My Goddess, I place my now and my future in Your hands. May all my actions be in Your service. Mother, help me put myself in Your care, by living my now and all my tomorrows in Your service.
Prayer: In Your Hands
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Tag Archives: DeGrandis
Oral Tradition’s Importance
The society that murdered thousands of witches also hid the nature of oral tradition, burying even a hint of its immense power to remove our shackles.
I’m a dinosaur, but will not give up teaching oral tradition. Its power is needed.
The trend is online classes. There is also some good money to be made there for teachers. But I’m committed to oral tradition, so teaching online isn’t an option. It’s not oral tradition, at least not as I know it.
Mind you, I leave each person to their own definition, and I support each Pagan’s choice of teaching methods. I’m not here to debate what is or isn’t oral tradition, or what teaching method is best.
Instead, here I’m discussing my commitment to the indescribable experience of glory and power conveyed only through a certain style of teaching, whether you call it oral tradition or Francesca’s style or George. 🙂
It’s interesting I used the words “indescribable experience.” The term oral tradition was originally used (in part) because there was no point in writing it down. No record could possibly convey it—it was indescribable.
The indescribable beauty and freedom of a lifestyle informed by oral tradition keeps me committed to it.
Beyond my students’ note-taking during classes, any record distorts—and might even corrupt—the original transmission. I don’t allow recordings of my oral transmissions. Nor do I provide transcriptions of them. Sometimes I ask people to refrain from taking notes.
Oral tradition can happen by phone (known as teleseminars). That is the medium I mostly use to teach. We transcend time and space to walk between the worlds together.
Past life memories tell me a communal knowledge of oral tradition was exterminated centuries ago: A society driven to murder thousands of witches also hid the nature of oral tradition, to bury even a hint of its immense power to free us from external and internal shackles. Thus, oral tradition is tangential to how our society as a whole represents it. It is not a discussion group, therapy group, or support group.
You know what? I don’t think I’ll call myself a dinosaur. I’m actually a gorgeous, powerful dragon. The gems in my dragon hoard are the treasures of oral tradition. I’ll keep sharing them, while my dragon tail encircles them and my students from those who would rob us of this heritage.
I don’t expect anyone to believe oral tradition provides benefits and beauty that cannot be received elsewhere, until they experience it firsthand. Something happens I can’t describe here—there’s that word “description” again—because it cannot be explained in writing, it must be experienced.
Technology’s seamless integration into our lives makes tech an extension of a person to some degree, but that does not turn online exchanges into legitimate oral tradition. I do not know a way to transmit oral teachings via vid chat, even if no record of it is kept. Once again, explaining that is beyond the limits of the written word.
No one can understand my underlying reasoning for my position unless they talk with me … talk, as in oral tradition.
Many people have been shocked or puzzled because I’m a best-selling author whose phone number is on her webpage. As hard as I am work writing books that transform lives—I’ll spend a decade writing a single book, because my standard is sky high—I work even harder on oral tradition, because my Gods told me to center there. As powerful as my books are—there are few better—my oral teachings are even more powerful. I love living in oral tradition.
So I put my phone number out there. 814.337.2490. For one thing, some people need a taste of oral tradition to know whether they want to work with me.
To enter oral tradition with you represents a willingness on both our parts to show up—take responsibly for the moment and be present in it. Then unparalleled magic fills us.
I’m blessed by students who take responsibility for their lives. Some live in the now so fully that they make a long-term commitment to learning my oral teachings, so we can moment after moment after moment create mind-boggling changes in our lives.
It’s hard to make that commitment. But even if they have insane schedules, relentless financial pressure, or other enormous, daily demands, they make time. Lo, their schedules become less crazy, the demands get fewer, the pressure relents, and they move into their dream lives. Oral tradition is about living life to the max.
Druid (Elven) Chant
This is a seasonal chant. It can be used not only for the Winter Solstice, but also for winter months subsequent to Yule.
If you recite it, please tell me what happens. Walking through falling snow, I channeled this poem. When the Goddess gave me a line, I chanted it immediately, while continuing my passage beneath a gray snowy sky. The experience was a gift from the Goddess, and doubly joyful when, reaching home, I managed to get a version of it in writing, because now I can share it with you, my fellow seeker (as well as use it again myself). Sharing our journeys blesses me utterly. So it would be wonderful to know your experience with this chant.
And, by the way, it works perfectly well without the snow storm, LOL. You do not need falling snow to use this chant.
Druid (Elven) Winter Solstice Chant
Francesca De Grandis, 2014
With the falling snow,
stars plummet to ground.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
I, elf, know my losses.
I, elf, know my losses.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
I, elf, know my pains.
I, elf, know my pains.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
I, elf, am not trapped by any sorrow.
I, elf, am not destined to mythic melancholy
or an inevitable tragedy of erroneous lore.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
Stars descend with the falling snow.
The chill and the heat bless me.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
All the power of the stars is mine.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
My powers are from the dark Mother Goddess.
My powers are from the blazing newborn King.
My powers are from the earth’s molten core.
My powers are from the fiery silver stars.
My powers are from the Dragon flame—all cauldron fires are mine.
By my powers, I easily manifest utter connection to my Gods.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
By my powers, I easily manifest self.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
By my powers, I easily manifest beauty.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
By my powers, I easily manifest self-love.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
By my powers, I easily manifest usefulness to others.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
By my powers, I easily manifest peace.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
By my powers, I easily manifest fun.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
By my powers, I easily manifest happiness.
By my powers, I easily manifest wealth.
By my powers, I easily manifest health.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
I easily manifest connection to all my self.
I easily manifest connection to all things.
I easily manifest integration within myself.
I easily manifest integration within the World Tree.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
Aaahhhhhh, wooooooo.
I easily manifest Faerie.
Aaaaahhhhhhhh.
Wooooooooooo.
Aaaaahhhhhhhh.
Wooooooooooo.
Om.
Om.
Om.
Yule Ritual 2014
Fellow elves, unicorns, goddesses, gods, and other wondrous beings,
Join me in a winter Solstice ritual, Thursday December 18, 2014, from 6 to 7:00 PM EST.
Let’s celebrate the winter Solstice together—operative word “celebrate.” We are magic. We’ll transform our lives and ourselves through pure fun.
The event is a group phone call. Free and open to all. (Your usual long-distance charges apply, and appear on your phone bill). No experience needed.
To participate, call 1-712-775-7000. When prompted, enter 1095248#. Dial a few minutes before 6:00; it can take a bit to connect, and latecomers are not allowed.
Celebrate your Pagan heart!
Love, Francesca De Grandis
————-
Seen the Faerie Ritual Set? For Spells, Divination, Soul Journeying, and More. Check it out here: http://www.outlawbunny.com/2014/06/11/frs/
Phoenix Resurrection
Phoenix Resurrection
I celebrate—here with community—my triumph over a long initiatory ordeal.
Hear my confident victory cry: 10+ years, flames tempered my steel and burned away dross. Til nothing remained except power, abundance, and beauty. Now, my story is victory and joy. I’m happier and more abundant than ever.
Humans are resilient. I overcame a 10+ year nightmare, one tragedy after another. Now, my story is victory and joy. On all fronts: Health, finances, delight, and more. For one thing—just one!—I should’ve died, but now have many good years ahead.
Here—hear—my victory cry: I did more than survive, I thrive again.
It has been quite some time, now, that I thrive again.
I thank my Gods, my community, and my stubbornness.
Victory: I was an excellent shamanic guide, but I used my extreme trials to become an even better guide, so that I can do the next works my Gods require. The foundation beneath my flight was firm, but now it is beyond strength—it is the Universe card, the Tao, the moment, the always.
A 10+ year initiatory bonfire, on which Gods stacked my old ways, til painful blaze reached sky, allowed Phoenix rebirth.
For a good long while now, that fire—transmuted—has been a nourishing Dragon fire within me, fueling my joy and Eagle flight. Some days, it quiets to a banked ember in my heart, warming my soul and loin.
Now my story is victory and joy. Doubt you can rise? You can fly! We humans can wrongly think we’ve lost ourselves. But Scorpio me was always Dragon, even when I couldn’t sense my fire.
I am Phoenix reborn. Flames laid waste the past, birthing warmth-driven foliage. Now, Phoenix relaxes—an easy flight in sacred meadow and passionate forest born from the Phoenix’s own rebirth.
I am Eagle soaring free, no longer pierced by arrow. I am Dragon holding up the sky.
Now, my story is victory and joy. I celebrate through gratefulness. Thank you.
Snow Faerie Snowflakes
Updated 2021.
This post was written in the mythopoetic realm that I’m always building, that I might continue to inhabit it happily. It’s a lighthearted post overall, in hopes it helps keep our spirits bright during wintry days. Included are some more serious thoughts—which I believe also can keep life bright. Let me know what you think.
Isn’t it amazing how someone can spot a wonderful part of you that you’ve overlooked? William Dreamdancer, an online friend who is an astute fellow, noticed that I’m a snow faerie.
Here I am, one of Santa’s Yule elves, but I never noticed I was a snow faerie. How could I have missed that? . . . I mean, you don’t have to be a snow faerie to be a Yule elf. Santa gives different jobs to different elves. But still …
Informed of William’s insight, Santa made me one of his official Snow Fairies this year. That is the job title for elves who tend the snow. (If you wonder why I’ve spelled it Faeries earlier in the post, and now I’m spelling it Fairies, check out this post:
https://stardrenched.com/2020/09/08/fairy-faerie-faery-fey-fay/)
My job as a Snow Fairy is creating snowflakes. I’ve gotten to make a lot of them. Making them makes me very happy.
Some Snow Fairies fashion snowflakes, and other Snow Fairies tend the snow in different ways, e.g., ensuring snowflakes don’t melt before they have a chance to fall from the sky. (I love making up the facts of my mythopoetic realm. And once I make them up, they’re true.)
On the mundane plane: I did a series of paintings that involved my drawing approximately one-hundred unique snowflakes. This post has three of those paintings.
A single snowfall uses up a lot of snowflakes. However, as I said, I’m not the only one of Santa’s elves who creates snowflakes.
In fact, every time you create paper cuttings of snowflakes to adorn a Yule tree, tape to a window, or otherwise decorate your home, you’re automatically one of the Yule elves helping make snow. Ditto your children when they start cutting the paper.
During a snowfall, I love watching Wind Fairies blow my snowflakes hither and thither.
Wind Fairies also make snowflakes drift lazily down. When they fall on you, look carefully and remember that Snow Fairies make each snowflake unique, especially for you.
Drawing snowflakes is a meditation that centers me into sanity and sacredness, which keeps me from going down the rabbit hole of dysfunction aka America’s holiday craziness. One of many perks of working for Santa is getting to do jobs that maintain joy, not only mine but that of others.
Popular culture, which as a whole considers magic nonsense, embraces it this time of year.
For one thing, during winter, many people who would humbug magic the rest of the year become open to miracle transforming their lives.
Also, the population as a whole becomes more open to extravagant decor. They forsake bourgeois restraint and the bland decor that results, replacing it with sparkling lights, bright red clothing, and gaudy displays. Typical holiday decor, with its exuberant fun, fills the air with magic. (Christmas decor is Pagan at heart and often has Pagan roots historically.)
Plus every year, folks everywhere are excited about a jolly elf who flies through the air, mysteriously managing to give gifts all over the world in a single night. If he isn’t wondrous and magical, nothing is, and I love seeing people suspend their disbelief (even if it’s only long enough to watch a Santa Claus movie).
Popular culture’s indulgence in magic this time of year is such happy, satisfying fun for me.
Want rituals that foster happiness and sheer joy in you?
There will be two rites. Attend one or both. One ceremony will meet in person in the San Francisco Bay Area. The other will meet worldwide via teleseminar aka group phone call.
We’ll drink in the season’s wonders, enchantments, and joys that they may lift our spirits and transform our lives. This will include an imaginary visit with Santa, to foster our happiness, joyfulness, and transformation even further.
Full details will be in my newsletter. Click the banner below to subscribe.
Blessed Year Wheel
Fellow Seeker,
It is easy to be overwhelmed by holiday responsibilities and anxiety. Ritual and simple plans, followed by self awareness, can help make the dark time of year peaceful, joyful, and blessed by camaraderie.
I am leading a ritual on the above theme. Please join me in ceremony, Friday Nov 22, from 3 to 4:00 PM EST.
No experience needed.
The event is a group phone call. Free and open to all. (You might pay long-distance charges, depending on your long-distance plan. They appear on your phone bill.)
To participate, call 1-712-775-7000. When prompted, enter 1095248#. Dial a few minutes before 3:00; it can take a bit to connect, and latecomers are not allowed.
The two long vertical visuals on the side are details from a painting I just finished. The painting is about the fecundity of darkness, so I wanted it to adorn this particular ritual’s announcement.
The ritual includes a guided, meditative planning for your dark time of year. If possible, bring something with which you can jot down any thoughts inspired by the meditation.
I hope you come. We’ll create a great fall and winter for ourselves.
I can’t always post announcements for my free monthly rituals here. There is no one place I announce all my events bc I do a lot of projects and do not want to bombard anyone. But I announce a good many of my goings-on in my newsletter. I hope you sign up for it because I am all about sharing the journey with fellow travelers.
Prayer of Forgiveness
Prayer of Forgiveness
How long before I always forgive readily?
Francesca De Grandis, 2007
I ask the butcher, “Carp?”
“Sure,” he says. Immediately dipping his large meaty arm into a fish tank directly behind him, he pulls out a large fish, throws it on the floor, and raises a killing tool. All of this happens within fifteen seconds of me saying, “Carp.”
I am shocked: Unexpected death will happen within seconds. Nevertheless, while the butcher’s arm descends, before he can slaughter the animal, I bless it. “Thank you,” I silently say, “for giving your life to feed me.”
I am surprised, though pleased, that all my years of shamanism kick in more quickly than the merchant’s automatic killing blow.
That night, I eat the fish, with love for it, gratitude, and in peace.
Click painting to see it clearly.
I want to forgive my enemies in the same manner, trust the life cycle of one being dying to feed another—whomever Goddess deems the sacrifice in the cycle of the minute, the hour, the day, the lifetime.
I want to bless my enemies, saying, “Thank you for any way you fed me or not. I eat the results with love for you, gratitude, and in peace.”
This does not always kick in quickly. It seems that I need more years of growth and practice before I automatically forgive. Goddess, if it is your will, make me a person who readily and immediately forgives. And if it is your will, make that change in me right now.
——————————
Want a spiritual counselor who doesn’t rest on her spiritual laurels but keeps growing? Want support doing the same so your life keeps expanding? Make an appointment with me: http://www.outlawbunny.com/pastoral-counseling/
Wisdom Adventures
Wisdom Adventures
What Is a Wisdom Adventure?
It is a shamanic quest tailored to you. Ritual tools and ancient wisdoms are individualized, shaped according to your blocks, strengths, spirit, current circumstances, and past experiences, to move you toward your truest material and spiritual goals.
During six, private, shamanic sessions, I channel a personalized shamanic journey for you, as well as the shamanic tools and wisdoms you need for that journey. I also work on developing your program between our meetings.
We meet by phone or, if you prefer, Zoom.
Since the ’80s, shamans, artists, healers, political leaders, and others who want to live fully have gone on Wisdom Adventures with me. Also called “Wisdom Coaching,” these six private visits help you create your own destiny and fulfill it.
I offer single shamanic counseling sessions, but sometimes a person wants ongoing attention. Perhaps you’re working toward big breakthroughs in your life and need help removing inner blocks to success, layer by layer. Or maybe you need the courage to follow your star and want the strength that builds over several meetings. Or confusion and doubt require ongoing exploration to find a way to personal power.
Wholeness, prosperity, spiritual fulfillment, greatness, better sex, artistic achievements? Something else? Whatever you want, let’s go! Don’t know what you want? I’ll help you figure it out. Whatever you need materially and spiritually can be on the table. Wisdom Coaching is tailored to you.
What Do We Do during Wisdom Adventure meetings?
First, we decide: should your journey last six weeks, three months. or six months (shall we meet every week, every two weeks, or once a month, respectively)? Then we discuss your primary goal(s)—or help you discover it. Building block by building block, I offer tools, inspiration, and power when you’re following a dream, facing a challenge, embracing a rare opportunity, or doing all three. Each session builds on the ones before it, making the sum greater than its parts. On the road of life, I’m by your side, a guide and cheerleader every step of the way.
Even in our initial session, we travel deeply journey into the shamanic world of transformation. If you’ve ever worked with me, you know I can facilitate a process whereby you quickly reach great depths and stunning changes.
What do I actually do for you during our our meetings? Whatever is needed! You are unique, with unique needs. I have an extensive otherworldly toolkit from my years of training and experience, providing me with many options to draw on so you get what you need to transform your life.
Guided by Deity and the moment, we go where the sacred road leads. Each moment of a visit, I intuit what is needed and how to address that need. You might receive answers to mundane questions, then the next minute be led into a mystical experience that increases your trust of your own wisdom. A few minutes later, we could do a ritual in which you find spiritual healing or a dynamite marketing plan for your new business. I helped a gymnast choose the best set of moves for his Olympic performance.
I often combine the practical and the mystical.
In every session, you also receive direct spiritual transmissions. Spiritual transmissions are an ancient Faery Faith method that increases the serenity, power, and safety of your shamanic journey, fosters personal growth, deepens the experiential nature of the journey’s lessons, and adds good luck to your life overall.
You’re the Star of Your Wisdom Adventure
You choose the course a session takes, as little or as much as you want. If a method or topic I feel divinely directed toward doesn’t feel right to you, you’re the star. This is your adventure. You and I are both conduits for the divine. If you want to take a tack other than one I suggest in a session, I am your servant.
Extensive, Lasting Change
I don’t put rhetorical Band-Aids on deep soul-wounds. Participants of Wisdom Adventures report lasting change. Seemingly immoveable obstacles to happiness leave. For example, maybe you can’t find your life’s purpose. Or you can’t find a way to escape ruinous circumstances. Or past problems still haunt you. Client after client has called my work miraculous in changing their circumstances. Trauma survivors and members of the recovery community have found crucial growth. Happy, successful folks report an increase in self-fulfillment and passion.
Did one of my counseling sessions, books, blogs, or classes provide strength, spiritual succor, answers to important questions, or freedom from inner bondage? We’ve been a great match. Now get everything you want. Love yourself up with one-on-one, ongoing coaching that a book or class can’t provide. We’ll discover all the unique gold within you and polish away what keeps you from shining.
How to Go On Your Personalized Shamanic Adventure:
1. Use my online booking calendar to make and pay for your first appointment. Important: when using the calendar, type “Wisdom Adventure” in the Comments/Questions field. Each appointment lasts an hour and costs $200. To go to the calendar, click here: http://stardrenched.com/archetypal-power-appointment/
2. If our appointment is, let’s say, Friday, April 3 at 2 pm est, then you phone me Friday, April 3, at 2 pm est.
3. At the end of each meeting, we schedule the next.
4. After our first meeting, I set up an automatically recurring payment for you, to make payment for the rest of the sessions easy. They’re paced with your appointments: every week, every two weeks, or every month.
5. If our first session is not all you hoped, no further obligation. You only pay for the one meeting.
If you have questions about whether a Wisdom Adventure is right for you, phone me. I’m happy to talk with you for as long as it takes to address your concerns. My number is below.
Who is Francesca De Grandis?
De Grandis is the best-selling author of “Be a Goddess!” She’s a full-time community shaman, as a teacher, guide, healer, and artist. Her work couples Goddess mysticism with practical magic and a down-to-earth philosophy.
Raised in a traditional Strega family tradition that has Celtic shamanism in its heritage—the family is originally from France—she practices an ancient European witchcraft that is a form of Faerie shamanism.
She founded The Third Road—an internationally practiced shamanic tradition–and guides individuals of all faiths and those perfectly happy without one.
A spiritual counselor since 1982. Francesca has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, and Cosmopolitan, as well as on National Public Radio and national television.
Her nickname is Outlaw Bunny.
Reviews
Matt O’Brien: “I’d been working on a problem for years, and Francesca unlocked and released it in just five minutes. It was exactly what I needed. Wow!”
Kathy Crabbe, Soul Reader, Artist, Astrologer: “Francesca is a beacon for me in every kind of weather. I love and adore her with all my heart and I recommend her classes, books, readings and other offerings 100%.”
Adrienne Amundsen, Ph.D., and clinical psychologist says Francesca, “has the trustworthy ethics of a Buddhist priest, psychologically sound respect for the complexity of human process, and a wicked sense of humor that keeps serious material in healthy perspective.”
Lynn Andrews, author of “Medicine Woman,” writes, “Francesca De Grandis has given us an inspirational bridge between ancient wisdom and our current life.”
If you’re ready to move forward in your life, or you want help getting ready to move forward, start your Wisdom Adventure here: http://stardrenched.com/archetypal-power-appointment/
