Good morning!
Welcome to Issue 59.3 of Digestable, your thrice-weekly mouthful of real things happening in the world, minus alarmist pandemic news.
Today’s news, fermented:
Another long week, as they tend to be. A ceasefire has taken effect in occupied Palestine, but the regime of structural violence continues; you can read more about that here.
This piece is about the US’s history of funding the Israeli military, and how this relationship can be a leverage point.
The weekend read I’m most looking forward to is What Happens When Americans Can Finally Exhale, by Ed Yong, the staff writer at the Atlantic who’s been a guiding voice as the pandemic has raged in this country and around the world.
Among all the other stuff to worry about, it turns out cactus trafficking is an issue too. Stay prickly out there, folks.
(via)
~Caro’s Tarot~
Good morning and happy Friday to all of the divine beings tuning into Digestable on this muggy morning.
We’re going to keep this morning short and sweet and get to our reading. But before that, I did want to cover a little fun Tarot tidbit or fun fact. This morning I turn to the Court Cards. These are the cards in the Minor Arcana that have suits of the Page, Knight, Queen and King. There are 16 of these cards in a deck and typically represent life stages or people. Something fun I have been learning about Tarot is its flexibility, its ability to adapt and change depending on who is reading the cards or who is interpreting them. I say all of this, because something I noticed in traditional tarot decks a lot is the reinforcement of the gender binary, through traditional cards, or sets of cards, such as these court cards.
I came across this really fun article very briefly discussing this and promoting some REALLY fun and beautiful tarot decks that go beyond the binary as it pertains to the court cards. In fact, from now on we are going to call them “face cards” as many of these creators have chosen to. Have fun reading (from Little Red Tarot btw) and checking out some of the decks here!: Beyond Kings & Queens: Renaming tarot court cards. (Spoiler alert, you’re going to want to buy one of these decks, they are gorgeous and wayyy funner than your run of the mill Ryder Wade deck).
Ok friends, now on to our reading! Let’s see what this summer weather has to bring us for the weekend. What should we be aware of as we step into this sunny weekend? What should we keep in mind or reflect on as we move about our lives? Any lessons to carry through from this past week? Let’s find out…
The Chariot -- let’s tune in to the meaning of this card through Jerico Mandybur’s interpretation:
“When we’re heading in the right direction, which you are, we only want to go faster. Once you’ve picked a path, the outcome will be everything you hope for. So why rush it? Take a pause instead. Think about where you are right now. Will remaining in your chariot be enough to fulfill you? To really expand, you’ll eventually have to get out of your vehicle, drop all your labels, and go deeper. Be willing to go on a journey of self discovery. Find strength in your purpose.”
...that is a wonderful way to be ushered into the weekend. You know, the fun part about this deck is that it has little self care prompts and affirmations with every card. You know I don’t like to interpret these for you, so I will leave you with an affirmation and a quick prompting to care for yourself this weekend. Think about the phrase “lightening your load” and what that means for you/what it could look like. Also go outside, take your shoes off, feel the earth underneath you...THAT is your self care prompt y’all. Ok and while you’re at it throw in this affirmation, “I am in control of my own destiny, and my purpose is divine”.
Happy weekend y’all! Till next Friday!
DJ toMoR0’s low-key Music Show
I’ve been thinking a lot about rambling walks and cleaning my house as times to be accompanied by podcasts. Now that we can start to add long car rides or even a train or plane ride to that list of opportunities for a good audio story, today is just going to be a *featured pod!*
What I love about Flash Forward is that it combines drama (there’s always some very fun voice acting to set the stage, if you will) and science (usually a guest expert) to blur the lines between fact and fiction. But like, not in a QAnon way.
Basically, Rose Eveleth, the charismatic and curious host, asks a bunch of “what if??s” about our collective societal and individual futures, and gets to the how and why. But she also gets to the heart.
Take this season’s opening episode, where we’re asked, “what if we could be immune to everything?” You’ll hear from snake experts, students, and a cultural geographer, not to mention some pretty fun deviations into our current experience with environmental toxins and, well, inoculation.
Each episode has original art, music, and theatrics, and I love imagining all of the future scenarios (possible or not-so-possible) life could take.
Check out the other episodes from the new season including What If Our Cities Were Smart? and What If We Could Never Touch Again? (aaaaahhhhhhh!!!)
*Hot Goss*
Back next week from the superb Latifah Azlan.