Soldiers of Love
A primer for practical magic in unprecedented times
“There is only one thing I will not concede: that it might be meaningless to strive in a good cause.”— Václav Havel
Hi, doll.
Tomorrow we have a full moon in Taurus, which ostensibly is why I’m writing today. Really, though, I’ve been writing this since the morning of November 6.
As a red diaper baby who grew up in the wake of the 1960s and worked as a ’90s labor organizer, as a cultural reporter and as a practical intuitive, I want to be very, very clear. The reelection of Donald J. Trump impacts our immediate future far more than any astrological aspect ever could.
This post is about how we may meet this new reality with open hearts and open eyes— third eyes included. You may want to settle in with a cup of tea or a glass of wine before proceeding. You may want to skip this and my services entirely if you are a Trump supporter, as inhospitable as that may sound.
I’ve never hosted a space that’s tolerant of intolerance.
First: a mea culpa. It’s been weighing on me heavily that in some readings I suggested this election would be close, with VP Kamala Harris eking out a narrow victory. It’s not my ego nor my reputation I’m worried about. It’s that I’m very sorry I offered false comfort.
One reason I don’t believe we should pull tarot for ourselves is because having too much personally riding on an outcome impairs the accuracy of the cards. While I love every person I read for—it’s an involuntary result of tuning into a person’s soul—I always can maintain the loving detachment necessary to clearly perceive their path.
But the prospect of a second Trump presidency affected everyone’s path including my own. Thus I unconsciously put on blinders for the first time since I began giving readings 25 years ago.
It is necessary, while in darkness, to know that there is a light somewhere. That in oneself, waiting to be found, there is a light.—James Baldwin
My best friend claims I told her last spring that Trump would win, but I have no recollection of that exchange. Instead, I focused on the power of visualization and “words as spells,” rather than the queasy rewards of being right about something that felt so wrong.
Sometimes positive thinking works beautifully, but this time it did not. Nothing did. No celebrity endorsement. No doorbell-ringing. No postcard writing. No fundraising. No rallies. No moon ritual. No astrology.
There’s more than enough blame to go around. But in my heart of hearts I know nothing could override the spell cast by this century’s reigning fascist magician.
Rather than black magic, I’ve begun using the term fascist magic, not only because it is less racist but because it more accurately describes the manipulation of energy for low-level agendas. I deploy FM radio to describe these negative frequencies. As in: A lot of FM radio at the polls last week.
And there was a lot of FM radio at the polls last week. The majority of American voters resonated with DJT’s radicalized platform of nihilism, nationalism, blatant lies, unearned entitlement, and white supremacist heteropatriarchy—at least more than they resonated with the prospect of a brilliant, legendarily capable Black, South Asian female U.S. president.
It is devastating but not shocking. This country was founded on genocide and built with the labor of enslaved people, and it has never reckoned with all the blood and tears soaked into its soil.
Instead, it has embraced a version of history that sanitizes its past. What’s that old proverb? Until the lion tells her tale, the hunter is the hero. Add in the extreme financial disparities of late-stage capitalism and an alarming de-emphasis on critical thought and public compassion, and here we are.
To paraphrase Jung: Until we make the unconscious conscious, it will direct our lives.
My old pal Justin Brennan, a former punk musician and current NYC council member, writes:
As far as the presidential race is concerned, I'm hearing a lot of people talk about the shock they are feeling. I get it, and in so many ways this outcome is unthinkable – but to be honest, shock is not what I’m feeling. Maybe because every day in my capacity as an elected official, I hear the anger, frustration, and at times hatred and resentment from people. Above all it is my job to listen, and so over the last seven years I have seen and heard a growing, deep-seated and deeply troubling discontent that feels bigger than just Democrat vs. Republican. The sense everyone feels that they are falling behind while others get ahead, the sense that others are getting a bigger piece of the pie than they are, and that there's only so much pie left to go around. Increasingly, people are believing that more for others means less for themselves and their own families.
The problem is: this is a falsehood that has been sold to us by a demagogue who was just re-elected president on a platform of selling that lie. The anger itself might be real, and there are real things to be mad about! Thanks to income inequality, big picture measures show our economy thriving, but real people are still hurting. Life is expensive and appears to be getting harder and not easier. But the lie is that there isn't enough for all of us. The lie is that we need to steal crumbs from each other, and when we buy the lie we let the demagogues and ultra-wealthy rob us blind.The lie is that we are inherently divided, and that division is the natural order of things and there’s nothing we can do about it.
So how can we move forward with integrity and authenticity? How can we rise?
I’m not making any more predictions about our collective future, nor am I putting on blinders again. Instead, I’ve assembled a primer for powerful, positive alchemy—some tools for stabilization and mobilization.
Taurus full moons always uphold practical magic.
Rituals, Not Rules: A Practical Magic Primer
Salt Water Doesn’t Cure Everything, but It Helps.
It’s vital to release every emotion that moves through you. Rage, quake, grieve. Above all, cry, though I know crying has become difficult, if not impossible, for many.
It is hard to cry when you fear the tears will never stop. It is hard to cry when your trauma is not local but systemic. Trust me that I get that.
Yet at 5:35 am on November 6, when I woke with a start to the news that the AP had just declared Trump the winner — people all over the country reported waking from a dead sleep at that exact moment—I walked numbly into my kitchen to make coffee, and suddenly found myself on my knees sobbing as I only have sobbed when a loved one has died.
I did not feel more hopeful when my tears finally dried that morning, but I did feel as if the ice in my chest was not going to freeze over my heart.
Tears release our emotions so they don’t colonize our bodies and spirits. Tears protect us from growing as dangerously numb as those already colonized by the worst impulses of this country. Tears keep us present and make healing possible.
Do whatever it takes to cry—therapy, bodywork, sweat, scream, punch pillows. you name it. With apologies to Mary Oliver, let the soft animal of your body mourn what it mourns.
Find Your Off Switch, and Use It.
Over the years of tuning into people’s paths, I have learned that nothing blocks progress more than dual consciousnesses and half-in, half-out energy. Not acting on what we know and need is toxic. So is hanging on when it is time to let go.
If we are to resist and rise in the months and years to come, we need our whole hearts and our whole minds. This is about more than fully committing to one reality. It is about learning to fully rest and fully engage.
Procrastination and over-exertion are equally corrosive. Yet all too often, especially when we’re overwhelmed, we find ourselves in a limbo in which we are too depleted or anxious to be functional but incapable of actually relaxing.
Respect your need to fully unplug so you can be of greater use when you are needed. Respect your need to exert energy—to serve—in order to relish that rest.
Try acupuncture, counseling, yoga, salt baths, breathwork, hot beverages, timers, media blackouts. Whatever activates your nervous system’s off switch.
Know All Your Resources.
There are likely to be many new external stressors, so it’s important to take really good care of whatever you can control.
Know yourself and your circumstances. How emotionally and physically healthy you and your loved ones really are. What changes can be made in your home and habits, what sort of support systems can be put in place—therapists, lawyers, meds, herbs, text threads, the works. Know your finances, your blood sugar levels, your trigger points, and who to call when shit goes down. Develop grounding rituals, including regular hydration and diaphragmatic breathing. Above all, know what still makes you happy.
Love is the only truly sustainable resource. Everything else is finite and should be meted out accordingly—time, money, stamina.
Live Horizontally, Not Vertically.
For now we must look out for each other rather than look to our leaders. Even those who never have trusted our government will have to adjust to this new level of incompetence, indifference, and sanctioned larceny.
For those who’ve already had to protect themselves from the people who’re supposed to care for them, this may be powerfully triggering. But the truth is that rarely in human history have regimes been guided by their constituents’ best interests, and still people survived. Sometimes even thrived.
The trick is horizontal, rather than vertical, networks.
Start by getting to know your neighbors. Build mutual-care microcommunities—tiny, direct democracies inside this larger behemoth. Focus on local organization and global awareness. Give what you can, and ask for what you need.
Create community pantries of free food and health and hygiene products, including birth control and tampons/sanitary napkins. Shop locally and avoid big chains. Upcycle and recycle. Hold swaps and mutual aid fundraisers. Take care of elders and children who are not your kin.
Create local groups where you can share ideas and support those in need, especially those under immediate threat. Create an offline reproductive care network. Create all sorts of offline resistance networks, because you never know when and what may be required.
Avoid filling billionaires’ pockets. Create art for and with each other, not just as capital.
Figure out what cog you can be. Share services and skills. If you have enough land, build yerts or a community garden or a hideaway for anyone having to cross state lines. If you are a lawyer, teach others about their rights. If you are an accountant, teach others how to manage their money. If you are a coder, create an AM radio (not FM Radio) sort of web.
Connect by making, not just watching, something beautiful. Connect by shining your unique light and magic.
Everyone can resist against oppressive systems in their own way, and anything you do is worthwhile, so long as you do something. Passivity helps fascism flourish. Proactivity makes miracles possible.
Practice Magic, not Magical Thinking.
Anyone who’s received a reading from me is familiar with my distinction between projection, in which the ego colors your impressions, and perception, in which you see beyond your preconceived notions. Think of this as the distinction between magical thinking and magic.
You also can think of magic as the alignment of your imagination with your highest purpose, and magical thinking as the imposition of ego agendas on already-existing realities.
Magical thinking is how we got into this mess in the first place, but (non-fascist) magic can be an act of loving resistance.
Ancestor rituals and energy shields are helpful. Ditto for rituals attuning to nature, the planets, and your best self. Less useful is hanging on to a plan long after the multiverse has suggested other paths, toxic positivity, selective blindness, and manifestation rituals that do not serve the common good.
Envision enough for everyone, including yourself. Connect to what endures through space and time, including the cycles of the seasons, the planets, the sea, and the soil.
Take medicine from your animals, the wind, your dreams. Also from books, movies, music. Use literary tarot and magical music shuffle. Share whatever enchants you, and make time to discover more.
Lately, I’ve been devouring children’s books celebrating coziness and creativity during eras of upheaval and hardship—Louisa May Alcott’s Civil War-set Little Women, Noel Streatfeild’s World War II-set Theatre Shoes, Sidney Taylor’s All of a Kind Family. Reading them connects me to joyful survivors through space and time.
Culture is magic, too. Whatever turns on your light is the right sort of magic.
Force nothing, follow your delight, heighten your intuition, and continue to visualize and call in the highest love.
Look for the Love.
Right now it’s hard to know who to trust. People are soldiering different burdens and seeking different solutions. It’s far easier to practice cruelty, judgmentalism, and cynicism.
But kindness still matters.
Maintain healthy boundaries and call out bullshit, but be as kind as possible in all your exchanges. We can suffer, we can rage, but if we begin to rationalize unkindness in any way, all is already lost.
Here in New York City, I have been heartened to observe people treating each other with an unusual tenderness—on the trains, on the streets, in workplaces and theaters, even in long lines.
Yesterday I spent a half-hour driving around in a quest for a parking space. Finally an old-school, normally brusque neighbor dashed out of his house and motioned for me to wait while he moved his car up to make room for me to park behind him.
In the 20 years I have owned a car in Brooklyn, no one has ever done that for me before. When I thanked him profusely, he simply shrugged before ducking back inside.
It might be an isolated example, but his matter-of-fact generosity cheered me immensely. I don’t deny the looming darkness, but I look for the love.
In fact, I recommend an active love practice. Take a few minutes each day to meditate on whatever you love. People, places, pets. Activities, art, objects. If antipathy shows up, beam love at its source.
Tell everyone you love them if you do. Express appreciation whenever is appropriate. Go further out of your way to extend care and compassion, even if it’s just by holding a door a little longer.
This is not me encouraging you to be a welcome mat or a dissociative ninny. This is me encouraging you to connect with what’s real.
No one can deny us of our human right to behave with love.
How do you face fascism? I like Orwell's version: ground yourself in direct and immediate experience, trust your senses, find some joy, turn back to face the fascists and tell truths to combat the lies.—Rebecca Solnit
In my readings and this newsletter, my goal is to hold space for positive, powerful alchemy without denying the significant obstacles on the horizon.
Much of what I’ve been seen in sessions since the election has been surprisingly rosy. I still foresee satisfaction and joy when I tune into individual paths. People are still finding their unique purpose and rituals, perhaps more so because they are motivated by a greater urgency.
I’m not sure how my offerings will evolve in the months to come. I may be leading new group activities. My schedule may change. I may be writing more in a more personal vein for The Flaneuzy.
For perspective and practical magic, book a reading for yourself a loved one. Share my work with whomever it may help. And know that, no matter what, I’m here.
I send love.
With waggling eyebrows and slow kitty blinks,
Thank you my Liser my Love Soldier! So much of what you wrote is what's needed right now, I am right there with you. As usual thank you for articulating things.
This seasons FM has been intense, thanks for the advice about the off switch!