practice space

all the world's a stage

if all the world’s a stage, I need some quiet time to practice my “moves”

I don’t know if there are any Substacks using their paid space like we are.

On Tuesdays I write to you here, for free. I’ve been writing to you like this on Tuesdays for over a decade.

On Fridays I bring two pieces of audio to the paid Substack - highly useful philosophical/magical talks and mini-meditations. Our material is refreshed every week and we can always revisit the experiences that came before. This is a space where we magically recharge by listening to two short pieces of audio that show up every Friday.

I am super proud of this collection of consciousness-expanding talks and their corresponding mini-meditations. They are beautiful and they WORK.

If you’ve been with me for a long time and have noticed I haven’t put out a new studio meditation since 2023 (More Than Human) and that I’m rarely teaching in-person; that’s all because I am putting a lot of my creative energy into the little talks and meditations that I share with you every week on Fridays (on Substack), as well as the videos I make for every new and full moon in the library (on my site).

I am focusing on these offerings as it lets us go through this time together; where I can deliver practices and messages that are in synchrony with this micro-era we are living through.

If I wasn’t the one making these things - usually a few days before they get to you - here’s how I would use these spaces…

THE FRIDAY SUBSTACK - for the toe-dipper ($5/month, $50/year)

• I would listen to the little talk (usually around 5 minutes) as I did a tiny bit of light housework and set up my meditation area.

• I then would settle in for the meditation (usually 10 minutes or less).

• I would then stay still for as long as felt good and/or write or draw what I saw or felt.

• I would repeat the process every weekend with the new audio that arrives every Friday

THE LIBRARY ON MY SITE - for those who want to engage daily ($10/month, $100/year)

• I would pick a library within the library (Main Library, 99 Visions Library, Lunar Library) to journey through.

• I would pick a time of day to tune in and connect.

• At that time of day I would pick a meditation to listen to and then stay still after, letting the insights come. I would let myself be comfortable and even move around if I need to while I practice.

• I would FOR SURE, watch every Lunar Library video for each new and full moon. I might even invite my friends over to make a celebration of the lunation.

For even a better feel for how you might use the $5 Friday space (which is also INCLUDED in the $10 Library), I want to share two pieces of audio with you:

1. Here is the full Silver Goddess meditation from last Friday. I am sharing it because it is counter-cultural in the best way as well as very magical and healing. The challenge with this one is to see how much grace we can allow ourselves to receive. I am happy for as many folks as possible to experience the love energy it gives… (For extra credit - make yourself a cozy meditation nest to rest in as you listen.)

2. Here is the little talk for this upcoming Friday. I am sharing this one because it makes the case for - at least in our own awareness - discovering what our hearts want to say, distilling that message into its purest form and accepting responsibility for delivering that message to the cosmos.

When you meditate with me, I want to make it as easy as possible for you to receive all the good intel, all the true magic, all the redeeming beauty. Every time you press play on a piece of audio or video I made, I want your power bar re-filled to full strength.

We’ve been in hard times for a long time now. There’s a high risk of being demoralized, scattered or distracted at any given moment.

I want to be the beam of sunshine that finds its way through the cracks to you and nourishes you as you grow.

Until next time,

Jess

p.s. if funds are tight, remember the Free Page - which will be refreshed August 1st!

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I have everything I need

I am fed, I am sheltered, I am quenched

There is nothing outside of me

That would make me more deserving

Of love or life or contentment

I have been blessed in this life

And I will not take it for granted

I will not let it go to waste

I will share my blessings

Simply by being myself

I am not perfect

And I do not need to be

I make mistakes

And I am still worthy

Everything is temporary

My belongings

My circumstances

My body

And yet, everything I touch

Is forever changed

Time is not against me

There is always enough

The possibilities are greater

Than my imagination

I do not need to force an outcome

Or worry about the future

I have enough

I am enough

There is no rush

- Jenny Clark

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"What I tell my students, when they feel singularly unfortunate to be born in this moment, is this is your moment, the moment your soul showed up incarnate. In this world. It is an astonishing moment to be alive. You could have been born into a lull - instead you were born into a tipping point. It's your one life and you've entered it at a flexion point - a point when everything you do matters. How often in history does a soul get to live in such an era? Don't waste it. Show up for it. With everything you've got. Some will invent, some will organize, some will witness, some will grieve, some will console. Live this life now. Even if in fury and grief, live it. You don't want to die not having lived. It's incredibly easy to find a way around experience rather than through it. But you will have cheated yourself out of your only possession: your life. You are here now. Now is the time to live fully, not hide, not escape."

- Jorie Graham

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“The in between is where it happens.

It's less the meeting and more how am I getting to and from each of those meetings? And what am I thinking about in between? You know, it's like the ticks of the clock.

The computer understands the ticks, but human beings live in the moments between those ticks, in the duration that's not even acknowledged by the metrics.

And that's where it's at.
That's where human beings actually live.

This secret place that computers don't even know and AIs can't see. They can only see the ticks. They're quantized. But we're breathing in that space. And that's where, if there is some spiritual thing, that's where it is.”

- Douglas Rushkoff

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“The real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology. And it is terrifically dangerous, and it is now approaching a point of crisis overall.”

— E. O. Wilson

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“Magic, on the other hand... And if that linear logic is the one that leaks out from ever so many papers in the sciences, even and still today, it's this strange rhetoric that is always taking its distance from the world, assuming that we can ultimately "figure out" what it is, how it all works, ultimately. But magic is just this very other logic, from the perspective of a creature from the perspective of a bodied being, like you, like me, down here, in the depths of this blooming, buzzing proliferation of colour and shape and texture and olfactory essences, riding past our noses, wherein some things are always hidden behind other things, because we're down here. And as I shift my position, and perspective, new things become visible and other things are now occluded or hidden.

Magic is the logic of the world, when the world is experienced from within its own depths.

…

“Magic to me, is really the way of things. It's how things happen.”

- David Abram

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"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places - and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

- Howard Zinn

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“Hope” is the thing with feathers —
That perches in the soul —
And sings the tune without the words —
And never stops — at all —

And sweetest — in the Gale — is heard —
And sore must be the storm —
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm —

I’ve heard it in the chillest land —
And on the strangest Sea —
Yet — never — in Extremity,
It asked a crumb — of me.

- Emily Dickinson

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In the very earliest time

When both people and animals lived on earth

A person could become an animal if he wanted to

and an animal could become a human being.

Sometimes they were people

and sometimes animals

and there was no difference.

All spoke the same language

That was the time when words were like magic.

The human mind had mysterious powers.

A word spoken by chance might have strange consequences.

It would suddenly come alive

and what people wanted to happen could happen -

all you had to do was say it.

Nobody could explain this:

That's the way it was.

- Nalungiaq

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"Take time to stop and smell the flowers," says an old homily. Albert Hoffman, the Swiss scientist who discovered LSD and lived to age 102, had a different approach. "Take the time to stop and be the flowers," he said.

That's my advice to you. Don't just set aside a few stolen moments to sniff the snapdragons, taste the rain, chase the wind, watch the hummingbirds, and listen to a friend.

Use your imagination to actually be the snapdragons and rain and wind and hummingbirds and friend. Don't just behold the Other; become the Other.”

- Rob Brezsny

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“The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.”

~ Rainer Maria Rilke