Working the Spiral: The Second Ring

Welcome, dear ones! I’m so grateful you’re here! Your presence, curiosity, and the beautiful community we’re creating together mean the world to me. Together, we really are ushering in the more relational way. If you’re new, you can learn more about Spirit Connections on the About Page, and if you’d like to journey more closely with us, you can subscribe below. 💖💖💖

Welcome back to the Spiral, a deer-inspired model of community where we place a vulnerable need at the center and gather the herd to tend it.

We began by naming a community—be it family, lineage, or your own inner world—and its specific “Heart-Need.” You are also welcome to follow along as we tend the need of Empowerment for our Spirit Connections community. For us, empowerment isn’t “power-over”; it is the capacity to engage with life without overriding ourselves.

Last week, we met the inner ring of direct tenders: The Companion and The Healer. This week, we move to the second ring of supporters: The Procurer and The Genius.

If you’re just jumping in, here’s where this series began:

In the second ring of our spiral, we meet the Procurer and the Genius. These are our Supporters. While the inner ring (the Companion and Healer) focuses deeply on the need itself, the Supporters hold a wider gaze. They look toward the center to witness what the tenders require to sustain their work, and they look outward to the "herd" to see what can be gathered, reimagined, or reclaimed for care of the need.

The Procurer is the gatherer, the provider, and the steward of resources. In the ancient vision of the Ancestral Eight, this function ensured the collective thrived by anticipating the group’s needs—food, materials, or security—and securing them for the well-being of the whole.

But the Procurer isn’t just about acquisition; this role holds the wisdom of enoughness. It asks: What resources will best support us? Do we know when to stop gathering? What can we offer in return?

The Procurer ensures everyone—especially the Companion and the Healer—has what they need to stay the course. They are the stewards of the balance between tending and being tended.

Pause and ask: Who or what is ensuring your spiral has the resources it requires?

For example:

• If the need is a child who is overwhelmed: The Procurer might be the parent handling logistics so the Companion can stay present, or the steady routine, or the physical comfort of a warm blanket and a full belly.

• If the need is tension in a partnership: the Procurer might be the shared savings that allow for a weekend away, or the time carved out specifically for a difficult conversation.

• If the need is something in the land: The Procurer secures the seeds, the water, and the tools required for the Healer to restore the soil’s rhythm.

• If the need is ancestral grief: the Procurer is the one who gathers the altar items—photos, candles, and specific foods—ensuring the “Well Ones” have a landing place.

Where the Procurer ensures we have what we need, the Genius illuminates and expands. This one is the spark of innovation and the energy of adaptability.

The Genius isn’t about “intellectual elitism.” It is about the innate capacity to see the world with fresh eyes. It is the driving force of inspiration and course correction. When the ways of tending a need are no longer working or otherwise need a shift, the Genius asks the big questions: What if we looked at this differently? What breakthrough is waiting just past our current assumptions?

The Genius supports the spiral by providing the “Aha!” moments that allow the tending to continue, even in hard times.

Pause for a moment and ask: Who or what is bringing a new way of seeing to this need?

• If the need is an overwhelmed child: the Genius might be the sudden insight to turn a difficult moment into a game, using the medicine of play to shift the energy.

• If the need is tension in a partnership: the Genius could be the spark of curiosity that reframes a partner’s behavior as a signal of their own unmet need, rather than a personal attack.

• If the need is in the land: the Genius is the one who notices a new pattern in how the plants are growing, suggesting a radical change in direction for the garden’s care.

• And sometimes, the Genius is found in the unexpected: maybe a mentor’s passing comment that sparks an insight, or a change in environment—turning off the news, leaving the room, or taking a walk—that helps the energy of care flow better through the spiral.

Below are questions to help us engage with the second ring of the spiral. You might bring these questions to your community and discuss them; sit in meditation and listen for the answers; or pull cards like I did.

The spiral asks the Procurer:
What resource(s) would best support the community at this time?

For our Spirit Connections community (The Star):

Wow. This one hit me right in the heart. The Star is the light that remains after The Tower falls; it is the quiet, persistent glow that appears when the structures we relied on have crumbled. In short, the star is hope.

Last week, we identified that our “more preferred state” of empowerment is stepping into life with our full selves, without overriding the parts of us that are exhausted or overwhelmed. The Procurer reveals that the fuel we need to get there is hope. In our current world, hope can feel scarce, but here’s the magic: I truly believe that hope is contagious. If you find yourself carrying even a small spark of it this week, you are the Procurer. Spread it around. It’s one of those amazing things that multiplies the more of it we share.

The Procurer asks the spiral:
How will you know when you’ve received enough of the resource?

For our Spirit Connections community (King of Pentacles):

We will know we have enough when Hope moves from a fragile feeling to a grounded reality. Like the King of Pentacles, we will feel so anchored in our abundance that our hope naturally overflows, providing shade and security for everyone around us.

And in this way, hope stops being a fleeting emotion and becomes part of the structure we stand on…something reliable, something shared, something that sustains not just ourselves, but the whole community.

The spiral asks the Genius:
What new way of seeing might best support the Healer’s medicine?

For our Spirit Connections community (Justice):

Last week, we saw that the Healer’s medicine is about making our internal parts feel safe enough to engage. But safety isn’t a static destination; it’s a constant negotiation. Justice enters as our Genius to offer a radical idea: Maybe safety is found in calibration.

Justice moves us away from the “all or nothing” mindset. It brings the insight that fluctuating energy isn’t a failure of consistency, it is simply a natural cycle. When we adjust our output based on our capacity, we aren’t “flaking”; we are practicing the high art of balance.

The Genius asks: What if your sensitivity is actually your diagnostic tool? If we stop seeing our “too-muchness” as a burden and start seeing it as a precision instrument, we navigate the world with a new kind of authority. Justice tells us that when we honor our limits, we aren’t shrinking, we are finally standing on level ground.

The Genius asks the spiral:
What is our capacity to adapt to this innovation at this time?

For our Spirit Connections community (4 of Wands):

Our capacity to adapt isn’t just high, it’s jubilant. Often, when we talk about “innovation” or “adaptation,” it sounds like hard work or a steep learning curve. But the 4 of Wands suggests that this shift—moving from seeing our sensitivity as a drain to seeing it as our brilliance—feels less like learning and more like remembering. We get to step into the knowing that we belong in our own skin and receive it as the blessing it is. In short: We aren’t just managing this change; we are thriving in it. The innovation of the Genius has found a stable, welcoming home in our community.

It’s been so moving to sense the shift in our Spirit Connections community as we tend our spiral. Some of you are already acting as Procurers, offering up stories of hope that act as fuel for the rest of us. Others are stepping into the role of the Genius, sharing those “Aha!” moments that help us recalibrate how we show up without burning out. Watching you all weave this safety net together is a beautiful reminder that we don’t have to carry the weight of change alone.

Next week, we’ll move to the third ring: The Guardian and The Sovereign. We’ll look at how we protect this sacred work and how we step into the vision for the whole herd.

May we trust that we are already resourced for the path ahead. May we be gentle with ourselves as we learn the art of calibration, and may we recognize the brilliance in our own sensitivity.

You are supported. You are inspired. You are becoming.

With so much love,
Jenna 💖