Hello Reader,

The world is a real vibe right now and I absolutely am for one to head to the park and sit with the trees for _the whole day_ but, as you know, my life choices mean I cannot...

I normally start with the sky ballet. Right now though, it's too much. I have Pluto driving forward and then reversing over my natal moon repeatedly over the next year, like a scene from a horror film where the terrified protagonist is in the car and runs over the serial killer and then reverses over them to make sure they are dead, but multiple times over a 18 month period. Yes my natal moon is apparently an existential threat that needs 'dealing with'. SO, on that note, I am totally sidestepping giving any of my own burning insights into the celestial choreography.

While the red hot horses keep thundering through the embers of linear time, I've been thinking a bit about empathy. Two things happened this week that pushed me to write this little snippet…synchronicities, if you will.

Firstly, I was talking to someone very close to me about how I perceive energy around people and they recognised that as empathy. I understood the approximation but brought it back to energy; empathy did not resonate. Cue our discussion that any one word in a moment has multiple meanings, e.g. descriptive, nominal, relational, societal, cultural, etc. They reminded me that words are containers for meaning. We then met around the inadequacy of language, particularly how communicating in dominant cultural languages often leads to a loss in translation from more nuanced angles in the search for shared expression of individual experiences. At this point, I have so many analogies rolling through my head, I’ll just go with lawn. There is a big difference between the meaning in the container of lawn, where we expect to find it and what we expect it to look like; it isn’t simply grass, it’s not a meadow, it really isn’t savannah and you expect to find it in specific places. Hold that analogy…

The second was during hot yoga at 7.45am in the morning, specifically during savasana. Saturated in sweat and lying down for my ‘final rest’, legs gently resting, mat width apart and palms facing upwards, the teacher explained that palms facing upwards is a receptive position. She added that if anyone was an empath, they could turn their hands to the palms facing downwards because empaths find they take on other people’s energy.

Q: Why is empathy so pertinent for the collective right now?

A: We've been trying to 'do better' but we're not quite there yet. We need to understand the true nature of empathy. Digging deep to get over the hardships and put aside the aggression we're both facing and perpetuating because success, for the world/planet, is going to require assertive action on our part.

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So now, I’d like to introduce the ideas of discernment and accountability to the chat. When we are accountable for when we use our discernment to act with, give or withhold empathy, we make choices about the collective world we live in. That’s going to involve understanding our energetic boundaries as well as our emotional ones and how they both encroach on as well as resonate and harmonise with the energies of other people.

So many other people; the planet is packed with them and there is a lot going on in our collective energy field.

Now, hear me when I say empathy is vital and there are a great many people who seem to have absolutely none, but that’s not what I am talking about. There is a lot that is beyond our control but there is a sense of helplessness with the scale of what we are experiencing that leads us to abdicate our very real personal power to discern and act 'locally'. Perpetual martyrs don’t make collective choices and that’s what we have to do right now, individually...not be perpetual martyrs.

If we are going to get through the uncharted seas of 2026 and beyond - unfrazzled - we are going to need to do more than just figuratively turn our hands over in savasana. No shade on the yoga teacher, I loved the class and especially savasana.

Q: How can we balance the energy between our individual selves and the collective on a day-to-day basis?

A: Long-term success comes out of collective discussion, conversations with those close to and around you about how to make choices that create harmony. We need to talk - and listen - to each other about being better for each other!

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Back to where I started with the lawn. Empathy has become lawn; we think we know where to find it, what it looks like, who carries it and how to wield it, often like an affliction. What I’m pointing at here is outside those borders and within our understanding.

This isn’t a broadly nuanced take on empathy, discernment and accountability, but it’s what’s been showing up in the cards, the signs and the ether, so I hope it resonates with those it’s meant to…

Q: Advice please, on how to we can maintain healthier energy environments for ourselves!

A: It's not going to be difficult; if we have the will, the way is clear. Do block or let go of what is not helping you. Don't project fault/blame on the people around you.

I asked a good friend of mine - let's call her the Devourer of Books - for a literary recommendation along the lines of empathy without martyrdom and she pinged a couple of ideas back at me. When I am done with exams, I'll add them to my growing list of summer-must-reads.

Assuredly available at all good book stores and wherever you get your audio books!

• The Offing by Ben Myers (Bloomsbury, 2019)
• Mrs Osmand by John Banville (Viking, 2017)

If you feel inclined, let me know your recommendations, your sky ballet insights and such, you can find me on Substack @cateasks, but also feel free to hit reply and let me know how the energy is moving for you!

Love, Cate xx