Building together with the Three of Pentacles
Bookstore partnerships, profit redistribution updates & a reader survey
There are more than 600 of you subscribed to this newsletter! ✨ Whether you’ve just joined or if you’ve been following along since early 2022, thank you so much for your support. The Chariot issue is available and shipping now — this anthology is filled with 120 pages of personal essays, fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, prose, erotica, original artwork, a ritual guide, original tarot spreads, and journaling prompts.
The darkest day is now behind us and I want to talk about the Three of Pentacles.
Yesterday, I went to the Berkeley Rose Garden at sunset and pulled this card. I did some quick freewriting, tapping the words out on my phone as a small crowd of people gathered to watch the sun sink behind clouds and water. Here’s what I wrote:
I’m thinking about what it means to build in darkness, when uncertainty and fear feel bigger than love and joy. What does it take to build new worlds, build relationships, build new selves out of fractured pieces? What does it take to come together, again and again and again? To hold someone else with all of their darkness while it feels thick inside of you, too? What does it mean when you can’t find the window, the way out, the path to peace, to reconciliation, to liberation? I’m thinking we must hold our arms out and feel alongside the dark walls until there is space, until we feel air. We must continue to reach out, always. To each other, to ourselves, to this exquisite world.
The Three of Pentacles shows three figures standing in what appears to be a basement or the middle of a darkened building. Shadows surround them. There are no windows, there is no source of light. Maybe they’re discussing plans to collaborate, to build, to strategize, to organize. It’s a card of shared resources. Pentacles represent the earth, our values, the things that help us feel safe and secure.
As
describes in their book Radical Tarot, the pentacles are “the suit of our bodies, the tangible work we do in the world, our pleasure and labor, the skills and crafts we practice and hone. They tell the story of how we carve out a home in the world, the story of where we come from, what kind of families we build, and what we leave behind us when we go.”Three is such a divine number: mind/body/spirit, past/present/future, birth/life/death. In Greek, the triangle is a symbol for “delta,” indicating change. I’m taking this card as a message to find strength in community. I’m leaning into the feeling of coming together with grief and love between us. I’m standing in the dark next to you and summoning the resilience to take action, to change, so that we can create something new together.
In her book Finding the Fool, Rebis contributor
explains that the Three of Pentacles is about “sharing the things that we love with the people that we love, seeing our desires and our practical efforts overlapping, recognizing that we are creating something useful and beautiful.” She writes that the Three of Pentacles encourages us to “bring fellow artists and builders along for the ride, to remember that what we are doing will benefit not only us as individuals but others as well.”This is the ethos of The Rebis: to bring artists and writers together, to elevate their work, to create a space for play and creative expression around the rich language of tarot. And to do all of that while holding steady to the values of collective liberation and social justice.
Why do we continue to make art in times of crisis? In a recent essay, Rebis contributor
wrote:“In times of crisis, art becomes a vital medium for both reflection and action. Art is beauty amidst the chaos, it makes horror digestible, and it forces us not to look away from it but to eat it whole and let it change us.
Creating art in times of turmoil becomes a means of self-preservation, a way for artists to process their emotions, find solace, and maintain their well-being in the face of adversity.
To make art is to take care, and so is to support it. To read our pieces, engage in them with your full bodies, to view art carefully, and intentionally, are all ways to work together, especially as we navigate collective grief and the overwhelm of keeping up with algorithms.”
I look at what is happening in the world — the violence, the instability, the oppression, the injustice. Suffering is nothing new, but we are more awake to its presence than ever before, more connected through screens, more reflective of our privilege and complicity.
I have been thinking a lot about art-making these days. I have a heavy ambition inside of me to do more, to be more, to move faster. I wrestle with the feeling of urgency, want so badly to do something that causes big, meaningful change — but I also acknowledge that it takes time, that together we can plant seeds, small but precious pentacles. And that while much of the work we do today will not bloom during our brief lives on earth, we can still walk out into the garden and kneel in the dirt.
So, I am examining this feeling, evaluating my resources and energy, and trying to move at a sustainable pace. I’m grateful for this community, to be weaving this vibrant tapestry alongside so many gifted individuals. I sincerely hope you are finding insight and pleasure in this project, that you are enjoying its unfolding as much as I am.
And now, a few announcements.
The Rebis is on the shelf at bookstores across the country
This year, we’re partnering with a few new retail stores: in addition to Dog Eared Books - Valencia (San Francisco, CA), Green Apple Books on the Park (San Francisco, CA), Feathered Outlaw (Alameda, CA), and Pegasus Books (Berkeley, CA), you can now find The Rebis at Bookshop Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, CA), Skylight Books (Los Angeles, CA), Raven & Crone (Asheville, NC), The Future (Minneapolis, MN), and Moon Palace Books (Minneapolis, MN). Tell friends in those cities they can pick up a copy IRL and avoid shipping fees!
If you think your local independent bookstore or metaphysical shop would be a good fit for our publication, please send me their information. I’ve been doing a lot of outreach, but have found that the best way to connect with these stores is through personal referral (and often by physically walking into the shop and talking to someone about the anthology).
Sales of The Chariot generated $2445 for social justice organizations
Channeling that Three of Pentacles energy, I am holding steadfast to the belief that we can live in a world where poetry and art contribute to both personal and collective healing. Through sales of The Chariot issue this fall, we’ve been able to donate $815 to each of these organizations:
The Sogorea Te Land Trust, a Bay Area Indigenous women-led land trust that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people
The National Network of Abortion Funds, which works with over 80 organizations to remove financial and logistical barriers to abortion access
Liberated Capital, a donor community and funding vehicle aimed at moving untethered resources to Black, Indigenous, and other people-of-color communities for liberation and racial healing
Since 2022, we’ve redistributed $4785 through all sales of The Rebis. I’m hoping to increase this amount, but need your help.
If you’ve bought a copy of The Rebis: thank you so much for making an impact and keeping this project alive.
If you haven’t bought a copy of The Rebis, please consider it — it makes for a great gift for the tarot-curious (or tarot-obsessed) person in your life, or anyone who enjoys creative writing, art, poetry, and stories of self-discovery, queerness, universal interconnectedness, transformation, and authenticity.
When you purchase The Chariot, you can add a copy of our Wheel of Fortune issue to your order for 60% off the cover price. These publications don’t want to stay stacked in cardboard boxes in my office. They want to travel, want to live in your homes, want to be taken out on a date to a coffee shop, want to be photographed and touched and consumed.
Take our reader survey & help inform what comes next
If you’re still reading, you’re probably interested and invested in this project… and I’d love your feedback!
Please take this very brief survey to help me understand what you like about The Rebis and what you hope to see in our next issue / future projects. Ideas, thoughts, pitches, and constructive criticism are all welcome.
Thank you. I wish I could give each of you a very big hug for being here with me.
Hannah
Hi Hannah - I grew up in Berkeley and still live here now. I go to the Rose Garden frequently. Its been one of my favorite places since I was little. The sunset last night was stunning!
Thank you for your article on the 3 of pentacles and for your insights. It was very moving.
I've purchased both the Chariot and The Wheel of Fortune editions of The Rebis so far and have loved reading all the great articles.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts!
Last night I read the deliciously potent essay "We Get Free With Our Slick Thighs" and then did the spread for "unpacking ideas about success" which then lead to a breakthrough of understanding about the minor arcana thanks to write up in "...The Minor Sevens in Dialogue."
The Rebis is just the most stunning and brilliant collection of art and insights. I'm already floored just scratching the surface. I can't wait to devour more!