Solar Beltane

Yang on the rise

I’ve landed back at the lower Umpqua River like a migratory bird. The summer sabbatical begins by setting up river camp. Pitching the tent (who we call The Palace) is first. When the canvas came back out of the bag from the tiny storage unit on the land side of the 101, looking almost as white and pristine as the day we first opened her, I felt a specific kind of relief. No mold, thank god. Canvas tents are superior, and the 23’ bell tent we own from White Duck Outdoors is a glorious hero of outdoor living — but they need to be put away bone dry and clean as the soul. I was 15% nervous after seeing the mildewy legs of the wooden stools I bought for sitting and playing guitar with my cousin’s husband. And then slightly moreso when they pulled their tent out of its wrapper to a small bit of a green colony making a new city in the weave. But, our camp-closing techniques are as sound they seemed. Once more we are pitched under the canopy of the giant Oregon myrtlewood trees. Once more I am staring absent-mindedly out over the river, only to realize there is a blue heron staring back. I might always count my life in birds, but here especially as the eagle flying over my head, or the osprey waking me up with their piercing chirp, or the arrival of the swainson’s thrush, or the silent parade of wild turkeys, or the flitting black phoebe, or the constant glide of vultures, or or or becomes a pillar of my day.

I have come to the conclusion, and remind myself of the truth, that moving between states is a dimensional shift. States of mind. States of being. Vibrational states of reality. Expression of essence through regional elements. Here it is water, wet, damp, fog, ocean, ferns, rain, river, fish, and sun eventually. I’m coming off of seven months of dry, desert, pine, high alpine, wind, sagebrush, coyote, raven, and sun mostly. I’m growing a life in the Carson Valley. I have friends, community, a business. When I drive two hours in any direction I always think the same thing: I live in the most beautiful place on earth.

Here at the river there’s something else. A groove I click into through a certain kind of settling. It doesn’t feel like home the way Nevada does, but it is a heart-home. A place I return to for a particular kind of nourishment. Northern ocean-jungle mossy forest, my body becoming the fish and berries I eat. Sleeping with nothing but canvas between me and the world. Cooking outside, all day everyday. Having a hot outdoor shower by candle and star-light.

We’ve never arrived this early in the season. Last year it was June. This year the ferns are still unfurling their new fronds and the rhododendrons are in full puff-petal-glory. The trailing blackberries are flowering the most delicate white-starry blossoms, reminding me of Star of Bethlehem and Bloodroot.

Flowering Bitterbrush

Last night I dreamt that someone extremely dear and far afield, showed me a collection of feathers they had — all different birds, yet each one peacock patterned. I take it you’re working with peacock medicine, I said. Yes, for the last seven years, they replied.

Yesterday in waking life, two wild turkeys walked through camp early before we started setting up. One of them (to my perplexion) had a black crown like a peacock’s. In tantric traditions, such as the Tibetan Vajrayana, the peacock represents the yogin’s ability to transmute negative emotions into wisdom. Allegedly a peacock can eat poison and it will only make their feathers more brilliant.

In Sanskrit, the word we normally translate as “negative emotion” is klesha. Which means “mental poison.” For most, the difference between medicine and poison is in the dose. All Vajrayana lineages that I am aware of teach that each mental poison can be transmuted into a particular aspect of wisdom-knowing. Clear-seeing through the surface of experience into the deeper essence and energy of reality. What is the transmutation process? I see it as a shift in perspective. Not just a change in idea, but a transformation in how things are seen and experienced on the level of inherent meaning.

To me, transmuting negative emotions into wisdom means sorting the signal from the noise. Anger isn’t directly telling me anything about another person or an experience I’m having. It’s telling me what I think about it, what I think about them, which also tells me what I think and believe about myself and my ability to receive what I want, my assumed level of empowerment, my believed level of blessedness and so on. It’s showing me the in-the-present-moment-level of relative vibrational dissonance between my perspective and the wisdom-knowing of my Deep Self.

Sometimes people get upset when certain emotions are called “negative”. I can understand this for someone who is just learning how to feel their feelings. In this stage, what we need is encouragement and a feeling of safety in entering those emotional states, not to feel like there is something bad or wrong with them. If we have habits of bypassing or avoiding what we feel, allowing ourselves to actually feel anger rather than suppressing it, is important. But at a certain point, leaning all the way in to the feeling of anger repeatedly in an effort to process it, is no longer optimally productive. Why? Because we now know our anger. We aren’t upset with ourselves for feeling it. We allow it to be present. We understand it as a vibrational state of being. And we have been with anger enough times somatically that we no longer need to cycle those sensations in order to access the medicine. Just the slightest drop of anger’s essence is enough for us to make the pivot. At this stage, it’s easier to see how “positive” and “negative” are just ways to talk about a vibrational spectrum, not judgements on us as the experiencer.

Any emotion, including anger, is wonderful accurate vibrational feedback that we can feel. I want to use anger as the guide it is—to become more self-aware, to discover limiting beliefs embedded in my thinking, to free myself from any meaning-making that is obstructing my ability to create. If I feel anger, or any other klesha, what I most want to know is what am I believing about myself and my connection to life that is causing me to feel this way? And then (most importantly) does this resonate with my deepest sense of who I am and life as a whole?

🪶

4:46am PDT — It bears mentioning that today is Solar Beltane, the cross quarter that marks the halfway point between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice. We are officially in the yang-dominant portion of the solar year (in the northern hemisphere). This is a significant turning to notice if you like merging your awareness with the larger cycles of wild nature. Solar, yang energy is the activating, forward moving aspect of the life-force. Depending on where you live, this yang energy may be more or less extreme (thinking of you Alaska friends). And even closer to the equator we still have seasonal cycles that incur elemental shifts in both inner constitution and outer ecosystem expression.

For me, today is a moment to appreciate for its contextual positioning. Six weeks until the Summer Solstice. Six weeks to thrive on the upswell solar ride.

🌞

Wisconsin friends: I will be returning at the end of July and have the pleasure of teaching an Introduction to Self-Applied Kinesiology class Monday, July 27th at 6pm at Riverside Studio in Rochester, WI (near Burlington). Click here to read more and reserve your spot! This class is for anyone who would like to develop or refine their skills in muscle-testing, and is especially beneficial for those who are curious about the mind-body connection.

I am also booking a limited number of in-person Resonance Sessions the 28th and 29th. You can book your in-person Riverside Studio session here and find out more about Resonance Sessions here.

Design Services: Alongside launching and tending to Luminous Earth, I have discovered my love of brand identity and website design. I’m wrapping up my first full project with The ŌM Studio and booking a limited number of portfolio-building spots. These are full-service, boutique branding and web design projects offered at community-level pricing. There are two more spaces open for 2026. If you’ve been feeling the call to bring your business, or a reimagining of it, into form, let’s connect! You’re welcome to reply to this email and we can begin the conversation.

Essential Subscription: I’ve been thinking about this for over a year, and I have decided to close the Essential Subscription portal here via True Nature. Now that I am tending the Luminous Earth ecosystem, it feels most aligned for me to move the vibrational essence subscription into that realm. I am deeply thankful for the support, interest, and enthusiasm for essences you have shared here. Your energy has been like stepping stones, helping me move from one shore to the other ♡

For those whose Essential Subscription cycle begins with the Spring Equinox essence drop, you will receive a Fall Equinox essence. For everyone else, stay tuned for a new subscription available through Luminous Earth proper!

If you want to connect with me within the Luminous Earth universe, I invite you to sign up for the newsletter. Like True Nature, I write when I feel aligned and inspired.

Me, on the shores of Lake Tahoe, so in awe that I get to call this place home.