Dreaming the future now

asteria’s rest

Darling… I do not dream of labor

- James Baldwin

The future is now and we make it with our own choices.

Asteria’s Rest has 3 goals:

  • An intentional online community with resources for contact nutrition, trauma recovery, sustainable living, gardening, crafting and living with neurodivergence.

  • Events (both online and in-person) for anyone to rest away from capitalism. Focusing on contact nutrition and community building.

  • Retreat and rest. Visitors support our rest goals with their dollars, and we support their rest with powerful retreats. Time off can be life changing.

Influences

tricia hersey - The nap ministry

Originators of Rest as Resistance and founded with Black liberation, womanism, somatics and Afrofuturism in mind. Tricia Hersey’s book “Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto” is a New York Times bestseller. Just Lay Down.

Jenny Odell - How to do nothing: Resisting the Attention economy

Jenny Odell’s book “How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy” is a practical guide to locating yourself in your physical location, as well as your community and connections. What could you do for the environment, for the community, for the future with all the attention you’re selling?

adrienne maree brown

More specifically, Emergent Strategy and Pleasure Activism. Small changes compound into big changes. A movement shouldn’t center any one person. Change comes from community and community has to be built. We’re soft animals too. Ripple effeccts.

Ismatu Gwendolyn

Ismatu Gwendolyn’s series on Mutual Lemonade on Instagram reels. Her refusal of licensure so she can provide therapy to sex workers. The politics of deservingness. Ismatu Gwendolyn is walking the walk and talking the talk. “Even in this world, we can have ease.”

robin kimmerer - braiding sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants

“The awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgement and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return.” -From the back of Braiding Sweetgrass

carmen spagnola - the numinous network

Co-regulation pods to the Numinous Network, Carmen Spagnola teaches and curates teachers about so much. Somatics. Collapse Awareness, Animism. Astrology. Scottish witchcraft. Anti-capitalism. Cooking. Ritual. Intuition. She models “a small and delicious life” where the focus is on joy and contentment, really good quality relationships, and care for your community.

more influences

  • Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution by Shiri Eisner

  • Silvia Federici: Witches, Witch-hunting and Women, other talks

  • Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

  • Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

  • Tamora Pierce: Protector of the Small: Lady Knight (among others)

  • Octavia Butler: Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Gifts, Lillith’s Brood

  • Terry Pratchett: The Tiffany Aching Stories