Grief Magic: Rituals, Tarot & Creativity for Seasons of Loss

...I am not trying to be dramatic, but these things really have made such a big difference and I really wish I had embraced them earlier in my life, it would have made things so much easier.

From creating your own daily rituals to jomo, good boundaries and even better pyjamas I am sharing eight ways in which I adapt my everyday life to suit my neurodivergent brain.

If you'd like to receive my newsletter, you can join here: https://griefmagic.com/free/

Love,

Yarrow

This episode is for you if you feel a bit disconnected from your creativity and you want some easy, low energy ideas that can help you reconnect with this part of you.

You might have most of the things needed already at home and they're a great way to get ready for a softer season, mark the change of light and bring in some of the changing leafs.

If you like, you are also still welcome to join us for Glimmer Sessions: https://griefmagic.com/club/

Thank you for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

This is a little waffle episode - updates from my summer, tales of neurotic furniture moving, the slow timeline of creative dreams unfolding over years and what I am doing at the moment to stay connected to each moment and a sense of hope.

You can send me questions over here: https://www.speakpipe.com/yarrowm

and you can join our monday sessions over here:

https://griefmagic.com/club

Love,

Yarrow

Just a short & sweet one to say Glimmer Sessions start tomorrow - these are quiet, low pressure Zoom hangouts on a Monday evening, 7-8pm UK time with lovely creative company!

Find out more and sign up here: https://griefmagic.com/club/

and feel free to send me a question over here: https://www.speakpipe.com/yarrowm

Blessings on your seasonal transition,

Yarrow

This week I'm continuing the Google-questions format and turning to something that comes up so often: why some friendships don't survive grief and loss.

Before I get into it, a reminder that Monday sessions are back, come as you are, no pressure, sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds: https://griefmagic.com/club/

I'm also now offering seasonal readings, a custom card pull with an audio recording, a picture, and a guided meditation you can return to again and again: https://griefmagic.com/grief-blessings/

I sit with three questions. Why do friendships fall apart during grief? I talk honestly about my own experience after my accident in 2020, becoming visibly disabled and navigating a friendship that struggled to hold space for how I was rethinking my future, and why sometimes a friendship falling away isn't a failure so much as a sign that your needs or values have genuinely shifted.

How do you ask for help without feeling like a burden? I unpack why that word does so much damage, and talk through what's helped me be more specific and vulnerable when asking for support, including a little detour into British politeness and pre-emptive excuse-making versus more direct ways of asking.

Why does grief make some friendships closer and others disappear? This is where I talk about the friendships I've built since losing my mum, the people who skip the small talk with me now, and why that kind of intimacy after loss feels so different and so good.

Thanks for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

This episode is a seasonal check in as we move from summer into autumn, my favourite stretch of the year.

Before I get into it, a reminder that our Monday sessions start again on September 14th. Anyone who signs up before the 10th gets a one card tarot reading recorded just for them, a little blessing for the season ahead. Sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds, more info here: https://griefmagic.com/club

I share some of the small rituals I use to mark this transition. Reflecting on the summer that's just passed, printing photos to stick in my diary, and making space for what was hard as well as what was beautiful. Decluttering summer things out of my space, building a tiny seasonal bookshelf so I'm not overwhelmed by all the books to read. Refreshing my ritual and craft materials, including a little update to my tarot deck collection, putting my garden to bed for the colder months, stocking up on candles and soup ingredients... And of course tapping into that back to school energy in September, even without kids or school, to ask what I want to learn or take away from the season ahead.

I also talk about checking in with friends about what this season might be like for them, and making a little space to support each other through it.

Thanks for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

This week I'm continuing a new tradition on the podcast: picking a topic, then answering the questions the internet is actually googling about it. This time it's ritual and grief, and I found three questions that apparently hundreds of thousands of people are searching for answers to.

First, what's the point of a ritual if I don't believe in anything? I talk about my own strange, unstructured relationship with ritual as a kid, little altars on a shelf, a phase of visiting different places of worship in Hamburg, none of it religious in any formal sense, but all of it meaningful.

Second, how do you build a grief ritual with no religious background? I walk through some of the questions I'd ask myself first, what my relationship to belief actually is right now, whether I want something small and daily or bigger and occasional, whether it's about letting go or about holding on.

Third, and my favourite: is it strange to talk to someone who's died? Short answer, no. I get into continuing bonds theory, the research suggesting that maintaining a relationship with someone after they've died is a completely normal and even healthy part of grief, not something to move past. I share the notebook where I write letters to my mum, and why I've made peace with not knowing exactly what's happening when I feel her presence, only that it feels good and that I'm not the only one who does it.

Here is more info about the Soft Grief Club: https://griefmagic.com/club

Thanks for listening!

Love,

Yarrow

I've talked about being neurodivergent for years, but there was always something that felt a little scarier about naming my autism specifically. I want to be brave about it now, so today I'm finally talking about my adult autism diagnosis.

Obviously I'm not a medical professional and I can only speak from my own experience, but I know there are so many of you listening who are maybe autistic too, or wondering about a diagnosis, or just curious, so I hope this helps somehow.

This felt like a second coming out, in some ways bigger than the first. I share some UK statistics I dug into along the way: how many of us are estimated to be autistic here, how autism and ADHD referrals for adults have tripled since the pandemic, and the role social media has played in that. I also look at why my own hesitation to share this has been so tied up with work.

In the end, I am excited to grow older, to stay weird and to share with you all <3

Here is more info about our monday sessions: https://griefmagic.com/club and here is the link to send me a voicenote: https://www.speakpipe.com/yarrowm

Love,

Yarrow

I've been listening to a podcast called Recoverable, and I love how they find the most Googled questions on a topic and just answer them. It felt like such a generous, democratic way of making something, and a lovely way to normalise the questions we're often too embarrassed to ask out loud. So I decided to try it here too.

I looked up the questions people are most often googling about grief and sat with five of them: why don't I feel better even years later, is it normal to laugh or feel relief while grieving, why can't I cry even though I'm devastated, how do you grieve someone you had a complicated relationship with, and why does grief come back out of nowhere. Obviously I don't have tidy answers to any of them, but I wanted to explore them with you, because if millions of people are searching for them, none of us are as alone in this as it feels.

I also share a bit about Soft Mondays starting back up in September, our gentle weekly space to begin the week with a card, a candle, and something that feels good, done quietly in good company. https://griefmagic.com/club/

If you have a question of your own, I'd love to hear it. You can send me a 90 second voice note over on Speakpipe, linked below: https://www.speakpipe.com/yarrowm

Love,

Yarrow

My previous episodes about friendships were well loved, so I wanted to talk about another aspect - the grief of loosing folks we used to be close to, for whatever reason. For the end of romantic relationships we have, if all goes well, rituals that support closure and clarity, but we don't always make the same effort for friendships that end. I've been looking at my life decade by decade, thinking about who I lost touch with and who I still love to talk to, tracing the reasons why we sometimes grow apart and what that can open up. I hope you can relate!

Love,

Yarrow