Blog 11: Dis/Encouragement

Hello faithful readers.

I have a confession to make.

I am experiencing a bit of writer's block and lack of inspiration for maintaining this blog or any sort of public image for this brand for that matter. I think in part there is a general feeling of discouragement that I have surrounding the amount of bureaucracy and red tape involved with building a packaged food company and the amount of resources needed to get even one foot off the ground in this business.

At the risk of giving away too much information I will tell you that I have been sitting with this question of whether or not this company is something worth investing time and resources into at all. Throughout the fall and winter of this past year, I had several meetings with a variety of folks in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry. From branding agency representatives to business consultants I heard the same general message; in order to successfully launch a CPG business, starting with a half a million dollars of capital is recommended as a minimum to get a product to market. Which kind of makes sense considering all that goes into developing a brand...but also seems outrageously prohibitive to any creatives who simply want to put a little more good into this world.

I want to be honest and authentic but sometimes I really don't know what to say here. I want to let you all know that more often than not, I don't want to engage with any form of social media and that marketing itself is something that I feel resistance to on a soul level. I actually find it triggering to see other brands and businesses and even homesteaders on instagram showing off all that they are creating and doing. It makes me feel inadequate that I am not doing all those things too. I don't like that instagram has become a space almost exclusively full of advertisements - content commodification that I don't consent to and didn't ask for popping up on a screen eight inches away from my retina. It feels violating and damaging at times.

Some days it's hard to not give up when overcome by the feelings of being so bogged down by this general sense of discouragement, and waiting in limbo for our permits to be approved, and waiting to be granted access to the commercial kitchen space, and waiting for the greenlight to start selling our products...it's not surprising that I should be feeling uninspired to write anything on this blog.

But then last week, on the night of the new moon, Omar and I read our Goddess Guidance Oracle cards and received a little message of encouragement to keep the faith.

Omar and I have a monthly ritual. On the night of each new moon we pull cards from a deck of oracle cards that my mom gifted me for Christmas when I was 22 years old and at a major crossroads in my life. The Goddess Guidance Oracle deck has brought much inspiration and encouragement over the years that I've had it in my possession. And during the past two years or so, Omar and I have developed a new moon ritual around the deck that brings us both a sense of spiritual connection and motivation as we enter each new moonth. The deck was so spot on this month with delivering a message of hope and optimism (my theme words for this spring) that I couldn't resist sharing.

I am no expert when it comes to tarot or using oracle decks so today I merely wish to share how Omar and I make meaning out of the simple practice that we adopted of pulling cards from this deck each month.

We start by sharing our intentions with one another. Many spiritualists claim that the new moon is the most potent time of month to set intentions as the new moon is recognized as the beginning of a new lunar cycle, something I like to refer to a as moonth.

The night sky is darkest when the moon is new. When we look up from our home on Earth, we don't see that the moon is there at all. This is due to the alignment of the Earth, moon, and sun. When the moon is directly between the Earth and sun, the shadow side of the moon faces us on Earth and we are unable to see moon (but don't worry, the moon is definitely still up there even if when we can't see it). As the moon continues to orbit the Earth, the sun reflects on fractions of the moon allowing us to be able to see the light reflecting off the moon's surface in varying degrees as it moves through its eight key phases.

On the darkest night of the mooth, when the moon is "new" we might find ourselves in an introspective space to collect our thoughts, reflect on the past month, and set intentions for what we might like to manifest as the moon continues to orbit through its cycle.

I think that as far as manifestation practices go there isn't necessarily a right or wrong time to set intentions. However, I do appreciate the trackability of the moon phases and the accountability of having one day each month in which we set aside some special time for bringing forth intentions and stating them out loud. I have found that being in this practice has been a way to increase consciousness as individuals and for Omar and me to increase our spiritual connection as a couple.

After we share our intentions with one another, one of us will shuffle the oracle deck. Next, we spread the cards face town in a long fan and each sit on opposite sides of the spread.

We aren't strict on the order of who pulls what first. It is purely intuitive. But, the basic pattern is that we each pull one card for ourselves and one card for the other so that we each end up with two cards. After we each have two cards in front of us, we collect the remaining cards back into a stack and ask, bottom or top? Intuitively one of us will respond and take either the top or bottom card from the deck and add that as the centerpiece of our five card spread.

It has been pretty remarkable to see how spot on our spreads are moonth after moonth. Offering us thoughtful contemplations or morale boosting inspirations in an order that certainly feels divine.

The Goddess Guidance Oracle deck is comprised of 44 cards, each illustrated with a goddess from a different part of the world and spanning cultural and spiritual traditions from around the globe. The deck comes with a guidebook that offers insightful messages from each goddesses, various meanings of how to interpret the cards, and provides a bit of information regarding the story behind each of the goddesses.

I have loved learning about the significance of different goddesses that have been revered across cultures throughout human history. It is evident that every culture on Earth has created belief systems and mythologies that honor the divine feminine in different forms. It has been a real source of joy in my life to learn about to connect with ancestral spirituality in this way.

The cards that we pulled this time were Maeve, Ostera, Hathor, and Sedna with Oonagh being the final card to unify them all.

Together Omar and I derived great meaning from the cards that presented themselves this month. I won't go into detail here about each card but I would like to share that the guiding message from Oonagh, a goddess of Celtic origin, really tied it all together and offered us both the encouragement to keep the faith.

Her reminders to us are, "Nurturing a cause or a relationship is a long-term commitment, and one that can't be rushed... There is no competition for your true life's purpose, so there's no need to worry, hurry, or feel that you have to force things to happen...Slow and steady progress is best right now."

For this message I feel pure gratitude. I recognize it as a sign from the universe that everything is going to work out in time. Applying this wisdom to our ventures moving forward provides an added sense of security. This life is long, our commitment to each other is long-term, and there really isn't a need to be anywhere other than where we are right now.

So with that little gift from the spirit realm, I will grant myself permission to take it easy, and to continue to write blog posts only when the inspiration strikes me. At the moment I think that bi-weekly to monthly posts seems reasonable to keep you all updated with the progress of Ohms Collective.

Please stay tuned as our work here is definitely not done.

Thank you so much for your continued support! And as always, be well and stay curious.

With so much love and gratitude from,

Chrissy Dasco-Uribe