🌜 Scrolls and Streams: June 20, 2022
What we've been reading, watching and listening to in the world of tarot, work and economic justice at Five and Nine HQ.
Scrolls and Streams 📜 🌊 is Five and Nine’s monthly selection of insights and commentary that have caught our eyes and ears. All links are shared in the spirit of “this was interesting” and not necessarily “we fully endorse this.”
Published every 🌜 waning gibbous moon, also known as the disseminating moon.
Top Five
How do you say no to pushy people, recruiters, dates, investors and salespeople? How to Say No offers templates that can be automatically added to Gmail. Here’s one example from Emmy McCarthy of how to say no to doing free work:
At the beginning of each year, I calculate / I have to be careful how many hours I can dedicate to free and voluntary work requests. I have already filled the slots I have available for this year / I don’t have any time available at this point. I would be happy to discuss taking this on as a paid project for you but I can’t offer the work for free.
If budget is the issue, could I suggest maybe [posting your request in this Facebook group / reading this article / diy-ing it with this free online tool]?
Kimberley Wilson talks with On Being podcast about the idea of incorporating one’s whole body into mental health:
The phrase “mental health” itself makes less and less sense, in light of the wild interactivity we can now see between what we’ve falsely compartmentalized as physical, emotional, mental, even spiritual. And so much of what we’re seeing brings us back to intelligence that has always been in the very words we use — “gut instinct,” as we say. It brings us back to something your grandmother was right about, for reasons she would never have imagined: you are what you eat.
LAist has a series on the “hidden curriculum” that’s required to succeed in college and that students from marginalized backgrounds have to learn on the go. As Jill Replogie writes:
For some students, hidden curriculum manifests itself as barriers to fully participating in college. When Tricarico, the functionally blind student, arrived at the small, private campus she attended in San Diego, she found that school events like club meetings and football games often weren't accessible to her. She'd have to advocate for herself each time she wanted to participate. "People don't expect there to be disabled people in the room," she said.
In Them Magazine, Marlow Murphy explores the commodification of astrology:
In a word, it’s the commodification of astrology: sponsored posts like the aforementioned mayo ad dilute astrology from a complex set of ideas into a simple “I do X, therefore I must be Y.” The BuzzFeedification of astrology also means that something like this click-chasing quiz, which claims to predict your sign based on what television show you watch, turns astrology into an aesthetic to consume, and sorts people into factions based on glib interpretations of solely their sun signs. It’s not just astrology, either. Seen through this lens, a BuzzFeed quiz to sort out what "kind" of witch you are is ultimately about figuring out what kind of aesthetic to consume to perform a “witchy” personality, rather than respecting the deep history of witchcraft.
Molly Worthen, a journalist and historian of US religion, offers a look at the idea of the “spiritual coach,” who offer clients tools for developing meaning in the midst of suffering as we re-evaluate the future of work:
In American culture, entrepreneurship is the highest spiritual discipline. A successful start-up requires the self-abnegation that a monastic vocation used to demand: little sleep, coming to terms with your own failure and sacrificing bodily comforts in the service of a higher cause. The gig economy is an ersatz way to open this vocation to lesser souls, but it seems to fail many seekers. Spiritual coaches are responding to this failure. And in a culture where the feeling of truthiness is more important than scientifically verified facts, it’s natural to embrace a mishmash of spiritual healing practices that just feel right.
More Scrolls and Streams 📜 🌊
On checking in with friends: “How is your belly? Your breath? How is your skin?”
One way to manage anxiety: “set the bar ridiculously low”
Thousands of UK workers are trying out the four day work week
Writer Jay Kaspian Kang on his writing career and Buddhism: “I don’t need to be like J.D. Salinger and disappear, but I do understand what he was talking about. Sometimes I wonder, what if I just publish for free on a blog? This would be bad for me financially, but would it be different?”
How sabbaticals — for those lucky enough to have one — bring more than temporary joy
Also: J Wortham writes on their sabbatical: “I do not know when to quit. I struggle to even see my life clearly enough to know what I want more of and what I want less of.”
On going back to the office: “If we feel like somebody is trying to force us to do something we tend to push against that change with equal force.”
A brief history of the US student loan crisis and where it could go
Also: why return to office plans are being scrapped or revisited
Did NASA spot an alien doorway on Mars?
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Five and Nine is a podcast newsletter at the intersection of magic, work and economic justice. We publish “moonthly” — a newsletter on new moons and half moon 🌛 🌚 🌜 and podcasts on full moons 🌝 — , and we provide an ongoing critical discussion through readings, reflections and debate. In this new world, we’re all rethinking the meaning of work and justice in our lives. Our lives and livelihoods are more essential than ever in identifying ways forward for society that can be grounded in care, compassion and sustainability.
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Subscribe now to get our podcast. We’re coming to the final episodes of our first and pilot season! As a podcast newsletter, Five and Nine brings the conversation to text and sound. All podcasts are fully transcribed to encourage accessibility.