2026 Fairy Witch Training

Posted on November 23, 2025 by Francesca

Fairy Witch Training aka Faerie Shamanism Training

* Witchcraft, straight up * spells to manifest worldly goals * personal growth * increased intuition * accessible to beginners * advanced practitioners reach their next level * power to serve your tribe *

Classes are teleseminars—group meetings by phone. Call the event phone number to participate.

Training consists of four courses. They are the core entry-level Witch training. They are also prerequisites for advanced Shamanic training.

Each course provides:

* solid magical techniques

* spells for worldly goals

* core Third Road teachings. The Third Road is the name of the Faerie Shamanism tradition I teach, aka Fairy Witchcraft

* down-to-earth applications of Pagan mysticism. My mysticism is grounded in practical spell-crafting. In other words, Witch spirituality integrates Mysteries with common sense. The combination improves your whole life.

* experiences of the Goddess and God as living entities Who protect, bless, and utterly adore you

* the ancient Faery Faith’s transformative beauty

* rites for personal growth

* empowerment to be of maximum service to your tribe

* increased intuition

* ancient Goddess spirituality: The Great Mother Goddess is inclusive. She embraces all beings. That includes all races, male Gods, genders, gender-benders, and everyone else. You won’t find a more motley crew anywhere.

Each person has unique magical and mundane talents. This training invokes and nurtures your particular Shamanic and worldly skill sets. You attain rich selfhood and can serve tribe by expressing yourself.

Lessons do not lay out a path we’re all supposed to walk (ick!) but instead support your particular path—your life, your needs, your spiritual and mundane journey.

Instead of a Shamanic approach to which you’re expected to conform to be a “real” Shaman (ick!), you’ll be in a Shamanic journey that suits who you are and where you presently are.

The four courses weave into a whole far greater than the sum of its parts.

A teacher in probably the world’s largest Pagan tradition studied with me. She later said, “I wish my tradition had material as advanced as Francesca’s.” She was referring to my entry-level classes:

Adepts experience sufficient depth and challenges, but beginners are not overwhelmed or left to fall behind. Different people experience the training differently, so it provides the specific magical power your spirit and life require.

Don’t spin your wheels. In our very first meeting, you enter a circle of power. Expect immense progress in a fraction of the time you’ve spent elsewhere on typical lessons.

No prerequisites required except for one course—The Be a Goddess Master Class. That class’s description (below) explains further.

This eight-month Shamanic journey has three powerful aspects:

1) 27 lessons. We meet via teleseminars—group phone calls. To participate, call the event phone number.

We’ll work in old-style oral tradition, which allows rapid, immense headway. Enrollment is limited to 16 people because Shamanic oral tradition training ceremonies can only take place in a small group.

A small group also allows each participant to receive individualized attention, should they want that support.

I commit to my students. A Shamanic journey is personal. Traditional Shamanic lessons include individualized attention, which tailors the training to you.

2) Direct spiritual transmissions occur each meeting. They deepen the rituals, make them safer, and foster experiential understanding of the course material.

The transmissions also enliven your cells, so your magic wakes to its next level of power as do your mundane strengths.

There are other benefits; the transmissions’ energies adapt to your needs, blessing your internal and external life.

Oral tradition and direct spiritual transmissions are part and parcel.

If you are unfamiliar with my spiritual transmissions and want to know more about them than the benefits they provide during the training, click here for a deep dive.

3) One-on-one support by phone. If something comes up for you that would take too long to address during a group meeting, or you want to privately discuss anything, I’m available.

Take the entire training or participate in a single course. Each course stands on its own, a training unto itself.

Below are the four courses, in the order they’ll be held. A caveat about their descriptions:

The course descriptions divide Fairy magic into categories. But Fey magic defies categories and cannot be divided. When I cast a spell to shift a part of myself or my life, the magic is all-encompassing. Fae magic is the living, loving presence of the Faery Queen and King. During a Fairy ceremony, these Gods not only achieve my goal(s) for the ceremony but, in Their enthusiastic love for me, bless my whole person and enchant my entire life.

So, while each course focuses overtly on certain benefits or approaches, other benefits come. Additional approaches come into play, perhaps subtly. Shamanism is integrative.

A course’s description focuses on its overt aspects. However, to a significant extent, each course provides all the benefits that the other courses do. This truly integrative Shamanism evokes major power.

Also, near the top of this post, is a list of the benefits each one of the courses offers. I don’t repeat all that in a course description.

Course One: Faerie Shamanism—an Ecstatic Path

The curriculum includes:

* Ecstatic rituals

* Theoretical basics of Faerie Shamanism

* More complex aspects

* Faerie wisdoms

Course material also helps you discover or deepen your Fey magic. Faerie Shamanism expresses itself differently in each practitioner. I help you build that personal expression while also offering techniques for your magical toolbox.

You are on a unique journey. The Faerie Shamanism class steadies your feet.

You also:

* Receive Shamanic training that increases pleasure

* Discover Fey moral stances that increase pleasure

* Gain the material satisfactions of an ecstatic practitioner, without addictions or illusions snaring you

* Embrace wholeness in all your many facets.

Holy Sweaty Joy—Ecstatic Spirituality & Sacred Sexuality

Religious bigots consider Witches unholy because our religion teaches us to take life by the horns and use revelry to reach goals—bounty, self-fulfillment, joy, beauty, service to our community, and more.

Claim the ancient revelry magics of the Faerie ecstatic path. Delight in Faery Faith rituals and mysteries:

* Enjoy both magical and worldly celebrations that heal your spirit, empower you, and help you reach life goals. The fun rites transform you and your life even when all else fails.

* Move past inner blocks to your inherent, sacred sensuality.

* Affirm your unique, bewitching sexuality.

* Be a sex God(dess)!

* Imbue daily activities with confidence, passion, and vigor.

* Honor your true self, so your authenticity shapes decisions.

* Own your joy.

Gentle Heart, Palm Up—Peacefully Conquering Challenges

Overcoming challenges, great or small, mundane or spiritual, is a traditional method of gaining Shamanic power.

This course offers Shamanic tools to triumph over problems, whether an “everyday dilemma” or traumatizing devastation. These same tools build magical strengths that can manifest whatever you desire in any area of your life. This traditional way of gaining Shamanic power is a core aspect of Shamanism. As I said, all four courses provide core aspects.

As always, lessons are not theoretical. This class provides the experience of gaining mystic power to conquer your immediate problems and how that creates the exact magical strengths, methods, and mental shifts needed to overcome all life’s difficulties and fulfill life goals.

The last thing any of us need is a class that’s too hard. Like most of my classes, this Witchcraft is gentle and peaceful, yet potent.

Gentle rituals can be more effective than obviously strong rites. Sometimes, only gentleness draws forth our wildness and helps us live free.

You’ll learn a Witchy fluidity that makes you unstoppable. I jokingly coined the terms Faerie Taoism and Fae Chi Gung to explain this course: We relaxedly flow with nature’s patterns, so nothing can stop us.

Gentle Heart, Palm Up training saves you mega-time: Move through roadblocks quickly and serenely, instead of wandering stymied and anxious. Conquer problems peacefully.

This material helped heal me and my life from the trauma of becoming crippled overnight in 2001 and the crises—e.g., financial problems—that can domino from major illness. I was so ill that, when channeling these lessons, I could not type or even hand-write them. I dictated them to someone.

Because of these lessons, I rose like the Phoenix. At age 76, I’m healthier than I was in 2001, my finances recovered beautifully, and my spirit is whole. I am happy.

Course Four: The Be a Goddess Master Class

This fourth Goddess spirituality training provides the following blessings. If you already have them, they reach the next level:

* You learn new magical techniques and new ways to apply magic from the book Be a Goddess!—for whatever you need: prosperity, creativity, or anything else. This course, like the other three, increases the magical and mundane abilities to meet any challenge or opportunity.

* Profound soul-healing occurs, sometimes so easily that you don’t notice it until later.

* Your inner Deity provides power, confidence, and strong, constant guidance.

* We connect with the Old Gods deeply. So Their blessings on our lives increase, and we revel in the blissful joy of Their companionship.

* Fey-touched joy that makes life worth living ignites.

* Serving community in the ways that your heart wants becomes possible.

* I teach you unpublished, advanced facets of spells from my book, Be a Goddess. These facets have a wide range of applications. In the same vein, tools taught in prerequisites for The Be a Goddess Master Class will gain greater power.

Feeling powerless? This class will change that.

Feel plenty of power? If you’re not achieving everything you want, this course is the next step.

Prerequisite for The Be a Goddess Master Class

Complete one of the following to take the Master Class:
* first 12 lessons in my book, Be a Goddess!
* first 8 lessons in my book, Goddess Initiation
* one entry-level class in Third Road’s Mystic Rose branch (which I taught face-to-face in San Francisco)

I scheduled The Be a Goddess Master Class as the last of the four classes, to give you time to fulfill one of the prerequisites if you haven’t already.

If you start soon, there’s time to do the first 12 lessons in my book Be a Goddess!.

If it has been a long time since you did one of the prerequisites, it doesn’t matter. You’ve done the work.

Don’t feel like you did it well enough? Doesn’t matter. You did the lessons. Learning Witchcraft is a process. Give yourself a chance to move ahead with it, toward your life goals. You can always return to earlier work later.

Schedule

The eight-month training has 27 lessons, all on Mondays, from noon to 1:00, Pacific Time, starting Feb 9.

Each course is seven weeks, except The Be a Goddess Master Class is six.

Course One, Faerie Shamanism—an Ecstatic Path—runs February 9 through March 23. Reserve noon to 1:00 pm, Monday March 30, for a makeup class in the unlikely chance I’m unavailable for one of the planned sessions.

Course Two: Holy Sweaty Joy—Ecstatic Spirituality and Sacred Sexuality—runs April 13 through May 25. Reserve noon to 1:00 pm, Monday June 1 for a makeup class.

Course Three: Gentle Heart, Palm Up—Peacefully Conquering Challenges—is June 15 through July 27. Reserve noon to 1:00 pm, Monday August 3 for a makeup class.

Course Four: The Be a Goddess Master Class meets August 17 through September 21. Reserve noon to 1:00 pm, Monday Sept 28 for a makeup class.

There is a break after each course, so the schedule is not overwhelming.

Enrollment

Full cost—for 27 classes, direct spiritual transmissions, handouts, and one-on-one private support should you desire it—is $200 a month for eight months.. Your carrier might charge you for the phone calls into the lessons.

Enroll securely with PayPal. Use the Subscribe button below for automatic monthly payments..

Upon receipt of payment, your place is reserved. You receive course details—e.g., the phone number to dial for the meetings—by email. For more information or to discuss scholarship, semi-scholarship, trade, or a payment plan other than the subscription option, phone me at the number below.

No refunds. However, you can cancel your subscription after the two payments for the course you’re currently in.

To participate in a single course, email me at the address below, and I’ll invoice you for a two-month PayPal subscription.

If you’ve taken this training or one of its courses, repeat enrollment is half-price. Email me for an invoice.

There Is Only Now

If you want my core Witch material, it might be now or never. The last time I led this training was five years ago. Before that, it was between six and three years since I’d taught some of these courses.

But there is the now, and the sky’s the limit. Immediately, we’ll dive into ultra-focused lessons between the worlds for immediate power.

Along with the four above prerequisites, two qualifying electives are required before advanced training. You might have already taken them without knowing it. Here are some recent events that qualify:
* Magic Lemonade
* Join the Fairy Magic Circus
* Seven Core Powers of Fairy Magic
* Fairy Nomad Magic
* Your Talents and Goals can serve as both electives
* Lessons about the De Grandis Faerie Shaman Oracle Deck can serve as both electives

There are plenty of other qualifying electives. I can give you that list once I know you’re interested in the advanced training.

Sometimes, we can delay an elective if you haven’t done two before an advanced training begins.

The advanced training will start in the fall, 2026, if enough folks are interested.

You can’t find these lessons elsewhere. I’m utterly grateful the Goddess whispered them to me because they’ve saved me over and over. More about my curriculum-creation process:

* When teaching orally, I’m ensconced within a family oral tradition I entered in infancy, learning magic con leche. I receive experiential wisdom-lessons not taught elsewhere.

* Raised in a European-based Shamanic family tradition that includes Italian sorcery, Celtic Shamanism, and magic from other cultures, I teach a multicultural Faerie Shamanism.

* I thoughtfully, joyfully, carefully channel curriculums, constructing lessons over time. This tunes us into enormous, subtle powers. You won’t pay for a jumble of undigested white-bread ideas that an unprepared teacher declared, “Voila, genuine Pagan stuff!” 🙂 Instead, I committed my life to developing material for you.

* I received full-time, long-term Shamanic training. It was not academic but an experiential training of skill sets. That focused study allowed me into the heart of reality, in trance 24-7, channeling lessons for seven years.

* For decades since, my Gods have wanted me to trance only part of the day, to ground me. Feet on the ground, I explore our magical yet earthy cosmos and channel new earth-based mysticism, because resting on my laurels would be no fun. I like fun.

Fairy Witch, Francesca De Grandis, is the bestselling author of Be a Goddess! and Goddess Initiation. A teacher, guide, and healer, she offers long-distance classes, rituals, private counseling, and healings. Her Goddess spirituality embraces practical magic spells. Raised in a European-based Shamanic family tradition of La Vecchia Religione, Celtic Shamanism, and magic from other cultures, Francesca’s Witchcraft is a multicultural Faerie shamanism. La Vecchia Religione translates the Old Religion and refers to the practices of an Italian Witch, also known as a Strega.

Be a Goddess Training

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Francesca

I’m going to lead a group
through the training in my book
Be a Goddess!:
a Guide to Celtic Spells and Wisdom
for Self-Healing, Prosperity, and Great Sex.

For details, keep reading.

Be a Goddess! is a down-to-earth training in Celtic shamanism, showing you how to:

* Cast spells for abundance, a happy home, and romance.

* Love your body, be cleansed in spirit, and increase wisdom.

* Enjoy more passion, sensuality, and individuality.

* Use the simple, potent magic of the Faerie folk.

* And get just about anything else you want by using The Spell Itself.

The book is written for independent use, so lots of folks completed this bestseller on their own. But for folks who prefer a more personal approach, I’ll lead a group through the lessons, via group-phone-calls (aka teleseminars). During meetings, you:

* get whatever particular support you need to do the book’s lessons

* have your questions answered

* and otherwise receive pivotal camaraderie and motivation.

Just dial the phone to participate.

Plus, I’m available one-on-one by phone, for up to 45 minutes total, during the course of our lessons, if you have questions, your momentum doing the lessons falters, or you have other concerns.

Receive the above certificate of completion by email. Your certificate will not have a watermark on it. Fill in your name and the date to take pride in yourself.

Super-special free bonus: an exclusive online forum. Between phone meetings, benefit from a private space where students can receive support from each other, share victories, and ask each other questions. This is solely for students, no “teacher looking over your shoulder.” I will monitor only for unkind remarks; you deserve a safe space.

The group meets every other Sunday by phone, starting April 8, from 4:00 to 5:00 PM EST, for a total of eight meetings. Just dial the phone to participate. Reserve Sunday July 22, same time, for a makeup session, in case I’m unavailable for one of the planned meetings.

Total cost: $250. Your particular carrier may charge you for the calls. Scroll down to enroll: enter your phone number and pay securely with PayPal.

Upon receipt of payment, your place is reserved. You receive event phone #, etc., by email. If you need more info, or want to discuss scholarship, trade, or payment plan, call me at 814-337-249O. No refunds.

There are no prerequisites. You simply need the book with you at all meetings.

I probably won’t offer this event again for five years.

This Faerie magic book is considered an irreplaceable classic. Though released in 1998 to a niche genre, present-day sales outstrip those of many recently published mainstream titles. I had no budget to promote this book. I worked eight years writing it because I wanted it to live on long after me, as a step-by-step program that could guide unusual individuals toward profound personal transformation and inner wisdom.

Our process during meetings will be based in my book and, as such, will not be part of Third Road’s oral tradition.

Baba Yaga’s Apprentice

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Francesca

Baba Yaga’s Apprentice:
A Faerie Tale Ritual

If ever we needed ways to stay focused and whole, and experience some gentleness, this is the time.

Baba Yaga’s Apprentice is my gentle enchantment that creates focus and wholeness. I believe this magic is all the more powerful and effective for its gentleness.

This storybook is for grown-ups . . . but the sort of adults who remain, or want to remain, childlike at heart.

This book’s format: PDF.
List price: ~~$25~~
Price: $19.99

The tale is my revisioning of Baba Yaga folklore.

As the book’s story proceeds, a ritual simultaneously unfolds for the reader.

Here’s one of the illustrations:

Baba Yaga’s Apprentice is fun, easy reading.

Along with being a Faerie tale and a gentle ritual, this book is also a work of art for you. Trying to evoke the embellishments in old Faerie tale books and add a layer of enchantment to the magical foundation I’d spun with the text, I ornamented every page with my original full color art. Most of the art is my spin on Poland’s folk art.

I have felt immense mojo on the project; I wanted this spell to happen so much.

From the preface:

“The spell is very easy to do. You don’t even have to “do” it. The sheer reading of the Faerie tale to oneself, just for fun, even silently, and enjoying my paintings, is all it takes for the spell to work.”

“The storybook’s magical current helps you:
* Focus on what’s important to you.
* Follow through on it.
* Stay centered in your power and your love.
* Protect your dear heart from being hurt or blocked.
* Feed your witchy soul.

“The ritual also supports you if you are introverted, empathic, exceptionally magical, or sensitive psychically.

“And when you are fearful or nervous, this is a good tale for you.”

The book is 7000 words and 46 pages.

Here’s another sample, a text frame I painted:

This volume was created with my sincerest hope that the gentle love and hope with which the Muse infused the pages will sustain and empower you … over and over.

Available only from the author.

Book of Shadows

Posted on October 1, 2016 by Francesca

My Fey kin,

Announcing a two-volume Third Road Book of Shadows:

* consisting of two PDF ebooks,

* every page ornamented by my full color shamanic art.

Full price for this two-volume Faerie Book of Shadows is $50. Buy it at the special price of $43.

This is easy traditional witchery with substance: Pagan liturgy, inspirational contemplations, prayer,
mystical musings, and other straightforward magics help you live free and create your destiny.

The books aren’t like my texts that require committing to a training. You can think of some of these Book of Shadows entries as relaxed strolls through Fey landscapes. Entries vary in length. Some are a few words, like a quick visit I hope makes you smile … or even giggle mischievously.

I believe these otherworldly moments, which access Third Road shamanism, add beauty, inspiration, and enchantment to the reader’s life.

This project is a deeply personal sharing—intimate glimpses into both my private Faerie journey and my day as a shamanic guide.

Total pages of the two PDFs is 191 pages. My original shamanic art blesses every page, so mote it be!

Book I is The Third Road: a Faerie Shaman’s Book of Shadows. Its magic overflows into Book II: Trickster, with more Third Road Book of Shadows entries, including my pivotal 4000 word essay about trickster energy.

Trickster is usually portrayed as a conniving deity or person who perpetuates cruel jokes for our own good. The essay details how this is an erroneous view that squelches freedom.

I have an unusual view of trickster. The essay introduces you to the Trickster who’s neither cruel nor conniving. In a kind manner, she opens the door to freedom and joy. This trickster energy betters my private Fey life and work as a shamanic guide in ways not generally considered the sacred clown’s role, even in modern Pagan culture.

You meet the innocent—and often Divine Feminine—Faerie Trickster from whom all powers and joys spring. Divine Feminine Trickster is explicitly discussed in the essay a tiny bit and is implied in all its words.

I share this previously unpublished Trickster material after so many years because it’s pivotal to the immensely effective magic and enchanted Fey qualities people experience in the Third Road tradition of witchcraft.

Below is a sample page. It is not crisp and clear like the actual e-books because this website blurs images. Ditto the books’ covers.

I set a low price for high value, because I want you able to acquire an enchanted treasure.

If you cannot afford the set: I’m exploring options for low-income folks. More about that in a newsletter.

This set is two digital ebooks: PDFs with all original art by the author. Available only from the author here:

I decided against selling my last few books on Amazon. This is challenging, but some texts need independence. I sell them directly to my beautiful readers and fulfill orders personally.

From my Fey heart to yours,
Francesca De Grandis aka Outlaw Bunny

Spinning Happy Magic

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Francesca

I’m experiencing excitement and serenity simultaneously, from being so close to publication of my two volume Book of Shadows.

Self-publishing is difficult but gratifying. My sense of accomplishment has me almost dizzy, I’m happily spinning.

Spinning! Heh, once I sent galleys to the kind folks who are proofing them, I worked part-time over the course of a few days to restore my energy. I learned to spin yarn, to celebrate being so close to releasing the project.

Spinning! Headlong. I spun and spun. Think of Alice falling down the rabbit hole, headfirst and shouting, “Whheeeeeeee, I love this!” She lands where the Red Queen is actually nice, the rabbit doesn’t run away but frolics alongside her on the weighted end of a drop spindle, and the caterpillar—who spins silk and blessings—teaches her the exact magic she needs.

My gratitude, happiness, and sense of accomplishment about the books flow through my day, twisting along the silk and wool fibers I spin. As is often the case with gratitude, mine turns a celebration about one part of my life—the upcoming books—into a celebration of life itself. I’m a witch who experiences a flow through all things, a flow connecting everything, as the cosmos spins. I twirl within the cosmos’ twirl. The cosmos is happy about my books.

They’re a two volume Third Road Book of Shadows, every page ornamented by my shamanic art. So mote it be!

Once I correct any mistakes the proofers catch, the books are done. Like most authors, I’ll be one of the proofers but needed a few days away from the pages, so I could see them with fresh eyes.

These books are like visits in magical, inspiring landscapes. I’m gratefully spinning my day because soon I get to share something I love dearly—some of my deeply personal otherworldly realms—with readers. I’m grateful for these Fey places that add beauty and enchantment to our lives.

Everything is connected, spinning together like fibers joining on a drop spindle, the value added to my dear reader’s life adds value to mine. We are all one.

Spinning in celebration of the books becomes spinning in celebration of life. Spinning gratitude becomes spinning magic to bless my day.

Doing the writing, art, layout, cover designs, and the enormous self-publishing process is a lot, but I’m always trying to pull off huge things. It works. My ownership of the process, spinning it all together, allowed me to create exactly what I wanted to share with my readers—my fellow seekers, fellow spinners of magic and happiness.

Been too busy with the books to make a webpage about them yet, but today had time to make small versions of the book-covers for you to see. Volume I’s cover is above and here is Volume II’s cover, but neither is as clear and sharp as the actual covers are, or this page would’ve taken forever for you to load:

Once the set’s released, I want to figure out options for low income folks who can’t afford the set. This makes me happy, adds momentum to my spinning, to the cosmos’ spinning.

This Book of Shadows consists of two full-color PDFs. Current combined page count is 191 pages, but it might end up a bit more or less.

The book set costs $50 but right now presales are $43. (Update: the book set has been released, and is still $43. If you want more info on the books, their official page is up. Go here: https://stardrenched.com/2016/10/01/book-of-shadows/ )

These Faerie books will be available only from their Faerie author … spinning it all together … spinning happiness from my heart to yours. Keep spinning, my fellow seeker.

Do you like any of these pics?

Posted on July 24, 2016 by Francesca

My upcoming project—a two volume Book of Shadows—shares my journey as a witch, including a few photos of me from my scrapbook.

It’s hard to choose pics. I can’t be objective.

My community helped choose from photos I already posted, which was really useful. Thank you again!

These are 1997 pics of me in ritual garb. Susanne Kaspar—a professional photographer—took the pics. Should I include any in the books? If so, which ones?

I’m not asking your opinion about other people’s possible reactions. I want to know which you personally like, if any.

Each pic has a number above it, so you can tell me by number which you like.

They’ll be crisper and clearer in the book.

Thanks again so much!

(Yup, these pics were taken the same day as the photo on Be a Goddess!‘s back cover.)

Number 1:
Number 2:
Number 3:
Number 4: Negatives_005Sm
Number 5:

Which photos for my book?

Posted on July 20, 2016 by Francesca

My upcoming book shares my journey as a witch, so I’m including a handful of photos of me at different ages. Here are pics from today. I thought photos of me when I’m close to finishing the book would make nice memories for me.

Would you like any of them in the book? Which (Witch?) ones? Would love your input.

I’m not asking your opinion about other people’s possible reactions. I actually want to know which you’d personally enjoy in the book.

At age 66, it’s interesting looking at photos of myself that I’ll release publicly. My young, dewy beauty long gone, all that is left in the photographs is who I am inside, for all to see. And for me to face and embrace.

Examining these pics, I am content. I see in myself an elder shaman, a wild wanderer traveling between atoms, and a loving, mystic fool who still enjoys life. Whew!

Each pic has a number above it, so you can tell me by number which you like.

I think they’ll be crisper and clearer in the book.

Thanks so much for your support!

Number1:

Number 2:

Number 3:

Number 4:

Number 5:

Traditional Shamanic Culture and Business

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Francesca

Did you know ancient Celts had a goddess of marketing? Or that their shamans charged for many of their services, as did ancient Native American shamans? Did you know ancient Mesoamerican merchants traveled to find sacred goods?

Shamanic culture once brought the sacred into commerce, in a way we desperately need today for two reasons:

1) It will allow us fulfilling, loving, profitable work.

2) It can help stop the immense, worldwide suffering caused by callous business practices.

The division of sacred and profane in the marketplace strikes at the core of human rights, Faerie witchery, and happiness.

As a witch, I’m part of a long heritage of magic used as a tool to free people from oppression. As long as the marketplace is driven by profit to the point of callousness, instead of by an ethical focus on being of service, results will remain tragic.

So I developed innovative theories and methodologies that provide a missing piece of witchery—a shamanic approach to the marketplace. I teach it in my new book:

A Sacred Marketplace:
Sell without Selling Out or Burning Out.
Mysticism + Marketing = Sales.

The book is two pronged in its benefits:

1) Many ethical, loving people have special gifts they want to bring into the marketplace but are stymied because they can’t figure out how to maneuver the insanity of our current business world.

These folks include artists, psychics, coaches, and others in alternative fields. Also included are people whose heartfelt dreams are less obviously special—e.g., you can make cosmetics in a loving way.

A Sacred Marketplace shows good people ethical ways to thrive in business. The book teaches

* easy, powerful, ethical marketing

* my personal philosophy of life, which is shamanic and spells out why it is moral to earn a living doing what we love and how doing so is vital to the well being of all Gaia’s children

* shamanic exercises to help you actually live that philosophy and develop personal traits for career success

2) The other benefit: if these good folks were in business, their sheer presence would help shift our business world into one where people matter more than profit. These loving practitioners would not have to do anything other than be present in the marketplace.

More talented good-hearted people in the world of commerce will—without these individuals even trying to do so—automatically transform the dominant business paradigm for society as a whole, from corporate, uncaring greed to loving concern for the individual.

I’m delighted I was able to create this book’s material. I am proud of my work in a way this society tries to squelch. Be proud of yours. Enter the marketplace with your special gifts and be prosperous. In the process, you’ll make a better life for everyone.

I care about you, so I beg you: do not wait. Great endeavors start when someone says, “I’ll do what I can.” If all you can manage is reading two minutes once a week, and you have no time to analyze what you read or to apply it, that’s a legitimate start. The book is Third Road shamanism, which means you absorb on a gut level, just by reading. Do it. Click here for A Sacred Marketplace: http://www.outlawbunny.com/2015/10/15/a-sacred-marketplace/

Pagan Trends, Absolute Truths, and Trusting Yourself

Posted on May 3, 2016 by Francesca

Trends change rapidly in the Pagan community. We often see “an indisputable fact” ricochet to its exact opposite within years. These “truths” cause immense discord. How can we navigate these treacherous waters without disavowing our own personal wisdoms? We all find our way of doing it. If I share mine, perhaps that might make finding yours easier.

So, a story:

Way back when, most American Pagans insisted traditional craft was nonexistent. People became downright nasty in their disdainful insistence there is no traditional witchcraft. Nowadays, many Pagans discuss traditional craft, what it is, how to do it, and where to learn it.

The party line back then was that anyone who claimed a traditional craft lineage was a liar. The person in question might be completely discredited.

To the best of my understanding back then: a big name Pagan dishonestly validated the material he taught by saying he’d gotten it from his grandmother, a traditional witch, but he lied about her being a witch.

People just decided, if he was lying, everybody else must be. Good grief!

Ok, let me continue this tale by adding how it affected me personally:

I was raised in a longstanding European-based shamanic family tradition. This was hardly a secret to some of the Pagans I knew. But, in case it’s useful context for the rest of my story, I didn’t have a best selling book yet, so the number of people who knew anything about me were far far fewer than later became the case.

You can imagine, amidst all the vitriol and possibility of being totally discredited, I was thoughtful about when to mention my traditional witchery to a Pagan. I wanted to avoid the near certainty of being branded liar in the larger Pagan community.

Close friends knew my family background, and I’d tell others when it was important. In fact, when the bestseller did come out, its back cover mentioned my mom was a Sicilian witch. To do otherwise would’ve insulted her and all my witch ancestors. But I also used discretion. For example, skirting my family history in casual conversation.

What I’m saying is: navigating the dangerous seas of trending “absolute truths” was challenging—for one thing, it can be frightening to buck popular opinion—but I found ways to maintain integrity while also guarding my emotional equilibrium. We can keeps our spirits whole. Here are two navigation skills that worked for me:

One is knowing it is vital to trust your own beliefs and respect the value of your own experiences, despite people who try to hit you over the head with trends to make you feel ignorant or otherwise not as “authentic” a Pagan as they are.

The second navigation skill is discretion. I want to practice discretion about whether to say something.

Nowadays, most people use the word discretion to mean holding silence. But discretion can also mean wisely considering the best course of action, judging each situation according to its specific circumstances. I’m using the latter definition here. So, in terms of our topic, discretion might lead one to speak—to good purpose—or to remain appropriately mum.

It’s vital to speak up for your beliefs when there’s good reason. Losing self-respect does not constitute successful navigation of treacherous waters.

As to choosing silence, let’s start with the example of avoiding arguments with people who aren’t going to listen.

Back when mentioning a family tradition might completely discredit you with many people, I was at a dinner party where someone who was constantly on power trips declared, in a high and mighty tone, that as a scholar she was devoted to naysaying the possibility of a family tradition. She did not know I came from one. I didn’t tell her. (A friend in the know did surreptitiously wink at me. That was lovely support.)

Most people who jump on trending absolutes will neither listen nor engage in a courteous, informative exchange of ideas, because they’ll rush to prop up wobbly egos with pseudo-knowledge. They’ll just try to browbeat you into feeling you’re wrong, though that may not be their conscious motivation, bless them. Wasting your time in a verbal entanglement amounts to letting someone’s pseudo-truth get the better of you. Your time is sacred.

Yet if she had been honestly interested, and merely misinformed about whether traditional witchcraft existed, I might have discussed my family.

Important aside: Though I avoided an argument at the dinner party, I admit my record’s not perfect with that sort of thing. Luckily, seeing how it depleted and upset me helps me not repeat the mistake any more. A hard won lesson, but one that frees me from other people’s opinionated insistences.

This blog is long but the following feels vital. Another example of discretion and silence:

(Please note, I’m going to use traditional witchery as an example in this essay again. That’s a coincidence. The examples have no relation. So don’t think you need to connect the dots between examples.)

More than once, a segment of the Pagan community inflated their position to one of dominance by stating “superior” pseudo-truths, and I could have deflated their posturing by disclosing a bit of traditional witchcraft’s sacred lore.

I stayed mute about the lore. I was blessed to have received it, so would not disclose it merely to prove a point to people who would not have viewed it as precious information but who would have pawed it.

They’d have greedily grabbed at it as mere words—exploited it as verbal fodder they could parrot to appear in-the-know and first string. (Heh, at least I got to feel smug about keeping my mouth shut. … Ok, I admit, feeling superior wasn’t good for me.)

Had I said anything authentic, nobody would have cared. The agenda on their table was to show how important and “wise” you were. That was not an agenda I wanted to be part of, even though telling them traditional material would’ve moved me to the top of the food chain. But climbing up would have actually, as the old expression goes, dragged me down to their level. … Goddess, I was tempted anyway. … Maybe smugness about my silence was my solace.

My story about being silent is relevant to discretion stopping fake truths from derailing your personal hard-won beliefs, in the following ways:

Opening my mouth would have been my ego reacting to theirs, as well as meeting their attempt to move up in a hierarchy with a similar attempt of my own. Both of those would have betrayed my personal belief in not living in ego or falling prey to power struggles.

It also would have wasted my time and life force, instead of me going about my merry business, living happily according to my own ecstatic truths.

Responding to someone’s power play with one of our own can be incredibly tempting, but also incredibly damaging to ourselves. Ego-driven magic and power-hungry grabs put someone on the slippery slope of chasing chimera more and more, less and less living joyously in the beautiful world the Goddess created for us.

Had I shared the lore for the purposes of my ego, I also would have debased that material. Reduced to mere words in order to feed my ego, the power of that beautiful material would’ve been lost to me, crumbled into dust like Faerie gold.

There’s one more way someone’s pseudo-truth would’ve gotten the better of me if I’d blabbed sacred knowledge for the sake of ego and dominance. I would’ve betrayed my following personal truth: I hold my religion sacred by only using it for honorable purposes. To do otherwise, I would truly have failed navigating the rocky seas of community-enforced pseudo-truths and sunk to the depths.

When magic and spirituality become tools to create unhealthy hierarchy—aka dominate others—they go sour. So does the spirit of the practitioner in question. His soiled shamanic path is handed down to his students, its very essence feeding their worst aspects, perhaps subtly but thoroughly. A nightmare for the community.

When magic and spirituality remain tools to serve, in respect for our differences, those tools become more powerful and capable. So do our spirits. Free of contentious opinions and excess verbiage, our innate magic fills each day, often silently. We become blessed by—and a blessing for—community.

I hope some of my above opinions are useful to you.

I teach traditional craft. My Gods bless me with wise students: They are wise in so many ways, but one is that we all respect each other. Honoring our differing views as assets allows each of us to uniquely contribute to the group’s magic and well-being. This in turn allows each of us to benefit from all the participants’ strengths.

If you’d like to join us, I teach mostly via group phone calls—aka teleseminars. Subscribe to my free newsletter, which tells you about upcoming classes: https://outlawbunny.com/newsletter/

Have a magical day.

Fey Witch

Posted on March 10, 2016 by Francesca

This is excerpted from the two-volume Third Road Book of Shadows, available here: https://stardrenched.com/2016/10/01/book-of-shadows/

I am a fey witch. Magic is my heritage and my salvation. I will not be deprived of it. I will remain ever immersed in the magic that flows through the entire cosmos.

This subtle current dances about me all day, even in my sleeping hours, empowering me and making me whole. It heals me, delights me, and celebrates me. It relieves me of my pains, doubts, and flaws. It removes obstacles.

Oppressors deny magic, lest we use its ever available power to live wild and free, with direct access to Deity and the gifts Deity bestows, independent of dour religious institutions and oppressive societal hierarchies.

But magic is real and a Goddess-given right. I would go further to say magic is a living aspect of my Goddess. No one will rob me of my Goddess and Her power. I live in magic.

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In the two-volume Third Road Book of Shadows set, the above prose-poem is ornamented with more detailed art than I could post here if I wanted this webpage to load in less than a decade.

But the graphic at the top of this post is part of the art in question. And I made the little graphic at the side especially for this post, because I love ya!

Did you enjoy the post? Get the book set here, available only from the author: https://stardrenched.com/2016/10/01/book-of-shadows/

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