Surviving these times as a sensitive person
the layers you might be tapping into whether you read or avoid the news
Dear readers,
I’m late with this month’s newsletter, but I’ve been thinking of you often. Today, I realized I can’t send out anything else until I acknowledge what’s weighing on so many of us: the mass-scale coercion and intensifying abuses as Trump’s team gains momentum - and how deeply this can affect intuitive people.
So, my dear intuitives, sensitives, empaths, and big-hearted ones, here are some of the subtle layers your perception might be attuned to right now:
The big field: This general sense of gloom, fear, and unease that you might notice as though it’s in the air. It seems undifferentiated, not connected to any particular new source or action. Like a raincloud that keeps going, this amorphous sense of doom and gloom is real and palpable and if you feel it your intuition is showing that it is strong and well and able to attune to collective distress, which is a wonderful survival capacity. Attuning to the big field can be very overwhelming, but also can provide some of that ‘when you sense a Tsunami coming, move to higher ground’ wisdom.
Group specific trauma fields: Feeling deeply for and with a specific group who is being targeted by genocide, bigotry, and beyond. If you are in the group, well, you know your experience of collective shared trauma. If you are not a member of the group, their experience may start to spontaneously appear in your life through vicarious trauma, like the many months when I couldn’t move my sleeping daughter into her bed without having flashes of carrying deceased children’s bodies. In hindsight, I probably could have taken that to therapy after it happened a few times.
Personal reactions: Anger, hatred, fear, compassion, contraction, terror, avoidance, desperation, hope, fatigue, distrust, grief… all the things that the rise of fascism brings up.
Ancestral reactions: If you haven’t personally lived through a war or collapse of democracy and you are having compulsive thoughts like, “Oh no not again!” or repeated and strong sense that the suffering of now ties way back into the past, you may be tuning into some ancestral pain AND wisdom about the unfolding events.
Being moved in new directions: Experiencing sudden pulls to change careers or use your skills in different contexts. These can be confusing - where are they coming from? Is the impulse genuine, sustainable, and aligned? Many intuitive folk who I have talked to lately have been making pivots in how they show up to help. Things that felt like yeses are suddenly nos and not everyone knows why.
Mounting pressure to serve: For some sensitive folks, the pressure that they are meant to do something and it isn’t clear what feels more and more unbearable. The not knowing can feel almost insulting to folks perceiving crisis and mass destruction. If you are in this squeeze right now, read on - there are some questions for you below.
I know there are more layers that I am not mentioning here.
Sensitive ones, if I could create a vast, soft nest for you to rest in…a place to reset your senses, like turning the dial back to clear and neutral, I would. Since I can’t, I hope you find something that offers even a glimpse of that ease for your nervous and intuitive systems.
I don’t answers for how to limit the intensity right now, but I do have an invitation.
If you are experiencing any of the above, your intuition and your compassion are working. Those are the wild strengths that we can use to navigate through this time.
My invitation is to lean into the benevolent and nourishing connections that your intuition is also able to reach.
What do your wisest grandmothers want to whisper to you about these times?
What do the gods of your ancestors want to show you?
Our ancestors leaned into the spirit world for support in troubled times, and it still feels like the most organic and clear response to me.
Drink from the wells of their wisdom, learn from their long view, consider their guidance about what your part to play is at this time on earth, then bring that wisdom with you as you partake in community and engage in solidarity and solutions.
This is hard to do when you are so frayed by the coercion and collective trauma that you can’t relax your body or mind enough for deep listening. You might need to watch a silly movie or sing songs or turn off your phone for a day to be able to change gears. Walk outside.
Don’t ask them anything you don’t want to know the answer to or don’t feel you could live with.
Some questions that I am starting to ask my own spirit team are:
As a sensitive person what can I do to titrate my sensitivity and stay well during this time?
How do you wise ones see the current unfolding situation?
What is my part to play here on earth at this time?
What gifts can I bring to my community?
How can I help?
Who can help me with all of this?
Do you have any suggestions for how I can relate to the news as an empath/sensitive/intuitive?
For me, the answers have been surprising and grounding.
If you want to ask one of these questions, but don’t have direct contact with your ancestors, you can go on an omen walk or a receptive intuitive walk. As you prepare to walk, repeat ask one of these questions a few times, then wander aimlessly and let what you see and sense as you go bring you insight.
May every sensitive person find their strength and resilience through this. May the good therapists and healers be available and resourced and not burn out.
May all people be free.
Here are a few of the ways I am helping to resource people at this time:
A year ago I was in a writing and dance workshop with Sylvia Lindsteadt and Nao Sims. I was dancing and crying about war, moving between the big field and my personal reactions when my ancestors told me: NO MATTER HOW BAD IT GETS HERE ON EARTH WE WILL DANCE AND WE WILL WRITE. I saw the deep resilience in those practices and no longer saw them as frivolous. They taught me that human spirit must stay strong if we wish to counter or heal from any of it.
Tending the Writer’s Flame is about soul and land connected writing. It’s about muse and wonder. American friends are so very welcome at this upcoming retreat. Nanaimo has an airport, and you can stay onsite.
Deepen with your ancestors in an immersive, in-person and online small group experience. Over five months, we will gather in the lush rainforest on W̱SÁNEĆ ancestral lands outside Victoria, BC, weaving together ritual, nature, and shared exploration.
We will:
Explore your intuitive and ritual strengths
Learn how to enhance, manage, and titrate how information is coming to you so you can create a system that works and can grow with you
Build real organic relationships with your ancestors and guides
Find your own rituals, style, and pacing for healthy practice
Establish useful boundaries for spirit work
Probably laugh a lot
Appreciating
I’m trying out BlueSky Social and though I don’t really know how to use it yet, I find the lack of ads a huge relief and it reminds me of the old internet days when it felt less sticky. @rayanngordon.bsky.social
My new favorite kid’s book for introducing animism in a perfectly natural, playful way: The Tales of Tiptoes Lightly. Complete with faeries, gnomes, and elemental spirits. Great for age 4+. Very wholesome and sweet.
Zak Foster’s body of quilt work in general, but especially this one:
Hustle Butter tattoo balm: After my first large tattoo this stuff reduced pain and changed my daily life significantly! So much better than just coconut oil. And it can double as lip balm.
Jessica DeFino’s review of beauty continues to give voice to daily discomfort I feel as I watch beauty standards become more robotic and plastic. Jessica goes deep and gives it the words I need to hear.
This bow to the goddess Brigid, as we are in her time now:
Thank you for reading.
I close with a little blessing for you this February:
May the luck of your ancestors pour forth to you, may your relationships flourish, may your communities be bright and loving, and may the clarity of your heart guide you onwards.
Thanks for this 🥰