Glimmers: When the Magic Doesn't Math

Capricorn brain, Casting Directors and the third manifestation moment nobody talks about - proof not fulfillment, aka the glimmer. Plus a New Moon in Cancer!

The Latest

I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July. It’s pretty wild to think about it being America’s 250th birthday. For those of you reading this in Europe, I know 250 years probably doesn’t sound that old — and honestly, that’s something I think about a lot. On one hand, 250 years feels like a really long time. But as someone who spends a lot of time in Europe and has a European husband, I’m always in awe of how much history is built into places like Paris, Rome, or London (where I recently visited). Walking down those streets, you can feel hundreds of years of it.

One of the things I feel about the U.S. sometimes is that I wish we’d preserved more of the earlier architecture. Growing up on the East Coast, you can find bits and pieces of that, but living in California now I really admire how Europe holds onto its style.

When you visit, you get a real sense of what it might have been like to live there hundreds of years ago, down to how everything was designed.

Anyway, we had a lovely Fourth. We hung out with local friends, let the kids play in the backyard, and did a potluck where everyone brought something. I brought my usual red, white, and blue salad, which changes a little every year depending on what “red, white, and blue” means to me at the time.

In more mundane news: we’re attempting potty training this weekend, so please send some sanity our way. I’ve been trying to figure out if there’s ever really a “right” time, but I don’t think there is — he’s showing all the signs of being developmentally ready, so we’re just ripping off the Band-Aid. We’ll see how it goes.

Nothing intimidates me quite like my two-year-old boss man.

The Reflection

Earlier this week, on Monday, I had one of the most beautiful, serendipitous, kismet moments — the kind that reminds you of a few different spiritual principles I wanted to share with you.

I think when we want something really badly, even while we’re doing all the manifestation work for it, it can still feel like nothing’s happening.

We’ve talked before about embracing the lulls, finding trust and surrender when you’re not seeing external proof yet. And we’ve talked about the flip side, too: when a ton of physical manifestation comes in all at once. This week felt like something in between those two and maybe the most magical version of all: those glimmers of affirmation that let you know your higher power is hearing you.

The moments where things sync up in a way that feels undeniable — like the universe, God, your angels, your guides, whichever you resonate with, has your back.

Here’s what happened: I’d recently taken a class with a casting director for a soap opera here in L.A. — it was a great class, and I felt good about my work in it. At one point she was talking about the different soaps that shoot in L.A., and mentioned that Greg at “The Young and the Restless” had recently been promoted to head of casting. It was just an offhand comment, but it landed with me because Greg and I go way back. My very first soap opera was “One Life to Live”, shooting in Connecticut, right after I graduated college.

I played a waitress in the bar the characters always frequented. I had no lines for a while, and then once they got to know me, they’d throw me a line or two every so often. It wasn’t a big deal but I really loved coming to set every week regardless.

That show is really what opened the door to daytime for me.

I think people who don’t work in the industry can be quick to dismiss soap operas — “that’s what your grandma watches” (mine loved “Days of Our Lives”) and yes, the plots are dramatic. But soap operas have changed a lot, and what people don’t see is the sheer skill it takes to work in daytime.

A regular TV show might shoot four or five pages on an ambitious day. In daytime, you can shoot up to sixteen. Actors have to walk onto set fully memorized, and often the first take has to be usable, because there isn’t always room for multiple takes. I’ve always loved that about it — I think it’s why so many actors who go on to bigger things cut their teeth on soaps. It’s an incredible training ground.

So, I’d known Greg from back then. We’d reconnected briefly around potential work on “Young and the Restless”, right before Hudson was born (I mentioned I was heavily pregnant, which in hindsight probably didn’t help my case).

We hadn’t spoken since.

But over the weekend, I found myself thinking about him a lot, genuinely happy for him, proud of how far he’d climbed. I even wondered, should I email him to congratulate him? Is that weird, this long after the fact?

Monday morning, I had thirty minutes to myself before Hudson woke up. Coffee in hand, red light mask on, I thought, “I’m just going to write him.”

Two sentences into that email, I got an alert from my manager: an audition from Greg, for a recurring role on “Young and the Restless”.

I was floored.

In that moment, whatever the actual timeline was on his end, whenever he sent it, however long it took my manager to forward it - the fact that we’d clearly been in each other’s consciousness at the same time felt enormous.

It was pure serendipity.

We hadn’t spoken in over two years. Sure, my agent and manager submit me for things constantly, but out of all those years, this was the day it landed. The same day I was sitting there feeling nothing but genuine joy for him.

It reminded me of a principle I have to come back to again and again: manifestation isn’t linear. In the metaphysical, one plus one doesn’t have to equal two …sometimes it equals a thousand.

We think we’re supposed to climb a ladder, step by step, action by action, and eventually arrive.

And look, I have so many Capricorn placements (10th house, moon, Venus) that I *am* wired to be a ladder-climber. Those earthly actions do matter. But they’re not always as linear as we think.

Actually, here’s another example I didn’t even think of until I started writing this: I’d booked that casting class before the casting director had any access to our headshots or reels — she doesn’t see that until the day of.

But she’d already called me in, for the first time two weeks earlier, for a great role. Another case of being in someone’s energy before the “logical” connection had even been made.

This is something I think about a lot with casting directors generally. They only have so many audition slots, so much time to watch self-tapes. Once they’ve met you, once they know you deliver a solid tape, they trust you more.

It’s one less variable when they’re trying to fill a role. So I love taking these classes with casting directors I haven’t worked with yet. It’s a chance for them to think, “okay, this person’s not a wildcard, she’s talented, she has a good work ethic”, even before there’s something on the table.

What really struck me about this particular role is that it’s exactly the kind of part I’ve been visualizing — small but recurring, appearing across multiple episodes.

That kind of role takes real credibility to land, but it’s a more attainable stepping stone toward a series regular role, which is the bigger, harder ask (there’s my Capricorn brain again, trying to make it linear.)

And even as I catch myself doing that, I want to correct it because yes, this felt like an affirmation that what I’ve been visualizing is possible.

But the real work is trusting that these glimmers just mean it’s on its way, not that it has to arrive by the exact route we plotted.

I see this with the women I work with around relationships, too. They’ll meet someone who has some of what they want — maybe qualities they’ve never dated before — and then something else won’t line up: different city, doesn’t want kids, whatever it is.

It’s easy to write that off as a manifestation that “failed.”

I don’t see it that way. I think those moments are the universe showing you that what you want exists, that you can have it, even if this specific version isn’t the one that sticks. It’s proof, not the final answer.

Which brings me to the last piece of this, the part I almost missed myself:

we have to let ourselves have these moments as proof that things aren’t linear.

You can get an incredible audition out of nowhere.

Any opportunity out of nowhere.

You can meet your future husband at a coffee shop on a random Tuesday.

The math doesn’t always have to math, but if you’re holding the vision, trusting the process, embodying the feeling of already having it, it can show up in ways you didn’t engineer.

Can you let your thoughts linger in the positive “what ifs”? Because our energy, our openness, our magnetism toward anything is directly tied to our thoughts about it.

Which brings me to my last spiritual lesson from all of this: a line from “A Course in Miracles” that has stuck with me for years, through many rounds of teaching it and working the workbook:

“no thoughts are private thoughts.”

People can’t read your mind, but they can feel it. If you’re holding positive energy toward someone, thinking well of them, living in that open, magnetic, grateful space, I believe that shifts what people feel from you.

Honestly, it didn’t even occur to me to resent Greg for two years of silence — that’s just not how my brain works. My energy toward him was detached, understanding, genuinely happy for his success. And I think on some level, he could feel that.

I notice this myself, having had a podcast and a following for a while now, you can feel from a mile away when someone’s energy toward you is “what can you do for me.” Two people can say the exact same words to me, and I can feel the difference between “this could be a fun collaboration” and “how many followers can I extract from this.” We all have that sixth sense, even if we can’t always name it.

So this was also a reminder to stay in gratitude for the people around you in your industry, whatever that industry is.

To take the “mountaintop view,” which is also very “Course in Miracles”.

If you’re interviewing for a job, remember the HR person sifted through five hundred resumes to get to you.

If you’re collaborating with someone, try to see their side of the street.

It matters.

The moral of the story: I hope this renews some of your faith in the magic that’s possible when you do this work, because it renewed mine. Opportunities can find you out of the blue.

Keep your energy and your thoughts open, receiving, optimistic, and grateful.

Currently Obsessed With

This one’s a little harder this week — I’m not obsessed with anything too new, but I am *living* for audiobooks right now. As a mom of a toddler, sometimes my sanity depends entirely on having one playing in the background. I like to oscillate between fun, romantic fantasy, and self-help.

On the fiction side, I just finished a duology by Rachel Schneider, “Fire and Metal” and “Light Wielder”. A really fun, magical escape, the kind of thing I love listening to at the end of the night with my eyes closed, or while I’m cleaning up Hudson’s toys after he goes to bed.

On the nonfiction side, I listened to “Bending Reality” by Victoria Song. A good read, though I can’t say I learned anything new. More of a solid refresher if you’re already well-versed in manifestation. I love books like that anyway, different ways of saying the same spiritual principles, because none of us are perfect and we all need the reminder.

The one I truly loved was “The Way of the Rose” by Clark Strand and Perdita Finn.

I found the physical copy at a bookshop in London (Treadwell’s iykyk) , but bought the audiobook immediately because I wanted to start it right away. I love wandering a city with an audiobook in my ears, popping into little shops and cafés (I also bought some beautiful used tarot decks from that same bookstore, just to support them). “The Way of the Rose” is this magical journey through the rosary, shared in a way that goes beyond traditional Catholicism. If you’re even a little intrigued, I highly recommend it.

Ready to have audiobooks change your life too? Use this link to try Audible!

The Cosmic Download

We’ve got a new moon in Cancer coming up on the 14th (next Tuesday). Since we won’t talk again before then, here’s the download now.

Cancer is our most intuitive, emotional sign, so this is a beautiful time to tune into what’s coming up emotionally, and what boundaries you need to feel safe, happy, and nourished.

I think of Cancer as the mother of the zodiac — this new moon is about mothering yourself. What self-care, what changes do you need to make to take care of yourself the way a devoted mother would? Is there anything you need to say no to because it’s spreading you too thin? Anyone you need firmer boundaries with because you feel drained after time with them?

And because it’s such a “home” energy, this is also a great time to set intentions around your literal home, and your home life: family, parents, roommates, whatever that means for you right now.

What do you need to feel more secure and at peace there?

As always with Cancer, the way to know where to set your intentions is to check in with how they *feel*. If you’re setting a goal.. say, working out every day..ask yourself:

does that feel good because I want it, or because I think I should do it?

If the day-to-day of a goal feels exhausting and draining rather than nourishing, that’s worth noticing. The right intentions should feel joyful, not like punishment.

xx,

Cass

PS: Paid subscribers, per usual, below you can see your personalized insights on where this Cancer New Moon is hitting your chart by rising sign, plus a journal prompt and ritual just for you! Happy Manifesting! :)