Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I just started reading this book for the second time and have already found new understandings of the story! Nghi Vo is fantastic! She’s masterful at creating unconventional, complex, magical worlds without overexplaining the mechanics. She teaches us her magic by immersion into beautiful yet ominous realities.
Dark magic is the life force that propels Hollywood’s elite to stardom in Siren Queen by Nghi Vo. Those willing to sacrifice whatever is asked get a chance to burn so brightly they become almost untouchable, immortal in more ways than one. These silver screen stars to be are willing to trade their mortality, and often their freedom, to mysterious forces so that they may rise above their own mundane humanity and the confines society has prescribed them.
Some of my favorite aspects of this novel were the Friday night fires and The Hunt, the world-building, the powerful protagonist, and the LGBTQ+ themes and characters. The magical world built is intricate but not tedious. There are worlds within worlds, subcultures, and secrets. The sex scenes are so well done I found myself gripping my Kindle a bit more intensely.
I felt as though I was an invisible companion standing right next to the protagonist, Luli Wei (her acting name) throughout the book. Her power and ambition, curiosity and passion were tangible. I felt how bright her star was burning before we knew who/what she would become.
“You’d rather be proud than happy,” Tara said, squeezing my hand. When I looked slightly offended at her words, she reached up to tuck a stray lock of hair behind my ear. “It’s part of you. I don’t think you would fight it if you could.”
Luli wanted to ascend, to leave behind what was forced upon her and live a life of her own choice, no matter how fraught with danger. She forged loyal connections with people who had an unusual spark and natural talent and didn’t let fear stop her from confronting even the most powerful players. And when she did, she knew how to stay cool because letting someone know you’re on the run inside is as good as giving them your soul.
Both a sophisticated fantasy novel and intriguing LGBTQIA romance, Siren Queen is my favorite book of 2022 so far. I would definitely recommend this read to fans of the Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo, Sorrowland by Rivers Soloman, The Hazel Wood series by Melissa Albert, and The Magicians by Lev Grossman.
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Beliefs and tradition can be a source of comfort and hope. We may adopt rituals and practices from ancient religions or ancestral knowledge to make sense of our current challenges, our environment, our relationships to all within and without. The search for existential meaning is alive in all of us with varying degrees of passion and purpose. These forms of meaning creation don’t originally come from intuition, rather, they become part of our intuitive knowing through repeated stories, traditions, and rituals.
In many cases, beliefs come not from intuition, but from the collective consciousness. Interpretations of the world and its nuances are taken from society, whatever social groups to which we belong (and sometimes from groups to which we do not belong).
What Is Not Ours, Is Not Intuitive
When we take from societies we aren’t a part of, for whatever reason, this borrowing of consciousness, and of ritual, may feel or appear inauthentic because our own experiences and environments are not the same as those who developed these particular perspectives. We may mimic or agree, but we are not of the world where these ideas and traditions were born from. We may share in their reverence, but these are not our inherited stories, nor are they our stories to tell. We may take pieces of their wisdom and align it with our own, seeing connectedness and honoring humanity’s many tender facets, cherishing symbols of the indomitable spirit of our inner Self, but to wear the traditions of another as our own when we are only visitors in their ancestral plane is a spiritual facade or not part of one’s own intuitive ancestral knowledge.
Ancestral Knowledge Comes From Many Sources
Ancestral knowledge can be physical, as in the lineage our DNA passes down or as what Carl Jung refers to as the collective unconscious, a heritage of symbolic knowledge from the beginning of humanity; environmental, what we learn through absorption and experience; historical, the stories, legends, myths, and rituals that are given to generations to come. We hold all of these forms of celebration of the past within our bodies and minds so deeply the information feels intuitive.
For the most part, these things that enrich our life experience are learned, not things we magically arrive at by way of a deep meditative state or channeled from a spirit beyond. Although, meditation and other spiritual rituals can bring us into a state of presence more conducive to unearthing our subconscious wealth.
We Are Tied to One Another By Emotion
Traditions themselves aren’t magical, the way we interact with them is. Our feelings of sacredness, connection, ecstatic revelation, suspension of mundane reality – our emotions are the magic. The wands, cards, dancing, chanting, and other practices and tools are a means to which we create an emotional landscape of reverence and celebration. The stories of traditions and myths create a shared reality that links us to those before and amongst us. They give us meaning in a world where seemingly infinite possibilities overwhelm us in their unraveling.
Beautiful and confounding is this ability we humans hold to craft an entire world within our mind, reinforced by meaning-imbued words and actions. This is the magic I see in spirituality. It’s the magic of consciousness embodied in a form blessed with language and rich complexity. Stories and traditions bring our individual histories and our shared history to life in new ways. We visit each other’s cultures and share experiences this way, and we honor what feels intuitive inside us by making conscious the embedded stories that bring deep meaning to existence.
Trauma can make our need to be seen and heard feel desperate at times. It can also make our most destructive patterns, the ones that keep us from seeing our own innate wholeness, totally invisible to us while being obvious to those around us.
When we hold a deep well of grief within because of childhood traumas it affects how we perceive relationships in the present moment. This well can never be filled by what others have to offer us. Our desire to be validated and held must first be tended to by our own higher Self.
We are the one we are looking for to fill this well and until we do so, we will hold great expectations of those around us. We will cling, blame, and feel deeply neglected and rejected until we become conscious of the role we play in projecting our internal world onto others and take responsibility for fulfilling our own needs.
Relationships with others aren’t meant to fill a hole inside of us. We must come to others whole and see their offerings as adding depth and connection to our experience. When we can’t perceive our own wholeness, we often look for others to complete us, to give us what we feel we lack. This is a recipe for disappointment.
No one else can give us what we feel we are missing. They can only share with us what they have. If we are always unconsciously seeking to heal old wounds by recreating old dynamics with new people, we miss out on what is right in front of us and within us.
Becoming conscious means seeing these patterns. It takes time. They reveal themselves as pieces of the puzzle fuze together. Patience and curiosity, letting go and forgiveness are the tools you’ll need in your backpack for this journey.
We are mirrors for one another. As you begin to see your own patterns in others, you begin to know yourself more deeply. Let these awakenings grow inside you. Let them bring you self-compassion and appreciation for how deeply connected we all are.
Does this bring clarity to a particular relational challenge? Please share your insights in the comments below.
Life is a practice in letting go.
To immerse ourselves in the present moment, we must let go of control, and let go of stories that no longer hold true.
When we practice letting go without resistance, we allow ourselves to flow with life.
Letting go includes welcoming something new, or something changed.
I made this meditation the morning after I decided to let go of a few things in my business in favor of listening to my intuition, my heart’s calling.
As I observed the smoke leaving its place of origin and becoming its own work of art, I let go of control.
Each day, I remind myself to surrender to my experience. I will allow myself to be guided by the voice inside me that connects us all.
I love the glide of a fine tip, black gel ink pen on fresh textured paper.
Writing this way feels like my heart and mind are pouring out through the ink in slow motion.
When I need a blank canvas and no constraints, this is where I start. All of my projects, big and small, begin with free-form brainstorms in my Business Grimoire.
Why is it called a Business Grimoire?
A grimoire is traditionally where a witch keeps her spells and invocations, magical instructions.
This book is where I write down my business goals and intentions and make dreams, once ephemeral, come to life on the pages. It contains instructions on how to bring about what I, and those who work with me, most desire.
While I’m a very practical woman, I’m also deeply spiritual. I see magic in all that is. I believe in synchronicity, energy, and the power of focus. What we focus on, or practice regularly, creates our reality. My grimoire helps me focus creative energy and practice birthing the gifts that live inside.
What types of stuff do I keep inside?
Ideas are born in my Business Grimoire. Any newborn thought or conversation is first spoken to those pages, then put inside my main writing drafts container, Scrivener, for further development.
Its pages hold:
- mindmaps
- brainstorms
- outlines
- timelines
- journal entries
- rough drawings
- thoughts and ideas from conversations with kindred spirits and clients
- explorations of my fears and hopes
I review this book monthly to choose the best ideas for the next stage of creation. For example, you’ll soon see a workshop on how to make your own mindmaps to work out problems, and I’ll include a video of how I set up my meal plans in Scrivener in my next online course.
How do you brainstorm? Do you have a system for reviewing your ideas? Is there something from my grimoire you’d like to know more about? Let me know in the comments below.
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“The reality is later ascertained of what was formerly imagined by ignorance.” – Nagarjuna’s Precious Garland of Advice
We learn through experience. We deepen our understanding to the extent we’re open to doing so.
There are many reasons for us humans to close ourselves off to new information. Fear is a powerful influencer on our choices.
Ignorance can be willful, but it can also be a matter of time and opportunity.
What we have yet to see or experience can later be illuminated. Where we once had only an imagined knowing, we’ll have an informed understanding.
As a highly-sensitive person, I ask myself, “Where can I deepen my knowledge and empathy?”
It’s in the asking we contact our intuition.
Our inner knowing is the most intimate connection, not separate from our consciousness or body. We are intertwined with intuition, as we are with the energy in all things.
Ask away, like using a cosmic Goggle. You may feel warmth in your body, or see an image flash before your mind’s eye. Most of us ignore these things. I’m asking you to lean in.
