There has been some levity between the really tough moments / happenings, which have been bottle-feeding a baby yak, drying fresh native rosehips picked by Teddy, Max, and our friend Johnny by our spring on our ridge. My two-year-old helping me carry a package out of our tiny little post office and visiting our favorite biodynamic farmstands for the tastiest table grapes that ever were. But boy, those tough moments are still rocking my nervous system.

Beauty, nature and self-care is always the therapy that brings me back into my body, somatically, when things feel shakable and untethered.

I’ve coined this my summer of silks. I’m living in natural-color silk dresses with a silk bow in my hair, just trying to keep the light.

I know that I mentioned it in my last article, but the Mermaid Brush from Bur Bur has been shockingly profound if you are following the ancient hair protocol that we are. I’ve been using it on both the children and myself, and I’m obsessed with the texture and shine of my hair. It brings a lot of body to mine after brushing and featheriness to my natural curl, similar to medieval hair. Paired with adding horsetail to my infusion wash recipe. Chef’s kiss. The two combined are finally bringing me to the texture and shine that I always desired. Like a Pantene commercial. Teddy’s hair too.

We’ve had a mild rain roll in here, which has been really nourishing during this time, and I found myself watching the original The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which I had never seen. It gave me all of the old-house, seaside feels.

Beyond that, we’ve been living in our bath outside under the redwoods with an Activist honey mask on.

However, when I’m this wound up, in the tender human experience, there’s a real star of the show that calms my mind, releases all the tension in my nervous system, brings me back into my heart, and centers and anchors me again. Let’s get into it below.

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This eclipse portal is coming in hot for everyone right now. The veil is very thin. And it’s hitting me more like a Mercury retrograde. One of our cars got stolen in Venice last week, which was a wild experience. Witnessing the whole thing through my five-year-old daughter’s eyes was funny. She came up with a lot of theories for the “robber” lol. Anyway, the whole thing was rather riveting.

Otherwise, everything has been so communal and blissful. A wonderful pizza night around our earthen oven with the last of our summer veggies, reveling in the last long summer nights with friends. Beach hangs.

I’ve gotten so attached to the ritual of flower water under the moon as a face toner that we sourced some Arabian jasmine, which we planted as we await our mature Bulgarian Damask roses and rose geranium to come in. I can’t even begin to describe how the water smells after infusing for the night under the moon with native superstitious mallow, verbena, evening primrose, and one Arabian jasmine bloom inside. Not to mention how soft it makes our skin.

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I dab the water onto a soft cloth and wipe my son’s and daughter’s faces in the morning. And even the fussiest little guy, after not enough sleep, can’t resist the flower remedy essence of the concoction, which brightens his spirit for the day.

One hot tip that my friend turned me onto after last week’s post is the brand Bur Bur, which I hadn’t heard of. She gushed about how much she loves their boar-bristle and nylon wooden brush. Her hair is to die for, so I bought it instantly. I received it four days ago, and we are OBSESSED with it. I am tempted to say that it is even better than the Mason Pearson and a fraction of the price at $78 vs. $300. And they have a mini purse sized one.

Okay, now we’ll dig into today’s topic. The universe kept trying to channel this message through me all weekend; however, I was with the kids and then exhausted at night, passing right out, so I couldn’t give it the space it needed to develop fully. So I do that on video in real time below. The universe is calling it The Great Clearing!

Press play below and let’s dig in!

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My other obsession this week is Gardenheir’s new clogs from France. I bought them instantly. And that Crown Affair has the perfect purse sized boar bristle / nylon brush (a manifestation in-itself). Word on the street from is that they are possibly releasing a special color way for the holidays!!!!!!!!!

And if you haven’t heard about this special project yet, your nervous system has been asking for it. My dear friend Lucy/ Teddy’s godmother co-produced a project that live streams migrations in real time. For the next couple of days, you can watch sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay. It’s pure magic.

To nobody’s surprise here, (my crown keeper = hair stylist) and I are back talking about ancient hair care. If you didn’t catch our first conversation, you can dig in here.

The truth is, it has been going remarkably well for me. I haven’t washed my hair with anything beyond herbal rinses, egg washes, and oiling since the beginning of May, and my hair is thriving. The same goes for my children, who have an obscene amount of new baby hairs popping up everywhere because of our perfectly curated topical herbal hair infusion recipe (shared below). Their hair is growing incredibly fast, and my daughter’s hair is getting much thicker because there’s far less breakage and much more new growth. The same goes for me.

I wanted to have a follow-up conversation with Sondra to cover all the updates for those of you who are somewhere along this journey yourselves. It’s also for those of you who still use shampoo but want to learn what the truly hair-savvy do to strip their hair less, create more shine, and prevent breakage while continuing to shampoo.

Today we cover a lot of new territory, including the ideal nutrition for long, thick mermaid hair, how to traditionally color your hair with plants, and how to naturally blend grays. (Don’t worry—Tikka, my Serbian boxing instructor, whose mother has been a hairstylist there since she was 14, is sending me every single plant preparation and dye recipe (including onions, chamomile, green walnut preps and more. I’ll be sharing it here as soon as I receive it. She’s handwriting the whole thing.)

Press play below, and let’s dive into this hour long convo! And at the end, my good friend Chat turned my current haircare and hair nutrition iNote into a list for you.

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Last week’s post may have been my most popular one yet because of the AI editing prompt left in the middle. By 10 a.m., I had at least three friends and our customer service person at TBM send me screenshots of it, asking if there was any way I could edit it out. I laughed and told them all the same thing: I don’t mind it at all. I loved that it stayed in.

A random person restacked the quote with the caption, “Embarrassing day, my lady.” I thought, she must be really unfamiliar with me and my work. If there is anything you should know about me, it’s that there is very little I’m embarrassed about these days.I’ve spent the last decade and a half entirely focused on excavating my innermost authenticity. It’s the crux of everything we believe in at TBM. In addition to the constant peeling away of anything that is not self, I’ve spent the last decade and a half facing every shadow standing in the way of the innermost authentic aspects of myself. That is how I’m able to be so transparent, open, and beat to my own drum.

I have been very transparent about my use of AI for editing my work here. I don’t use it to write my titles, my subtitles, or the article, but I always use it to edit my writing with the prompt: “Edit this for spelling, grammar, punctuation, proper sentence breaks, and proper tensing only.” That is how I’m able to preserve my voice, tone, and exact sentiment. Substack rolled out a new feature where you can click the three dots in the top right to see how much of an article was written by AI—to which you can see that mine is always “100% writing by a human.”

When I first began blogging in 2014, which would ultimately become To Be Magnetic, I couldn’t publish a single post without people commenting at the bottom about the spelling, grammar, and punctuation. “I get what she’s talking about, but it’s hard to read when I see so many mistakes.” I do get what they were saying. When I released workshops at To Be Magnetic, we’d get write-ins about the errors in them, with people even offering to copy edit them for us. We have had one-two copywriters/editors on the TBM team at any given time. However, when I launched this Substack, it was because I wanted my own private little corner of the world that required no team whatsoever. Simply a place to be intimate, with direct access to my community. A place for any channeling or inspiration I have that I can share with my community at any time, requiring no content calendar, launch calendar, or marketing (I hardly ever share or promote it because I’m not very active on social media and the like). A place that is just me and you. So, for me, AI has been revolutionary for editing.

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I also love AI. I was a very early adopter of it. Am I scared of what it’s capable of? Totally. But I’m also excited that it will bring many people to deeper authenticity and analog living as well. Am I bummed about its data centers and environmental impact? Deeply. The same way I’m bummed about cars’ impact on the environment (even electric ones), and often, when I’m looking at one, I have an ache in my stomach about how much of it is going to end up in a landfill one day. But I still drive them. The same way I’m bummed about electricity’s impact on the environment, EMFs, and its light pollution that messes with our mitochondria, hormones, and migratory patterns. But I still use it. The same way I’m bummed about unnecessary medical intervention, but I wouldn’t have my two children without it. And the same way I’m realistic that AI is embedded into almost every service we use on the internet, causing every one of us to use it daily (Google, Gmail, Zoom, nearly every app we use…). But I am excited that AI companies like GreenSeek (introduced to me by my dear friend, Nitsa) exist and are finding ways to innovate while reducing environmental impact.

I don’t use AI to edit my work because I’m lazy. I use it because I don’t have the skill set, and I don’t want another person doing it. I know it’s en vogue to have errors in your work these days because of AI, but personally, when I read them, they do interrupt flow of the world someone is creating and the message they are trying to get across when I see a lowercase i starting a sentence. It takes me out. So that isn’t authentic to me. And I authentically don’t jump on bandwagons, I don’t virtue signal, and I don’t partake in performative living. And, at the same time, I support people who do! But I personally RELISH in authenticity!

When people ask me how I founded an eight-figure business, or how I launched a Substack that I don’t promote, funnel, or try to scale, and am nearly inactive on social media, but I’m number two in my Substack category…it’s because I am unapologetically, inexcusably, and unabashedly authentic and value it above anything else. If you have just completed the Being Seen Challenge with us at TBM, you are probably manifesting and seeing similar results in your life, on your scale, and you understand when I say that my signal (the new tool in it) is very, very clear.

I loved that I was busy and left that in my post. I love, ironically, that it shows my humanness. I love fumbling around this space. And I love being myself here. Expect nothing more and nothing less.

“I’ve preserved your tone while smoothing the rhythm, tightening the wording, and correcting grammar and punctuation.”

So today, as I have this tiny slice of aloneness on our trip, I’m sharing a few things that I’ve been sending to all of my friends, as I do with anything that I’ve discovered and love.

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I write to you today beneath the redwoods in my gothic flower garden up north. The weather has been beyond up here. Each time we run into the village for something we need, Teddy and I forage jasmine, wild roses, rose geranium, and wild blackberry blossoms for our evening moon water. PLEASE TELL ME YOU’VE MADE AND USED IT. It is actually revolutionary for your energetic state of being throughout the day. It’s become my favorite thing that Teddy and I do together.

Today we’re departing from our compound on a northbound redwood trip to stay beside the turquoise Smith River beneath true first-growth grandmother redwoods. This message from the universe earlier this summer was deeply received, and it’s now in full force. Because of that, so much alignment and so many downloads have come through.

I’ve spent much of my life around redwoods, having grown up spending so much of my childhood in Santa Cruz with my grandparents. But they never spoke to me the way they seem to speak to other people. When we first got our compound up here, Teddy’s caretaker would cry driving through them, recalling how they would give her messages and offer so much healing. I’ve often felt that kind of communion in my native habitat of Yosemite, among the cedars and pines.

This trip, though, has been different.

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In my luteal phase (having clearly not pulled enough hormones out this month with beans), I’ve experienced a deep correspondence, resonance, and relationship with the redwoods. There is something to be said for the way women can become more open to the watery, psychic depths of themselves during the luteal phase as hormones rise. Though, admittedly, it often comes at the expense of my partner, who gets the most agitated, snappy, cutthroat version of me, and my children, who get the least patient and least conscious version. All this to say that the plants have been speaking to me a lot lately.

I’ve preserved your tone while smoothing the rhythm, tightening the wording, and correcting grammar and punctuation.

Just last night, while in my flower garden picking rosemary, horsetail, rose, and chamomile for our herbal hair rinse, the bud, hue, and shape of one particular red poppy completely grabbed me. I kept noticing how beautiful it was, almost absentmindedly, without thinking much of it. Later that evening, I was watching videos from a forager I love who began explaining and identifying the opium poppy—which, unbeknownst to me, was the very poppy calling to me in my own garden (and she is stunning). I find that with each passing year, the plants ask me more and more to put down anything outside of my authentic code and simply learn everything I can about them. To be with them. To listen to them. And to work primarily with them.

Okay, enough about flora.

Today I bring you one of my favorite, simplest practices—one I return to whenever I’m really on a manifestation and mindfulness roll. I tend to do it alongside my DIs to reinforce them and help create new neural pathways more quickly. It’s so simple, and you can do it anywhere, anytime. I especially love doing it while putting the kids to sleep and as I’m falling asleep myself because, during the hypnagogic state—the transition from wakefulness into sleep, when the brain shifts from alpha to theta brainwaves—the brain becomes less focused on the outside world and begins tagging emotionally meaningful thoughts for overnight memory consolidation. Repeatedly visualizing and feeling the same thoughts during this window can strengthen those neural pathways through neuroplasticity, making those patterns more automatic over time, especially when paired with real-life action.

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Three days a week, we train with our Serbian boxing instructor here at the house. It’s a family affair. The kids ride their bikes around us while we train or put on their own boxing gloves and join in for fun. But I cherish these moments with Tikka because he grew up high in the mountains of Serbia, living the old way—without electricity or running water, relying simply on water from the wishing well. He was raised by his grandmother and grandfather, who taught him every folk remedy, herbal tradition, and ancestral ritual you can imagine. So between weight sets or rounds of boxing, I’m constantly picking his brain.

If you’ve been here for a while, you know I’ve gone utterly down the ancient beauty rabbit hole. I’ve gone full Projector (Human Design) on it, so I simply can’t get enough. As an herbalist, I’m captivated by it in a way I never could have imagined back when I was first learning to make herbal medicine. It’s become baffling to me that we’ve let these old ways disappear.

For instance, my hair has never looked shinier, felt softer, or grown as quickly as it has since I ditched shampoo, conditioner, and every modern hair practice two months ago. Instead, I turned to herbal rinses, scalp oiling, daily massage, and a boar bristle brush. Or how I traded modern skincare for Japanese mochi skin practices and skin fasting. And, perhaps most unexpectedly, how these rituals have made me feel more intuitive and connected to my channeling.

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All of this is to say that working with herbs and flowers on this level is multifaceted. Not only is it incredibly nourishing and beautifying for the hair, skin, and nails, but once you begin to feel their energetic properties, it becomes baffling to think we’ve replaced them with something lifeless from a plastic bottle.

Today I’m back with yet another ancient ritual, inspired by a deep dive I went on after Tikka told me about the way his grandmother prepared flower water each evening to wash their face with the next morning for “good energy”, natural perfume, and soft, moisturized skin.

Let’s get into the flowers used, the process (including dew), and the how to of this enchanting fairy practice below.

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I’ve been deep in the trenches of some folklore that I find really fascinating, and I was planning to dive into that this week. However, the universe had other plans for us all. For nearly seven evenings in a row before bed, I’ve felt its persistent nudge to share this message with you.

In the age of everyone sharing information on social platforms in under 30 second clips , I see why this message is getting loud.

I share more in the video below, but I believe this message is especially important to hear right now. As we move into autumn, the era of refinement is going to pick up, and thigns will begin to accelerate. I have a strong sense that we’re not meant to have a lag between timelines.

Press play below!

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And just like that, we’re back into our normal routine before we head out on our next two-week road trip.

While we were away, we hosted for 11 of the 14 days. When I arrived back in LA, knowing we’d finally be settling back into rhythm, my entire nervous system relaxed the moment I saw my bed, hugged by the old coastal live oaks just outside our windows. They were waving me in to cocoon.

Our geese honked so loudly with joy when they saw us that the entire canyon must have heard. And my Maine Coon, Rhubarb, was overjoyed and hasn’t left my side since. Our little white Pygora goat, Linden—who is easily the most popular animal on the farm—has finally started letting everyone feed her pellets and pet her. She’s a Virgo and radiates the most unmistakable Virgo best-friend energy. She also has the sweetest constant underbite smile, which is just so good.

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We also came home to our yarn, which had been at the mill for the past three months. It’s spun from the fiber of our alpacas, Pygora goats (mohair), Angora rabbits, and Gotland sheep, and it turned out absolutely gorgeous. I already have three knitting projects picked out, and I don’t care that it’s nearly the height of summer. It’s the perfect excuse to knit for hours in the car on our next road trip.

We arrived home with a tiny kitten we found orphaned in our basement in Yosemite. It took me three days to earn her trust—leaving her little pieces of salami each day—before I was finally able to snatch her by the scruff in the eleventh hour before we left for Mendo. Naturally, we named her Salami, aka Sally. She’s currently undergoing my elite kitten training program to ensure she never gets eaten by a predator, and then she’ll move to my daughter’s Waldorf school to become their head mouser.

Now that I’m back in rhythm and settled into my home routine, I’m diving back into all of my health rituals. Since they’re top of mind as my body rebalances after six straight years of pregnancy and nursing, I thought I’d share what all of my stunningly vibrant 35+-year-old friends are doing. I’ve been asking everyone for their best hacks, and after hearing many of the same answers over and over again, I thought I’d round them all up here.

Let’s get into it below.

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I’m writing to you from my compound in Mendo with a very full house. I’ve termed this tradition “Camp Mendo,” where friends and family come up for a few days of total immersion: beach bonfire cookouts, sauna followed by a cold plunge in the salt river, garden dinners, lots of outdoor bathing, and sleeping beneath the healing redwoods.

As I prepared for our first round of guests to arrive—our friends—I was doing the florals from our gothic cut flower garden, all while racing toward the very last-minute completion of the unit that inspired me to buy this compound in the first place: the Water Tower, a very traditional Mendocino architectural staple and the last unit to be remodeled, completing the three-and-a-half-year renovation process. It felt like a very dramatic renovation show, with only half the fixtures installed, the place full of tools, and cardboard covering the floors that morning. By that evening, just before our friends arrived, it was sparkling and fully staged.

All this to say, things have been BUSY! I tend to write these on Mondays, fiddle with them a little on Tuesday, wait for any last messages from the universe on Wednesday, then give them one final polish before they go live on Thursday at 1 a.m. PST. However, because of summer holiday, with no kids in school and nonstop hosting, I’m writing this the night before and praying that it’s cohesive.

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Due to the lack of time today, I want to share my absolute staple of all staples: the dish we eat weekly and bring to nearly every dinner party we’re invited to, to which many guests inevitably say, “How did you get the beans so creamy?” They have the most beautiful lemon hue (without any lemon in them at all). “These are the best beans.”

Having been on the bean protocol for almost seven years now, beans are a part of my everyday life—multiple times a day. They are as fundamental to me as bread would have been to my ancestors. Even before the bean protocol, I had always loved beans. I could live on beans. So when I learned that isolating beans and fats could help heal my Addison’s and many of my autoimmune symptoms...

Ok, let’s get into this very easy bean recipe including the link to the biodynamic farm I source from that tests for 200 sprays!

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Summer travels are in full swing for us at the moment. With a kid, a full-on toddler, and five dogs in tow, some moments are extremely trying, while others pierce the heart like magic-hour light, highlighting the realization that this is a core memory forever (captured on film).

This is the first year my daughter is processing the concept of a “summer holiday.” When she graduated from nursery a month ago, a wave of transitional grief surfaced as she tried to grasp whether she would ever see her teachers again, whether her best friend would return to school next year, and what exactly a summer holiday is.

So it has been a very inspiring initiation into showing her how wonderful the bountifulness of summer can be: the long days and beautiful weather, the abundance of produce from local farms, the extra time together as a family, and those summer evenings spent with friends, playing until the sun quite literally goes down.

We kicked off the first of three trips this summer with a visit to Yosemite (where I’m from) alongside my mom, my dear friends Ashley Neese and Olesya Rulin and their families. As we sat at Cathedral Beach, the kids ran freely through the river while the dads helped them build boats to float using sticks, pine needles, and bits of cordage. Teddy was in complete bliss. The next day, we had hearth-oven pizzas in an apple orchard, and Teddy looked at me and said, “This is summer break.” She could feel how wonderful it is.

It has given me a refreshed perspective on summer and how to make it notable, memorable, and, most importantly, deeply loving.

As we make our way to the other leg of our trip where we will be met with many many friends, and no kids in camp or school, my posts will be a little less intensive and more romantic these next two weeks.

This has also spilled over into the heirloom essentials I find myself packing and the habits that make these summer trips special - below.

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The end of spring and the beginning of summer, marked by the threshold of the Summer Solstice last weekend, have been so mild and dreamy here on our farm.

A thin veil of marine layer has been hugging us each morning, begging us to stay tucked in bed a little longer, while the brighter light whispers that summer is here—a season that invites us to loosen our grip, toss the to-do list aside, bask, lounge, cut a melon in half and eat it with a spoon as the juice drizzles down our legs, and tap into the current of abundance, freedom, and fullness.

Our garden seems to be signaling the same thing. It’s as if overnight, our zucchini became fair-prize sized and the tiny tomatoes turned fully colored, juicy, and sweet. Our geese are now eleven weeks old and fully grown. They walk with their heads held high and do the silliest things around the barnyard with the other animals. I truly understand the saying “silly goose” now.

I can’t put down The Marriage Portrait. I’ve just gotten to the part where they’re preparing her for her wedding and all of its lavish rituals. I’m also about to finish a sweater I started knitting back in March—my very first one for myself in twelve years.

Last week, I took my first trip away from my children in five years, and it felt wildly untethered. But while I was there, an enormous amount of channeling came through.

It seems the universe has many messages pouring in lately. At first, I thought I was channeling more because I was finally back in my own body and aura after weaning. But it told me very clearly why.

And it has a message for you, too—what it wants you to know and what it wants you to do.

Let’s get into it below.

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Ok, as requested, here’s my six-week ancient haircare (no shampoo or conditioner) update!

The truth is that I created this space to always share what’s at the top of my interest list, just as I do with my best friends. And right now, I’ve loved being totally immersed in ancient beauty. It’s brought me so much inspiration and reclamation lately. Just two weekends ago, I spent two hours searching for the most elegant vintage 100% silver Edwardian boar-bristle brush, true tortoise comb, and mirror set until I found the perfect one. I then went on a deep dive to see who still re-bristles these antiques and was elated to find that such a craft still exists. The whole experience feels heirloom-worthy and deeply feminine.

And, well, frankly, I am in a deep return to self after six years of being pregnant and nursing without a break. Two Sundays ago, Gus and I closed our nursing journey for good. I cried as I tried to get through our final nursing session before we sent, “the milkies back to the moon.” He wiped my tears and was so tender and gentle about the transition, as we had been communicating about it multiple times a day for the two weeks leading up to it. The truth is that I probably would have kept nursing him for another eight months to a year had my body not been struggling and needing this break and replenishment.

Not nursing or being pregnant brings up a void I haven’t felt since conceiving Teddy. But another layer of grief hovers over the whole experience, questioning whether I will have another baby. There is also the openness and unattachment that comes with being in my own body again.

So, transparently speaking, I need a pool of ancient beauty to get lost in—something to revere so that I’m not fully engulfed by what could be one of the most potent closings of a portal a woman experiences. It feels similar to closing the chapter of a company or a massive creative endeavor.

Though there is this whisper of a little spirit who wants to come through at the end of next year (here’s how I prepare my body for pregnancy a year to two in advance), whether it does or does not, this stretch of being in my own body, my own mind, and having a glimmer of independence again has made ancient beauty a strong flame within any darkness.

With that said, the focus right now is on my health, vitality, and replenishment through my indulgence of ancient beauty.

I was deep in a book when my friend Lulu told me about the main character in The Marriage Portrait and how her medieval hair is almost a character in itself. So I switched books instantly. And oh, it’s so good so far!

So today, below, I’m sharing a video of my six-week update now that I have completely stopped using shampoo and conditioner and have turned exclusively to ancient hair rituals. I’m also sharing three tools that specifically focus on creating tremendous thickness and encouraging new growth.

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It was simple.

I had written an entirely different post to go live this week. Then, as I was going about my herbal hair rinse and getting ready for the day, the universe stopped me in my tracks with a flood of information channeling in. I had to stop what I was doing—in my bathroom, gown on, wet hair and all—and film this message.

It offers clear insights and goes more granularly into the refinement era, now the next portion called “The Great Pivot”—the shift each of us will be making between now and February 2027. It feels potent and relieving at the same time.

Below, press play to watch and learn the tools for navigating it.

The Being Seen summer challenge is live now at TBM. Discount here.

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I’ve been nursing or pregnant for six years straight. I weaned my daughter the night before I got pregnant with my son. And now that he has hit two — and after getting my labs back revealing a touch of hypothyroidism and a significant amount of depletion — it’s time for he and I to close our nursing journey. So cue the book Booby Moon and a lot of conversations about it leading up to this weekend, “when the milkies go back to the moon.”

But it does feel like this bright new opening for me to be with my own body again. To rediscover who I am in my forties without giving nearly every ounce of nourishment to a growing baby. And with my first solo trip coming up this month — just a quick overnight in Idaho — having not slept without my kids in six years, a lot is starting to reveal itself to me. Interesting once we get to an in-between veil where cracks of knowing seep through.

Cut to under the full moon last weekend: I woke up out of a dead sleep with the universe sharing some information with me. It wasn’t revolutionary, though the frequency of it felt slightly different.

It said very plainly that many, many, many people are going to go through a massive transition between now and February 2027. Those who have been productive and seemed like they were right on their path will suddenly feel the call to refine themselves. As will those who have felt stuck in a rut.

This isn’t drastic, jumping-off-a-cliff energy — though some will surely take big swings. It’s much more of a refining energy. The kind that makes you wake up one morning and start questioning things like:

Whose house is this? Whose friends are these? Whose five-year plan is this? Why have I been so asleep at the wheel, thinking I wanted all of these things — when, in fact, my inner compass is yearning for X, Y, and Z instead? The real me.

That’s why this energy feels less like a cliff jump and more like a refinement. It isn’t necessarily about leaving your relationship, selling your house, or moving to another country. For many people, it will simply be the gradual realization that their external life and internal truth are no longer perfectly aligned — and a growing desire to close that gap.

It’s going to feel like little pings telling you to put your blinders on, your head down, and go on a soul inventory. And until you do that refining work, things are going to feel off — asleep, out of alignment — even if you try to deny the inkling.

Below, let’s get into the five tools that are going to keep this journey feeling clear, aligned, and far less like a depressive, disorienting, lonely road — if this message resonates with you.

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I promise this has not become an ancient beauty Substack — I’m just personally deep in all of it right now, so I’m dragging you through the trenches with me. Particularly through the practices that never went mainstream. And I think this will be the last post on it for a min (maybe).

I won't even get into how my ancient haircare rabbit hole led me to stop showering daily and start doing what I can only describe as Victorian sink washing — bits and pits only, until shaving days, which is once a week anyway. The biggest thing that clicked: every time I "wash" something the traditional way, I'm stripping my microbiome and the natural oils my skin produces to keep itself moisturized. Once I stopped the daily shower, I stopped needing to slather myself in oil afterward. My skin just stays hydrated. On its own. Without my help. Think of the body oil I no longer need to buy — not to mention every bottle that isn't going into a landfill. What I keep coming back to is this: almost every beauty practice from the ancient world is superior to the marketed version we've been sold through consumerism.

Watching what my hair and body were capable of once I stopped stripping them made me very curious about what my face could do. So today: two ancient Japanese skin philosophies I’m practicing — skin fasting and mochi skin - and why you should too — especially if you’re interested in aging less aggressively. Let’s get into it.

You can find my Airbnb here. You can find my company here. You can find my book here. You can find me on Instagram here.

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Things have been rather sweet over here the last couple of weeks! I feel summer making its way closer; however, the blossoms of spring are still in motion. We had a hawk nest in one of our trees and just yesterday the baby fledgling was in our driveway. As mothers do, it appears she’s pushed him out of the nest to start teaching him how to fly!

And fly spring must, though its blooms, nests, and eggs will be missed. Three dear people to me are about to have their little Gemini babies — two of them their first babies — and so I’ve been lighting a candle for them each evening for blessings and ancestors and angels to cross the portal with them harmoniously. All of these beautiful little spring beings.

I, though with much work and responsibility glaring at me from my desk, am feeling summer’s Venusian pleasures calling! Spacious time to get lost in anything that interests me right now. And for me that has particularly been beauty — ancient beauty. Not shocking based on how in-depth I in this post. Below, I share the five ancient practices that I’m utter immersed in and seeing real results!

You can find my Airbnb here. You can find my company here. You can find my book here. You can find me on Instagram here.

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I’m still reeling from last week’s post — and it’s the topic that’s still top of mind for everyone I see. If you so much as comment on my hair lately, I will talk your head off about 12th century haircare (I even cornered a friend’s bald husband…). I do have to report that the herbal rinses and the Mason Pearson brush are the real stars of the show.

I’ve been thinking so much lately about how to get lost in time and fall utterly in love with life. My last few weeks have been so productive that I just want to find the poetry and beauty in every moment — with nothing but spaciousness, and only doing what really lights me up. Below are the six steps I’ve been implementing, based on the best published books and research on ditching busyness for slow living and intentional beauty.

You can find my Airbnb here. You can find my company here. You can find my book here. You can find me on Instagram here.

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As I lay watching yet another rendition of Sisi, the Austrian Princess—historically famous for her hair—and reflecting on the reclamation of my own hair post-pregnancy, along with the knowledge I’ve long held as an herbalist, it finally hit me: an aspect of my life that has not been heirloom or reverent has been my hair—especially after having children.

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I reached out to the hair witch, my friend Sondra Tillman (you read about her here), who does quite literally everyone’s hair. With her Scorpio stellium and deep herbal and medicinal background, she knows the ins and outs of how women from the 12th century through Victorian times tended to their hair—in deep ritual, with the ingredients they had access to, where the main focus was doing everything possible to harness one’s natural sebum.

I’ve now been following the protocol for a week, and my hair already looks like this. Below, dig into the hour-long video conversation Sondra and I had covering all things hair ritual, herbal, tools, and history, followed by the exact step-by-step formula.

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To my best knowledge, I had never been bitten by a tick before. Possibly as a kid but not that I remember as an adult. However, in the last two years, the rise I’ve seen in ticks has been astonishing. I have my multi-layered theories on this, but I’ll stick to the topic at hand: what to do if you’re bitten by a tick.

I’m not an expert like my East Coast friends are, but as someone with a very sensitive health constitution, ticks freak me out. Two weeks ago, we found one embedded in our son’s head, and last Sunday, I had one on my chest.

Like many of you, I’ve been getting fed a lot of tick content recently. However, I’ve been tuning into the holistic, step-by-step process of what to do if you find one embedded.

I reached out to everyone I know with deep tick and Lyme experience. Here’s what everyone recommended, step by step (best to have on hand if you’re in a high tick location):

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How is everyone holding up in all of this Aries energy? With my three planets in Aries, I’m loving it, but I know for some it’s been a bit more destabilizing. I will say, when Kate and I were in the beehive last week, they became unusually aggressive, swarmed, and felt very activated—it was wild energy. Beyond us needing to tend to a couple of broken frames, I couldn’t help but wonder if they were feeling the intensity as well.

My friend Lulu has really inspired me to return to my barefoot heliotherapy practices, and it has felt deeply therapeutic. A lot of people in the canyon go barefoot everywhere, and I’m starting to build the confidence to take it a step further—moving beyond just my Earth Runners and actually staying grounded by going barefoot more often (when the weather allows). I’ve been trying to make my way to the ocean for mineral dips to complete the ritual and clear my energy as often as possible, though it’s harder these days with four of us and so many needs to juggle at once.

Last weekend, we had the sweetest celebration, and my dad brought his pet pig, Simone (who lives in his house), which added so much levity to everyone around him. It was one of those gatherings where time seems to slow, and in the midst of all the movement and commotion, you find yourself pausing to take a deep breath of gratitude—for the souls we’ve found in this lifetime, who we’ve likely traveled many lifetimes with, and for yet another opportunity to be together.

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Things did take a sad turn after when one of our new goslings disappeared. They had been brooding in my office, and we had all fallen deeply in love with them. They had completely imprinted on my daughter as their mother and were strongly bonded to us, so losing one felt very different from chicks we’ve lost in the past. It appears that one of our dogs may have pushed open the office door and gotten to it. This brought up very big feelings and led to important conversations together as a family. With a five-year-old who has become so attached to the goslings, we held a lot of space for her. I also found myself genuinely heartbroken, experiencing waves of grief. In moments like these, I feel especially grateful for books like Sonya’s Chickens by Phoebe Wahl.

Our dear friend Emma was visiting from Maine and came to the rescue, driving two hours to pick up one of the gosling’s hatchling mates and then driving the two hours back so that our sole surviving gosling would have a companion. They don’t do well alone—especially at just two weeks old. So now we have Jammie and Butter, and we buried Baguette beneath a plant, with a little altar my daughter made.

This brings me to today’s topic: familiars. I can’t believe I haven’t covered this here before, as it’s a concept very close to my heart.

Familiars are traditionally understood as animal companions in folklore and magical traditions that share a close, intuitive bond with a person and are believed to assist in protection, guidance, or spiritual work. Historically, they were thought to act as intermediaries between the physical and unseen worlds, often appearing as cats, birds, or other animals.

Since I was a child, I’ve always had familiars who seemed to find me. Two years ago, I even helped 50 people connect with their familiars from the euthanasia list, and many still stay in touch with me. Today, I’m going to explore the concept of familiars—how to recognize them, how to walk with and work with them in a magical context, and the different symbolism associated with various types. Let’s dive in below.

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