Spiritual & Practical Preparation for Tough Times
Photo credit: Murphy Robinson.
By Murphy Robinson | December 4, 2024
Hey everyone. There’s been a doozy of an election this year — how are you doing? Are you hanging in there? Have you taken some time to grieve? Don’t rush that part… we need to feel these feelings now so we can metabolize them fully. They’ve got things to teach us. At the same time, we can’t get stuck in mental loops of despair and paranoia—how do we break out of those emotional ruts and figure out how to move forward in a way that centers hope?
Here are some things that have been helping me: a mix of emotional regulation strategies and practical ways to prepare.
Spend time with friends face-to-face. The embodied experience of being together, feeling the squeeze of a hug, hearing the tone of someone’s voice, seeing the micro-expressions play across their face in real time… I really need that right now. I have pretty good local in-person networks, but I want to strengthen them even more now.
Eat well. Our minds and hearts need nourishing. Dark leafy greens and other vitamin-rich foods lift our spirits. I’m eating lots of hearty winter salads with a base of sweet and tender late-season kale.
Walks in nature. When I get in a mental spin from too many political analysis podcasts, I go on a walk in the forest with my dog. It always re-centers me.
Get out of the country for a bit! I just spent a long weekend in Montreal with some trans friends, practicing our French, eating amazing food, and flirting with the fine Canadian queers. It was such a great reset! The U.S. is definitely in a pickle right now, but the world is much bigger than us. Make friends across the border if you can.
Assess your medical, reproductive, and legal strategies. What do you need to get in order? Do you want to cache some Plan B pills now? Schedule that tubal ligation or vasectomy? Make sure your name and gender marker align on all your IDs? Finalize that separation while no-fault divorce is still legal? We’ve got a few more weeks before any legal changes can commence, we might as well use them.
Anything you want to buy or replace before new tariffs start jacking up prices? I’m replacing my ancient laptop, elderly phone, and limping chainsaw before the new year. Make a list and be strategic.
Do a little online privacy housekeeping. For me this meant switching to DuckDuckGo and permanently deleting my FB and IG accounts (which I haven’t used in ages anyhow). Signal is awesome for encrypted texting and amusing emoji reactions! Here’s a great podcast episode that outlines some practical steps you can take.
Reach out to people you know who may feel vulnerable and ask them what they need. See if there’s anything you can help them with so they feel supported and prepared. Can you help them make a key purchase? Can you offer support with some legal logistics? Can you help them make a safety plan? Can you bake them some vegan cookies? When the national narrative turns against you, every human kindness that shows solidarity counts extra. Keep checking on people.
Have you ordered your garden seeds for next year? Maybe you know some people who might like some vegetable seeds for holiday presents? I just got the 2025 catalog from Fedco (my favorite radical worker-cooperative seed company) in the mail and it immediately raised my spirits! Having some veggie seeds in the freezer for next spring makes me feel secure.
What are your inner strategies for staying centered? What are your spiritual tools for insight and perspective? Do you need to dust off that tarot deck and start drawing a daily card? Is it time to design a bindrune or magic sigil to protect the threshold of your home? Do you have a devotional practice that reconnects you with your ancestors, deities, and local land-spirits? Does your well of spiritual reserves feel strong?
On that last point, one of the most regulating things I’ve done in the past few weeks has been a trance journey to visit some of the Norse deities I work with: Skadhi and Ullr, the Huntress and Hunter of Norse mythology. It was the day before hunting season and I was struggling with the decision whether to prepare to hunt or just stay home and wallow in my worries. I walked up to the Hemlock Grove where I do a lot of my spiritual work, and leaned against my favorite tree to prepare for a journey. Visiting these beings in trance was incredibly reassuring—it turns out that deities who are thousands of years old have very good perspective on current events! I returned feeling centered and affirmed, and ready to go out hunting primarily as a way to spend long hours sitting in the woods in quasi-meditation, and not push myself too hard to find a deer this year. They gave me permission to hunt for the therapeutic value more than for the venison, and it turned out to be just what I needed.
If you could use some new tools for spiritual resilience and regulation, a great choice would be to deep your trance journey skillset this winter. You may have friends or mentors who you can work with to do this. You can work through a book that teaches this skill. But if it would help you to be in community as you study, and to get some skilled instruction from experienced teachers, we’re offering a Way of the Weaver class in trance journey skills this winter. Our class is called Traversing The Realms: Journey Skills for Liberatory Magic. It’s an incredibly versatile skillset, something you can tap into with zero equipment, from anywhere.
I hope the shortest days and longest nights of the year are filled with small kindnesses, reassuring connections, and appreciation of the beauty of this time of year. May the scent of the fir needles, the symmetry of the snowflake, and the flush of our skin in the cold air remind you that survival is built into our bodies and our spirits. We are built to seek the guiding light of hope.
