What Is Cyclical Roots?

Creations for radicle self-awareness & collective wellbeing.
Reminders of our interconnected nature.

Where we find stability in the ever-changing cycles of it all.
Spaces for rest, contemplation, & renewal
to deepen our connection to nature, ourselves, & one another.

Cyclical Roots™ is a movement; an ongoing, ever-evolving collaboration between artist Rachael Amber, Earth & Spirit. It is both a home for creation, as well as a liminal space of in-betweenness that welcomes anyone who resonates.

Cyclical Roots is a reminder of our resources, our contradictory nature, and the potential that lives between all form and fluidity; deep beneath the surface, deep into our ever-changing bodies of being.

Through Cyclical Roots, we create tools and space for rest & contemplation to deepen our connection to nature, ourselves, & one another.

Cyclical Roots is a reminder of our inherent resources, our contradictory nature, and the potential that lives between all form and fluidity; deep beneath the surface, deep into our ever-changing bodies of being.

It is both a home for creation, as well as a liminal space of in-betweenness that welcomes anyone who resonates.

It's the way in which rings of sapwood inside a tree create a current flowing down to the roots – granting growth through grounding for oneself and in communal reciprocity.

It's the way in which the rooted tree's body is only given growth through the seasons and cycles of all elements and nutrients in interdependence – its stability is a part of the whole.

It's how a tree stump shows the cycles at its core, and despite suffering and disruption, life continues in a never-ending cyclical form. Rebirth is a part of the cycle of decay.

We have a lot more in common with the trees and other sentient beings than we often think or are told.

It's also the lunar legacy of the dance between orbiting spheres, reminding us of relationality beyond the seen.

As Octavia Butler said it best, "The only lasting truth is Change."

...it's the anchor of the body in a world of thought.
...it's the turbulent tides beneath the consistency of the moon.
...it's the part of you that knows the land yet is made of stardust.
...it's the voice within sentience within trees and our body parts.
...it's your fearless fluidity within rooted reality.

At the core of it all there are roots that ground us within the ever-changing cycles and spirals of life. There is pattern, ritual, trauma, tradition, and newness. There are seasons and weather, there is change together.

Beyond the linear and binary, we find truth encircled at our rooted cores - held within the orbit of a greater whole.

Our cyclical roots are both individual and collective - caring for where we stem from in order to branch out and care for a greater wholistic wellness.

Because transformative healing isn't something that happens overnight, or linearly, or just on the surface.

If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that knowing something and embodying it are two very different things. 

I've known about cyclical living for decades, practiced it for years and yet have only recently begun to truly embody it. And it's a never-ending process - it's actually a practice we show up for each day. That's why it's cyclical - and it's also foundational. No amount of thinking, planning, doing or trying will work until we go beneath the surface to root causes and support systems.

The cycles are what helped me find my roots.

For everything begins and ends within a cycle.

Born under a full moon that I bled under each month, I was reminded that I am meant to notice. I am meant to create - safe space and supportive structures, and connective tools to bring us home to our bodies & earth bodies.

And I had been doing so, or at least trying my very best to. I had been directly advocating for the environment and my mental health and more. But I was doing so screaming from the inside out - kicking and fighting without a ground.

So I’m thankful some spark or spirit lit me up that October evening and pushed me to create the tool I so desperately needed to slow down, to notice, to give myself the space I had been giving to everything and everyone else.

We all do it for good purpose - we are taught to be givers, grievers and goal-makers.

But what about our roots? What about where it all stems from?

I have learned and still continue to learn that our rooted foundations are the prerequisite for any possibility of sustainably living in balance with the self we perceive as separate from the other.

It’s true we can harm others when we are stuck in separation, defense or ego. But most of all we hurt ourselves from our true chances of connection.

Our web of connection is our stasis, still ever-changing but balanced in reciprocity and mutual interdependence. How we connect is as important as connecting at all.

So we show up messy. I showed up messy and made what I could in a crunch time before the new year. And then I improved it as I improved my self-awareness and cyclical discoveries. I was learning to flow within structures - breaking down patterns of generational trauma alongside mental health pathways and the physical and spiritual reaction to it all.

And I’m still messy sometimes, but I have this guidepost always bringing me back. The spine of a book that continues to be written - the book of my body. And that’s what Cycles Journal is - a book of the body to bring us back down onto this Earth body so we can exist how we are meant to - connected with our senses, aware enough to be present, and digging things up from the roots to replant them anew.

Without conspiring with the roots we cannot holistically heal or branch out from our own limited view point. I find this true for all for all bodies we are trying to honor and heal - our bodies, social bodies, and the Earth´s body.

We need an anchor to ground into - the Earth, plants and our bodies teach us this.
We also need a mirror to reflect upon - the moon & stars show us this.

From grounded observation a way forward is reflection. There is growth in looking up and outside of ourselves and our experiences and circumstances.

The roots we were born with, the nature and nurture, the habits and rituals and addictions and dreams… they are our starting point.

The cycles are our pivot point. The moon lights the way.

Great teachers of Earth wisdom and the lessons of mindfulness exist in humans and other sentients, and from this place I am guided and called to share, continue, and practice trusting in the cyclical, impermanent methods of noticing and slowing, growing and flowing.

From this place it was never just for myself - but for the greater web. The cosmic womb. The earthen tomb we live in. This gift of life that we are learning to navigate - not alone or all at once, but slowly, cyclically…

The Earth below and the cosmos above are great teachers and reminders of where we come from.

Yet where we came from we have not left - so we continue to find rituals that bring us back to the homes in our bodies and in our environment and within other humans and creatures.

Honor your phases, attune to the seasons. The weather within and without is just another layer in the cycles that keep us interconnected.

This faith and remembrance is what the water and land bodies on this planet needs; this is a practice of cyclical mindfulness.

Embodied living, intuited activism, cyclical being, Earthen dreaming…

May it start with us, and ripple out to support the collective healing - and may that begin on our planet who we heal when we heal and who heals us when we are Here.

The journey continues to be embodied through our bodies and Earths'.
Ecology is what helps uproot trauma and heal holistically.
It all comes back to Earth and the other spheres in the sky.

Focusing in on the menstrual cycle was and is an essential layer for someone with a bleeding womb like myself to recognize first. Yet there are so many other layers that are just as important for all of us. We can all honor this original cycle that allows us all to be here, and then tune into the layers of hormones, sleep, dreams, seasons, emotions, and other embodied rhythms.

It all connects and comes back to the elements we are made of.

The study of cycles and bodies is an act of de-isolation, reintegration, and ecological co-creation.

When you know your cycles, you touch the Earth.
When you touch the Earth, you are held.
The Earth, Nature, can be found in trees, stones, rivers and you.

Listen to the land beyond and within. Listen to the unexplainable, intangible and uncomfortable.

We each are given a path and a center point within the cycles of our inner & outer connected nature.

Cyclical Roots is a home, a space, a collection to hold all the offerings and tools I create with this intention in my heart. This is the tree from which all else branches... welcome.