☾Lunar Lit #12 | (Apocalyptic) Sag Season Advice from Someone Way Smarter than Me
AKA Sagittarian Advice from Aquarian Revolutionary N.K. Jemisin
Lunar Lit is a writer’s guide to astrology, exploring how to elevate your creative practice and connect the many threads between writing and astrology.
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I’m going to be so real with you, Lunar Lit reader, this shit sucks. I couldn’t bring myself to write a fluffy piece on astrology. Every draft I started was rageful. I am angry that we are hurtling toward a new level of fascism at an alarming rate. I am angry at the history on earth that is so blatantly connected to and reflected in today. The rage most palpable on the page was toward white apathy, white mediocrity, white tears and white supremacy.
So, instead of trying to make fetch happen, I’m going with my gut. Instead of a bubbly astro take or a snide essay about how ridiculous, laughable, and venomous the idea of blue bracelets is, I’m bringing you words from one of the greatest authors of all time - N.K. Jemisin.
With Pluto immersed in Aquarius (rebellion, revolution, future) for the next 20 years and the sun currently shining in Sagittarius (truth, learning, abundance, faith), this passage from the introduction of The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 anthology felt right.
“[Science fiction and fantasy] power to reimagine the present is of course a double-edged thing, because those same unanalytical readers tend to become unanalytical writers who thoughtlessly replicate the worst of the status quo. I am obviously being generous here, however, because the genres also include bad actors who intentionally use the power of science fiction and fantasy to entrench notions like "only white people will ever matter" and "men will always rape" and "disabled people should yearn for death" and "fat people can only be miserable and gluttonous." Fortunately, the powers that be-the fans who record the podcasts and organize the awards ceremonies and buy the books and review the movies-are getting better at acknowledging such readers as uncritical and such writers as harmful. That's good, because revolutionary art forms should be bigger than their hype men.”
“So the shadowy cabal is completely right: fantasy and science fiction are the means through which we ponder the slow ongoing revolutions of the present and foreshadow-or incite-the next revolutions to come. Maybe if writers sell enough readers on the idea, we'll soon be able to imagine a woman president. Or a society without violence... or one in which every human life actually does matter... or one in which we prioritize education and health over corporate profits. Maybe as stories and novels plausibly depict decolonized or precolonial societies, we might more easily shed the legacy of four hundred years of colonialism.
And at the bare minimum, maybe we can get rid of the damned shadowy cabal.
Readers and writers who lived through 2017 get what's at stake. Readers in 2018 and beyond get it too-and so they will find much to support them (now) and inspire them (later) in this collection. It's about the present and the future. Schrödinger's cat is dead in the box, alive in the box, out of the box, and partying on a beach in Goa.
Meet y'all there when the revolution's done.”
- N. K. JEMISIN
(she/they) is a writer, poet and astrologer. Her work has been published by Nightingale & Sparrow, Sampaguita Press, Querencia Press, Chicanx Writers and Artists Association and others. Her debut poetry chapbook, Through The Red Door's Open Maw, is available now with Beyond The Veil Press. She is a Roots. Wounds. Words. Storytellers of Color Fellow. Her favorite things include making memes, writing workshops, Nintendo switch, and her two small poodles. You can find her on socials talking about astrology, poetry, creative writing and the ways they intertwine @jessjunewrites and jessjunewrites.com
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