Amulets, in Gratitude

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Francesca

With enormous gratitude, I hand-made amulets for financial supporters who gave $100 or more toward my book. Each talisman is one of a kind, and channeled for the person who’ll receive it. I love these kind folks—and making simple, elegant, powerful charms—so much! This post is so they can read about their specific talisman. Keep reading to see why it is also posted in love of my whole sweet community.

Click on a pic to see it full-size and without the blurring that happens when WordPress shrinks a pic to fit into a blog.

Though each talisman is unique, there’s also a visual theme throughout the charms, to represent that all of us made this book happen. Community is all! The blessing I put on each is different too, but there’s a magical theme throughout. (I liked it so much I had to channel one for moi.)

Creating visual and magical themes also represents everyone who helped, financially or otherwise—and my community members not in a position to contribute. Community is all!

To use: Simply wear your amulet around your neck, hang it in your home, or put it on an altar. Looks great worn on a 16-18″ cord. The delicate lack of weight may not hang well on a long cord.

I know God talks to me when I channel art, but God talks to everyone. So when we combine our perspectives, we fully hear God. So if you think the amulet I made you isn’t right for you visually or magically, and/or you think one of the others is “yours,” do please tell me. I upcycle, so can’t vouch for all materials, but will make informed guesses. Numbered 1 to 5, left to right:
1) This is for a secret German donor who studies with me. The small, red, faceted bead hanging from the top loop is probably Swarovski Crystal. I can’t say what the bear bead on the main stem is. I would’ve guessed glass except that it came with a bunch of stone totem beads. It is a gorgeous material, perhaps moonstone, which I’m not sure the photograph picks up. Below it seems to be a black pearl. The gorgeous smokey beads on the bottom dangle are from a necklace that I plundered, and probably crystal.

2) For Julie N. The little dangle that I made to hang from the top loop is probably rose quartz (for self-love) and Swarovski crystal. The pink tube on the main stem is vintage glass (see, sometimes I know what my materials are, LOL), followed by another probable Swarovski crystal, then a dangle with another probable Swarovski. At the bottom of that dangle I wrapped the wire into a spiral.

3) This one is for me. I thought it was for one of my contributors, but realized it was mine, an expression of us all making this project possible. (For my own records: The blue bead on the main stem is vintage glass, both dangles probably have Swarovski.)

4) For Donnalee Dermady-Minney of Laughing Dakini Music LLC, this talisman has an evil eye dangling from the bottom with two probable Swarovski crystals. The eye bead is a traditional protection amulet. The main stem has a vintage glass tube, and the two faceted beads seem to be fire polished glass. The top dangle is probably Swarovski and rose quartz.

5) This is for an anonymous German donor new in my life. On the main stem, we probably have Swarovski and rainbow obsidian. The latter has a subtle luminescence in it that the photograph will not show. The three beads on the bottom dangle are probably more Swarovski. The top dangle is a mother of pearl teardrop, and probably Swarovski.

6) Finally, for Chicot. The two beads that I used to make the top dangle are probably tiger’s eye, which I read somewhere is both grounding and solar. On the main stem, the top bead with golden flecks (which I’m not sure show on this photo) might be goldstone, a man-made “stone” that I am fond of. Then comes a bead with an exclamation point on it, ending with a gorgeous, green probably Swarovski crystal. The bottom dangle is probably rose quartz, a stone for self-love.

Let me know if your amulet is right for you. Post here, email me, or comment on my Facebook page.

If you bought a copy of my book, that is pivotal support! Thank you so much!!!! If you’d like to buy a copy, yes, go here! Only available from the author. Thank you to my sweet sweet community!

Inherent Magic & Fundie Paganism

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Francesca

Magic is a flow within the fabric of reality. Magic is also a state of being inherent in all living things. Magic is also living in myth, actually living it. And magic is love. Fundamentalist religion, including fundamentalist Wicca, squelches one’s magical being, squelches one’s love, and separates one from the larger flow of loving magic. If you judge others’ magic, your own may weaken.

*******
Beloved Fellow Seeker, Thank you for your spiritual journey, because I can’t grow spiritually alone.

I wrote a book, out of gratitude for you and love for you: “Sprinkling Faerie Dust on Breakfast: A Daily Reader for Busy Parents and Their Children . . . and for Any Way-Busy Person.”

Spiritual reading that fits into your day and supports travelers of any spiritual path.

Only available from the author. Buy it here: http://etsy.me/W5GJs4 Thank you again!

Blessing This Site #3

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Francesca

The Generous Sun – Francesca De Grandis, 2012. In gratitude, I painted this fantasy portrait of Kathleen. We’ve been doing projects together since the 80s, and it is always a joy.

This post is to express gratitude for the banners on this site. First: gratitude to the amazing artist, Kathleen Marshall, who made all but two of the banners that go across the top of this site’s pages. She made 13, one to top each page. Her work is a blessing, do wander the site to see it! If you see a top banner, it is by her, except for two I did: One on the “My Other Site” page, and one to use when we need an additional banner here on out; to see the latter click here. I also have reason to be grateful for those two I made, and the ones I made for the sidebar, read on.

I want to share gratitude because I’ve felt in sync with wild Fey gods re the banners, and everything else to do with revitalizing this site. It seems like my Gods are blessing the site. Publically sharing a few banner moments I am grateful for feels like a way to keep the good juju going, so let me continue:

The painting I did for Kathleen to use for the banners constituted real improvement for me, and any improvement I make as an artist, spiritual being, or anything else is Goddess-given. I painted the piece as a magical touchstone for the site, wanting to create a landscape within the Fey realms. Was very surprised it actually looks the way parts of Faerie appear to me. I was mega-shocked I’d actually pulled it off—but, then, LOL, I’m such a novice-painter that I’m easily impressed with anything I do. “Ooh, I drew something that kind of looks like a face, wow, i can kinda draw a face.”

Another blessing was my equal surprise about the calligraphy I sent Kathleen for the banners (I did all the calligraphy). Aside from one or two lessons from mom, I’m self-taught. I’ve been calligraphing on and off since I was 14 and, with these banners, was finally happy with calligraphy I’ve done. I honestly didn’t like my calligraphy until now. (I am in my sixties. It just goes to show, persistence pays.)

Another blessing was getting to try digital art during the banner making process. Oh Goddess mine, I adore doing digital art, thank you for sending it my way. So all side banners (they are at the bottom for some browsers, and may not be on all pages yet) are my doing. The fantasy portrait of Kathleen is also done digitally. The digital art started me doing fantasy portraits, which I have luuuved painting!

Thank you for sharing a bit of my gratitude. That in itself is a profound blessing. Below, please add a verbal blessing if you want. Or make another sort of comment – hey, it will be a blessing in its own way. Love and peace, out.

The World Tree in Winter

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Francesca

The World Tree in Winter:
a Direct Spiritual Transmission

For those who missed the November transmission, or received it and believe they can go another level with it, I will do again: On Dec 17, 2012, I will start a transmission of the power to align oneself with the dark time of year. What does that mean? Winter is the time to spiritually rejuvenate, explore inner depths, live—and rest—peacefully in nature’s winter quiet, gather with loved ones, enjoy the harvest from the year’s labors, be nourished by hearth activities, and use one’s creativity. The transmission will help you do these things, instead of being snared by holiday dysfunction, SADD, other wintry inner-problems, or other inner blocks specific to you but not winter related.

This direct spiritual transmission will be a month-long, and happen five days of each week.

If you would like me to do this transmission for you, here are the nuts and bolts:
* Sliding scale cost: $50-$200.
* To register: go to www.paypal.com * Log into your account * Click the Send Money tab. * Use outlawbunny@outlawbunny.com as the Recipients Email. * Fill in the amount of $50-$200, paying what you can honestly afford. * Put the following in the notes section: the words “Aligning with the World Tree in Winter”; your name; your phone #.
* If you can’t afford payment, phone me by Dec 12. I only can give scholarships to someone I speak with. 814-337-2490
* If you need more info, do not email me; my disabilities do not allow enough time at the computer. Call 814-337-2490.
* Upon receipt of payment, I’ll send you email confirmation of registration. No refunds.

World Tree Takes Care of Me, Francesca De Grandis.

No experience needed. But even advanced practitioners are deeply impacted—for example, no matter how strong previous headway, it can be strengthened or regained.

A shamanic treatment is not a substitute for proper medical care by a trained physician, psychiatric counseling, or other therapeutic treatments. Participants are personally responsible for the consequences of their voluntary participation. This spiritual treatment is extraordinarily effective, but may not work for some individuals.

I hope you will grant me the privilege of serving you. To register, click here.

A Ritual for Obama’s Presidency

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Francesca

Fellow Star-dusted Traveler,

I am planning a ritual, the goal of which will be Obama’s victory in the upcoming election.

Open to all Obama supporters who want to magically help him win, the ritual will be on Friday Nov 2, from 3 to 4:00 PM EST. No experience needed.

The event is a group phone call. (Your long-distance charges apply, and 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.

I support Obama with all I have because stakes are high; Romney in the White House would be a disaster for 1000s of Americans.

Francesca De Grandis, 2012

Fluffy Bunny Pagan

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Francesca

digital painting & picture poem, Francesca De Grandis. For info about a limited first-edition print, click on the painting.

I had a ball making this look over-the-top cute, kept adding and adding pastels and flowers and pretty-pretty, and then adding some more. The text on the print reads, “I am a cute little bunny, hopping around safe in my pastel meadow and forest of pink flowers, happy bluebirds, and faerie tales. All of this is enclosed within an enormous eagle whose talons make skyscrapers look like sewing pins, and whose beak drips with the blood of potential threats to me and mine. And the eagle resides within a great darkness, an emptiness that is the Mother of all things, and She really loves bunnies. So go ahead, call me “a fluffy-bunny pagan.”

To my knowledge, no one has ever called me a “fluffy-bunny pagan.” But I dislike the term, and made this painting in support of anyone who’s been wounded by any kind of sarcastic remark about their spiritual path by other pagans. There are enough attacks on pagans without us attacking each other.

This is a digital painting, except for the photo of the wee rabbit in the lower right-hand corner. It was trance-painting; Spirit guides my digital brush, stroke by stroke. I am freed by this guidance.

Submerged in the Green God

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Francesca

Digital Painting, Picture Poem. Francesca De Grandis

To be fully within God, I must be full self and fully without self.

Click on the painting to see it large and without blurring that occurs when WordPress shrinks a pic to fit the page.

Living Tarot – the Major Arcana

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Francesca

Living Tarot – the Major Arcana
An Eight-Week Class

Strength, tarot card, Francesca De Grandis, 12-03. Click on the painting to see it large and without blurring that occurs when WordPress shrinks a pic to fit the page.

A traditional tarot deck consists of major arcana Cards and minor arcana cards. This class focuses on the Major Arcana’s metaphysical teachings – esoteric wisdom that empowers on the mundane and otherworldly planes – and divinatory meanings.

Methods to draw on these powers will be taught in an organized and experiential program of inner change and magical spellwork.

No background in Tarot is needed.

Students are required to have a deck of Rider Waite cards with them during all classes.

We meet in a group phone call. No computer or special equipment needed. Just dial your phone.

To those of you who saw previous announcements of this class, there are now two different groups meeting:

* One group starts Wednesday, November 14, at 6 PM EST. There will be eight meetings, which will be consecutive except we’ll skip Nov 21 and Dec 26 to accommodate the holidays. Meetings are one-hour long. RESERVE Jan 23, same time, for a makeup class in case I’m unavailable for one of the planned sessions.

* The other group starts Sunday, November 18, at 4 PM EST. There will be eight meetings, which will be consecutive except we’ll skip Nov 25 and Dec 30 to accommodate the holidays. Meetings are one-hour long. RESERVE Jan 27, same time, for a makeup class in case I’m unavailable for one of the planned sessions.

TUITION is $250. TO REGISTER, sign up for “Special Event” at http://www.well.com/user/zthirdrd/specialevent.html You might pay long-distance charges, depending on your long-distance plan. If so, they appear on your phone bill. The event’s area code is a U.S. #.

Upon receipt of payment, your place is reserved, and event details emailed to you. No refunds.

If you need more info, can’t use PayPal, or want to discuss scholarship or trade, call me: 814-337-2490. Don’t email me; disabilities = I can’t discuss events by email.

Fool, tarot card, Francesca De Grandis, 12-03

My qualifications: I have been a tarot reader since the 70s, professional since the 80s. Most folks do not know that Third Road started as Tarot classes! I continued to teach tarot as tools for divination, personal growth, and magic for many years. I still do occasionally. My shamanic techniques are so innovative that they have been integrated world wide into many systems of inner change, so often that a lot of these techniques are now considered traditional anonymous material.

This group can be used as one of the electives required to participate in Third Road Advanced Shamanic Training. Register here.

If You Have Been Attacked…

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Francesca

Painting and maxim, Francesca De Grandis

If you have been attacked for your spiritual beliefs, or because you were otherwise different, or because you stood up for people less fortunate than you, celebrate your uniqueness, with this affirmation:

I am a reflection of the entire cosmos. My many aspects, evershifting, honor and sustain the evershifting universe. I embrace my whole me, and thus discover each moment’s unique gift.

A tiny bit more about the above affirmation is in my third-to-last paragraph here: http://www.well.com/user/zthirdrd/othersite.htm . I was inspired (compelled?) to create three versions of the above digital art, specifically to be used together for that page, but a computer glitch will only allow one variation there. That variation is called “My Gods Are Artists.” For a first edition print of it, go to http://www.etsy.com/listing/98851753/my-gods-are-artists-limited-first . I will eventually post the third on this site. Sigh, I just realized, duh, I still have not used the three together on one page, which was the original intent, LOL!

A River of Beauty and Joy

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Francesca

World Tree Takes Care of Me, Francesca De Grandis.

Surrender means moment by moment trying to discern and live according to God’s will. Always asking. Doing what we think God wants of us right this minute, then the next. Okay, that is an ideal, impossible to achieve. But it is possible to strive for. (If you need to make substitutions where I have written ‘God,” I hope you do. For example: Goddess, or the Divine. I’ll also randomly rotate such words and phrase, as well as Divine genders.)

Will is a fancy word for desire. God’s desire is the current of events that She creates. (She is God, after all.) This current is a river of love and grace that carries me safely along. I am held in safety, beauty, and joy. I am transported toward yet more safety, beauty, and joy.

My God is kind. Trying to live according to the will of the Divine does not require suppressing the self. It means creating full self—including a healthy ego—while aligning that fullness of being with action after action based on surrender to His often gorgeous—and other times infuriating—desires.

Walking any spiritual path—including that of an ecstatic—without surrender leads to spiritual addiction. There are many forms of spiritual addiction. (One is fundamentalism, and both pagan and New Age fundamentalism do exist.) Here, I want to focus on addiction to a false ego that masks tremendous fear. It is a spiritual epidemic. I have observed it in people in all walks of life, including major spiritual leaders whose lives it destroyed.

One reason for this fear is that, no matter how competent one is on the mundane and mystical levels, and no matter how important it is to do everything one can to protect oneself amidst life’s myriad dangers, one’s efforts are a drop in the bucket. The world offers endless treasures, but it also holds constant threats, some of them terrifying.

However, the Divine can keep us safe, above all other protections. And, again, surrender to the Divine allows It to shelter us. Surrender puts us in the aforementioned flow of safety. As I said when kicking off these musings, attempting surrender moment by moment—living step by step as I walk along a path Divinity paves—makes life fuller, easier, and protected.

Otherwise, the aforementioned false ego—and its underlying fear—gets stronger and stronger, compensating for a sense of helplessness in our huge, scary cosmos.

The false ego insists you must cheat and perpetrate other wrongs to survive in such a dangerous world, that you have no choice. The false ego prompts unnecessary attacks on people, insisting this is needed to stay safe. Those are only a few problems the false ego causes. But the net result is the same of all addictions. Life feels scarier and scarier as you become more and more contracted with fear. So you lose trust even in those most loyal to you, and you make worse and worse attacks until you are alone, terrified, and deluded.

I’ve oversimplified matters. For example, how does one know God’s will? (Answer: I can’t! I do my absolute best, but it is still a human endeavor, thus light years from perfect.) And how does one avoid becoming a pompous fool who thinks he knows better than everyone else? (Answer: The Divine might instruct us through friends who love us enough to tell us we’re being arrogant.) Does the idea that spiritual surrender creates protection imply that, if I get mugged, it is because I’m spiritually lacking? (Answer: No way would I blame anyone for tragedies that befall them. Life is constant paradox.) Even these three answers are oversimplifications. But I’ve touched on issues herein in hopes of nurturing dialog. Please discuss your thoughts with friends.

And, equally important, what does the Divine ask of you now, what is asked of you right this minute, now that you are done reading?

*******

Francesca De Grandis AKA Outlaw Bunny is middle management for Chaos Gods. A one-woman interfaith community, Francesca is a student of Taoism, hangs out with Goddesses, visits Christ, and has been told she’s Buddhist. She struggles spiritually because she’s a brat, but does her best. Her latest book, Share My Insanity: It Improves Everything, is trickster spirituality and divine madness.

The Fairy Queen’s magic spells

Francesca De Grandis’ classes, books, blogs, and more

Tag Archives: Francesca De Grandis