Holding light in darkening days
some updates & $3700+ in donations to social justice orgs
Dear readers, friends, contributors, supporters:
As time shifts here in the Northern Hemisphere and we embrace darker days, I’ve been thinking a lot about Rebecca Solnit’s book Hope in the Dark, which helped me better understand the archetype of The Star. It’s a piercing exploration of hope in a world where the future is uncertain and unknowable.
In it, Solnit writes, “Hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth’s treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal.”
I read that and can’t help but think of our present moment, a precarious precipice where hope lingers in the vast chasm between what is and what could be.
This weekend, I attended Witches Confluence in San Francisco, hosted by the brilliant Casey Zabala. There were many people I got to hug in person that I had met online and collaborated with virtually—including our guest editor
who was teaching a workshop called Tarot for Hope! The Rebis had a booth at the magical marketplace, and it was so meaningful to chat with people about the publication and, in some cases, hear from readers and long-time supporters about how our stories and art had made an impact.
One reader came up to me in tears, sharing that
’s essay in The Chariot issue, “We Get Free With Our Slick Thighs,” had made them cry tears of validation—they said Eryn’s description of their queer journey made them feel less alone. Another reader shared that the watercolors by our creative director Xaviera López inspired them to take up painting. I heard about a Star issue that was gifted to a friend undergoing gender affirming surgery, and another that had found its way into a free library and then into the hands of someone who desperately needed Star energy during a big Tower year. So many reflections on what it means to hope, to live, in times of darkness.
Earlier this year,
wrote “joy is an experience of love; grief is an expression of love, and hope is an action of love.” It is with love that we create our publication and it is with love that we have been able to donate $8500 over the past three years to the nonprofit organizations that we support—$3700 coming from sales profits in the past two months alone!Our purpose is to support artists and build a beautiful space for creative expression around the rich language of tarot—all while grounding into the values of collective liberation. After accounting for operating costs (paying writers and artists for their labor + printing costs), we split profits from the sales of our publication equally between three different organizations:
The Sogorea Te Land Trust, an urban 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.
Supporting The Rebis means supporting these organizations. You can read more about our mission here.
If you haven’t already, you can still order a copy of The Star—profits from each sale will go into the donation fund that we distribute a few times a year!
Attending Witches Confluence reminded me that it is so magical gathering together in community. That’s why our retail partnerships bring me so much joy. I love the way it feels to wander around an independent bookstore, and it’s such an honor to see The Rebis on the shelf alongside other literary magazines and tarot resources.
You can currently find us at Dog Eared Books - Valencia (San Francisco), Green Apple Books on the Park (San Francisco), Browser Books (San Francisco), Pegasus Books (Berkeley), Bookshop Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz), Skylight Books (Los Angeles), The Future (Minneapolis), Moon Palace Books (Minneapolis), and Lore Books (online + Minneapolis). We are also excited to partner with two new online distributors: Artisan Tarot and Peculiar Parish. If you think your local independent bookstore or metaphysical shop would be a good fit for our publication, please send me their information!
The Rebis typically goes into winter hibernation—we take a break to absorb what we learned from the last issue, recharge our creative energy, and daydream about the future. A few seeds have already been planted for 2025 and we can’t wait to discover what takes root and grows.
Thank you all so much for your continued support. Sending you lots of Star energy as we face the week ahead.
Hannah
Extraordinary. It has been such an honor to help this edition of The Rebis come to life, and it fills me with such hope to see how it’s materially supporting meaningful change in the world. ❤️💫
Beautiful. Looking forward to my print copy. And the witches confluence looks so fun!🤩