em-ocean-al✨adjective✨
1) the word emotion with -otion replaced by the word ocean.
2) a subversion of language that makes it possible for my fellow playful poets, sacred tricksters, and irreverent thinkers to find me.
there is so much degradation we’re deconditioning from in relationship to emotions and emotional work. it’s an after thought, a liability, rather than a seat of power. the element of water, literally and metaphysically, has been abused & exploited. this shows up in our poisoned water streams, & in the way you’ll call your emotionally intelligent friend when you need support but neglect to ever reciprocate or at least inquire as to their heart.
water is everything. water is life (Mní Wičóni). in spiritual work, movement work, every kind of work, the realm of water (emotion) is a crucial yet often neglected component to our personal/collective well-being.
in the context of astrology, most of my traditional planets are of the water element. I have spent a lot of time and effort to equip, educate, and resource myself in how to navigate the emotional realm so that I might be free, and support others in their emotional freedom too. I once dreamt of an elder teaching me to water bend (before I watched Avatar lol), telling me that emotions we find uncontrollable are parts of ourselves asking for nonjudgemental & unconditonal love.
that is and has always been the bottom line of my personal ethos and my astrological practice. we cannot embody nonjudgemental and unconditonal love without the practices of being in and understanding the emotional realm. this is why I trained in grief literacy, movement trauma, biomimicry, afro-indigenous technologies for tending to the nervous system, and so many other tools/resources/teachers I am blessed to apprentice or learn from. it’s because I care about our emotional freedom.
the absence of emotional literacy practices is at the root of the cracks and schisms and failures of our movements. it’s the crux of cancel culture. it’s the perpetuation of capitalism.
water is what makes the world go ‘round. water is the way in.
how we are in relationship with water is how we are in relationship. our emotional health is communal wealth. for me, astrology is a language for emotional literacy. the natal chart appears as a clear pool of water in a temple courtyard, where willing ones come to see reflected the nuances, textures, and stories of their emotional experience, to understand themselves & their life as an iteration of living waters.