To Dare Together, with Erin O'Brien

Hello friend! Welcome, my name is Erin O'Brien, and I'm daring to create and hold space for decolonized healing, transformation, and collective liberation. I'm a licensed psychotherapist for over 20+ years, a relationship counselor, a spiritual intuitive, a shadow worker, and witch, and I believe that true therapuetic practice, calls for right-action and remembers all the ways of wellbeing. This is a place that will remember the old truths and reconnect them to their land and to their people. Together, we will unite the relational, social, spiritual, psychological, energetic, ancestral, scientific, environmental, political, and magickal, because they are most powerful when working as a sacred whole ~ AS ARE WE! 2026 is a time To Dare to create the world that we've been dreaming of. To Dare to be the dream we have been waiting for... Let’s do it.

Together, we will restore right-relationship to ourselves, to each other, to the land, and to the Divine. We will seek to know the truth in the depths, and dare to tune into the wisdom and pleasure of our bodies. To honor the places that hold pain and renewal. To descend and arise, transformed in the cycle of death and regeneration. To reenchant the world around us from a truly embodied and integrated place. To be in honest connection where liberation, love, equity, accountability, repair, beauty, joy, gratitude, sensuality, generosity, prosperity, dignity, and reverence for all life on earth is at the heart of our community.

We will dare to align our body, heart, mind, soul, and spirit. Ready to couragousely examine our original and chosen families, relationships, communities, cultures, systems in society, intergenerational patterns, ancestral wounds and wisdom, and the great expanse of our collective. Because when we are together, we will seek to know what is true. We will alchemize and transform, knowing that our fates are inevitably intertwined with one another. So let’s will it together. Our bodies hold so much intelligence if we just slow down enough to listen. When we know how to keep silent and just be, just breathe, just listen, we know how to summon our greatest powers of transformation.

My offering each episode will be a combination of solo explorations and deep dives with other like-hearted therapists, space-holders, embodied healers, spiritual intuitives, magickal practitioners, artists, abolitionists, astrologers, visionaries, witches, and more.

We will focus on embodiment, trauma integration, and nervous system regulation. We will work with our unconscious/shadow to illuminate what needs to be transmuted or released. We will dismantle our internalized systems of dominance and extraction so we resonate with the reciprocity and abundance of life. We will understand how colonization wounds are at the core of our dis-ease and disembodiment. We will create ways of relating that promote connection, celebrate differentiation, respectfully move through conflict, and preserve each other's dignity. We will conjure the wisdom of our ancestors to strengthen our communal spaces. We will create rituals to attune with the cycles of nature, lunar rhythms, astrology, and the wheel of the year. We will do pathworkings and divination, and so much more. Are you ready To Go?

Once again, THIS IS THE TIME To Dare to create the world that we've been dreaming of. To Dare to be the dream we have been waiting for... Let’s be it together.

“As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul.” – unknown

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To Dare Together, with Erin O'Brien

Rare Black Moon Invitation

August 23, 2025 • Erin O'Brien, LPC, LLC

0:00 | 18:29

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Today we explore this rare lunation of the Black Moon, which offers the perfect opportunity to acknowledge what's been buried and transform it into something that can be planted and nourished. What hidden aspects of yourself are waiting to be claimed as seeds of possibility?

Join me in this special episode and discover what the darkness has to reveal. Open your eyes, open your mind, and acknowledge yourself fully in the spirit of the Black Moon.

Welcome to the Black Moon

Speaker 1 0:25

Hello and welcome back . Get ready to dare together , truth seeking in the depths for healing , transformation and collective liberation . My name is Erin O'Brien . I'm a licensed psychotherapist , in practice for over 20 years , intuitive healer , relationship counselor and , dare I say , witch . So it has been , I think , maybe three weeks since my last recording .

Speaker 1 0:54

I'm recording today , and it is August 22nd , and I wanted to make this recording because today is going to be a rare lunation , a rare event called the Black Moon , which is also the Dark Moon and also the New Moon . But what makes the Black Moon special is that it is a second New moon in a calendar month , or it's the third new moon in a season where there are four new moons . So it's a seasonal black moon or a calendar black moon . So why is this special ? Well , it doesn't happen all the time , so that's worth taking note of , and we are officially leaving Leo season today and entering

Understanding Virgo Season

Speaker 1 1:52

Virgo season . This black moon will occur at , I believe it's 2.06 Eastern Time , 2.06 Eastern Time , and I am in the Mid-Atlantic region , in the Antartal Island or the United States , and I wanted to make this recording . It's going to be brief because I actually am participating in a dark moon ritual tonight with my coven . It's a public event and we are going to be doing lots of things involving releasing and some shadow work and all the potent , magical spiritual things that one can do during this particular time of the lunar cycle .

Speaker 1 2:49

And I wasn't actually I actually don't have time to be doing this recording . I'm really sort of squeezing it in and this is a part of what I do and this is a part of what I do , but I felt really called to put this out there because something about the timing of this black moon and when the last black moon occurred , which was on May 19th of 2023 . 19th of 2023 . And I don't know what about that date , might resonate with whoever is meant to hear this or whatever that is supposed to rhyme with the larger , uh , collective lunation cycles and astrological rhythms , cause , as we know , with astrology it rhymes when there's a repeat of a particular event . But I just kept getting nudged that I had to put this out there . I had to name this little bit more about Virgo and certainly the potent spirituality that is available for this rare black moon that is happening technically August 23rd , technically tomorrow , because on our time it's 2 0 , 6 AM and it also is happening in different parts of the world today , august 22nd .

Speaker 1 4:30

So the thing that is really interesting about the second new moon in a calendar month , or the third new moon in a season that has four , is the energy is deeply spiritual and this black moon arrives sort of moving out of Leo season , that fiery season . That is all about authenticity and your role in the revolution , like what is your role in collective liberation . What do you need to be focusing on for your own personal transformation and healing ? What are the things that might be relevant happening today , tonight ? That took place on May 19th of 2023 ? And I looked up that date to see kind of what was going on in the news and world events and there's a lot there . You can certainly do your own research and my sense is that this is about personal

Right Relationship and Shadow Work

Speaker 1 5:35

returning . So I'm not sure about what that's going to mean for anyone who happens to come across this and when , but something about that date you all we all are meant to spend some time exploring or returning to , or maybe there's a hidden lesson or gift that we're meant to continue to alchemize . So Virgo season is an earth sign and we're moving into Virgo season technically today .

Speaker 1 6:12

Virgo season is an energy that can really land in the practical rhythms and patterns . It's an earthy sign . It invites energy , exploring your body , how you're handling the logistics of what makes your manifestation or how you nourish your earthly realms . And the interesting thing about Virgo it's we have some things to look forward to . On September 21st there's going to be a solar eclipse coming up in Virgo season and , you know , looking at our habits , looking at refining these processes that make our world move forward , right . So something that I'm also tuning into is how Virgo can be , you know , very intentional , um , and really interested in looking at how to make the world better , how to make your life work better , um , in the practical ways that you can , uh , and it's a mutable sign . So , um , there's a lot of power in the details of how you are creating , uh , ritual , creating intention , um , healing practices , all of that .

Speaker 1 7:47

Speaking of practices , I have been doing some practice within my larger tradition , in particular with getting in touch with deities and things of that nature , and we have different ways of kind of tuning in and different spiritual practices . And has to do with sovereignty and is really connected in with my ancestry to Ireland and the native peoples of that land and coming in really strongly around , being in right relationship and just coming in over and over about being in right relationship means doing that first inside . And where are the places that replicate the same harms outside outside ? How are we perpetuating those ? And shadow work in particular is ongoing . We're never done . And this lunation , this black moon , is beautiful for that type of work .

Speaker 1 9:21

And I'll also say that I know I mentioned on an earlier episode that I wanted to be all about the truth and speaking from a place of my own authenticity and vulnerability and certainly moving more into conversations with other folks and having them , you know , uplifting those voices . And I actually made a commitment in a sacred space not too long ago with my coven during a rededication experience that we do about really wanting to uplift the voices of healing and personal stories of healing and those within my community and what I feel also would be useful to share . I don't want to share it . I can feel that coming in , I'm like , ooh , I got to go to this ritual that's happening at 630 and it's exactly 456 . And it's exactly 4.56 . So it feels timely because this is how I've discovered my rhythms , my brain works and I'm coming out of the closet , so to speak .

Speaker 1 10:43

I for so long experienced myself as highly sensitive , certainly , you know , feeling very Scorpio that always really resonated with me and very Gemini , all those kinds of things and really you know an empath and having some different ways that that comes in and communicates with my body , how I get different downloads and all of that . And what I realized is , as I've been on this journey with my child which I know I shared briefly in a past episode , briefly in a past episode that my kiddo has actually , you know , formerly been recognized as a little one who has beautiful neurodivergence and we need that , especially right now . And I've been really reflecting on all that was there for me and how . It was a bit of a shock and I am firmly rooted in neuro-expansiveness , neuro-inclusion , neuro-divergence is essential , diversity is essential , all the things . And somehow that just really hit me a bit and I was worried about him . And what has come through in the last little while is my real revelation that I too am not a neurotypical human being . I am , yes , highly sensitive , all the things , very emotionally intense , very empathic , all of those things are true . And I am also a neuro-exp , neuro expansive , spicy , divergent human .

Speaker 1 12:52

So , at this time of the rare black moon , which is a time where , unlike the full moon , where everything is revealed and illuminated , this is a moment of looking into the realms that are harder to see , and naming them and claiming them . And when you feel like maybe something is buried , how can you turn it into something that's going to be actually planted ? So you , you , you dig it out and you look at it and you realize , oh , you were hidden . You were in there , so hidden , so deep down , and whoa , you're actually a beautiful

Turning Over the Final Stone

Speaker 1 13:50

seed of possibility . And so now that I've uncovered you , let me replant you and let me acknowledge you and see how you actually make my garden whole , because now I know where you are and I know that you're growing , and now that I've discovered you , I can help nourish you so you can thrive and blossom and offer whatever bounty you're meant to for the collective , for myself and my family . So I'm really into the summer harvest right now .

Speaker 1 14:38

Apparently , all this to say , I need to probably wrap this recording up . I knew it was going to be short and I want to offer this moment of sharing what was in the depths of my darkness at this time of the black moon , invite you to reflect on May 19th of 2023 . Someone out there is meant to connect to that and I've just I was not about to leave my office without , uh , putting this out there with that particular connection , to see what rhymes for you , what what's meant to kind of be uncovered in the spirit of the black moon energy . So I'm going to leave that here . I'm not sure how much I'm going to keep what I'm going to gently remove . I'm going to try to be courageous and leave a lot in . I have to scurry off now and get myself to this amazing dark moon ritual that my coven me planned and designed and created . So , yes , I will be making another episode soon .

Speaker 1 16:08

It's been a busy month , a very busy month and a month of discovery , for sure . So I want to acknowledge the deity that I work with , the Morrigan , who , in several recent divination practices , was quite direct with me and kind of called me out on like you're being stubborn , like you've turned over all the stones , my dear , this is the last one that you refuse to turn over . So here's to turning over that stone . Let's do that together . Yeah , okay , blessed black moon . Blessed black moon . Take the time and see what's there that you haven't seen , that you won't see ? Open your eyes and look , open your mind , acknowledge yourself . Anyway , all right , I'm your host , erin O'Brien , licensed psychotherapist in practice for 20 plus years , intuitive healer , relationship counselor

Closing and Black Moon Blessings

Speaker 1 17:38

and , dare I say , witch . So this witch has got to get moving . I'm going to be late , which apparently comes with the territory of my particular flavor of neuro-expansiveness . As above , so below . As within , so without , as the universe , so the soul . Bye for now , thank you .