Hi, Hello and welcome to your Sunday read.
It’s September 3rd and for the witchez, it’s the end of Venus retrograde. I like to keep it cool and down to earth on my channels, taking every piece of modality with a grain of (sea) salt and a pinch of the filtering system that is your own knowing.
so don’t take it too seriously when I speak astrology - or feel free to scroll down. Retrogrades are known to slow things down, an inward moving energy characterized through retreat, rearrangement and reflection. The end of a retrograde marks a wrap up of the brewing soup of internal processing, ready to be served, preluding a surge forward, the light of a new day, an initiation within your updated and upgraded structure.
So: Venus retrograde and the end of it, might just be the perfect moment to wrap it up with a final recap of venusianpleasures volume 1 to give you a taste of my work and a toe dip into the collective experience that is this journey.
venusianpleasures_ was born out of pure hunger for creative action and holds the intention of interconnectedness. a story I like to weave through all of my works is, indeed, a story of interconnectedness.
“a story that connects the dots of, what I, Ray, believe to be inevitable: the effect we have on the world around us. This realization puts us at the center of our creative power.
There's nothing stronger than us, but nature. And we are nature, indeed. cyclical, ever changing and self-sustaining.”
Putting yourself at the center of your creative power through the experience of pleasure in community is my intention with this program. We connect through collective emotion. With every volume, I curate a bundle of resources and events for you, to tap into your own resources. To live your life to the fullest, most joyful, grounded, playful, exciting and elevated version, you desire. In community we expand. We travel through 6 weeks, 4 zooms, 2 dinners, 1 book and endless Guided Naps together.
Rest is an important part of the process of creation. This is why The Guided Nap is designed to take you through a pre-recorded 30 minute sequence of yin/restorative yoga - available to you whenever you need to take a breath. It comes with a gentle playlist that’s perfect for relaxation, reading, and loves to be played along a hot cup of coffee, stretching out into your Sunday morning.
All of it firmly tied together by The Thread, a set of cards guiding you through the four pillars of Ground, Elevate, Expand and Receive with reflections and inspirations.
I love to interweave concepts through multiple layers and expressions: on Volume 1 The Thread also translated into a piece of crinkled silk, the color of a shell’s interior, accompanied by a custom made pearl ring, wrapping in your bundle, or your body as it is wearable as a top or headscarf, too . I was so lucky to deliver this set of treasures out to 14 people from all over the world. It made its way to Brussels, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Munich, Portugal and even New Jersey.
Now this wouldn’t be a Venusian gig if we didn’t treat ourselves to an exquisite 3 course dinner at one of my favorite fine dining places of the city. For Volume 1 we visited ORA Berlin - a collision of textures and tastes in the most skillfully curated way: kumquat, mint, fresh asparagus, followed by chanterelles, hazelnuts, and igniting into pached rhubarb with black currant ice-cream and elderflower.
a sensory experience of pleasure, a tango for your tastebuds, embraces this journey with an opening and closing dinner.
Collectively, and individually, we embarked on a quest for true belonging through “Braving the Wilderness” by Brené Brown. The topic for Volume 1 was Community and was so beautifully reflected through the openness of each individual part taking and the connection found through experiencing the same emotions. This is what I call connection through collective emotion and it’s one of the concepts Brené speaks about in the book as well. It’s the power of relating to a stranger, a force that helps us stand our grounds, even in the scary wilderness of true belonging and the necessity to be oneself.
At venusianpleasures, you are the eye of the storm. the ease within the turmoil of everyday life. the center of your creativity. the resting antidote to the hustle and bustle of activity.
One of the most beautiful realizations of this journey was the capacity for contradiction that make up two sides of the same coin. That ultimately, make up all of us. One of the participants said in one of the guided Zoom sessions “I wouldn’t know myself without the others and they wouldn’t know themselves without me” - a testimony that we are indeed elevated and expanded in our experience through taking the exciting plunge into joining Community. Excitement and surprise is how the mind learns. A new way of connecting the dots and relating to the other is a gift of expanding one’s own experience of life. a richer one.
an explosion of tastes on your tongue into the most startling fireworks of feeling.
venusianpleasures_ is a community hang-out, the sweet spot where the tranquility of a good read meets the delight of amazing food. Where the freshness of an ocean wave hits the warmth of the shores sand. Leaving a tingling sensation on your feet and a glow of wit on your face. It’s a place to feel the fire in your belly, the air in the sails of your heart and the honey on your lips. A place for vitality, the lust for life and the pleasure of simply being. You. Come as you are. Enjoy every single piece of yourself.
Volume 2 is dropping in October and soon available to be booked - I am beaming with gratitude to say the least - stay tuned for more details and drop me a DM if you’re already keen to join or have any questions.
It’s gonna be similar, but different - riding the wave of the seasons. You can always join from anywhere in the world, everything’s recorded and we have several different ticket options available.
a place for the lover of leisure, the creative, the down to earth, the Venusian, the curious and the expanded.
Have a lovely Sunday!
yours truly,
Ray.