enter the cloister

a 6-week journey for venus retrograde

Pretty hurts.

Perfection hurts.

So does comparison.

High standards.

Arbitrary timelines and deadlines that fill you with guilt and shame.

The expectation to give and keep giving when there is simply nothing left. 

Why do we think that the way to become more creative when our cup is empty is to expect it to magically refill itself? 

When did the joy in our creative work become so tied to a finished product that we could sell? 

2023 has been a hard year. Not just for me, not just for nearly everyone I’m close with. But client after client has landed in session for 3rd House readings looking to hack their way into meeting their own wildly high standards and expectations for creative production. It is often, then, my job to reframe the conversation around centering themselves and their own needs as the artist. 

Surprising, how resistant so many of us are to considering our own needs in the making of art.

As if art exists independent of the artist.

Perfectionism is a poison, and the propensity to work ourselves into even more of a frenzy when what we desperately need is rest is indicative of how deep the socialization goes.

I often write about creativity coming in seasons. And it can be well and good to read about the idea of creativity functioning like a field lying fallow. But what happens when you are the field lying fallow, surrounded by others who are seemingly producing? When you are not writing, and not writing, and not writing? When you feel burnt to a crisp? 

There are more of you (us) out there than you know. 

Especially in a society that does not build in space or time to honor seasons of rest, that is built to extract every little bit of you that’s available. 

I’ve been in this kind of season, too.

Not writing as much as I would like, but more so, experiencing the projects I’m working on change and shift beneath my feet every time I work on them.

Patience is required in such times.

These last months, I’ve also served as a doula, and sometimes as the actual midwife, for many others’ journeys to creative nourishment.

Enter the cloister.

The idea came to me months ago, slowly and then all at once.

At one point, I entirely let go of this new offering, thinking, someone else will do this, there’s simply no way I can facilitate it with everything I have going on.

But she came back, insistent.

And so, I bring you Roses & Thorns: A Venus Retrograde Cloister for Creative Recovery.

This 6-week container, informed by Venus’ retrograde, offers an oasis of restoration for creatives who are burned to a crisp. Here, we divest from production and invest in creative inputs and community to fill our empty cups to overflowing.

The cloister is thematically organized around the story of the Descent of Inanna, who is a Sumerian goddess and mythological ancestor of Venus:

Week 1: Desire (Sat July 22-Sat July 29)

Week 2: Descent (Sun July 30-Sat Aug 5)

Week 3: Doorways (Sun Aug 6 - Sat Aug 12)

Week 4: Death (Sun Aug 13 - Sat Aug 19) featuring special guest and my dear friend, astrologer Diana Rose Harper

Week 5: Rebirth (Sun Aug 20 - Sat Aug 26)

Week 6: Renaissance (Sun Aug 27 - Sun Sep 3)

Inanna

This is designed to be Choose Your Own Adventure: do what feels best and most restorative for you

Daily 

• A Discord server that I will monitor and participate in

• Mary Oliver poems will be shared with the group daily (a la my “have a mary oliver” tweets, except one every single day)

Weekly

• Pre-recorded messages connected to the week’s theme, at least 20-30 minutes long

• Accompanying journal prompts for weekly themes/messages

• Astrological guides for each week, geared to creative rejuvenation

• Live 45-minute open “office hours” on Zoom once a week to check in with each other in person

Super Duper Optional, Group: 

• Summer Book Club

  • Those who so choose can join me in reading Millennial YA favorite Ella Enchanted together, with open threads in Discord to discuss each chapter and one final live book club discussion over Zoom at the end of our cloister where we discuss the book and what revisiting it brought up. Great for inner child work and fairy tale lovers.

Super Duper Optional, Solo: 

• The Venus Rx Artistic Syllabus  (with Discord channels for discussion)

  • Music playlists, curated by Jeanna

  • Recommended albums 

  • Recommended reading

  • Recommended ~art~ 

• The Venus Rx Witchcraft Syllabus (with Discord channels for discussion)

  • Suggested tinctures/herbal supplements

  • Recommended astro resources

  • Suggested Sphere & Sundry materia

  • Suggestions for Venus altars and devotions 

This week, June 30-July 7, the container is on pre-sale, for those who absolutely know this is for them. The price goes up next week, although there will still be a payment plan.

The container begins July 22 and closes September 3rd.

I am so excited to hold this space for y’all, and look forward to our six weeks together.