09/02/2025
It has been a long summer of twists and turns, accelerated learning and growth, and rooting down deeply into the ritual arts.
The message of the 2025 Earth Year (in the West African Dagara Cosmology) was to become more masterful in what I practice and to not add more. With this nudge I evaluated the areas of my life that I could root deeper into to honor the wisdom of the Earth element.
In my Ancestral Lineage Repair practice, I applied and was accepted into a year long training to lead Ancestral Medicine sanctioned in-person intensives. This training is a deep dive into knowing how to acknowledge, address, and bring healing to our ancestors of blood and to bring to light the cultural harms such as racism, sexism, xenophobia, and colonialism (to name a brief few) within our lineages. To make dedicated space for this training in my life, I will be pausing the Autumn HIVE Ancestral Healing Group until January 2026.
My practice with Elemental ritual and the Dagara tradition (via Malidoma Some) that has shaped so much of who I am is more centered in my life as well. My involvement with Malidoma’s legacy at the East Coast Village and the Elders holding his vision has intensified and is enriching all aspects of my life.
Finally, with my Master’s Track & Field endeavors I achieved new personal records and can humbly and proudly say that I am a National Champion and am currently ranked second in the world for the outdoor Triple Jump! Mastery in this area of my life looks like training every day to attempt to get my body to make adjustments of slight angles so my technique can improve. This path is fraught with frustration, accomplishment, comradeship, and of course…fun!
The intersection of all of these areas of my life have taught me that mastery is not about a point of finality on a journey. It is about focus, dedication, occasional discomfort, and expansion all rolled into one. It is not about becoming an expert where learning halts, rather it entails consciously approaching everything with a ‘beginner’s mindset’ over and over again until a certain embodiment happens where a seamless interaction of all things incubates deep within our bones.
With these reflections, I am curious: Where in your life do you desire to become more masterful? It is a great question to ponder while the vibration of Earth energy is still with us for these last few months of 2025.
Thank You for being along on this ride with me….
With Gratitude,
~ Jen
