Ta Da!

Announcing the renewal and relaunch, the cosmic—and cosmically comic—revitalization of this here ol’ website. Come one, come all, join the Chaos Circus. To explore the wonders, the fantastic, the massive changes I made to this site, use the newly-added, new-fangled nav bar above. Yup, we got modern conveniences to go along with the ancient mysteries you will find here.

Stardusted Traveler, come get your weary soul shined. Have your spirit refreshed by its own beauty, then shanghaied by its own magic.

Have your peculiar ways oohed and awed at—everyone here, including you, is the main attraction.

Sit in the front row to get a good view. I’ll sit with you. Or get in the circus ring: introduce yourself in the comment field.

Allow me to introduce myself. I am the authentic, the original, the amazing and death-defying Francesca De Grandis. That translates Great Freedom, your purveyor of shamanic wonders and mystical madness. Curator of curiosities, middle management for the Chaos Gods, seer, guide, and utter fool.

I make up fancy phrases to describe myself, like bardic brat. They’re true as tar.

My mother was a fortuneteller, my father hit the road when he was 12, hard traveling. His mother was a “showgirl.” After the war, dad went down south and got into trouble. We don’t know what it was, but the story is “he hung out with hillbillies.” I do remember he loved folk music. This is all truth, it’s family history, told the first time on the web right now. I am an old woman, too old to hide those tales anymore.

That’s a bit of my tale, a bit of my myth—real and honest. Be your myth here. Dragons, Faeries, poets, and other inhabitants of the fantastic, please walk your myths alongside mine, I long for company on the spiritual path.

Tell me a bit of your story in the comment field. I welcome and invite you, praise you and incite you—Join the cosmic circus!

 On a more serious note, Terry Pratchett wrote “Things that try to look like things often do look more like things than things.” Ok, quoting Terry is hardly a way to convince most people that I even can be serious. But
I take my work as a shamanic guide and healer seriously, and I am good at it. And I have
fun. Walking an ecstatic path frees you from restrictive either/or rules. And building a convincing persona as Oh-Great-Shaman wouldn’t leave time to serve community. Can I hear a “So mote it be?”
Middle Management for Chaos Gods, Francesca De Grandis

Middle Management for Chaos Gods. Self-Portrait

Magic can be quiet, subtle. I am blessed that, amidst my loud joy and silliness, some people “see” me—just another flawed human whom, for some reason, the Divine uses as a shaman.

I’ll be blogging here, while I continue to blog at my other site . Two blogs with two separate RRS feeds.

As we prepped the relaunch, I started blogging here—just four blogs sharing my personal process renewing the site, and what we revamped. I hope you read them. And this blog has info that will help you find your way around.

Whether you travel with me only on the web, or move into oral tradition with me, whether you post here or I never know you visit, I’m grateful for your wild wyrd ways. Thank you so much for coming!

Please explore the site. I’d love it if you posted feedback. You will be dazzled by dancing Deities, heartfelt happenings, genuine living breathing paradox, and more. 

11 thoughts on “Ta Da!

  1. It started in a world of cubicles and numbers. No wait, it started with a seed in the womb. No, wait – it started with a little girl in a plaid uniform. She was an orderly structured thing, but there was the sense that there was something beyond neat rows, properly pulled up socks and boxes. It nagged at her. And so she sat, and out of a corner of her eye a White Rabbit hopped, offering her poseys and poetry.

    She ignored it for some time of course. It was simply Not Sensible. It would not Behave. What with all that bouncing just out of sight, but not entirely or ever so, of the corner of the eyes and mind. It finally stopped bouncing just out of sight but in plain view, cartwheeling and doing a jig.

    “What Do you want?” the girl asked.

    The White Rabbit stuck it’s tongue out and mimicked her voice perfectly.

    The girl got huffy. “Well, if you are only going to make fun of me…”

    “Wasn’t making fun. Was having fun. And you should answer that question first you know.”

    “I want poetry!”

    “Oh that,” the White Rabbit said. “Look down this hole. It’s there.”

    The girl scrambled to where the White Rabbit indicated, forgetting to look dignified and serious. She crouched down and poked her head in the hole. “I don’t see a thing”

    “You aren’t looking hard enough. This will help” And with that he gave her a swift kick in the pants and down she tumbled.

    At first she was too surprised to be mad. And then she was too mad to be scared. What business did that rabbit have kicking her down that hole? Couldn’t he have given her a straight, sensible answer like a normal bunny?

    “That was uncalled for. I have never in my life been so…ooooohhhh”

    She stopped her rant and looked at the world she floated down through now. This was Not Sensible. This was Not Proper. This was beautiful and wild. This was the land of story, with it’s loveliness and lethalness. This was True Life, True Death, True Love. This was poetry. As she drifted further down she went from being angry to being mad – wonderously, fabulously mad with love and delight.

    I – I mean she, still gets lost in her travels. The way isn’t always easy or direct. But the first lesson sank in and she does not ignore rabbits anymore. It’s much easier on her backside this way.

    • Sandra, thank you!! That is so sweet of you! But those visions are inside you already. I just nudge em a bit. 🙂 Thank you for being so supportive of my work, though. And for being one of the first to post here. The Chaos Circus is on town!

    • Dave, thank you for such kind words, they mean a lot to me coming from someone who is a professional graphic artist. To be clear, it is tool singular not plural. I used just one tool for all the digital art I did here: a $5 app called Procreate. It is an amazing tool! It really has helped my newbie-painter-self grow. Well, let me rephrase that – my friend Kathleen Marshall kindly did almost all the banners that are across the top. She used Photoshop to work with photos i took of a silk painting I made specifically for the site, plus my calligraphy. The calligraphy was done on hard copy, then scanned into the computer and sent to her. The rest of the art, including side banners, is mine. As of two days ago, I do have a new tool: a bud sent me a stylus. But all my art here thus far was done with my finger tip. I expect to do a blog soon about Kathleen’s amazing work on the banners, she is such a talented artist. And to discuss the painting I made for her to use in the banners, bc it is a landscape in the Faerie realm. Thank you again so much, for yr kind words, and for coming, and for being one of the first to post here!

  2. Pingback: Relaunched Wiccan Site | Outlaw Bunny

  3. Really enjoyed the song “hard traveling” you play on You Tube. Thanks so much. I think it has light and healing in it. Makes me feel good to hear it anyways (and I’m currently struggling with depression and chronic fatigue). Blessings to you:

    • Hiya, thank you for being the first person to post on my site. Cool! And thanks for kind words about vid. I am honored the song was a pick-me-up for you, it makes me happy to have helped a bit. I am sorry to hear about your problems. I can relate; I don’t know if you could see in the vid, I sit in a wheelchair. I hope I can be of more service to you in the future. Glad to meet ya, please come back again! For visitors who do not know what we are referring to: I put the song Hard Traveling on YouTube because, when I play it, I fill with a kind of joy you learn if you’ve known hard times, a joy that is pure, untainted. It is just a jam in my kitchen, but I hoped it wld give folks a bit of joy during their problems. Here is the link to it:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twk9YK2pGSY

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