(NUMINOUS) BOOKS ARE MAGIC

Following a year-long hiatus, we’re back as Numinous Books. Founder Ruby Warrington explains the process behind this evolution, and why she believes books are magic

Nnuminous books self-publishing Ruby Warrington

As regular readers will know, I put The Numinous on hiatus in July 2019. Since attempting a failed “comeback” in November (which I knew was gonna fail, put which I put us all through anyway!), I have been in even deeper reflection about the next evolution of this platform. A very tired and cynical part of me wanted to just walk away. I was exhausted from the constant churn of maintaining the socials, the newsletter, the podcasts, the blog—and I badly needed to focus on work that actually paid my rent.

We’d had seven good years after all, and what began as a project to help me learn more about the mystical arts, had also done its job, in a way: I had learned enough about astrology to develop my own personal practice, and along the way (surprise!) I found I had begun to heal the hurting, over-achieving “good girl” part of me that felt the constant need to prove myself. A journey that is documented in the three book projects I had also put out, beginning with the release of Material Girl, Mystical World in 2017—with Sober Curious (2018) and The Numinous Astro Deck (2019) telling their own parts of my story.

But also … I’d put so much time, and love, and passion into building this thing. Could I really just walk away? NO. At least … no so fast. And so I sat, and I waited, and I meditated on a question that I have come back to periodically since reading The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks: “What is my zone of genius?”

Hendricks defines the zone of genius as the state in which you get into “flow,” and find ceaseless inspiration as you engage with your natural abilities, rather than those you have leaned and perfected over the years (the latter being your “zone of excellence”). The theory being that the more time you spend in your zone of genius, the more energized, fulfilled, and successful you will be. What I landed on this being for me? Reading. Writing. Words. BOOKS. I’m always surprised when authors talk in interviews about the “torture” of the actual writing process. Not me! Put me in a room with a laptop and a big idea and I’ll be happy for days. I love editing other people’s words just as much, and even enjoy the intricate map-making of finding my way out of writers’ block. In short, making words on a page brings me the kind of satisfaction I imagine farmers reap from harvesting a bumper crop.

As soon as I turned my attention back towards WRITING, it was like the magic magnet effect the manifestation gurus talk about hummed into action. In my burnt-out state, beginning another book project myself was out of the question. But before I knew it, I was inundated with work helping other people craft, write, and edit their book proposals and manuscripts. And able to earn a living from it. By the time COVID came along, I felt like I’d cracked the fucking DaVinci code. I found myself actually getting paid to do what I actually love … with zero pressure whatsoever to look good in selfies or have something funny, deep, or provocative to say on Instagram every day!

Halle-fucking-lujah. I call this “book doula” work, I LOVE IT, and it is currently how I’m spending the majority of my time. Not that I haven’t been working as a writer and editor my whole career—but it’s the words-to-self-promotion ratio that’s shifted. The actual “making words on a page” part of my work (i.e. zone of genius) in journalism, for The Numinous, and as an author, has always been squeezed into the margins until now. The pitching of ideas, hosting of events, and growing of the socials (i.e. constantly trying to prove myself) having taken precedence. Too much time spent on “zone of excellence” shit—now that is what will burn a person out.

As for how this applies to The Numinous? In alignment with this new personal direction, the platform is back as NUMINOUS BOOKS. Ta-da! This is where my year of soul-searching has brought me. And it feels SO RIGHT. A natural extension of my book doula work, this means I am also working with a selection of authors to self-publish their books across this platform—meaning working with them to concept, write, and edit their books, as well as consulting on the design, marketing, and PR process. Each “Numinous Book” will also have its own launch across the Numinous blog, social media, and newsletter. And you’ll be hearing about the first Numinous Books project very soon!

Over the years, The Numinous has been home to so many diverse voices and perspectives on emotional and spiritual wellbeing in the Now Age. As I have also written about here, the fact that much of the deep wisdom that’s being made available to us thanks to the internet also gets boiled down into bite-sized, snackable, and ultimately throw-away chunks of social media “content,” has also never sat right with me. Which brings me back to BOOKS.

There’s a bookstore in Brooklyn called Books Are Magic—a phrase that has spun circles in my head since I first heard it. Because it’s true. Books are also meaningful, impactful, and a slow-cooked antidote to the pace of modern life. You can’t read (let alone write) a book in the time it takes to swipe up. It is the commitment asked of us by reading (or writing) a book that gives it the power to transport and transform us, to shape the way we think, act, and see the world. Reading a book—whether it’s a novel or memoir that allows us to walk in the shoes of the main protagonist, developing empathy for others along the way, or a text that teaches us something profound—is like having a deeply private and intimate conversation with the most essential and always evolving part of yourself. Put another way, books are both our mirrors and our mediums for communicating with our unseen selves.

It’s no wonder dictators and fascists like to burn books—just like they burned the witches back in the day. And it is also an act of resistance that The Numinous will continue to be a home for books and modern mystics alike, to both the “reading” and the “readers” that we turn to for answers when trying to make sense of ourselves and the world. Thank you for being here for it—and sign up for our newsletter and keep following @the_numinous for a bit of both each week.

They say everybody has a book in them. Might yours be a fit for Numinous Books? You can learn more about our publishing services here—and contact us to set up a discovery call to discuss your project.

7 REASONS I’M TAKING A NUMINOUS SABBATICAL

I’m taking a Numinous sabbatical, to recharge my creative batteries—and also to review, refresh, and rethink what this platform stands for. Here are 7 reasons why …

Ruby Warrington Numinous sabbatical 2019

As of 7/7/19 I’m on a Numinous sabbatical—the dictionary definition for which is: “a period of paid leave granted to a university teacher or other worker for study or travel, traditionally one year for every seven years worked.”

Okay, I’m not a university teacher … but The Numinous is a place of learning. I’m not being paid to take this break … but this time-out is partly so I can focus on creating financial stability in my life. There will be travel, and there will be study. And while this platform was created seven years ago, I don’t yet know how long this sabbatical will last. Two months minimum … and maybe (although probably not) even as long as a year.

This means I am taking a break from updating the site, posting on Instagram, sending out newsletters, and producing The Now Age podcast. It also means no weekly horoscopes, Tarotscopes, and astro mantras from us. And since (hello, eclipse season!) this is coming somewhat out of the blue, I figured I would share my reasons for this below (all of which, coincidentally, begin with the letter M):

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1. Mercury Retrograde
Because what better time to take a step back and review, rethink, and refresh what The Numinous stands for, and the content I want to use this platform to contribute. For one more mother*cking time: MERCURY RETROGRADE is not anything to fear. In an always-on, progress-obsessed society, it is an invitation into a very necessary moment of pause, to reflect, refuel, and regroup. Join me?

2. Mission Accomplished
When the idea for The Numinous lit a fire in my belly in 2011, it was because I wanted to make astrology, the Tarot, and other mystical practices more accessible to the masses. I was also pissed that people who “believed” in these ancient human technologies were routinely ridiculed and written off as deluded. So, I made it my mission to make it cool + smart #af to introduce yourself as “Aries Sun, Cancer Moon, Sag Rising.” Back then, all we had was Susan Miller and the Astro Twins. Fast forward to 2019, and the New York Times is writing articles about venture capital eyeing “big astrology” as the next boom industry. I’m like, job done: so, what next?

3. Meme Accounts
And also, a lot of the astrology content that has sprung up to feed the rampant appetite of a freshly mysicisized public, makes me die a little bit inside. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good astro meme as much as the next narcissistic human looking for a quick hit of validation or “feeling seen.” AND a lot of this content reinforces really unhelpful stereotypes (something, hands up, that this platform has also been guilty of). But what the world does not need right now is more and more lowest-common-denominator astro content. It might get the most “likes,” and for a while I got sucked into playing the numbers game (ahhh, loving the irony that I’m “quitting” IG the week I hit 100K followers)—but it’s not doing perceptions of the practice any favors. My goal for The Numinous has evolved from wanting to help popularize astrology, to wanting to help people use it as a tool for REAL emotional, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. This is why I made The Numinous Astro Deck.

4. Making it Sustainable
I’ve never really felt “okay” about businesses (mine included) relying on unpaid interns (which I have had to at times), but I realized recently that creating and maintaining a FREE weekly content platform has been like interning for myself the past seven years. Yes, The Numinous has brought me tons of “experience” and “contacts,” which in turn have led to me getting book deals, events, retreats, and other bits and pieces of income over the years. But most of what I earn “on the side” goes back into maintaining this platform, which is just not sustainable. I want to write more books. I want to do more book doula work. I want to volunteer for organizations and causes that I care about. I want to craft and lead more life-changing IRL experiences. And to do all of this, I need to reclaim the roughly 70% of my unpaid time and creative juice that currently goes into … The Numinous.

Ruby Warrington Numinous sabbatical 2019

5. Mental Health
“Burnout” became an official “syndrome,” as recognized by the World Health Organization, on May 28 this year. Symptoms include: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativity or cynicism related to one’s job; and reduced professional efficacy. Um, this is me, me, and me. Looking at the work-life culture that social media + the gig-economy has created, no wonder it is also us, us, and us.

6. My Big Mission
I recently wrote another book, Sober Curious, about how the past seven years have also been the backdrop to a total 180 in my relationship to alcohol, to the point I no longer drink or have any desire to drink. I did this by bringing a questioning, beginner’s mind to all my interactions with booze, a process I called getting “Sober Curious.” Coupled with the emotional + spiritual healing I’ve experienced from embracing all things Numinous, the result is that I no longer “need” alcohol to either numb out, or fake feeling more confident. As I write this, the term “sober curious” is snowballing into what is becoming a global trend, and when I pitched the book, I knew it would reach a wayyyy wider demographic Material Girl, Mystical World. I also hoped this would make it a vehicle for mysicisizing wayyy more people—and in doing so, help normalize the many different paths to mental, emotional + spiritual wellbeing. Which is happening, and which is something I need and want to focus on more fully for now.

7. Marianne
As in, Marianne Williamson’s 2020 Presidential bid. Were you as mad as me at the media reaction to her appearance in the Miami democratic debates? Instead of reporting on any of the very intelligent points she made (not least the one about the current president not winning in 2016 on policy points, but on emotion—by harnessing FEAR for political gain), we got a good old #witchhunt, with Marianne and her work being being belittled and branded a laughing stock. UGH. My blood boiled! Maybe job of making the mystical mainstream not quite so done after all. Over the past year, I’ve committed more and more to talking about how we can look beyond our personal healing paths to ways we can help heal the world, with my interviews for The Now Age podcast in particular. Marianne has being doing this her whole career, from creating soup kitchens for HIV patients in the 1990s, to more recently enacting mass apologies for institutionalized racism in the US.

Why is her bid another reason for my Numinous sabbatical? Because 2020 is gonna be a s*it-show of opinions and fear-mongering, and never has Marianne’s mission to activate love, compassion, and, above all, HOPE, in the face of this been more important. I want to ensure that whatever I put out there contributes to this, whether or not she lands a candidacy—and, again, I need a break from churning out endless content to feed Mark Zukerburg’s algorithm to focus on how to do this.

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So there you have it, my reasons for my Numinous sabbatical. Whether you’ve been a reader from the beginning, or are brand new, thank you for being here. I hope our work has been of benefit to you—and that you, too, are feeling ready to pay any healing and transformations you’ve experienced as a result of your own mystical explorations forward in 2020 and beyond. See you on the other side!

While we’re broke up, you can still follow me on IG @rubywarrington, and catch up all back episodes of The Now Age and Sober Curious podcasts. You can follow @sandysitron and @bessmatassa for Numinous astro insights, and @thebrandonalter for your Numinous tarotscopes fix. And you can learn astrology as a tool for personal healing and growth with The Numinous Astro Deck.

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