Dear Reader,

Following a day of co-facilitating a Climate Partners Convening hosted by Allegany Franciscan Ministries, i walked in Mead Botanical Gardens in Orlando and offered gratitude to the counsel of trees present, a mixture of Turkey Oaks, Coontie, and Saw Palmetto, While doing so, i noticed a hunched figure perched nearby. The figure lifted her large round head from beneath her molted brown and white bar patterned wings and trained her eyes on me. Then the Being, a bard owl, screeched as though signaling the end of her transmission. It was not until later in the afternoon that her message came in softly and clearly, “Look within.” As i prepare for a full summer of coaching, mentoring, training, and parenting, Owl seemed to sense my need to hear this wisdom.

I am grateful for my practice of listening to the Earth and our more than human kin, a practice that feels like a gift from my well ancestors. As i embrace this gift, i re-member the power of my intuition which resides in my body and lineage.

The word intuition comes from the Latin intueor: in (“inside”) + tueor (“to look, to watch”). In essence, it means to look within. In this age of google searches, social media influencers, streaming services and 24 hour news commentary, it takes discipline to look within. So much pulls our attention outward. So much encourages reliance on external sources of knowledge. In systems of dominance, knowing that is logical and analyzable is given more weight than knowing that is felt and sensed. Knowledge that is created through our controlled efforts is valued more than knowledge channeled to us through the animate Earth and/or our well ancestors. Information communicated with certainty and forcefully is elevated over awareness that arrives in subtle and quiet tones.

Psychologist Susi Ferarello notes that Intuition “tends to open doors you didn’t even know existed. Even when intuition costs you something, it often expands you beyond your old patterns…..And it asks for courage—because it often nudges you away from the “safe” option that looks wise on paper but keeps you stuck in your usual loop.”

Attunement to our Intuition requires slowing down and quieting. It requires being receptive and patient. It asks us to listen deeply to the Land where we live and to feel what She is experiencing. Intuition invites us to acknowledge and be in co-creation with our well ancestors* who engage with us whether we acknowledge them or not. It orients us to our own lived wisdom. In these ways, intuition supports a deepening and widening of perspective and the possibility of new pathways and practices.

What might be possible for you and your community (both human and more than human) if you listened to your intuition?

Practice:

Go outside and find the closest patch of Earth to sit/stand on. If taking off your shoes feels safe and possible, do so. With shoes on or shoes off, feel/sense the Earth beneath your feet and with this, feel/sense yourself being held. Bring gentle awareness to your breath, noticing your inhale and exhale. Rooted in your body and breath, listen to an external sound or turn your gaze towards a part of the natural world in close proximity. Quiet your thoughts so you can listen to what is being communicated. If the message is not clear, trust that it will be revealed when the time is right. To close, note through voice memo, drawing, or journaling how this practice was for you.

*By well ancestors i mean the Dead who have healed from the trauma and harm they experienced and/or perpetuated while living on Earth and who now support the healing of the unwell Dead within at least one of their four main ancestral lines - the grandmothers of their mother’s line, the grandfathers of their mother’s line, the grandmothers of their father’s line, the grandfathers of their father’s line. My understanding is drawn from Ancestral Medicine, an organization which offers training in animist practice.

Our team is growing: Welcome Samay!

My name is Samay (sah-mai) Esparza-Campaña, I am a queer Andean descendant and a proud brujandera. I’m rooted in the values I learned growing up in a colonized country, Ecuador, where we had to constantly defend our sovereignty and our right to honor our land. I learned from organizers who have fought against the brutality, dehumanization, and social and economic devastation caused by oil extraction in the Amazon. as well as from elders and fellow guerreres who continue to demand autonomy over women's bodies and the protection of rights of the LGBTQIA community in Latin America.

I migrated to Nipmuc Land (Massachusetts) as a teenager and continued my commitment to liberation movements as a cultural worker, a policy advocate, a community weaver, artist, and healer. I have over 14 years of experience working in grassroots movements, government, schools, nonprofit, philanthropy, public health, and higher education. I am also a Doula and a Spanish interpreter. I am honored to be part of nisha’s team and as her partner in this work, I approach the visioning and implementation of systems, and relationship and culture building from a deep commitment to contribute to our shared liberation.

Reflecting on our theme of reconnecting with intuition, I sit with what it means to be a descendant of peoples whose traditions were stripped away from them through physical, mental, and emotional violence, imposition of religion, and assimilation as a tool of survival. I am the second generation in my family who was not taught Kichwa, my grandma’s mother tongue. Mami says that grandma didn’t teach her because it was one less thing that would contribute to her being singled out. Although it is not until recent years that Mami and I have talked about the heartache of erasure and assimilation, my body always knew that there was a reason why I saw, experienced, and felt the earthly and spiritual world so deeply in every atom of my body. When there is not much of an “archive” or a passing down of many traditions, all you have is your intuition, our body carries more knowledge that we can ever imagine. So I keep asking my abueles, my well ancestors, Yemaya and the standing people (trees) to guide me into ritual and practice.

June 21 marks the summer solstice and for my people on June 24, we celebrate the Inti Raymi (Sun Festival), although I have never been to an Inti Raymi, I celebrate it on my own. I dance with the sun sinking in Inti’s wisdom and cleansing magic. I give offerings to the land as a ritual of gratitude, and maybe, this year, I will invite my community to celebrate with me. I hope you also find ways to trust your intuition in unraveling the wisdom within and in the world that is meant to be shared with you.

A song to accompany you in your journey within...

​What if the World is a Dream? ​

This song came to me after hiking on an Asheville mountain trail with the three children of a dear friend. Each of them attuned to the wonder, beauty and dynamism of the Earth guided by their own inner knowing. Witnessing them awakened my own intuitive sense of the Earth’s aliveness. This felt like the perfect song to share in this newsletter edition.