Your Guide to Late-Summer
/Welcome to August & Late-Summer!
The Summer season, with its long days and fiery energy, holds great potential for GROWTH. And as we enter August, we begin our shift into late Summer. Which is marked by HARVEST SEASON!
The witch’s seasonal Wheel of the Year, celebrates the first of three harvest festivals, Lughnasadh, on August 1st (which is the mid-point between the Summer Solstice & Autumn Equinox). Traditionally this festival celebrated the grain harvest.
For us personally, this is a time to begin harvesting the “fruits” of our labor with our own growth goals for the year! And so this month, get really honest with yourself and assess, where am I making progress towards my dreams and goals now? And here are my growth efforts falling short, and my progress towards my goals feeling stunted now?
Because at this late Summer harvest festival (the first of 3, remember!), even though the days are slowly getting shorter and we’re creeping closer towards Autumn… we still have plenty of time to re-align our goals and growth strategies if we need to, and make some powerful progress towards our goals and bigger visions by the end of the year!
(side-note: the 3 harvest festivals fall on August 1st, September 22, and November 1st).
To help guide you in this Late Summer work, I consulted my favorite oracle system, the I Ching, for some wisdom.
And the 2 hexagrams* it gave us to navigate Late-Summer are:
#44 TEMPTATION ䷫
#1 HEAVEN (aka. CREATIVE POWER)䷀
(*hexagrams = the language of the I Ching)
Have you ever been swept up by the strong energy of TEMPTATION?
Maybe you planned to get to an important goal on your to-do list, but found yourself tempted into scrolling, cleaning your house, or some other non-priority distraction for hours instead?
Or, you were in a monogamous relationship, but felt tempted to cheat on your partner with a co-worker?
Or you’ve been trying to eat really healthy, but you’re constantly tempted by the snacks your partner has in the house.
If you’ve ever been in any situation (big or small) where your logical mind is telling you you should do one thing (because it’s the “right” or “smart” thing to do) but another part of you has a strong impulsive desire to do something else that feels “wrong”, “bad”, or illogical … then you know the hexagram of TEMPTATION well!
When this energy of temptation arises and is left unchecked, it can sabotage our meticulously laid plans and derail the progress we thought we wanted in love, business, or anywhere else in our lives!
It’s important to note that the energy of “temptation” isn’t good or bad. It’s simply an energy that tells us we have an unconscious desire or need that isn’t being expressed, and wants to be!
If you always engage with that temptation, and say let yourself get distracted 100 times a day you’d never get any closer to your bigger goals!
But if you ignore that urge for too long, it’ll grow stronger and find away to overcome your logical mind and express itself somehow. Like cheating on your partner when you’ve had a few too many drinks… or eating so many cookies your stomach hurts, when you come home really stressed and exhausted!
And the antidote here is to use the power of mindfulness to identify when the energy of tempation is present, and discern what the desire or need is that wants to be expressed.
THE SECRET TO CONSISTENCY
It’s no secret that to accomplish a big goal, or manifest something brand new into your life, you need to put in consistent, persistent work.
But, figuring out HOW to keep showing up persistently, for AS LONG AS IT TAKES to accomplish a big dream (like leaving your day job to build a profitable business; or escaping a toxic relationship to manifest a healthy, loving partner) can feel damn near impossible! And so most people give up or burn out way before reaching the finish line!
Especially “spoonies” or neurodivergent humans like me 🙋🏻♀️, who are prone to things like self-doubt, anxiety, and burn-out!
The Constancy䷟ hexagram uses the example of an enduring marriage to teach us about consistency.
At the foundation of a healthy, enduring marriage is 👉 a deep COMMITMENT💍 to the growth of the relationship. Which is why a marriage begins with vows, or a PROMISE, to persevere through any challenges that arise (rather than giving up when things get really hard or messy.)
And at the foundation of that deep commitment 👉 is a strong LOVE & DESIRE❤️🔥 for both your partner AND the growth that you know is possible for you through the relationship.
If you apply this to your own growth goals now, you learn that when you commit to a dream that’s important to you (that excites you with that burning desire❤️🔥), you receive the strength and courage to persevere through the intense doubts, fears, and challenges that will inevitably arise along your growth journey (and may even be present for you right now)!
[that to have what it takes to work consistently towards a bigger dream (without giving up or burning out first) you must first COMMIT to a dream that you have such a BURNING DESIRE❤️🔥 for, that you’re supercharged with the STRENGTH and COURAGE to persevere through doubt, fear, and other uncomfortable obstacles (over and over again), until that dream comes to fruition!]
(Note: of course there are times when something is truly no longer aligned and quitting is valid! But that’s not what we’re talking about here.)
So ask yourself….
What ❤️🔥dream or goal can I choose to build now, that is truly worth standing firm for, no matter what challenges come?!
If you don’t feel connected to any desire that feels worthy of persevering through painful challenges for, then I encourage you to do some VISIONING🔮 to determine WHAT you deeply want, and WHY it’s so damn important for you to create it now!
In July I love to return to the visioning process I do at the beginning of the year, to reignite my clarity, excitement❤️🔥, and power of perseverance for the second half of the year! And if you didn’t create a vision board at beginning of the year, now is a great time to make one!
(Note: if you’re stuck here you may need help getting clarity, OR you may actually be in a season of rest, not growth! And that’s ok too!)
THE POWER OF COLLECTIVE FORCE
In our next hexagram, ARMIES䷆ (aka. Collective Force), the I Ching uses the term “army” in reference to a group of villagers combining their labor and resources to accomplish a big, ambitious goal that would be impossible for one person alone (like fighting off invaders, harvesting crops, or building houses).
These days, instead of relying on the power of COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS and SUSTAINABLE GROWTH, our capitalistic hustle culture has brainwashed us to believe ❌it’s admirable and necessary to build our big dreams alone or with as little support, time, and other resources as possible❌!
So you work really hard, relying solely on your own willpower, resources, and efforts… only to burn-out before bringing that bigger dream to fruition! And then, you blame yourself for the failure (not your lack of resources + support)!
Well the ARMIES䷆ hexagram calls bullshit on that and reminds you of this truth…
“Your growth and success is directly related to the level of resources and support that you have access to. You can do ANYTHING, with the right resources!”
[And just like a group of villagers who want to harvest and store their final crops for the year need both ✔️a plan to organize their efforts and ✔️the right people, tools, etc. to complete the harvesting in time for Winter… ]. / or…👇
And just like an army needs both a GENERAL, to create a strategic plan & keep the troops motivated, and SOLDIERS to provide labor and resources to persistently implement the plan until the war is won, the fields are harvested, or whatever big goal is achieved…
You too need ✅ a STRATEGIC PLAN, and ✅ the right SUPPORT + RESOURCES* to persistently grow your own big dream to fruition now!
*Resources like: ✔️knowledge, ✔️skills + experience, ✔️time, ✔️money, ✔️mental and emotional bandwidth, ✔️physical energy, ✔️social support (ie. mentors, therapists, friends, family, etc.).
CREATING A STRATEGIC PLAN
If you’re not making the progress you want towards building your bigger dream, but you always feel really busy and drained from random goals and to-do’s… then there’s a good chance you don’t have a strategic plan to keep you in aligned action towards your priority goals.
Ideally*, a strategic plan can help you skillfully organize your actions + resources, so you can both grow your bigger dreams AND live your life (without totally burning out).
(*I say “ideally” because in our society, so many folks don’t have access to the resources they need to sustain daily life, let alone the resources they need to build their dreams! Which is why those of us with more access to resources must use our privilege to not only create our own dreams, but also create a more equitable world for everyone).
A strategic plan has 3 qualities. It’s SMART, SUSTAINABLE, and SAFE.
[Here are 3 qualities of a Strategic Plan:]
SMART: instead of just diving into the first action and strategy you think of (potentially choosing unaligned actions and burning yourself out), you spend some time reflecting or getting support on how to skillfully manage and cultivate your specific resources to “work smarter not harder”!
>>FOR EXAMPLE… maybe give an example from my own life (for each of these)
SUSTAINABLE: you can take persistent action and accomplish goals towards your bigger dream, without running out of time, money, or energy and having to give-up prematurely. And, you don’t have to 💯 put your life and joy on hold to reach your goals.
SAFE: the actions and goals on your strategic plan, feel safe to your nervous system and don’t consistently dysregulate you (and keep you stuck in states of fight, flight, or freeze all the time.). To do this you must expand your nervous system capacity and/or find actions that feel safer to your nervous system.
ADD REFLECTION QUESTION
ASSESSING & CULTIVATING YOUR GROWTH RESOURCES
Start with these 3 questions…
what resources do I truly need to acheive my bigger dream?
What resources do I currently have access to?
How can I skillfully use the resources I have AND ethically regenerate more?
Here are some examples of resources: ✔️knowledge, ✔️skills + experience, ✔️time, ✔️money, ✔️mental and emotional bandwidth, ✔️physical capacity, ✔️social support (ie. mentors, therapists, friends, family, etc.).