Fairy Magic Quest 2023

Posted on September 21, 2023 by Francesca

Cerridwen and Taliesin:
A Ritual Journey
to Achieve Your Sweetest Goals

You can live the Cerridwen-Taliesin myth as a ritual process of
personal transformation and empowerment.

Experience a guided quest with me. Enter the Fey realm of all powers and possibilities. Leave behind barriers that restrict hope and achievements. Even if your barriers seem impenetrable, this event will show you how to fulfill your longings for abundance, soul healing, physical health, adventure, and more.

If you don’t know Cerridwen and Taliesin’s tale, and thus don’t understand my references here, that’s not a problem. I tell the story during the ritual. For now, please enter into the spirit of this post.

Cross the Fey threshold into mythic lands, where you live a revisioning of the Mabonogian tale of crone Cerridwen and bardic-visionary Taliesin.

Win the knowledge in the Goddess Cerridwen’s cauldron, to overcome major challenges—both mundane and spiritual—and know magics that create the life you want. Gain the Fey light that anoints Taliesin’s brow, filling him with inspiration, courage, and down-to-earth savviness. You can be a visionary and practical, and the combination will make your dearest goals come true.

Explore esoteric mysteries in ways that make a big positive difference in your life, spiritually and materially. We don’t have to choose between the two. For example, we can believe we are fairies and create abundance. We can have peace and career success. We can meet our responsibilities and have self-care.

This is a four-month Fairy magic ceremony. It conveys power and wisdoms not available elsewhere. My analysis—or call it a revisioning—of the myth is an esoteric understanding of the story’s elements. I created something so innovative that it generated imitations for at least a few decades—rituals described as similar to mine. My version is the only one enchanted by the extensive shamanic underpinnings that I developed for this ritual process.

My initial development of this ritual of grounded empowerment took three years. Since then, I led the ritual many times for two (three?) decades, continuing to refine it. Now, I only offer it every four years or so. (Last time was 2019.)

This is the first time I am offering this ritual without participants needing to have taken certain classes as prerequisites.

For decades, prerequisites allowed participants to powerfully and safely use this event’s magic to speedily move toward their dream lives.

Then, in recent years, I developed new approaches that work wonderfully for both advanced practitioners and beginning students. The power is enormous, beautiful, and safe. Adepts will receive the advanced experiences they require, while beginners can experience a more accessible route. This occurs because the ritual’s energies will meet people where they are, adapting to their needs, desires, and circumstances, even if those shift from week to week.

This is live magic: hands-on. Vibrant magical power that is the living presence of the old Gods’ love for us. In our mystical voyage, you will get more out of any spiritual and magical work you’ve already done. But if you have no magical background or haven’t tended to yourself spiritually lately, you will never be in over your head during our meetings. Instead, you’re nurtured, empowered, and embraced by a circle of love.

This is the first time I’m extending this ritual to make it a whole four months. I’ve channeled new energies to bring into this ritual, for an additional layer of wisdom and power that meets our current times. The additional time allows us to use the additional material.

Also, as Tania Troyan, a teacher of the Italian language, says, it takes 49 days for new neural pathways to develop and be used. Mark Fischetti and Jen Christiansen wrote in Scientific American, “In 80 to 100 days, 30 trillion (cells in your body) will have replenished—the equivalent of a new you.” A four-month ritual allows you to be embraced by love, power, and support while your cells, brain, and nerves are completely shifting, right to the end. But wait, there’s more! Hahaha.

The work we do will snowball so a lot more growth, healing, shifting, and wisdom come to you long after the four months end.

And I am available after the four months, if you need support with your continuing experiences or have questions about them. I commit to my ritual participants.

Nuts and bolts:
* We meet in teleseminars (group phone meetings). To participate, just call the event’s phone number.
* The event is on Sundays from 6:00 to 7:00 pm Pacific time, starting October 22, 2023.
* We will skip the following Sundays for the holidays: November 26, December 24, and December 31.
* Reserve Sundays March 3 and 10, 2024, same time, for a makeup session, on the off chance I’m unavailable for one of the planned sessions.
* Enrollment is limited to 14 participants.
* Cerridwen and Taliesin qualifies as one of the two electives needed before advanced Third Road training.
* Cost is $200 a month. Your carrier might charge you for the calls. Click the Subscribe button below to enroll securely through PayPal.

If you’ve participated in this event, repeat it at half-price and go to different enchanted lands this time. Here’s the half-price subscription button:

* Upon payment, your seat is reserved. 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, call me at the number below. A few days before our first meeting, you receive an email with the event phone number and other details. Refunds unavailable. If you want to discuss a scholarship, semi-scholarship, trade, or special payment plan, or you need additional information about the event, please call me.

Be!

Online Course: Holiday Magic

Posted on September 12, 2023 by Francesca

Enjoy the holidays, Pagan style. Make your season happy, abundant, safe, sacred, sane, and magical. This course has five powerful aspects:

One) Weekly lessons, delivered to you by email. Each lesson is a digital Book of Shadows entry (PDF), ornamented by my seasonal shamanic art, which makes the Book of Shadows a cherished tradition in the years ahead.

I boiled lessons down to their essence, so they tend to be easy and accessible. They include:

* simple quick spells, prayers, and affirmations, to nourish, energize, and inspire you during the holidays.

* fun holiday crafts and decorations, Pagan-style. Use common household items to make enchanted seasonal decor: charms for just about anything you might wish. Children enjoy these crafts. Also, discover how typical American holiday decorations can be used in spells.

* Special rituals. We’ll experience the Winter Goddess’ sacred realm. Center into wholeness and joy. Enjoy the season’s spiritual beauty. Rites include a star-drenched Faerie Solstice celebration.

* Lots of material to choose from. Pick what you want to use this year and enjoy the rest for many years to come. The course includes powerful Fey-touched material I’d not published previously.

During your busy holiday season, there’s no need to waste time searching online for fun or meaningful activities. This course delivers them to you.

Enjoy unique magics not available elsewhere.

Two) Magical decor: eight digital full-color amulets—my original Pagan art—for harmony, success, and more. Print and cut out to hang on your Yule tree or elsewhere in your home. Four of the amulets’ designs are suitable to display all four seasons, for yearlong blessings.

Three) Six audio recordings made especially for this course. Hearing spoken word can be enchanting, and a way you and I can be in sacred space together. So I recite excerpts of the weekly lessons. One recording will be part of the Yule ritual.

Receiving gorgeous PDFs, relaxing to enchanted recordings, and printing amulets are a satisfying, productive use of the digital world, instead of overdosing on social media and online shopping.

Four) I’m available by phone for up to 45 minutes. If you have questions about the material, need support because your commitment to the lessons falters, want to further explore a particularly tantalizing part of the curriculum, or have other concerns, feel free to phone.

You can divide the 45 minutes into two or three conversations. Conversations must occur during the span of the course or within a month after.

Five) Exclusive gift: I’ll give you a five-day direct spiritual transmission during Solstice week at no extra cost! Free! The price would have been $150. This Yule blessing heals inner blocks that sabotage your happiness, spiritually rejuvenates you, and centers you into what’s important to you. These benefits can last for months if not years.

November is a turning point in the Pagan calendar. The course starts November 5, with your first lesson. You receive one lesson a week by email for 11 weeks. That will bring us halfway into January.

Post-Solstice lessons provide spells for a great 2024. You also learn how to work with mystical energies that occur in the weeks immediately after Solstice. Years ago, I noticed those energies and spent goodly hours developing related shamanic modalities for significant self-empowerment. Most of the post-Solstice material has remained unpublished till now.

If an unexpected event makes me unable to send one week’s planned material, I’ll extend the course an extra week.

Tuition: The regular price is $209 a month for three months, but I’ve lowered the cost to $167 a month. That is 20% off!

Scroll down to pay securely with PayPal:

No experience needed. However, even advanced practitioners will enjoy this. If you need more information, or want to discuss scholarship, trade, or a special payment plan, call the phone number below. No refunds. My online courses aren’t transcriptions of oral tradition lessons. I teach oral tradition by phone. The online courses are special unto themselves—magic tailored to be spectacularly useful, exciting, effective, and safe when learned online.

Lessons are substantive without being overwhelming. You are brought gently and deeply into star-drenched Mysteries that heal, empower, and uplift.

Lessons also help us find joy. Joy is not an extravagance but more important than ever. Even when it is tiny, or we’re striving for it unsuccessfully, it wraps us in the Gods’ love for us. This helps Them protect, heal, and strengthen us. And They become more able to bring us abundance and other material blessings. Embrace Their gifts. Enroll now.

The Virtual Pagan Monastery 2023

Posted on April 19, 2023 by Francesca

The Virtual Pagan Monastery 2023

Retreat to the Virtual Pagan Monastery
where you can use Fairy magic to
achieve worldly and spiritual goals.

The Virtual Pagan Monastery group
begins Monday September 11
and is three-months-long.
Enroll by Wednesday September 6.

Ceremonies are led by Francesca De Grandis,
Fairy Witch elder and best-selling author of Be a Goddess!

If this table’s links don’t work, scroll down for any of the event information.
Magical Overview of the Event
Attend by Phone. It’s Easy!
Schedule
Enrollment
Three Master-of-the Arts Magics Will Fuel Your Success
Feel Too Busy to Visit the Virtual Pagan Monastery?
Anyone Can Find Power in the Virtual Pagan Monastery
Ongoing Empowerment
Going It Alone?
Fairy Gods Create Miracles
Miracles Can Happen Fast

Magical Overview of
The Virtual Pagan Monastery 2023

You are invited
to fifteen-minute-long ceremonies
three days a week
at my Fairy monastery.

In each brief meeting, you enter a mystical environment that quickly centers you into power and serenity. If that seem impossible—because, for example, you’re dealing with trauma—my students will tell you I deliver on my promises. Plus, the rituals also help manifest your pivotal material and spiritual goals. You get this three times a week without spending a lot of time. Ongoing re-centering, ongoing miracles.

Walk between the stars with me.
We will cast old-fashioned magical spells
for prosperity, serenity, the ability to serve with our precious gifts, or your other goals.

We will find peace, healing,
and outrageous joy,
our spirits held safe by Fairy Gods.

Then we’ll return to earth,
our hearts and strength renewed
with the ability to reach cherished goals.

If the earth’s weight bears down on us again,
we can return to our Faerie sanctuary
to walk the stars again and find the power we need
to meet the hours ahead,
triumphing
with joy.

Definitions if you’re new to my work:
*Witchcraft and Shamanism are synonymous in my tradition. Ask me why if you want.
* Ditto spells, rituals, ceremonies, meditations, etc.
* All the magic I teach is Fey, whether described as such or not.

Think of the Virtual Pagan Monastery as a haven hidden in Faerie realms, or a Goddess temple, Druid grove, unusual monastery, or whatever feels right to you.

It is where we find power to fulfill longings. Love, money, health, serenity, self-love, and other desires.

It is a sanctuary and joy, even in the hardest times.

Paganism needn’t lack contemplative aspects to remain wild and free. Inner adventures fuel my passion for life. Ritual moments between the stars nourish and give joy like few things ever could.

Plus for my outward efforts to be effective and loving, I need an inner life. For example, the mystical planes are where I perform magical spells to succeed on the worldly plane.

I needed new terms to depict monastic spirituality that liberates instead of oppresses. The devotional practices, contemplations, and shamanic rites I channel for the Fairy monastery are not dour, overly formal, or anti-sex. I created the term ecstatic contemplative to describe folks like me. I also coined Pagan monasticism to expand the sense of spirituality. Ecstatic contemplations in the Pagan monastery free us from subjugation and give us the magical and worldly powers to live wild and free.

Attend by Phone. It’s Easy!

Simply call the event phone number to attend. The group meets by teleconference. No special technology needed.

Schedule

The Virtual Pagan Monastery group meets three times a week for three months, starting September 11 and ending December 8.

We meet from 7:15 to 7:30 pm pacific time, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

You’ll need three minutes after each session to perform a special grounding ritual, which I’ll teach.

Reserve Monday December 11, Wednesday December 13, and Friday December 15, 7:15 to 7:30, for makeup sessions in case I’m unavailable for planned sessions.

Enrollment

Cost is $200 a month for three months. Your carrier might charge you for the calls.

To drop out, simply cancel your subscription, and no further payments are required. No refunds.

Enroll by September 6.

Click the Subscribe button below to enroll securely through PayPal.

Limited enrollment. Upon payment, your seat is reserved. 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 subscription, or you need additional information about the event, please call me at the number below. A few days before our first meeting, you receive an email with the event phone number and other details. Refunds unavailable.

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

The enrollment price is a great bargain. I do a lot to help you accomplish a lot. Here are three Master-of-the Arts magics I bring to the monastery:

1) Oral Tradition Faerie Rituals Three Times a Week

I use master-level shamanic techniques to create ceremonies safe for beginners and substantive enough for adepts. Enrollment is limited so we can work in oral tradition, in which immense headway happens quickly. Fairy oral-tradition magic works only in small groups.

2) I Cast Spells For Your Success

Three times a week, for the entire three months, I cast spells for you to achieve goals. Here’s how:

Each meeting, you receive direct spiritual transmissions. Spiritual transmissions are a method I use to give you good luck, add power to your efforts to improve your life, and strengthen the magic of our rituals.

The transmissions also adapt to meet your needs, e.g., money, soul healing, physical health, opportunities to express your wild heart, or relief from pressing spiritual challenges such as despair.

3) One-on-One Shamanic Support by Phone

I’m available if you have concerns to discuss privately. Or, if you have a question that’d take too long to answer during a group ceremony, you can call.

Reviews

Someone might think, “I won’t get much from 15 minutes.” But Francesca’s Pagan Monastery showed me how deep a 15-minute ritual can go. She knows how to do this.—Jenelle Campion

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

Cost for three months of rituals, transmissions, and one-on-one support:
$200 a month.

Feel Too Busy to Visit the Virtual Pagan Monastery?

If you have to miss a lot of sessions, it’ll still work. For one thing, the rituals are set up so that, if you can’t attend all the meetings, you won’t miss instructions or continuity needed for the rituals you can attend.

For another, you benefit from every meeting because I give you a spiritual transmission whether you’re at the meeting or not.

I support you in your life circumstances and frame of mind.

I’m charging less than I might for the amount of work I’ll do. This way, you have the yummy option of coming to all of the rituals but can miss some without wasting money. Show up when you can, even if it’s only half of the sessions.

Another reason to not worry about time: When I’m not centered in my Gods’ love for me, I lose far more time than three fifteen-minute rituals a week. I waste hours on
* worry
* obsession
* time-robbing habits like too much social media
* ineffective solutions that leave me battling problems endlessly.

In ancient shamanic culture, tribes were busy—hunting, weaving, etc.,—and even more so during crisis. They didn’t shoulder on without group rites. Sacred group meetings were part of the everyday.

Grab this opportunity for immense blessings. This is the second Virtual Pagan Monastery group I’m leading in 2023 because there’s been an even greater need for it than usual. I tend to open the monastery briefly for visits only once a year and, in fact, it had not been open to visits in three years.

Anyone Can Find Power in the Virtual Pagan Monastery

The Fairy Gods stand with us against hierarchy. Anyone can visit the Virtual Pagan Monastery and get a lot out of it—beginner, adept, monastic, non-monastic.

I facilitate our circles with easy-to-understand, step-by-step magical instructions.

Ongoing Empowerment

Continual spiritual sustenance: fifteen-minute-long ceremonies, three times a week for three months.

It can be hard—if not near impossible—during crises or other busy times to spiritually tend to oneself, but the virtual monastery is a quick way to do it regularly.

Ongoing spellcasting: rituals three times a week to create and maintain success, luck, and wholeness.

A happy life requires care. Repeatedly, we need to regain emotional balance, experience spiritual renewal, and create positive outcomes.

Enrolling in this event might be one of the most important actions you take. If you need to miss some sessions, enroll. Perfect attendance isn’t always real life.

These special visits to the monastery are a chance to continually center into your wisdom, truths, and power, and to remain in a flow of good luck.

I need miracles often if not daily. Visits to the Pagan monastery keep miracles happening. For example, magic washes away doubt and pain, replacing them with confidence, peace, and success. Every visit is pure magic.

Going It Alone

Even if you know how to do rituals, it might be hard to fit them into your week because it takes time to do them, let alone create or choose the right ones. Plus willingness to consistently take care of oneself can be weak when on one’s own.

You needn’t go it alone. I’ll lead you in rituals.

One reason I open the monastery to visits is so that I have to show up three times a week to hang out with beautiful people and my sweet Gods. We all need fellow travelers.

Fairy Gods Create Miracles

Their magic is so strong that fifteen minutes improves your life. You emerge from each brief session more able to cleave to your path, do what’s needed to achieve goals, stay centered, take maximum advantage of opportunities, and overcome challenges.

Don’t take my word. Trust your gut. It might say that I excel at facilitating fifteen-minute shamanic experiences that are relevant, extraordinary, and miraculous. (If my self-praise seems overly bold: Mom told me to let everyone know how good I am at what I do because no one else was going to say it enough.)

If You Think You Have No Time to Visit the Monastery

Whether happily swamped with efforts toward fabulous goals, or consumed with holding your head above water, enroll. Here’s why:

Without the sophisticated, effective magics we will do, you might waste a lot of time going down rabbit holes. Instead, the rituals help keep your life and thoughts streamlined, focused on what you need and want.

When I commit my time to something important, even if I don’t know how I’ll be able to fit it in, the Gods make it work for me.

You’ll be able to fit in 15 minutes often enough.

Miracles Can Happen Fast

With the ancient Fairy Gods by us, we’re unstoppable. The Old Gods are miracle makers so They accomplish a lot quickly.

My shamanic methods have conquered challenges that should’ve killed me, and have freed me from inner and outer limits. They can do the same for you.

They give you spiritual and worldly power to have a happy life, no matter how large, complex, or sophisticated your challenges and goals.

I’ve never met anyone too successful materially, spiritually, or magically to not profit in major ways from my work.

Recoup, regroup, restart. Every day is new and offers miracles.

Be a Goddess Who Has All Powers

Posted on March 16, 2023 by Francesca

Rage, Despair, and Grief Are Chances to
Be a Goddess (or Other-Gendered Deity) Who Has All Powers

To survive and thrive, I am so flexible that I am formless.
A nomad mystic, traveling Faerie realms, I am stardust.

All Human Fates Entwine

Part of my human and Fey heritages is connection with humankind as a whole.

All our fates are entwined.

As a shaman and servant to the Fairy Queen, I have a joyful duty to serve not only my shamanic students but also the larger whole.

My students and other friends are wonderful spiritual companions. Traveling spiritually alongside them upholds and nourishes me. The following is not about these friends. It is about the human race, which is part of my larger community along with Gaia’s other children.

A substantial percentage of humankind practices greed, heartlessness, and cruelty regularly. At times, my rage, despair, and grief overcome me. I’ve realized that, at such times, these painful feelings might be the only way I connect with humankind as a whole.

Though a misery to me, these feelings are strong fibers that bind me to every human on the planet.

One way or another, connection to humankind must happen. I cannot escape it, no matter how terribly a large part of humankind treats Gaia and all Her children. I want to choose how I connect.

Escape from Cruel Situations Can Feel Impossible

When rejected, mauled, and deprived from birth,
when carried in the womb of a Faerie woman
who was scorned, battered, and exiled,
when our skin and hair
was perceived as reason for incrimination,
when humans have haunted me and hunted me
for almost three-quarters of a century,
until in old age and a sleepless night,*
my past seems to be proof
that escape from cruel situations is impossible,
my despair, grief, and rage are inevitable and sane.

I must embrace them.

Then I can recognize
that my exhausted mind deceived me.
I can achieve freedom.
Doors to freedom surround me.

Rage, Despair, and Grief Are Gates to Power:
I Am Stardust

Yes, I embrace them.

They become my gates to power: To survive and thrive, I must become so flexible that I am formless. Formlessness immediately leads to my transforming further, into star dust. It is my natural state. I remember my path. I can plant my feet firmly into it.

Once in my natural state, I quickly, without even trying, become the entire cosmos—Diana, Magna Mater. It’s one of my favorite states.

Now I have no choice but to be in it if I want to survive and thrive. In it, I have all power.

My job is to be my true self—I am stardust, Diana, Magna Mater—because that innately serves the cosmos.

I Am Stardust and Faery Power. I Release Everything Else

Preparing to move to Italy, I am ruthlessly getting rid of every material possession possible. I want nothing but stardust.

I will keep what I need for functionality and beauty. Stardust.

I don’t regret moving back to California, even though, now, I don’t intend to stay.

California is my home—my mother land. But you can’t go home again.

I had to return here to take care of some things before moving to Italy. I didn’t know that is why I came back.

A Nomadic Mystic Traveling Across Faerie Realms

Before moving across the pond, I need to spend time with dear friends in California. I need to revel in and strengthen our connections with each other. Almost all my friends here had kept in touch with me long-distance before I moved back to California. But I need time with them here. Not only am I enjoying wonderful companionship, we’re strengthening a foundation to continue our authentic connection long-distance. This time together will make that long-distance friendship even better.

I need to revisit the land beneath San Francisco’s concrete to say the proper goodbye I could not manage when I moved away before. I need to do other things here, too.

I hope Italy will be my permanent home. But who knows.

I’m no longer counting on a permanent home.

My father was likely Middle Eastern. He might’ve been a nomad. Has my bloodline kept me from settling down happily? Is my DNA the reason that trying to make a permanent home on the material plane made me unhappy?

My home is within myself and within care from my sweet Fairy Gods.

My home is between the stars. I have always known that. I have always traversed Fay realms, but they are my home even more than ever.

Is a Spiritual Home an Illusion?

… Perhaps the idea of a home in the mystic and spiritual realms is a deception.

… No, it’s not a deception. A spiritual home is an important concept. A spiritual home has many vital meanings. … I will never let go of the idea of a sacred “home.” … There are good reasons that I work hard to help my students find their spiritual homes. There are good reasons that I strive to help each student find various metaphysical homes. They could range from being at home in a career to being at home in oneself to trusting one’s magical truths.

And a paradox exists. I need to relinquish the idea of a home, in some ways. The free movement of Nomads with their ever-moving homes is battled by the patriarchy, a death culture that wants everything fixed in place. Borders and boundaries maintain greed-based institutions like patriarchy, colonization, and racism**.

To be free of society’s oppressive spaces and culture, I need, to some extent, to let go of even a metaphysical home other than the ever-shifting Tao. It is the glorious now that is always magic aka miracle.

This is not to say I can escape misery. Or despair. Or rage or grief. They are part of life. Part of the Tao.

Clinging to any rigidity that my fear insists protects me increases misery. Surrendering to the Tao opens every moment to the possibility of joy.

After decades of practicing this surrender, my hopefully-correct understanding is that it’s become time to take it further. So I am. If I understand correctly, my survival and thriving require formlessness greater than I’ve ever experienced, despite my decades of shifting, shifting, and shifting. And I must be formless more consistently than ever.

My formlessness turns into stardust. And then I am a Goddess, Who has all powers. So mote it be!

Enjoy Shamanic Fey-touched travels.
In my events,
we have our heads in the clouds
and our feet on the ground.
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Footnotes

* A friend of mine says that whatever comes into your head after 9 pm is garbage. That’s obviously not true. But I understand her point. When you’re tired, it’s easy to sink into beliefs like, “My life is meaningless.” I am grateful when I remember my friend’s words at such times.

** Patriarchy, colonization, racism, and the other isms are synonyms to some degree. They’re also synonymous with greed. For example, if a white woman fights only to overcome her own oppression, good chance she is trying to climb into the upper caste so that she too can profit from the exploitation of oppressed groups. That is not feminism. It is greed. However, if she also fights misogynoir, she helps dismantle society’s oppressive structures. In other words, she understands that stopping isms requires stopping them as a whole. Mind you, there are many necessary exceptions to seeing them as a piece. For one thing, every ism has a distinct nature and needs to be fought against as such. But always fighting each one individually will dismantle none of them.

La Vecchia Religione

Posted on January 30, 2023 by Francesca

Online Course:
La Vecchia Religione—
An Inside View of Traditional Italian Witchcraft

“La Vecchia Religione” is Italian for “The Old Religion” and refers to the traditional practices of a strega. “Strega” translates into “witch.”

I was born into an Italian shamanic family tradition that dates back hundreds of years. Our family has many magics. This online course focuses on one of the most pivotal. Traditional magic is taught contextually, so lessons also provide a mystical overview of La Vecchia Religione.

The Strega practice we’ll focus on is considered the most advanced magic possible, can improve every aspect of life substantially, yet is accessible to a magical beginner.

This course has five powerful aspects:

One) Weekly lessons received by email. Each lesson is a digital Book of Shadows entry (PDF).

Storytelling relays a great deal of the course’s information, making lessons easy and fun for you. I’ll share tales of an Italian shamanic family tradition.

I’ll add other relevant chronicles, too, as well as more material needed to understand the aforementioned pivotal strega practice and traditional Italian witchcraft as a whole.

La Vecchia Religione is a shamanic path. Some shamans invoke magic simply through their personal, quite human stories. If you want strega magic, it’s in such stories.

Your reading this course’s stories, with no more effort on your part than when you read a fantasy novel, magically transforms every part of your life—large improvements everywhere. After the course, a special enchantment always remains available to continue creating numerous, marvelous changes for you.

Benefits of merely reading the stories:

* You automatically start becoming a new you, with greater wholeness of being and peace. You notice your power growing magically and in other parts of your life, so you have better access to all the inner resources needed to reach life goals.

* Your circumstances automatically start improving. Your most cherished goals become more viable and attainable.

* The stories transport you to a Fey-touched realm. And this course’s stories are true-life Faerie tales with real magic that helps you live in your own special Faerie tale: dreams can come true.

Our lessons will bring us into the presence of Diana Magna Mater (Great Mother Goddess). She gave humankind magic so we can live free and prosperously, overcoming challenges, including liberating ourselves from oppression. She will protect and guide us in our journey.

Lessons also provide easy shamanic exercises that reinforce the tales’ enchantments and deepen your relationship with them.

Two) My full-color art ornaments the PDF Book of Shadows pages, including new paintings created especially for this course. I joyfully painted for ages to create fifty new page ornamentations specifically for these lessons! I wanted imagery to convey the enchantment of Italian sorcery.

Think of medieval illuminations, except they are not painted by a stuffy repressed monk but by a modern wild-hearted Pagan. My paintings are filled with magic that blesses your day.

Three) Nine audio files recorded expressly for this course. Spoken word is a way you and I can be in a sacred space together. So I recite excerpts of the PDFs.

Four) Two fun, easy crafts projects. I’m thrilled about my Pagan-style craft ideas because they’re sooo magical: they help you experience the power of Italian witchery, deepen the magical journey, and increase its benefits. I’ve never seen anything like these projects, and I’m not going to say here what they are, heh. They’re special, and I’m saving them for you.

I painted art especially for these projects, making your part easy: you receive full-color digital files of my Pagan art, so you only need to print the artwork and follow a few simple instructions. I can barely wait for you to have the art! Heck, I’m chomping at the bit, waiting for you to have the rest of the course, too.

Five) One-on-one support. I’m available by phone for up to 45 minutes. If you have questions about the material, need help because your commitment to doing the lessons falters, want to further explore a particularly tantalizing part of the curriculum, or have other concerns, feel free to phone.

You can divide the 45 minutes into two or three conversations. Conversations must occur during the span of the course or within a month after.

I love integrating my art into my writing. Ditto creating audio portions and being available by phone. The five parts of the course (text, art, audio, etc.,) weave together to take you on a mystical journey into the heart of Italian witchery. During it, along with the benefits already listed:

* You gain confidence in your own journey—its spiritual, magical, and mundane aspects.

* You find confidence in yourself, just as you are, right now.

* Important insights come to you—wisdom needed to get the maximum out of life.

* You claim your birthright—your heritage of magic and wildness as a Fey-touched child of the Old Gods.

In addition to being transformative, this journey is core to understanding Italian witchcraft as a whole. In other words, along with improving your life, the journey is also an experiential lesson that conveys a mystical overview of: traditional Italian witchcraft as a magical culture, its otherworldly sensibilities, and its history.

Though they impart an overview and history, lessons are easy, not like reading a textbook. This is not dry history, not dry material, not a dreary recitation of facts, charts, and lists that you have to memorize, plod your way through, or otherwise labor over. You experience La Vecchia Religione in your spirit.

This look into my family’s magic is traditional Italian shamanism no one else teaches. A lot of this is material I’ve never taught until this course.

The course starts February 27, with your first lesson. You receive one lesson a week by email for 11 weeks.

If an unexpected event makes me unable to send one week’s planned material, I’ll extend the course an extra week.

Tuition: The regular price is $209 a month for three months, but I’ve lowered the cost to $167 a month. That is 20% off!

Scroll down to pay securely with PayPal:

No experience needed. But even advanced practitioners benefit greatly. If you need more information, or want to discuss scholarship, trade, or a payment plan other than the above subscription, call me at the number below. No refunds. My online courses aren’t transcriptions of oral tradition lessons. (I teach oral tradition by phone.) The online courses are special unto themselves—magic tailored to be spectacularly effective, relevant, exciting, and safe when learned online.

Italian Ancestors, Prejudice, Life’s Cycles, & Useful Magic

Posted on December 12, 2022 by Francesca

Italian Ancestors, Prejudice, Life’s Cycles, & Useful Magic

I’ve been looking into immigration to Italy.

As I research to see if immigrating to Italy is possible for me, I think about my ancestors and the cycles of life.

If I move to Italy, a cycle completes.

You see, Nonna arrived in New York in 1902 or 1903, when prejudice against Italians was rampant. Things have changed.

Things have not changed. They have become the same again because life is cyclical.

In rural Pennsylvania, from which I moved a few years ago, people used the N-word for me because my looks are typical Southern Italian (as opposed to the northern Italian blonde, blue-eyed, and very pale stereotype). I lived in fear for my life because my “nice white” neighbors did not want me in their “nice white” neighborhood. The growing fascism in the U.S. had emboldened them.

I’m not going into all the details because any intelligent person can imagine what they were.

But I’ll say these few things: Someone stood in my living room threatening me. They stood in my home, the place that should’ve been my safety. Toward the end of my time in Pennsylvania, as the hostility escalated, a friend visited a few times a week, so my neighbors would see that I was not an old woman living alone and vulnerable. I was driven from my home by racists. My home, which I worked decades to be able to buy, is gone.

I have no Pollyanna statement to make about what happened.

That does not mean I am without hope or optimism. Nor am I without useful, practical magic that makes all the difference.

A Good Life in All Seasons, with Help from Fairy Gods and Other Ancestors

Things come, things go. That is the nature of life. Always, the cycles.

And I have Fairy Gods. They have always backed up struggling individuals, lending powerful magic to fight oppression and other problems. In every cycle of my life, the good and the bad, the Fairy Queen and King and Their court stand by me.

I am part of the cycles of life, part of the cycle of the comings and goings. And my ancestors, which include the Fairy Gods, line up behind me in every season.

Nonna, whose picture is at the top of this post, arrived in the U.S. at the age of 15. The strength it took for her to settle in at that young age and build a life here is part of my heritage. It fuels my magical spells.

Mine is a good life. During my last three years in Pennsylvania, before I could get everything organized to leave, I feared for my life every day. Despite the terror and possibility of violence and death at any moment, it was still a good life.

The Fairy Gods Created Useful, Practical Magic for Us

I know my spells helped keep me safe and sane and helped me move from Pennsylvania as soon as possible. It is normal to be afraid in dire circumstances—even if you trust the protection magic you do. But Fairy magic mitigated the fear tremendously and kept me spiritually whole—instead of utterly traumatized—in other ways as well.

My sweet Fairy Queen and King offer us—Their children—practical spells for real life. They put Their divine power and down-to-earth wisdom into those spells.

My Gods, thank you for Fairy magic and everything else you give me.

If you want practical, useful spells relevant to all situations, take my classes. Click the newsletter banner below to receive notice of new classes.

Francesca De Grandis, bestselling author of Be a Goddess!, trained from birth in a centuries-old Shamanic family tradition that includes both Italian magic (La Vecchia Religione) and Celtic Witchcraft.

In the Goddess’ Care

Posted on April 4, 2022 by Francesca

Basking in Goddess Love

A Three-Month Immersion in the Presence of the Divine

The Goddess’ care of you will improve everything in your life, both mystic and mundane. Consistently experience Her love for you. Viscerally feel trust in love from the Divine so you relax as you go about your day. Reside in empowerment from the Fairy Gods.

What Is Basking in Goddess Love?

Basking in Goddess Love is a three-month immersion in the Presence of the Divine.

The event consists of half-hour rituals, three times a week, via teleseminar—group phone calls. No special technology; just dial your phone.

The whole time, every meeting, will be ritual, during which we simply spend time with Fairy Gods. (The word Gods includes male, female, and any other gender Deity.) In other words, our sole activity: to be in the presence of the Divine.

The exceptions will be a few preparatory steps, which I lead during the meetings. For example, we’ll set up protection to create a safe space for ritual or will center so you can focus on the rite. You’ll also need three minutes after each session to do a special grounding I’ll teach.

How Can a Half-Hour Just Being with Fairy Gods Help Me?

Simply being in Their company is to receive all blessings.

The rituals will be a chance to completely give yourself over to care from the Fey Gods.

When I spend a half-hour visiting my Gods, everything changes. No matter how much negativity or despair I feel, how many problems have piled up, or how much evil I see in the world, if I spend a half-hour with my Gods, I turn into a completely different person—the truest me. I become more centered and strong. Ideas and solutions I need come to me intuitively. A positive attitude is easier to sustain.

The energy around me shifts, too. My luck is better. Throughout the day, I’m more likely to feel my Gods by my side, the wind at my back, and my feet firmly on my path.

Trauma, Shamanism, Divinity

I want the world to be my talisman. I want the whole day to be my talisman. But how do I reach that talismanic reality when there’s so much horror and woundedness all around me in the world, every day?

Despite challenges, trauma, and the cruelty we see, the Great Mother Goddess—Magna Mater, known worldwide as the Fairy Queen—and other loving Gods can help us have the inner power to control our lives and make a better world.

Simple experiential awareness of Their presence helps heal trauma.

Repeatedly focusing on companionship with Them also brings us into a beautiful liminal space in which we shift into peace, prosperity, healing, power, and happiness.

Some of us need empowerment more than ever right now. Experiential awareness of the presence of the Old Gods provides it.

Consistent ritual is vital in difficult times. During crisis, enrolling in this event might be one of the most important steps you take. For one thing, it’ll help bring the most powerful you forward to face challenges and accomplish exactly what’s needed.

Schedule

Basking in Goddess Love meets for three months, starting May 2.

Three times a week, I will lead half-hour-long ceremonies via group telephone calls.

To participate, simply dial the phone.

We’ll meet from 2:00 to 2:30, Eastern standard time—11:00 to 11:30, Pacific time—on Mondays, Wednesday, and Thursdays.

Reserve Wednesday August 3 and Thursday August 4, the usual time, for makeup sessions in case I’m unavailable for planned sessions.

Enrollment is $250 a month for three months. Your carrier might charge you for the calls.

I’m charging far less than I would usually for the amount of work I’ll be doing, because you needn’t attend every ritual. You have the yummy option of coming to all of them, but you can miss meetings without wasting your money. Show up when you can, even if it’s only half of the meetings.

I won’t repeat information and rituals that you missed. If that leaves you unclear about something during a meeting you’re in, just do the best you can, going along for the ride. You receive huge benefits when you simply show up for rituals in which you feel a Divine presence. Plus the accumulative effect of the rituals’ loving energy is huge. More about the accumulative effect is below.

Click the Subscribe button to enroll securely through PayPal:

Limited enrollment. Upon receipt of payment, your seat is reserved. You receive event phone number, etc., by email. Refunds unavailable. Call me if you want more information or to discuss scholarship, trade, or payment plan. My number is below.

Basking in Goddess Love can be used as one of the two qualifying electives needed to participate in the advanced Fairy Witch Training .

Are You Thinking, “I’m Too Busy for These Rituals”?

When I’m not centered in my Gods’ love for me, I lose far more time than the three half-hours a week we’ll do ritual. Without that centering, I waste time on worry, obsession, time-robbing bad habits like too much social media, and ineffective solutions to problems so I am battling them endlessly.

In ancient shamanic culture, tribes were busy—hunting, weaving, etc.,—and all the more so during crisis. However, they didn’t try to shoulder on without group rites. Sacred group meetings were part of the everyday, even during major upheaval.

More Benefits from Being in the Presence of Fairy Gods

I find the Old Gods so beautiful that, when I am conscious of Them, as we will be during the rituals, Their beauty somehow reveals and affirms the full extent of my own inner and outer beauty. This is self-confidence to the max.

Experiencing Their beauty also centers me into my wisdom, gloriousness, and power. I also center into a flow of beneficial synchronicities.

Their beauty washes away my doubt and pain.

When I am aware of the presence of the Fairy Queen and the other kindly Fairy Gods, They are more able to lend me all Their powers.

They are more able to give me assistance, sustenance, magic, joy, and good luck.

**How Do I Benefit from Repeatedly Spending a Half-Hour with Gods?**

After visiting with Them on a regular basis for a while, you start to feel Them with you more consistently, not just during our rituals or on the days you attend them.

A half-hour with Pagan Gods three times a week snowballs into ongoing blessings, for example, you more consistently go about your life centered into your truest needs and wants, and you live in peace and love.

The sum of the whole becomes greater than its parts. This includes extensive healing. This three-month immersion is a soul-healing, which is greatly needed by some of us in these crazy times.

Healing includes recovering from ancestral traumas.

If You Know How to Visit Gods Without a Facilitator:

If you have the skills to visit Gods on your own, it might be hard for you to get around to doing that, unless you are part of a scheduled group.

And it can be hard—if not near impossible—to find time and willingness to spiritually tend to oneself on one’s own.

Honestly, part of why I’m leading this group is so that I have to show up three times a week to hang out with beautiful people and my sweet Gods. It’s amazing how much we humans can resist the very things that are best for us and that we love.

If lack of time keeps you from shamanic self-care, including creating or choosing rituals to take care of yourself, I have your back. I have rituals already prepared for you.

You needn’t go it alone.

What Will Our Visits with Gods Be Like?

To be in the company of the Fairy Queen and all our other good Fairy Gods is to be in Their hearts, Their care, Their magic, Their realm.

The Old Gods are miracle makers so a half-hour with Them can accomplish a lot.

For three months, we will be immersed in the source of all power.

Otherworldly time spent with Them is a nourishment and joy unlike almost anything else.

There will be various rituals. Here are some of them. We will:

* Visit the Goddess’ garden of bounty. She never kicked us out of the primordial garden. The Biblical story that we were thrust from the garden is a lie tailored to convince us we need to toil miserably for our nourishments. No! The Old Gods will welcome us into the garden and shower bounty on us.

* Also visit the Avalon isle and other Fey realms where Gods walk.

* Dwell in magic. The current of magic that flows through the universe is the living presence of the Gods and Their love for us. When we sink into that magical flow, it carries us to our dearest goals.

* Abide in Their Love for us, in the sense of settling into that love and experiencing its transformation of us and our lives.

* Revel in connectivity with the cosmos. That connectivity is union with the Gods.

* Worship the Gods, not in the usual sense of uplifting them while demeaning ourselves but in a mutual, empowering celebration of ourselves and Them.

* Nestle into the good luck that flows throughout existence. Good luck is the Fairy Gods’ care for us.

We Will Avoid Hard Spiritual Work, LOL

I am planning rites that are joyful and easy. Sometimes shamanism is hard. But not always.

Though this event nurtures inner growth, it is unlike many of my events. We will not pursue the usual vigorous disciplines I teach. For example, the focus on inner growth will not include examining oneself for behavior, feelings, and ideas that hurt oneself and others.

A mystical approach that does not include hard work can be escapism and function like a drug unless accompanied by the ongoing spiritual practices that I teach. But they are not part of this upcoming event because everything has its season.

There is a time to simply be in the presence of Deity. That is what we will do.

Catch a breath. Rest, recoup, regroup.

Relax. Let yourself have ongoing easy spiritual sustenance.

During every ritual, I also give a direct spiritual transmission.

To define my transmissions: I was born generating a beneficial field of energy. During our meetings, it adapts to your needs, e.g., personal growth, soul-healing, physical health, joy, safety on the mundane and etheric planes, the spiritual strength to get back up after life’s knocked you down. The transmissions do not focus on one benefit only, but bless you as a whole being. They also add luck to your efforts to improve your life.

Skepticism about Spirituality Is Healthy

Be Skeptical.

If you’re dubious about these rituals accomplishing what I’ve outlined, you’re smart. The world is full of “spiritual” con-artists.

My claims aren’t hype. If one of my services or books accomplished something for you that nothing else had, that begins to give you the real picture.

I trained from childhood as a shaman. I dedicated my life to developing shamanic skills and innovative ritual methodologies and to becoming a guide capable of addressing different life arenas at depth.

I can make a half-hour shamanic experience extraordinary.

Don’t take my word. Trust what your gut tells you. … Does it say my methods create miracles?

Click the Subscribe button to enroll securely through PayPal:

Pagans, Publishing, Morals, and More

Posted on March 24, 2022 by Francesca

Francesca De Grandis and Anne Newkirk Niven discuss Pagan publishing, spirituality that gets you through hard times, building Pagan community, and ethics.

Anne Newkirk Niven is the editor and publisher of Witches&Pagans magazine and SageWoman magazine. She has been a Pagan publisher since 1988, and lives with her family in Forest Grove, OR.

Francesca De Grandis, bestselling author of Be a Goddess!, is a fairy witch. She offers long-distance classes, shamanic counseling, and healings. Her Goddess spirituality embraces practical magic spells.

Francesca De Grandis: Anne has maintained high ethical and professional standards over the decades I’ve known her. That, along with her devotion to community service, make her a precious spiritual force. So I felt impelled to interview her. Anne, how have your goals as a priestess-publisher evolved over the years?

Anne Newkirk Niven: My goals as a priestess-publisher remain the same over 30+ years in this profession, but how I implement them has changed over the years.

Those goals are (in order of importance): foster and promote Pagan-centric community; provide information of use to Pagans, witches, Wiccans, polytheists and Goddess-centric folks; not go broke (personally) in the process.

What’s changed is an original emphasis on ink-on-paper magazine publishing, then a 5 year stint with an emphasis on social media, and now, a return to magazine publishing. Social media was a bit of a sugar high: lots of fast, short term growth, but no long-term satisfaction for me as a publisher.

Francesca De Grandis (FDG): Please tell me something in your specific, personal Pagan spirituality that gets you through hard times.

Anne Newkirk Niven (ANN): My personal Pagan spirituality is very eclectic, but nourishing. The one ritual that gets me through is saying grace with my family once a day (some days that’s brunch, other days it is dinner, depending on schedules) before meals. Our grace is idiosyncratic, was created by me, then added to be our oldest son when he was about seven, then amended again by adding a Japanese phrase taught to us by an exchange student from Japan. It roots our days in each other, as well as in gratitude for what we are given.

FDG: I’ve known you a long time and have seen you continue to strive toward a high moral standard. What helps you keep working toward your ideals?

ANN: Honestly, that’s a hard question. What else would I do? I guess that I really don’t think I’m doing anything extraordinary. I was raised Christian, but in a liberal church (the type that’s almost extinct these days, sadly) and I internalized the concept of self-sacrifice, honor, and compassion. That didn’t change when I became Pagan. So, it’s pretty much key to my self-image to do my best to uphold these ideals. If I did otherwise, I wouldn’t recognize myself.

FDG: Is there a Deity who has substantially supported you in your community work or personal life? If so, can you explain Their particular powers and how those powers have helped you?

ANN: I seem to be something of a serial monotheist: a series of gods (only one, actually) and goddesses have influenced my life, but seemingly for specific purposes. Usually a deity speaks to me, asks me to do something, and then when I’ve accomplished that goal, bids me farewell. First was Jesus (who I call “J.C.”) who I was very devoted to as a tween and in my teens; then a large number of goddesses in my twenties and thirties, and then a slow parade since then. I’ve had relationships with, including Mary, Kuan Yin, Oshun, and Frigga, among others. Although I have felt upheld by each of them, I wouldn’t say I relate to their powers or attributes, more to their personalities. Lately I think I’ve been called by Sigyn, but I haven’t quite figured out that relationship yet.

FDG: Is there anything else on your mind you want to share?

ANN: I’d like to share the idea of being kind to one another. I’m acutely aware that, as an interlocking set of communities, we Pagans, Witches, Wiccans, Polytheists, and Heathens (and more and allies) are a fractious bunch. But I would like to ask us all to elevate the virtues of compassion, kind-heartedness, steadfastness, and empathy. This is a very challenging time to be alive, but the gods and goddesses called us to be here, and I believe it was to share their love with the whole world, not through evangelism or bringing people to a specific path, but through living as if we gave a care about others. That’s my guiding light.

FDG: I love the beauty and honesty of your answers and cherish your closing remark. You are my spiritual sister, Anne. Thanks so much for talking to my website visitors.

ANN: I love you right back, sister!

For anouncements of upcoming fairy shamanism classes, freebies, and other sparkly yummies, click the newsletter link below.

Rooster Magic

Posted on April 1, 2021 by Francesca

Rooster Magic, Symbolism, and Meanings

What Is Rooster Magic? What does Rooster Symbolize?

Rooster is a symbol of joy, vitality, inner fire, passion for life, healthy pride in your accomplishments, and fun.

Thus, rooster magic creates all those blessings, and I’ll show you how to do rooster magic in a sec, yay!

What Is the Meaning of Rooster?

If a rooster appears in your dream, or rooster pics are showing up an inordinate amount in your online newsfeed, here are ways you might interpret that symbolism.

1) It could mean that you need to find more joy, healthy cockiness (heh, accidental pun there— cockiness), self-respect, or any of the other things I mentioned roosters symbolizing.

2) On the other hand, it could be the universe affirming your lust for life, fire, or other rooster-like traits, so that you know you’re on the right track.

3) Or both messages could be present: a confirmation of your fabulous rooster self, with an urging to strengthen those traits.

With three options to choose from, it can be confusing. Go with your gut. But then confirm with a friend who is a straight-talker, so you don’t fool yourself.

How to Do Rooster Magic

Try any or all of these:

* Place a picture or statue of a rooster in your home and/or workplace. This totem—or call it a fetish—attracts rooster powers into a space.

* Contemplate a picture or statue of a rooster for five minutes. You needn’t study the totem with a sharp focus or intellectually analyze it. Rest your attention on the rooster the way your head rests on a pillow at night. Try for relaxed attention and gently note what you experience, whether an idea, feeling of empowerment, peace, or anything else. There’s no right or wrong here. If you experience nothing, it doesn’t mean you’re not receiving rooster power. You may not notice it yet. If you have a tiny positive experience, that could be the tip of the iceberg, the rest of the improvement occurring during the contemplation or after it.

* Crow like a rooster when you wake in the morning. Sounds silly, but it plugs you into rooster energy and helps it flow through you, empowering you for the day ahead.

* Strut around like a rooster. If the silliness of it makes you laugh, that’s great. Laughter is medicine that heals and uplifts the spirit. And fairies, drawn to the merriment, will add to your power.

* Wear jewelry with a rooster picture on it. The jewelry functions as an amulet.

* Let’s not forget actually raising a rooster and hens as an option. In a world where the abstract or symbolic are often considered more powerful than the actual items being symbolized or discussed, it’s important to remember having a real rooster in your yard would be powerful rooster medicine.

* If a deity in your pantheon likes roosters, put a photo or sculpture of a rooster on your altar and tell your God it’s for them. Three Gods partial to roosters:

I Learn Rooster Magic

I didn’t pay attention to rooster magic until fairly recently. Then I saw a beautiful stone pendant carved as a rooster. I just had to have it, even though till then I’d usually found the plethora of rooster decor annoying.

When I received the carving, I knew Exu would love it.

African God Exu and Roosters

Exu is one of the African Pagan Gods. He embodies enormous vitality, fire, confidence, and love of life. He bestows those traits on those devoted to Him.

He is a major figure in my pantheon and takes good care of me.

I had to laugh when I was putting the finishing touches on this essay and happened to see the following Yule 2020 photographs. They show me wearing fascinators (tiny hats) I designed and made.

Usually you wear only one fascinator, but I wore three. They don’t look like hats but like flowers and hornlike flora growing from my head, and the three work well together.

Anyway, I laughed with delight and happiness—not self-denigrating mockery—because, in the photos, I might as well have been strutting around a barnyard! I look so pleased with myself and happy, full of life at age 70, proud of my wild whimsical designs, and relishing the abundance of hair ornamentation that adorned my crown for the Yule ceremony that was about to happen, and Exu fosters all these traits.

In other words, I laughed to stumble across photographs that show me an utter and happy rooster-like example of my above remark that Exu bestows certain traits:

I’d never seen any lore about Exu and roosters, but He told me He’d like to wear my new pendant. I draped it over a statue of Him. In the process, I sensed that rooster holds some of Exu’s powers, which is how I learned and became enamored by the magics of rooster. … In retrospect, they’re self-evident.

When I researched Exu and roosters, still nothing. But I believed He loves them nonetheless. My belief was corroborated when I happened to learn the God Mercury likes roosters.

Roman God Mercury and Roosters

Mercury is one of the Roman Pagan Gods. His affection for roosters makes sense to me. Exu and Mercury have so many similarities that they’re beyond the confines of this post. But both Deities have a sense of humor, lust for life, fire, and out-of-bounds exuberance. I know either of them would exclaim, “Cock-a-doo·dle-doo” with great gusto, luscious pride, and yummy silliness.

An exception to my ignoring rooster magic before my experience with Exu and the pendant:

Goddess Athena and Roosters

Athena is one of the Greek Pagan Gods. I love this Goddess Warrior Mother Who protects and upholds me. I saw a wee portrait of Her online that I purchased:

The wee gold-tone spheres around Her portrait are not part of the piece I purchased. I beaded a setting from gold-colored seed beads, to hang the portrait from a cord around my neck.

Who wouldn’t want a portrait of Athena with a rooster on Her head, LOL!? So I did some online research to discover She likes roosters. Then I forgot that Athena pendant and the related research, until after I had the rooster experience with Exu, made up ways to do rooster magic, and created a jointed paper rooster doll as one of those ways:

Jointed Paper Doll of a Rooster

I love making jointed paper dolls and channeling sacred art. Combining the two is the best experience for me. Making a jointed, paper-doll rooster was a way to learn more about rooster power and drink it into my cells. A video of the rooster doll I made:

If I spoke too softly at the end of the video, here’s what I said: “Magic is in everything. The magic rooster, my magic hands, your magic nose, my magic toes.” Hahahahaha.

Have a Rooster Totem in Your Home

An exclusive for my newsletter subscribers: in an upcoming newsletter, I’ll gift subscribers a PDF painting of the doll’s parts. You can print and cut out the parts, to assemble your own jointed, paper doll rooster. Click the banner below to subscribe.

2021 Fairy Witch Training

Posted on March 5, 2021 by Francesca

Fairy Witch Training aka Third Road Faerie Shamanism Training

Third Road is the tradition I teach.

Classes are teleseminars—group meetings by phone. Just dial the phone to participate.

Training consists of four courses I’ve taught for almost two decades because they’re the core entry-level witch training and prerequisites for Third Road advanced shamanic training.

* Witchcraft, straight up * accessible to beginners * spells to manifest worldly goals * personal growth * increased intuition * power to serve your tribe *

Each course provides:
* down-to-earth applications of Pagan mysticism. This is mysticism grounded in practical spell-crafting—witch spirituality integrated with common sense; the combination improves your whole life
* experiences of the Goddess and God as living entities Who protect, bless, and utterly adore you
* the ancient Faery Faith’s transformative beauty
* empowerment to be of maximum service to your tribe
* solid magical techniques
* spells for worldly goals
* rites for personal growth
* increased intuition
* core Third Road teachings
* ancient Goddess spirituality: the Great Mother Goddess embraces men, male Gods, gender-bending, and beyond. She embraces all people. You won’t find a more motley crew than in my events. Truly inclusive.

Each person has unique magical and mundane talents. This training nurtures these passions: your particular shamanic and worldly skill sets are invoked and fostered. You attain rich selfhood and can serve tribe by expressing yourself.

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

Instead of a shamanic approach to which you’re expected to conform to be a “real” shaman (ick!), you’ll be in a shamanic journey designed to meet you exactly as who, where, and how you are.

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

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

The training is multi-leveled, suitable to all levels, and provides access to power at whatever level your spirit, life, and magic require. Adepts experience sufficient depth and challenges, but beginners are not overwhelmed or left to fall behind.

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

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

This eight-month shamanic journey has four powerful aspects:

1) 27 lessons. We meet via teleseminars—group phone calls. To participate, just dial your phone.

We’ll work in old-style oral tradition, allowing immense headway quickly. Enrollment is limited to 16 people, so we can perform ceremonies that can only happen in a small group, and so each participant can receive individualized attention, should they want that support.

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

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

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

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

I cannot imagine oral tradition without direct spiritual transmissions. They seem part and parcel.

(I’m not explaining what spiritual transmissions are here because the important thing is the benefits they’ll give you during the training. But if you want a definition, you can read mine here. Be apprised that my definition is not typical: https://outlawbunny.com/2020/11/19/what-is-a-spiritual-transmission/.)

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

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

Below are the four courses, in the order they’ll be held. Their descriptions are flawed but will work once you’ve read this caveat:

Descriptions divide Fairy magic into categories, which isn’t true of Fey magic as I know it. When I cast a spell to shift a part of myself or my life, the magic is nonetheless all-encompassing. Fae magic is the living, loving presence of the Faery Queen and King. During a Fairy ceremony, these Gods not only achieve my goal(s) for the ceremony but, in Their enthusiastic love for me, bless my whole person and enchant my entire life.

Thus, while each course focuses overtly on certain benefits or approaches, other benefits come too. Additional approaches come into play, perhaps subtly. This style is integrative.

A description of a course focuses on its overt aspects, though each course, to a significant extent, provides all benefits the other courses do.

Also note, near its top, this post lists benefits each one of these courses offers. I don’t repeat all that in a course description.

Course One: Faerie Shamanism—an Ecstatic Path

Curriculum focuses on ecstatic ritual, Faerie wisdoms, theoretical basics of Faerie Shamanism, and some of its more complex aspects.

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

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

You also:
* learn training practices and moral stances that increase pleasure
* Gain the material satisfactions of an ecstatic practitioner, without being snared by addictions or illusions
* Embrace wholeness in all your many facets.

Holy Sweaty Joy—Ecstatic Spirituality & Sacred Sexuality

Witches are considered unholy by religious bigots because our religion teaches us to take life by the horns and use revelry to reach our life’s goals—goals of bounty, beauty, self-fulfillment, joy, service to our community, and more.

Claim these old revelry magics of the Faerie ecstatic path. Learn fun rites that do the job when all else fails. This is ritual that transforms you and your life.

Delight in Faery Faith rituals and mysteries:
* Reach your life goals—and heal your spirit—through both magical and worldly celebration.
* Imbue daily activities with confidence, passion, and vigor.
* Move past inner blocks to your inherent, sacred sensuality.
* Be a sex God(dess)!
* Affirm your unique, bewitching sexuality.
* Own your true self, so your authenticity shapes decisions.
* Own your joy.

Gentle Heart, Palm Up—Peacefully Conquering Challenges

Overcoming challenges, great or small, mundane or spiritual, is a traditional path to gaining shamanic power.

This course offers shamanic tools to triumph over problems, whether an “everyday dilemma” or traumatizing devastation. These same tools build the magical strengths to manifest whatever your heart desires in any area of your life. Since the process outlined in this paragraph is a traditional means of gaining shamanic power, this course provides an aspect of core shamanism (as do all four courses).

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

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

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

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

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

This material helped heal me and my life from the trauma of becoming crippled overnight in 2001 and the crises—e.g., financial problems—that can domino from major illness. I was so depleted that, when channeling these lessons, I was too ill to type or even hand-write them. I dictated them to someone. Then, because of these lessons, I rose like the Phoenix. At age 70, I’m healthier than I was in 2001, my finances recovered, and my spirit is whole.

Course Four: The Be a Goddess Master Class

This Witch Training provides the following benefits. If you’ve already received them, they reach the next level:
* Your inner guide becomes stronger.
* Your connection to the Old Gods deepens so Their blessings in your life increase, and you can revel in the blissful joy of Their company.
* You acquire magical and mundane abilities to meet any challenge or opportunity.
* Profound soul-healing comes—sometimes so easily you don’t notice it till later.
* You Honor and draw on the Deity within.
* Serving all our relations in the way your heart wants becomes possible.
* Fey-touched joy that makes life worth living ignites.

The magic in my book, Be a Goddess, has unpublished, more advanced facets. They meet you as you are now, in whatever circumstances you’re in now, that you may live the way you truly want. I’ll teach you that material.

The tools you already have from one of the prerequisites will gain deeper layers of power, which you can apply to your current situations.

Feeling powerless? This class will change that.

Already feel plenty of power? Rock on! And if you’re not achieving everything you want, this course is the next step.

You also learn new techniques: I’ll teach you new tools and how to apply tools from the books—for whatever you need: prosperity, creativity, or anything else.

Prerequisite for The Be a Goddess Master Class

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

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

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

Been a long time since you did one of the prerequisites? It doesn’t matter. Don’t think you have to start again. You’ve done the work.

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

Schedule

The eight month training has 27 lessons, all on Sundays, 6:00 to 7:00 pm, EST, starting April 25.

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

Course One, Faerie Shamanism—an Ecstatic Path—runs April 25 through June 6. Reserve 6:00 to 7:00 pm, Sunday June 13, for a makeup class in the unlikely chance I’m unavailable for one of the planned sessions.

Course Two: Holy Sweaty Joy—Ecstatic Spirituality and Sacred Sexuality—runs June 27 through August 8. Reserve 6:00 to 7:00 pm, Sunday August 15 for a makeup class in the unlikely chance I can’t attend one of the planned sessions.

Course Three: Gentle Heart, Palm Up—Peacefully Conquering Challenges—is August 29 through October 10. Reserve 6:00 to 7:00 pm, Sunday October 17 for a makeup class in the unlikely chance I can’t attend one of the planned sessions.

Course Four: The Be a Goddess Master Class meets October 31 through December 12, skipping November 28 for Thanksgiving. Reserve 6:00 to 7:00 pm, Sunday December 19 for a makeup class in the unlikely chance I’m unavailable for one of the planned sessions.

There is a break after each course, so the schedule is not overwhelming. Plus chances are good we won’t need to use the make-up dates so will have them off too. We break on June 20, August 22, October 24, and November 28.

Enrollment

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

If you’ve taken this training or one of its courses, repeat enrollment is half-price. Contact me, and I’ll invoice you through PayPal. To participate in a single course, contact me for invoice.

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

Upon receipt of payment, your place is reserved. You receive course details—e.g., the phone number to dial for the meetings—by email. For more information or to discuss scholarship, semi-scholarship, trade, or a payment plan other than the subscription option on this page, phone me. No refunds. However, you can cancel your subscription after the two payments for the specific course you’re in.

There Is Only Now

If you want witch training with me, now is the time. It’s been between six and three years since I’ve taught some of these courses.

There is only now, and sky’s the limit. We’ll immediately dive into ultra-focused lessons between the worlds.

Please note: along with the four above prerequisites, participating in advanced training requires two electives. You might have already taken one without even knowing it. Here are some recent events that qualify (and there are plenty of other qualifying electives to choose from):
* One of the 2020 or 2021 daylong retreats
* Dragon Magic
* Magic For Business Success
* Laughing Vulva, Goddess Womb
* the breath healing course and the sound healing course combined qualify as one elective
* ditto combining both three-week Trauma, Shamanism, and Victory groups

Advanced training will start 2022 (if enough folks are interested) and not until well into the year, so there’s time for you to take electives. Sometimes, we can delay an elective if you haven’t done two before the advanced training begins.

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

* When teaching orally, I’m ensconced within a family oral tradition I entered in infancy, learning magic con leche. I receive experiential wisdom-lessons not taught elsewhere.
* Raised in a European-based shamanic family tradition that includes both Italian sorcery and Celtic shamanism, I teach a multicultural Faerie shamanism.
* I thoughtfully, joyfully, carefully channel curriculums, constructing lessons over time. This tunes us into enormous, subtle powers. You won’t pay for a jumble of undigested white-bread ideas that an unprepared teacher declared, “Voila, genuine Pagan stuff!” 🙂 Instead, I committed my life to developing material for you.
* I received full-time, longterm shamanic training. It was not academic but an experiential training of skill sets. That focused study allowed me into the heart of reality, in trance 24-7, channeling lessons for seven years.
* For decades since, my Gods asked me to trance only part of the day, to ground me. Feet more on the ground than ever, I continue to explore our magical yet earthy cosmos and channel new earth-based mysticism material, because resting on my laurels would be no fun. I like fun.

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

Cerridwen and Taliesin: A Ritual Journey to Achieve Your Sweetest Goals

The Virtual Pagan Monastery 2023

Table of Contents

Magical Overview of The Virtual Pagan Monastery 2023

Attend by Phone. It’s Easy!

Schedule

Enrollment

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

1) Oral Tradition Faerie Rituals Three Times a Week

2) I Cast Spells For Your Success

3) One-on-One Shamanic Support by Phone

Feel Too Busy to Visit the Virtual Pagan Monastery?

Anyone Can Find Power in the Virtual Pagan Monastery

Ongoing Empowerment

Going It Alone

Fairy Gods Create Miracles

If You Think You Have No Time to Visit the Monastery

Miracles Can Happen Fast

Rage, Despair, and Grief Are Chances to Be a Goddess (or Other-Gendered Deity) Who Has All Powers

All Human Fates Entwine

Escape from Cruel Situations Can Feel Impossible

Rage, Despair, and Grief Are Gates to Power: I Am Stardust

I Am Stardust and Faery Power. I Release Everything Else

A Nomadic Mystic Traveling Across Faerie Realms

Is a Spiritual Home an Illusion?

Italian Ancestors, Prejudice, Life’s Cycles, & Useful Magic

A Good Life in All Seasons, with Help from Fairy Gods and Other Ancestors

The Fairy Gods Created Useful, Practical Magic for Us

Basking in Goddess Love

A Three-Month Immersion in the Presence of the Divine

What Is Basking in Goddess Love?

How Can a Half-Hour Just Being with Fairy Gods Help Me?

Trauma, Shamanism, Divinity

Schedule

Are You Thinking, “I’m Too Busy for These Rituals”?

More Benefits from Being in the Presence of Fairy Gods

How Do I Benefit from Repeatedly Spending a Half-Hour with Gods?

If You Know How to Visit Gods Without a Facilitator:

What Will Our Visits with Gods Be Like?

We Will Avoid Hard Spiritual Work, LOL

Skepticism about Spirituality Is Healthy

Rooster Magic, Symbolism, and Meanings

What Is Rooster Magic? What does Rooster Symbolize?

What Is the Meaning of Rooster?

How to Do Rooster Magic

I Learn Rooster Magic

African God Exu and Roosters

Roman God Mercury and Roosters

Goddess Athena and Roosters

Jointed Paper Doll of a Rooster

Have a Rooster Totem in Your Home

Fairy Witch Training aka Third Road Faerie Shamanism Training

This eight-month shamanic journey has four powerful aspects:

Course One: Faerie Shamanism—an Ecstatic Path

Holy Sweaty Joy—Ecstatic Spirituality & Sacred Sexuality

Gentle Heart, Palm Up—Peacefully Conquering Challenges

Course Four: The Be a Goddess Master Class

Cerridwen and Taliesin:
A Ritual Journey
to Achieve Your Sweetest Goals

Magical Overview of
The Virtual Pagan Monastery 2023

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

Rage, Despair, and Grief Are Chances to
Be a Goddess (or Other-Gendered Deity) Who Has All Powers

Rage, Despair, and Grief Are Gates to Power:
I Am Stardust

**How Do I Benefit from Repeatedly Spending a Half-Hour with Gods?**