Field notes (vol. 3)
Solstice, dancing with mountains, and courting fairies
Field Notes are small snippets of enchanting moments of everyday life, enchantment from the field. They are enchantment research, or (re)enchanting research, or (re)searching enchantment. They are an entanglement of observations, intuition, and messages from deep listening. They are curiosities and wonder/ings.
Research, which is fundamentally about following curiosity, can become disenchanted, overly formalized and sterilized, placed on a pedestal, removed from life. We are all researching all the time, and we can all be researchers. (Re)enchanting research is a call to return research to our everyday lives and to follow our wonder, curiosity, questions, and awe, to listen deeply to our intuition and messages that arise when we get quiet enough to hear. These field notes are an experiment and I invite you to join me in (re)enchanting research.
Dearly beloveds,
How did you spend the solstice?
Did you frolic? Watch the sun rise or set?
How did you spend this longest or shortest day of the year, depending on your hemisphere?
Solar holidays are one of my favorite avenues of enchantment and magic. We went to the pedestal altar at the edge of the peace park to make offerings and align ourselves with the energy, to mark the moment. We celebrated and gave thanks for all of the abundance and blessings in our lives. We shared our intentions and aspirations for ourselves and for all.
The solstice is a pivot point, the space between in breath and out breath of the year. Now we exhale, a slow slide into greater darkness (for us in the northern parts). Here it was rainy and thundery.
May the solstice rain wash away anything that is keeping us from shining our brightest.
On the solstice I like to review my solstice spell from the winter. I like to track my spells. I am delighted by the way the spell is unfolding, this little Enchantable offering having sprouted from the seeds of intention to write and share more. So, thank you so much for being here!
To further support the spell, I wrote the following affirmation, reflecting what is most alive right now:
I am devoted to my vocation, magic, and creativity, their potency, and honor them as my responsibility.
In practical terms, this means limiting my social media and streaming time, and devoting that time towards making and taking in creative works (more reading, poetry, music). The most creative times in my life were when I was living without a smartphone and without regular internet access. While I don’t think I can fully recreate this experience (and don’t necessarily want to), I would like to recreate it to some degree by protecting morning and evening times. This is my solstice aspiration.
What’s yours? :)
[side note: isn’t devoting a lovely word? Etymology: to formally vow]
Yesterday the applications opened for Bayo Akomolafe’s course-festival We Will Dance With Mountains. I have participated the past two times it has been offered, and hope to join again. I’m not even sure how to describe it but it is a wildly weird and magical cauchophonic gathering of global humans (and more-than-humans) reaching for otherwises and attempting different ways of being together (and apart). It is spiritual and practical, sacred and profane, immersive and unsettling. I invite you to check out the course and, if it speaks to you, I encourage you to join me in applying!
www.dancingwithmountains.com
The WWDWM course application asks us to create a ritual, and inspired by my friend Becca’s solstice fairy party, among other things, I am courting fairies. I will let you know how my fairy ritual-research goes, but it has only just begun, and there have been delightful synchronicities and more music in the house :)
What is enchanting or mesmerizing or troubling or disturbing you these days?
What are your solstice spells, aspirations, and affirmations?
Sending you solstice blessings and wishes for your deepest enchantment with all of life,
Stephanie
