Good morning!
Welcome to Issue 58.3 of Digestable, your thrice-weekly mouthful of real things happening in the world, minus alarmist pandemic news.
Today’s news, fermented:
What a week, as always. Here’s some reading:
Yesterday was the anniversary of the horrific MOVE bombing; here’s a beautiful interview with Mike Africa Jr. about how MOVE was an embodiment of the struggle for racial and environmental justice.
A new report reveals that cities are not making climate investments where they matter most.
NYC friends, please purchase and wear these phenomenal tank tops from Dianne Morales’s new merch drop that say ‘be gay, vote Dianne.’ If you’re not familiar with Dianne Morales, candidate for NYC mayor, peek around her campaign site.
Read up on the basics of the Boycott Divest Sanction (BDS) movement, and how to put meaningful financial pressure on the Israeli apartheid state.
Bostonians, there’s a protest tomorrow in solidarity with struggles in Palestine and Colombia.
Everyones, there’s a press conference later today with Palestinian and Colombian organizers.
All of our struggles are intertwined. Take care of yourselves and each other.
~Caro’s Tarot~
It’s Friday lovely Digestable readers, and you know what that means...it’s time for your weekly Tarot reading! Of course before we dive in, it only makes sense to continue learning a bit more about Tarot. Two weeks ago we talked about what the Major Arcana was and what those cards represented. This week, we’ll briefly cover what the Minor Arcana is and what that means for Tarot readings.
The Minor Arcana represent the 56 cards that reflect the ups and downs of daily life. I really like Little Red Tarot’s brief description of this set of cards, “These cards look like life”. And indeed they do. These cards show our interactions with other people, our thoughts, our feelings, relationship and environments.
The Minor Arcana is split up into 4 suits, Pentacles, Swords, Cups and Wands, each one representing a different sphere in our lives using symbolism of the four elements. Pentacles, for example, is the element of earth. These cards typically pertain to our physical world, finances, work, material possessions. Swords represent the element of air and typically stands for the intellectual world, your thoughts, including hopes and fears, principles, and can often come up in times of decision making or when you need to communicate thoughts or express actions. Wands are the element of fire, wands often represent desires and beliefs, passion and motivation. These often pop up in tarot readings pertaining to a spiritual journey or when pondering about life’s purpose. And finally we have the Cups, which stand for the element of water. Cups typically deal with and pertain to the emotional world, feelings, emotion, intuition, and connection with ourselves and others.
Ok this was today’s mini Tarot lesson, we’ll continue to explore the deeper meaning and stories behind certain cards and their elements. But for today, let’s move on to our reading! While I typically ask the cards what we should be aware of or take away from the weekend, this week I want to see if there are any lessons to be learned, anything that we should take away from this past week and simply ruminate and reflect on.
The Page of Wands reversed (don’t worry, we’ll talk about what it means when you get a card upside down further on).
I am curious about our friends on this card...let’s explore what they have to say about this week through Jerico Mandybur’s definition:
“Fear is universal; it holds so many of us back. But hesitating or feeling unsure, are signs you may not feel you’re in the driver’s seat of your life right now. You are. Only you can own your truth, speak it. Take control of your own story. You have so much still to do and explore. It’s ok to feel fragile, but if what you need and want to create is truly in your highest good, there’s no need to neglect it.”
Now we just learned that wands represent the element of fire, and pertain to our realm of motivation and passion. As I have said and will continue to say, I cannot interpret this for you, so do with it what you may! I personally am taking away a lot from this small blurb. Fear drives us in a similar way ego does, it never drives us with the intention of fulfilling our higher good. I am going to sit with this one y’all, and reflect on what is driving me this week.
Before I wrap up I want to acknowledge that this has been a tough week for the world, from Palestine to Colombia, our hearts and minds have been distraught in unimaginable ways.
I encourage folks to align with your higher good and learn and support these struggles for liberation. I have made an incomplete (will be periodically updated) mini resource document for ways to participate and help the struggle in Colombia. And additionally I encourage folks to check out this LinkTree for ways to support the Palestinian Youth Movement. Finally I will share a link to mutual aid for India that a dear friend shared with me, you can find that here.
Take care of yourselves spiritually, mentally, and physically this weekend, we need to be recharged for all that is to come. Happy weekend!
DJ toMoR0’s low-key Music Show
Since starting to write this column I’ve been quietly stashing all of my favorite Instagram music finds in a lil folder. That has now grown into a big folder, and so it’s time I unload a few of these hidden gems onto you, dear listeners.
I’ve been loving everything that Esty posts, from her music to her rollerskating (!!) and highly recommend a follow. Check out the music video she created for her latest single 7heaven and just try not to start dancing. Bonus points if you are dancing in roller skates because you might get a shout out in her stories.
Rachel Lime is putting out a new music video and you can catch a sneak peek here for what is sure to be an absolute work of art. The song is a total banger of course, influenced heavily by what Lime calls “space disco” (I mean YES). The full album is out on June 11th, but you can listen to Voyager 3 now. Listen to her spacey-dreamy-synthy cover of Dreams here.
A little biased on this one because I first experienced Esteban Copete’s music *live,* but the little clips he posts of him just chilling on his porch making beautiful sounds give me the same chills. And not only for the music - he’s also been posting regularly about what he’s experiencing in his home country of Colombia in real time. Solidarity through music isn’t nothing.
Last week he released Sensaciones which is a stunning orchestral experience featuring Alexis Play. A few months after I saw him play with Rio Mira they popped up on Tiny Desk - if you want to see what this gorgeous man sounds like in full form :)
Enjoy these updates to your algorithm! :)
*Hot Goss*
Back next week from the superb Latifah Azlan.