You Are the King Tides
Welcome to the first episode in our 2024 Winter Season, where we’re exploring our vast connections.
What does it mean that your body is composed of over 50% water? What do you already know about what it means to be hydrated, fierce, fluid, and purifying? Why are things so arid in our culture? This is some of what we explore in today’s episode!
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Under the embedded player, you’ll find a written transcript for the show.
Welcome to A Wild New Work, a podcast about how to divest from capitalism and the norms of modern work and step into the soulful calling of these times we live in, which includes the call to rekindle our relationship with the earth. I'm Megan Leatherman, a mother to two small kids, writer, amateur ecologist, and vocational guide.
I live in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm your host today.
Hi friend, here we are, we're back. How have you been? I last left you around the winter solstice in late December and we're about a month out from there and I'm curious what you're noticing about the light, if you have noticed it. growing at all, if you're noticing any early signs of a shift in the seasons, if it feels very winter still for you.
I hope wherever you are you are safe and comfortable and feeling good and I'm really excited to be back with you. I had a lovely winter hiatus. I got Some really nice time to breathe deep and just kind of wander around and focus when I was ready to, and I just feel really lucky to have had that time.
I am excited for the year ahead. I'm excited for us collectively. It's a strength year. 2 plus 0 plus 2 plus 4 equals 8, which is the strength card in the tarot. So if we think about the sort of collective card or theme of the year, it's strength, which is a time when we are. needing to do something that our heart and our intuition and our instinctual self knows needs to be done, um, but that our minds may not want to do.
And that's really great work and practice and I'm excited to see how it sort of unfolds for us as a collective, um, and in each of our lives personally. So this winter season of the podcast is going to be a shorter five episode series and the topic that I want us to cover is our vast connection. You might remember from the last episode of the last season, which I released around the winter solstice, that January is a time of sort of dissolving into the nothingness or the wonder, the unknown that comes after death.
And what comes before a new life is made? It's the same thing. It's the void. It's the empty space. New life will come. That's not a guarantee maybe, but it's Pretty, we're pretty sure that's going to happen. New life will come. You may already be seeing little glimmers of it in the landscape around you, but before spring truly arrives, we need to swim in the vastness that precedes conception, that precedes the birth of the next thing.
Why do we need to do that? Because if we can connect with that vastness and that void and that unknown where everything is truly connected, where it's one just large web of energy or life force or whatever you believe about what that is, um, when we can connect to that and attune to that and see how it sort of weaves into our material and day to day lives, then we, you are reminded about how to give birth.
It gives us the energy we need. It shows us what is important enough to give life to. Without this step, we just recreate what we've always done, or we create lives that are what we think others will like, or we plant, you know, 10 seeds instead of 100, because we didn't simmer long enough in that time of dreaming.
We didn't really entertain the largeness of what was possible. I see this in my client work all the time where someone, you know, has sort of been used to going from job to job or, you know, maybe they got laid off and, um, you know, maybe could have afforded a little bit of a window, a little bit of a void time.
But understandably, they went straight into the next thing as soon as it arose because it is so scary to be hanging out there without another solid thing. And so when that happens, oftentimes I see. People just sort of get into what is familiar, or they sort of look back a few years later and regret not taking advantage of that time to really evaluate who they are, and what they wanted, and how far they could stretch.
And that's part of my role, is to help them be inside that unknown long enough that it can show them something. And that's hard. to do. It's hard for all of us to do. So this podcast season, I would like to help us attend to our connectedness, to the fact that we are able to swim in that vast ocean of consciousness, to that we can attend to the fact that we are so much more than these jobs, or our social status, or how much money we earn, or any other identities that really just serve.
Capitalism and other systems of dominance. So we will be talking about our connection to water today. Then we'll be talking about blood, trees, seeds, and our connections to one another. So I'm going to be guiding us through some of this season, and I have two really wonderful guests that will be joining me as well.
So my hope is that throughout this podcast season, you will start to notice and hear from the big life that wants to show itself to you this spring and summer through these growing seasons. And that doesn't have to mean like some huge Um, you know, life change, or like, I don't mean big in the sense of like, grandiose necessarily.
When I say like, the big life that wants to show itself to you, I mean the, the largeness of flow and joy and vitality that is available to you in your own unique, um, world. way in the, within the constraints that you find yourself in, within the body that you find yourself in. It's like the difference between moving from a dark room inside out into sunlight and sort of receiving the largeness of that sunlight and feeling it sort of bring vitality to all of the cells in your body.
I really want that for us this spring and summer. Um, so today we're going to be talking about your connection to the water, to the vast seas, the flowing rivers, the still deep lakes, all of these bodies of water that really allow us to live on this planet. Um, and I'm excited to be with you in this way today.
One of the new seeds that sort of made itself known in my little void this past five weeks in January of sort of not seeing clients and not doing a lot of work, um, is an idea that has sort of been around in the periphery, but that I didn't really have time or make time to sit with, or maybe it wasn't the right time, I don't know.
But I'm really excited to share that this February I'm going to be offering a weekend workshop series on a book called Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici. This is a book about the origins of capitalism and how they are related to both The European witch hunts and colonization of the so called Americas.
And this book was published in 2004, coming up on its 20 year anniversary. And it's a really interesting, rich, accessible book. book that I think will blow your mind a little bit and also actually really inspire you. Of course, there's a lot of heavy material in it. We're talking about the violence of, you know, the birth of capitalism and witch hunts and slavery and colonization.
It's not pretty to be sure. But it's really inspiring to learn about what life was like before capitalism and how capitalism was actually a response to a sort of Surge of power among the people, and it's also really inspiring to hear from and hear about all of our ancestors who resisted capitalism, maybe not in the scope of this book, but certainly throughout history across the world, there have always been people who have said it is not a problem.
Um, it's not right that we don't have access to the food or the shelter we need. It's not right that I have to go, you know, trade my time and my physical energy and capacity for a wage, um, and then buy back, you know, the food or the shelter or the clothing or, or whatever I needed. I need to survive as a human, and so I'm really excited to go deeper in this realm.
We talk a lot about capitalism here on the show and in other areas of my work, but I want to move through this book with you and really help. All of us, I, I know that I will be learning through this series as well, help us understand what it means for us today and how we would like to live in a way that is really joyful and connected and not so steeped in division and scarcity, which are necessary in order for capitalism to spread.
So this workshop series will include the study of that book, for sure, but also some guided visualizations, some ways that we can honor those killed in the European witch hunts and in the project of colonization and the Atlantic slave trade. Um, time to work through what this means for you today in your daily life and work so that we can all experience more and more.
Joy and life and really start envisioning something beyond the way work and life are right now. So I'm really excited and I think it's going to be interesting and it's something that is surprising me that I had not planned on doing this year, but I'm just trying to roll with it. So, um, it's going to be spread over five 90 minute sessions over the weekend of February 23rd, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and the cost is 49.
Although if that's a stretch for you, no one will be turned away if they can't pay. You can just use a code to sign up for free and I'd love to have you there. I think. If the book feels a little intimidating, you know, don't worry. You don't have to read the whole thing to participate in these discussions and sessions.
I highly recommend the book if that's something that is appealing to you, and if you have read it already and want to go deeper, or if you've meant to read it and just needed some accountability, I definitely recommend it. Um, but my goal is to make to use the book as sort of a source of inspiration and framing and understanding, and then see what we can weave together as real people living in capitalism now.
So, I'd love to have you there, and you can visit awildnewwork. com to learn more and sign up. I also just want to let you know that I do work with people one on one who are navigating Transitions in their working lives and working identities who are trying to navigate capitalism and paying their bills, who also want to do good work in the world.
Um, and you can learn all about how I work with people one on one over about six months to a year, um, at awildnewwork. com. And if you're in need of a little nature based boost for your working life right now. I just want to let you know or remind you that I did write a little book last winter called Winter at Work that sort of walks you through the winter season and how it can be a source of renewal and how to really work with it.
To bring some new life into your vocational journey. So those resources are there for you. I want to say thank you to Heather and to an anonymous donor, two new supporters of the show. I really appreciate all of you who chip in to make this work sustainable for me. If you're listening and you would like to do that as well, you can chip in once or monthly at buymeacoffee.
com slash Megan Leatherman, and I'll put that link in the show notes, too. Alright, why don't I read us our opening invocation and we will dive into today's material. So wherever you are, you can just notice your body in time and space. You might notice how gravity is landing for you today. See if you can notice any wild beings around you.
And you can just take a deep breath. May each of us be blessed and emboldened to do the work we're meant to do on this planet. May our work honor our ancestors, known and unknown, and may it be in harmony with all creatures that we share this earth with. I express gratitude for all of the technologies and gifts that have made this possible, and I'm grateful to the Multnomah, Cowlitz, Bands of Chinook, and Clackamas tribes, among many others, who are the original stewards of the land that I'm on.
Alright, well where I want to start today is to talk about the sign that the sun is in right now, which is Aquarius. Aquarius is an air sign that is known as the water bearer. If you think of air that holds water, you might think of a cloud or a vapor. It is a transporter of what is required to make life.
In the tarot this corresponds to the star card, and on many versions of that card you will see a figure with one foot in the water and one foot out, often pouring out a vessel of water or an overflowing cup. So it's not water itself, but it is the sort of channeling and directing or giving away or the flow.
Or the movement of water. You know, a baby mammal is conceived via fluids and then is gestated inside of a sack of water in the mother's body. It starts with water, and fluidity. A chicken, an egg is surrounded by nourishing water. It's amniotic fluid. A seed even knows that it is safe to unfurl when there is enough water in the surrounding.
Soil. Water unlocks life. Without it, the life we know and love just wouldn't exist. This planet used to be covered in water, and much of it still is, of course. Our bodies are composed of a lot of water, somewhere between 55, maybe up to 75 percent of water. Over half of who you are is lake, or river, or stream, or rain.
You know, where do we think the water in our bodies? comes from. It comes from those places. It's, it comes from the snow that's still in my yard right now. The fluid that is surrounding and lubricating my eyeballs right now evaporated from the ocean. It was held inside of clouds. It was released back down into the earth through rain, and it was brought to my home via a series of natural channels and man made pipes that brought it to my tap.
That's amazing. All of the water inside of you right now has been somewhere else before. It may have been in a body of water that you know, that you have swam in, that you can see, that you have revered. This last winter, right around the new year, my family and I went to visit my parents who live at the coast here in Oregon and the tides this winter have been just wild.
I don't know if like You know, if you measured them, I don't know how they have compared, but just anecdotally, you know, according to my parents and what I saw, the ocean is just really wild right now this winter. And there's a phenomenon called king tides, which is not a scientific term, but sort of a colloquial term to describe very high tides, which happen when the sun, the moon, and the earth are all in alignment, and when the moon is close to the earth, like during a full or a new moon.
And I don't know, from my research, it sounds like these could happen all year, but I think with the extra runoff of the winter and the sort of storms that happen at this time of year, the king tides feel extra extra. Just extra, right now, and the winter ocean is already so powerful, but this year it really took our breath away.
The water was just like consuming the coastline. It had a unique sort of color. It was like the gray of the sky and the rain was sort of reflecting and making the ocean this very light kind of sea foamy, um, Kind of enchanting like green color and the waves were so high the sea foam would just blast against the rocks and like sort of float in the air as if they were bubbles.
Um, it was really incredible and winter at the Oregon coast is really one of the best times I think and I believe the last king tide of this season on the coast here in Oregon is February 10th, which is over a new moon. So if you're local and you want to get out and see some really wild ocean, that would be an excellent time.
I'm really interested in this phenomenon of surging water, these king tides. It's just sort of really been munching away at my mind since we went out there. Um, of course the term King Tides, even though it's like patriarchal imperialist language, um, it just gives you a sense of like, the sort of supreme, expression or power of the ocean, and it's really interesting that it happens when we, the earth, are in alignment with the celestial bodies, the sun and the moon.
Something clicks, and the waters become fierce. They might destroy property. They take over more land. They are not welcoming or friendly. And that is as it should be sometimes. It is correct that we should be reminded to respect the seas and the water. reminded maybe of where we come from. Of course, scientists may never know for sure, but there are theories that life originated in the ocean, possibly in deep vents at the ocean's floor.
And regardless of whether or not that is true, oceans create our weather, our rain, they sustain. Us, they sustain the lives of so many marine animals and plants that are incredible and really, and deserve the chance to live in a healthy environment. So we are in Aquarius season when we are learning to channel water so that our lives become fertile ground for new life.
The Earth, the Sun, and the Moon line up and click, and the waters surge forth, right? The, the water bearer that is the ocean is full and is pouring forth. And then we shift into Pisces season in late February, which is the last zodiac sign before the onset of spring, before the spring equinox on March 19th.
And Pisces is a, a true water sign. Aquarius is known as the water bearer, but it is ultimately an air sign. But Pisces is a water sign. And so it's two full months here of water work, and that's because new life requires a lot of water. As adults, you know, we are about half made of water, but newborn babies bodies are made up of about 75 percent water.
They come from the waters of the, you know, amniotic sac, and then when they emerge onto land, they are still three quarters water. It's truly what we know best. It's where we come from. So if it's true that we are water, that we are related to bodies of water, that the water in me and the water in you comes from the water that is all around us, that rains down on us, that we can see out in the ocean or out in the lake.
If that is true, then what could that mean for us? Well, it might mean that we already know how to flow in our lives. We already know how to find our way past obstacles or to glide over boulders. We know how to do that. We know how to be flexible and fluid and find the cracks where there's life. It might also mean that we have tides.
That some tides are bigger than others. We might be in a time of king tides where we're really surging. There's a lot of energy or emotion or movement. At other times we might be in a very low minus tide, which can be sort of a counterpoint to those king tides. We might be influenced by the orbs in the sky.
If the ocean can move according to the movements of the moon and the sun, then maybe we do too. It might also mean that when we dam or pollute the bodies of water outside of us, it comes back to hurt us too, that the damming and the polluting is happening inside of us as well. There's really not as much difference between us and the rest of the natural world as we think.
And I know you know that, but sometimes it's important to remember. So I want to talk about this flow piece in particular for a minute. It takes a lot of energy to resist what is happening, to resist the flow of life around you to resist your emotions, to resist your desires or needs, to resist what your soul wants to do in the world.
It takes energy to suppress some of that. If you think of like a river that has been dammed, that dam requires a lot of materials, stone, wood, metal, a lot of manpower, a lot of machine power. It takes a ton of energy to stop that flow and to keep it from flowing. And that's not where new life can come from.
I've talked about this in other episodes, but the water on the other side of a dam over time gets very depleted and it can't support life. And yeah, there might be a little ladder that the salmon can swim up, you know. every year to get to their spawning grounds, but the water on the other side isn't going to be healthy.
The sediment's not flowing as it should. It's severely damaging salmon populations, and even the eggs that do get laid upriver and swim down later are at a much lower number with less of a chance to survive than if that dam had not been there. And so, sure. Little life can eke out of this damned river.
Life continues. Life is incredibly resilient, but something new wants to come out of not resisting, but finding the cracks and moving anyway. The newness needs to come out of that open Flow. And resistance, I think, in our lives can look like wishing everything was different, being resentful or worried that it's not different.
It can look like constant tweaking or optimizing, constantly focusing on self improvement or relating to yourself or your life or anything as a problem. You know, it should not be this way. Of course, in some cases, that's absolutely true, but it sort of makes us It takes us out of the fact that they are that way.
Embracing or accepting how things really are is just being with them as they are, not seeing them differently, but seeing them as they are, as they want to be seen. And not simmering in constant wishing that things were different, but really putting your hand on your heart and just accepting that this is where you are.
This is how it is. This is what is. And then noticing where there is fluidity, what the options are inside of that, inside of that constraint. This came up a lot last week when my kids were home from school unexpectedly. It was the last week of what was supposed to be my sort of winter break. And I had a lot of resistance to the fact that school kept getting canceled.
There was ice and snow on the ground. Um, and I would just loop on like I can't believe this storm is happening, like, climate change, we're all doomed, but also why is school closed, can't they go, aren't the roads okay, what am I going to do, on and on and on and on, and I had to, with the help from my therapist, I had to regularly take a minute and just accept, like, this is how it is, yep, my home, my kids are home, there's no school today, I thought I would have today, to myself, I don't.
I have to move this thing. I have to cancel. And just being there and accepting that that was how it was opened up a lot more energy and gave me different options. You know, and helped me to see, helped me sort of come to terms with what I needed to do. to just get with the program and get on with the flow of life.
This can happen on a larger level with us sort of resisting the fact that we are inside of a decline or a collapse of some kind, you know, wishing that things will get better, wishing they were different, thinking like maybe the next president will be able to fix this or, you know, if we just had this policy things would be better.
And once I can, personally, once I can shift into the fact that this is where we are, Like, okay, this is what it is. We're having a crazy winter storm. The grid is barely hanging on. There are people really suffering. This is, this is what it is right now. Once I can just get there, and I don't have all the language for how this relates to the nervous system, but it really is like a felt change in the body.
Once we're there, I can feel that surge of energy and power to be with it in a new way. I feel more courageous. I have more resources. I might just be really sad at other times, you know. This is where, this is what it is, but there's something really important about not trying to build up all of these dams or not trying to hold or contain the ocean, but bearing it, you know, being that vessel, allowing it to fill us, allowing it to flow through us.
You know, I'm kind of wondering if we have reached the end of all the optimization we do in our lives. Like, of course, there are things that we still need to do and that could be better. Like, I probably would worry less and have more energy if I cut out caffeine or if I went to bed earlier or if I ate less processed food.
You know, like, that is totally true and I do need to improve in some of those areas. But I think we need to start being more honest about when we're just optimizing to make this better, and to sort of put band aids where there's some cuts and bruises, but to get real about the fact that also the whole thing needs to come down, the whole damn needs to be, you know, taken down.
It's sort of the difference between like all of the energy that goes into making the workplace better, which is really valid, like, people have to be there right now. It's very miserable for a lot of people, but let's not pretend like making the workplace better is the end goal. Like, let's remember that the workplace really just shouldn't exist.
And can we name that, and can we get honest about the fact that What we're doing right now might be just trying to optimize a really shitty situation or experience. And just remembering that, like, all of the wellness that we want to do, all of the Changes that we want to make in our lives are so beautiful and so necessary, and yes, we should if we want to.
And, it can be really reassuring to the nervous system to be honest about what we're inside of, and to remember that, you know, even if I take all my vitamins, Um, the power grid might shut off, like it did in this winter storm. And so, let's just be honest about all of that. You know, I'm noticing this a lot right now because I've been thinking about my own journey, and sort of what I want to be thinking about, and writing about, and You know, I have the best, I think I have one of the best possible situations in my working life.
I make my own schedule. I work from home. I don't have a boss. I truly. enjoy every client I work with. I, I, like, wouldn't complain about anyone. I'm so lucky to work with really lovely people. I get to be creative. You know, I don't make a ton of money, but that's okay with me right now. I feel like I really have made it.
Like, I feel like I'm sort of as I am as lucky as I could get to be able to do this, and yet there is only so far that I can go. I am still stuck inside of a place, inside of a situation where I have to earn an income in order to buy shelter, food, clean water. And even if I had a ton of money and could take significant time off, or even if I had more money than I could ever need, that wealth would have had to come from somewhere, from some land, or some person who had to sacrifice themselves for the cash that I had.
So, We just need to name the fact that we are trapped inside of something. Yes, we can make it better. Yes, I am so lucky to get to do what I do and to earn some money from it, but it's also not really a choice at the end of the day. Let's name the fact that we are navigating multiple cycles of crisis and decline right now.
And that doesn't mean that there's no joy or beauty or love. There's tons of it. That's why we're still going. We want more of it. I think we are rightfully thirsty for more, and I think there is a lot more to be had, which is partly why working with the seasons and learning from the other beings in this world and the bodies of water and the things that remind us of that life that is just beautiful, pulsing through us and that wants to grow is so, so helpful inside of all of this. But our old techniques of optimizing or adapting, or like, if you just do this, then this, or if you're not feeling good inside this, it's your fault and you should meditate more, all of that needs to be updated. And the fastest way to know how to do that is to stop resisting what is in front of us and just get real about where we are.
Take a breath and then see what the options are from there. If you are at least 50 percent water, then you need to do what water does. You need to flow. Life needs to flow through you. You need to be able to change and move. Maybe sometimes you Pool with water. Other times you flow outward. Maybe you're in a king tide where there's a lot of surge.
Maybe you're at a minus tide, and a lot of you is exposed or seen right now like tide pools that are usually submerged, and I'm not speaking in metaphor here. Living beings, humans included, must live in a way that is hydrated and fluid. All living beings should have the right to move, to adapt, to float, to cry, to drink in all of it.
Capitalism thrives on rigidity and dryness. It's, it tells us that there's only one way, or these are your only two options, or all of life is just a machine that you can manipulate. And what is that doing? It's literally turning our planet into a desert. It's literally making our oceans more acidic and untenable for life.
No, you are not a machine. You are a river. You're a lake. You're an ocean. You're the rain. You are the individual water molecules that make up those things, and you are also the sum total of them. I want to conclude with a really lovely excerpt from a book by Aurora Levins Morales called Silt and she wrote, quote, This is the ceremony of ourselves, each one a sip of water, a tiny ocean, a bubble on the bloodstream, inside our skins, beating up on our faces, trickling down our sweaty backs, dripping from our weeping eyes, offerings to the world.
Then let the water in you call to the water in me. Let the water in our veins call to the water in the world, one river, one ocean, one rainstorm gathering over the dry places, ready to pour down quenching relief for the thirsty, and we are all of us thirsty.
Many watery blessings to you today. Thank you so much for being here. I hope that you can play around with being the water that you literally are. Um, if you would like to go deeper together, you can check out my upcoming workshop on Caliban and the Witch in February and other offerings like Tarot and working together one on one or my book.
All of that can be found at awildnewwork. com. Thank you again to those of you supporting the show financially. If you get something out of this podcast and can chip in a few bucks monthly or once, you can go to buymeacoffee. com slash Megan Leatherman. I will be back with you next week to continue our winter season on connection and the vastness of connection that we are a part of.
So take such good care, and I'll see you on the other side!