Tag Archives: DNA

I Joined the Fairy Circus

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I Joined the Fairy Circus

Look at my face as a child. Do I look like I was ever suited to a “normal” life?

Obviously, I had to join the circus of life, become a fairground barker, jump on a magic carousel, perform in the Fairy Big Top, and travel with a carnival between the worlds.

Hard Traveling

William, the man who raised me, started traveling poor and hard when he was about twelve. My research indicates that his mom couldn’t afford to feed him, so he left home at age seven to work on a farm. A census puts him on a farm at that time, but not in his mom’s household. This is corroborated by a family member mentioning an “uncle” whose farm she visited as a child. The “uncle’s” name is the same as little William’s employer. There is also a relevant photo.

A census also shows that William (Bill) returned home, where his mother now lived with a new husband and his son. That unfortunate young boy stole milk from his front porch after the milkman delivered it because there was not enough food in the home. He would drink from the bottle and then add water to hide his theft. He told this to his daughter, my cousin, who passed the story on to me when I told her I suspected Dad had lived in poverty as a child.

It appears that young Bill left home again soon, to hit the road at age twelve. This was a common solution if a household had too many mouths to feed.

If my earlier writing about Bill contradicts anything here, it is likely because my research netted new information.

Request: It seems that the expression hard traveling predates its use in a Woody Guthrie song. If you know otherwise, please tell me. The expression is magical to me.

It might seem odd that a phrase describing hardship is magical to me. It might even appear callous toward individuals who suffer—or have suffered—on the road. I am in no way romanticizing hard traveling or otherwise minimizing it. My family history, including my own, is why the phrase is magic for me. I won’t didactically spell out further explanation here. The situation is nuanced, so perhaps explanations require an oral give-and-take dialogue. But this essay explains in part, not didactically but experientially and embodied.

A Witch Raised on Optimism and Descended from Society’s Hedge Rows

I wonder if Dad’s love of music came from traveling. His adoration of music seemed incongruent with everything else about him. He even loved musicals. But perhaps his love of show tunes came from his mother, who was a showgirl.

I descended from people who were on the edges of society, but they were not always what most people would imagine.

I assumed showgirl was the family euphemism for stripper. But later, I saw a family painting that I was told is a portrait of Bill’s mom. Curious, I went online, armed with the painter’s name: W Haskell Coffin. I discovered he was known for painting Ziegfeld showgirls. If the portrait is Bill’s mother, she was probably in the Ziegfeld Follies or a similar group.

That is not incompatible with being poor. Here are two reasons. Many performers experience economic hardship. As in any business, some people accumulate wealth, some people barely scrape by. If she did make decent money, she would’ve been past the age of a youthful Ziegfeld girl by the time she suffered poverty with young William. He was born six years after the Follies began. Her money could’ve run out by then.

I’ve spent decades researching my family history, trying to understand it. I’m not a trained researcher. My conclusions could easily be amiss. I tell the story best I can. That’s the job of a circus barker. Perhaps putting a family history together best you can is a necessity when you come from the margins. There were so many roadblocks. For example, I contacted an organization that archives material on Ziegfeld girls. The person with whom I spoke explained that a lot of material was lost because, after Ziegfeld died, there was no money to be made from the archives, so no one took care of them. Marginalized because of lack of money.

The following snapshot of the portrait isn’t great. I took it without great equipment decades ago at a family member’s home:

(Update: Further investigation suggests this might not be my grandmother, despite the family’s claim and all the time I’d already spent researching the painting. At least it opened my mind to her being a showgirl instead of a stripper. I hope I discover the group(s) in which she performed, and I am still looking into Ziegfeld. Research is a living process; new findings lead to—or suggest—new conclusions. Unfortunately, most people in the know have passed on. Of the few that remain, I only know one who is a reliable source. Speaking of new findings: After I wrote the above part of this paragraph, I spoke with that trustworthy source—e.g., when her source might be unreliable, she acknowledges it. She provided new history: She too was told Grandma was a showgirl. She was also told that Grandma was an actress. She added that it was implied—though not said outright—that Grandma was not well regarded by the family because of her work.)

Another example of outliers in the family: Bill was as close-minded as they come. But as a teenager, I brought home a stranger. He had no place to sleep, was due to enter the Marines the next day, and carried a guitar. I assumed Dad would angrily turn him away. That would’ve been typical of my close-minded, bitter father. But he gave the guy a bed. I imagine it was in part because the fellow was soon to be a Marine, but that the guitar had a lot to do with it too.

Dad, unexpectedly, adored folk music, not just show tunes. After his World War II military stint, he didn’t return from Europe to his wife and kids right away (I wasn’t born yet, but I know the story). He went south and hung out with hillbillies. Had they met as hard-traveling children? Thus far, I don’t know where else this extremely conservative man could’ve acquired a love of folk music. And unless he had experienced it rooted in his life experiences and worldview, he would’ve loathed it in the ‘60s when it was associated with radical politics.

I am 74 years old. Previous generations of my family are long gone. Their deaths impelled me to investigate old newspapers, public records, etc., long ago. That has been and continues to be fruitful and fascinating. I will keep at it to answer my new questions about Bill and the rest of the family. Plus, the family member who I know to be reliable remains, ever-ready to talk. And the beloved dead appear in visions to point out directions I might pursue or even tell me stories.)

More Lineage from Society’s Hedge-Row Edges

Bill was not my biological dad. DNA indicates my biological father likely descended from nomads. A family story: An Indian prince proposed to Mom but she chose Bill instead. I don’t know what the family meant by Indian. Mom aside, the family’s lack of education and abundance of prejudice means family members might have considered various peoples as Indian. Was my father Arabic? Iranian? Or?

Grandma a showgirl, Bill a hard traveler, biological father possibly a royal nomad, and Mom a fortuneteller from a long line of Italian witches. I was grown in the edges—society’s hedge rows. Add that I was raised on old musicals with their fantastically optimistic themes, and I had to become a performer in the Fairy circus of life—a nomad traveling for sheer joy, both the experience of it and the giving of it.

Hard Times Taught Me Unapologetic Joy

I am grateful to know a beautiful joy that you can learn from hard times. It is a joy you learn to nurture regardless of circumstances. It is a pure, untainted joy.

That’s one reason I love the circus. Circus artists focus on creating joy and wonder, whether as a clown or trapeze artist. Their shows embody unapologetic joy.

Run away and join the Fairy Magic Circus, for sheer joy:
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The Practical Fairy Witch Mystic Training

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The Practical Fairy Witch Mystic Training
Be Prosperous, Feral, Free,
and Magic Like The Moon

Contents
If this table of contents’ links don’t work, scroll past the table of contents for all the event information.
* Magical Overview of the Training
* Attend by Phone. It’s Easy!
* Class 1: Center and Circumference
* Class 2: Faeries Love Gaia, and Gaia Loves Faeries
* Class 3: Myth, Body, Gaia, and Faerie
* Class 4: Come Home to the Faerie Queen
* Schedule
* Enrollment
* Four Master-of-the Arts Magics Will Fuel Your Success

Magical Overview of the Event

This eight-month Shamanic journey
begins January 22, 2023

Harness power
in the far reaches of Fairy Witch mysticism.

The Practical Fairy Witch Mystic Training consists of four courses. Each one helps create a magical repertoire with spells that cover any situation.

The Old Gods don’t try to tame you,
or insist you become dour.
They help you find great freedom,
and They help you find your power.

They guide you when you’re lost
and don’t scold you when you’re wrong.
They hold you when you’re hurting.
They show you how you’re strong.

In this mystic training’s rites,
the Old Gods help you be
prosperous, wild,
magical, and free.
So mote it be!

Classes are teleseminars—group meetings by phone. Call the event phone number to attend. No special equipment or app is required.

Here are the four courses.

Class 1: Center and Circumference
Be Your Fullest Self, and Be in Union with All Things

This is mysticism that creates a new reality. We’ll address worldly (e.g., finances) and spiritual (e.g., your life purpose) concerns.

The course helps you live fully. Here’s one way that will happen:

The lessons free you from society’s lie that important parts of life conflict with each other, so you have to sacrifice unnecessarily. Here’s an example to make that clearer:

Part of becoming utterly ourselves is interacting with others. However, many of us were taught from childhood that we must give up the self to be part of a group. Not true! You can be immersed in love from others and still be you.

We’ll do rituals that empower you to be your true self. We’ll add other rituals that nurture your ability to remain your true self while you’re in the company of loved ones and the larger community. You don’t have to isolate so you feel comfortable being you.

Bringing full self together with thriving participation in community can be daunting. In this course, you don’t have to choose. You’ll gain what you personally need to be fully yourself and also integrate self with community—center and circumference.

Another example of supposed conflicts that the course conquers: The lessons nurture the self-fulfillment that comes through knowing one’s talents while also helping you use them to the max to serve others.

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Expect rituals that help you stay in the center. I mean your inner center. I also mean the center of what really happens in life—the grandeur of the cosmos, the beauty of tribe, life’s miraculous possibilities, the big ups and downs, the little ups and downs. You remain safely centered within the circumference of truths.

In addition, the rituals help these centerings remain while you thrive within the circumference of a loving community.

We’re going to accomplish a lot in this course because of its innovative modalities.

Center and Circumference is tailored step by step to its participants. For example, you may need rites that show you your unique place in community and give you the power to take that place.

This course is an intensive = soul-depth, pivotal movements, and playtime.

You’ll be magic like the moon.
You’ll be in union with all things.

The last nine yards to personal well-being and life goals can require evolving past how we’ve always done things—as mystics, as a species, and as unique individuals.

I’ve spent my life channeling a new approach, working full-time to develop and refine it. I continue to evolve material as the global psyche shifts and the Gods give me more information. All the courses in this series have such material.

This post outlines my visions, realizations, and other reasons for creating these four curriculums years ago. Reviewing the post reminded me that I was way ahead of the curve. And I spent decades building up to these courses before that. Do not accept teachers who threw a curriculum together because they’re jumping on the bandwagon late in the game.

Each of the four courses in The Practical Fairy Witch Mystic Training is a complete training in itself. These life-changing courses also weave together into a transformative journey that is even greater than the sum of its parts.

Each course emphasizes specific topics in depth.

The courses also overlap. Some overlaps are mentioned in the course descriptions here. Paradoxically, focusing on a few things, while including several others in that week’s lesson, deepens focus. Far-reaching connectivity is part of Fairy mysticism. You’ll receive experiential shamanic lessons in which you can feel all of creation as a weave that lovingly supports you.

If you do a lot for people, you need someone to take care of you. Healers, parents, teachers, psychics, nurses, and other givers, enroll in The Practical Fairy Witch Mystic Training. In every one of its courses, I take care of you, and you soar.

Class 2: Faeries Love Gaia, and Gaia Loves Faeries
Nature Spirituality, Ecstatic Union, and Personal Wholeness

This class’s nature spirituality is without dogma. Just straight-ahead earthy mysticism.

We’ll delve into a connectivity with nature that makes you whole, happy, and powerful. If you have that connection already, it will grow quite a bit.

We’ll explore mysticism that heals Mother Earth and ceremonies with Her that, in turn, heal and empower us. If you already have that, it will be amplified.

You’ll experience a spiritual connection with nature while you’re also thoroughly in touch with the psychic realms, creating an ecstatic union and wholeness. This results in maximum physical and spiritual health.

All the courses in The Practical Fairy Witch Mystic Training include material to achieve an utter integration, within and without. (Interesting sidebar: In a lifetime of channeling rituals and teachings, they almost all foster this integration. When the rituals and teachings focus elsewhere, even then they are potent tools for integration.)

In the process, Faeries Love Gaia, and Gaia Loves Faeries will also explore how our joys and our delights—including our lovemaking—can heal the earth.

As another part of that process, we’ll look at 20th and 21st-century shifts in the global psyche, spirit realms, and environment. The shifts require that at least a handful of mystics take steps that hadn’t been needed previously. The course addresses these steps, which go the last nine yards to human rights for all, our planet’s health, and our personal life goals.

I truly trust that we’re ready to take alternative spirituality and healing another step.

Gaia Spirituality! My star-touched cells long to dance with Gaia’s. She, in turn, needs my best. She and I are in a joyous union, in part through maximum service to each other. The training will facilitate each participant taking the next step and becoming their best, whatever those mean for each of us. We’ll nurture our uniqueness and celebrate it as pivotal to the salvation of the planet. Oh, union!

The course also includes shamanic techniques that maintain your home and the land on which it sits as a healing hearth and sacred site, respectively.

Hidden power spots and overlooked nature spirits abound, needing our blessings, and waiting to bless us in turn. We’ll discuss the power of your residence’s area. Included will be a ritual to wake up and empower the spirit of your local land.

In addition, the course shows how we can best be Gaia’s stewards on the mundane plane, according to our circumstances, personalities, and desires.

And the curriculum does so much more:

Most mystics face emotional wounds and health problems. Some of these might open a person to their metaphysical power. Nonetheless, healing wounds stops them from limiting our happiness. Healing is also required for mysticism to be safe and effective.

In Faeries Love Gaia, and Gaia Loves Faeries, we heal these soul wounds and transform them into safer doorways to power.

Mystics might suffer other emotional wounds and health problems caused by mystical exploration. Possible negative impacts of vigorous otherworldly exploration have been insufficiently addressed. My curriculums are exceptions.

This course’s innovative theories and methods support wild flights into fantastic realms and train you to come back whole.

Lessons in Faeries Love Gaia, and Gaia Loves Faeries are multi-faceted. All the material, even when it seems disparate, comes together to create personal inner integration and integration with Mother Nature. An effective approach to Nature Spirituality must include many far-ranging aspects, combined in a way that adds up to a larger whole. This course ranges from deep mysticism to practical stewardship of land to inner change that helps you with worldly matters.

We can be Gaia’s Faeries—Her children who love Her, tend Her, and dwell within the fullness of Her love and care. Participants in this course visit the realm of Faerie. We drink star-water. Our cells dance with Gaia’s. And our recognition of our beauty becomes an unstoppable agent of change for the better.

Each course in the Practical Fairy Witch Mystic Training has a diversity of intertwining topics. Humans, life, magic, and all of creation are wondrously complex weaves that are somehow also wondrously simple.

The magic of all four courses evolves our DNA toward inner wholeness and integration. Our new state will be a blueprint that the rest of Gaia’s children (animal, mineral, vegetable, and spirit) and Gaia Herself will fashion themselves after, sometimes on a conscious level, just as often not. In other words, we become a psychic template for society and Gaia, simply by changing ourselves. Our inner change empowers the rest of the cosmos to do the same. Any spiritual evolution we achieve in any of these courses helps everyone.

Faeries Love Gaia, and Gaia Loves Faeries is core material for mystics—central to personal and global evolution. I see how much it helps my students.

This class is an intensive.

Class 3: Myth, Body, Gaia, and Faerie
Fairy Wisdom and Rituals for Otherworldly Adventures

Shamanic rituals for Faerie shamans, bardic poets, visionary painters, cosmic clowns, spiritual outlaws, and other fey-touched seekers. And for anyone who wants to become a fey adventurer.

For now, I’ll oversimplify the definition of myth and define it in a way that might seem eccentric until it’s explained in the course. Let’s call myth an altered state, otherworldly realm, or mythic self-identification. Myth has a more complex, inclusive meaning that we’ll explore during the event.

Myth, Body, Gaia, and Faerie combines myth, the physical body, Mother Earth, and Fairy realms. We will experientially integrate living in myth, being in a physical body, interacting with Gaia on the embodied and mystical planes, and visiting otherworldly lands of Faerie.

This weave produces rich experiences and ecstatic mysticism that are uniquely and innately available to you, then deepens those wonders more, then deepens them beyond more.

Such an extensive weave is made up of many things, including the power to meet practical needs. The class helps star-children improve daily life in worldly ways (e.g. finances, love, home, and career).

There will also be magic to
* Manifest physical health by meeting the needs of your star-touched physiology.
* Heal your soul wounds.
* Make mystical experiences safe. (Star-drenched!)
* Keep you, as a Fey-touched individual, safe in your mundane activities. (Stardust still falls on us when we walk on the earth!)

imagePart of the healing available in the course will be a chance to address loneliness, self-doubt, and other challenges star-wanderers might face because society misunderstands the mythological and therefore judges us as deluded, immature, or otherwise “wrong.”

Class 4: Come Home to the Faerie Queen
Be Star Drenched! Fulfill Your “Impossible” Dreams.

This class was first taught years back, after I had a vision. Here’s a short version of it:

The Faerie Queen tells us,
“I am Mother to the Fey.
More of you are awake now.
Lovers, warriors, children, elders,
cats in disguise, and Fey-blooded humans,
wolves, bards, dragons,
gardeners, herbalists, corporate executives,
changelings, tricksters, moon-children, star-children,
and so many more of you,
you are awake now.
Come unto me, come home to me, I am your Mother,
and I will protect you, uphold you,
tutor you until your starlit blood shines
like the milky way in all its immense luminosity.
Dance with me! I have been lonely for my children.
But you are awake now, so come to me, my Faerie children.
The new Fey tribe begins—a mystical global village.

This course delves into the full version of the vision and responds to the Faerie Queen’s call. We go home to reside within Her love and care. And we enter a global Fey community.

Before I offered this class for the first time, I’d waited lifetimes for the Fey-spark in humans to fully re-ignite. More and more, the ancient starlit blood came forward. Finally, momentum hit critical mass; Fairy magic was thoroughly awake in huge numbers of people. Fey-touched! This left us with new questions:

* Have you sensed shifts in the human/plant/mineral psyche?

* What do you require for self-healing, prosperity, and great sex during present times?

* Are your mystical aspects desperately needed by everyone right now, including by you?

* Would you like to learn how to (better) use your new/old/undiscovered/shifted powers, both magical and mundane?

* Is Paganism too dogmatic, not pagan enough? Do you long for fellowship that supports unique visions?

* How can mystics—ranging from activists to quiet magicians—come together to love, celebrate, and protect Gaia?

* Can Gaia—can we—be happy, or even survive, without such a tribe happening globally?

To address all these concerns, I developed a curriculum that has fresh ideas and innovative magic that help us embody the answers to these questions.

That’s how this course was born, revealing unprecedented steps and new approaches to be taken.

Various individuals copied the course’s title or other parts of the event’s announcements and used the imitations for their retreat, course, blog, or book. My vision for a new way of being had such relevance that it was receiving a lot of attention. So some people wanted to seem like they could teach the same thing. No imitator can teach the original, life-changing, reality-shifting material but me.

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Included are lessons about how to be your style Faerie shaman. Faerie is filled with different places, each special. One is your home. This class helps you go home. If you’re already home, you’ll learn (more) about its unique magic and spirituality, and how to use them practically to empower your mundane life.

The curriculums in The Practical Fairy Witch Mystic Training culminate decades of work. Rewrite your DNA with me and break through to the stars. You’ll create previously-impossible possibilities for yourself, Gaia, and all beings.

Creating Come Home to the Faerie Queen lessons inspired me to develop the other courses in this series. Now, we’ll use the beginning as the end—the instigating course is now the culminating one. The juicy beginning can be even juicier magic after the other three courses are taken.

Schedule

This eight-month training has 29 classes, meeting on Sundays from 6:00 to 7:00 pm pacific time, starting January 22.

Class 1: Center and Circumference is seven weeks long, from January 22 through March 5. Reserve 6:00 to 7:00 pm pacific time, Sunday March 12, for a makeup class in case I can’t attend one of the planned sessions.

Class 2: Faeries Love Gaia, and Gaia Loves Faeries lasts eights weeks, April 2 through May 21. Reserve 6:00 to 7:00 pm pacific time, Sunday May 28, for a makeup class in case I can’t attend one of the planned sessions.

Class 3: Myth, Body, Gaia, and Faerie is seven meetings, June 18 through July 30, skipping over July 2. Reserve 6:00 to 7:00 pm pacific time, Sunday August 6, for a makeup class.

Class 4: Come Home to the Faerie Queen lasts seven weeks, August 27 through October 8. Reserve 6:00 to 7:00 pm pacific time, Sunday October 15, for a makeup class.

A break after each course keeps the schedule from overwhelming you.

Enrollment

Enroll securely with PayPal. Use the Subscribe button below for automatic monthly payments of $200, for eight months.


Pls give me yr phone #



Your place is reserved upon receipt of payment. If you don’t receive an email confirming payment within a few days, check your spam filter and spam mailbox. If the email isn’t there, or you want to discuss a scholarship, semi-scholarship, trade, or payment plan other than the above subscription option, or you need more information about the course, please call me at the number below. A few days before our first class, you receive an email with course details—e.g., the phone number to call for the meetings. No refunds. However, you can cancel your subscription after two payments for the specific course you’re attending.

To participate in only part of this training, tell me which course or courses you want. I’ll invoice you through PayPal for $400 per course, paid in installments of $200 a month. Each course stands on its own, a training unto itself.

If you’ve taken any of these courses, repeat enrollment is half-price. Let me know which course(s) you want to repeat, and I’ll invoice you.

The training is suitable to all levels. Adepts experience sufficient depth. Beginners are not overwhelmed or left to fall behind but are given the support they need.

Any two of these courses, except Center and Circumference, can be used as the two qualifying electives needed to participate in the advanced Fairy Witch Training.

Four Master-of-the Arts Magics
Will Fuel Your Success

The price for the event is a deal because I bring four Master-of-the Arts magics to this eight-month shamanic journey. I do a lot to ensure Fairy magic enchants your life:

1) Twenty-Nine Oral Tradition Lessons

Each meeting is not only a lesson but also a ritual because traditional shamanic lessons include material taught experientially. I use master-level Witchcraft techniques to create ceremonies safe for beginners and substantive enough for adepts.

Drawing on ancient transformative practices and ancestral wisdoms, I developed innovative modalities and theories.

Enrollment is limited so we can work in Fairy oral tradition, which happens in small groups, and in which headway can happen quickly. Limited enrollment also allows participants to request individualized support. Authentic connectivity.

A shamanic journey is personal. Traditional shamanic lessons include individualized attention, which tailors the training to you. In-depth guidance.

2) Every Week, I Do a Spell For Your Success

I cast spells that give you good luck, add power to your efforts to improve your life, strengthen the magic of our meetings, make life safer, awaken your magic to its next level of power, and awaken your mundane strengths further too.

Good luck can be required to create the life and state of mind you want. The spells I’ll cast give you so much luck.

They also adapt to your needs automatically (instead of me arrogantly deciding what you need), e.g., prosperity, personal growth, physical health, peace, business opportunities, confidence.

The spells adapting to your needs means they not only create specific benefits but also bless you as a whole being and enrich your entire life.

3) Psychic Readings about Your Goals

During at least one meeting per course (and likely several in each course), you receive a psychic reading about how you can best implement the lessons, apply them to your specific situations, or otherwise use them. This might include uncovering and overcoming blocks to the life you want.

No matter how serious, complex, sophisticated, or unusual, I will address your circumstances and personal state.

4) One-on-one support by phone. I’m available should you need a private discussion, or if something comes up during a group meeting that would take too long to discuss during the meeting.

Mysticism is practical. It can transform you and your life in ways nothing else can. My approach has changed person after person’s life substantially for the better.

Reviews:

“Life-changing. I don’t have words adequate to thank you. … One of the most deeply meaningful experiences of my life.”—Melissa

“I am truly blown away at how much I was able to resolve and heal.”—Chad Woodward

“My life just seems to go better when I’m taking one of your classes!”—Shauna Farabaugh

Total cost for eight months of Faerie Shamanism training—29 classes, 29 weeks of my spells for you, psychic readings, and one-on-one support—is $200 a month. Your carrier might charge you for the calls into the lessons.


Pls give me yr phone #



I don’t know when or if I’ll teach this series again. I’d guess the last time I taught Faeries Love Gaia was in 2007, Center and Circumference in 2010, Myth, Body, Gaia, and Faerie in 2014, and Come Home in 2015.

A lot was shifting in the Faerie and mundane worlds, so I
originated these classes. I saw that new methods were needed to work toward your happiness right to the finish line. The same goes for human rights and care of our planet.

To be part of this four-part breakthrough Faerie Shamanism training and acquire its in-depth expertise, enroll now.

Fairy witch, Francesca De Grandis, is the bestselling author of the books Be a Goddess! and Goddess Initiation.

A mystical event is no substitute for medical care by a trained physician or psychiatric counseling. Participants are responsible for the consequences of their participation.

In the land of Faerie, miracles are bestowed upon me every day.

Upcoming Fairy Ritual

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Ancestors, Past Lives, and Witch Power:

A Seven-Week Fairy Ceremony for Magical and Worldly Success

Our Heritage from Ancestors

My first ancestors spun threads of wisdom and power. Generation upon generation wove in more threads, until now thick ropes connect me to all powers and wisdoms.

In this seven-week rite, we become more connected to these ancestral cords by shifting our cells and awareness. Thus linked, our intuitions and hearts discover wisdoms and powers lost over the ages, e.g., hidden enchantments, obscure herbal medicines, extraordinary spiritual balance during the hardest times, the weave of mysticism and down-to-earth savvy, and other empowering choices suppressed by mainstream society.

We Are Magic

Our DNA is stardust; magic fills every cell of our bodies.

In our veins, ancestors’ blood flows, coursing back to the fiery explosion that bloomed into all existence. That creative force is the oldest, most powerful enchantment and is ours to use. It is within us. We can manifest anything. We will claim this power in our meetings.

Healing Ancestral Trauma and Living Our Innate Magic

Trauma suppresses stardust DNA. Ancestral trauma transforms the familial DNA, thwarting its magic. We will:

* Heal ancestral traumas—or call them ancestral wounds—which are sufferings of a family member or members that pass down to every generation, ad infinitum, until healed.

* Heal from centuries of stardust DNA being refuted and suppressed.

* Center into our stardust DNA. We’ll cast off confusion and doubt about our fey essence and insightful common sense. We’ll gain confident clarity about our innate magic and mundane skills.

If you choose to avoid some ancestors or don’t know who any of your ancestors are, you can still do this seven-week ceremony. I’ll show you how.

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We Will Strengthen Our Magic, Hearts, and Minds

The Old Gods promise freedom:
we have the right to
an enchanted, fulfilling life,
ease in our steps,
wildness in our hearts,
health in our bodies,
trust of our beautiful fey souls,
and confidence in our intellects.
This is a witch’s freedom.
Find it,
celebrate it,
live it: enroll to attend the Witch Power ceremony.


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More information about the event:

Working Directly with Ancestors

We will
* Invoke ancestors for guidance, empowerment, and healing
* Heal ancestors and be aligned with them. Aligning one’s energy with ancestors is a traditional shamanic practice that makes your witchcraft and mundane endeavors powerful and creates both physical and spiritual health.

Every Past Life Weaves with Ancestral Lineage

I experienced in my bones that the powers I knew in past lives and the traumas I suffered in them are woven into the threads of power and trauma that link me to ancestors. The seven weeks will:
* heal trauma from past lives
* restore us to wildness, enchantment, and beauty of past incarnations
* give us not only worldly and magical powers of our ancestors but also power we held in past lives

This ritual is suitable to both novices and adepts.

The last time I taught this was five years ago, so if you’re interested in it, grab the chance now. I don’t know if and when I’ll offer it again.

This event is a Faerie Druid rite and a prerequisite for advanced Third Road Druidic training.

These rituals are group meetings by phone. To participate, just dial the phone from anywhere.

We meet seven Sundays, from 3:00 to 4:00 pm EST, starting February 7, 2021. Meetings are held consecutive weeks except we skip February 28. Reserve Sunday March 4, same time, for a makeup session in case I’m unavailable for one of the planned meetings.

Tuition: $400. Your service provider may charge you for the call. The event’s area code is a U.S. #.

Half price if you’ve taken this course before. It was previously called Witch Power, Ancestors, and Past Lives. The half-price option is in the drop-down menu below.

Enroll securely using PayPal:


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My phone number is 814-337-2490.Upon receipt of payment, your place is reserved. Seating is limited. Event phone #, etc., is emailed to you. If you need more info, or want to discuss payment plan, scholarship, or trade, phone me. No refunds.

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The above photo is of my mom, may she rest in peace. Her witch blood flows in me, telling me I’m a Goddess. We’re each a God, descendant of the Faerie race. This ritual helps us access our Divine power.

The Old Ways can be fully embraced. They give us mystical and worldly strengths. My mom modeled for me a path of Goddess mysticism coupled with down-to-earth practical savviness. For example, she was an amazing businesswoman.

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Honoring the Ancestors: The Man Who Raised Me

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Photo of my beautiful young parents

Honoring the Ancestors: The Man Who Raised Me

Honoring ancestors has many aspects for me as a witch, and just as many for me as a human and individual. I want to touch on a few, before talking about my dad.

Ancestors Who Were Oppressors

Human nature being what it is, we all have ancestors who were horrible people, and some who were outright oppressors.

When I teach how to contact ancestors, do ritual with them, and live in alignment with the old ways of our forebearers, someone inevitably asks, “What should I do about awful ancestors? I don’t want any contact with them, let alone honor them.”

Whether the student deems those ancestors oppressors or terrible in other ways, the question is important.

The answer can’t be one-fits-all. Nor can I personally hang the problem all on one hook; I’ve had to approach it from a lot of different angles, including the following:

I myself have had to make peace with awful ancestors. For one thing, I don’t want hate in my heart. I can no longer bear the damage it does me.

For another, making peace helps me regain wisdom lost over the ages—herbal medicine, witchcraft, and other empowering choices suppressed by oppressors.

My very first ancestors at the beginning of human time (well, I believe the line from which I descended started long before that, but I won’t get into that here) started threads of wisdom and power that have spun forward in time. Every one of my ancestors has held and holds a piece of that thread. I don’t want my resentments to break the thread any further than has already happened. Even if an ancestor contributed to that breakage, I want to repair it.

Making peace doesn’t mean I ignore injustices ancestors have perpetrated, any more than I’d bury my head in the sand about living family members who are complete racists or otherwise awful.

But I find some peace in my heart, and that is how I honor ancestors whom I otherwise want nothing to do with, and thus repair threads that might’ve been damaged by them and my own hate. This is what I’ve learned through my own trial and error and what works for me.

What Is Ancestral trauma?

Ancestral trauma—or ancestral wound—is the suffering of a family member or members that then passes down to the next generation and the next, until it is healed. Though it’s passed down through behaviors and internalized oppression, as a shaman I also sense a maimed energy that each generation picks up. That energy also transforms the familial DNA. The behaviors and internalized oppression help create and maintain the energy. And vice versa.

Finding peace about awful people in my familial line is part of how I’ve healed the ancestral wound they passed down to me from the trauma they themselves caused to my other ancestors and that they themselves might have suffered. Carrying hate in my heart continues the legacy of hate and holds trauma securely in my DNA. Feeling hate is one thing. Holding onto that hate is another.

Ancestors if You’re Adopted

Another common question is how to deal with ancestors if you’re adopted. There are so many questions when it comes to that, including one relevant to this post: making peace with an abusive adoptive parent who has passed on, or with their ancestors.

A family member of any kind carries (or breaks) the thread of ancestral wisdom, power, and information. My theory is that, should that family member have adopted you, they hold a piece of the thread not only in their own bloodline, but surprisingly enough, hold a piece of the thread in your own bloodline. There’s not space here to go into that theory. But, if you’re like me, making peace with adoptive parents who’ve died could be important.

Awful ancestors are no small concern. There can be huge challenges, including endless questions. It takes time to deal with it all.

For example, it’s taken years to make peace with my father who has passed on. And I still experience some hate for him. I will continue to work on it.

Learning to align with my ancestors that I might live in the magic, beauty, wisdom, and power known by my forebearers has been an ongoing process. There’s been no single step then, voila, all done. But I take one step at a time, and that yields big results.

I’ve repeatedly needed to take different types of action.

For example. I’ve had to channel a lot of ritual to do this work. But now I have a body of rituals I can continue to use and also teach in my classes, and draw on for one-on-one shamanic counseling sessions. (Links to information about classes and counseling are below this essay.)

My first ancestors spun threads of wisdom and magic. Generation upon generation added more threads, until now thick ropes connect me back into the past, to my very first ancestors.

The answers that help me might not be the right ones for you. My experiences are not your experiences. But sharing our experiences can be healing. The following story about my father represents a bit of my journey making peace with him.

May 12, 2020:

Honoring the Ancestors: William Stafford

Dad, looking worn My father was always on the outside looking in. And he loved music beyond all reason.

He was a small-minded, violent man, who suffered a hard life.

I found his name in the census, which shows that, at seven years old, he disappeared from his mother’s household.

I found someone by his name in another household, that of a farming family. I suspect Bill had been sent out to work and live on a farm because there were too many mouths to feed in his own home. This is possibly corroborated by information one of my relatives has provided. In the census, Bill appears back with his mother a few years later.

Around the time he disappeared from home, his mom remarried. Did Bill’s stepfather not want him? Was this one of the first times Bill was on the outside looking in, face pressed up against the glass?

After a stint in the military during World War II, he returned from overseas and disappeared again. As a child, I was told that, during that period, he was in the south, “living with hillbillies, and ended up on a Georgia chain gang.”

My young father in uniform

Decades later, I asked him about it. All he’d tell me is that it wasn’t a chain gang. It was prison or jail, I can’t remember which, and he wouldn’t tell me why he was arrested.

After his time in the south, Dad came back to Boston—where we lived—and continued to be on the outside looking in.

He would pretend to be Irish, in a town that adored the Irish.

He would pretend to be a cop. In 1964, I was 14, and the Beatles were playing in Boston. The arena was a madhouse. When the concert was over, the crowd poured out into the lobby, and there was my dad, come to drive me home.

“How did you get in, Dad? Why did they let you in?”

He had convinced the security guards that he was a cop. Perhaps he’d flashed them a fake badge; I can no longer remember.

There was a police radio in his work room in the basement. My dad, the not-cop.

He chased fire engines. One time, he pursued one of those howling trucks, only to see it turn onto our street. He kept following. The truck stopped at our house.

Always on the outside looking in. A spectator to his own house on fire.

The man was as right wing, racist, sexist, -ist, -ist, -ist, as you can get. But when I was sixteen, I met a guitar-carrying hippie who didn’t have a place to stay. I brought him home. In retrospect, I don’t know why. Dad hated hippies.

But dad didn’t throw the kid out, didn’t care that he was a peace-loving hippy with long hair. The guy was carrying a guitar, and that’s all that mattered.

Or, maybe, Dad knew what it was like to not have a place to stay. Perhaps that’s what happened.

Bill loved folk music as much as he hated liberals. In those days, folk music was paired with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and revolution. Dad didn’t care.

I wonder if his appreciation of folk music came from his hillbilly friends.

Bill loved show tunes. This macho man raised me in a home where vinyl recordings of Broadway musicals constantly played in the background. I still know a lot of those lyrics by heart, and still happily belt them out to entertain myself.

Dad looking worn but happyWhen I was 14, I asked him and Mom if I could start going to folk music clubs. These were clubs for adults, and were not in my neighborhood. They were in downtown Boston and Cambridge.

Mom and Dad went to a club with me and decided I could go to them on my own.

Their attending the club with me was bizarre because they usually had very little to do with me. I was a feral kid who’d raised herself.

But there was Dad’s love of music again (and Mom’s huge-hearted ability to foster my wild dreams and artistic escapades).

Within months, I was playing some of those clubs myself as a musician.

When Bill died, I felt like someone hit me in the head with a 2 x 4. But only days later, I needed to be in the music studio. Before recording my album, there’d been 10 years of starts and stops. Recording were finally underway, due to circumstances that were temporary, the deadlines were incredibly tight, and I didn’t know how much longer Bruce Smith—my coproducer—would be available. It was now or never for this, my first, album.

It just so happened we were scheduled to record a song I’d written about Dad years back. When I arrived at the studio, I told Bruce that I’d probably break into tears at some point, and to give me five minutes to cry, and that then I’d be as professional as always. I also told him to not pull any punches when we were critiquing the mix; I didn’t want him being sensitive to my feelings; I wanted the best possible recording.

When recording the song, I thought of how Dad’s face was always pressed up against the glass, an outsider looking in. He would’ve loved to have been in that studio with me that day when I was recording a song about him, would’ve loved to have been on the same side of the recording booth’s glass walls.

The album was a bestseller. Dad would’ve loved that.

Mark Chimsky, who’s edited some of my books, asked me for a blurb today. I don’t usually give blurbs. The whole blurb thing is often just one big dishonest elitist scam, with people in power giving blurbs only to other people in power, and excluding most everyone else. But Mark is one of the most ethical, dear individuals I’ve ever met. He would’ve opened the window if he’d seen Dad’s nose pressed against the glass.

Later that day, I saw my blurb along with 19 others. The top blurb was from Johnny Cash. There was my name right below Johnny’s. I wanted to cry. The two names together would’ve meant a lot to Bill.

It doesn’t matter whose name is where. It’s all ego and illusion. Bill’s lack of self-worth drove him to construct a false ego, which he kept inflated by pretending to be Irish in the Boston of my youth, where Irish was a big deal—and an Irish cop at that, which was an even bigger deal—and by bragging about his teenage kid who played guitar.

He kept his false sense of self inflated by hating everyone who wasn’t … him. America was better than the rest of the world. Massachusetts was better than the rest of the country. Our neighborhood was better than all the other neighborhoods. Our family was better than all other families. And he was better than everyone else in the family.

He’d disappeared from the census, disappeared into prison, and disappeared into the recesses of his own self-doubt. So he bragged and hated.

I’m not saying his choice to brag and hate is the inevitable result of being made invisible and being shoved to the other side of the glass.

I’m not saying he shouldn’t have been made accountable for his hatred. I’m saying his choice is understandable.

I didn’t like Bill. He was an awful man, in ways there’s no point in giving details about here. A few years ago, when I found out that he wasn’t my biological father, it was a relief to know that we didn’t share DNA.

But I’ve come to understand that he was an intelligent, passionate, inventive fellow, and that he was shoved around and denied, denied, denied. (For one thing, he was a self-taught electronics engineer and resented that lack of college education kept his earnings low, despite many years in the electronics field.) I’ve come to compassion for this guy who helped make my childhood miserable.

No, I didn’t like Bill. But I’ve come to appreciate him.

… I guess in that sense I’ve come to like him. I appreciate his wandering restless spirit that led him to the south after he’d already been in Europe, long from home.

I appreciate his intelligence, vehemence, passion, and determination.

I’ve often wondered if he was one of the young boys who hopped trains during the depression, thrown out of the house because there wasn’t enough food. If so, that was a hard time, and he was a vagrant, wandering. I appreciate that he wandered away from his own soul, and the closest he could get to chasing after it was running after fire engines.

Wherever he thought the fire engines would bring him was an illusion, even when a fire truck brought him home to our house. And somehow, I’ve come to even like Bill for that.

I imagine somewhere, on the other side of the veil, Bill is wandering. I can’t imagine he’s been laid to rest. I can almost see him with my otherworldly eyes, see him waiting for reincarnation, needing another chance.

Dad looking worn but happyThough it’s geared to inflate his false ego, I’m happy today to tell his spirit, wherever he is, “Dad, look, look where my name is. Next to Johnny Cash’s.” And, “Dad, I never mentioned it before. My album with the song about you on it? It was a bestseller. And that book I told you I was writing, right before you died? Bestseller and dedicated to you.”

It doesn’t matter whose name is where. The prestige of a best seller doesn’t matter either. It’s all ego and illusion. But I’m happy to tell Dad where my name went today and to tell him the album and book gained recognition. Because illusions can be all someone has. Blessed be, William.

Additional Material

Honoring mothers: https://stardrenched.com/2017/09/18/ancestor-magic-mothers/

Mentioned above, the best editor ever: https://markchimskyeditorial.com

Newsletters to stay abreast of upcoming classes: https://outlawbunny.com/newsletter/

Spiritual counseling for ancestral trauma and other concerns: https://outlawbunny.com/pastoral-counseling/

DNA and Ancestral Ritual

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DNA Science and magic meet. I won’t choose between mysticism and science. They can feed each other.

My ancestors are spiritually important to me. So I’m combining science and spirit in a deeply personal way: I ordered an AncestryDNA test kit.

A mystic, I travel through the blood in my veins, back through time, to discover the ancient ways my family once practiced. Today, the logical rational side of me does the same by spitting into a vial. This test tube becomes a chalice that arrived by mail, enclosed in plastic. Two supposedly disparate halves of me come together to feed my spirit.

I mailed my saliva, part of my sacred body, to scientists, who will analyze it to reveal my ethnic background. They’ll go back through many generations, the same way my meditations have. Their work will expand my otherworldly travels.

The lab analysis will determine where my ancestors hail from, based on a science my layperson’s mind can’t understand, no matter how much experts explain it.

Many scientists would be equally puzzled by my ability to uncover historical information by meditating on my blood. I have my expertise, they have theirs. I get to draw on both.

A relationship with my ancestors, in ritual and daily life, is pivotal to me. They lovingly support me. And I tend them. Trance journeys give me a strong intuitive sense of my ancestors. The DNA results can help me know whether my intuitions are correct.

It would be fine to trust my intuition without the DNA results. (Check out my blog about that: Mysticism and Non-Academic Scholarship.) But corroboration is useful.

Science can support my spirituality in other ways, too.

For one, I come from a European shamanic family tradition. Some of my family history has been lost. I’m hoping DNA will fill in gaps.

For example, I might see how major societal events impacted my family’s past generations to shape the family’s spirituality. That familial story could provide context to better understand my own path.

Luck allowed me to gather a staggering amount of anecdotal evidence about my ancestors. Information from relatives, and from strangers I don’t know but who have my last name, and from other sources, provided enormously convincing material, when looked at as a whole. I believe anecdotal evidence is part of folk culture and one source of the old wise ways. This fecund anecdotal evidence can be augmented with DNA science.

For example, the DNA test might help me gather more anecdotal evidence, if it leads to relatives I hadn’t learned about previously. They might know family history I don’t.

DNA results could also be a jumping off point for more ancestral rituals. I love the wisdom of ancient cultures, and appreciate reenactment whether based in textbooks’ history or intuited history. I revere native and ancestral spiritual practices. These leanings feed my desire for DNA info about my ancestral roots.

I can best explain another reason for wanting a test by telling you a personal story.

A friend of mine was part of a DNA study. Before continuing the story, let me be clear: I’m not part of any study. My test kit is from AncestryDNA. They’re not experimenting on me, and their tests results do not show an ancestral timeline such as you’ll read about in my friend’s tale. I checked out some companies, and AncestryDNA seems to give the most comprehensive results. If you’re interested, their kit is also easy to use.

Back to my story:

My friend phoned me one day, and exclaimed rapturously, “I got the DNA results. My family originated in Egypt!”

Then she added, “My later ancestors migrated to Greece. Guess where else my ancestors migrated to?”

I responded, “Mongolia?”

There was a long pause. Then she said, in a stunned voice, “That’s right! How did you know?”

“It was obvious. Your immense love for Egyptian religions motivated you to become an Egyptian scholar, devoted to reviving ancient Egyptian spiritual practices, which became part of your personal devotions. Later, you seriously worked with Greek Gods. Then, you channeled material that had no geographical basis, as far you knew, but later found out that the material resonated with documented Mongolian traditions.”

I continued, “Your family only told you about your Caucasian Irish lineage. But your earlier ancestors influenced your mystical life. Your spiritual quest this lifetime follows the migration of your ancestors, step by step!”

The point of my story: I want to know if my DNA matches my various spiritual leanings.

There can be valid reasons we’re drawn spiritually to cultures we were not raised in. Our DNA might be one of those reasons. I don’t hold with the idea that you should only use the spiritual tools of your obvious ancestors.

Mind you, I am not okaying co-option. I’m saying legitimate cross cultural shamanism exists.

That legitimacy is hard to come by. It would take a whole book to explain how to pull it off ethically and otherwise, so I won’t get into it here, except to say:

By “cross-cultural shamanism,” I don’t mean “core shamanism,” AKA the idea that shamanism is primarily the same in all cultures. I disagree with the modern standardization of shamanism.

My experience is that shamans individualize according to cultural differences, and way past that, individualizing family by family and person by person.

My personal definition of legitimate cross-cultural shamanism is an ethical, thoughtful blend of earth based mysticism as it manifests in various cultures.

Moving on:

I am a little worried. With adventure, comes fear of the unknown: am I going to like the DNA test results?

But mostly I’m excited about the DNA adventure I am embarking on.

And I feel gratitude for science and magic.

When the DNA results arrive, I’ll post them here, and share how it impacts my mystical journey.
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Note: I first posted this blog May 2015 at http://witchesandpagans.com/sagewoman-blogs/a-faerie-haven.html and post it again here for those of you who tend to read me here.
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Upcoming Training

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Update: The day and time of this event has been changed, so you can enroll if the new schedule suits you better. New schedule: we meet seven Sundays, from 4 to 5 PM EST, starting Sunday November 8. Classes are consecutive weeks except we skip November 29, for Thanksgiving weekend. Reserve Sunday Jan 10, same time, for a makeup class in case I’m unavailable for one of the planned sessions. Rest of class info is below:

Come Home to the Faerie Queen
A Seven-Week Faerie Shamanism Training

FeyRealm

The Faerie Queen tells us, “I’m Mother of the Faerie Nation. And more of you are awake to your magic now—lovers, warriors, children and elders, changelings, cats in disguise, bards, wolves, gardeners, corporate executives, tricksters, star-children, and many others. Come to me, come home, I will protect you and tutor you until our starlit cells flow back and forth between us like the milky way in all its immense luminosity. You’re awake now, my Faerie children. The new global Fey village has begun.”

This class responds to the Faerie Queen’s call. You’ll create previously impossible possibilities for you, Gaia, and all beings. Honest. The curriculum is the culmination of decades’ work. Rewrite your DNA and break through to the stars.

Faerie Ancestor who is a guardian to this site. Silk Painting, Outlaw Bunny

Faerie Ancestor who is a guardian to this site. Silk Painting, Outlaw Bunny

The Fey-spark in humans re-ignited. Ancient starlit blood came forward till it finally hit critical mass; Faerie magic’s thoroughly awake in many people. This leaves us with new questions and new approaches needed to answer them:

image* Have you sensed shifts in the human/plant/mineral psyche?

* Can you have self-healing, prosperity, and great sex during present times?

image* Do you feel the mystic part of you desperately needed by everyone, including you, right now?

* How can we better use our new/old/undiscovered/shifted powers, both magical and mundane?

image* Do you find Paganism too dogmatic, not pagan enough? Do you long for fellowship that supports your unique vision?

* How can mystics—ranging from activists to quiet magicians—come together to love, celebrate, and protect Gaia? Can Gaia—and ourselves—be happy, or even survive, without such a tribe happening globally?

This class addresses these issues with innovative magic and fresh ideas.

FDG2015ProfileYou also receive lessons to be your style Faerie shaman. There are different places in Faerie, each special. One is your home. This class helps you go home. If you’re already home, you’ll learn (more) about its unique magic and spirituality, and use them practically to empower your mundane life.

This teleseminar is multi-leveled, suitable to entry-level beginners and adepts.

Come Home to the Faerie Queen qualifies as one of the two electives needed before advanced Third Road training.

Nuts and bolts:
* These are group meetings by phone. To participate, just dial the phone from anywhere.
* Class meets seven Sundays, from 4 to 5 PM EST, starting Sunday November 8. Classes are consecutive weeks except we skip November 29, for Thanksgiving weekend.
* Reserve Sunday Jan 10, same time, for a makeup class in case I’m unavailable for one of the planned sessions.
* Tuition: $250. If you’ve taken it before, repeat it at half-price. Your usual long-distance charges apply and appear on your phone bill. The event’s area code is a U.S. #.
* Enroll here.
* Or pay by check or money order here.
* Upon receipt of payment, I email you event phone number, etc.
* Call me—814-337-2490—for more info or to discuss scholarship, trade, or payment plan. Do not email me. Refunds unavailable.

imageIf you want to be part of this experience, enroll now, because I don’t know when I’ll be able to teach it again. It’s maybe been six years since the last time.

If you see someone else’s class that sounds the same, this class is original material. No one teaches it but me.

Faerie holds daily miracles. I trust that.

Enroll here.

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A mystical event is no substitute for medical care by a trained physician, psychiatric counseling, or other therapeutic treatments. Participants are personally responsible for the consequences of their voluntary participation.