Ok, so how the fuck do you actually let the soft animal of your body love what it loves?

What is Soft Animal Magic?

A framework of nervous system magic for witches & weirdos in rebel bodies who want to expand their capacity to feel & receive so they can take radical risks in their relationships and creative lives and embody the world they most want to live in—WITHOUT burning out, feeling shame, getting overwhelmed, or doing it all alone.

Soft Animal Magic is designed to help you:

  • Rewrite your nervous system story.

  • Orient towards resource & support.

  • Expand your capacity to feel & receive.

  • Take bold creative & relational risks toward liberation.

The vibe? Imagine if The Artist's Way was written by a radical Autistic witch through a decolonial & anti-capitalist lens, and focused on disability justice & neurodivergent liberation.

(Pretty sick, right??)

What Is Soft Animal Magic?

Weaving together animism & witchcraft, anti-capitalism & neuroqueer liberation, and somatics, the Soft Animal Magic framework is:

  • Accessible: Starts small & goes slow—because this is hard work and life is already hard enough.

  • Adaptive: Meant to be adapted to your particular circumstances, needs, capacities, visions, values.

  • Archetypal: Uses symbols & imagery from the Tarot and folk stories to ground & illustrate aspects of lived experience.

  • Cyclical: Healing & thriving according to the cycles & rhythms of nature.

  • Elemental: Rooted in the four elements that create & sustain all of life.

  • Fractal: The same principles work at different scales, in the way that the shape of a snail's shell is the same as the shape of a galaxy.

The Soft Animal Magic Origin Story

I am a queer Autistic witch who's made it her life's work to answer the question, Why is it so fucking hard for me to do the things I want to do?

I looked absolutely everywhere for the answer. 

I practiced Christian contemplation and Buddhist meditation. I studied yoga philosophy and became a yoga therapist. I trained as a somatic trauma practitioner. I did the witch thing, learning to read tarot and to manifest with the moon. I was in trauma therapy for 6 years. I read ALL of the goddamn books.

(Seriously. All of them.)

As it turns out, none of these modalities were equipped to give me the answer I actually needed, which is that I am multiply neurodivergent (Autism, ADHD, gifted), and, therefore, disabled.

(A truly wild thing to find out in my mid-forties.)

So I set out to create the body of work of my witchy, trauma-nerdy, pattern-seeking, systems-building, empire-burning, complexity-loving dreams.

It's called Soft Animal Magic. 

This work taught me that being in relationship with my neurocomplexity and disability, as opposed to treating them like a riddle I needed to solve, is the key to the embodiment, belonging, freedom, and joy I'd been so desperately seeking for so long.

My life has completely changed as a result: I am at home in my body, I am at peace with myself, I have learned how to rest, and how to create a functional, accessible, cozy & sparkly life for myself.

And I have a fierce and unshakeable faith that it can do the same for you.

The elements of Soft Animal Magic

— Soft Animal Triad

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— Soft Animal Triad *

The Soft Animal Triad introduces us to the protagonists of our story: the Wild Soul, the Soft Animal, and the Safe Caregiver. A magical take on the concept of parts work, the Triad helps us relate to the parts of us that have different desires, needs, and fears, and begin to understand how they can work together instead of pulling us in opposing directions.

— Soft Animal Anatomy

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— Soft Animal Anatomy *

The Soft Animal Anatomy outlines the principles of how nervous system change works. The Change Spiral draws a rough map of how we can go from a new experience, to the creation of a different sense of meaning, and finally a shift in our bodyminds’ expectations, all of which has the potential to actually change our nervous system capacity.

— The Spiral Path

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— The Spiral Path *

The Spiral Path breaks down what kinds of experiences facilitate transformation in the nervous system, how to create them, and what kinds of resources can support and inspire us along the way. Each step in the Spiral Path corresponds to one of the four elements: we RESOURCE with the Earth element; we IGNITE with the Fire element; we FLOW with the Water element; and we DIGEST with the Air element.

Free Field Guide *

Free Field Guide *

Download the free zine, A Field Guide to Soft Animal Magic

Thank you,

Mary Oliver

Deepest bows of gratitude to Mary Oliver, Patron Saint of Soft Animals, whose life and words are a primary inspiration for Soft Animal Magic. May this body of work honor your spirit & memory.