Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Eva Yaa Asantewaa (photo: D. Feller)

I’m here to help you develop a capacity to live your human life as your Spirit Self. I draw from a spectrum of colors: primarily, intuitive listening, Tarot, animistic Spiritwork, and energy work. I guide, witness, and champion your development, and I look forward to sharing my work with you soon. Message here to learn how you can book a session:

Join me and a beautiful community of celebrants for Zoom Séance: Coming up this Saturday, April 25, followed by May 16 and June 20. All 1pm to 3pm Eastern. And all free (donations gratefully accepted—message for details). To RSVP for one or more of these dates or to get on our email list, send me a message!

Moon, do not vanish!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 23:39:36 GMT

Sometimes, we need a touch of the sublime to vouch for what humans can do when we’re of mind to: the celestial Asmik Grigorian in two performances of Dvořák’s “Song to the Moon” from Rusalka.

I was so lucky to hear Grigorian live today—free!!!—at a Met Opera rehearsal of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

Photo by J Dean on Unsplash

Join me and a beautiful community of celebrants for Zoom Séance: April 25, May 16, and June 20. All 1pm to 3pm Eastern. And all free (donations gratefully accepted—message for details). To RSVP for one or more of these dates or to get on our email list, send me a message!

Of food vendors, intuition, and night goddesses

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 19:20:19 GMT

Eight of Cups and Temperance. Intuitive Night Goddess Tarot by Linzi Silverman

So, this morning, I had a quick, routine medical follow-up in midtown and then walked a bit further uptown to the Museum of Modern Art for the new Marcel Duchamp show. Totally recommended, btw! Fun! Made me chuckle a lot!

Marcel Duchamp. Ni homme, ni femme, pas même Auvergnat (Neither man nor woman, not even an Auvergnat). 1909. Marcel Duchamp. Museum of Modern Art

On the way, knowing I had a large show ahead of me—some 300 works of art—before heading home for lunch, I stopped for a little nosh from a food truck. While I waited for my order, I happened to notice the vendor had a box of Tarot cards sitting right there in plain sight on his counter. He’s preparing my food, and I’m looking at this box, mind-blown, and thinking, “Now, what are the odds…?”

Finally, I had to ask him, “You’re a Tarot reader?”

“Yes,” he said, cheerfully. “Me, too,” I said, and we grinned at each other.

I love New York!

And I smiled to myself because, along the way, I’d passed several other food vendors and somehow found myself in front of this guy.

Spirit is wicked good with this shit. Wicked good, I tell ya.

The deck was Linzi Silverman’s Intuitive Night Goddess Tarot, a beauty, an enchantment I’d never before seen!

I haven’t purchased a Tarot deck in a long while, but this one’s calling!

(Shop)

Justice and Ten of Cups. Intuitive Night Goddess Tarot by Linzi Silverman

And can you imagine gifting a friend Parisian air preserved in this lovely glass vessel?

Marcel Duchamp. 50 cc of Paris Air (replica, after broken 1919 original). 1949. Marcel Duchamp. Museum of Modern Art

See Marcel Duchamp at MoMA through August 22.

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

A note about paid subscriptions. Please read!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 13:24:06 GMT

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Hey, folks!

If you’ve hung around my newsletter for a while, I’m sure you realize that, at some point, I stopped making certain posts paid-sub-only. That’s because when I’ve got something to put out, and especially when it arrives straight from Spirit, it’s intended for everyone. I’m not comfortable restricting it to readers who can pay.

That decision does not reflect devaluation of my work or myself. It’s a matter of knowing what the work is for, why it’s here.

I well understand that Substack writers approach free and paid subscriptions in different ways. You might paywall your entire Substack output—or only selections from it. You might make a portion of a post paid-sub, or paywall only special, in-depth posts. You might monetize your presence here by offering other incentives to paying subscribers: exclusive participation in additional features, like the ability to comment on a post or take part in a chat group or attend special communal events. You might offer discounts on your products or services. For some, Substack can be an effective marketing toolkit for their business or practice.

We’re on this app for a variety of reasons. The one thing we have in common—aside from surely enjoying a little compensation for our expertise, skill, time, labor, and love—is simply being read, having an attentive, loyal, and ideally interactive readership.

In the past, as I gradually got my sea legs here, I put some posts behind paywalls in part or in entirety. I’ve also offered a free download to paid subscribers. But I know whenever I’m presented with a Substack paywall, I wish my limited finances allowed me to support that writer and read the entirety of their work—and what you need to know is I read a hella lot of terrific, worthy writers and valuable stuff on Substack. I know you do, too!

So what evolved into an intuitive decision around not paywalling will not change. I’m keeping the option for paid subscriptions active for anyone interested in supporting me in that way, but I’m not going to paywall my offerings here. It just does not feel good to do so.

What I’m asking of you are a few things, and I truly hope you’ll take them to heart:

You can acknowledge and support me in any or all of the following ways, and each will make a tremendous difference:

If you read something, say something. I greatly enjoy and value your comments and questions. They often open up new pathways for thought and feeling and prove useful for other readers, too.
I love Likes! Who doesn’t? If you enjoyed something you read here and found it valuable, please don’t keep it to yourself.
And that goes for restacking and sharing outside of Substack, too!
Please recommend this newsletter. If you do value my work overall, it takes just a few moments to go into your Recommendations section (under Creator Tools) and scroll down to the Add Recommendation button.
Drop a tip of any amount at any time the spirit moves you! (links available here)
And, of course, if you have the means, sign up for a monthly or annual subscription:

Thank you for reading through to the end! And thanks in advance for taking action! I appreciate you and everything you do!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Eva

O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 13:39:55 GMT

Pamela Sneed. Homage 1 (Homenaje 1) and Homage 2 (Homenaje 2). Pamela Sneed and Carlos Martiel: Sacred and Profane, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (photo: Eva Yaa Asantewaa).

Poet and visual artist Pamela Sneed led a walkthrough of her artwork at New York’s Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, April 8, 2026. (photo: Eva Yaa Asantewaa)

Yesterday, while visiting Sacred and Profane, I learned something new. In our modern age, Fire Island is world-renowned for its (largely white male) gay community and culture, but that’s far from its complete story. With support from BOFFO Residency Fire Island, Sneed began researching the largely undocumented Indigenous history of the island and the island’s role in the colonial Atlantic slave trade. Responding to what she uncovered, Sneed made art, including this watercolor of Keith Porter, Jr.—a Black Los Angeles resident shot to death last New Year’s Eve by an ICE agent—layering his face over a vintage ad that offers a bounty for the capture and return of a runaway slave. Back in January, The Guardian newspaper reported remarks by Porter’s cousin Jsané Tyler at a protest rally where Tyler asked, “When are we going to press charges on this murderer?...When is there going to be value placed on our lives?” Yesterday, at her walkthrough, Sneed noted that one of the ironies of her research was that our Black lives evidently held far more value in US society during slavery than they do today. (photo: Eva Yaa Asantewaa)

Y’all.

You keep forgetting.

You keep ignoring Porter’s ghost.

But Sneed’s got ghosts alive in all the spaces ‘round her.

Bustling. Far from finished with us. More’s on the way

and coming ‘cause she’s an eye, a voice, a hand.

They flow, blazing, and she lays it out, clear as day,

her interventions and overlays

giving shape, blood, velocity

to histories once smothered, choked, and drowned.

Here and now on Earth, she is/they are fired up to tell the truth

and shame the devil.

— Eva Yaa Asantewaa ©2026

Pamela Sneed. Homage 1 (Homenaje 1) (detail) and Homage 2 (Homenaje 2) (detail) (photo: Eva Yaa Asantewaa)

I’m doing a labor of love. I think it’s important for these people to be recognized.
Something shifted, and I found something new in this work—a new strength.

— Pamela Sneed at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art

Pamela Sneed and Carlos Martiel: Sacred and Profane closes Sunday, April 12 (remaining hours: Thursday to Sunday, Noon to 6pm). For information, click here.

Eva Yaa Asantewaa (photo: D. Feller)

8

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:24:57 GMT

Image by Anna from Pixabay

Our 8 is the infinity sign (lemniscate, from the Latin lēmniscātus, or “decorated with ribbons”) flipped on its side. As we find in witchcraft and qigong practices, it’s beneficial and magick to work with continuous flow of energy from Above to Below and back again. 8 symbolizes that intimate, interactive relationship.

In Tarot’s Strength archetype, infinity guides a gentle energy exchange and focus. Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot. Art by Pamela Colman Smith

The number 8 is generally considered to be an auspicious number by numerologists. The square of any odd number, less one, is always a multiple of 8 (for example, 9 − 1 = 8, 25 − 1 = 8 × 3, 49 − 1 = 8 × 6), a fact that can be proved mathematically. In Babylonian myth there were seven spheres plus an eighth realm, the fixed stars, where the gods lived. As a result, 8 is often associated with paradise. Muslims believe that there are seven hells but eight paradises, signifying God’s mercy. In Buddhism 8 is a lucky number, possibly because of the eight petals of the lotus, a plant associated with luck in India and a favorite Buddhist symbol. — Brittanica

Today, Spirit Self offers us 8 as a channel that unites and feeds energies throughout our material and etheric systems.

Visualize the energy as liquid light, or perhaps you will feel its movement as it courses or even hear its sound and rhythm.

Do each of the following exercises separately or in sequence, as needed or desired. Five minutes can be a good duration for each, but go ahead and make these energy runs as long or as short as you’d prefer. In a pinch, one mindful, vivid, twisting loop-around might do the trick.

Grounding 8: Stand or sit or imagine your feet firmly planted on the ground. Bring your attention to the soles of your feet and feel energies moving from within your feet to the ground below and back again. Keep up this super-sensory experience (5 minutes recommended). If you can find a time to do even just this one practice in the out-of-doors, that would be marvelous!

Rooted 8: Now bring your awareness to your Root chakra (base of your spine). Again, feel energies moving from that center in an 8-shaped pattern to the ground beneath your feet and up and around again.

Cauldron 8: Move on to the Sacral (or Belly) chakra below your navel. Run the energy from that energy down into the ground and up again. Then run energy from the Sacral chakra to the Root chakra. You can do each of these figure 8s separately, in sequence. Or you may combine the 8s, taking time to do the Root-to-Sacral figure 8 each time you descend or ascend for the larger 8 over the duration of this practice.

Solar 8: Above the navel, you’ll find the Solar Plexus chakra just below your ribs. Follow the pattern you used for the Cauldron 8, moving energies from Ground to the Solar Plexus and, if you will, taking time to make continuous 8s between the Solar Plexus chakra and the Sacral chakra and between the Solar Plexus chakra and the Root chakra.

Heartfelt 8: I’m sure you get the picture by now. Move energy from the Heart chakra to Ground and back again. Now, the Heart chakra is significant as the liminal gateway between the “lower” chakras (energies of our earthly, bodily existence) and the “higher” chakras and their more etheric energies. You might choose to linger longer at this center and really indulge yourself in a luscious flow and exchange of energies. You won’t regret it!

Full-Throated 8: Keep going. Your Throat chakra needs the power, courage, creativity, and love of the energy centers below for it to function confidently and brilliantly. And you won’t want to skip looping through any of the chakras between Ground and Heart. If any of this movement seems complicated and confusing, just remember: wherever you are in the chakric system you find yourself, just keep tracing 8s, those flipped-up infinity signs. You won’t go wrong.

Third Eye 8: Same thing here. Third Eye (Brow) chakra to Ground and any points in between!

Crowning 8: And again. Go for it!

Note the infinity sign above the Magician’s head and between heart and throat. Arms and hands also symbolize the unity of Above and Below, spiritual and material. Morgan Greer Tarot by Lloyd Morgan with art by Bill Greer

Bear in mind, the traditional seven-chakra system is a baseline. We also have energy centers associated with many other regions of the physical body—for example, our palms, individual fingers, ears, and eyes—as well as beyond, and well beyond, our physical structure.

At any point, as the need arises, you may choose to focus on one or more of these additional energy centers, connecting any one of them to another and to Ground. For example, healers who use their hands for transmission of energy will find it energizing, effective, and restorative to run an 8 loop of energy between the centers of their palms or the tips of their fingers to earth, sky, Sun, Moon, and other features of nature and cosmos.

Give any or all of this a try, and please share your experiences and insights with us here! Thanks for reading and sharing!

“Infinity and Beyond: The Mysteries and Fascination of the Number 8: Exploring the Symbolism, Mathematics, and Cultural Significance of the Number Eight,” by TOP 5 (2023)

Resources:

“Symbolism & Significance of the Number 8 Across the World (1/4),” by B, Medium, (August 8, 2025)

Eva Yaa Asantewaa (photo: D. Feller)

Color, color, color!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 13:05:07 GMT

Photo by BananaStock on FreeImages

I was born to a visual artist mother who loved decorating home and canvasses with color. I’m the wife of a visual artist (and art historian) who possesses acute awareness of when color is off or on target. And I have my own fascination with color and its power—the abundant blooms of my childhood garden in Queens, the yummy yarns I used to knit or crochet, the many fountain pen inks collected, the paintings explored in numerous museums around the world.

Colors are useful symbols and conveyors of potent energies. My Inner Child still responds to color with glee!

Image by frimufilms on Freepik

Image by Nicky ❤️🌿🐞🌿❤️ from Pixabay

Try this visualization:

Remember a box of crayons you owned when you were a kid—or perhaps one you own now.

Memories of opening crayon boxes are super-vivid for me. I can feel that thin paper I’d strip away to expose more wax when the original points wore down. I can smell the combined aromas of stearic acid and paraffin—unmistakable!

How many crayons does your box hold? 8? 12? 24? 96? 120?

Or is it a rare jumbo collection of, maybe, 400? If so, color me envious!

Now, in this imaginal state, reach for any crayon—at random or with intention.

Which color? Your basic orange? Your mid-range green? Or something unusual or wacky or once-trendy that’s now discontinued?

Did you pick out metallic Gold? Teal? Maize? Razzmatazz? Raw Umber?

The discontinued Crayola Razzmatazz (eBay image)

Gaining awareness of your Spirit Self is like discovering a dazzling array of colors to draw with beyond the basic crayon set. And your drawing paper is no longer a single, letter-size sheet, or even a large page in a sketch pad, but a continuous scroll.

How often do we get in our own way or confine ourselves to small boxes, small containers, and cramp our own style?

So now, while you have that crayon in your hand and the first stretch of the scroll in front of you, envision yourself writing a reminder of this truth—that there’s more to you and your possibilities than you previously imagined. Much more. Put this thought in your own words.

And then, you know what? Grab some more crayons and draw a few images as reminders, too!

You can also take a step back and invite your Spirit Self to write you a letter of encouragement, affirmation, and love.

Now, how does that feel?

Eva Yaa Asantewaa (photo: D. Feller)

an intense love

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:23:30 GMT

Image by beasternchen from Pixabay

The words came through fast. Not a breath, not even a beat between my question and Spirit Self’s crystal-clear response.

A few days ago, I suddenly recalled a time I’d fallen headlong down one of my typical rabbit holes of curiosity.

Some years back, while listening to a public radio show, I’d first heard contemporary Breton folk music. I became enchanted by the work of harpist Alan Stivell and guitarist Dan Ar Braz. And when I say “curiosity” and “enchanted,” I mean obsessed. Music can bring that out in me.

To the best of my knowledge, I have no DNA in the game. Given the colonial history of Barbados, my people’s island, and many of our family surnames, if I have any Celtic blood, it would likely be Irish or Scottish, not Breton (from the Celts of northwestern France, a place I’ve since visited).

In any case, thinking back on that time, and pondering my general dismissal of reincarnation, I shot a quick question to my Spirit Self, not expecting this immediate answer:

“It was an intense love.”

Whoa! Where’d that come from?

I’m still not sure if that answer referred to my musical enchantment (which, yes, was intense, as I can be), or to a past lifetime in Brittany, or, perhaps, the experience of a distant ancestor, but it has led me to ponder the role of love in the awakening to one’s Spirit Self and in Spirit Self’s relationship with the All.

It was an intense love.

In the lives of the mystics I read about in college and early adulthood, passionate love for Spirit (or God, in their lingo) was indeed intense, the very ground and engine of their fervent devotion. Love has been poetically defined as the invisible force that unites all things and moves the earthly waters and heavenly bodies. And here was love offered an an explanation for why I’d suddenly taken a shine to foreign music I’d never heard before.

Image by Annette from Pixabay

Love is essential, I learned, as Spirit Self unfolded more thoughts. It’s not only the energy that connects and binds, it’s the energy of creation. I was amused, then, to be shown the image of a boiling pot of oatmeal, a bubble rising to its surface.

There. See it now?

The unified field (all oatmeal-y and such) with something new (bubble) rising from the depths into visibility, something desired, created by intense love. The ten-thousand things emerging by the action of intense love within the one Spirit.

It’s all love.

Anyone else hungry now, though?

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Okay, then! Let’s get our fiber and anti-oxidants!

Might there still be a personal story to discover in High Priestess’s scroll?

The High Priestess. Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot. Art by Pamela Colman Smith

Perhaps. But isn’t HP one of those Tarot icons that just screams Spirit Self?

And wouldn’t all those pomegranate seeds go nicely in a bowl of oatmeal?

SPECIAL NOTE

Help George & JoAnn Brooks keep their home!

I know my Substack community is loving, compassionate, and generous!

I’m delighted to offer three 1:1 Tarot sessions (each for 60 minutes, valued at $150) for contributors to dance artist mayfield brooks’ campaign to save their parents’ home from foreclosure.

George and JoAnn Brooks are victims of predatory lending, trapped in a high-interest mortgage they were unable to refinance. As George’s Alzheimer’s progressed, JoAnn became his full-time caregiver, and the financial strain became overwhelming. They now face the threat of losing the home George built with his own hands.

Meet the Brooks family here:

You may donate directly to mayfield’s GoFundMe campaign here. Any amount is welcome!

Or you may click here to learn more about my 1:1 sessions and schedule one or more to support this special drive! All proceeds from these sessions, paid via Venmo or Zelle, will go directly to mayfield. Three are on offer for now. More may be added.

Thank you so much for your interest and your contributions for this beautiful family!

Shifting perspectives

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 20:48:31 GMT

Photo by ubik2010 on FreeImages

If you haven’t done so already, do check out this audio post first: “Spirit Self and Prospective Tarot” (March 17, 2026).

Living more from your Spirit Self is not at all the same as ungrounded avoidance of earthly, bodily realities—or society’s problematic ones. It’s an affirmation of the sacred, dedicated, and purposeful power inside your life as an incarnate being in the very time and place you find yourself.

It’s an expanded awareness of what’s possible and an intentional calling back of freedom once stolen, compromised, or disowned and lost.

It’s your deepest truth and your fiercest energy.

Learning from Spirit Self models how to perceive the manifest and etheric worlds and one’s potential within them.

Returning to our examination of the Two of Wands and Three of Wands in my previous post, consider the conditions for shifting perspective: having the space and stillness to hear one’s own undistracted, unmanipulated thoughts as well as the subtle messages of Spirit around you; stepping back far enough (pausing to remove yourself from the fray) so that you can clearly see the whole picture, all dimensions of a situation, from its origins and early stages to its present condition and potential developments.

The Two of Wands figure in the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot cups a globe in the right hand—merely a representation, a replica of reality—but looks out over actual land and water beneath a stretch of sky. In the same way, when we grapple with a situation, we need to show up with our whole Self and meet the moment in its wholeness, too, intent on better understanding and working with it.

Now, consider the range of possible meanings for the Two of Wands and/or Three of Wands, both holding wand fire in reserve, now reversed (as shown below):

the exact opposite—not having sufficient perspective; being unable or unwilling to take the time, dedicate the space, and make the effort to see something in a clear or more expanded way; lack of focus and a potential for confusion and disarray
-or-
not yet or not quite enough—a useful perspective may be available and attainable but not quite yet; more work must be done
-or-
an inside job—the need to journey a landscape within oneself before gaining the necessary perspective

Surrounding cards or your clair-phenomena or the overall vibes of a session help determine which of these meanings is most relevant to the person and situation in question.

Other Major Arcana cards shed light on perspective—and shifts in perspective—in varying ways.

For example, The Hermit steps far away from busy social environments and their expectations, seeking a time of solitude and mystic connection with the unseen. The Hanged Man dramatically flips topsy turvy to enter a different mindspace, later returning with something unexpected and radically new. Conversely, perversely, The Devil depicts losses of both perspective and freedom while cleverly, sneakily hinting at how to gain them back.

******

Let me know if there are any cards (or other practices and systems) you might like me to talk about from the perspective of Spirit Self. I’d love to open this up as a conversation among my readers and learn more about what you’d enjoy seeing here!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Join me and a beautiful community of celebrants for Zoom Séance: Saturdays, March 21, April 25, May 16, and June 20. All 1pm to 3pm Eastern. And all free (donations gratefully accepted—message for details). To RSVP for one or more of these dates or to get on our email list, send a message!

Spirit Self and Prospective Tarot

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 16:14:44 GMT

Above: Two of Wands. Below: Three of Wands. Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot. Art by Pamela Colman Smith

Audio by Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Spirit Self on “perspective,” “prospective,” and Tarot (6:34)

Click here for the transcript.

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

You are the altar.

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 10:12:42 GMT

Image by elHelfer from Pixabay

You were your first altar.

And you will be your last.

Your body. Every energy. Every emotion. Every thought. Every action.

All are altars.

Crossroads and places of desire, creative magic(k), transformation.

Places inhabited by Spirit, haunted by spirits.

How do you recognize and affirm and celebrate the altar (or many altars) that you are?

How do you build…or tend…your altar(s)?

How do you activate…or cleanse…or support and hold safe and sacred your altar(s)?

Additional Resources for the Altar Self:

It’s 2026: What’s on Your Altar?, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Substack, January 1, 2026

Free Spirit, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Substack, February 11, 2026

What is prayer? A new meaning from Spirit Self, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Substack, February 27, 2026

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Look out your window!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 19:07:29 GMT

Red-tailed hawk (photo: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

As I’ve written here before, Mama Moon frequently taps me on the psychic shoulder and draws me to my kitchen window, at the rear of our apartment building, just in time to catch her latest theatrical production.

But sometimes, it’s not her.

It might be a bird.

We have the usual cast of East Village characters here—the ubiquitous pigeons, House sparrows, and Mourning doves. Every now and then, a Blue jay might make an appearance flitting amid the trees or briefly perching on a neighboring roof or fire escape.

Red-tailed hawks, famously, make their home in Tompkins Square Park a few avenues away from our immediate, busy streets. But spying a hawk from my kitchen window is an exceedingly rare treat, and I couldn’t remember the last time I had. In fact, just yesterday, I was thinking about that, wondering when next I’d get a chance.

Clearly, the birding fairies were listening.

Finishing breakfast this morning, I walked into the kitchen to wash our dishes and immediately felt a gentle nudge to go straight to the rear window.

Red-tailed hawk!!!

This is photo is by Steven Kessel, not me, unfortunately!

I don’t know if my guy took a turn up the wrong street, but there he was, sitting on the fire escape right across from that window, head turned in my direction as if he’d been waiting for me to get there. And like:

Hi, there!!!

We looked each other right in the eyes.

I also spotted two Blue jays perched in the nearby trees, uncharacteristically unbothered. Strange to see, since Blue jays get hotly bothered by all kinds of things—predatory hawks being primary. I guess these jays had that Red-tail in their sights and nowhere near their nest—enough to keep them quiet.

My handsome visitor didn’t stay long. However—lucky for my wife, Deborah, who I’d quickly alerted to come see—he made a momentary stop on a tree branch before flapping off to go on with his day.

Birders often ask one another what bird they consider their spark bird, “the bird that hooks someone into their passion for birding.” (The Spark Bird Project).

I have a long list of birds I love to my soul, but my spark bird is the Red-tailed Hawk. The early 1990s heyday of dashing Pale Male (d. 2023) was when I first fell into birding, and soon drew Deborah into the pastime, mainly enjoying guided group walks through Central Park as well as Prospect Park and Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Pale Male was the Brad Pitt of New York raptors, the Prince of Central Park, and his romantic, well-publicized story attracted new flocks of birders to the pursuit.

Please believe me. After my most recent post’s focus on butterflies, I hadn’t planned to write about birds today. Instead, I thought about writing about the distraction, exhaustion, and emotional shutdown many people are feeling in light of disastrous government policies and actions here in the States and abroad. I’d run this matter past Spirit Self, hoping for a takeaway with useful tools and strategies for readers of this Substack.

Instead, here’s this Red-tailed hawk, perched just several feet away at eye level, carrying the now-familiar message that I must listen carefully, and I must answer and follow through when my heart recognizes the call.

Perhaps this is all Spirit Self wished to say to me today—and to you:

Pay close attention to the subtle. And look out that window. There’s something surprising and marvelous out there.

There’s still good reason to be here—and to be you. I can’t emphasize that enough. Still good neighbors and kin to greet and cherish.

Join me and a beautiful community of celebrants for Zoom Séance: Saturdays, March 21, April 25, May 16, and June 20. All 1pm to 3pm Eastern. And all free (donations gratefully accepted—message for details). To RSVP for one or more of these dates or to get on the email list, send a message!

Time for a butterfly break!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 13:48:14 GMT

That’s me with one of my friends yesterday morning at the Davis Family Butterfly Vivarium, American Museum of Natural History

The world’s a mess, but we can still honor and savor what’s beautiful, good, and true. My trip to the American Museum of Natural History to revisit the Davis Family Butterfly Vivarium yesterday was exactly the needed and right visual and emotional reset.

All of that was magic(k)ally underscored by an email that popped up on my phone right after I left the vivarium: a Substack post from forest therapy guide Heather Dorfman (of Substack’s Rose and Cedar Forest) about caterpillars and butterflies, imaginal discs and transformation.

When you live a mindful life informed by your Spirit Self, there are no coincidences! Read Heather’s post, “Butterflies are impossible,” here.

And enjoy this video lineup of these delicate and gorgeously-styled creatures. Which ones inhabit your region? Which are your favorites?

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Friday Office Hours (1pm to 3pm Eastern) are back on after all! Let me know if you’d like to reserve some time.

And here’s my updated Zoom Séance schedule:

Saturdays, March 21, April 25, May 16, and June 20. All 1pm to 3pm Eastern. And all free (donations gratefully accepted—message for details). To RSVP for one or more of these dates or to get on the email list, send a message!

What is prayer?

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 15:07:52 GMT

Growing up in a Black Caribbean immigrant family that followed Roman Catholic beliefs, attending my neighborhood’s white-run Catholic church and school, I learned very early on about prayer in traditional ways. Just writing that sentence reminds me of rosaries (which I still adore), prayer cards, missals, Easter Sunday socks and shoes on my little feet, and the warm, heady aroma of frankincense.

Prayer, as we were taught to understand it then, connected us to an almighty but stern, barely knowable God, to the more accessible Son of God, Lord Jesus, and his loving mother Mary, Queen of Heaven, and to the readily accessible saints and angels. It was always something you made special time for, something done over here to be etherically transmitted over there…somewhere wherever. Something that left you and wafted ever upwards into the invisible where it might hit its target—or not.

Prayer ascended the chain of spiritual hierarchy, lavishing praise and gratitude to our betters or bearing tears and supplications the higher it climbed. Prayer often signaled acknowledgement of something down here fragile and damaged, lost, or lacking.

One prayed to be healed or to be corrected in one’s errors and forgiven one’s sins and other shortcomings. One prayed to get something one didn’t have or stabilize something uncertain. One prayed, quite often actually, on the behalf of others, to have a desired effect on the life and situation of a loved one or even strangers in need or in peril.

One prayed, mainly, because one was a humble human without significant power, a power that belonged, instead, to the Most High who clearly had made only a certain kind of people in His image if the visual images on display on church walls and in prayer books were to be believed—a suspect message reaching both the conscious mind and, sadly, the subconscious.

As part of my year (2026) of exploring things through the sensibility of my Spirit Self, I posed this question last night: What is prayer?

I asked because I was unsure of the utility of even using that word as I unfold new aspects of my spiritual practice and, especially, as I have begun participating in beautiful interdenominational prayer circles convened, once per month, by creative folks and social justice activists deeply concerned with genocide, racism, oppression of indigenous people and immigrants, environmental decline, and the overall rise of fascism.

The response from Spirit Self was most helpful and, frankly, it was to be expected. It began, as so many others do, with a reminder that “You’re already there.”

We already have what we’re seeking. We just have to wake up to it. And that tracks.

Spirit has taught me, all along, that there’s no separation between the human—and all that’s earthly—and greater Spirit. There’s no formidably unreachable Up There. Waking up to the Spirit Self within ourselves is the path to understanding and realizing what No Separation means.

So, then, what is prayer? More important, why is prayer?

Prayer is just more of the same. Prayer is a constant, a continuum. A relational communication—spirit to spirit, spirit AS spirit. It is both ongoing and fruitful. It is powerful and empowering.

Because Spirit is not something apart from me over there or up there. Spirit is here in everything I am and do. And that opens the portal for everything to be prayerful.

Not long after this message landed, I was taken on an unexpected mental tour of many of the times in my life when—out of character for the way I was raised as a quiet, well-educated, well-behaved little Bajan-American Catholic schoolgirl from an aspiring family—I moved with surprising audacity and courage as opportunities and challenges arose in front of me. I took real chances, one after another, around creative practice, intellectual exploration, travel, sexuality, and leadership.

Spirit Self was saying, We’ve been ONE all along, and now you realize.

As Ntozake Shange wrote, “i found god in myself/& i loved her/i loved her fiercely”

It’s up to me, now, if I will reclaim the word prayer and use it to express this reality. And, yes, I choose to do so.

So, now, please tell me:

Where do you find yourself with the word and practice of prayer?

Friday Office Hours (1pm to 3pm Eastern) are back on after all! Let me know if you’d like to reserve some time.

And here’s my updated Zoom Séance schedule:

Saturdays, February 21, April 25, May 16, and June 20. All 1pm to 3pm Eastern. And all free (donations gratefully accepted—message for details). To RSVP for one or more of these dates or to get on the email list, send a message!

Make your magic(k) mark

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 13:55:38 GMT

Freepik

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Here’s a reminder. These new sessions represent Spirit Self’s viewpoint and often reveal an unconventional take on things we usually see or interpret in more familiar, conventional ways. I’m leaning into a year fiercely dedicated to direct engagement of my Spirit Self and learning a lot of new tricks that I’m happy to share with you!

I was surprised to see how this session ended up. Things instantly veered from Tarot imagery and then from Lenormand imagery, specifically skirting a question about Lenormand’s wonderful Book card (perhaps more on that another time).

Instead, out of the blue, Spirit Self downloaded an intricate lesson on the importance of using jet black ink for any magic(k)al operation.

Blue will not do. Nor will any other color. Other colors, in this usage, would be unserious and ornamental, and Spirit Self wanted no part of that for me.

Black, the blackest black, it must be, and the best implement (fountain pen nib, marker, or ink brush) would be bold in thickness. However, if a fine-pointed pen or—shudder!–a well-sharpened pencil is the only thing close to hand or vision, why then, wield it with precision and elegance (two grand words Spirit Self would later circle back to associate with the color black.)

I was shown simple images outlined by black ink borders—circles or edge tracings—that had specific functions. The image might be a symbol or something desired or needing protection or separation from whatever existed outside the line of its border.

One might use this method in a visualization or spell for manifestation. What are you aiming for? Visualize it clearly, and then, in your mind’s eye, draw a bold, defining circle around that image.

Next came the lexicon—a flow of words and phrases related to the color black—again, from the perspective of Spirit Self. Notably absent, I realized later, were words like the alchemical nigredo or the psychological shadow. Also, the color’s familiar association with death and mourning seemed beside the point, something for living humans and our cultures that observe that tradition. Spirit Self had other things in mind:

Outlining. Defining. Demarking. Delineating. Tracing.

Set-off space. Dedicated space. Protected space. Sacred space. Ritual space. Secret space.

Space of focus. Clarity. Precision. Elegance.

Stability. Authority.

As it developed, the list made sense, and I could easily see the potent magic(k) in drawing a thick, black line around something as a means of protecting and intensifying it by force of magic(k)al will. Those of you who work with manifestation practices will find this useful. Surround your images or words with black and turn that sacred space into a spell target.

Interestingly, the word liminality also dropped. I found that curious but then realized that a space of firm boundaries is ideal to safeguard contents not yet firm but moving through etheric, delicate states of being and becoming—liminality. Draw a protective egg shape in velvety black.

Finally, Spirit Self identified themself with the color black and invited further exploration of the implications of that statement.

I remain charmed.

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Friday Office Hours are suspended for the next few weeks and will resume on Friday, March 20.

My next Zoom Séance will be held this coming Saturday, February 21 (1pm to 3pm Eastern). Reach out to RSVP and get the Zoom link. We’re an amazing community circle, and I’d love you to join in! It’s free!

With all my heart!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 15:05:50 GMT

Six of Cups. Fantastical Creatures Tarot by Lisa Hunt

Happy Valentine’s Day, beloved friends!

And that greeting comes to you, also, from my Spirit Self, so eager to deliver today’s teachings on the relationship between Tarot’s Six of Cups and the playing card Six of Hearts!

Six of Hearts, regular playing card deck

First, please enjoy artist Lisa Hunt’s Six of Cups image up top, inspired by Yemaya, orisha of the oceans.

More familiar with Pamela Colman Smith’s Six of Cups image (below)?

Six of Cups. Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot by Pamela Colman Smith

Allow your perception to embrace Hunt’s charming alternative. Spirit always brings a new and unexpected gift, and I was thrilled to get a deep immersion and a new perspective on the Six of Cups.

As a follow-up to my recent post about The Free Spirit (Fool), I inquired about my Spirit Self’s views on the use of playing cards for divination. Eventually, I began downloading material about Spades aligning with Swords (both governed by the element of Air and representing matters of the mind, communication, conflict, and brisk speed). The Six of Swords and Six of Spades were offered as examples of this relationship, introducing a novel connection to the word displacement.

Pamela Colman Smith’s Tarot image for the Six of Swords shows a cloaked passenger huddled in a boat that’s being rowed who knows where. The corresponding playing card, of course, bears no such storytelling image. But both, I learned from my Spirit Self, can signify something or someone uprooted and displaced.

In the case of the Six of Spades, I was given the visual image of a gardening spade. A spade digs up soil to turn it (mixing in weeds, compost, or fertilizer); to displace it (opening a hole for planting); or to remove a plant from that location to another. Similarly, the Tarot card shows a person being moved from one location to another and, in some interpretations, that can symbolize displacement.

Soon, though, my Spirit Self moved away from Swords/Spades and on to the Six of Hearts and Six of Cups as a prime example of correspondence.

For many years, the Six of Cups served me as Spirit’s calling card, if you will, indicating Spirit’s entry into my Tarot readings. That was fine, but I eventually graduated to a new level, learning that every card is rightly a Spirit card since Spirit’s presence is steadfast and collaboration continuous.

In any case, I welcomed this new look at one of my favorite Tarot cards.

From the viewpoint of my Spirit Self, either the Six of Cups or the Six of Hearts can signify:

spirit presence and collaboration (often creative and playful)
Inner Child work — or an action of the Inner Child
giving with generosity, grace, charity (especially in the presence of the Six of Pentacles), reciprocity
balance and/or blending of energies (as in Sitting in the Power, a classic mediumistic practice)
and, ultimately, all-encompassing love!

For this Valentine’s Day weekend, meditate on the Six of Cups/Six of Hearts and the deeply-loving workings of your own Spirit Self.

I wish you a sweet weekend!

My next Zoom Séance will be Saturday, February 21 (1pm to 3pm Eastern). Reach out to RSVP and get the Zoom link. This community circle is amazing, and I’d love you to join in! It’s free!

Free Spirit

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 18:39:34 GMT

The Fool by Camila Coria

I’ve designated 2026 as my year of learning to experience things more from the perspective of my Spirit Self—or, at least, bringing that perspective into my daily life and responses.

Reading Tarot (or employing any divinatory system) goes next level when you open the door to your Spirit Self doing the reading. And, this morning, mine stepped up smartly to start things off with The Fool, the first symbol in Tarot’s Major Arcana.

I can’t guarantee how often this will happen here for Substack or if these Tarot séances will go in strict order, but I’m here for it all, ready to do my part as scribe.

Here’s what I’ve learned about The Fool so far:

To my Spirit Self, the card we’ve always called The Fool is called The Free Spirit. I love this.

The number assigned to The Free Spirit—0—perfectly expresses the quality of liminality. The Free Spirit is here but also not quite here. The Free Spirit is frequently in between states of being or is out there somewhere on the way.

The Free Spirit’s lightness of being is also suggested in Pamela Colman Smith’s depiction of this character as moving forward while carrying just a small pouch on a stick and a white rose (purity, fresh beginnings) in the opposite hand.

The Fool. Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot. Art by Pamela Colman Smith

My Spirit Self surprised me with observations that The Free Spirit is all about movement. The Free Spirit is a dancer—specifically, a ballet dancer, a leaper, elegant and buoyant. I had not thought of that before and was delighted when I then searched Pinterest and laid eyes on this striking image by Talon Abraxas:

The Fool by Talon Abraxas

I’ll never be able to think of The Fool/Free Spirit again without visualizing this gorgeous, archetypal character rising on pointe to tippy-toes. But, if you look back at the Camila Coria image at the top of this post, the masked and elaborately-costumed Fool has goat legs—a sign of being surefooted and adaptable in any terrain, especially a rough, mountainous one.

The next surprise Spirit Self had for me was an association between The Free Spirit and death. Not Tarot’s Death card, but death, itself, and the deceased.

Apparently, then, within certain contexts, The Free Spirit can be an indicator of dying, the process of dying, death—especially a peaceful, easeful, even welcomed death—and the deceased, especially the recently deceased. Look again at that white rose which, to a medium, might signal a message from a lost loved one.

The particular question, concern, and surrounding cards and other intuitive signs will seal the interpretation of The Fool/Free Spirit. Let me emphasize, again, that an interpretation of The Free Spirit will always be contextual and might treat other matters aside from death and dying.

From Spirit Self’s point of view, of course, death is freedom, release from material manifestation. The spirit has been liberated. Free Spirit!

In my search for relevant Fool images, I ran across one card, not depicted here, showing a small shower of coins/pentacles dropping away from a colorful jester. Like the lightweight pouch, I think this speaks to The Fool/Free Spirit not being weighed down by things (coins/pentacles = the earth element and the material world with its ten-thousand things). Of course, that doubles back to the idea of death as a shedding of the thingy-ness of one aspect of what we are in this life.

The Fool. Anima Mundi Tarot by Megan Wyreweden

I love Megan Wyreweden’s sweet, foxy Fool that offers the traditional white rose! Amazingly, after drafting much of this post, I received and read “Brushes with the red fox,” a Substack post by author Robert Moss that began with the following words:

“When the fox is around, the message for me is always Pay attention. The fox is a liminal animal, and its appearances suggest that we are entering an edgy time. I feel a Trickster energy in play when the fox is about.”

Wow!

Now, what’s your take on The Free Spirit? And what do you think about stepping aside so your Spirit Self can teach you a more expansive, sometimes unusual, view of these symbols?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

My next Friday Office Hours Day will be Friday, February 13 (1pm to 3pm Eastern). Reach out for details and to reserve your time.

My next Zoom Séance will be Saturday, February 21 (1pm to 3pm Eastern). Reach out to RSVP and get the Zoom link. This community circle is amazing.

Time to reach

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 20:10:45 GMT

Top: The Tower. Bottom: The Star. Mystic Dreamer Tarot by Heidi Darras (artist) and Barbara Moore (writer). Llewellyn, 2008.

Eva Yaa Asantewaa (photo by Golden for the 2024 Queer|Art Community Portrait Project, assisted by Río Sofia & Andrius Alvarez-Backus)

My next Friday Office Hours Day will be Friday, February 13 (1pm to 3pm Eastern). Reach out for details and to reserve your time.

My next Zoom Séance will be Saturday, February 21 (1pm to 3pm Eastern). Reach out to RSVP and get the Zoom link. This community circle is amazing.

MORNING SÉANCE: 2/4/26

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 14:37:31 GMT

Justice, Card 8 from Mary-El Tarot by Marie White

Justice, Card 11 from The Modern Witch Tarot by Lisa Sterles

[Note: The date in the title is not an error. I began writing this séance post yesterday but did not have it ready for you until now.]

In a time fraught with tension and danger, many of us find ourselves in a rush, defensively throwing whatever we’ve got at powerful systems—and an overarching System—long established and hardened.

Each day can feel exhausting and dispiriting because justice takes a minute. But when true justice comes, it will be unmistakable.

When I woke this morning, what dropped were words I associate with Tarot’s Justice archetype:

payback (not the same as karma, a Sanskrit word plucked from its cultural context and frequently misused)
learning (everything from FAFO to an active process of development)
accountability
adjustment/correction
and the all-important, oft-resisted follow-through, commitment to meaningful action.

As a world—likely, as individuals, too—we’re seeing the beginning stages of all the above hitting harder for some of us than for others with an endpoint nowhere in sight.

Dr. Buzzard, The Hoodoo Tarot by Tayannah Lee McQuillar, art by Katelan V. Foisy

Brother Malcolm spoke of chickens coming home to roost, and Brother James foresaw the fire next time. Many of us remember parents who found cause, now and again, to call us damn hardheaded. I’ll say it plain: As a society—and individuals, too—we’re learning the hard way, and this time there’s no wiggling out of it.

White folks get uncomfortable, defensive, and resentful when Black people, especially Black women, say “You refused to hear us. Now you gotta clean up all this mess.”

But the systems are yours—your creation largely designed to serve your interests, your property to do with as you will. The clean-up tools, the repair tools, also have your names and fingerprints all over them. Time to step up.

Still, each of us is required to make adjustments or corrections—small or radical—and those requirements, again, show up on the world stage, in the workplace, and the family home or place of worship as well as in individual minds and bodies. Here, if we have courage to look, we find a chance to do the thing better, do it right, click some corner of our universe back into sound alignment with all others.

Justice is a force at once divine and down to earth, cosmic and humble. Justice scorches. And justice heals. It finds what’s needed. It does what needs to be done.

Rather than shrinking from tests and challenges, what if we met them with excitement, even a sense of adventure? Approached with clarity, they speak of hope in us and respect for us. Like rites of passage, they hand us life-changing, even world-changing responsibility.

What if, rather than pulling back in fear or apathy, we ramp up our resolve and energy?

Building and holding that energy is already the first sign of victory over corruption, destruction, and death.

USPS Lunar New Year Forever Stamp Ceremony: Feb. 3, Houston, TX

Eva Yaa Asantewaa (photo by Golden for the 2024 Queer|Art Community Portrait Project, assisted by Río Sofia & Andrius Alvarez-Backus)

My next Friday Office Hours Day will be Friday, February 6 (1pm to 3pm Eastern). Reach out for details and to reserve your time.

My next Zoom Séance will be Saturday, February 21 (1pm to 3pm Eastern). Reach out to RSVP and get the Zoom link. This community circle is amazing.

Rabbit! Rabbit! February!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 05:00:33 GMT

Image by Yuha park from Pixabay

And just like that, January, once fresh as first-hour snow on New York City streets, has fled!

New York is finally having a real winter with our new mayor who knows what he’s doing and clearly has fun doing it.

The nation, though, remains a bloody, bloody mess, a danger to itself and the world.

And Catherine O’Hara decides to up and leave the planet. (Catherine, come back! We didn’t really want you to leave us home alone!)

Legendary Woodie King, Jr., director, producer, and founder of New Federal Theatre, also left us at age 88.

On Friday, I hit one of my rare emotional walls, talked it all out to the air and Spirit, and pulled the covers over my head even earlier than usual, which actually felt good and, the next morning, paid off in rich energy reserves and steady focus for two back-to-back qigong sessions.

As you know, February is Black History Month—still! If that fact has never meant much to you, you’ve got a new chance to make it especially meaningful this year, acknowledging not only the full, unredacted truth of what Black people have endured under white supremacy but the lasting significance of all we’ve created and contributed against the odds. We’ve been nation-building and world-building from the jump. Efforts to shred the Black historical record and legacy can’t succeed if you boost your own awareness of the facts and make damn sure any young person in your charge gets access to all facets of historical truth.

Which brings me to Library Lovers Month—yep, February. I would not be the person you know today if it were not for libraries. They’ve shaped me from early youth and remain essential in my elder years. I love them and owe them a lot.

New York Public Library’s 100 Black Voices: Schomburg Centennial Reading List
“This list—curated by the Schomburg Center’s Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division—features 100 books personally selected by some of today’s most celebrated Black writers, artists, and luminaries. Discover a selection of 20 titles you can read right away, explore books in accessible formats, and learn more about the Schomburg Centennial.”

Researching all the things the month of February celebrates or commemorates led me down quite the rabbit, rabbit hole. You can take that trip, too, and I’ll make it easier for you with this single, pretty comprehensive link where I discovered some of the following tidbits:

Fellow Substackers, your day is coming: National Essay Day, the 28th.

And with Freelance Writers Appreciation Week just around the corner, I sure hope I won’t have to wait too much longer to get paid for magazine work published late last year with a promise of payment by early-January. (I want my money, people, and I’m just this close to putting you on blast. No joke.)

Everybody, remember to stock up on anything chocolate this month (apparently not just for Valentine’s), and change every password before today is out.

Don’t forget Lunar New Year (Fire Horse): February 17, USA.

My next Friday Office Hours Day will be Friday, February 6 (1pm to 3pm Eastern). Reach out for details and to reserve your time.

My next Zoom Séance will be Saturday, February 21 (1pm to 3pm Eastern). Reach out to RSVP and get the Zoom link. This community circle is amazing.

FEBRUARY TREAT FOR THOUGHT:

I think we need to follow our children into the kingdom of childhood more often than we invite them into the world of grown-ups, the world of rushing, the world of appointments, and deadlines, the world of keeping up with time. I believe it is essential for us to remember the timeless realm of the Fae, of the imaginal realms where linear thought forms dissolve into the luminous essence of our presence. —Centehua Sage, Substack

Eva Yaa Asantewaa (photo: D. Feller)