A Devotional Advent
4 Weeks of Mental, Spiritual, and Strategic Renewal Toward a Long-Held Vision. And An Update On the Progress of Finding Where My Endeavor Belongs.
My original goal was to write daily during my 30-day Scorpio Moon Cycle and 115-day Mercury Cycle, but decided to honor my Mars in Pisces of writing when I had something meaningful to say.
These are holiday times and everyone is busy. I’m sure you weren’t holding your breath for another post ;)
Progress So Far
I’ve been reading my books and setting up spreadsheets to create some financial levers. It helps me to imagine what my business’s story is through numbers. I wanted to see how my nervous system would relate to a year or two of realistically no profit, and likely loss.
As an investor in a hospitality group that owns restaurants and hotels, we’ve had to stomach 8-figure losses, especially after COVID. Although my concept of a farm stop, eatery, bookshop, herbal apothecary, and community center is a smaller endeavor, it still has a lot of moving parts and startup expenses.
Because I’m desiring more collaboration, I’m researching various business models, funding mechanisms, business structures (L3C, Cooperative, LLC, B-Corp, etc.) and profit distributions, which in itself is a wonderful learning curve.
The Importance of Vision
You have probably heard of guided meditations, affirmations, vision boards and other tools that help with imagining what we want. To see, feel, hear, touch, and see ourselves in the thing we want as if we already have it is essential.
When we receive something we want, but we’re not ready for it, our nervous system may push it away. But if you have been practicing receiving, being in it, feeling what it feels like to have it, then when it happens or arrives, you already know what to do and it won’t feel surprising.
If you want the Aston Martin, go take a test drive. If you want to have closer relationships, practice conscious communicating with your friends and tell them that’s what you’re doing. If you’ve been saving for a new look, go try on the clothes. Touch and smell the fabric and admire what it looks like on you in the mirror.
This past week I looked at a property that I have been excited about. It has been vacant for nearly two years although it was newly renovated. Admittedly I trespassed to look in the windows, stand on the patio, and feel the grass and picnic tables in the backyard to imagine it was where my project was. I don’t recommend trespassing, and I was respectful of the property, staying long enough to get the sensations in my body.
I could see where the farm stop would be, the kitchen, the apothecary, and the handcrafted displays, community tables and chairs downstairs. Upstairs with the rustic wooden walls, I could see the bookshop with tables for co-working and hosting classes and workshops.
There is no FOR SALE sign in front. My 80-year old neighbor, Frank, has been a realtor for over 30 years. He looked up the property and found that it was for sale. For $2M. I was considering asking to lease it, but he reminded me that there wasn’t enough parking, especially if I became successful with consistently high volume traffic on that busy road.
I was describing my fruitless searches and asked if he had any opinions about where to continue looking. He said, once there’s a sign out in front, then it’s too late and likely too expensive. I used to go to the Wimberley Cafe to listen to the ranchers talk about land they were selling to one another and that’s how I first started learning about local unlisted properties. I’ll continue listening, talking about my project, and attuning to my inner GPS for other places to explore.
I’m not discouraged. I feel closer to knowing what it is I want and have introduced my nervous system to new sensations to expand my capacity to receive.
It was a worthy exercise.
Something my wise neighbor reminded me of was that even though I’ve been looking for property for over 2 years now and feeling restless, the right place will show up. “It will feel easy and it will be the right price. No need to force it to happen.” I’m lucky to have people like him in my life.
I’m also fortunate to have my friend Art on this journey with me, who has been working to build his own eatery one day, traveling to study and cook with chefs he admires, learning techniques and relational skills one can only embody firsthand in kitchens and not in cookbooks. It has been fun brainstorming ideas and providing one another with encouragement.
The permaculture author Geoff Lawton wrote: “I need advice…How do I know if I’m on the right path?” Bill contemplated for a moment, then answered, “You’ll know if you are dong the right thing and on the right path if resources start to gather around you, and a lot of those resources will be really good people.”
I am blessed and grateful for the good people who keep showing up as I keep showing up to my dream.
Here’s something I’d like to share to inspire you to keep going. It’s a new twist on an old ritual.
The Devotional “Arriving”
In the fourth century, Europeans marked the 4 weeks before Christmas as a somber time of reflection and anticipation. It begins on the fourth Sunday (this year, November 30, 2025) for four Sundays, approximately 22 to 28 days, and ends on Christmas Eve.
From an astrological lens, the birth of Christ happened when Jupiter and Saturn were in Pisces (7 BCE) in a rare “Star of Bethlehem” conjunction, a symbol of teachers and kings. This configuration also happened recently in 2020.
During that time Venus was rising heliacally, representing an embodiment of love in tangible form.
The Sun was in Capricorn symbolizing incarnation, responsibility, and real-world action.
The Moon was visible as the newborn light of consciousness.
December was a time for kinship and hope amidst the cold of winter.
The Atlantic recently wrote: “In 2025, the advent seems, mostly, to represent an opportunity to pluck miniature diversions out of perforated-cardboard compartments. People with even a tenuous relationship to Jesus Christ are nonetheless spending their Decembers counting down the days until his birthday; they are doing this by opening paper doors, behind which they are finding just about anything a person can possibly buy—tea, designer lipstick, wine, weed, chili crisp, cheese, knives, crystals, smoked summer sausage, toys for children, toys for cats, toys for dogs, toys for sex.”
It has become a similar gift-giving ritual like the 8 nights of Hannukkah.
When Gabe was growing up, I hung a cloth turquoise advent calendar with red pockets on the wall, which I would fill with candy, coins, and other tiny surprises. It was a fun tradition marking the days to the bigger present-opening day. Jesus’ Gregorian calendar birthday.
Within this season of 30 days of the Scorpio Moon cycle and 117 days of the Mercury Cazimi, I’d like to propose a different way to observe this time. Instead of being delighted by a consumer gift, perhaps reflecting upon an internal quality and whole-human intelligence (IQ, EQ, BQ-body intelligence, SQ-spiritual intelligence) on the way to Christ Consciousness. Of course you can create your own “advent calendar” towards your desire. Even if you don’t ascribe to any religion, you can still use this framework of time to keep the momentum going during these holiday weeks.
I’ve included 20 days here and not the typical 25-day advent calendar so that you can pick and choose what might feel relevant for you.
Here’s how mine goes…
A Devotional Advent Calendar
Each practice is structured as:
Theme — Action — Reflection — Resonance
DAY 1 — Descent
Action: Name the one dream you have avoided.
Reflection: Why now?
Resonance: You begin the underworld journey.
DAY 2 — Shadow Honesty
Action: Write down five patterns that siphon your energy.
Reflection: Which one hurts your self-respect the most?
Resonance: Scorpio begins clearing.
DAY 3 — Quieting the Noise
Action: 24 hours of reduced inputs: no social scrolling.
Reflection: What thoughts rise when the noise drops?
Resonance: Mercury purifies perception.
DAY 4 — Body as Oracle
Action: 20 minutes of intuitive movement or somatics.
Reflection: What truth appears only when you move?
Resonance: The body becomes your compass.
DAY 5 — Your Personal Underworld
Action: Identify one emotional pattern from childhood that still influences business or creative choices.
Reflection: How do you overcompensate?
Resonance: You stop outsourcing power.
DAY 6 — Clearing Contracts
Action: Write the outdated roles you still perform for others. Release one.
Reflection: Who asked you to carry this?
Resonance: A new identity forms.
DAY 7 — Mercury’s Question
Action: Journal: What am I misunderstanding about my own calling?
Reflection: Where do you minimize your mastery?
Resonance: New intellectual clarity.
DAY 8 — Threshold of Desire
Action: Name your true desire without softening it.
Reflection: What does it demand?
Resonance: Scorpio intensifies purpose.
DAY 9 — Energy Audit
Action: Track energy peaks/valleys throughout one day.
Reflection: Where does your natural genius live?
Resonance: Aligns with your real rhythm.
DAY 10 — The Death Pile
Action: Remove 10 items from your environment associated with an old identity.
Reflection: What identity are you done performing?
Resonance: Space for your next form.
DAY 11 — Power Retrieval
Action: Meditate for 15 minutes with the question:
Where did I give my power away in the last 12 months?
Reflection: What was the price?
Resonance: You reclaim scattered energy.
DAY 12 — Spiritual Discernment
Action: Identify three things you’ve labeled “intuition” that were actually fear.
Reflection: How can you tell the difference?
Resonance: Vision sharpens.
DAY 13 — Truth-Telling
Action: Have one honest conversation you’ve avoided.
Reflection: What was freed?
Resonance: Social courage.
DAY 14 — Mercurial Devotion
Action: Write your new “inner contract” for the next 12 months.
Reflection: What are you actually committing to?
Resonance: Mind + will fusion.
DAY 15 — Midway Purification
Action: Cold water or breath ritual.
Reflection: What is being cleansed?
Resonance: Nervous system resilience.
DAY 16 — Emotional Transmutation
Action: Transform one fear into a question of creative potency.
Reflection: What is the invitation hidden inside it?
Resonance: Alchemy of feeling.
DAY 17 — Identity Sculpting
Action: Write the identity you’re becoming in one paragraph.
Reflection: What is non-negotiable?
Resonance: Inner authority.
DAY 18 — Limits as Teachers
Action: Identify one boundary you must set to grow.
Reflection: Where have you been too available?
Resonance: Sovereignty.
DAY 19 — Devotional Skill-Building
Action: Dedicate one hour to a skill that will serve your long-term dream (writing, design, planning, etc.).
Reflection: What excellence wants to emerge?
Resonance: Your dream gains muscle.
DAY 20 — The Strategic Mind
Action: A Lean Canvas micro-sprint:
What problem does your dream solve?
Who is the ideal ally/audience?
Reflection: What becomes clear?
Resonance: Strategy emerges from soul.
DAY 21 — Community Thread
Action: Reach out to one person who is part of your next chapter.
Reflection: How does connection change your vision?
Resonance: You stop trying to do it alone.
DAY 22 — Creative Devotion
Action: Create something small that expresses your dream (a paragraph, sketch, ritual, or plan).
Reflection: What shape is forming?
Resonance: You witness your dream emerging.
DAY 23 — The Mirror
Action: Ask a trusted person:
“What do you see in me that I don’t acknowledge?”
Reflection: What truth surprised you?
Resonance: New self-image.
DAY 24 — Choose the Hard Thing
Action: Do the hardest task related to your dream for 30 minutes.
Reflection: How did it shift your sense of self?
Resonance: Courage compounds.
DAY 25 — Silence as Technology
Action: 20 minutes of intentional silence.
Reflection: What do you hear in the quiet?
Resonance: Cazimi-level clarity.
DAY 26 — Preparatory Rite
Action: Choose one habit to release and one habit to begin on January 1.
Reflection: Why these?
Resonance: Transition bridge.
DAY 27 — Reorientation
Action: Choose your “big three” for 2025/2026 (projects, clients, offerings).
Reflection: What aligns with your dream?
Resonance: Decision = destiny.
DAY 28 — The Incarnation Practice
Action: Write a one-page “Declaration of Arrival” for the person you’re becoming.
Reflection: How does it feel to claim it?
Resonance: Becoming tangible.
DAY 29 — The Star of Bethlehem Moment
Action: Identify the sign, omen, or synchronicity that has guided you this year.
Reflection: What was it pointing to?
Resonance: Your guiding star.
DAY 30 — DECEMBER 24: The Sky of Incarnation
The ritual of arrival
You end the cycle aligned with the astronomical events present during the reported birth of Christ—a symbolic moment of a new archetype entering the world.
Write:
“What new consciousness is being born through me?”
Final action:
Speak your Declaration of Arrival out loud.
Final resonance:
Notice what has changed in you since Day 1, when you began and how much closer you are to now becoming the steward of your dream.
Let me know which of these days might feel the most transformative. Or how your dream is coming along.
I work as an integrative strategist and experience designer, helping folks with unique methodologies use entrepreneurship as a spiritual path of evolution. My 1:1 sessions, playshops, and retreats are shaped by archetypal Jungian work, ecotherapy, energy, and narrative practices. I blend astrology, Tarot, Human Design, evolutionary herbalism, writing, art, yoga, sound, and design thinking to create experiences that are both grounded and transformative. You can book a session with me or spend January 9-11, 2025 at a weekend/daylong retreat for 2026 Vision & Strategy at RitualResonance.com.