2025 Offerings, becoming a Substack Bestseller and the future of this publication!
Towards a new poetics
Listen via audio:
It’s early morning here in the bush. I’ve just brewed up a cup of nettle tea and am perched by my bees. To one side of me, the local king parrot is feasting on seeds I’ve scattered for his breakfast. Meanwhile Dusty, my blue heeler, sleeps off his breakfast at my heel (cliché I know, but it does seem to be his place of preference). The sun is rising and there is a heavy mist that makes everything appear to be draped under a glistening veil of honey.
There’s a peacefulness in starting the days like this, immersed in the natural world, that for me is matched by nothing.
This week I spoke to friends overseas. I’ve been in full hermit-mode for most of 2024, so reconnecting with loved ones this year is in order!
It was four of us on the call. And while we were celebrating how far one of them has come on the writing of her PhD, she opened up about how existential her process has been. I can’t emphasise enough what a RELIEF it was to discover that I’m not the only one tormented by existential questions like why am I doing this?! and what is it all for? and am I a narcissist??! pretty much every time I sit down to write...!
On another call, another friend was reflecting on how helpful it would be if the teachers/authority figures in our lives were more transparent about their human struggles instead of often presenting themselves as though they have it all together.
The more perfect a person is on the outside, the more demons they have on the inside.
Writes Freud.
How good would it be if we had the courage to reveal more of our humanity to each other? It would certainly relieve some of the pressure and exhaustion that comes from attempting to uphold an impression of flawlessness that boarders on the sublime and the impossible.
What a relief it would be.
So today I am feeling grateful. I’m grateful particularly for humans who are genuine enough about their struggles so that our own don’t seem so isolated. For the courage it takes to be truthful and plain, free of ornamentation and eerily shiny ego-masks. As Shakespeare warns us in The Merchant of Venice, “All that glisters is not gold”!
So I want to prefix what I have to say next with this reminder of humanity, fallibility, imperfection etc because otherwise it feels incomplete and, well, too sparkly.
From this VERY human, assuredly flawed, and persistently frequented by the gods of existentialism me, a thousand and one thank yous to all the paid subscribers among you! Thanks to you, my Substack has become a bestseller!
You can find me currently fist-pumping amid my king parrot and my bees and my dreaming pup.
Now back to the human and the tender so that no success of mine ever feels unreachable (I know that feeling only too well and I never want to be the cause of it in others):
Starting this publication was very experimental. I had actually never written publicly before (the nerve!), let alone this type of independent publishing. After going back to graduate school to do a master’s in 2021, I needed somewhere to write, to integrate what I had learned while my world was being reshaped. The MA was a study of imagination and the first of its kind in that it was a scholarly pursuit but also soul work and deeply transformational.
Substack became that. It became the place where I set out to figure out what I think and endeavour to give words to that quiet trembling voice that comes from bone marrow and angels.
I began this as a means of funnelling a great current that could have otherwise blown up my life. And it became both a refuge where I could freely- without the limitations of social media algorithms or editors- explore my inner workings through writing.
Slowly, it turned into an archive of essays and stories that started pouring out of me on imagination, ritual, ancient religion and just my own encounters with, well, the great mystery.
It’s the first place where I’ve gathered all my independent research of the past decade during my fieldwork to traditional cultures, ancient sites and prehistoric caves.
And every Sunday, some of you show up on the other side!
I initially imagined hot cups of coffee and hearth fires going and all our imaginations meeting in a restorative cosy chamber somewhere out in the imaginal realm.
Just over two years later, there are almost 2000 of you here.
When I imagine us all gathered now, we’d have to transfer over from the cosy little chamber to some kind of great hall. I imagine a mix of an ancient Greek agora, a Hogwartesque feasting banquet, and the shade of - you guessed it - a good old fig tree.
So, a long-winded way of saying I am grateful! So truly grateful.
Turning my creative passions into a way of earning a living has been beyond my wildest dreams.
The future of Under a Fig Tree
If you are relatively new here, you can read all about this publication here: About Under a Fig Tree
Going forward this year, my vision is to continue offering more content and teaching spaces in the exploration of imagination, ritual, myth, poetry, altered states and ancient knowledge. If you would like to gather with me in a learning space, please continue on for my current 2025 teaching calendar.
I have many many many ideas for more offerings. HOWEVER, this publication is 100% supported by readers like you. So how much I can actually make the time for depends on my number of paid subscriptions.
In line with this fidelity to transparency, in order to do all the things I want to do here, realistically I would need another 2 to 3 hundred more of you upgrading your subscriptions.
My vision is to do this full time- to be able to write here and hold gatherings, salons, book clubs, teaching spaces… Ah! You name it.
In short, the more of you upgrade your subscriptions, the more I’ll be able to offer on here. Thank you agin and again for your support and your interest here!
If you’re already on a paid subscription (thank you!!) you can help make this possible by referring friends and sharing my publication.
All that said, though I believe writers/artists should be paid for their work, I also want my work to be accessible. If you’re genuinely unable to afford a subscription, please send me an email at hello@gabrielagutierrez.net and I will gift you 20% off the full publication for a year.
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A breakdown of free vs. paid
FOR FREE SUBSCRIBERS:
The monthly newsletter on the first Sunday of each month (with reflections, a poetry offering and event announcements)
FOR PAID SUBSCRIBERS:
Access to all articles, past and future
Weekly (sometimes bi-weekly) Sunday posts with audio recordings
Access to my upcoming advice column The Ochre Papers where you can ask me anything.
I’m really excited about this one. I receive weekly private messages from readers and I simply don’t have the capacity to respond to everyone. In the magical way ideas arrive, it occurred to me the other day that I could set up an advice column as part of my new offerings for the paid community. I will draw on myth, story, poetry and spirituality to answer your questions. This will be free for a couple of months, and then put behind a paywall. Submit your question for a chance to be featured
Access to The Imaginarium, a Book Club and gathering place to explore imagination and the imaginal realms over quarterly Zoom calls.
This has been a long time coming. If you’ve been here a while, you will have heard me wanting to begin it since January 2023! But again, it really comes down to how much I can do being based on financial support. I hope to launch it in the coming weeks!
2025 OFFERINGS
Here is what I have in the calendar so far. I’ll be in touch as new things come up! I am moving ever-more into bringing together myth, stories, poetry, ritual, animism, the oracular arts and all manner of ancient knowledge. I see this as a pursuit towards a new poetics.
Ritual Prompts
Based on the interest in the Samhain ancestors ritual and then the Solstice, I’ll be sending prompts out for each turn of the wheel. The framework I will be using is Celtic, but turns out many ancient cultures marked similar dates in their calendars (such as the day to celebrate the ancestors, or welcome the return of the sun after winter).
The next prompt will be for Imbolc on February 1st. I will send it out next week.
Monthly Ritual
The dismemberment ceremonies are back on! Going forward I will be holding them on the New Moons. Newcomers welcome! There is an introductory video for you as a pre-requisite so you know the gist. Looking forward to seeing some of you there! As usual you can attend live or via recording.
Quarterly Oracular Guidance
This is a collaboration with my colleagues (and friends) Chelsy Arber and Emma Meadows in which we use shamanistic and esoteric techniques to divine answers to questions we are sent from around the world. Every Solstice and Equinox, you can send your questions in on anything from your relationships, health, business, life decisions, etc.
The Bee Priestesses
As I mentioned last week, this is the program in which I share my findings on the Melissae bee priestesses in a scholarly and somatic setting. It is part lecture, part practice where I offer a lecture followed by a guided practice in altered states.
Mentorship
I am opening up six places for 1-1 mentorship. This is for anyone who would like support and/or supervision within both creative endeavours, spiritual work or personal support drawing on myth, stories, shamanic and animistic techniques for inner transformation.
These personalised sessions are structured to meet once a month.
Two of the six have already been booked. If you would like to sign up, please do so soon as I am offering then on a first-come first-serve basis and don’t have capacity for more than six of you at the moment. Looking forward to working in a more intimate setting again!
Guest Teaching
DEEPEN YOUR ROOTS: An embodied exploration of honouring, belonging and becoming. Year-long online program beginning in Feb. Use discount code GABRIELA10 for 10% off!
Please feel free to comment on here or email me with any questions. I’m particularly excited to start the Ochre Papers advice column! And curious to see what questions you might send my way.
I will attempt to answer all of them. But please know that depending on how many there are, I may have to start by picking them out of a hat! Let’s see how this goes.
With love, and camaraderie as ever,
x Gabriela
It takes courage to admit to challenge and difficulty. Thank you for sharing this.
Congratulations honeyed woman. Very excited for the year ahead !!