Spring Break

A new season, and some news

Hello, and congratulations. It’s officially the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. You made it. We made it. I hope the sun is beaming down on you, wherever you are.

In Paganism these days mark Ostara, the second of the eight sabbaths on the Pagan Wheel of the Year, and the one which heralds the arrival of Spring. The festival derives its name from Ēostre, the Germanic goddess of dawn, light, flowers, springtime, and fertility, and it’s preceded by Imbolc, the February 1st festival that falls halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. In ancient Celtic, Imbolc means ‘in the belly of the Mother’ because it marks the time when the seeds of Spring are beginning to swell and quicken in Mother Earth. (For more on the fascinating roots of Pagan culture in the British Isles, listen back to my Deep Read interview with Zakia Sewell and check out her fantastic BBC Radio 4 docuseries, My Albion).

Recently these ancient rituals and rhythms of the natural world have taken on new significance for me: By the time you read this, I’ll have just given birth to my first child. For obvious reasons, this necessitates a ’spring break’ in the pace of these newsletters and podcasts. Being self-employed means that I have no fixed or paid maternity leave (I could, and likely will, write about how confusing it has been to navigate this situation in a country that provides pitiful support for new parents) but for now, the aim is to return to regular programming in the Summer. I have no way of accurately predicting how motherhood will upend my life or career, but I do know that whatever else changes (i.e. everything) my impulse to share important ideas and conversations will stay intact. 

In my absence (or rather: matrescence), I invite you to explore the archives of this newsletter for over 100 reading lists, themed Salon essays, cultural recommendations, and musings on topics old and new. I’ve been writing on Substack since February 2020 and it’s quite trippy to look back on that first post, which was published just a few short weeks before the world as we knew it disappeared forever. Needless to say, a whole lot has changed since then, as have I. I’m glad to have a diary of sorts, tracking my thoughts on everything from the changing nature of time to my attempts to become a better adult to the ‘Manifestation Industrial Complex’ during these past few transformative years. I’m grateful for your readership throughout. 

An administrative note to paid subscribers: Subscriptions will remain open while I’m away to enable access to paywalled posts for whoever might seek it, but please feel free to pause your subscription if that makes more sense for you (you can do this in your Substack account settings). Either way, thank you for your support thus far. Sharing my work can often feel like shouting into the abyss. Your recognition has provided the impetus to keep going.

I look forward to returning to your inboxes soon–no doubt a changed woman with plenty to say and write about it.

Until then. Thank you, as always, for reading. 

Phoebe