Failure as a Confrontation with Death

Portrait of Mimi Young and the Becoming Podcast logo on a beige background

Did you listen to my fun, rich, and wide-reaching interview Jessie Harrold of The Becoming Podcast? What we chatted about:⁣  Failure as a confrontation with death that ultimately makes us more human and divine⁣  How to suspend your disbelief and follow your intuition in a hyper-rational world⁣  Animism and working with tea as an ally⁣ […]

In My Fantasies

A portrait of animist spirit medium and writer Mimi Young, wearing a cream cardigan and vermillion dress

In my fantasies, I’m smart, or at least, I can figure it out.I’m fun to be around.I like my body, and that she can do bendy, tip-toey, graceful things.I channel worthwhile ideas and things. My words matter. In my fantasies, I’m surrounded by friends, near and far, and that truly, they are always near. In […]

Nowhere Near It – 隔靴搔癢

Appropriation or appreciation?

Growing up in a traditional Han Taiwanese home, the adults spoke to me in Chinese idioms.  One expression, 隔靴搔癢 (phoneticized as gé xuē sāo yǎng), can be loosely interpreted as: “Failing to get to the heart of the matter” or even “nowhere near it“. Yet the literal translation of the words actually mean: “scratching an […]

Ways We Block Our Creativity (and What We Can Do About It)

blurred image of orange, yellows, reds, and black that evoke the energy of fire

According to ancient Chinese metaphysics, there are two elements associated especially with creativity; they are also associated with the summer season: I wanted to highlight the importance of how this relates to our bodies, emotions, and psyche this time of the year, when you or those around you are going through the Earth energy of […]

How to Determine Your Elements

a racialized woman walks through a field of wild grasses

I’m feeling so much joy for the enthused interest in responses to my recent newsletter, my story What Most Likely is Showing Up For You, Based On Your Elemental Composition (also on IG) discussing divinatory forecasts relating to your Wu Xing Elements (Five Elements), according to your Chinese Astrological natal chart (Bazi). Many of you have studied with […]

Embracing Your Darkness: Trusting Your Magic and Your Voice

Your Story Medicine podcast

The following is an article transcribed from a conversation between myself (Mimi Young) + June “Jumakae” Kaewsith of Your Story Medicine Podcast; the episode “Embracing Your Darkness: Trusting Your Magic and Your Voice”. Main topics discussed included why embracing our darkness is just as important as embracing our light; freeing yourself from the anti-aging culture, […]

Excerpt 2 from Honouring Our Menses

woman stands in water cupping hands, image is overlaid in red

“Day 1 gloriously descends. And by descension, it is an arrival, a reminder that I am not a sterile, prepackaged being of a Barbie doll society expects of me. The blood can fluctuate from dark to bright, thin or viscose, and I bleed, bleed, bleed. It has an animal-scent, which I do not mind, but […]

Excerpt 1 from HONOURING OUR MENSES

red overlaid on photo of woman in lake, cupping water

“My days 26-28 in particular, I notice my instincts sharpen, my mind clouding, scent radar amplifying, and my body assuming the posture of shedding my internal skin. Like a serpent, I coil, hiss, bare my fangs, protect who and what I fiercely hold dear, and crave warm touch. My emotions and discernments, though at times […]

We Are Year Older Now

Woman of colour stands in thicket of trees and looks through branches

We are all a year older now. Softer, wilder, breathless and breath-filled. We are all a year older now. Stories written on our faces, the artistry of spots and lines. We are all a year older now. Fences repaired, fences erected, fences removed. We are all a year older now. Ancestors visiting, visited, embodied, prayed […]

Voice is Yin and Breath is Yang

Taiwanese woman pours oolong tea into a cup

“But remember, as humans, the only reason why we could even call ourselves humans. The only reason why we can even call ourselves intelligent and sentient beings conscious beings is because we came from these, we came from consciousness. Our ancestors came from consciousness; plants came from consciousness; rocks came from consciousness; the wind came […]