Pause. Root yourself in where you are, your own landscape of living. Allow yourself to be, whole and here, held and heard. Keep a space for the sacred at the center of your own life. Hold it holy. Return often.
Happy weekend! I hope you are making some space to steep in the deepness of this thick, heavy, hot summer season. To honor the abundance of this time of year, we have our new Summer Meadow goddesses in the shop. We also still have some of our special edition Pele-inspired Lava goddesses available.
This week's magic:
It is now that we are invitedto step into the cauldron of change,to sink downand inand let everything we are carryingsoften and melt awaywhile we remember how it feelsto simmer in everythingwe have made,all that we love to tasteand serve.
My most recent essay for Feminism and Religion, Notes from the Cauldron of Change, was published this week.
14 minute mini ritual video: from reactive to creative, more allies for August.
scroll all the way down to the bottom for your free companion card set!
New audio for Everyday Magic: Wild Enchantment.
I’ve actually started working on my next book! A Book of Magic Days should be finished by late fall. As I explained in this week’s community practice live, when I say “writing a book,” what I really mean is that all of the pieces of the book are already written, I just have to start putting the puzzle together and getting it all formatted and laid out. Unfortunately, the laying out part is the hard and boring part. I’m really in the thick of it! I am up to April in it so far. I was hoping to have the first draft in my actual hands by the end of this month, but I don’t think I’m going to make it that swiftly.
Speaking of writing, I’m so pleased to announce that we’re offering a free, special Writers Workshop on October 9th at 7:00 central time (via Zoom) with the founder of Rolla Writers Club, Derek Zboran. Feel free to bring your questions for the second half of the night which will be a writers Q & A segment about writing, self-publishing, and more!
Life’s Bits and Pieces:
We all need momentsof pause in our days,moments with clear eyesand open hearts,a willingness to step into magicand to be alert for scraps of enchantment.We need timewith our breath slow in our bellies,our hearts easy in our chests.May we be brave enough to listento what we need.May we open to trust.May we be brave enough to listen.May we choose and actfrom the centerof our own living wholeness.
reading:
(to self) The Raven Boys—not fully sure how I feel about this one yet. Older-YA fiction about a girl, Blue, who comes from a family with psychic powers and a ley-line-obsessed private school student and his assortment of troubled friends.
(to kids) we’re struggling to find something anyone likes. HELP! So far, we are now partway through Steelheart (too violent, depressing, and occasionally cringe in characterization for my taste, but kids are semi-interested in it and it IS by Brandon Sanderson) and also Gabriel Finley and the Raven’s Riddle (this one is on the chopping block because the riddles are, frankly, so bad. For a book in which riddles feature heavily, you think you’d include some good ones. This book is about people having lost their former special magical relationship with ravens and also about valravens, who are evil, flesh-eating immortal ravens. Yeah. Sounds like it would have potential…right?). I have Dragonwatch queued up in my kindle, but they kids got annoyed with Seth during the Fablehaven series and he’s in this book too. I’ve also got Wolf Tower by Tanith Lee in print that I got from a playgroup giveaway box back in the day and maybe her time has finally come!
(listening to with Tanner): From the Desk of Zoe Washington—a story about a girl who wants to be on a kids baking show. She also has an incarcerated father that she begins to communicate with secretly. It is ALSO narrated by the same voice actor that narrated Mighty Miss Malone, who we have now learned is Bahni Turpin and she is one of our favorite narrators! She does an amazing job. This is a second listen for us, because we also listened to it a couple of years ago for Alaina’s literature.
(listening to by self): A Dark and Wild Wood—I’ve actually been listening to this while typing, but then I had to stop to focus. I thought initially it was a re-visioning of Bluebeard, but I might be mistaken. It is about a woman with some un-controlled, dark magical powers (still unspecified), who experiences quite a lot of trauma and bad experiences and ends up going from a convent to a brothel to a mysterious chateau in the woods with a potentially dangerous man-spirit of whom I will give you no more info in case you decide to read it.
Note: I am on Fable if you want to follow along with what I read there!
Resource Reminders:
August’s practice update for #30DaysofGoddess!
Back to the Root free series is still available:
Make sure to check out the collection where all of the free posts are available.
And, you can still grab your welcome kit with beautiful journals and customizable covers.
Make sure to keep up with our dedicated newsletter for Gaea Goddess Gathering! Coming up in September right here in Missouri.
Side note: I’ve been listening to SO MUCH SJ Tucker this month as she’s our special guest at this year’s Thirtieth anniversary GGG.
Intro audio about the Goddess Magic Mystery School
I’ve started to add our monthly activation replay videos for this year’s #30DaysofGoddess practice to the homepage! Scroll past the “2026 Practice Updates” section to access the videos. Note: Live monthly activations are available to any member of the Goddess Magic Mystery School Patreon community free and paid both!
FREE class:
forty week Intro to Goddess Studies class!
Gift a Goddess Magic membership to a friend!
From Reactive to Creative, An August Ritual with Pele
This is a spacious time, on the cusp of change, in which we savor what is simmering and celebrate what is emerging.In this season, we give thanks for all that has bubbled up and all that still brews unseen.We bless what is finished and what is yet to come.
Reminder: Gather your splintered attention, awaken your inner fire, navigate by joy, and nourish your body and spirit so that your life becomes creative rather than reactive.
This video explores:
Pele – awakening, elemental fire, and the magic of paying attention
Honeybee – navigating by the sun, joy, and your inner compass
Oats (Madre of Water) – nourishment, self-care, and emotional soothing
Questions to consider:
What is awakening for you?
Have you been sitting still for too long?
Where is your attention right now?
Are you living from a creative place or a reactive place?
Where is your attention splintered or fragmented?
Do you overthink things and put out your inner flame?
How can you, like Honeybee, store some of life’s liquid gold so you have a little sunshine when you need it?
Where does your life need a little extra organization, and how can you draw upon the wisdom of the hive?
How can you dedicate time to following the sun and aligning with its rhythm?
Where can you allow yourself more rest and replenishment?
How can you nourish your body and spirit?
Affirmations
I wake up to my potential and power.
I see things as they really are.
I pay attention. (Paying attention is powerful magic!)
I navigate toward joy.
I align myself with my inner compass.
I open my heart and let my intuition flow.
I nourish my body and spirit.
I am kind and gracious to myself.
I transform tension into healing.
I embrace my emotions.
Reminder: I do create monthly handbooks for members of our Goddess Magic Mystery School community.
Note: We also still have a few of this month’s ritual kit available.
Expanded post available here.
August at the border…
August is a doorway,a border month*,one foot in the clover, one in new-fallen leaves,a hand full of elderberries,a pocket full of wind.This is the odd, uneven time*when hydrangeas suddenly bloom and sunflowers go to seed,and our lives are like this toosome things lavish, some still in leaf,some withering,some tight-budded,and waiting to bloom.We may dream of great cauldrons of changein which to steep and dream,but have a mug of time instead,ten minutes,one page,a single rose,yet even this small spacesoftens something inside us.So, we bless the first fruits,the half‑finished, falling things,and whisper our simplest spell:Breathing in, we arrive.Breathing out, we softenand make peace.“Hey ritual,”we say,“I’m returning.”(*"border month" comes from Tove Jansson. "odd uneven time" comes from Sylvia Plath. Both from pieces written about August. "Hey ritual," part is a funny, but fitting autocorrect from this month in which I said: "a ritual of returning," and the voice-to-text gave me, "hey, ritual! I'm returning!")
Sending love to all of you.
Keep living your magic,
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goddessmagic.substack.com/subscribe
