working theories: september 2026
autumn is otw!
what’s on my mind this month
On Convergence: Worlds Colliding
My work sits at an interesting intersection. I’m both STEM-trained (nursing, IT, the scientific method) and an intuitive healer. My weekdays are spent translating clinically backed research into algorithms designed to help the public stay healthy. My weekends and evenings are spent honing my spiritual practice.
The intuitive parts of me pick up on so much: the health of your sacral chakra, an intense feeling from your third eye. But the other part of me never stops asking "Okay, but how do you know that? Show me the evidence."
These two worlds used to run in parallel for me, but I’m finding that my practice forces them to meet repeatedly. Like running into someone you kind-of know at the grocery store, awkwardly bumping into them over and over again in different aisles. For a while, I couldn’t figure out how to make these encounters feel more organic.
My aha moment arrived when I realized I wanted them to merge together. Like mixing oil and water and expecting a cohesive solution.
They work more like a relay race. Each is responsible for their own leg of the track. One passes the baton to the other, both working independently and collaboratively, all at the same time, to reach a shared goal.
Evidence-based studies, meta-analyses, and randomized controlled trials are all important tools and methods for figuring out how to best manage things that should be quantified: Does this drug lower blood pressure? Will this treatment plan appropriately manage complex seizures? Can this chemo drug combination eradicate cancer?
But they’re clumsy tools for questions like: How do I sit with someone in grief? What is this tarot spread telling me what I need right now? What is my spirit urging me to do? This is where intuition and spirituality come in.
These days, it feels a lot less like awkward grocery store run-ins and more like two friends browsing the aisles for a movie hang later that night. They each have their preferred snacks, but they are definitely hanging out and watching a movie together. In other words, they’re reaching the finish line independently AND collaboratively.
okay, so why should we care about this?
This approach - how I see these two worlds converging - led me to yet another aha moment I had that I can't. stop. thinking. about: Intuition is analysis running faster than you can narrate.
When people tell you to “trust your gut”, what they’re really asking you to do is tap into your intuition. Larry Prusak, an expert on Knowledge Management, describes intuition as a compressed experience: pattern recognition built from lived events, over and over again. It's your mind rapidly playing the current moment against everything you’ve come to know, moving way too fast to catch in the act.
I won’t lie, I fell in love with this concept. Because think about it - different parts of ourselves are operating at full speed when we try to tap into our intuition in a busy, chaotic, bustling modern world. Just think about it:
Our brains are computing at insurmountable speeds
Our guts are screaming something we can’t always make sense of
Our tender hearts are feeling a cacophony of emotions
Our spiritual side is often drowned out
It’s no wonder people struggle to listen to their intuition. It’s information overload.
What most of us struggle with is that over time, we’ve learned to ignore that initial flicker of intuition we get when faced with something. We overrule it with logic and societal expectations. And reaching for it gets tougher and tougher as we age. Intuition runs faster than language, so if it isn’t tended to, it can be hard to catch.
HOWEVER, this here is where my brain gets real antsy and excited: if it's analysis moving too fast to narrate….
….then theoretically….
….couldn’t it be captured if we slowed it down???
Which is exactly why I built… (drum roll please!)
card by card
If you have ever dabbled in using tarot or oracle cards, here's a moment you might recognize:
You pull a card, something flickers, and then… nothing. You flip to the little booklet, read "new beginnings, trust the process," and feel about 4% more informed than before. You felt something nudge at you, like something familiar brushing against your core. But it slips away, and you’re left trying to figure out how to derive the actual meaning of this one card. And if it’s a tarot deck, then how the hell are you supposed to get meaning from 77 other cards??
I wrote Card by Card to help you catch that flicker and strengthen your intuition! If intuition is analysis running faster than you can narrate, it stands to reason that slowing down that process and breaking it into smaller, more manageable chunks can help us recognize the exact moment between our mind ingesting information and our gut responding intuitively.
Inside Card by Card is The SPELL Method. It’s what I used when I first started learning to read tarot. And I’ve got it all written down so you can do it yourself!
This ISN’T just more card meanings to memorize blindly and regurgitate later. I’m talking about a method that assigns real, personal meaning in addition to what your guidebook shares with you, AND a way to build up your intuitive muscle, like squats build a booty.
The part my STEM brain loves most is this isn’t something I made up. It’s rooted in actual study methods, and I can attest to their effectiveness because it’s what got me through nursing school!
This is a repeatable way to sit with each card from your tarot deck and derive meaning every single time.
And this matters. Because deriving meaning is how we arrive at wisdom.
schedule notice
As you’re planning out the rest of the year (can you believe it’s already mid september?), I wanted to give you all a heads up on appointment availability for 2026:
I will not be taking appointments for the month of December for a variety of reasons (year-end projects, travel, family time, holidays, and not to mention my birthday!).
If you anticipate needing a session or reading before the end of year, I recommend you go ahead and make those appointments to ensure you’re seen!
thank you, truly
with warmth + light,
angela
working theories: july 2026
we went to a dear friend’s beautiful wedding in mt. hood, oregon this past weekend! STUNNING views!
what’s on my mind this month
soft girl summer continues
In my last newsletter, I shared my journey to discover who I am without doing this season, and I’m still doing my darndest to honor that. So, I’m keeping this month’s update brief to honor this exploration.
I’m encountering some really interesting realizations. Hopefully by the time fall rolls around I’ll have sat with it long enough to put something cohesive together to share what I learned.
I’m still practicing at Buffalo Firefly on select Sundays, and in case you weren’t aware: I offer virtual sessions for both distance reiki and intuitive tarot readings. As always, you can book on the Lumina site: www.luminaholisticarts.com/book
a juicy new offering
When i first started my intuitive journey, every course, every teacher, every meditation told me the same things:
"Call in your guides and angels."
"What is spirit trying to tell you?"
"Speak with your guides in meditation."
and I remember sitting there, trying to talk to my guides, real awkward-like:
Okay so i guess i'm just gonna… talk… now…. heyyyyyyyy guyyyyys, whoever is out there listening…
(Sidebar: I know better now! You really don't want to just be talking to anything out there. The Introduction includes a proper, protective container before we begin.)
Just WHO are these guides? How do they appear? What's their personality like? What are they actually here to help me with?
It felt like everyone assumed i'd already done step 0. no one told me what step 0 was.
So i created it.
The Introduction is a facilitated meditation + tarot experience for meeting your guides properly, so that you can recognize when they're working with you, stop doubting your intuition, and actually work with them through whatever you're navigating right now.
Any working relationship starts with a first impression. No one just starts working together.
Here's what people who've been through it have said:
"I really felt and saw the presence of all of my guides. it was so magical. The love was so, so big and unconditional."
"They've always been there, but Angela guided me right to them."
"I know what I need to do next. I think I've always known, but it's clear what my guide is here to help me through."
The Introduction is THIS Thursday, July 23rd at 8pm EST.
Virtual, 5 people max, $30.
thank you, truly
with warmth + light,
angela
working theories: may 2026
muir woods
what’s on my mind this month
who are you when you’re not doing?
Forewarning: this one’s a little tender.
I work with a licensed therapist who specializes in music therapy. It’s a really beautiful way to sit with my uncomfortable feelings and feel my way through them.
Not every session involves music. Most times, it’s just talk therapy. On especially heavy days, she gently suggests using music therapy to help me confront my emotions.
When I first started working with this therapist, our music sessions were debilitating. I’m talking full on days of existential crises. They were so emotionally overwhelming, there were days I’d decline when she would bring it up.
“Look, I know I need to do this but I have a meeting with my manager as soon as our session is over, so maybe next session?”
Translation: This really isn’t a convenient time for me to have a break down so how about two Fridays from now at like, noon?
When I do engage in music therapy, she has me set an intention before we start. Sometimes it’s a statement, sometimes it’s a question. For this particular session, I’d been struggling with chronic, unyielding fatigue. I fully recognize it’s from all of the work I do. So the following question just… popped into my head:
Who am I when I’m not doing?
I’m still looking for the best way to answer this. I realize it’s a complex question, and complex questions take time.
It came to me on the cusp of summer, so I can’t help but feel that this is an invitation to use the warmth and freedom of the season to explore myself.
The hard truth I’ve had to sit with to date is that I’ve defined myself by what I can do - for others and for the world - for so long, I don’t know how to describe my being, even to myself, without them.
Maybe it’s capitalism, maybe it’s the immigrant mentality of needing to be useful and productive to make a meaningful life for my family. Maybe it’s something else entirely.
What initially felt like a terrifying question ended up feeling a bit more curious as the days passed. I’m actually looking forward to getting to know who I am without being defined by anything that asks me to perform.
cue mic drop!
collective themes + opportunities to reflect
I had my first ever vending event at Rest Fest earlier this month. It was such a meaningful experience. I made so many beautiful connections and pulled some incredible card combinations for some truly lovely folks. I also just love the energy of a small market.
A common theme began to emerge over the course of the day: most of my patrons were women, and they were all exhausted (which is probably why they were at Rest Fest!)
Many of these women were exasperated. The amount of collective emotional labor that women silently take on was so palpable in my little booth. From exhausted moms, to women ending long-term relationships, to women getting ready to step into retirement. Women are tired, y’all!
As I’m writing this, I’m just now making the connection between the exhaustion of my patrons and my own exhaustion above and chuckling to myself. I didn’t intend for this to happen, but here we are.
So here are some questions you can sit with. Tinker with them. You can answer for yourself, maybe use them to see the silent labor that women take on with a new perspective. Maybe you’ll think of someone in your life who could benefit from reflecting on how their labor affects them.
Notice the types of labor that leave you feeling exhausted. What was the most taxing thing about it?
Where have you noticed yourself taking on labor that could (or should) be shared?
What themes emerge when you reflect on the silent, background work that women in your life took on and continue to take on?
early access tea - hear it here first!
I’ve been casually/seriously studying Human Design for a few months now. I’m a 4/6 Reflector, and have been fascinated with using this system as a way to understand myself better. It’s given me great insight into understanding myself in a way that no other system has offered me.
You can now download your own Human Design chart on my website, and for a limited time, I’m offering 30-minute introductory readings at no cost. Since these are quick readings for a complex system, we’ll be covering the basics; just a little something to get you started on your Human Design journey!
subscriber exclusives
photo by courtney yau
I loved my day of intuitive reading at Rest Fest, so much so that I’m offering $5 off of all intuitive readings for the next month.
Use code BLUEMOON5 on your next intuitive reading. Expires 6/26!
If you want to take advantage of the Lunar Phases:
The Blue Moon on 5/31 is a Full Moon in Sagittarius - my sun sign. It’s an incredible day for a reading: it represents a powerful push to expand your horizons, seek the truth, and release any limiting beliefs that hold you back from your full potential.
if you’ve made it this far - thank you, truly
with warmth + light,
angela