illumi9ate is now on sliding scale, last call for sign ups

Hello friends,

It's been two weeks since I launched illumi9ate, and it has been a revelatory journey for me! Coming back to visibility and connecting with my networks has been so rewarding, and it's helped me see how much my capacity to show up in this way has expanded. I also had the experience where previously hazy details of my launch plan revealed themselves only after I launched. For instance, I thought I was going to do an email only launch, but after I emailed folks invitations directly and on this newsletter, I felt a sense of excitement to go share about it with my communities on Instagram.

I've been avoiding social media for so long, I go check other's posts but haven't posted in a long time. It felt so draining before, and this time around, I actually had fun making posts and reaching out to folks. It's been thrilling!

I also learned that my response to not hearing back a ton or being filled up with bookings has completely changed — the last time I launched a program and didn't receive a big response, almost three years ago, my self confidence took a major hit and I found myself withdrawing and trying to figure out what was wrong with me and my marketing skills. This time, I felt a sense of calm, and an openness to listening to my intuition and adapting my plans and iterating on my offering as I go. When shame and self judgement came looking for me, I looked them in the eye and got in touch with what those feelings were revealing to me, and I took steps to move forward.

A change I'm announcing today is that I'm introducing sliding scale pricing to illumi9ate, to expand access. I wanted to tell you the story of making this shift, through a Tarot spread I drew, with the Black Seed Tarot deck by Teresa Hutch.

I asked the Tarot to show me the story's Past, Present and Future, and I also include the card at the back of the deck, which I read in temporal relationship to the unfolding narrative.

Going in to the launch, I asked for 2025 CAD for illumi9ate, knowing that it was not inexpensive but I wanted to open myself to receiving the amount that reflected the value of the offering, from my perspective. Plus the math on a 1:1 offering that took months to prepare, and have preparatory work in between sessions, knowing I had limited capacity for the number of people I could work with in one cycle pointed me towards this number.

The 4 of Pentacles with the squirrel who is holding their coins tight, close to their body, tells me that the stance I was showing up with was one of wanting financial stability — that had me holding on too tight to the outcome. I was focused on making sure that I wasn't under-valuing my needs, and not asking for what I wanted to be paid. I was showing up from a self-protective place. I wasn't seeing clearly that what I wanted was the opportunity to work with light-bearers from my communities in my practice, in ways that felt good to me. That my desire was not really about getting paid, it was about showing up and working with people in visible ways.

The 3 of Wands with the otter looking out ahead and holding a cattail tells me that now, I am in connection with my vision and my desire to meet people that are drawn to working with me. I am able to support myself with my savings for the moment, and I feel less worried about what the amount I get for the offering says —about the future of my business or what I'm worth. Yes I'm privileged to make this statement. And, it has been about feeling enough-ness on the inside, instead of the scarcity depicted in the 4 of Pentacles, that can get to us irrespective of bank balances. I'm open to receiving more from people for whom it is accessible to, and also, I'm most interested in getting to work with people going through a transition towards creative freedom. I want to feed into long term wellbeing in incremental ways, and non-linear magical ways.

The 9 of Pentacles is affirming, as the card that also represents the last week of the journey of illumi9ate. The deer in green nature, frolicking and taking in the bird and the beauty around, suggests that I'm coming into a desire-oriented relationship to my resources. It points towards feeling abundance from an inner sense of following my pleasure rather than my bank balance. It says, stay with your vision, and the thriving will follow. It asks for presence in the moment, rather than being attached to pre-set goals and plans. The 9 of Pentacles is associated with the second decan (10-19 degrees) of Virgo, a sign about the ways the earth flows, shares, distributes. This decan is home to Venus, planet of beauty and justice. The 9 of Pentacles says, let yourself flow, let your money flow, so it can circulate and do what money loves to do [1]. It is about feeling into the dream for economic justice for all on mother earth, a planet designed for life and beauty and abundance.

The entire narrative unfolds in the backdrop of The Moon card, the 18th Major Arcana card, with a Luna moth perched on a tree under a crescent moon shining over a blue Piscean ocean. The Moon ties with intuition, making choices that break away from the strong hold of the rational and logic focused mind to embrace inner wisdom. This Moon tells me that I shape this narrative through being connected with and listening to my intuition, inner voice and unseen allies.

Which is fantastic, because the whole point of illumi9ate is to support you in building a toolkit of intuitive technologies that opens the way to make your own path, as you leap towards the launch of a new creative business or are making your creative life a priority in a radical way.

After some iterations, I landed on the sliding scale here, borrowed and adapted from Worts & Cunning apothecary's sliding scale resources. The tiers are named after glow-in-the-dark beings — Peacock, Parrotfish and Wombat.

If you've been talking or thinking in a corner of your mind forever, about a game you would love to build or a poetry collection you would love to write, and been afraid to take the leap that would support you in opening up to receiving your dream reality, I invite you to a Feel the Vibes chat with me before Jan 31st. I would be happy to answer any questions you have. There is no pressure to sign up, I'd love to meet you and learn how I may be able to support your creative life, dear light-bearer 🌻

🌎 Abolish ICE

Minnesota has been in the news with two recent murders by ICE. People are rising in revolt against ICE, supported by a backbone of long running Black and brown organizing. If you are in Minnesota, or wanting to support folks in Minnesota, a couple of resources that may be helpful:
* Stand with Minnesota: https://www.standwithminnesota.com/
* Pressure from the Ground: Black Minnesotans on Survival and Strategy by Minnesota organizer, Zedé

🐯 Support Alice Wong's legacy

I was so sad to hear of the passing of Disability Justice pioneer, author and oracle, Alice Wong, on November 14, 2025. Alice Wong was the founder of the Disability Visibility and Disability Intimacy projects, and most recently they co-created the crips for e-sims Gaza and Society of Disabled Oracles. Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha writes about Alice Wong's care and leadership and love in their post Alice Wong was Crips for eSims for Gaza, and Everything to Us.

To support the continuation of their legacy, donate to their gofundme.

[1]: An idea drawn from the book Love Money, Money Loves You by Sarah McCrum, that I've been reading after a recommendation from Ariana Felix in one of the awesome worldbuilding coaching sessions I received from them.