musings on destiny and role

Lately, I've been curious about destiny and roles. Specifically, I've been poking at the external messaging I've received that emphasizes the importance of knowing your role to fulfill your destiny.
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Spoiler-alert, that math isn't mathing because much of my lived experience isn't reflected in that messaging.
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Wrapping story and language around my role(s) has never made me feel closer to actualizing my destiny; it has often left me more confused and depleted. If anything, my stories about the role(s) I have accepted and assigned to myself have felt like distractions. And I've often felt a collapse of possibilities as I've struggled to perform/uphold those role(s).
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As I keep poking, it feels almost impossible to entertain that any aspect of my destiny is tethered to me or anyone else understanding my role(s).
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In this phase of my life, I aim to live, breathe, move, and exist in the sweet spot of trust. I am learning to trust my destiny's emergence. I am offering up all accepted and assigned roles as compost for the ecosystems that resource my life and destiny. The mysteries of life and the ecosystems of creation will be my primary pathways for relating to my destiny.
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Quotes against pale pink and light brown backgrounds with abstract triangles read:

what if your destiny is emergent?

what if your work is to trust in the emergence
of your destiny and the ecosystems that support it?
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what if your work is about releasing
attachments to any ideas about what your role is?
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what if you don't have to understand your role in order to execute your destiny?
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How does it feel when the mysteries of life and creation become prioritized pathways for relating to our destinies?

a love offering for bell hooks

dear ancestors, web of creation and ecosystems of love thank you for the life, medicines and spirit of bell hooks.

setting altars

Happy Autumn Equinox Folks
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Deep gratitude to the folks that showed up for our equinox ritual yesterday.
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In honor of the change in season, i’m sharing some tips for setting altars. I could honestly do an entire class on setting altars because there are so many layers to this practice. These tips are literally the tip of the iceberg.
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What’s on your altar?
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Comment below
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#ancestors #altar #ase #spirituality #autumn #autumnvibes🍁 #equinox #fall #magic #love #reverence #mystery #elements #air #water #fire #ether #practice #learning #growing

field notes on doubts and fears

when doubt and fear arise in your ancestral connection practices, gratitude, presence & curiosity are potent and transformative medicines.

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i find myself often engaging a gratitude practice around fears and doubts that arise. Sometimes this is very challenging work.

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the present moment is where we practice rooting in our agency and have the potential to create new experiences for ourselves.

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presence also enables us to engage with our curiosity and gather information. 

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ancestral connection work is an invitation to make space for our full selves and everything we are carrying including our fears and doubts.

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#fear #doubt #ancestors #ancestralwisdom #ase #practice #ancestralconnection #growing #learning #ecologicalbeing #ecology #ancestralecosystems #support #curiosity #medicine #history #projections #now #healing #agency #choice #selflove #ancestrallove #acceptance #love #ritual #patience

1 year death anniversary

dear auntie it has been exactly 366 days since your last response in our group text
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i’ve been feeling your absence even more deeply as the one year mark approached today🫶🏽
on my walk, the chill in the air felt like your cool damp fingertips smearing grease across the neat parts you etched across my scalp almost 2 years ago.
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On that day your magic wand was a rattail comb and each part was a rune, a sigil, evidence of your magic.
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On that day i sat on a pillow between your knees as you archived your love for me across my scalp and along every strand of hair you twisted
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thank you for this embodied experience of love archiving. I am so grateful to carry some of your spells and stories. I love you and i miss you. #ase #grief #ancestors #spells #story #archive #evidence
#love #death #life

field notes on sharing your medicine

As we root more deeply in our ecological nature and become more trusting of the ancestral ecosystems that support and sustain our lives, potent medicines are shared with us.

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These medicines amplify and awaken the medicines that already live in us. They invite us to become active stewards of the medicines that live in us. They initiate us into becoming conduits of these medicines in the material world. And they inspire us to inhabit the spirit of generosity necessary for sharing these medicines throughout our journey's here on earth.

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I am soul-deep in lessons of learning to fully trust the medicines shared with me and the medicines they awaken in me.

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I am stumbling, fumbling, and falling along the way. And this is part of my journey of sharing these medicines. My heart knows that these medicines are imbued with a spirit of grace that does not require my participation in the performance of perfection for me to be transformed by their potency and worthy of the healing they inspire.

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If you are stumbling, fumbling, and falling, you are not alone because I'm right there, too. For those who wish to join the journey, I warmly invite you to join me in either of the containers of practice below; registration links are in my bio:

Ancestral Healing and The Ecological Self-Study Circle

September 17, 2023

1pm-230pm EST

In-Person

Exploring the Medicine of Enoughness

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Communion with Ancestral Waters: An Autumn Equinox Ritual

September 22, 2023

7pm-9pm EST

Virtual

Harvesting the Medicines of Ancestral Waters

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Elder Wisdom: Connecting with our Ancestral Ecosystems to Embody Love and Liberation

October 9, 2023

7pm-9pm EST

Virtual

A Practice Container for Deepening Connections with Our Ancestral Elder Fields of Wisdom

#ritual #communion #ancestors #ancestralwisdom #ase #water #equinox #autumn #fall #love #community #kin #medicine #gather #healing #blessings #magic #descendantofradicalimagination #beloved #song #spirit #elders #elementalancestors #gratitude #practice #grace #sharing #descendantbelovedkin #fieldnotes #shareyourmedicine #sky #river #rain #ocean #nature #seasons

field notes on choice and control

I am deep in the study of discerning choice from control and trusting my beloved kin-folk to help me course-correct.

A lens of curiosity is a supportive tool as I discern what is at the root of how I am engaging in choice.

Much of my embodied relationship with choice is connected to exercising choice in response to systems of harm and oppression. I'm sitting with a deep yearning to prioritize exercising choice in response to generative, rooted in soul, love, and community.

The managed realities of empire will not be the sole lens of how I understand and embody my relationships with choice.

How do you relate to, embody and exercise choice?

field notes on trust

the work of deepening ancestral connections, working the realms of spirit, and being alive is an invitation to explore the language trust.
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these are invitations to remember, re-memeber, and re-imagine how we engage with the language of trust.
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these are invitations to trust the signs of our kin and relations that reflect back to us that we exist and belong in ecologies of care and love.
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the language of spirit is trust

a grief ritual

I received this ritual in the summer of 2020 as I wept and worked in the garden. That is where I spent most of my free time, wet with tears and sweat, pressed against the body of the earth, grieving and anxious. When I received this ritual, my children helped me harvest our plant kin with care and love. We asked permission from the land and the plants to harvest their bounty, laid offerings in the soil and washed their green bodies and bright petals with cool water, prayers, and songs. We patted them down with soft cloths and held them between the flesh of our palms before making tea and tinctures.
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I find myself drawn to this ritual often, grateful to work with the fresh offerings of plant kin when available or with the homemade tinctures that some mysterious and wise aspect of my being guides me to craft in advance.
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I share this with you, hoping that you, too, might be inspired to co-weave and engage with rituals for expressing grief. I share this because I am learning that our rituals carry the most potency and ase when they are shared with and support others.
#love #grief #ritual #ancestors #plantcestors #healing #ancestralwisdom #support #share #ase #potency #plants #plantmedicine #botanical #herb #medicine #descendantbelovedkin #presence #meditation #rose #lemonbalm #tea #tincture #water #gratitude #learning #growing

field notes on ancestral wisdom on asking for and receiving support pt.3

field notes on asking for and receiving part 3.
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the practice of asking for and receiving support is also an invitation to open ourselves to grief.
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learning to grieve the things that we want but do not receive, helps us to create space and receptivity to receive the things that we need.
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#ancestors #egungun #receive #support #ancestralwisdom #ase #ancestralecosystems #spirit #grief #portal #love #descendant #beloved #kin #descendantbelovedkin #learning #growth #presence #vulnerability #want #need #human #life #invitation

field notes on ancestral wisdom on asking for and receiving support p.2

part 2 field notes on asking for and receiving support.

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asking for and receiving support is an exercise of honoring our agency and capacities for self-determination.

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asking for and receiving support does not require us to abandon our curiosity.

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asking for and receiving support means that sometimes we may have to reckon with receiving support that moves us away from what we “want” and in the direction of what we “need”. there is an invitation for us to stay curious when this happens🫶🏽

song anchors ritual and a welcome hymn

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A post shared by Tamira Cousett (@tamiracousett)

Y’all, I love opening rituals and ritual containers with hymns/songs/orin.
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In ways that only a loving universe could design, for almost a decade, I’ve been rooted in communities that continue to gift me the opportunity to study the ways that song anchors ritual.
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Often when I co-weave rituals outside of these spaces, song remains at the center of what I offer.
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My experience has been that when we offer songs/hymns/orin communally, the ase of our rituals are amplified exponentially.
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For me,songs/hymns/orin retain and transmit memory and energy. The practices of engaging them are rooted in the lineages of ring shouts, call and response, and potent diasporic rituals of connection, communion, and healing.
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Engaging with song is a multidimensional practice with ancestral and cultural roots. This practice orients me toward liberated realities, connects me with the past, and supports me in visioning liberated futures.
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Engaging with song is an ancient tool for locating one’s self. It is how I locate myself within the ancestral ecosystems of love that support my life. It is how my ancestors practiced locating themselves amid systems that attempted to strip them of their cultural memories, humanity, and their embodied sense of love and deep belonging. When I offer songs they are a call, and there is always a loving response.
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The more I practice, the more I learn that anchoring songs/hymns/orin is a practice of humility. It becomes less and less about one’s personality and sound. It becomes more and more about being solid, soft, grounded, and open so that one becomes a vessel for transmitting energy and memory through sound. All of this requires deep listening.
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🎶: Welcome Song a gift from my ancestors.
#song #welcome #ancestral #cultural #callandresponse #ringshout #lineage #hymn #orin #egungun #ase #ancestralwisdom #medicine #portal #connection #magic #multidimensional #love #belonging #location #immersion #listening #learning #soft #grounded #energy #ritual #community #humility

field notes on ancestral connections rooted in agency vs expectations

the weight of our unspoken expectations impact our capacity to show up for one another and build loving relationships rooted in agency.
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we are not entitled to unfettered access to our ancestors, the wisdom and stories they hold. often times we have not developed the skills necessary to engage various aspects of their medicines.
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the gift of our aliveness is how they show up for us daily. how can your life be a call and response of gratitude for the gift of your aliveness?
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how can you approach ancestral relationship from a space of agency rather than entitlement?
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these skills apply to many facets of relationship building with all beings
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spirit of fire: a summer solstice hymn

When I think of summer, I think of the ancestral and alchemical element of fire.
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I feel deep resonance for the medicines of fire that invite transformation and serve as a portal of connection to those that come before us.
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As we welcome the summer solstice, may the spirit of fire transform that which no longer serves you and deeply nourish your soul.
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To honor of the shifting of the season I offer this song/ hymn that was woven throughout our ritual container last night.
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Deep bows of gratitude to the folks who showed up to co-weave our beautiful summer solstice ritual: nourished by fire.
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Big love my feathered kin in the background of the video and in the foreground of my life. This bird is full of soul fire all the time and her songs always serve as reminders.
🎶: nourished by fire -tamira cousett❤️‍🔥

#ritual #ancestors #egungun #fire #elements #ase #hymn #song #medicine #community #summer #summersolstice #nourish #transformation #soul #nourishedbyfire #songmedicine #chickenlove #nature #ceremony #sacredfire #orin #invocation #prayer #spell #praise #remember #gratitude #thankyou #altar

Lyrics

Lyrics:

spirit of fire

spirit of fire

spirit of fire

spirit of fire

nourish my soul

oh nourish my soul

nourish my soul

oh nourish my soul

spirit of fire

spirit of fire

spirit of fire

spirit of fire

help me let go

oh help me let go

help me let go

oh help me let go

spirit of fire

spirit of fire

spirit of fire

spirit of fire

light the path home

our return to soul

light the path home

our return to soul

repeat from the beginning

field notes on receiving support

Asking for support and receiving support are not passive activities. This is true in the realms of Ancestors/Spirit
and in the realms of material and matter. I hold both/ all of these realms to be interdependent fields of possibility capable of eliciting layered responses to our requests for support.
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Often when i ask for support, the deep lessons of receiving and integrating those layers of support unfold. These are some of the touch points I explore in my continued practices of learning how to receive and integrate support.
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1. do i have capacity in my physical, spiritual and emotional landscape to receive the support I’m calling in?
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2. Am i willing to engage with the changes that might be required to create the space/ conditions to welcome in and integrate this support?
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3. Can i slow down and recognize when support emerges in ways i don’t anticipate? Am i willing to stay open to receive support that doesn’t center my comfort?
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4. Am i willing to examine my investments in the stories, beliefs and conditions that keep me from being open to receiving support?
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5. Remember asking for and receiving support are not passive activities.
#ase #egun #egungun #learning #growth #healing #love #support #ancestralwisdom #spirit #life #relationahipgoals #change #story #belief #conditions #ancestralecosystems #ancestralecosystemsofsupport #kin #descendant #beloved #descendantbelovedkin #ancestors #prophetsofpossibility #interdependence #multidimensionalhealing #chickens #learning #curiosity

field notes on the how's and why's of ancestral connections

Examining the “why’s” and “how’s” at the root of building connection with our ancestral ecosystems.
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If we aren’t examining this our why and how they may shaped by the systems of harm and oppression we are seeking to dismantle.
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This happens when we world build and relationship build through the narrow lens of opposition.
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The energy of opposition limits possibly.
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Can we build connection practices and rituals where the energy of opposition isn’t at the center?
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Let’s build connection practices rooted in love, hope and wholeness.
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field notes on connecting with ancestral ecosystems

Let’s slow down and build connection with our ancestral ecosystems in ways that honor ours and their agency.
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Let’s root in connection.
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For those curious about rooting in ancestral connection let’s explore together.

a spell for living through collapse

a spell for living through collapse.
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live beyond the edges of sanity
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love from the thickness of humanity
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expect no deliverance from the alivness of these times
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feel it all
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rituals are required
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like breath, like food, like water
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they will keep us present to the emergence of endings and beginnings
that are worthy of our witness
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#spell #ase #endings #beginnings #ritual #love #humanity #thicknessofbeing #alive #feelings
#emergence #withness #collapse #essential #egungun #ancestors #medicine #sanity #breath #food #water #presence #withness

musings on interior spaces

Alaafia Friends,

Happy almost summer to those of us rooted in the Northern Hemisphere. I've been delighting in the sweetness of spring, rain clouds included. 

My spring has unfolded with countless trips to the library with my kiddos, in-person connections with beloveds, receiving bodywork, dreaming about future collaborations, attending Shabbat dinners, speaking about ancestral connections to UNC students, decorating my grandma's grave, mowing my momma's grass and tending to many seedlings, as well as our furry and feathered companions. This spring has been slow, savory, and satisfying. Despite the conditions of the external world, I've found myself inspired and feeling the sweet flames of aliveness radiating throughout my being. 

Early in the season, I found myself captivated by a sentence written during one of my morning pages practice. [Side note: If you've never heard of morning pages, this is a daily creative writing practice created by Julia Cameron. If you're curious, google it, it's a great practice to engage.] The words in my notebook that caught my attention were, "Build up and rest in the interiority of your life." Deep down, these words stirred something profound and covered me like a second skin. As I continue to sit with these words, especially in the context of our current and unfolding realities, they feel like a mantra and manifesto of resistance and connection. 

These words feel like medicine for our times, gifting us an approach to navigating the world as it changes, becomes unrecognizable, and feels increasingly hostile. They galvanize us to welcome connections and relationships that mirror our humanity back to us, to root even more deeply in community, and to nourish our inner spaces of refuge so that we may continue to engage with the world around us and love each other through it all. 

Before I close, I'll share a bit more of what came through in my writing practice related to the interiority of our lives:

 “The interior spaces of our lives are not the endeavors of the solo architect; they are the sanctuaries of refuge built and sustained through community, kith, and kin. When we turn our attention to building up and resting in these spaces, we will find the spirits of our beloveds, living, and ancestors companioning us here. Building up and resting in the interiority of our lives is a practice of radical self-love and resistance. Community and relationships are the sacraments that nourish, enrich, enliven, and enable these interior spaces. The existence of these spaces is essential to our collective liberation.”

 I hope what I've shared today inspires you to examine with curiosity your understanding and praxis for building up and resting in the interiority of your life. May the conscious tending of your interior spaces help move us in the direction of liberation for all.

Happy Almost Summer,

Tamira

the nature of tide pools

  i found god(s) in the tide pools
and they softened the edges of my understanding

  they bathed my feet in saltwater libations

  i professed that i knew them
through the illusions of separation

 they showed me how deeply connected they are 

to the vast bodies of the oceans

 they spoke of tide-songs and water cycles 

that sing them home

  they gifted me metaphors for life
 
 they offered me reflections of myself
inside tide pools incarnation

 always connected
and never separate
 always connected
and never separate