Prompts —

HERE AND ELSEWHERE
on healing through community ties 

July is the season of Cancer—a sign that feels deeply and fosters a fierce empathy for others as well. The ‘Cancerian compassion is deep and highly intuitive,’ writes Astrologer Linda Goodman. ‘There's hardly a secret he can't strip naked, if he chooses.’

In cultivating such secrets through their intuitive knack for active listening, the crab can teach us much about connecting with others and about healing through community. ‘Cancer's heart is too soft not to be touched by someone's need,’ Goodman explains. ‘He truly cares and he wants to help.’

Of course, the Cancerian is also adept in the art of building boundaries—as an act of self-love. Think about their shell and the way it catches the light of the silvery moon. Think about their inner world, swirling with the shimmery magic of vivid dreams. For ‘[h]e knows a wild and secret place where two lilies and seven white roses grow among the iris,’ Goodman says. And ‘[s]ometimes the memory of this faraway garden causes him to explode with laughter.’

This month, we invite you to embody the silvery crab and gaze inward, in order to heal together.

‘[A]ll struggle has a global resonance. If not here, then there. If not now, then soon. Elsewhere as well as here.’

— Susan Sontag 

PROMPTS

1.     Build boundaries
(as a form of self-love)

2.     Find a literary passage that speaks to you
What common themes do you identify with?  

3.     Foster curiosity
(about the world and those in it)

4.     Handwrite a letter to a friend or loved one
Post it in the mail 

5.     Listen actively
(to different opinions) 

6.     [Tactile meditation]
Hug someone you love 

7.     What do you notice when you melt into their embrace?
Physically:
Emotionally:

8.     Collate images of those you feel close in spirit with
What do you see? 

9.     Practice empathy
(for others and our world)

10.  Write down what comes to you, stream of consciousness style
—-*healing in unison