About
About Illumination Catalogue
A ceremony series and archive centering Black Trans Spiritual Vitality and the magics of Trans living and lives. IC asks through ritual and a digital Black Trans Cosmic Map, "How were the exquisite births and rebirths of Black Trans, GNC, and Intersex folx recorded in the sky?" and "How does the land and the cosmos respond to our earthly transitions?"
Gallery
Storysharers
To build the Cosmic Map and to amplify the power of Black Trans LIVING, we are conducting one-on-one talks with Black Trans, Gender Non-Conforming, and Intersex folks across Turtle Island. The focus is on a sharing of people's birth, rebirth, and name stories, as we honor the ways folks have come into self. These occur on a rolling bases, and we would love to include you in this ambitious archive.
Understanding Cosmic Allies
A Black Queer and Trans Astrology Model"...Each planet is considered through a Black Queer and Trans centered lens of personal, social, and political spheres with natural porosity between them.
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Mercury
Personal
Rules thresholds and crossing boundaries, and transness in a sense necessitates crossing the gender binary’s boundaries Porosity between the self and social Symbological resonance inherent liminality within self Mercury is identifiers (pronouns, labels, tags);
Social
Queer witches structuring their business and magical practices around Mercury’s retrograde cycles.
Political
Language unique to certain communities (gatekeepers of culture at the margins). What is shared vs what is kept/protected
Other considerations:
Messenger of the gods –> Trans people being messengers of God Psychopomp and liminality
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Mars
Personal
The baby queer archetype; finding a space to explore the sexual gendered experience.
Social
The sexual relationships created as trans, queer people. As well as the violent reaction the world at large has to the presence of trans people being in that shared sphere
Political
Laws formed against to disempower us and to create a barrier for us to express autonomy
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Venus
Personal
Self worth of trans people in the face of disparagement
Social
Queerness/transness as social capital. Being told we’re not enough Problematizing “Realness” Trans people being told “you’re not really a man/woman”
Political
Being denied employment on the basis of queerness/transness thereby creating a pipeline to the sex work industry
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Jupiter
Personal
The notion of “coming out”
Recognizing divinity in transness/queerness and the difficulties presented by established religious beliefs and/or cultural programming
Inability of our existence to remain purely in the personal realm, thrusting us into the social and political spheresSocial
People feeling entitled to our stories
Political
Appeals to religiosity as a justification for our oppression
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Saturn (enforcement)
Personal
Archetype of feeling trapped/confined to the body you were born with as well as feeling limited by the labels both available to us and placed on us
Social
Abolishing the coming out structure and inviting people into our stories on our terms rather than exposing our stories
The responsibility we feel towards our community (AIDS/monkeypox)Political
Restrictions to access to housing, employment, bathrooms, medical care
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Uranus
Personal
Audacity to own the self as is
Social
Rebellion against established gender norms
Shock with which transness and queerness is received just for existing
Site of creation of queer subculture with its respective subcultures
Inclusivity vs exclusivity
Displacement — family unit kicking out the queer/trans person — Outcast archtypePolitical
Our existence is so perturbing to the established structure that they create laws against us
-
Neptune
Personal
Having the space to imagine ourselves beyond what we’re told we are
Social
Social relationship to wholeness
Political
Unique understanding of the nature of being in wholeness denies us acceptance into spaces that are designed for straight, binary, cisness
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Pluto
Personal
What’s going on beneath the surface
Stories of our queer and gender journeys are kept interna; until we choose to let people in
Internalized transphobia, queerphobia, racism (blends into the social)
The more we excavate ourselves, the more we can stand in our power (hidden power)
We’re taught to neglect our power (victimization) and reclaiming it necessitates a willingness to be in deep acceptance and honestySocial
External validation of internalized isms
Projection of internalized phobiasPolitical
Oppression of transphobia, queerphobia, and racism
Various stages of depth of grappling with oppression and how that gets internalized and interwoven into our relationships
Queer contributions to queerphobia -
Sun (soul/core)
Personal
We spend our youth exploring our self expression; and some folks learn themselves at a way later age
Identity whereas the Mercury is the identifiersSocial
The inherent ways that we light up a room inspires others to realize that they can live into that as well
The visibility that comes with tranness, whether desired or undesired
Hyper visibility of trans women and femmes versus the hypo visibility of trans men and mascsPolitical
Character assassination that queer and racialized communities face at large (attempts at diminishing our light)
Stereotypes
Identity Politics
Visibility and Surveillance
Visibility both welcomed and unwelcomed -
Moon (body/vehicle)
Personal
How we relate to physical bodies (not necessarily feeling “at home” in body)
Medical TransitionSocial
Social Transition
Chosen family (Uranus was the expulsion from the family unit, whereas the Moon is acceptance into the queer chosen family unit)Political
Legislature about our bodies (reproductive rights, HRT, gender-affirming care)
Global conversation around bodies and embodied gender shifting to bring transness into the conversation
Mental health struggles that plague queer, trans, and Black communities
High rates of suicidality in these communities
Suicide as taking the life out of the body
Emotional lineages
Houselessness crisis (also Uranus)
Support/Donation
produced by project creator and medicine worker, Sage Ni'Ja Whitson
Investing in the Spiritual Vitality of Black Trans people directly opposes the insistence upon our deaths and affirms the place Black Trans people have held, indigenously, as safe keepers of our Spiritual traditions.
This work is currently co-produced by project creator, Sage Whitson, and is now generously supported by The California African American Museum and the Mellon Foundation. We are dreaming as expansively as blackness is, as our galactic resonances are, and are committed to showing up whenever we are called! We cannot do this work without help!
Donate
Radical support of this work and upcoming exhibition
We would like to send a special thank you to the California African American Museum and The Mellon Foundation for supporting Black radical visioning through radical support of this work and related exhibition.
