welcome! in this issue: remembering that social reproduction theory is a thing; a book on Kabbalah; what it means to put writing at the forefront; and the final part of a short story.
STAR-WEAVING: celestial support for creativity in daily life
“The stars are a memory system / for thru them
we remember our origins.”
- Diane DiPrima
Star-weaving is an experimental and intuitive 1:1 session that bridges astrology, ancestry work, and active imagination. In these non-linear sessions I weave my 2.5+ years as a consulting astrologer with creative unblocking practices learned from Julia Cameron’s Artist Way framework, as well as my personal practices in Kabbalah, dream work, and creative writing. The goal is to help you access more creativity and ease in your daily life.
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Happy new moon and happy Sunday night 🌑
On a Sunday night you can wash your hair and change your sheets while listening to jazz and feel like anyone. It will never get old to me.
I just finished my first week of my second semester of grad school, back to teaching, learning, lesson planning, reading, and writing. It’s funny how I’m in school for writing but I feel like I spend so much time doing the supporting activities around my writing practice. These are both academic (like what I mentioned before) and domestic, all of the small labors of continuing a life.
When I was really into Marxism in college, I learned that the Marxists have a name for this — social reproduction theory. I remember in my friend Glynnis Eldridge’s writing group during the pandemic the writer Mark Nowak, the director of the Worker Writers School, came to talk to us during one virtual session, and he mentioned social reproduction.
I feel like there’s a way to look at the multiplicity of tasks involved in sustaining life as a burden, but also, as Nowak was describing if I remember correctly, there’s a value in these tasks. The way he described it was that any work that we do outside of paid labor is also valuable labor in itself, because it is part of the package of actions that literally reproduces our existence day in and day out. Ideally we’re not just replicating our existence too, with these actions, but reinforcing, strengthening and expanding it.
During that time writing was something that I did outside of my day job and it was important for me to, as they say, carve out time for it. I was working for a nonprofit and the people I worked with didn’t really know about my writing passion, or I didn’t talk about it. I think one of the benefits of being in graduate school for a certain thing is that it moves “that thing” to the forefront of the way you think of yourself. This might be obvious, but I’m talking about something less practical than “this becomes the thing you spend the most time doing.” I’m thinking more on a self-conceptualizing level.
It feels embarrassing to introduce myself as a writer, even though I spend all of my time either teaching writing, learning about writing — or other adjacent subjects or crafts in order to further my writing — like this semester I’m taking an intro to acting class which feels both fun and silly but is also informing the way I think of character — or actually writing. (Or thinking about writing).
It feels embarrassing especially around people who self-profess to not know that much about writing. Like the self-identified townie I meet while playing pool at the dive bar, or the guy at the used car dealership who is making small talk while I test drive a car, or the dentist — who jokingly asked if chat gpt was basically going to render my practice obsolete. I will sometimes put pressure on myself to explain why writing is valuable and/or feel like I’m being judged. Does it matter? Maybe it is kind of insane and/or going out on a limb and/or fantastical to get a degree in writing. But I’m doing it anyways because I’ve wanted to for years. And I feel that I’m in the right place, even when it feels difficult.
Intuitive Archive
1. a weekly newsletter of poems, dreams, essays, and musings.
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Hi, I’m Lena, and this is Intuitive Archive. I am a writer, teacher, artist, and lifelong student of all things mystical. This is a place where I write, messily and expansively, and from a state of constant flux. If you like what you read, here are some ways to support this project:
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In other news, this week I finished reading what I thought was a great book about Kabbalah. It’s called The Way by Michael Berg. Grandiose title and blurb from Madonna aside, I think it’s a really good primer to mystical Judaism. Written in super super straightforward, and honestly very calming, language. For Berg, Kabbalah is about sharing, but not in the way that you would think. It’s less about giving to charity per se, and more about becoming what Berg calls a “sharing person.” Less of a verb and more of an adjective. I’m still puzzling over it! I also finished reading a book called The Kabbalah of Writing by Sherri Mandell which I recommend.
And finally, before I share the actual writing I came here to share, here is a small collage I made last week:
Below is the third installment of a short story I wrote that I’m calling “The Nurse’s Assistant” that’s about, loosely, illness and medicine and empathy. It feels, I’m just now realizing, obliquely inspired by Susan Sontag’s essay Regarding the Pain of Others.
The first and second installment can be found here and here for paid subscribers. Thank you for being here and for reading!
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