“wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down”
— Toni Morrison
📣 Secret announcement for angels!
Things are changing! The main theme in my spiritual, tarot, and activist work has always been that healthy, empathetic, and embodied connection and care—to the self, to others, to the world—can change the world. I’m brewing something delicious, but I’m not losing what’s at the core of how I show up publicly. I’ll be a bit quiet as I excitedly and carefully divine and cultivate offerings around friendship, intimacy, and collective care, and complete training. I’m so grateful for your presence, and I’ll invite you to come along with me as I continue my story. And, I understand that people can be in each other’s lives in a season, and if you feel called to leave, that’s fine. I find safety in knowing that everyone in my sphere actively wants to be in it. I’ll be in touch this spring about what’s lighting up my heart these days. Sending blessings, in love and liberation!
🦪 CONTENTS
In this issue, I make catharses and lists…
- In my feelings, in my world
- A poem, something
- Living the tarot
- Kinky Tarot podcast land announcement
- Enter Mariaworld
- My astro season toolkit
- Internet pebbles for babe angels
- 5 sensual gratitudes
- In our community
- Currently reading
🫀 IN MY FEELINGS, IN MY WORLD
Every newsletter begins with a tiny anecdote, story, or revelation from my inner world and an invitation: in my feelings, in my world.
It’s been a while. I started writing this newsletter over a month ago while sitting in London Heathrow, and it’s taken me until this moment to finish it. I’m in a bit of a domestic tornado and, while it’s been quite exciting, it’s also a lot to pack up an entire house without knowing where my fiancé and I will land next. I’m a “no return ticket” kind of gal, so it’s not the uncertainty that fazes me. Rather, it’s going through things I haven’t touched in years and accessing memories I’d rather forget. On the other hand, I’m delighting in the catharsis of unburdening myself of physical, emotional, and spiritual clutter. I often don’t realize the resulting lightness until I’ve given away or sold something. For example, I had no clue that my car carried so much emotional weight until the moment I sold it. In spiritual spaces, we often speak of energy in the intangible. Yet I don’t think we should ever forget that we have physical bodies with physical relationships with physical things. As I venture into the unknown, one thing I’m keeping with me is the knowledge that material items often weigh more than what scales can read. May the next phase be lighter, and may I just carry what makes me feel soft, secure, and alive.
An invitation: Find and release one material thing you can give away, sell, or recycle to make your life feel lighter, even in the slightest way.
🌞 A POEM, SOMETHING
a centipede tickled my thigh
i wriggled then stayed uncomfortable, but
“this may never happen again”
giggling, grimacing
wouldn’t look away
i know wide eyes make
for vulnerable hearts
indulging discomfort is
a sacrifice and gift
bypassing nothing,
i heal everything
🔮 LIVING THE TAROT
TREES OF LIFE, WITHIN & WITHOUT
In my Jewish practice, I honor the Tree of Life, which can represent many things—life force, God, nature reverence. The tree has 48 branches, each interconnected while being a world unto itself. Each branch is equally grand, equally integral to the whole. Another part of my practice involves honoring the spirits, energies, benevolent ancestors, and stories of the four cardinal directions and their corresponding earth, air, fire, and water elements. These influences touch every single day of the twelve months of the year. As 4 times 12 is 48, my relationships with them are the lenses through which I witness the propagation of my life through space and time.
48 reduces to 12, the key for the Hanged One. Borrowing language I’ve previously shared, I see this card often showing up when we see Jupiter conjunct Neptune. Jupiter brings in the flavors of knowledge and expansion, while Neptune reveals our illusions and distortions. What a juxtaposition! When they relate to each other, we can see how Neptune’s camouflage is destroyed when we seek the truth that helps us erase blind spots, solve mysteries, and expand our perspectives. With the Hanged One, we actively seek the truth so we can expand our worlds, our landscapes of reality. And that takes courage, to gaze into the unseen. The unfamiliar is often uncomfortable, but we choose to be there because, again, the way out is through.
One way we can enter the realm of the unknown and uncover obscure truths is to simply try different, simple acts, and simple magic is my favorite kind of magic. One of my favorite practices is list making, often with 48 branches. I’d like to share 48 small spells for enchanting your Tree of Life. Everything we do ripples, often visibly and always continuing beyond our perception. What we do ourselves impacts the whole. We aren’t islands. What a responsibility. What a blessing. What a seed. What a pleasure. What a universe.
- Create your own definition of wealth
- Try exchanging “I am nervous about” with “I am excited about”
- Compassionately identify a self-fulfilling negative prophecy with compassion and treat it as just information, listening to what it tells you about yourself and your world
- Use a reminder app to set affirmation alarms throughout the day
- Go slow
- Use a heated blanket
- Start a journal about a specific topic
- End your morning shower with a burst of cold water
- Safely create a custom tea
- Remember that no one is thinking about yourself as often as you are
- Create a kindness “basket” of compliments and nice things people have done for you
- Identify what triggers you to compare yourself to others
- Do an unapologetic social media cleanse
- Internalize the difference between arrogance and confidence
- Explore how you uniquely embody the six virtues of positive philosophy
- Write down your everyday character strengths
- Read Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain
- Do something unfamiliar for 30 days
- Apply to a prison pen pal program
- Hug yourself
- Take a long weekend
- Appreciate being wrong
- See clutter as just unmade decisions
- See your past as a place of learning not a place of living
- Be a palm tree rather than an oak tree in storms—bending, not breaking
- Kneel in prayer to a blade of grass
- Start a daily energetic protection practice
- Make shorter to-do lists
- Chase the wise time, not the perfect time
- Rest before you’re tired
- Flirt platonically
- Look at your life and ask, “If an alien came to Earth, what would they think I worship?”
- Give a brand new compliment to yourself
- Stretch to the sky
- Listen to a meaningful song as a form of emotional time travel
- Watch a movie from a different genre than you’re used to
- Loosen your grip
- Take a different direction home one evening
- Create a video journal for a week, stitch it together, and watch it to witness yourself as a storyteller
- Before eating, consider all of the people and processes it took to deliver the food in front of you
- Find a physical pose that makes you feel confident, and try it every morning for a week
- Safely eat something edible from your yard, like dandelion leaves
- Truly feel a feeling you’ve avoiding—it’s through, not around
- Write a letter to yourself and hide it (and find it perhaps years later as a surprise)
- Color code something
- Experiment with a new way of living in alignment with your values
- Go outside before looking at your phone in morning
- Responsibly, mindfully, and care-fully, do it your way
I’m deeply exploring, deeply transitioning. This cycle is about my external world, a quest to culminate what’s suggested in my 2026–2027 astrology. I have lots of ideas and even more plans. It’s time to focus, but after throwing discordant ideas at the wall until something special sticks. My writing process is similar: Brainstorm wildly, mind map, outline, write, reorganize, write, edit, rewrite, go, do, make.
Our drive to protect ourselves is natural and evolutionary. Frankly, keeping myself safe is on my mind quite frequently. But feeling safe in my physical, emotional, and spiritual embodiment quiets my mind, melting the gate between here and there. I know what’s in the rearview mirror. And still, I fully feel what’s right here. And that’s me—protected, whole, surviving, thriving, collaborating, laughing, experimenting, and always dreaming. I really like it here.
I thank the universe for my ability to embody the Hanged One’s brave perspective shifting
🥵 KINKY TAROT PODCAST LAND ANNOUNCEMENT
And so it is: Kinky Tarot is coming to an end. As you can tell by my clear inability to release newsletters on a consistent schedule (lol), I only create content when it feels in flow for me. I have so adored the experience of exploring the world of kink through the many lenses of tarot, all with the ultimate goal of communicating that pleasure is key to our individual and collective liberation. That intention will never change for me. I’m grateful for all the listeners and guests who supported and celebrated this project—thank you, truly. I’ll release a final episode next week and until then, you can check out all of the published episodes on topics like squirt baptisms, pleasure domination, foot fetishes, teacher kinks, and more.
🌀 ENTER MARIAWORLD
I left elated and enchanted after speaking to Sanyu Estelle and Amy of Missing Witches for the Missing Witches Podcast episode, Future Histories of Black Magic Part 2. We nerded out over holographic quantum multi-dimensionality, aspirations for humanity, love, choice, and free will! The takeaway: what we perceive as possible is possibly more important than what is possible.
In lieu of more updates, here’s me at the Tate Modern museum in London:
🌌 MY ASTRO TOOLKIT
Every month, I share some of the things, ideas, people, places, and memories that encourage me to be present in each astrological season and its themes. I hope that this list prompts you to create your own "toolkit" that you can reach toward whenever you want to ground in the current season. This is what's in my bag for Pisces season. What's in yours?
permanent reminders for permanent devotions. living my judgment card year. tall ceilings. french milk bread. proof that confidence magic works. friendly airport strangers.the catharsis of getting rid of almost everything we own. sky blue celestite orbs. 2026 intentional planner by wild house papers. gentle self-discipline. exploratory co-op video games. the alchemy of future focus + pleasant grounding. squiggles in unexpected places. the bigger picture. two of cups. spherical lampshades. being honest about my capacity. irish goodbyes to chaotic people. dramatic key changes. a f*cking magazine. massive bean bags. harnessing air energy without getting carried away. asking my body first. unexpected praise emails. how feeling safe enables my spontaneity. emergence theory. ecstatic community visions. everyday eros. going all the way in. compassionate clarity. heated blanket + heated mattress pad. starting the day with mario kart to get into flow mindset. bringing beauty into form. how daily rituals aestheticize my daily life. home. unconventional wins. making skincare fun. foundations. expanding attachment theories. buoyancy. intentional wandering. the sensation of fascination. balanced 8 of wands. witnessing. more realistic task lists. healthy indulgence. permission slips to self. noticing my pace. loving my pace.
🍒 INTERNET PEBBLES FOR BABE ANGELS
🦸🏾♀️The hero’s journey is often a (white, male, colonial) snooze fest
🌍 African. Cinema. Essentials.
👾 A tarot-inspired mystical universe video game? Annapurna, you’ve done it again
🎮 Speaking of video games, I’m obsessed with playing Rogue Heroes with my fiancé
💊 Hello, travelers with prescription meds
🙄 Ugh, another white leftist fetishizing Black women
⚫️ Morse me, pls
🤓 Quarter-zip, half a zip, whole zip, aye
🖖🏾 TNG fans, I am OBSESSED with this Sci-fi Savage short… lmfao
🧖🏾♀️ FIVE SENSUAL GRATITUDES
👃🏾 The scent of lotus on my body
👅 The taste of savory pie crust
👀 The sight of public squares instead of parking lots
👂🏾 The sound of people talking about their passions
🤲🏾 The feel of unexpected head massages
Confess your sensual gratitudes to me at contact@mariaminnis.com!
👯♀️ IN OUR COMMUNITY
🛬 My friend Chelsea is coming out of isolation to raise funds to work with women and girls experiencing period poverty in Kenya. Learn more, and let’s support Chelsea
🔈 Filipinx interdisciplinary sound artist and nature recordist Zaneta is offering a replay of their magical Invitations from the Land: the Zena Highwoods recording. Listen and share with friends
🎴 Tarot maven Alia Walston is offering tarot year-ahead readings through February—yes! Schedule time with Alia
Holding onto the shorter days for as long as I can,
Maria
Currently reading: Pure Innocent Fun by Ira Madison III
