Bohemian Gothic Tarot Deck Giveaway

Posted on January 31, 2023 by Francesca

Updated June 15, 2023.

A Free Bohemian Gothic Tarot Deck

My Bohemian Gothic Tarot needs a new home. I’ve never used it, but someone else will love it.

This exact deck was appraised at $300. I’m raffling it off.

Instructions to enter this raffle are in today’s fairy witch newsletter (June 15, 2023).

If you’re not a subscriber, click here so you can participate in the next giveaway.

I think the deck has never been used—or barely used— because the cards are in excellent condition and still basically in order.

My photograph below does not do the deck justice. My photo of a single card, at the top of this post, provides a better sense of the magnificent artistry.

This is a full-size deck in an opened cardboard box, enclosed with the little white book.

The title card says second edition, as shown in the picture below:

There are 80 cards. That includes the title card, 22 Major Arcana, all the usual Minor Arcana, plus a card called Memento Mori.

The box is a little worn.

The instructions to enter the raffle are in today’s newsletter (June 15, 2023).

If you are not a subscriber yet: Do you like magical giveaways, unusual information, and Fairy events? Click the banner below to subscribe to my free Fairy Witch newsletter.

Chaos, Dragons, and the Magna Mater

Posted on February 13, 2020 by Francesca

Chaos, Dragons, and the Magna Mater
Fey Mysteries

Chaos has been vilified throughout human history. Yet it is from chaos that all creation comes.

The Bible lied when it said God spoke into the chaos—the darkness—to create the cosmos. No mere word created us or anything else. The chaos, which is often called darkness, is both darkness and light, and is the Great Mother Goddess—the Magna Mater. She, with Her fertile chaos body, gave birth to all existence.

Note my last sentence: She, with Her fertile chaos body, gave birth to all existence. Usually creation myths refer to the darkness and chaos as passive, not active participants in creation. I worded my sentence carefully. She, with Her fertile chaos body, gave birth to all existence. How different that is from the myth of Tiamat as the supposedly demonic dragon who was primordial chaos and killed by Marduk, who then divided her body to create the universe, part of her body making the heavens and part of her body making the earth.

The implications of that myth have led to one nightmare after another for humankind.

Affirmation: I will not be cleaved in two. I remain whole. I recognize the loving chaos and loving darkness within me. I refuse to bow to misrepresentations of them. I see within myself both my loving darkness and loving light. Each day, I know in myself the Dragon, Great Mother Goddess, the Magna Mater, Who loves all of existence and all humankind. I serve Her throughout my day by doing what I love and by lovingly serving all I encounter. With my fertile chaos dragon body, I can birth all existence; I have the power to manifest my heart’s desires.

The implications of the Biblical myth that God spoke into the chaos—the darkness—to create the cosmos have led to one nightmare after another for humankind.

No, no mere word created us. That was a lie so that we’d succumb to oppressors’ words and fear Her Divine chaos. The oppressors’ priests wanted to rip us from our own fertility and the magic to create our own worlds.

If there was a word, it was a poem, a chant, a magical spell, a cry of exultation, a cry of purest joy, a cry of purest love, from the Goddess and God, as They made love in the process of existence coming into being. No almighty God condescendingly divided light from darkness. No no no. The Magna Mater drew the light from Her own body. That light is Her Son Whom She loves. Unlike the God of the Bible, She does not distain Her other half.

Chaos still reigns today, beneficent, though we divide it into hours and moments, schedules and goals, as if the weave of life was like a weaving on a human’s loom—line after parallel line laid out precisely, everything organized in a linear manner like a grid. No, chaos—Goddess—weaves every which way, and yet the garment She weaves is a life that fits us more perfectly than the most carefully woven garment we ourselves could make, a life more beautiful than any we ourselves could weave.

Through generations and lifetimes, society’s weaving of lies and suppression have robbed witches of their immersion in and trust of chaos. From chaos, that dark matter where there is also light, comes our magic.

My worldview—the world I just spelled out—underlies my teachings.

Dragons are descendants of the original chaos. My worldview helps reveal the hidden underpinnings of draconian magic.

An attribution regarding my remark “The Magna Mater drew the light from Her own body. That light is Her Son Whom She loves.” In the book, Aradia, Gospel of the Witches, the Goddess draws the light from Herself and sees it as Her brother, with whom She falls in love. It is a beautiful myth that you might want to read. I also need to give another reference: in that myth, the Goddess and God make love to create the cosmos, and it is a magical spell.

Dear reader, my above essay is excerpted from a course I teach called Dragon Magic. Unless something changes radically, the essay is also in the companion booklet for a divination deck I created. The deck has not been released yet. To be kept abreast of upcoming classes, Fey freebies, and other offerings, click the banner below:

My Wonderful Students

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Francesca

My long-term shamanic students are the best people. It’s such a gift to have them as my fellow seekers.

I celebrate them today by introducing you to three of them and the remarkable work they do in their respective fields.

Sarah Josey—see above photo—is a Clinical Herbalist, Nutritionist, and Sacred Living instructor. She says she’s “passionate about helping people achieve health through natural means and supporting people on their life path towards overall wellness and happiness.”

Sarah started studying with me before entering her profession. I had the joy of watching this dynamic, young woman grow into her career. I try to empower my students, but it is up to them to take the ball and run with it. Sarah has definitely done that.

She owns an herbal apothecary in Fort Collins, CO, and also spends part of her year in Fairbanks, AK. Check out her work at SarahJosey.com.

I spend as much time as possible in trance because I love it, but I also believe my shamanic classes should create concrete results, improving all aspects of someone’s life. So it’s always a joy to work with someone who’s multifaceted. Kathy Crabbe, who is wrapping up a two-year shamanic training with me, is an artist, illustrator, writer, and soul reader, and lives in Southern California in an adobe style home she and her husband built.

Here’s Kathy:
Along with her impressive list of talents is Kathy’s commitment to using her gifts in service to community.

Kathy blogs at kathycrabbe.com/blog

A spirit portrait I painted of Rommy Driks gives a sense of this writer who has studied with me for eight years:
Rommy says of her blog, “I create strange brews of urban myth and faerie tales, while grooving to good music and sipping better tea. Stop by and enjoy a cuppa and a story.”

That’s a modest self-description, considering her writing is truly original, exquisitely crafted, and conveys important ideas. I thoroughly relish her “strange brews.”

Check out Rommy’s work at http://kestrilsrhythmsandgroove.blogspot.com/

I am blessed to be surrounded by exceptional people.

Lenormand Giveaway

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Francesca

Updated August 10, 2023.

My newsletter subscribers have two chances to win this month’s raffle because I’m giving away two Lenormand decks.

If you’re not a subscriber, click here so you can participate in the next giveaway.

An aside: Thirty years as a spiritual counselor led me to acquire and use a wide variety of divination decks—Tarot, Lenormand, Oracle, and oddities. This includes a huge collection of divination decks that a friend gifted me. Now I am paring down to the ten decks that I am likely to use. When I cling to what I don’t use, the flow of abundance to me closes. When I give away freely, I invoke abundance.

Here are the decks’ details:

I’m not a Lenormand historian, so I’ll include a few details to help you research the history if you want.

The decks have similar but not identical packaging.

Deck 1) Its box’s front has an owl and the words Lenormand and Urania. The back has a peacock and JMC. The box is pale orange, with a flap that says Rote eule.

Its booklet says 2008 copyright and seems to be in German. The cards seem to be in German also. There are 36 consecutively numbered cards. The art’s muted tones evoke past eras.

Here are photos of this deck. Please forgive me, the photos do not do the decks justice.

Deck 2) Its box is similar to the other deck’s, but is smaller, blue, has Mlle before Lenormand, and identical graphics except perhaps printed better. Instead of Urania at the bottom, it says AGM Agmuller, with the logo of a heart inside of a spade.

Card graphics are beautiful colors, with English divinatory text on each. Maybe the color is brighter than the other deck’s, or perhaps the lines more sharply defined. There are 36 consecutively numbered cards.

It’s reasonable to assume that 36 is the complete number of cards for each deck because both instructional booklets end with card #36.

An aside: I’m happy to read with an incomplete set, because it makes the deck unique. I imagine that divination was originally a matter of someone looking at what was around them and recognizing that environment as signs of things to come, signs of things from the past, signs of the hidden present. If my environment includes a deck with some cards missing, I figure that deck has very special and powerful guidance for me.

Both decks are in such good condition that I suspect the person who gifted them to me never used them. I never had the chance either, because I had so many decks.

If you are a subscriber and want this deck, the instructions to enter the raffle are in today’s newsletter. Yay!

If you are not a subscriber, click the banner below to subscribe to my free Fairy Witch newsletter for magical giveaways, unusual information, classes, and other magical events.

Giveaway Blanket

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Francesca

Update on the post below: Someone has already claimed the Tarot deck. But I’ll lay out the blanket again soon with another Tarot, Lenormand, or other divination deck, and will keep doing it til all the decks are gone. So the next few months, stay tuned to both my sites’ blogs for the giveaways: this site’s new blogs always appear at https://stardrenched.com , and my other site’s blogs at http://www.outlawbunny.com/blog/

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Welcome to my giveaway blanket.

I was gifted a wonderful collection of Tarot, Lenormand, and other divination decks. Different people need different decks. So I’m passing on the handful of the decks that don’t suit for me.

You don’t even pay shipping. This is a plain old-fashion giveaway blanket.

The first deck on the blanket is the Llewellyn Tarot Deck. It is in mint condition, though unboxed and without an instruction booklet. I suspect it’s not been used, or used a few times.

I didn’t check whether all the cards are there, though I imagine they are. But then, I’m happy to read with an incomplete set, because it makes the deck unique.

The following photo shows a few cards and the cards’ back.

Btw, if you do an image search on Google, using “llewellyn tarot deck” as the parameters, you’ll see a lot of its other cards, to better help you decide if this is a deck for you.

I want to spread the bounty by only giving one deck per person.

Do you want this deck? Here are the instructions:

1) In the comment field below, write the name of the deck: Llewellyn Tarot Deck
2) Email me a postal address (U. S. non-military address only) to which I can ship the deck.
3) Include your phone number in the email, in case I have trouble shipping. My email address is outlawbunny at outlawbunny.com
4) Put “Llewellyn Tarot Deck” in the subject field of the email.

Important: First person to do all four steps of the instructions receives the deck. If someone’s already written the name of the deck in a comment field, it’s not necessarily too late for you. Often, people will do part one of the instructions, then forget to do the rest.

I’ll update this post to let everyone know when the deck’s been claimed.

I’ll lay out the blanket again with more decks soon. So the next few months, stay tuned to both my sites’ blogs for the giveaways: this site’s new blogs always appear at https://stardrenched.com , and my other site’s blogs at http://www.outlawbunny.com/blog/

I love setting out giveaway blankets, because they free me. To reiterate what I said in another giveaway post: Giveaway expands me, out into the stars. Yeehaw!

Wyrd 2014

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Francesca

My wyrd New Year’s resolution: Ecstasy and ease.

Sometimes, it is vital to do things the easy way. I work hard on my spirituality. That’s important. But we can get stuck in the idea that growth has to be all work, no play. The resulting experience sucks—I do not want to feel like God’s drone!—and does not always make for the most inner growth or power. So I constantly create fun modalities for inner change, for my students and myself.

Life and growth will not always be easy. When I’m counseling a trauma survivor, we may be in painful tears together. That is a good thing. Hard work, balanced by fun and ease, has been my ongoing approach.

Empowerment can be accomplished through joyful simplicities. Joy nurtures the spirit. For example, I receive commissions for fantasy portraits, which I paint in trance. They affirm the client’s wondrous essence, inner and outer beauty, and power. Below is one I did of myself. Scroll past it for the rest of the blog:

With the Divine, we can grow spiritually, and overcome obstacles, the easy way, sometimes. Heck, not just sometimes, but a lot of the time!

Recently, I asked one of my students to give me a spiritual challenge—whatever she felt I most needed to work on. Oddly enough, it was to do things the easy fun way. Huh? Me, who is already so good at that? I mean, I have a ball in my life. There is mega-laughter in the classes I teach. And my Gods have a great sense of humor, too—we have a blast together.

But you know what? My student was right. There’s always another level to reach toward. I’m forever wanting to achieve more for the community and in my private life. And I am not, right this second, referring to more fun and ease, but to what I want to accomplish overall.

After meditating on the assignment my student gave me, I realized that the progress I envisioned, for both my private life and what I want to accomplish as a community shaman, could only be achieved through a new devotion to fun and ease. Hah, what a great challenge—to have more fun than ever and go easier than ever!

2014 is my year of doing that.

With so many demands on our time and money, streamlining our lives and choosing pleasure may not seem possible. Nor may there seem time to get needed spiritual support. But here are three easy ways to do all that. There’s that word again—”easy!”

1) Ignore new year promotion-hype that sells you a lot of product, which is the same old stuff that never worked before. Stick with the tried-and-true. Sometimes, we blame the tools we have, instead of our use of them. If you’re not using a hammer, it’s not the hammer’s fault that the nail never gets driven in. Revisit one of your basic tools that has supported you in the past. Use it a little.

2) Ignore hyped up approaches that demand more time than any sane productive person has. Instead, take a moment. For example, keep your tarot deck or runes by your bed. When you wake up in the morning, pull one card or rune, as you’re scrambling out of bed to feed the kids. While you go about your morning routine, spend a few moments thinking about the card. I’m not suggesting you go into trance, sit in a lotus position, or have deep thoughts. I’m saying that, if you cannot do a lot, do not be discouraged and forsake all attempts—just do what you can. Giving a tarot card or rune some consideration, even for a few moments, can open us to Divine guidance, inner resolve, or peace, regarding the day ahead. It can really be a benefit.

3) When you finish reading this, keep heart open to fun, easy ways to: Grow, overcome life’s challenges, and have support for your life.

Here is a way to have all three. Enjoy a Spirit Portrait—it is a gentle, organic process of empowerment. And you give me a chance to fulfill my New Year’s resolution. I adore mirroring people’s wondrousness to them; it is truly some of the best fun. My spirit grows a bit with every painting. Together, we make a great 2014. . . . Wow, I love that idea! Providing joyful support, having a great time in the process, and our shared happiness? Yes! Info at http://www.outlawbunny.com/2012/03/16/fantasy-portrait/

May our fey-touched hearts enjoy 2014 to the max!

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