Woo Corner for Flaming June
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Good people of the internet! June is here! It's fricken JUNE Y'ALL! I wait all year for this month, when the sunlight is actually green at my house because all the live oak trees have leafed out, just a wall of green outside of every window. It's my birthday month (more on this soon) and it's WARM. I'm WARM AGAIN. Ugh I love summer so much. The fecund swampland around me is buzzing with life. I've taken two naps in a hammock in the past two days, and I don't even like naps. But I like hammock naps, and cicada music. If you're new here (hi! welcome!) I use this monthly email to update you on the smatterings I've put out in the corners of the internet I whisper to. If you're just here for the functional woo, you can find it at the bottom of this email. From the PodlycastMay's audial offerings included:
From the PatreonThe Truth About Right Now:This is the title I use for any post that's a general insider view catch-up on the haps that do be happening to me- which in this post is very much about my in-process artist residency at ARC Take 2 Studios in Charleston, thanks to the wonderful performing artist and community linchpin Sarah Dionna! If you're in the Charleston area, you can see The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories on June 20th at the Queen Street Playhouse! I would be honored to perform for you. From The TrenchesFeaturing 27 portraits by Max Cooper taken at Creatrix of all of our inner shadows/artists, this post goes into more detail about The Monstrous Feminine (I'm premiering the first 30 minutes on June 20th, in a double billing with local dancer Georgia Schrubbe) and there's more gushing about Creatrix. :) More Haps:The Irish Aerial Dance Festival is OPEN and ready for ya! If you've been on the fence or assuming that it's sold out, IT IS NOT. The Irish Aerial Dance Fest is this July, so book yoself some ticcies and change the boundaries of your world forever. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other StoriesIn case you missed me screaming this from the rooftops, I'm splitting the evening of June 20th at the Queen Street Playhouse in Charleston with local dancer/choreographer Georgia Schrubbe. Here's an excerpt from the press release: The evening opens with excerpts from "The Monstrous Feminine," a one-woman work-in-progress show by Rachel Strickland that unflinchingly explores multiple facets of femininity. After a short intermission, dancers will bring to life the 1892 classic feminist short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in a brand new performance. It tells the story of a woman suffering from postpartum depression and her struggle to get well during a time when women’s mental health was not taken seriously. The titular yellow wallpaper, brought to life by a corps of dancers, fascinates and taunts the narrator as the lines between the narrator and the wallpaper become increasingly blurred. Both works question how women's bodies and women's minds are perceived by themselves and those around them. This is recommended for ages 16+, trigger warnings: mental health, postpartum depression and miscarriage. Doors open at 7:30 pm, show at 8 pm. If you're in the lowcountry area, I'd be honored to have you there! And without further ado: June's Woo CornerIf there's any card more misunderstood in the major arcana, I'd like to know about it. June's pull was: I won't say that this card never means death, it has once, for me. But it is very rarely literal. Mostly, it heralds or calls for an unmistakable transformation. This means it's not a "I'm going to start drinking more water" kind of change, but rather "I quit my job that I hated because I couldn't take it anymore" kind of change. Something is ending. You might not want it to, and you're entitled to feel that way. I've lost plenty of things I wanted to keep- but I'm glad I lost them. After a time, I could see what a gift that loss was. Like that first love you wanted to last forever but of course, it didn't, and isn't that soooo good?! I mean, hopefully your insides have shifted since you were what...14? A new friend Nataani read for me last week, and something she said that I had to write down immediately was: "Death is not unkind." Maybe read that again. Is it a scary card? Usually, yes- but consider WHY it is scary. It's shrouded. It's got one foot in the underworld, the upside-down, the unknown. It's a black-water swamp. It's a whole world in which we do not know the rules. It's a mystery. No one knows exactly what's under the surface of black water, we can only guess, and go canoeing anyway. So grab an oar I guess, because we have some decisions to make this month. Speaking of the unknown...I've decided the 2nd pull would be from The Wild Unknowns Animal Spirit oracle deck, gifted to me by my dear friend Sarah. As I was shuffling I was thinking, "gee I really hope this is going to be an epic card" because I enjoy epic things, and frankly I'm in the mood for epic shit. I'm in the mood for some dramatic cosmic purpose right now. Well... Welcome to the all-seeing eye of the dragon. Like Death, she is shrouded in mystery. Everyone knows what she is but also, no one does. But SHE knows. This card represents what the author calls "sacred intelligence"- the part of you that is beyond your ego understanding of yourself, and beyond your animal body and survival mode. There is a part of you wholly unconcerned with the mundane worries and problems that clutter up our brains. That part of you just KNOWS you, all of you, inside and out. "It is almost as if we are traveling with a great friend inside of ourselves." I think this card is an invitation to remember that part of ourselves, and invite them to the front of the class. Bring them forward. Ask them what they know. I actually pulled this as the secondary card in January as well- I'll quote my favorite bit here: It's utterly transformative, even in its subtlety, perhaps because of the element of surrender that's present. It's not an explosive experience, to surrender to your true nature. It's more like an exhale, or a relief. The world is the same as it was before, and yet everything is different because you are seeing your essential self clearly.
And it's already ready already. You're already at the table. You've already begun.
So here's to you and here's to me, and here's to the transformation of flaming June. Happy paddling. Don't go back to sleep. xoRachel |