january: conscious thresholds

monthly creative curations for prism's paid subscribers

Welcome 2024! When a new year begins, we cross a threshold — a door, gate, portal serving as an initiation into what is yet undiscovered and unexpressed. We casually cross thresholds all the time, and in this post, I will share inspiration for marking times of personal transition and audacious self-renewal.

On the first day of each month, I share a vibe for the month ahead with prism’s paid subscribers. These posts include my curations of poetry, music, art, fashion, beauty, and/or other areas of expression. As we enter a fresh calendar year and the month of January, I’m feeling into what it means to intentionally honor thresholds and to embrace becoming new.

The Threshold card from The Wild Unknown’s Archetypes deck by Kim Krans (art in the background of this photo is my own)

Below you’ll find 12 pieces of artful and soulful inspiration on the idea of renewal. You’ll also gain access to January’s curated playlist (which is truly one of my favorite new things to do each month)!

In our culture, we consciously honor the crossing of thresholds such as birthdays, graduations, weddings, funerals, and — like today — a shared threshold of a new calendar year. Because this is fresh in our minds, January feels like a great time to look at how we can consecrate - or make sacred with our attention and intention - our more personal and more subtle thresholds. It doesn’t need to be now. It doesn’t need to follow that whole “new year, new me” expression. We don’t need to wait for collective transitions or wait for others to be ready for us to make a shift; we can become new in any moment.

1. This list — this year — really must begin with this energy, these words from my very favorite poet,

   Andrea Gibson
   :

2. I’ve been dabbling in the tarot since I got my first tarot deck in 7th grade. (Now I have an embarrassing number of decks in my collection.) Up until these past couple months of being enrolled in a tarot course, I’d been self-taught, reading various books, websites, and using my intuition with the cards. In this new class, I found a new appreciation for the first card of the major arcana, The Fool. Traditionally, The Fool is depicted with their chest forward and heart open, perched on a cliffside, making the decision to take that leap, to embark on that path. They carry a bindle, symbolizing karma from past lives, and a dog barks near their heels, warning The Fool against taking a risk (symbolizing the ego and maybe all those naysayers in your life). The energy of the card is that of innocence, fearlessness, spontaneity, renewal, potential, and risk led by intuition. The invitation is to be new, to be a beginner, to be bad at something because you’ve never tried it before, and even to be cringe. How freeing to find ourselves at thresholds, whenever we may arrive. Ask yourself: Where am I being asked to leap now?

   

   The Fool, from the Rider-Waite tarot deck

3. Having reminders of rebirth in your space helps bring a sense of freshness. I love watching paperwhite or amaryllis bulbs root, sprout, and bloom in bulb vases my home in the wintertime. Sometimes you can find them in your local grocery store or nursery, or you can order online.