Anthony Rella

04/27/2026

In the cycle of manifestation, we leave the stillness of the seed the move into the fiery, active, vulnerable energy of the sprout. Sprouting is springtime energy, it's the vitality of a puppy, it's the need of an infant. You may find remarkable growth happening in bursts, keeping you moving and vigilant. While there's a great deal of life here, and it's strong enough to make room in harsh conditions, it's still vulnerable and needing of care and attention. It's a hard adjustment from the comfortable stillness of the seed to move into the continuous activity of sprouting.

If you were starting a business, the sprouting phase would look like the ongoing marketing, responding to inquiries, putting out fires. The business isn't sustainable, not yet. You might be funding it out of your own savings or debt. It's taking more than it can give back right now. But every little victory is such excitement! Small shops used to frame the first dollar they ever made and hang it in a visible place. That's the joy of sprouting energy. You work really hard for that first dollar.

04/27/2026

04/27/2026

I have been paying attention to the “Rape Academy” story as information comes out, and listening to the experiences of the women who are rightfully enraged and frightened by the news. I have listened to women wondering if any man is safe, as we learn about these sites and groups in which men encourage each other across the world in learning how to drug and r**e the women in their lives. These feelings, questions, and reactions make complete sense.

The experiences of the victims are the focus here, and their protection and healing is paramount. And the message to the men doing these things—or who have ever even contemplated trying it—needs to be clear and unequivocal:

These men are committing crimes against the women in their lives, both legally and morally. To drug and sexually assault a woman without her knowledge and consent is wrong. It is a violation of her bodily sanctity. It is a violation of the trust and love that you share between you. It diminishes the man as a person, because how can he truly love and be loved by a person that he believes he can violate at will?

The article linked explains how the story is far worse even than the initial reporting:

Snopes didn't debunk the r**e academy, they debunked a Twitter post

04/23/2026

When you finally get started on a goal, it's one of the most exciting and energizing moments of the cycle of manifestation. Just overcoming all the inner and outer resistance and taking a bold action feels so good. It may be a relief from all the anxiety you've felt to finally send the e-mail you've put off. You may feel like a total badass after your first week of MMA practice. This feeling won't last! Savor it while it lasts, but don't mistake the feeling for accomplishment itself. What you'll need is the resolve to keep going even when things feel difficult again.

That's one of the things my book Slow Magic offers to those inclined toward Western esoteric practice---the mindset to endure, and practices to help you keep going. It's available anywhere you get physical or audiobooks - https://anthonyrella.com/slow-magic/

In today's Substack, I talk more about this final moment in the seed cycle, as intention moves into action, and seed moves to sprout.

https://open.substack.com/pub/anthonyrella/p/planting-a-seed

04/22/2026

Are you ready to plant a seed? Are you ready to take that next step toward your ambitious dreams? This carousel offers a ceremony you can perform as a way of letting your being and the whole world know your intention and your seriousness.

Of course, you don't need to be so formal in your life. But there's something profound about the structure of a ritual that helps us to go deeper in our work. We are creatures primed to perceive and sense the symbolic in the world, and we can use that symbolic instinct as a way of communicating with parts of us that are not so verbal, as well as energies in the world that we cannot otherwise grasp.

If you use this work and like how It goes, let me know.

04/21/2026

This week I'm reflecting on the transition point between the idea and the action. In the cycle of manifestation that I write about in "Slow Magic," the seed is the moment of stillness, contemplation, and preparation in the cycle. Nothing has quite happened yet. You might have an array of seeds to choose from—different desires, goals, dreams. Or you might have one dear seed and too many responsibilities in the way.

This week it's about taking the risk to plant a seed.

04/16/2026

It's normal to have a lot of feelings about a seed you want to plant—some large or small change you want to make in life. Any time we truly start to change, we usually feel uncomfortable inside, a little lost at times, more sensitive to challenges, and find that things move around in life that we didn't expect.

When we encounter resistance in any kind of change, it's good to have options about how to respond. Sometimes pushing through in a steady, grounded way is what helps us get strong. That's what we do in weight lifting practice—meet the resistance of the weight with feet firmly planted on the ground, core engaged, and a controlled movement.

But sometimes resistance is like when you're opening a door, and it seems stuck, so you shove harder, and then you hear a "yelp." That resistance was a person on the other side. You needed another option rather than force.

I encourage people noticing resistance to check in with themselves, and listen. That's what I talk about in today's Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/anthonyrella/p/listening-to-resistance

04/14/2026

When you're choosing between multiple possibilities, it's worth taking some time to imagine and think through different options. I encourage people to explore multiple possibilities before making a choice, especially for big choices like changing your career or moving to a new place.

Sometimes we get hung up on one idea that feels really exciting and scary, or that we think we're "supposed to" want it, and we don't really take the time to think through the seed and its possible implications. There's some feeling like if I slowed down to think this choice through, I might not do it, or I might get stuck.

But that's not always bad! There might be a reason you don't want to do the thing. You might have idealized a particular career, but once you find out what it's really like to do that job, decide that actually you don't want it at all. Better to learn about that now before you've sunk a lot of time and energy into change.

At the same time, sometimes slowing down and thinking things through leads us to actually make the choice, but in a more grounded, practical way. You might realize there's things you need to learn that would make your path easier.

04/13/2026

Once you've spent time gathering seeds—ideas you might try to make real—it's worth sorting through and considering what is right to grow next. We are limited in how much energy we have to plant and tend, and it's not always the right season to grow a particular seed.

Drawing from the "cycle of manifestation" I outline in my book Slow Magic, I'll be posting more carousels this week on ways you can look at your ideas and get more clarity about what you want to plant next.

04/09/2026

What to plant?

If you become more open to the seeds of possibilities, it's normal to start to feel fear, worry, or resistance. To plant a seed is a risk. We risk the seed failing and being disappointed. We risk the seed growing quickly and then having to rearrange life to take care of it. There's so much control we lose once things start growing, and as much as we might welcome the changes, we might also dislike the changes required of us. To adopt a wonderful puppy, for example, carries with it all the demands of caring for the puppy. Taking it outside, playing with it, training it, living with its puppy-ness.

For now, if there are seeds you wish to plant, you might just notice what comes up in you. I write more about this in today's Substack at anthonyrella.substack.com

04/08/2026

Gathering seeds.

Even if you want to be a creator and an active participant in the world, sometimes it's a challenge to know where to focus your energy. Sometimes it's hard to have ideas. You might not be someone who likes starting things. You might be someone who doesn't immediately know what they want. You might be someone who has so many ideas that your energy is too scattered to invest in any.

Today's reflection is just about collecting seeds. Not even deciding what to do with them, just being open to what comes your way. Sometimes we expect that we're going to come up with a brilliant idea that we can start to move on immediately, and that is so much pressure. It puts too much weight on every little idea. It doesn't give us room to play, dream, and be open to what inspiration the wind carries toward us.

These images offer different kinds of questions you could sit with this week, just to be open to possibilities. Allow many seeds to land, and soon you'll have enough for discernment.

04/07/2026

In the cycle of manifestation, the seed is a moment of pause and potential. We have this idea, this thought, this urge to make something, but it remains static and in the realm of possibility. Within the seed is a whole realm of life—struggle, achievement, disappointment, exciting possibilities. But until that seed meets the conditions that cause it to grow, it remains only an idea.

How many of our wishes, hopes, and values remain in seed form? While life continues to happen to us, we aren't always active participants. We may have these persistent longings that we never dare to try. We wait too long for the conditions to be right, or we are so afraid of experiencing the thing that we don't do the thing. Sometimes, we just have too much going on, and we have to be really selective about what seeds we try to nurture.

This month, I'll be posting more thoughts about the seed, include ideas for working with seed energy. All of this comes from what I call "the cycle of manifestation," found in my book "Slow Magic: Cultivate Lasting Transformation through Spellwork and Self-Growth." If you're interested, more information is available at anthonyrella.com/slow-magic