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The Virtual Pagan Monastery 2023

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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!

Table of Contents

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.

Upcoming Course: Dragon Magic

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Upcoming Course:
Dragon Magic

Your job, your loved ones, and your everyday tasks can keep your plate full. Shamanic practices to create emotional and physical well-being can seem like a luxury for which you have neither time nor energy. But traditional shamanism is of the people. I teach a dragon magic that helps you with practical matters, while also taking care of you as a whole being and fitting into your busy life.

In my upcoming course, learn dragon magic for prosperity, protection, and more. Lessons also help you
* Heal your spirit.
* Increase inner power.
* Stand up for yourself and for others.
* Maintain spiritual stamina, so you can get up when you fall down and move on to victory.
* Find the courage to risk going after your ideal life.
* Acquire inner and outer abilities to actualize your dreams.
* Release blocks to success, e.g., self-victimization or scarcity mentality.
* Be your biggest, most authentic self.

Enroll here: https://outlawbunny.com/special-events-registration/

My dragon magic has a light, whimsical aspect that adds an ease to the lessons. Yet the fantastical element of my dragon teachings don’t mean they’re shallow or weak. Often, through a light touch, we’ll become as dragons swimming through the watery depths of the primordial sea, claiming its creative powers as our own.

Dragon!

Ferocious. Wild. Primal. Protector.

Archetype of Goddess power.

Primordial enchantment.

Monster … gargoyle … dragon … serpent of the deep … source of all creation … Tao … Goddess Who creates all … witch … woman … wholeness … freedom.

Are you drawn to dragons? If you find yourself meditating on them, or dragon is your totem animal, or you don’t identify with dragons but dragons in fantasy art and fiction delight you, or you seek the company of dragons, or otherwise consider dragons powerful, this is your group.

In this course, you enter a magical draconian realm even more fanciful than what’s usually portrayed, yet far more substantive and deep than I’ve ever seen depicted outside my own visions.

The dragon is a such a powerful Goddess archetype and shamanic archetype that it has been maligned, misrepresented, and otherwise hidden so that we won’t see dragons help bring us freedom, wholeness, and self-actualization.

Join me in this course about the hidden nature of both dragons and dragon magic. Learn spells that draw on the core of draconian magic. These rituals and teachings are given us right from the dragon’s heart—I channeled bit by bit over decades. You will be with pure dragon energy, instead of slanderous or watered down misrepresentations.

This five-week journey has six(!) powerful aspects:

1) Five lessons, one per week, for five consecutive weeks. These lessons are via group phone calls. To participate, just dial your phone.

We will work in old-style oral tradition, which allows 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.

2) Direct spiritual transmissions. These transmissions occur during each group meeting, throughout the entire meeting, no matter what else is occurring at the time. The transmissions deepen the rituals, make them safer, and foster a more experiential understanding of the lesson material.

The transmissions also enliven your very cells, so your magic wakes to its next level of power as do your mundane-world strengths. The transmissions also boost any efforts you make; our efforts combine. And those are only some of the benefits.

My transmissions’ energy adapts to your needs, blessing your internal and external life.

I can’t say what “direct spiritual transmission” means for other practitioners, so the benefits listed above are specific to transmission I myself provide. Also, in my particular case: I was born a good luck charm who automatically generates a beneficial field of energy. I don’t do anything to you; I don’t inject you with energy, rearrange your energy, or even dust off your aura, LOL. I simply give off a blessing energy during a transmission, the same way incense gives off specific magical energies in a room.

Me, personally, I cannot imagine oral tradition without direct spiritual transmissions. They seem to be part and parcel.

3) Three audio recordings, each with a dragon rite. After we perform these three rituals during our lessons together, the recordings lead you through the rites again to make their power and enchantment easily accessible again. (I don’t record meetings. The audio recordings you receive will be made separately.)

4) Two digital Book of Shadows entries (PDFs), each with another of the rituals we’ll perform during our class meetings. (During classes, you’ll learn more rituals than the ones in the recordings and Book of Shadows entries. But these particular audio and PDF documents are especially useful.) The entries are ornamented by my full-color, original, shamanic art, for a total of seven gorgeous pages, with easy to read large print. The artwork intensifies the text’s magic, adding further enchantment to it. I created artwork specifically for these pages.

5) An original piece of talismanic art to download and print to bless your home or your other spaces. Painted especially for this course, this draconian art not only serves you magically but is worthy of being displayed in an art lover’s home. The digital file you receive will be high-quality, e.g., show detail very well.

The smaller rough-quality version at the top of this post gives a sense of the piece. I used a small rough-quality version here, so this webpage would load in a reasonable amount of time.

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

No experience needed. But advanced practitioners should find this journey well worth their time.

We’ll meet Sundays, 3:00 to 4:00 pm EST, for five consecutive weeks, starting March 1. Reserve Sunday April 5, same time, for a makeup meeting, in case I’m unexpectedly unavailable for one of the planned sessions.

Full cost is $250—for five classes, three audio recordings, direct spiritual transmissions, seven gorgeous, enchanted Book of Shadows pages, an original piece of shamanic art for display in your personal space, and one-on-one private support should you desire. Your carrier might charge you for the phone calls into the ceremonies.

Pay securely with PayPal: https://outlawbunny.com/special-events-registration/

Upon payment, your place is reserved. You receive course details—e.g., the phone number to dial to participate in the meetings—by email. No refunds. To discuss a payment plan, trade, scholarship, or semi-scholarship, or if you have other concerns about the event, call me.

I mentioned misrepresentation of dragons. I had a fun experience about dragons’ true nature and the prevalence of dragons:

When debating whether to offer this event, I contemplated the fact that dragons are mostly represented as solitary creatures, hiding away moodily and bitterly.

That depiction makes no sense. For one thing, I come from a long line of dragons, and in my meditations, I fly in draconian form with my ancestors. Plus, for years now, when leading ritual, and I ask participants to name their totems, usually more than one person responds “Dragon.” And we might fly together. How I cherish opportunities to fly alongside other dragons.

So there I was thinking about this and, lo, someone I am getting to know happens to mention they identify as a dragon.

Their remark happening right then was synchronicity, a sign that there are dragons around every corner. The universe was urging me to offer this course. It is not only a way to serve dragons and dragon lovers in my community, it also provides an opportunity for me to become even more communal in my dragon flights—flying alongside other dragons is precious to me. It is ecstasy and joy.

Come fly with me, you dragons and dragon lovers.

We’ll soar in other realms while also creating better material lives for ourselves. My down-to-earth shamanism addresses real life. My style of dragon magic is grounded mysticism, a tried and true approach that has not only helped me achieve my dearest goals but also helped the individuals to whom I have taught it achieve the same.

Enroll here: https://outlawbunny.com/special-events-registration/

Claiming My Power as a Trauma Survivor

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I can act effectively in crisis only if I’m doing shamanic practices on a regular basis.

There are times survival takes every single ounce of one’s time. And it’s vital to do everything one can on the mundane plane to take care of a crisis. But, when crisis looms, I have the self-destructive knee-jerk response of automatically focusing solely on survival. I’ve learned that usually does not turn out well, not for me.

So I choose to instead focus on staying balanced, serene, and connected to my Gods in order to receive Their power and guidance. To accomplish all that, I need a lot of time for my shamanic practices and have to use a crisis as an opportunity for spiritual and shamanic growth.

If I, instead, frantically chase after money, security, a resolution of crisis, etc., then the money, resolution, security, etc., don’t manifest anyway. If I stay on my shamanic journey, then money, resolution, security etc., come.

When crisis hits, I need shamanism more than ever.

Historically speaking, shamanism as a means for healing from trauma—and keeping a disaster from damaging one’s psyche—has been a cultural norm. It has surely been a means for my survival and wholeness in rough times.

Shamans have also, since ancient times, used their traumas—even the worst traumas—as irreplaceable chances to manifest great magical and mundane power. This was surely my own experience.

After 9/11 traumatized U.S. citizens, and our government used that tragedy as an excuse to further traumatize us, enrollment in the shamanic classes I teach dropped for a while. When crisis hits, or appears as a possibility, some people believe they can’t afford the time or money for their shamanic training. They don’t understand that continuing their training can be pivotal to overcoming crisis. I provide scholarships, yet few people requested one in the year after 9/11.

One power of being a trauma survivor, for me, is that overcoming disasters left me with shamanic tools I can apply during this brutal administration. Another power is that I’ve learned the need for complete focus on survival is often a mirage. Mind you, I know it’s not always a mirage. But when it has been an illusion, living in that lie almost destroyed me. I’m lucky to be alive, considering what a lifestyle of overwork and worry did to my health.

“Long-term trauma” (LTT) is a worse diagnosis than post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Examples of an ordeal that causes LTT: being kidnapped and held hostage for years; and being married to a batterer for years. Quite a while ago, I suffered LTT. Not to worry, I took the necessary steps to be on the other side of that now, happy and whole. It’s all behind me. I bring up the diagnosis only to point out:

As someone who used Fey-touched tools to survive longterm horrors and come out the other side whole in spirit, I learned that serenity is possible during a horrific situation. Not always, for sure, but tranquility is not constant even in the best of circumstances. Though peace is often impossible when first in a terrible crisis, knowing that peace can develop—albeit sometimes only painstakingly in minuscule increments—is a power I’ve gained from being a trauma survivor.

When I create a calm place inside myself, I find strength and wisdom there to change a situation.

My familiar hangs out with a poppet. I made it probably in the ‘80s.

Like many survivors, I’ve been triggered by recent national events. Like many individuals, I started having trauma symptoms in response to national events. But now, screw Trump, screw his ilk. I decided I don’t have time to let fascists’ behavior traumatize me anymore. I’m doing everything in my power to keep their behavior from getting to me mentally anymore.

I affirm: They no longer will have space in my head. Heck, I’ve known all along that what’s going on in America right now is nothing new. That’s an advantage I have from being a trauma survivor. The horrific injustices currently widespread in our country are what I observed as a child in the ‘50s and throughout my whole life. I suffered terribly from some of these things My point is that what’s going on has been happening since humans first congregated, so I don’t have to lose my mind over it, but can carry on the same way I did the day before Trump got elected—fighting against such atrocities and living my life with joy.

I affirm: I can feel my indignation, rage, and even terror, but not sit in them. I can simply feel them, and then move on to feel my joy and love.

I affirm: Living in terror and rage would keep me from maximum effectiveness as an agent of change in the world. I want to help individuals upon whom horrors are being perpetrated, so I feel my indignation and rage, but do not reside in them.

In this post, I speak only for myself and of my experiences. I want every trauma survivor to find what works for them. So I support those who say a constant rage helps them fight oppression, even though that wouldn’t work for me. I used to walk around angry all day. That hurt my health and made me miserable.

Though I didn’t take my anger out on other people, furious thoughts consumed my mind, time, and energy, distracting me from doing what was needed to be as happy and productive as I became when I let go of constant angriness. Now, with less anger, I’m more likely to take positive action, more effective when I do so, and experience life’s joys more.

Wee shaman

Back to the idea that what’s going on in America is nothing new. I’ve physically, emotionally, and spiritually survived grueling ordeals that started in childhood. Some of these situations were next to impossible to survive, let alone survive spiritually whole. But I did it. For various reasons, I’m a person at risk in Trump’s America. Yet, because of the traumas I’ve gotten through in the past, I know how to find joy, peace, and beauty in my day now.

A few weeks ago, the current events in our country stopped triggering and traumatizing me anywhere near as much because I started taking advantage of being a trauma survivor in the ways I’ve described above.

In other words, I remembered that I’ve been through all this before, that I survived it, and that the horrors reported on the news every day have consistently been part of human society. I reminded myself that I learned tools to overcome crisis, shamanic tools that can keep me whole so I can enjoy my life and keep fighting oppression. I affirmed my commitment to devote as much time possible every day to shamanic practices and to spiritual and shamanic growth.

My shamanism centered me again, moving me miles toward inner wholeness. I intend to keep that movement going till I feel back to normal and then maintain that state through an ongoing abundance of shamanic practices.

I don’t bury my head in the sand about what’s going on in the world or what risks I am in. However, constantly thinking about the terrible state of humanity, or what bad things are happening to me, or that might happen to me, or the very real fact that I may not survive this current administration, will help ensure I don’t survive because unceasing worry would hurt my body badly. For one thing, the stress of nonstop worry exacerbates Multiple Sclerosis symptoms.

I will think about terrible things only to the degree needed, e.g., to minimize my risk, to change bad situations for myself and others, to discuss with my students the problems they face. Today, I signed up to be a phone volunteer for the upcoming elections. That felt great.

Nightmare monsters hide under my bed. They’re close by, threatening, trying to freak me out. I refuse to dwell on them. I prefer to use my time and the spaces in my head to celebrate existence and see its beauty.

If I focus on my shamanic practices and inner growth, I have the strength and bravery to not take the bait—in other words, to not freak out when monsters taunt me with cruel words—and to instead enjoy life.

I’m getting into top form for battling monsters. Staying serene and joyful and in pursuit of beauty help me achieve—and remain in—top form. Vehemently, passionately serene. Joyfully, loudly seeking beauty. So mote it be!

Traditional Shamanic Culture and Business

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Rosmrta

Did you know ancient Celts had a goddess of marketing? Or that their shamans charged for many of their services, as did ancient Native American shamans? Did you know ancient Mesoamerican merchants traveled to find sacred goods?

Shamanic culture once brought the sacred into commerce, in a way we desperately need today for two reasons:

1) It will allow us fulfilling, loving, profitable work.

2) It can help stop the immense, worldwide suffering caused by callous business practices.

The division of sacred and profane in the marketplace strikes at the core of human rights, Faerie witchery, and happiness.

As a witch, I’m part of a long heritage of magic used as a tool to free people from oppression. As long as the marketplace is driven by profit to the point of callousness, instead of by an ethical focus on being of service, results will remain tragic.

So I developed innovative theories and methodologies that provide a missing piece of witchery—a shamanic approach to the marketplace. I teach it in my new book:

A Sacred Marketplace:
Sell without Selling Out or Burning Out.
Mysticism + Marketing = Sales.

ClickHereSmall

The book is two pronged in its benefits:

1) Many ethical, loving people have special gifts they want to bring into the marketplace but are stymied because they can’t figure out how to maneuver the insanity of our current business world.

These folks include artists, psychics, coaches, and others in alternative fields. Also included are people whose heartfelt dreams are less obviously special—e.g., you can make cosmetics in a loving way.

A Sacred Marketplace shows good people ethical ways to thrive in business. The book teaches

* easy, powerful, ethical marketing

* my personal philosophy of life, which is shamanic and spells out why it is moral to earn a living doing what we love and how doing so is vital to the well being of all Gaia’s children

* shamanic exercises to help you actually live that philosophy and develop personal traits for career success

2) The other benefit: if these good folks were in business, their sheer presence would help shift our business world into one where people matter more than profit. These loving practitioners would not have to do anything other than be present in the marketplace.

More talented good-hearted people in the world of commerce will—without these individuals even trying to do so—automatically transform the dominant business paradigm for society as a whole, from corporate, uncaring greed to loving concern for the individual.

I’m delighted I was able to create this book’s material. I am proud of my work in a way this society tries to squelch. Be proud of yours. Enter the marketplace with your special gifts and be prosperous. In the process, you’ll make a better life for everyone.

I care about you, so I beg you: do not wait. Great endeavors start when someone says, “I’ll do what I can.” If all you can manage is reading two minutes once a week, and you have no time to analyze what you read or to apply it, that’s a legitimate start. The book is Third Road shamanism, which means you absorb on a gut level, just by reading. Do it. Click here for A Sacred Marketplace: http://www.outlawbunny.com/2015/10/15/a-sacred-marketplace/

DNA and Ancestral Ritual

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Science can support my spirituality in other ways, too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to my story:

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

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

I responded, “Mongolia?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Moving on:

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

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

And I feel gratitude for science and magic.

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