O C T O B E R . 2023
Remember (move slow) ~
Your body,
your feet,
the earth:
your first & last
memory of each
what is memory
but the touch of something
completely your own
slowing down to feel
to remember soft, bare.
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October: your pace is your choice.
What else is there to say?
I just want you to go slow.
Slower than that.
Take your time & take time with you.
Your pace is your choice & October will give you plenty of opportunities to remember this. To remember the simple things: your body, your feet, the earth. To recall the soft movements of your most natural self.
What is the opposite of a rush?
(You tell me).
Part of October is a nest. Nestle into every moment you can this month.
Nourish your body: give yourself what you need. More rest, more root vegetables, more scarves, more flexibility in your movement. A walk, a child’s pose, a dandelion root decoction, a wool cardigan that buttons up the middle.
Remember to start with the body first. Heed its calls. You are nothing without your body.
And before it gets too cold where you are. Before that. One last final time of the season, promise me this: you will place your bare feet on the land, on the earth. You will close your eyes. You will feel there is no boundary between the soles of your feet & the palms of the land you are standing upon. You will let the wind greet you here & the sound of a crooning bird. You will breathe in & keep this memory tucked somewhere special in your heart’s mind.
When the month spins & when you lose this thing or that. When October pulls the thread from the sleeve of summer that finally unravels it all. When it sets in the first of the frosts. When it calls on you to move through the dark: the joining together of shadows.
Go slow.
Feel your way through.
What else is there to say but remember: your body, to move slow, when you let your bare feet touch the soft earth.
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Now, onto the almanac… this month, the almanac features two very special gifts within:
One is that Conner Calhoun made us a special video with a philosophical reminder about vessels with which to take into the month of October;
and:
Two is that -just this month- I am giving everyone a tiny sneak peek inside the almanac.
Enjoy ~
S I G H T
Trick or treat
In October, we enter deeper into the dark woods.
The month goes on, the veil thins, & our instincts sharpen.
Our instinct perceives that there is a darker side to life, that there is an edge peeling back at the corner of our existence. In October, almost everywhere we turn we are made to remember that there is an end to life, that all life comes to an end.
Trees bare, days shorten, only whispers of flowers.
In North America, we have a tradition of watching scary films to really heighten the crescendo of tension around this time of the year.
This month, to get in the mood for a good scare, I don’t have films to recommend, but a few really spectacular things to read.
Here’s my list, in no particular order, just as they come to me:
— The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is by far one of the most frightening books I have ever read in my entire life. (And, she wrote it at her kitchen table!) Atmospheric, suggestive, & beautiful—but read with caution, because you may find yourself a bit sleepless alone at night.
— Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell is an incredible & surprising book of short stories by this famed British authoress more well known for her languid romantic & pastoral tales of the Victorian era. Anyway, she was also a Libra, so maybe to balance it out, she needed to write ghost stories & stories about young women who cross the ocean to visit family members in a small, recently settled town in Salem…
— Wise Child by Monica Furlong is one of the most formative books in my collection. My mother gave me this book when I was in elementary school & to say that it influenced me is an understatement… if you read it you will see why (harp, midwifery, herbalism to name a few points of interest). This one is less spooky & more, shall we say, witchy.
— The Blue Lenses by Daphne du Maurier is another incredible collection of short stories, by one of my favorite authors. Perhaps you have seen Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”? Well, du Maurier wrote that & he adapted it, with her input, from her short story. That particular one isn’t in The Blue Lenses, but there are other equally eerie tales, including the one that shares the book’s title.
— Villette by Charlotte Brontë. Okay, I know this is going to come off as extremely controversial. But. This is my favorite novel of hers… even over J.E. This is Charlotte’s final novel & though it isn’t exactly scary, there are some perfectly chilling moments. When I read this over the winter, there was one chapter that kept me up at night I was so frightened. Plus, there is this other gorgeous chapter which is an opium-induced fever dream, & there is a beautiful pear tree ritual, & the novel as a whole deals with death. So, it makes the October reading list.
There you have it! I wish you pleasantly spooky reading this month ~
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T A S T E
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