The Untamable Shrew

Scorpio season themes and the loom of Election Day

Dear Reader,

I’ve been thinking about you. Wondering if you too are feeling the weight of the fate of the future. Wondering if your body is also harboring anxiety in that place between your ribs just below your heart; a chest full of grief that sometimes wells up and out. Are you tired, too? Dear women, maybe you feel me.

First, I must acknowledge that this month I’ve strayed from my writing commitment — a promise to myself, and to you, to sit and put words to the page every week; imperfect but true, thoughtful yet not overly considered, a breakaway from a perception of perfection. Guilt has crept in sometimes and then I re-recite to myself my intentions in starting this publication. To stay inspired and authentic. Consistency over perfection. “On brand” content be damned. These times are weighty and I have a lot on my mind and on my heart. Where to begin when there is so much I want to say, but lack the adequate words to share. Some important conversations, themes, and collective events have cropped up around me while I’ve been full of feelings and light on written words that feel intrinsically connected. While I still feel the brick wall of writer’s block caused by the overwhelm of it all, I will share a patchwork of things currently on my mind in hopes that it will speak to something that’s been brewing inside of you too. Perhaps something you too haven’t been able to put words to, but is aflame inside.

The bones of late October have ushered us into Scorpio season — notoriously intense and magnetic, a pull inward, a drag through the subterranean. Welcome to the fertile dark. Dear reader, what are you excavating from the underground of your life? Where are you journeying to in your own deep dark underworld? The thematics of this astrological season has much to teach us about reckoning with and working with the shadowy parts of ourselves. The messy. The untamed. The feral. The defiant. The neglected. The shunned. The angry. Words that (to women especially) feel unmentionable or taboo to claim. Claim them.

This season, and this week particularly as the election looms, I urge you Dear Reader — Dear Woman! — to unravel from your veil of “goodness” and to befriend your rage. Move it up and out. To keep it sequestered will only swallow you up. You needn’t keep sweet to make yourself more palatable. Step into and embody the full potential of your power. Shed any self inflicted suppression and surrender to the altar of your own ferality.

The rise of the Matriarchy.

I implore you, Dear Reader, for the sake of yourself, for the children in your life and the ones yet to come, for the safety of the women you love, for access to reproductive health care, for the person you love who’s needed an abortion (and we all know someone), for the sustainability of life on this beautiful planet, for the department of education that grants every child equal access to learning, for the freedom to read whatever damn book you want, for the person who doesn’t look like you or love like you but still has every right to happiness, for the freedom of choice and the security of our rights to resist — because there’s still work to do, for the youth and the immigrants and the incarcerated and every person that is a part of the fabric of this country and doesn’t have the privilege, but you do —

VOTE.

What I’ve been learning about

Black Moon Lilith, a richly symbolic figure in astrology and history who can teach us about our independence and place of defiance

“All About Lilith: Her Myth, Her Meaning, And Her Place In Your Birth Chart”, Down To Astro podcast

Worth a listen

“The ‘Good Girl’ Trap”, Financial Feminist podcast (especially the second half)

“How Project 2025 Will Affect Women, LGBTQIA, Abortion Rights And More”, Financial Feminist podcast

*While my creative focus is largely rooted in the beauty of slow, intentional living, it is important to note that it meets at the intersection of all collective social issues and is not merely an inspirational aesthetic or exclusive lifestyle. The ethos I share here is not non-political and it certainly is not neutral. I believe that justice movements that work to liberate all are fundamental to my own work’s mission — to make simple pleasures and a connected lifestyle accessible to everyone. Sharing about the hard stuff and talking about the hard feelings that comes with it is vital to fostering authentic connection. It’s what builds bridges of understanding. So while I will return to letters on beauty and creative living again soon, know that this too is part of it. Thanks for being here, for all of it.