December 2022: By the Numbers
a numerological forecast for clarity & inspiration
❄️ DECEMBER 2022 ❄️
Keep magic & wisdom on your mind as you wrap up another trip around the sun.
How did it get so late so soon?
― Dr. Seuss
As a holiday gift, I’m making this newsletter available to everyone! But typically, my monthly forecasts are only for my paid pals. Please consider subscribing for as little as $5/month, and send this email to a friend for a little added love!
In this monthly forecast, you’ll find:
→ A list of 25 Books to read, gift or donate this holiday season
→ Playlists for the numbers 3 and 9 to get you inspired
→ Things to try this month
→ Things I’m trying this month
December is ruled by the number 3, by magic, language, story and creation; and December 2022 adds up to 9, which is the number of turning all that we’ve learned into wisdom and understanding, as well as sharing it with others.
In the spirit of these numbers, I’ve decided that instead of telling you what you might expect out of this month, I’d share some resources with you that’ve helped me to both understand the world around me, as well as expand my mind past what I thought I already knew to be true.
It’s incredibly Sagittarian of me too, don’t you think?
Here are 25 books (15 non-fiction, 10 fiction) to add to your shelf, gift to a loved one, or even donate through an organization like the Prison Library Support Network:
The Witch’s Book of Numbers by Rebecca Scolnick (I HAD TO OKAY!?)
Whether you’re a beginner witch or have years of experience, The Witch’s Book of Numbers will deftly guide you through the history and relevance of numerology for today’s practitioner, offering exercises, spellwork, correspondences, and activities all designed to help boost your practice and enrich and empower your journey as a witch.
Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
Life can be hard: your lover cheats on you; you lose a family member; you can’t pay the bills—and it can be great: you’ve had the hottest sex of your life; you get that plum job; you muster the courage to write your novel. Sugar—the once-anonymous online columnist at The Rumpus, now revealed as Cheryl Strayed—is the person thousands turn to for advice.
Your Illustrated Guide To Becoming One With The Universe by Yumi Sakugawa
Set against a surreal backdrop of intricate ink illustrations, you will find nine metaphysical lessons with dreamlike instructions that require you to open your heart to unexplored inner landscapes. From setting fire to your anxieties to sharing a cup of tea with your inner demons, you will learn how to let go and truly connect with the world around you.
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
An engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming.
Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
In the tradition of Octavia Butler, radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures we want.
To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedediah Jenkins
On the eve of turning thirty, terrified of being funneled into a life he didn’t choose, Jedidiah Jenkins quit his dream job and spent sixteen months cycling from Oregon to Patagonia. He chronicled the trip on Instagram, where his photos and reflections drew hundreds of thousands of followers, all gathered around the question: What makes a life worth living?
Every day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable or to dare greatly. Based on twelve years of pioneering research, Brené Brown PhD, MSW, dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and argues that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage.
The Flowering Wand by Sophie Strand
A deep exploration of the regenerative and magical secrets of sacred masculinity hidden in familiar myths both ancient and modern.
A memoir of leaving the evangelical church and the search for radical new ways to build community.
Getting to Center by Marlee Grace
This book meditates on endings, grief and joy, ease, hope, addiction, and beginnings, pairing Marlee's own experiences and wisdom with practical exercises and tools for creating balance and understanding within the natural changes of life.
“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”
Why Religion? by Elaine Pagels
Why is religion still around in the twenty-first century? Why do so many still believe? And how do various traditions still shape the way people experience everything from sexuality to politics, whether they are religious or not? In Why Religion? Elaine Pagels looks to her own life to help address these questions.
Postcolonial Astrology by Alice Sparkly Kat
In a cross-cultural approach to understanding astrology as a magical language, Alice Sparkly Kat unmasks the political power of astrology, showing how it can be channeled as a force for collective healing and liberation.
Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,” revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish” everywhere.
In her dazzling, impossible-to-categorize debut, Jenny channels the pain and beauty of life in writing so fresh, so new, and so burstingly alive, we catch her vision like a fever and bring it back out into the bright day with us, where everything has changed.
A struggling novelist travels the world to avoid an awkward wedding in this hilarious Pulitzer Prize-winning novel full of "arresting lyricism and beauty.”
Fleabag: The Scriptures by Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Waller-Bridge brings together for the first time the filming scripts of the first and second seasons, complete with the original stage directions as well as exclusive commentary on her creative process and the making of the series. Now recognized as one of today’s most essential voices, she delivers powerful insights into her now-iconic protagonist: the hilarious, emotionally damaged, sexually unapologetic woman who can make viewers laugh, cry, and cringe in a single scene.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.
A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
Robin Blyth has more than enough bother in his life. He’s struggling to be a good older brother, a responsible employer, and the harried baronet of a seat gutted by his late parents’ excesses. When an administrative mistake sees him named the civil service liaison to a hidden magical society, he discovers what’s been operating beneath the unextraordinary reality he’s always known.
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
A magical, sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time.
A young New Yorker grieving his mother's death is pulled into a gritty underworld of art and wealth in this "extraordinary" and beloved Pulitzer Prize winner that "connects with the heart as well as the mind" (Stephen King, New York Times Book Review).
The mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different—and far more satisfying—than he ever imagined. Santiago's journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, of recognizing opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, most importantly, to follow our dreams.
A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.
Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery.
Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for....
I heard a bird sing in the dark of December. A magical thing. And sweet to remember. We are nearer to Spring than we were in September. I heard a bird sing in the dark of December.
― Oliver Herford
Create something just for the fun of it
Connect with a deity that supports communication, creation or the written word
Sign up for a class on a topic or magical modality that you’ve always been curious about
Spend a little more time alone than you usually do
Listen to the Beatles’ White Album
Bless and give away clothes, belongings, and spiritual tools that no longer resonate
I also have quite a few books on my reading list to crack open, and I’m so looking forward to it!
Continue working on my novel, of which I now have over 50K written!
Squeeze every friend and family member I see just a little tighter this year!
Try not to overload my schedule!