lineage
ritual
divination
apothecary
emma//essra is an astrologer, tarot reader, archaeologist, & herbalist grown from lënapehòkink // philly. always learning from animism, diasporism, & antifascism, they weave ancestral ritual and myth meaning-making from each of their lineages into larger tapestries that explore time as a spiral, the textures of hope & despair, and the tectonics of land, grief, death, & memory.
an apprentice of portals and lifelong student of water, emma draws from the antizionist jewish tradition & the intuitive nature of re//membrance. inspired by a concept by umar faruq abdullah, they describe their Jewishness as a river that takes on the colors and textures of the bedrock it flows through, acting as the framework and guide through which the traditions, deities, rituals, and lands of their other lineages flow. as a white, queer, nonbinary, and chronically ill person, they venerate the land and trees; the waters of prophecy; long, tectonic time; the moon as a guide; the divine mystery in all that is unknown.
as they braid their lineages together, they hold intimate experiences with— and hope to support people navigating— death, grief, and loss // textures of radical change & transformation (broken//openness) // landscapes of surviving abuse // the divinity in mystery and memory. they encourage weaving ancestral practices as the necessary work of unlearning yt supremacy, and believe there is no place for any spiritual practitioners who are devoid of political analysis or frameworks of global liberation— the cosmologies of diasporism, solidarity, specificity, & antifascism are necessary for any meaningful lineage work.
signal fire
founding member of
radical jewish artist cooperative
home of the radical jewish calendar & dreaming the world to come planner
radical jewish
cover of the
calendar 5783
move towards the sound of tumbling water for divination, oracle, & ritual offerings
follow the lush & mossy path through the forest to find the apothecary & creations
rest under the mountains to read from the writings & books
approach the smells of crackling fire & hearty food in the cave dwelling by the sea, where the ancestors are joyfully convened
-
“when you see people call themselves revolutionary always talking about destroying, destroying, destroying but never talking about building or creating, they’re not revolutionary. they do not understand the first thing about revolution. it’s creating.” -kwame ture
astrology & divination permeate time & space: they are both ancient & eternal // internal & external. they are places of valiant vulnerability as well as radical creation.
they are a fractal of connectedness reminding us of the sacred web we belong to- our communities, ecosystems, solar system, and our vast experiences of love, grief, & growth that accompany us through our lifetimes. nothing replaces those experiences, or the chance we have to love the roles we play in our fate. but like a fingerprint, astrology, divination, & other ancestral rituals are ever embedded in our bodies, hearts, & nervous systems.
-
our spiritual practices, our ancestry, and all ways we move through the world are political. divination, astrology, herbalism, and ritual are vital ways of portaling into the world we're blooming into existence. this is an ongoing process that is not separate from- & requires- our deassimilating, decolonizing, & combatting the ever-present violences of yt supremacy, global capitalism, gender violence, militarism, & imperialism. when we move in curiosity, right relationship, and a lifelong process of learning with traditions from our *own* lineages, spiritual practices are a doorway of creation & politicized connection— but like anything, they are not immune to being stolen, appropriated, or wielded by fascists & eugenicists.
it is vital to recognize the vast amount of harm that is inflicted on Black, indigenous, roma, jewish, dalit, & other marginalized ethnic, cultural, or ethnoreligious communities—in the worlds of mysticism, “spirituality”, and “the occult” by xtians, wiccans, "new age communities, & countless others who claim non culturally-specific lineages of "paganism" and "magic" globally. appropriation and amalgamation of spiritual practices is continuation of systems that create conditions of fascism, genocide, eugenics, white supremacy, caste and zionist apartheids, and colonialism.
-
it is my responsibility to honor my loved ones, as well as the honorable ancestors of mine who made community and found radical, antifascist solidarity with other marginalized people, plant allies, & lands amidst every exile, genocide, & displacement.
i believe in abolition, land rematriation to indigenous peoples globally, and frameworks of transformative justice, accountability // teshuvah, disability justice, and multitendency organizing— as well as the idea that ancestral, plantcestral, and landcestral re//membrance [layla feghali] is a necessary part of healing, anti-assimilation and the work of liberation.
i will not tolerate antiBlack racism, islamophobia, antisemitism, anti palestinian racism, zionism, brahmanism, white or savarna feminisms, ableism, eugenics // covid denialism, antiziganism, homo&transphobia, ageism, xenophobia, or hatreds of any kind ((except hatred of empire.))
nor will i work with anyone who appropriates or takes part in the exploitation & commodification of closed jewish practices, rituals, or our sacred tradition of kabbalah.
my offerings will always be on a sliding (or sometimes trade!) scale for black &//or indigenous people, swers, & low income trans &/or disabled kin. there is no space for healing, divination, or mystical work that is not in solidarity with these communities.
in short i hope to live in ways that honors all my honorable ancestors and dishonors every dishonorable ancestor. you can read more about my lineages under “lineage” in the main menu.