The Mediocre Black Woman

FEB 10, 2026

Birthing in the Light: Creativity, Worthiness, and Discernment on The Fool’s Journey

As the Fool continues their journey, they eventually arrive at the High Priestess and the Empress — and in my mind, these two are inseparable. This stage is about discernment and embodiment.Before recording this episode, I pulled a few cards to ground the energy of the conversation. Three themes came forward: creativity, worthiness, and luminosity. All three live at the intersection of the High Priestess and the Empress, especially when the Fool begins navigating visibility.The High Priestess is moon energy. She governs intuition, inner knowing, timing, and discernment. She teaches the Fool how to listen inwardly — how to sense what’s true before sharing it, and how to recognize that not everything is meant to be spoken immediately.When the Fool meets the High Priestess, they learn when, where, and with whom to share. This matters because the Fool has just come off the excitement of beginning the journey and the encouragement of the Magician — who reminds them that everything they need is already within reach. That excitement often creates urgency. The desire to act, announce, explain, and be seen.The High Priestess interrupts that impulse and says: Trust yourself first. She asks the Fool to cultivate solitude, develop discernment, and recognize the difference between intuition and anxiety. This is the moment where inner authority begins to form.The Mediocre Black Woman is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.And then — she brings the Empress. The Empress represents embodiment, nourishment, pleasure, creativity, and worthiness. She is Venus energy, associated with the body and the sacral chakra. Where the High Priestess governs the inner world, the Empress shows the Fool how that inner knowing becomes lived.I often imagine the Empress as pregnant — not only with life, but with creation itself. Pregnancy is a deeply internal process that becomes externally visible. That’s the lesson here: what is growing within you deserves care before it is consumed. Creativity, pleasure, and abundance require tending. They require rest. They require nourishment. Visibility without care leads to depletion.Thanks for reading The Mediocre Black Woman! This post is public so feel free to share it.Together, the High Priestess and the Empress teach the Fool how to be seen without self-abandonment — how to move forward without rushing, how to honor intuition while allowing desire, and how to stay grounded while becoming visible. This stage of the Fool’s Journey asks for reflection, not performance.Here are a few questions to sit with:From the High Priestess* What do I already know that I keep asking permission to trust?* Where am I leaking energy by over-explaining or over-sharing?* Where am I confusing anxiety with intuition?* What boundary would restore my clarity immediately?* If I trusted myself fully, what decision would already be made?From the Empress* What would it look like to let myself be seen enjoying my life?* What part of my life is asking to be tended, not pushed?* What am I ready to receive without proving I deserve it?* How can I make this season more supportive of my body?From both together* How do I stay nourished while allowing myself to be seen?* What pace keeps me sovereign instead of depleted?This is the work of this stage: learning how to trust yourself, care for yourself, and remain embodied while becoming visible.As I mentioned we have begun our run to 1,000 paid members in our Seen.Simple.Sustainable.Sovereign run. Follow along on Substack — free or paid — and download the Seen. Simple. Sustainable. Sovereign. manifesto for reflections.Join Us LiveA Royal Galentine’s Soiree with <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/profile/155323327-netta-fei">Netta Fei</a> creator of the <a target="_blank" href="https://open.substack.com/pub/trueselfsociety">True Self Society</a> - <a target="_blank" href="https://open.substack.com/live-stream/103295?utm_source=live-stream-scheduled-upsell">Join Us Live or Watch the Replay</a> -Saturday, February 14th 2026 at 2pm Central Time on Substack Live.This Royal Galentine’s Soirée is not a book talk in the traditional sense. It is a guided conversation about how wisdom moves—from ancestor to descendant, from insight to embodiment, from being received to being lived.At the center of the afternoon is The Book of Burnett, written by Netta while channeling her father. The book itself is an act of ancestral love: elder wisdom carried forward through listening, discernment, and care. Rather than focusing on the book as a product, this conversation focuses on the process—what it required of Netta to listen, to trust what she was seeing, and to bring something sacred into the world responsibly. See you there!xoxo,Empress Theadora This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://themediocreblackwoman.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2">themediocreblackwoman.substack.com/subscribe</a>

23 MIN

FEB 3, 2026

Developing Intuitive Intelligence with The Mediocre Black Woman

In a recent conversation with <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/profile/12044824-margaret-williams-ms-acc">Margaret Williams, MS, ACC</a>, we talked about how often people move through life disconnected from themselves. Disconnected from their bodies. Disconnected from the signals that are constantly trying to get their attention. And how much chaos comes from that disconnection.Because the body knows things before the mind does. It knows when something isn’t right. It knows when a situation isn’t safe. It knows when a relationship is off, even if nothing obvious has “happened” yet. Most of us were taught to override that knowing.To be polite. To give the benefit of the doubt. To keep going even when we’re tired, uneasy, or quietly resistant.Especially as Black women, we’re often conditioned to keep showing up, keep accommodating, keep proving ourselves — even when every part of us is saying no.What I’ve learned over time is that listening doesn’t always mean acting immediately. Sometimes it means slowing down. Sometimes it means putting boundaries around an interaction and letting things reveal themselves. Sometimes it means pausing instead of rushing forward just because something looks good on paper or feels exciting in the moment.There have been many times when I couldn’t logically explain why I didn’t want to be close to someone. I felt bad about it. I questioned myself. I tried to override it with reason. And then, months later, the reason became clear.The information was always there. I just wasn’t ready to trust it yet.That trust gets even harder when your nervous system has been trained to stay on high alert. When you grew up in environments where you had to be vigilant. When rest didn’t feel safe. When your body learned to brace instead of soften.In those cases, listening isn’t intuitive — it’s a skill that has to be rebuilt.That’s why things like rest, prayer, quiet mornings, eating, drinking water, logging off, and creating space aren’t small things. They’re foundational. You can’t hear yourself clearly when you’re depleted. You can’t make grounded decisions when you’re overwhelmed. You can’t discern truth when you’re constantly flooded with noise.I’ve learned that if I ignore my body long enough, it stops trying to speak to me clearly. And when I start listening again, it doesn’t immediately trust me back. That trust has to be rebuilt through consistency and follow-through.Listening also doesn’t mean never being wrong.Sometimes I sit with what I’m sensing and ask for clarity. Sometimes I give a situation time. Sometimes I realize later that I misread something because a trigger got involved. That doesn’t mean the practice is flawed — it means I’m human.What matters is the willingness to check in honestly instead of abandoning myself to keep the peace.This kind of listening has changed how I think about boundaries. They’re not about punishment or cutting people off for sport. They’re about protecting what’s sacred. They’re about conserving energy. They’re about recognizing when repair is possible and when distance is necessary.They’re about valuing time — because time is not infinite.At this point in my life, I’m less interested in being right and more interested in being at peace. I’d rather move slowly and stay aligned than rush into situations that cost me my clarity.Listening isn’t dramatic. It’s quiet. It’s subtle. And it asks for honesty — not perfection.We don’t need more information. We need more presence.And most of the answers we’re looking for are already speaking — through the body, through patterns, through what keeps repeating until we finally pay attention.We just have to be willing to listen.xoxo,Empress TheadoraThank you <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/profile/96384533-lakeisha-high-priestess">Lakeisha, High Priestess</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/profile/32196609-fat-news-daily">Fat News Daily</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/profile/381199051-randolph-proksch">Randolph Proksch</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/profile/92763481-millie-jones-cowles">Millie Jones-Cowles</a>, and many others for tuning into my live video with <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/profile/12044824-margaret-williams-ms-acc">Margaret Williams, MS, ACC</a>! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://themediocreblackwoman.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2">themediocreblackwoman.substack.com/subscribe</a>

69 MIN

JAN 27, 2026

Fear Thrives on Disconnection

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit <a href="https://themediocreblackwoman.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_7">themediocreblackwoman.substack.com</a> Yesterday, I was invited into a live conversation with Reverend Evelyn about joy, spirituality, and what it means to stay grounded in a world that feels increasingly unstable.At one point, she posed a question that stayed with me long after the live ended:Can you have true joy without safety?Her belief was that genuine, sustained joy requires safety — t…

30 MIN

JAN 20, 2026

We Are Being Asked to Integrate

54 MIN

JAN 13, 2026

The Pause Wasn't a Punishment

In today’s episode, I’m talking about a moment that doesn’t get named enough—the space between the Fool and the Magician. We talk a lot about the Fool leaping. We talk a lot about the Magician having tools.But we don’t talk enough about what happens in between. That moment right after the leap, when the excitement settles and you realize: Oh… I actually need to know how to hold this.That heart-drop feeling. That brief panic. That “wait—am I ready?” moment.That’s the space I’ve been living in.The Mediocre Black Woman is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I was benched from the workforce in July of 2025, like many Black women were. And during that pause, Spirit spent time refining me—clarifying my purpose, forcing me to practice boundaries, slowing me down enough to actually hear myself think.At the time, it didn’t feel like preparation. It just felt like being stopped.But looking back, I can see that I was being handed tools—even if I didn’t know what they were for yet. What made it click for me was the timing.I was laid off on the Capricorn Full Moon—a moment tied to endings, work, structure, and legacy. And now I’m starting a new chapter during the Capricorn New Moon.Same sign. Different phase.That’s when it hit me: the pause wasn’t a punishment. It was a clearing.Thanks for reading The Mediocre Black Woman! This post is public so feel free to share it.This episode is about what it looks like to come back into structure without losing yourself.About the fear that shows up when you’re tapped back in—not because you can’t do the work, but because you don’t want to betray the version of you that was born in the pause.About realizing that the Magician doesn’t bring anything new—he just points to what’s already on the table.And the work now isn’t asking for more tools. It’s learning how to use the ones you already have.Over the next few weeks, the writing here on Substack is going to expand on this in real time.I’ll be sharing pieces on:* the grief that comes with realizing who you actually are* how language gets used to dodge responsibility and how it should really be a tool* why not everything uncomfortable needs to be labeled and run fromThere’s also a live conversation coming up on January 19th with <a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/profile/96384533-lakeisha-high-priestess">Lakeisha, High Priestess</a> of <a target="_blank" href="https://open.substack.com/pub/thestorytemple">The Story Temple</a> to help close out this Magician phase before we move into what’s next.Toward the end of this run, we’ll also start bringing Chiron into the mix.xoxo,Empress Theadora This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://themediocreblackwoman.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2">themediocreblackwoman.substack.com/subscribe</a>

18 MIN

The Mediocre Black Woman

Details

Recent Episodes