from where we are. No growth, improvement, or movement is possible without first acknowledging where our feet are right now. Only then can we choose to focus on what we've identified as most valuable, using THIS body. This brain, exactly as it is today. This financial situation. This environment that we immediately occupy. All things are possible, but only from HERE.

"Stop staring at me, Swan"

Please tell me at least one of the other 40-somethings on this list get that joke.

And honestly, the trolling continues with Swan. Grace, patience, and trust in our own evolutions are the advice here. There's got to be something said for the tension in this reading between "focus on what you said you wanted to focus on" as well as "stop trying to control every aspect of your own growth".

White-knuckling change ain't the way, we are vulnerable human animals, not machines. So if we can acknowledge our regal strength as well as our fragile vulnerabilities, we stand a chance at exanding the way we hope to.

My favorite direct quote from the booklet for Swan is the perfect closing, so I'll give it to you exactly:

"Stop denying that you know who is calling when the phone rings."

DAMN. Spicy. Thanks universe, I love it.

Feel free to hit reply if you have a response, I read every one.

Go in grace, and

Don't go back to sleep.

xoRachel