iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

okay another poetry collection! this chapbook is such a precious object for me bc afaict it’s been out of print for like a decade and it contains one of my favorite love p(r)oems of all time! if it’s getting serious, there is a 100% chance i read this poem to you while eating a fruit together

Desire and the Scent of Guava by Jamie Berrout

“The scent of guava”

The scent of guava fills the apartment. You brought two guavas home and one of them is mine even without saying a word. Even without cutting into the fruit, in bed you smell of guava and, having stood so near you today, in bed I also smell of guava. Even the hall that separates us smells perfectly of that same curious, sugary flesh. I want you like the first bite of guava, I want you like every other bite of guava to come.

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i love this collection and come back to it all the time @sadqueer4life.bsky.social has such a skill with naming highly specific feelings—the first time i read this poem it made me cry at 6 AM on the bus to work i’ve read excerpts from this collection at TDOV/TDOR and quoted it at length to lovers

There Should Be Flowers by Jennifer Espinoza

“My First Love”

My first love was silence.
I built myself from scratch
and no one listened.
This was the best time of my life.
I used to carry the clothes
to the laundry room
and pray for all the fog
in the world to surround me.
I’d let my thoughts
catch rides
with the passing planes.
All that womanhood
caught in the roof of my mouth
was like honey.
I knew it would never
go bad
so I never said a word
about it.

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when it gets rough i often return to this book it was the first book i read by a trans person that’s not about being trans (which i didn’t realize was allowed) it’s a cozy, homey story about a community around a hālau hula in hilo aoki is such a talented setting illustrator, i DEVOUR her prose

He Mele a Hilo / A Hilo Song by Ryka Aoki

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shuly @shulyrose.com · 10/03/2025

i have an essay coming out later this week that i'm really excited for and proud of :) it's a long piece about one of the talismans i've been working with for the longest time (4 years this summer!) this is the astromagic stuff i'm most excited to share--i feel like there isn't enough of it!

A promo for an essay entitled "delighter in tricks: talismans of mercury with capella" superimposed over a picture of me with the talisman, a moss-agate pendant, around my neck

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without downloading any new pics, describe your gender:

A picture of a young crescent moon peeking out from between the branches of a live oak growing at my partner’s childhood home. It’s sunset and the sky is a vivid coral pink.

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shuly @shulyrose.com · 17/02/2025

one of the most valuable things i have done as a trans person is learn about our history and situate myself in the lineage of our ancestors people like us have ALWAYS been here there's a 2nd edition out now that's also very good but i'm always gonna have a soft spot in my heart for the 1st one <3

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shuly @shulyrose.com · 16/02/2025

get in loser we’re going to the smithy with a basket of turnips

The iconic “get in loser we’re going shopping” image from Mean Girls

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shuly @shulyrose.com · 12/02/2025

this is another trans book that came out the same year i did! it’s kind of sad and not that hopeful which really resonated tbh—esp back in those days of tumblr trans 101 when straight ppl barely knew we existed i think about it all the time still, esp when i inevitably encounter *another* egg

this was one of the first novels i encountered by a trans author when i was the new girl and @razorfemme.bsky.social basically broke my world open with this one it's a fairy tale for the dolls!!! it's about running away from the land of gloom to find your sisters (dangerous and wild as they may be)

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars : A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom

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when i came out i had never seen trans ppl in jewish culture this book taught me that actually we do have a role in jewish community (later i learned that there are TONS of us here!) i still think about rachel pollack's essay on being a trancesexual ("abandonment to the body's desire") constantly

Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish Community, edited by Noach Dzmura

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rachel pollack, may her memory be a blessing, was one of the original dolls this is the oldest trans book i own it was my first tarot book, a gift when i was in middle school it’s a guide to many different takes on the tarot—a classic! it took 10+ years before i learned she was trans like me

Rachel Pollack’s Tarot Wisdom: Spiritual Teachings and Deeper Meanings

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i’m gonna start with janet mock’s first book—i came out in 2013, it came out in feb 2014 no single written work has been more influential on me than this one bc it came to me exactly when i needed it it’s about her gender story but esp her relationship to Realness who gets to be a Real Woman?

A paperback copy of Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Mock

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shuly @shulyrose.com · 15/01/2025

inspired by @thetransfemininereview.com's discussion of archiving your trans microlibrary, im gonna do a thread about all the books ive loved written by trans authors over the next however long to start here's a nonexhaustive pile of the books written by trans authors i could find around my house 😌

A very tall stack of books containing:

Never Say You Can’t Survive - Charlie Jane Anders

Inheritance - Taylor Johnson

There Should be Flowers - Joshua Jennifer Espinoza

Surpassing Certainty - Janet Mock

Redefining Realness - Janet Mock

My Gender Workbook - Kate Bornstein

A Queer and Pleasant Danger - Kate Bornstein

Wrath Goddess Sing - Maya Deane

Tarot Wisdom - Rachel Pollack

Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom - Rachel Pollack

What is Gender Nihilism?

Stone Butch Blues - Leslie Feinberg

Nevada - Imogen Binnie

He Mele a Hilo / A Hilo Song - Ryka Aoki

Growing Through Concrete - Jessica Moore

Even This Page is White - Vivek Shraya

We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow, and other stories - Margaret Killjoy

Unquenchable Fire - Rachel Pollack

Catullus - Roz Kaveney

I’ve Got a Time Bomb - Sybil Lamb

78 Acts of Liberation - Lane Smith

On the bottom, a Jupiter in Pisces talisman made of pink jasper

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shuly-coded characters i have been deliberating this at such extensive length

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as diviners, we should be encouraging everyone to live well (isn't that the point of all this shit?) thru our art, we converse with the angels and even the gods themselves, surely we must try to set a good example now more than ever, everyone is watching how will you behave?

Text: Be faithful. Tenacious. Bear no one’s secrets. Instruct everyone to live well; be a good example yourself.

(large and in bold) Remember: conscience has a thousand witnesses.

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we must apply ourselves to be the best astrologers we can be—and don't forget to rejoice in the number of our friends! i think that's very moving and like, look, he could be catty too—he's not asking us to be saints but just to honestly love our art and the people who practice it with sincerity

Text: Love and be loved by others.

Love all the good and honest people who study this Art with sincerity. Rejoice in the number of your friends. In your studies, be all that you can be. Apply yourself. There’s no need to be extravagant or know a little about everything; focus your attentions.

lilly famously practiced using something we might call a sliding scale and, although he took questions from members of parliament, the majority of his horary files are questions posed by working-class women of the time he stresses the importance of honoring the divine nature of our art thru respect

Text: Don’t forget: even kings themselves are subject to the rule of the stars.

Give freely to those who cannot afford your services. Let no worldly wealth procure a dishonest judgment from you. Don’t treat others with contempt. Acknowledge your teachers, be friendly to your colleagues, and do not dishonor the Art.

something i greatly respect about lilly is his humility at one point in time he was one of the most knowledgeable astrologers in europe, yet he often called himself "a student in astrology" til the day he died this letter is meant for himself, too in this letter i saw a code of conduct

Text: Learn the ornaments of virtue: Be humane. Courteous. Familiar to all. Accessible.

Do not afflict the miserable with harsh judgment—instead, let them know their hard fate by degrees. Be well-informed. Be reasonable and cool-headed. Become skilled in your art, but remain modest. Beware of pride and self-conceit.

william lilly was the first astrologer i immersed myself in at the beginning of his studies and he opens his 17th century textbook with this letter to the student in astrology, a call to action for astrology students i attempted to rework it into a more accessible form as a frame to my own work

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