When we arrived at únashay for our staff retreat in early November, we began with a grounding ritual on an outdoor stage. The co-creators of this ritual included The Emergence Network's core team (Aerin, Pooja and Austen, and their ancestors), the ancestral stewards of Abiquiu, playful desert spirits, winds that trickled through dying cottonwood, a chatty raven, aromatic sagebrush fields, and a pair of brazen wolves who only joined for our pistachios. After taking a moment to ground with the land and each other, we tuned into the spirit of ten using a tarot deck and our intuitions. We wanted to approach ten as we would a deity with openness, curiosity, and a deep desire to be led.  This is what ten had to say… 

A word from the spirit of ten

ten invites us to descend into liminality while also acknowledging the ruptures required for this descent. It acknowledges the roles limitation and scarcity play in human’s capacity to dream, and knows scarcity and play do not share a home. It encourages us to see the elements as collaborators that become activated when we acknowledge our power, and that through this collaboration, the world can be changed. And by world, it means our relationships— to the more-than, ourselves, each other, and the ideas we bring into this world. ten invites us to dance around the thorns and to play as a practice of mourning in motion. It also recognizes play as something many of us have forgotten, and reminds us that play is medicine. 
One of the main barriers that ten spoke to in the tarot reading was the five of pentacles, a card that touches on scarcity-mindset leading to a scarce reality. We’ve seen the rapid unfolding of this theme on individual, collective and system levels, and it has certainly been a companion of ten this year. It invites us to redefine what gets to be considered a “resource” and to explore how play might confront manufactured limitations. 
As we reflected on the messages in these cards, we began weaving this wisdom into felt reflections that will eventually become strategy. But prophesy is the practice of looking again and again. And we invite you to sit with us in reflection. 

  

Theme for 2026: Playful Inquiry 

After communing with the spirit of ten, we visited the Santa Fe National Park to commune with the Rio Chama, who helped us turn ten’s messages into a vision for the next cycle. What we realized is that many of us know that we need to be more playful, but we either don’t know how to play or we don’t have the community to cultivate a spirit of play.  So, in 2026, ten will be collaborating with other entities to co-create communal spaces where folks can gather in playful inquiry. Together, we will open our palms, emptying them of control and expectation to make room for the elements of surprise and curiosity. We will explore themes of inner play (how to embody an internal sense of playfulness) and community play. ten is especially curious about using play to sustain community and organizational bodies who are doing urgent work and are on the brink of burnout. Through playful inquiry with partners and communities, ten desires to not only become an ambassador for play, but also a disruptor of that which stagnates and restricts our movement towards intimacy with each other.  Though many of these offerings are still materializing, some seeds we are planting for 2026 include co-hosting smaller and more intimate in-person and virtual gatherings, community collaborations, community rituals, play intensives, and study groups. We will also continue to nurture our existing co-practice spaces and partnerships. We're excited to share more with you as these visions and collective spaces emerge in the coming months.  

  

Come play with us!  
Our invitation is infused with tenderness and vulnerability because we know it is no small thing to ask for — and receive — financial support during a time of restriction and limitation for so many. If you have donated funds, sent words of encouragement to our team, volunteered at our events and shared our offerings, we are incredibly grateful for your support. These are difficult times that call us to redefine what it means to fundraise and what gets to be considered a resource.  With two weeks left in our biannual fundraising campaign, Dancing in the Ashes, we have raised a little over 10% of our goal of $15,000USD. In order for ten to play, we need to raise money to create containers for playful inquiry and compensate our playmates. We humbly invite you to entrust ten with your support as we step into this new cycle with a spirit of openness, abundance, and radical trust. Donate to our fundraising campaign here.*  

Spilling with gratitude,
Aerin, Austen and Pooja ten Core team