2025 gave you the theoretical foundation through The Elemental Writing Mysteries. You learned what Air, Fire, Water and Earth mean in compelling writing. You started to understand the framework.
Now it’s time to practice it. To apply it. To build mastery while protecting our voices.
Welcome to what 2026 has to offer — the year we write free.
The Gift of 2025
The Elemental Writing Mysteries (EWM) gave us language for what makes writing work across all genres.
Air governs vision and conceptual clarity.
Fire creates momentum and transformation.
Water flows through authentic emotion and connection.
Earth provides structure and technical foundation.
But as I moved through teaching the curriculum, something became clear to me.
I wasn’t simply teaching craft theory. I was watching Black writers navigate a publishing industry that’s somehow changed everything while at the same time changing nothing. It was still white-dominated, still policing our voices, still demanding assimilation. I was seeing in real time how writing culture harms Black and Brown writers. How “craft standards” mask cultural gatekeeping.
And I realized: The Story Temple needs to evolve. It needs to be more than just craft teaching. It needs to hold both systematic writing education AND the spiritual practices that grounds us. Because writing is memory. Writing is somatic. Writing is ancestral. You can’t separate craft from the body that creates it, or the culture that shapes it.
Theory alone wasn’t enough. You needed practical application. You needed context. You needed community.
And honestly? I was being led to build something bigger than a Substack publication. Something that could hold the vision forming itself through me — an institution for Black and Brown writers that teaches both craft excellence and cultural truth. A place where serious writing education meets spiritual wisdom. Where your voice doesn’t have to perform or prove.
Looking back through my journals from this year has shown me that 2026 isn’t simply the next phase of EWM’s curriculum, it’s the foundation year for what I intend to build.
The Three Pillars of 2026
The Story Temple will offer three integrated streams of content, each serving a different purpose in your development as a writer.
Pillar 1 - Elemental Writing Practice (EWP)
Working with the four elements in your daily creative process — drafting, revising, diagnosing and refining your work. This is the shift from understanding to application. From theory to practice. From knowing what the elements are to regularly using them as tools.
Rather than dedicating an entire month to a single element, we rotate through them consistently. This rhythm teaches you to tend all elements regularly, building the awareness that creates lasting integration.
Pillar 2 - Writing While Black (WWB)
Craft education in the context of oppression. The techniques general writing blogs and workshops don’t (and in most cases won’t) teach. Navigation strategies for hostile spaces. Specialized knowledge for Black writers navigating white-dominated publishing.
Please don’t assume this is “diversity content” for the sake of being polarizing and getting views. My intention and mission is to provide systematic teaching of both craft AND the cultural context we write within.
Each essay names what you’ve been experiencing and/or things I’ve seen in my work as an editor, teaches craft techniques (code-switching, AAVE, rage as complex emotion, strategic silence) and provides tools for protecting your voice while navigating spaces that want to flatten it.
EWP teaches the craft. WWB teaches the context. Both are essential. Together they create a holistic experience – technical excellence AND cultural awareness. Not just survival. Liberation.
A Note for White Readers
You’re welcome to read and learn along side us. But understand this space centers Black and Brown writers and our experiences. I won’t debate our reality. I won’t argue about whether racism exists in writing education because we all know it does. I won’t allow Black and Brown writers in this community to be tone-policed or have their experiences diminished. And I won’t tolerate white readers centering themselves in conversations about our craft and survival.
If that’s uncomfortable for you, you’re welcome to leave and unsubscribe. The discomfort you feel reading about racism is a fraction of what we experience navigating it daily while trying to create.
This work isn’t about you. It’s for us. Read accordingly.
Pillar 3 - Reflections from the High Priestess
My personal column where I share what I’m thinking and feeling as I build this institution, navigate my domestic and creative life, and process the work. This is where you get to see the human behind the teacher. The journey behind the curriculum. The doubts alongside the certainties.
I’ll write about pricing and embodying worth. Going into the underworld for shadow work. Finding business elders. Learning to rest without guilt. What my ancestors are showing me. Navigating resistance — my own internal resistace and resistance from others who have “opinions” about what I’m creating and building. Celebrating small wins. The loneliness of building something new. The moments when the vision feels too big to grasp.
I don’t do curated inspiration for clicks and views. This is me sharing real-time processing because many people have asked me about it. Vulnerability without performance. The behind-the-scenes of institutional building.
The first Reflection drops January 4th – my birthday – which feels deeply aligned for beginning this practice of truth-telling.
Why This? And Why Now?
First, because I was given an assignment by the Divine, and I am choosing to obey. But also, because the landscape we’re navigating isn’t getting easier.
The publishing industry grows more hostile to Black voices while claiming progress. AI threatens to flatten what makes us unique into algorithmic sameness. Writing education still polices our emotional expression, our cultural specificity and our authentic voices — just with more sophisticated language.
And more Black and Brown writers than ever are searching for education that sees them as a whole person. That teaches craft without demanding assimilation. That names the systems instead of gaslighting about “universal standards.”
My biggest takeway from the Ten-Point Program Zine Workshop hosted by Jacquie Verbal is that we can’t wait for traditional institutions to change. We must build what we need ourselves.
2025 laid the theoretical foundation. 2026 builds the practical application and the community infrastructure. This is the year the Temple becomes what it’s meant to be — not just a Substack newsletter, but an institution. A place Black and Brown writers can come for craft education that honors their cultural truth. For excellence without performance. For liberation through storytelling.
Side note: The purpose of that workshop was to create our own Ten-Point Program. I created one for The Story Temple. If you’re interested in reading it, let me know in the comments.
The Cards Speak: Past, Present, Future
While revising this piece, I felt called to pull some cards to read the energy of this transition. And what came through made me sit up straighter on my medicine ball (I don’t have a desk chair).
All three cards are Swords.
Swords – the suit of Air, intellect, clarity, communication. The very element that started this entire journey. When I first sat in meditation asking why I couldn’t get a grip on my client’s writing or my own, Spirit showed me Swords. That led me to Air. Air led me to discover Fire, Water and Earth. The whole framework emerged from that initial Sword energy.
And now, as I stand at the threshold of 2026, Swords return. Full circle. The element that birthed this work is the element carrying it forward.
Past: Two of Swords
Not knowing the next step. Not seeing the path forward clearly. I knew what I’d been called to do — build this institution, teach this framework, serve Black and Brown writers. But knowing your assignment doesn’t mean having all the answers.
The Two of Swords is that moment of blindfolded uncertainty. You’re holding both swords, balancing opposing forces, unable to see which direction to move. So you look within. That was 2025 for me. Teaching the Mysteries while simultaneously listening and discovering what the Temple wanted to become.
And look – the sun on this card is the same sun that appears on the Emperor card in this deck. My masculine energy, the force beneath everything I do. Even in my uncertainty, even in the dark, the Emperor’s authority and structure were there. Building. Organizing. Creating order from chaos. I just couldn’t see it yet because I normally operate within my feminine energy.
Present: Six of Swords
Transition. Movement from one place to another. And that rainbow – the promise that where I’m going is better than where I’ve been.
Look at the bottom of this card. Dark. Heavy. The swords pointing down into what looks like heavy rain. That’s the weight I’m leaving behind — the uncertainty, the isolation of building alone, the questioning whether I could really do this and do it well.
But the metaphorical boat is moving toward light. Toward that rainbow. Toward clarity and community and the institution being fully formed. The Six of Swords says: you’re in motion now. The transition has begun. Keep moving toward the light.
This is where I am now, at the end of 2025. I’m no longer fumbling in the dark. I’m in the boat. The journey is active. The destination is visible.
Future: Son/Knight of Swords
Swift. Precise. Direct. The Knight of Swords comes in with clarity and speed, cutting through confusion with sharp truth.
This energy makes me pause. Because I don’t want to move too fast. I don’t want to rush the teachings or force quick consumption. I’ve never wanted to do that. I want the work to sink in, to integrate, to transform. You can’t get that with fast-food content.
But in this context, the Knight isn’t about rushing. He’s about precision without hesitation. He’s about speaking truth without softening it. He’s about intellectual clarity delivered with confidence.
Look at the owl – it’s in motion. Wings spread in flight, the sword held tightly in its claws. There’s no hesitation in this card. No second-guessing. Its gaze is fixated on whatever it plans to use that sword for. The decision has been made and the action follows immediately.
That’s the energy 2026 requires of me. Not speed for speed’s sake, but bold clarity. No sugarcoating. No apologizing for the vision’s size. No hedging my truths to make them more palatable. The Knight of Swords doesn’t perform or dilute. He says what needs saying and trusts that the right people will receive it.
Swift information, yes. But also precise. Clean. True. The kind of teaching that cuts through the bullshit and gets to the truth.
Clarity doesn’t come before the movement. It comes THROUGH the movement. Through the doing. Through the teaching. Through the building.
Pull Your Own Cards
I invite you to do the same. Pull a three-card spread for your writing journey in 2026.
Past: What energy or pattern are you leaving behind?
Present: What transition are you in right now?
Future: What energy is calling you forward?
You don’t need to use tarot if that’s not your practice. Oracle cards work. Runes work. Even pulling three random words from a book and seeing what they tell you about your journey works.
The practice isn’t about the tools. It’s about creating space to listen. To ask. To receive guidance from whatever Source speaks to you.
What wants to emerge in your writing this year? What’s trying to be born through you?
The cards know. Your body knows. Your ancestors know.
Ask. Listen. Trust what comes through.
Then bring that energy into the Temple with you as you prepare to write free.
How to Engage
Enter as a Temple Visitor (Free)
Subscribe to receive all the teachings. The Elemental Writing Practice posts. The Writing While Black craft + context essays. Oracle transmissions. Access to The Foundation Hall with archived core teachings.
There’s no paywall on foundational education. Show up. Learn. Take what serves you. Share with other Black and Brown writers who need this.
This is how you begin.
Go Deeper (Temple Scholar - Paid)
When you’re ready for community and ongoing guidance:
Community & Support:
Temple Scholars Circle (monthly discussion thread with direct access to me)
Monthly Office Hours (craft Q&A through elemental lens)
Community space with other Black writers doing this work
Reflections from the High Priestess:
Biweekly personal column (think if it as my modified business journal)
Intimate behind-the-scenes of building the Temple
Real-time processing of creation, shadow work, resistance, celebration
Resources & Archive:
Complete 2025 EWM archive (theoretical foundation + labs)
Early access to new offerings
This tier is for writers who want community alongside curriculum. Who value processing space and ongoing guidance as they apply the teaching. Who are building sustainable practices and want support doing it.
Work With Me Directly
Beyond membership, you can work with me one-on-one:
Writer’s Essence Reading ($297 for comprehensive PDF / $497 with integration call)
Discover your elemental signature as a writer. Understand your creative design, dominant element, shadow element and how to work with your natural gifts. This is identity work, not manuscript feedback.
VIP Intensives ($1,497 for half-day sessions)
Breakthrough days for specific challenges. Creative Block Dissolution (shadow work + elemental diagnosis). Vision Clarity (crystallizing concept and premise). Both include 30 days of email support.
Manuscript Assessments ($497 for opening 10k words / $1,497-1,797 for complete manuscripts)
Full elemental diagnosis of your work. What’s strong, what needs development, strategic revision roadmap. My editorial expertise meets the framework you’re learning.
2026 is the year I’m stepping fully into my purpose. Not just writing educational content. But creating community. Not just teaching. But aiding in transformation and liberation.
2026 is the year we write free.
Questions? Thoughts? Feelings? Leave a comment below. I read and respond to everything.
Welcome home.
Lakeisha, High Priestess of The Story Temple
Reading your share made it clear I still don’t know “what I want to be when I grow up” 😆 I’m in love with Flow in all forms, whether it’s to write, to do a quick live stream, to share sound. I’m engaging with creativity after decades of telling myself I wasn’t creative.
I will be following your journey of creativity. 👏🏾😊
My son is also a January 4 born day 🥳😁🙏🏾
I am in love with your WWB offering, and with your statement about it for non-melanated folk. My sister's birthday is also January 4th!