yes, we can have nice things // 03
upcoming newsletter changes, a list of truly glorious things, and your witch tip of the week
You’ve reached Cosmic Kudos, a weekly newsletter about astrology, spiritual expansion, magic, and the making of our own personal mythologies. Plus, specially curated recommendations, various writings, and thoughtful cultural criticisms delivered straight to your inbox 💌
If this was forwarded along to you, pls subscribe below. And if you’re already a subscriber, welcome back! I’d be over the moon if you shared this with a friend or someone you think would like it.
This newsletter is free, but you can support my work by buying me a coffee if you feel so inclined. Thanks, as always, for reading.
Hi cosmic crew,
I’ve been feeling a marked shift in energy this month, and I’m happy to share I’ve been following that surge all the way up.
Pisces season tends to start feeling a little, well, soggy as we continue to wade through its ever-deepening marshes. With Venus and Jupiter currently in Aries, though, I’ve been feeling that energy, that drive, manifest as an underlying desire to keep moving through situations that would have left me feeling stuck in the past. No more spinning my wheels in the muck.
It helps that I’ve been seeing a therapist while I work through my feelings about the Google layoffs. On Wednesday she and I spoke about certain anxieties that are old friends of mine, and I admitted that despite so much of the inner work I’ve done to continue showing up for myself, because of and despite those anxieties, there are times when it does not feel like enough.
She reminded me that revealing vulnerability around the fact that you are anxious or afraid, “feeling the fear and doing it anyway”,1 is a feat, and an inspiring one at that. Of course, this is subjective; and no matter how many times you may hear the phrase, it will iterate in completely unique—and uniquely terrifying—ways at different periods throughout your life. Sitting in the fire of the fear2, in the very center, where the risk of immolation is highest and yet… showing up for yourself, doing the things that once left you cold and scrambling in the dark, is something that inspires others to do so as well.
That’s the power of shadow work, babes.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Not only is it difficult to write into the wound, it’s almost entirely as difficult as admitting that I still have that wound. Naming it, again and again. Maybe it’s no longer open, the way it used to be; but there’s a very real possibility that it will always remain. And yet, I feel called to do it for a reason, just like the writers and artists I am most drawn to, the ones whose works provided a healing balm for me when I felt most disquieted. Key word here: healing.
And so, we keep showing up. We keep moving through. We keep feeling and writing into. We continue.
Some newsletter cadence changes:
The surge in energy I referred to above has made me realize there are a few things I want to switch up with this starry-eyed little missive.
First, I’ll be bumping up the cadence of this particular edition of CK to that of a weekly basis. Second, I’ll be changing it to a list format. Each week, it will now consist of a list of 13 nice things. Is this a way to better hold myself accountable? Absolutely. Is it also a way to stave off any personal “messay” (that’s… messy essay, yes) burnout I may start to form? Can’t deny it.
Check-ins with your witchy writer friend will be moving out to more of a monthly cadence, and by “monthly” I mean according to the astrological seasons. This will give me more time, energy, and clarity to collate the sprawling mess of my thoughts and recommendations for all of you gorgeous people.
One more housekeeping item:
There was a little typo in this post, where I linked a YouTube video from Useful Idiots detailing the “ways in which the American government has actively blocked aid to the people of Türkiye and Syria, and continues to do so in the wake of the tragic earthquakes last week.” Here I meant to write that aid to Syria specifically was being blocked due to US sanctions.
Okay, I’m done, I promise, and if you’re still here I appreciate you. So many gloriously nice things ahead!
1. Saturn leaves Aquarius in less than two weeks (March 7), which means that if you are currently in your Saturn Return, as am I, it will be over so, so soon. (!!!) More on Saturn in an upcoming newsletter.
2. This list of joyous beauty in seeming mundanity written by my friend Yardena makes for quite the lovely read. Among other things, it’s what has inspired me to start formatting nice things. in a similar list style.
3. I’ve got a love/hate relationship with LA. I’ll find myself romanticizing it—I am, after all, a Francesca Lia Block girl: a jacaranda blossom-loving, snarl tangle-haired Witch Baby in the flesh. Every time I’m there lately (read: for Presidents’ Day weekend, celebrating my mom’s birthday), somehow I find myself thinking, maybe I could live here… then, multiple hours sitting in traffic later, I’m rudely disavowed of this notion. Regardless, 73 degrees in February is an objectively very nice thing.
4. So, too, are Shower Thoughts in this glorious space:
5. This piece on the Studio Ghibli theme park that opened its doors in Japan in November 2022. I would like to go to there.
6. Christian and I discovered the most amazing thrift store in the Haight. I use the word “discovered” loosely, since I’d walked by it a thousand times without entering (prior to this, the most recent of which was during spooky season and there was an absolute hoard of potential costume-buyers queued up and waiting to get in). I’m still thinking about the impressive displays of costume jewelry—massive glass cases housing pearls and turquoise, so many old and beautiful things, not to mention the sheer amount of vintage clothing. Love a good vintage or thrift store find!
7. Got my very first paid subscription pledge last week. Shoutout to my generous cousin Mahan, who has always cheered me on with unfailing support, a Sagittarius I’m unbelievably lucky to have in my corner! He’s the best.
8. There’s just something about being delusional. Maybe its current popularity is a byproduct of our societal obsession and inclination toward disassociation, escaping from “reality,” etc., and/or maybe The Secret walked so it could run (though it’s convinced it can fly—wink wink). Either way, I’m with it, and I’m gliding on high, coasting on the feathered pinions of my own delusion. Loved this piece my friend Ali Vingiano wrote about her own experiences with the art of delusion-making and manifesting her writing career in Hollywood. Spoiler: The childhood letter she penned is really heartwarming.
9. I’ve been zipping through a gorgeous fantasy novel. A Fire Endless, the sequel to A River Enchanted, is set on a magical Scottish-inspired isle home to elemental magic, music, and spirits/faeries. The world building is excellent. Author Rebecca Ross has penned many a YA fantasy, but the first book of this pair was her first foray into adult, and while it seemed she was still finding steady footing in some parts of River, she reached her confidence in Fire. And I love that. An easy and enjoyable read.
10. If you know me, you know that Chani Nicholas is one of my all-time favorite astrologers—and a go-to on anything social justice-related. This conversation on Lit Hub Radio between her and Mira Jacobs on writing and astrology as a response to trauma is excellent.
11. I’m an admitted ASMR Reiki addict (the YouTube rabbit holes are tremendous). If you’re not familiar, ASMR, or “autonomous sensory meridian response”, refers to the tingling or goosebumps sensation that arises in response to certain audio or visual “triggers”, i.e. whispering, scratching, and hand movements and what they call finger flutters, the last of which are common in Reiki as well. (Some people are into listening to others eat on camera, too. Not my thing, but hey, we don’t kink shame here.) If you’re curious, and/or have difficulty falling asleep at night (hey, same), this video from one of my favorite “ASMRtists” may just send you straight into dreamland. Queue it up for later!
12. The following poem, because I’ll simply never tire of Mary Oliver:
Things are changing; things are starting to spin, snap, fly off into the blue sleeve of the long afternoon. Oh and ooh come whistling out of the perished mouth of the grass, as things turn soft, boil back into substance and hue. As everything, forgetting its own enchantment, whispers: I too love oblivion why not it is full of second chances. Now, hiss the bright curls of the leaves. Now! booms the muscle of the wind.
—“Last Days,” Devotions
And last up, a little witch tip of the week:
13. If one of your houseplants shrivels and dies seemingly out of nowhere, it’s not always due to your degree of (or lack thereof…) green thumbery! Your leafy bud—pun fully intended, heh—could be catching negative energy for you, whether it’s from someone sending it your way in a public space (this can be conscious or unconscious), or something you brought into your home. This is also why it’s important to regularly cleanse our energy bodies.
Talk soon!
There are times when this will not work—as in, when your nervous system is dysregulated, and/or you are in a situation where you feel/are unsafe. If the former is the case, working on regulating your nervous system and learning to self-soothe are going to be necessary steps to “facing” your fear (among other things). Obviously, this isn’t medical advice, and if the latter is the case, there’s no chance I’m going to tell you to do it anyway. :) Needed to be said.
Quoted from Lindsay Mack’s February is Uncertainty episode, via her Tarot for the Wild Soul podcast, which I referred to in this post.