I engaged in a powerful fire ceremony on Jan 20, 2025, which is MLK day in the States. This is also the day Trump was inaugurated into office for his second term. It was a day of stark contrasts and filled with heavy emotion, for me & many others.
I wanted to honor this turning point in time with intention & care so I lit my fireplace and tended to it throughout the day, feeding it my prayers, my heartbreak & my resolve. A quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. held me throughout this ceremony: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
This quote represents such a high ideal, and I'm not sure I can fully live up to it, but I needed something powerful to hold my grief & my hope. This quote served as a wonderful light source for my ceremony & is something I may need to revisit often in the future.
During the Covid pandemic I collected some fallen branches from the golf course near my house. This golf course was a nature oasis for me during isolation, offering me peaceful grounding as the world went through global collapse & deep division. The branches I collected there have been in my house ever since, serving as a reminder of the grief & resiliency many of us experienced during Covid.
As Trump took office on MLK day, I burned my Covid branches in the fire; releasing the past and preparing for challenges that lay ahead. As I burned these branches, I sought to gather wisdom from my Covid expiernace to help prepare me for the next pandemic we are moving into, which I call the "Trump Pandemic". At some point I may find another name for this next round of global collapse, fear & division we are moving into, however, for the sake of this blog I will stick with this terminology.
The Trump Pandemic may not infect the body the way Covid did, but it will profoundly infect the hearts & minds of people all over the world. Symptoms of the Trump Pandemic will show up as fractured relationships, deep polarizations, and a growing sense of despair amongst many. This pandemic will influence the way we see each other, the way we trust, and the way we love.
And like we did before, we must decide how we will respond. Will we isolate in fear? Or will we find ways to build immunity, through connection, truth & unwavering commitment to being a light source in the face of so much darkness?
In this blog I share insights that came through for me in this fire ceremony, along with some of my collage art & photography. May my personal share inspire you to reflect on your own Covid experience to gather lessons learned & wisdom guidance to support you as we move into this next era of change & challenge...which is going to be a doozy!
Here’s a 9 min video of me starting this fire ceremony, not quite knowing how it would flow or what would emerge. I was sad to let these Covid branches go, however, the guidance that came through in this ceremony is supporting me in profound ways as I step deeper into this new era we are living in.
One of the benefits of the Covid Pandemic for me is that it deepened core relationships in my life in meaningful & intentional ways, that would not have happened had we not had the collective pause of Covid.
When the pandemic started, my interactions with acquaintances & casual connections ended quite quickly. In this stripping away of surface-level interactions, I made a conscious decision to define my "Core 6"; six key people in my life that I was going to prioritize & stay connected with during my time in isolation.
Through daily check-ins, virtual calls, community art making, deep conversations & backyard gatherings, these "Core 6" held my heart, my fears, my joys & my grief when the weight of the world felt hopeless. These people reminded me that even in isolation, I was not fully alone. These "Core 6" remain at the center of my life today and are a testament to how crisis can clarify who & what truly matters.
I learned during Covid that relationships & community are not luxuries, they are essential medicine inputs for the human spirit. Cultivating my "Core 6" was a wonderful benefit of Covid & is something I want to take forward with me.
In my fire ceremony, I sang to the flames of my intention to continue nourishing core relationships in my life. I also prayed to open my heart & life to cultivating new connections & friendships. Before Covid I used to make lots of new friends every year. However, since Covid this is no longer true. Expanding my friendship network will be a vital component of surviving this next round of psychological & cultural crisis sweeping through humanity & the planet.
Another way I want to expand into relationship is to widen into the courage & commitment to participate in & co-create spaces of refuge, care & collaboration for myself & others. It is time for me to widen my circle of influence through the act of Collaboration. Rather than doing all the heavy lifting myself, collaborating with others on programs & community offerings will allow me and others to bring more gifts into the garden of life, and widen the frequencies of our collective caring.
We need each other. Not just to survive, but to somehow thrive amongst the rubble of our collapse. If we build & cultivate soul-centric & heart infused community now, we have the possibility to birth a new future into being. I can't do much alone, but with the right people beside me, together we can offer something of value that serves as a ripple of light into the larger collective.
Another benefit of Covid for me is that it prompted me to take my Wild Soul Wanderings workshops on-line. I've been leading personal development workshops for over 20 years, had my own retreat space in Denver, and served a sweet community of clients along the Front Range of Colorado.
When the pandemic started, I quickly learned how to use Zoom to take my events on-line, and I'm so glad I did. Using the power of technology to connect with others in this way offered deep medicine for my spirit throughout Covid. Taking my workshops on-line expanded opportunities for me to connect with like-mined people throughout the country, which was a wonderful gift.
When I emerged from Covid, I decided to take a break from leading events in the private sector. This gave me time to find my new center in a very changed world, and devote more energies into my corporate career. That break was so needed.
Now, as 2025 kicks off with a powerful bang, I've started hosting online events again and it feels wonderful to re-connect with others this way. Creating & delivering workshops feeds my spirit and it's part of my soul-work. As we step into the Trump Pandemic, I see the immense value of resuming these types of gatherings, for me & others. The several sessions I've held this year so far have been spectacular. I'm grateful to have this resource of community in my life again.
Using various forms of art to explore & express my feelings & experiences was a life saver for me during Covid. As we move into the Trump Pandemic, I recognize that creative expression remains a vital component of my soul work & healing practice. As we step deeper into 2025, I'm committed to offering at least one on-line gathering a month. This helps hold me accountable for doing my little part of cultivating connection, community & collaboration in the world. Creating art in community not only nurtures our individual & collective voices but also serves as a resource to help us navigate the complexities & challenges of these times
My next workshop takes place Saturday, March 8, 2025. The theme for this event is "Cultivating Resources for your Hero's Journey". This on-line Community Arts Playshop holds space for you to inventory the resources in your life that nourish & sustain you, and through art explore how to use these resources to grow your life garden as we move into Spring & Summer. I look forward to seeing some of you at this event. These gatherings are a lot of fun too!
As I wrote this blog over the span of a couple weeks, a striking connection emerged for me. Covid began during Trump’s first presidency, and now, as he takes office for a second term, I find myself calling his leadership influence another kind of pandemic. This Trump alignment of destruction makes me think of the Tower card in Tarot.
Tarot is a deck of cards that represents the Heros Journey through cycles of life, transformation and personal growth. The Tower is one of the most dramatic cards in a Tarot deck, depicting a lightning-struck tower crumbling as figures fall from its heights. It represents sudden upheaval, the collapse of false structures, and the dismantling of illusions, often through chaos, shock, grief & resistance.
And while the Tower card represents upheaval & sudden change, it also challenges us to find resiliency amidst chaos & destruction. The Tower card reminds us that turmoil can pave the way for profound transformation.
As we live during the collapse of the Tower happening now during this Trump Pandemic, I am striving to stay aligned with my core vows & intentions for my heart-centered practice of living, while also dealing with the very real human messiness crumbling around & within me.
When I started my 8 year MiddleWorld Apprenticeship I had no idea Covid & Trump were going to be such big factors in my training curriculum. In a recent blog, I shared that one of the larger overarching intentions of my MiddleWorld Apprenticeship has been to learn to love humans. This has been quite challenging for me these past several years. Loving people, especially in times of fear, division & uncertainty is some of the hardest soul work there is.
As I enter this final year of my eight-year MiddleWorld Apprenticeship, I feel lessons of love pressing deeper into my being. Loving humanity isn’t just about offering kindness, it’s about allowing myself to be affected, influenced & moved by others. It's a bidirectional process. It's about being in the messiness of humanness & finding a way to love in spite of it all. It's not easy, and sometimes it's not even fun, however, it's the work Spirit has assigned me for this phase of my life, and I am bowing into it as best I can.
As I reflect on lessons learned from Covid, and how these can be applied in the Trump Pandemic, I see that relationship & community are going to be a primary focus for my engagement with life.
During Covid the tendency was to develop relationship from a place of isolation, mainly through video cameras & social distancing. As we enter the Trump Pandemic, I see that relating with the right people & communities, face-to-face & heart-to-heart will be an essential aspect of my evolution into elderhood.
I never imaged my elderhood years would be unfolding in the rubble of global collapse, but here we are. It's a future I'm still making amends with, however, as I come to accept this new reality unfolding around us, I'm being inspired to put on my "big girl britches" and engage my revolutionary spirit more fully. These times are inspiring me to get closer to the front line so I can do the work needed for future generations, like past generations of ancestors did for me.
I'm grateful for the insights that emerged from this fire ceremony. Tending to the flames with intention and care helped me sit with my grief and fear while also igniting my resolve to stay aligned with the light. The Tower card coming through as a teacher for these times reminds me that even amidst collapse, transformation is possible. And for me, I am encouraged to cultivate heart-centric relationships & community through all of it.
The Trump Pandemic is going to call forth something big & deep in many of us. What we do now will resonate through history, shaping the world for future generations to come. Wherever you are on your path, may you find your own way through these times with clarity and courage. May light guide you, may spirit inspire you, and may love nourish your fullest expression in the days ahead.
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