Dear Friends:

We’re in one of the most dynamic astrological weeks of the year. It feels like I keep saying that, but truly, Jupiter finally moving into watery Cancer should feel better even with curveballs and deep invitations to realign.

This Sagittarius Full Moon turns the volume up emotionally and energetically. You may be feeling pressure, overwhelm, or a sense that something big is trying to move through you. Full Moons illuminate. In Sagittarius, journaling prompts may include:
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​What truth is becoming undeniable?​
​What risk are you being asked to take?​
​What’s the bigger meaning behind what’s unfolding?

At the same time, Jupiter, planet of expansion and the ruler of this Full Moon, just moved into Cancer for the first time since 2013. This shift is significant. After a year of Jupiter in scattered, cerebral Gemini, we’re being pulled inward to tend to home, family, ancestry, and the waters of our emotional lives.

In 2013-2014 I had finished culinary school, hosted my first sold-out gastromonic tour in Tuscany with Chef David Bull, renovated my home from a house flood (6+ months!), began divorce proceedings, and tried to salvage my son's and my mental health while keeping our family together. That's a BIG (Jupiter) example of lots (Jupiter) of things happening in the home (Cancer).

Jupiter is exalted in Cancer, meaning it can bring blessings here—but only if we’re willing to feel. That may mean grieving old versions of self, healing family patterns, or creating new rituals that root us in safety and belonging.

The opportunity?
To deepen your inner security.
To grow by nurturing, not just achieving.
To treat your emotional world as sacred ground.

This week might stir old wounds, spark surprising insights, or bring up questions like:

• What do I need to feel truly nourished?
• Where (or with whom) do I feel most at home?
• What part of my story is ready to be rewritten?

You don’t need all the answers. Just the courage to listen within—and the kindness to meet what you find with presence.

Come home to yourself. That’s the real adventure.

The Power to Declare Your Desire

In 2023, Dylan Moffett and I created Tendril with the intention of serving in a deeper, more intimate way. We launched it on June 1, 2024 and I am reviving the challenge--now a quest--to reinvigorate wonder in these times of bewilderment and exhaustion.
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I'm proud of the work we did and how it has affected people uniquely. I have retitled it "The Power to Declare Your Desire" and if you make it through the 14 days, I can guarantee you'll have new tools to navigate towards your north star. I've moved it to my Substack if you'd like to experience it. There's no cost to join.

Shaping Stories with Want

As part of my writing and mythology studies, I attended a class with R.O. Kwon, NYT bestselling author of Exhibit, The Incendiaries, and editor of Kink. Here is how she described her class:
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​"Kurt Vonnegut said that, on every page of writing, someone should want something. I’d expand this idea: I believe that, in every line of our writing, desire can and perhaps ought to be present.

It seems truthful to living as I know it: I want and want, and the characters I write do so, too. Desire is so central to my fiction that it supplies much of a book’s or story’s shape: I follow what my characters want, and, pulled along, find a world. But with desire often comes terrible vulnerability: to admit to longing can be shaming, even frightening, and how to grapple with such complications and fears? In this class, we’ll look at desire-fueled writing in multiple genres, and we’ll dream up some of our own."

I invite you to one of the most hearbreaking poems by Ada Limón. Persimmons, if you don't know, are quite bitter and awful when they're not eaten at the perfect time of ripeness. How painful it is to suppress a deep longing and love. Jupiter in Cancer asks you to have faith and love anyway. Where do you feel these words?

Ada Limón, “Crush”

Maybe my limbs are made
mostly for decoration,
like the way I feel about
persimmons. You can’t
really eat them. Or you
wouldn’t want to. If you grab
the soft skin with your fist
it somehow feels funny,
like you’ve been here
before and uncomfortable,
too, like you’d rather
squish it between your teeth
impatiently, before spitting
the soft parts back up
to linger on the tongue like
burnt sugar or guilt.
For starters, it was all
an accident, you cut
the right branch
and a sort of light
woke up underneath,
and the inedible fruit
grew dark and needy.
Think crucial hanging.
Think crayon orange.
There is one low, leaning
heart-shaped globe left
and dearest, can you
tell, I am trying
to love you less.

Medicine Words II: Erotica Writing Playshop

Our erotica writing playshop has been rescheduled to Wednesday, July 16, 2025 at 6 p.m. It now includes an online option, but if you're in Austin, come attend in person.

This isn’t your typical writing class—it’s a playshop where body, heart, and imagination lead.

• Connect with the myth of Aphrodite and The Empress
• Learn writing techniques that awaken the senses
• Explore erotica as a healing, empowering art form
• Share your voice in a safe, supportive circle

Open to all genders, orientations, and experience levels.

This 3-hour event launches a 6-part series exploring writing as a sacred practice, but can be take on its own. Each session blends goddess mythology, Tarot, and craft techniques to awaken a deeper connection to your creativity and desire.

Bring: A journal, your favorite Tarot deck (or borrow one of mine), an open heart, and a curious spirit.

Leave: With fresh tools, confidence, and creative fire.

"Tap into and follow this human thread and how to infuse your own stories with the propulsion of longing."

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If you'd like to join me in person, you can book a reading or attend my Sunday 6 p.m. Yoga & Sound classes at The Yoga Common. I'm going to skip this full moon in Sagittarius as a formal ceremony, but if you'd like to stop by for a potluck, a swim, and some Tarot on Wednesday night starting at 6:00 p.m., respond to this email for my address.

Thank you for reading this far. I know that attention is the most valuable resource we have and I am immensely grateful that you are visiting my corner of the universe.

Yours with so much love,

Monica