Pagans, Autism, Community, Being Safe, and Courtesy’s Magic

Pagans, Autism, Community,
Being Safe, & the Magic of Courtesy

June 9, 2022

Before getting to this post’s topic, I want to share that, as a Pagan, I honor everyone having their own path. Your right to choose the terms that describe you helps fosters that path. Deciding whether to use autistic, autism, on the spectrum, Asperger’s, neurodiverse, or other words is your choice. Words go in and out of vogue. I extend to you the courtesy of respecting your decisions. This is a safe space where you won’t be criticized for how you see you. Courtesy is magic, and I choose to live in an enchanted, mystic community. And with that, on to my post.

Autism and Being Afraid of Community

Fellow travelers on the spectrum,

Do relate to any part of this story?

You join a group—Pagan or not—on social media or IRL.

Previously, perhaps you would’ve entered with the socially acceptable—and socially enforced—“Hi, I’m new here. I hope you like me. Please don’t hurt me. Is everything I’m doing okay with you? If not, I’m sorry. I also apologize for breathing.”

There are many reasons anyone might be that nervous about entering a community. If you’re on the spectrum (or even if you’re not, and there might be a lot in this article that someone who’s neuro-typical might relate to), perhaps you’ve repeatedly been attacked and exiled from a tribe just for being you. Or you find interactions with people baffling and so become afraid you’ll do something embarrassing or offensive when you approach a group.

Whatever the case, let’s say you’ve learned to trust yourself and not bow down when you introduce yourself, so you refrain from a fearful hello. Perhaps you’re still afraid, but you don’t act like it.

Or maybe you’ve always embodied a trait I associate with my autism: I speak what I have to say. I don’t mean I’m rude (although many neuro-typical people misrepresent it as rude) or am calling people out, I just talk. So at this point in the story, whether you’ve been afraid in the past or not, you choose to participate right away in the best way possible: by being yourself.

Important aside: I don’t expect everyone in my tribe to necessarily identify with every detail of this story. I do hope that some of my tribe will experience and find relevant the overall emotional sense of the tale.

Autism and Jumping into Community

Instead of acting fearful, you enter the new group with Hi, I’m new. Here’s who I am. Here’s what I do.

That can be scary for those of us who are autistic and who have been attacked for making simple statements that are not self-abasing.

An alternative entry might happen, since you’re not going to let fear stop you: you come into a community, wanting to contribute right away, and noticing someone asks a question to which you have an answer, you chime in with it.

Ooh, feels dangerous because some petty person might be territorial about who gets to contribute know-how.

Another scenario: you say, “Hi, I’m new. Here’s a photo of what I made. It seems to fit in with this group. If you want information about it, DM me.” Simple, courteous, not self-effacing.

Attacked to Crush Your Spirit
and Make You Feel Alone

Whatever you do in this story, then a passive-aggressive person, with whom you’ve never had any contact, responds with a nasty, sideways barb.

They didn’t mean anything by it, wink wink. If confronted, they’d deny ill intent instead of being accountable for their behavior.

Their remark was meant to crush your spirit, put you in your place, make you fear, cause you to feel alone.

Perhaps they … don’t … like … your … traits.

Some individuals attack honesty, confidence, genius, or major accomplishments, all of which might be part of being on the spectrum. I try to remember that an ambush might be a sign of how fabulous I am.

Perhaps the attacker is suffering emotionally and spiritually. That thought helps me feel compassion for them. But I don’t have to let them walk on me.

Perhaps the attacker is not passive-aggressive but overtly cruel. For the sake of a few remarks I want to make further on this post, we’ll leave it at passive-aggressive.

Courtesy as Protection Magic

My response to nasty individuals varies according to the situation. When I was attacked in a version of the above-described scenario today, I recalled what my mother taught me at a young age. She said that, when met with unkindness, “Be a lady. If nothing else, it’ll drive ‘em crazy.”

I thank Gods that Mom often knew how to deal with my autism when I was a child. At age seven or eight, I read etiquette books to figure out how people are “supposed to interact,” so that I could follow suit. I’m not saying Mom had me do that or even knew I was doing it. I’m saying her advice was spot on, suiting me in more ways than one.

You can go too far with politeness. I don’t want to use it to suppress my anger. If I do that, I will be angry for a long time, mentally trapped by resentment as it constantly, painfully recycles in my mind.

And I don’t want to meet passive aggression with “polite” nastiness in return.

But Mom’s advice is perfect sometimes. I can sincerely, warmly, kill someone with honest kindness. Simple, non self-effacing, pleasant courtesy. I did that today.

It’s untrue that no autistic person can be polite, though I know etiquette and autism don’t always go hand-in-hand. And if the etiquette in question is the haughty sort meant to make people feel inferior because they don’t know what fork to use, that’s not etiquette. It’s high-handed abuse.

Real etiquette is simple, kind, non self-effacing remarks and behavior. And, as a shaman, I know that is powerful magic.

Being courteous shifts my energy as much as any incantation or formal spell could. I center into my inner power, magnificence, and confidence in those traits. Then I can deal with whatever is on the table.

A Community of Individuals with Autism
Protecting Each Other

Sometimes community is invisible. In every group, there’s a person other than me who is on the spectrum. And they might’ve seen me enter the group with my head held high. They might’ve recognized the covertly mean response, know I saw it too, know they’re not traveling on the spectrum alone, and know I just helped make the world a little safer for them. What more could I want?

… Well, there is more. To remember I’m never alone because my fellow travelers with autism and our allies are making the world safer for me too. Yes! Sometimes community is invisible.

P.S. I made up the phrases traveling on the spectrum and travelers on the spectrum, I love it, I am fabulous!

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Shamanic Retreats in Happy Fey Realms

Table of Contents
for 2022 Shamanic Retreats

If Table of Contents links don’t work, scroll down the page for any information.

Overview: 2022 Shamanic Retreats in Happy Fey Realms
You Attend by Phone. It’s Easy!
July 2 Retreat: Faeries & Other Ancestors
July 31 Retreat: Faerie Magic and Neurodiversity
August 27: Fairy Flower Magic
Sept 24: Birch, Hazel, and Apple
You Get a Lot Because I Apply Four Shamanic Powers
A Retreat Day’s Schedule of Sessions
How to Enroll

Shamanic Retreats in Happy Fey Realms

Four daylong virtual retreats are scheduled for 2022.

Each one surrounds you with magic that frees you from inner and outer limits, while adding luck to your life. So you reach your dearest goals.

Spend the day being taken care of. Fairy Secrets lovingly hold you, centering you into your Fey self—the part of you who is relaxed, grinning, balanced, powerful, miracle-making, serenely in control, and able to achieve daily and long-term goals. That you always exists. I’ll help you be in touch with it. After a retreat, that part of you can more easily emerge regularly.

Every retreat, we draw on Faery Faith Mysteries to receive Divine guidance about our challenges and life path.

I also channel material during gatherings, to ensure the day is relevant to your needs.

The events are held by teleconference: simply call the event phone number to attend.

Each retreat has a theme and offers specific empowerments along with the above-mentioned benefits all the retreats provide.

Here Are the Four Retreats in Faerie Realms:

Saturday July 2

Faeries & Other Ancestors:
I Believe in Greatness. I Trust Fun.

Our ancestors include the Fey Gods. I believe in greatness. I feel all ancestral abilities within me; I can create as I will. This is true for you too.

During this retreat, I’ll lead ancestral rituals in which we call on ancestors—your familial line, Fairy Gods, the stars in the sky, the first cell ever created, or whatever ancestors feel right for you.

In those rites, Fey and other ancestors will guide us and help us claim our power and rights as descendants of the Old Gods, find joy, and reach life goals.

We’ll get to play in Fey magic’s quiet, subtle, robust powers with our ancestral visitors. To reach life goals, you don’t have to obey the capitalist code of work work work to the bone.

Sure, work is needed, but not endlessly. Instead, we can play with the Fey. That fun can be a significant part of achieving goals. And so it will be during the retreat.

And that’s why, my dear one, oppressors are afraid of Witches. We tell people, “Okay, enough work, you did a good job, now let’s go frolic with Faeries!”

If some people in your familial lineage were awful, no need to invite them. We’ll invoke good energy only, to affirm our beauty, glory, and strength.

Sunday July 31

Faerie Magic and Neurodiversity—
Autistic Mystic Joy

Being autistic makes me happy. Speaking only for myself, autism is not an illness. It’s a gift I’ve been given.

I was born way along the spectrum and am lucky I survived. People weren’t diagnosed much in my childhood days. (I’m in my 70s and received a diagnosis a few years ago.) However, in my childhood, because of my mom and my belief in myself, I kept on, didn’t abandon who I essentially am. And, as I grew older, I just got more and more in touch with myself. I am a happy Witch, and my neurodiversity is a magical asset.

Let’s celebrate autistic mystic happy Witchcraft in rituals especially for us!

We’ll do spells to heal from clichés and other negative messages about autism.

We will also do rituals based on my personal experience that neurodiversity can be a huge part of Faerie magic and its joy. I will lead a guided visualization for us to travel into Fey realms, the very air of which celebrates diversity. In that otherworldly land, I’ll show you how to center into your unique autism as a magical strength that helps you manifest your hearts’ desires.

I’ll also show you how to use that magical strength to be the you who is you, contentedly you, grinning with pleasure at being you, smiling with childlike pride about being you. (You are fabulous!) Expect a mystical experience of wholeness and freedom in the sense of honoring and drawing on all your aspects. This experience will help you be the fullest, free-est you on the mundane plane so that in your everyday life you can be the you who is you. (I sound like Doctor Seuss.)

Happy magic! Faerie Witch neurodiversity!

The Old Fey Gods created all. That includes diversity, so They are always aware of it and bestow power, insights, and beauty that suit the recipient. We’ll visit a mystical place that has substance, where Gods offer each neurodiverse participant gifts they need—not the same as what neuro-typical and other people might receive.

On top of everything else, all the retreats offer camaraderie. You get to be you, in the company of people who understand.

For every one of my events, I can assure anyone who attends,

This is a haven where you get to feel how fabulous are. Here, you get to shine as fabulous you—without even having to make a point of it—just by coming here. You’re innately awesome, so you don’t have to do a single thing to shine.”

If you don’t yet feel how spectacular you are, I’ll teach you how. If you cover up your shine in fear that someone may want to attack such a bright light, I can help you with that too.”

Faerie Witch diversity!

Saturday August 27

Fairy Flower Magic:
Wishes Granted in the Goddess’ Garden

We spend this daylong retreat with four flowers, getting to focus on them so your experiences and empowerment can go deep. Be utterly embraced by the loving magic of roses, dandelions, irises, and Saint John’s wort. There will probably also be time to visit a surprise flower we find in the Fey realm.

Each flower will teach us their wisdom, impart their magic and another strength to us, and grant us a wish.

In a vision, I was shown how loving nurturance from these four flowers is an antidote to the biblical myth of the garden of Eden. In it, an angry deity throws Adam and Eve out of the garden. That wrathful, brutish deity is the model of our too-often mean-spirited selfish society.

The myth also has the deity declaring that Adam and Eve must toil horribly. That part of the myth reinforces the society-wide lie that we are obligated to work too hard and forgo self-care. Even if we disbelieve the lie, it might remain in our subconscious, making it hard to slow down and take care of yourself.

The Goddess always welcome us in Her garden, and this retreat will be in that sacred space. She created gorgeous flowers there, flowers filled with Her generous magic. They offer us the wisdom and power to meet our life goals. Not only is that wonderful in itself, but experiencing it helps heal you from the nasty biblical lies so you are more able to
* Allow your generous heart to flourish instead of shrinking to protect itself from the cruelty and selfishness you encounter.
* Stop overworking.
* Nurture yourself as much as you need.

My happy Witch heart! So mote it be!

I’ll share traditional flower lore as well as material I channeled. The channeled material is unavailable elsewhere.

Saturday, Sept 24

Birch, Hazel, and Apple
Three Sacred Trees and Their Oghams

This retreat focuses on three trees historically known as sacred to Witches and Druids: Birch, Hazel, and Apple.

I will lead Fairy rituals in which we visit these three beautiful spirits of nature, who have agreed to join us as our magical allies. They’ll empower us, guide us, and restore us.

This retreat is an otherworldly festival held in a Druid grove that we will travel to in a guided visualization. We are old souls, children of Gods who will attend our festivities, bless our Fairy magic, and spin enchantments that take care of you.

The Oghams are an ancient alphabet of 20 letters, each corresponding to a tree Druids hold sacred.

I’ll email you an image of the letters that correspond to Birch, Hazel, and Apple. As part of our tree magic, you’ll learn how to use these three Oghams to bless and deepen your shamanic experience of the rites.

I not only studied traditional understandings of these three trees and Oghams, I channel material unavailable elsewhere. During our retreat, I’ll channel information directly from trees, Gods, and my past life memories as a Druid—information specifically meant for attendees.

When channeling, I’m in Fey realms, which helps ground my original material in the power of the Faerie Faith.

One of many benefits you receive from that is practical mysticism. The old Fey worldview doesn’t always divide spirit and matter into two separate things. The retreat can improve anything for you, from inner growth to great sex.

You Get a Lot Because I Apply Four Shamanic Powers Every Retreat

1) Faerie Rituals

I’ll use master-level shaman techniques to create healing and empowerment ceremonies safe for beginners and substantive enough for adepts.

Enrollment is limited in each retreat, so we can perform powerful ceremonies that can only occur in a small group, and so each participant can receive individualized attention should they want that support.

Every retreat’s rituals will include the ecstatic, the restful, the solemn, and the silly—all of them transformative.

On the day of a retreat, we meet five times to enter sacred space for ritual. You’ll see, in the meeting schedule, breaks between rituals, so you’re not overwhelmed.

Please note, this schedule is different from last year’s. We’ll meet for the same amount of time, but this schedule is easier to do. Times are Pacific time. We meet:
10:15 am to 11:15
12:15 pm to 12:45
1:45 to 2:45
3:30 to 4:30
5:15 to 5:45
Possibly 6:15 to 7:15: On the off-chance I’m unavailable for one of the day’s sessions, we’ll use the 6:15 slot.

Reserve about three minutes after each session to do a special grounding I teach.

2) A Psychic Reading about Your Life Path

I’ll channel about your life path. Your psychic reading happens in a ritual that empowers you to apply the channeled material, instead of being stuck with information that is useless because you don’t yet have the confidence or other strength needed to follow through on the reading. You receive a reading each retreat you attend, during one of the group meetings.

Whatever’s going on in your life, it is likely I can intuitively address it.

My work draws individuals who want to show up for life big-time. My intuitive readings are a way I help them achieve major accomplishments and keep doing so. I’m usually capable of reading about your specific concerns, no matter how sophisticated or unusual they are.

3) Direct Spiritual Transmissions

During our meetings, you receive direct spiritual transmissions—in other words, blessings that deepen the empowerment, healing, and pleasure you find in the rituals.

The blessing also adapts to your needs, e.g., personal growth, peace, a soul healing, physical health, safety on the mundane and etheric planes, the strength to get back up after life’s knocked you down. The transmissions don’t focus on one benefit alone but bless you as a whole being. They also add luck to anything you do to improve your life.

4) One-on-One Shamanic Support by Phone

I’m available, should you want to privately discuss anything related to the retreat material or that’d take too long to discuss during a group ceremony.

I will address your concerns not only with common sense but with a spiritual transmission while we speak. Good chance you’ll also receive some channeling from me.

Our private talk(s) must occur within a month after the retreat.

How to Enroll for So Much Happy Fairy Magic

Each of a retreat’s four aspects constitutes major power in itself. Together, even without the one-on-one work should you care to forgo it, they weave into a mind-blowing whole greater than its parts.

I do a lot for you, you get a lot from it, and the price you pay is so good.

Total for a retreat’s rituals, transmissions, psychic reading, and one-on-one support: $225. Your carrier might charge you for the calls.

Only 16 “seats” in each retreat.

Limited time offer: Select the All Four Retreats option in the dropdown menu below by June 22 and save $100.

The menu also includes a Two Retreats and a Three Retreats option. If you choose one of them, I’ll email you, so you can tell me which retreats you want.

Otherwise, select the single retreat you want in the dropdown menu.

After making your selection, click the Pay Now button to enroll securely through PayPal.


Faerie Retreat Options




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

Gentle Magic Is Power.

With good-sized breaks, we can manage four hours of ritual in one day at a gentle pace. We’re less likely to become overwhelmed, exhausted, or achingly stiff from sitting on the phone for too long.

We’ll have richly enchanted experiences, not despite their gentleness but because of it. Gentleness isn’t milquetoast or weak. Fairy secrets are not phrases boasted like passwords. Fairy secrets are the lightest touch of the Goddess’ breath on my forehead, followed by Her kiss there, utterly transforming me and my life. Faerie secrets are living Mysteries, experiences that gentleness can help happen, so ritual goes deep within minutes, making these virtual daylong retreats remarkably effective.

During breaks, go rest, stretch, eat, work out, run errands, or do whatever else you need to accomplish that day.

I look forward to each retreat. It will be a Faerie sanctuary and powerhouse of magic, Spirit, and camaraderie. My happy Fairy heart!

Feedback about a Retreat
with Shaman Francesca De Grandis

I am very new to Francesca’s world, but have already been deeply touched and inspired. … Francesca’s care and pacing was magnificent. … She took the time to help me feel at ease, and throughout our time together she made sure not to leave anyone behind. … Francesca facilitates with a light and gentle touch but her magic has deep roots and power in the subtle realm. … The retreat was a special experience.”—Stephanie Elizabeth Briggs

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The Gifts of Solitude: A Seven-Week Faerie Ritual



The Gifts of Solitude:
A Seven-Week Faerie Ritual

Possess the Freedom and Joy of Solitude

Avoid the Trap of Isolation

Begins Wednesday September 7, 2022.
Enroll by Wednesday August 31.

We will do Faerie shamanism rituals that help you
* Move past anything that keeps you from the solitude you want,
whether the block is inside you or external.
* Embrace solitude and its many gifts.

Solitude and isolation are not synonymous.

In solitude, I experience deep satisfaction in simple activities and notice the small wonders of everyday life. I find joy and freedom. My trust in myself and in my wisdom is renewed. I wander on shamanic journeys led by the Fey folk. Paradoxically, solitude fosters my connection to all of Gaia’s children. The list of gifts from solitude has many more items.

I experience isolation as lonely, painful, and confining. I feel disconnected, not only from people but also from my ancestors, the cosmos, and myself. My self-esteem lowers as does my trust in myself. My awareness of Fairy Gods being right by my side diminishes. I have less willingness to go on a shamanic journey, even though I know it will improve everything radically. That only begins the litany of isolation’s harmfulness. For one thing, isolation can negatively impact your health.

Isolation can be forced on you. For example, your community, family, or significant other rejects you, withdrawing what’s required to survive physically, emotionally, or spiritually, Even when physically present, someone can reject you.

The Gifts of Solitude Seven-Week Ritual includes Faerie Shamanism ceremonies that heal wounds caused by forced isolation. This enables you to enter more fully into healthy, satisfying times of solitude.

We’ll examine how self-imposed isolation can be beneficial for healing from trauma and how to use isolation for what it’s worth.

We will do ritual to free you if you are, to any degree, stuck in self-imposed isolation when it no longer serves its purpose but instead hinders you.

Society currently portrays getting stuck in isolation not as a response to trauma but as a healthy social norm. In other words, often isolation is not being named as such but incorrectly portrayed as a perfectly normal, healthy ongoing lifestyle.

In the process, impulses to isolate can be mistaken as introvert traits, even by introverts.

Oppressors falsify the nature of trauma-induced isolation to hide it, so people won’t overcome it. Western culture is greatly one of disconnection from nature, community, and self. Thus, much that is alienating seems a given, making isolation in response to trauma all the harder to spot. Oppressors foster alienation because connectivity is power.

The Gifts of Solitude exposes the details of these misrepresentations and alienating “givens,” how they could easily have leaked deeply into your subconscious—whether you’re an introvert or not–and the full extent of their damaging impact.

We will do Faerie ritual to uncover and heal ourselves from these misrepresentations and to strengthen and free ourselves to live however we choose. Celtic and Strega magic have traditionally been used to overcome oppression. The magic of both Strega witchcraft and Celtic shamanism is Fey, in the ancient European witchcraft tradition my mother taught me from birth.

We’ll also discuss how to spot the differences between solitude, isolation as a useful response to trauma, and being stuck in isolation.

Many of us have been pressured to go without time for ourselves. For example, maybe you were shamed and called selfish when you wanted time alone.

During our ritual, you’ll have the chance to see if you’ve been pressured to deprive yourself of solitude.

We’ll look at how you might have internalized this pressure and people-please by forsaking much-needed alone time, during which you would get to, for example, rest, emotionally recover from caretaking of others, and think about your own needs.

We will perform magic that helps you be unaffected by pressure to deny yourself solitude, whether the pressure comes from someone else or is self-inflicted.

We’ll look at the lie that having boundaries negates our love for someone. We will do ritual to heal the wounds that lie has caused.

We’ll see how boundaries help maintain our love and will do ritual that empowers us to follow through on that idea.

Honoring your desire for time to yourself can help make romance, friendship, and an active social life healthy and fulfilling. Otherwise, relationships might be terribly disorienting—a loss of self and one’s core goals. Or relationships feel lonely. Loneliness despite being in a relationship is a horrible experience.

The Gifts of Solitude is a chance to join together ritually in the paradox of community honoring our needs for solitude.

Humans can be wonderfully tribal. We’ll join in sacred ritual circle to joyfully embrace and empower our solitude. Ecstasy!

Experiencing this pleasure strengthens the resolve to create happy relationships that respect solitude.

Enrollment is limited to 16 participants to allow old-style oral tradition, including magic that works powerfully and safely only in a small group. This magic helps immense headway happens quickly. A small group also allows participants to receive individualized attention, should they want that support. This tailors a lesson so you receive the exact help you need.

Instead of this event being a class, we get right down to what’s needed for a deeply transformative ceremony. I teach how to do the rituals. You receive other pivotal information because I go over the ins and outs of solitude, isolation, and related issues. There are opportunities to ask questions. You are free to discuss your situation, so I can create rituals that meet your individual needs.

You also can phone me between meetings if you have concerns that might take too long to address during meetings or that you prefer to discuss privately.

You receive direct spiritual transmissions in every meeting. In other words, you receive blessings that deepen the healing, empowerment, and pleasure you find in the rituals.

You also receive digital talismanic art: an amulet to empower your solitude and move through blocks to it. I painted a piece that I imbued with magic. You receive a digital version of it with instructions on how to use it as an amulet.

Suited to all levels of experience: accessible to newbies, yet adepts experience depth.

This event can be applied as one of the two qualifying electives required for advanced shamanic training.

We meet seven consecutive Wednesdays, 3:00 to 4:00 pacific time, starting Sept 7.

Reserve Wednesday October 26, same time, for a makeup session in case I’m unavailable for one of the planned dates.

The class meets by phone. To attend, simply call the event’s phone number, which you receive after enrollment.

Full cost for seven weeks of ritual, direct spiritual transmissions, one-on-one private support, and an original talismanic piece of art is $400. Your carrier might charge you for phone calls into the meetings.

Pay securely with PayPal. Use the Pay Now button below.





If you prefer two monthly payments of $200 each, click the Subscribe button below:





If you do not receive an email confirming your payment within a few days, please check your spam filter and spam mailbox. If the email isn’t there, or you want to discuss a payment plan, trade, or scholarship, or you need additional info about the event, please call me. Upon payment, your place is reserved. Refunds unavailable. A few days before our first meeting, you receive an email with the event phone number and other details.

Photo of Francesca De Grandis 2021

Francesca De Grandis 2021

Francesca De Grandis is the best-selling author of “Be a Goddess!” Her work couples Goddess mysticism with practical magic and a down-to-earth philosophy. Raised in a traditional Strega family tradition that has Celtic shamanism in its heritage—the family is originally from France—she practices an ancient European witchcraft that is a form of Fairy shamanism. She has worked professionally as a community shaman for four decades.

The ritual is likely a one-time event. Take advantage of the opportunity.

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Am Wondering Why I Make Amulets to Sell

Am Wondering
Why I Make Amulets to Sell

Making Amulets Is a Spiritual Practice

This post has photos of amulet necklaces I’ve made.

Please note: the words amulet, charm, and talisman have been synonyms for centuries. I use the words that way because it makes sense to me. Nowadays, some folks use the words differently. Long live diversity!

I’ve been wondering why I feel compelled to make amulets to sell.

Crafting them cuts substantial time from my day that I could use to make a lot more money than I make from amulets.

Much as I love—love!—the magical art of creating them, they are labor-intensive.

Each is a work of art so completely different from the others. This means planning a new design for each amulet, which might also require working out new technical challenges. Also, to bless an amulet, I am guided to create a new blessing spell. No point in making charms unless I do the best possible job I can. Part of that for me means exclusively making one-of-a-kind, so that each is the exact amulet to suit one special person. Too much is mass produced today. And I love—love!–the process of making a special, unique charm. So it being labor-intensive is not a problem in itself.

However, very few people that I know would buy one if I charged for all the time it takes to make one, bless it, and find the special components I search for endlessly. So why am I compelled to make them to sell?

Joan Didion said, “I don’t know what I think until I write it down.” So here goes:

I Craft Amulets in Meditation

Almost as soon as I said that I didn’t have time to make more amulets to sell, I started making one.

Then I remembered that making amulets is a spiritual discipline for me and part of my ongoing shamanic journey. Crafting a charm is a meditation that deepens my connection with the Divine and empowers me. So I found the time.

I Craft Amulets in Meditation aka Ritual

For me, making talismans is a spiritual practice. I’m not saying
everyone has to do it that way, or that amulets are effective only if made in a ritual process. We each have to find our own appropriate way, and far be it from me to insist that the most powerful methods for me are right for anyone else.

Crafting Amulets to Serve my Tribe

I work full-time professionally as a shamanic teacher and healer. This means I have wonderful meditative ritual time during the day, e.g., channeling a curriculum or sending someone a long-distance healing.

I find my profession to be a spiritual discipline, part of my ongoing shamanic journey. and an ongoing meditation/ritual that deepens my connection with the Divine and empowers me. So I’m wondering why I still feel compelled to make amulets to sell to people instead of just for myself.

Heh, maybe I just need a little extra money to pay for my addiction to beads.

Or maybe my Gods want me to provide this service for people. My buyers say their purchases created miracles for them. My clients say the same thing about my classes and healings, but not everyone has time for my classes, and some people are particularly drawn to using amulets. Amulets really hum for them.

So perhaps the compulsion I feel to make amulets for my community is instilled in me by my sweet Fairy Gods so that I serve my tribe in this capacity.

And maybe I should find some folks who can and will pay more. That’s something else to ask myself. … No, I like the way it is: I can make talismans for the people dear to me—my students, newsletter subscribers, etc. … and I earn enough to pay for my addiction to beads.

Since I don’t have time to craft many talismans, my newsletter subscribers often receive first shot at purchasing them. Subscribe to my newsletter by clicking the banner below.

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Moon Mandalas, Amulets, and the Lunar Calendar

Moon Mandalas, Amulets,
and Talismans

Sacred Geometry and the Lunar Calendar

I’m teaching fewer Faerie shamanism classes for a couple of weeks, plus a recent injury keeps me from exercising as much as usual, so time has freed up, and I’ve been in a painting frenzy.

Among the recent paintings are two mandalas that I’ll put in digital Book of Shadow pages for my classes. The art will increase the magic in the pages’ text.

I call the paintings “Moon Mandalas.”

Ancient calendars that are lunar had thirteen months.

In the Druids’ lunar calendar, every month offers a different moon magic.

The Druid lunar calendar is also a tree calendar. Each month, a different tree’s magic comes forward.

These two mandalas were painted during the month of the Mothers’ Moon or the Bright Moon. Willow tree’s magic is especially strong this month.

I’m on a natural high from painting them and from my magical time with my students. Doing rituals with them—my peers and beautiful fellow travelers—in the energy of the Mothers’ Moon, the Bright Moon, and Willow tree magic—helped inspire the paintings.

I painted this month’s full moon. I call the painting “Full Moon Mandala,” and it is at the top of this post.

These mandalas also function as amulets. The words amulets, charms, and talismans have been synonyms for centuries. I use the words that way. Nowadays, some folks use the words differently, and I support you to choose your own way—to each their own.

These mandalas are also amulets. The full moon painting is a talisman—or mandala—for peace, healing, and power. It also is a reflection of your own power, beauty, and wisdom.

If you spend a few gently thoughtful moments with the painting, you might find other magic in it.

Added to a digital Book of Shadow page for one of my fairy shaman classes, it will enchant the page much like an Ogham would. An Ogham is a letter in an ancient alphabet, each letter of which corresponds to a tree held sacred by Druids. Oghams can be used as amulets.

Though filled with the power of this month’s moon and tree, these talismans are powerful any time of year, in the same way that willow magic is lovely all year.

I also painted this month’s eclipse. I call it “Eclipse Moon Mandala.”

It is a talisman—or mandala—for peace, self-acceptance, and being in the moment. It is also an amulet for the following:

These paintings’ sacred geometry includes the old pre-Christian equal-armed cross. I often depict symmetrical four-pointed shapes, or eight, sixteen, or further multiples of four. They speak to my sense of integration, peace, awareness of Divine Love, and remaining centered in one’s truths and goals. Both paintings are amulets for all these attributes.

The flowers could be morning glories, lilies, irises, and/or whatever you perceive them as.

To receive my talismanic art’s blessings, use one of the following methods:

– Meditate on the mandala. You might feel magic touch you within minutes if not seconds.
– Print the picture and put it on your altar.
– Display the painting anywhere in your home.
– If you need to be discreet about your magic, tuck the painting into a drawer, after saying, “May I be blessed.”
– Use the mandala as a screensaver.

I’m giving free PNGs of some of my art to my newsletter subscribers soon. A PNG is a quality file so a print of it is better than if you printed this page’s art, which is blurred to make the page download quickly enough. Subscribe to my newsletter here: https://outlawbunny.com/newsletter/

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Learn Ogham Divination: A Seven-Week Online Course

Lessons delivered to you by email. No need to attend classes.

Enrollment Deadline is June 8.

The course starts Sunday June 12, 2022 when you receive your first lesson.

This course shows you how to quickly begin doing divination with the Ogham tree alphabet, to improve your life.

Divination is the art of gaining information through messages from the other worlds. Just as Tarot cards, crystal ball, and many other items can be used as tools for divination, so can the Ogham alphabet.

Ogham divination provides empowering information. You gain an advantage, by learning more about what’s going on around you and in you, regarding finances, career, romance, life path, spiritual needs, creativity, and almost anything else. Thus you can make informed decisions and be more successful in all parts of life. You can also choose—and create—your own destiny.

I do divination with Oghams for everything from family issues to shamanic journeys to marketing plans to creative self-expression. Oghams even show me how to find mental clarity and serenity.

The Ogham alphabet is ancient. An early form had twenty letters, each one associated with a specific tree sacred to Druids. This course teaches you how to use the twenty letters for divination, so the twenty trees and Old Gods guide and empower you.

Some folks really want to learn Ogham divination but can’t on their own, with only a wee instruction pamphlet that comes enclosed with an Ogham divination set. Yet struggling through a big complex book, without support, is uninviting and uninspiring.

By contrast, Learn Ogham Divination is a brief course of easy lessons that guide you step-by-step through learning Ogham divination. There’s plenty of support. As you’ll see below, you can even phone me if you have questions.

With this course, the basics are covered! Plus more:

* Instructions on how to use Ogham letters as talismans are included.

* Lessons tend to be simple and streamlined, yet have layers, creating depth and sophistication.

* Concise divinatory meanings for each alphabet letter, along with simple instructions on how to do Ogham divination, are layered to impart a Druid’s way of life.

* This class is a prerequisite for advanced Druid training. Divination is part of the Druidic path.

* Lessons include Fey-touched material never published till now. The original Druidism was based in the Faerie Faith. That ancient Fey Druidry is imparted in the course.

* Many meanings provided for the Oghams are unavailable elsewhere. Though you’ll learn traditional meanings when relevant, a great deal of what you’ll receive is not from books. Instead, I learned it directly from trees, Gods, my past life memories as a Druid, and my channeling.

* When channeling and talking with the Gods, I’m often in Fey realms.  Because of that and other experiences, my original Ogham interpretations and teaching methods are grounded in the Faerie Faith. One of the many benefits that provides you is practical mysticism. The old Fey worldview does not always divide spirit and matter into two separate things. You’ll learn divination that is both mystical and down-to-earth, delivering relevant advice for everything from inner growth to great sex.

* Lessons reveal how the meanings for an Ogham letter serve as a jumping off point for brainstorming and exploration, so a reading you’re doing gives you information relevant to your personal situation.

Learn Ogham Divination has five powerful aspects:

1) A Weekly lesson, delivered by email, for seven weeks. The way I teach, you’ll learn quickly, so you only need to take the seven lessons.

Each lesson is a digital Book of Shadows entry (PDF), ornamented by my full-color, original, shamanic art that intensifies the text’s magic. Much of the artwork was created specifically for this course. The Book of Shadows entries will become cherished, enchantment-filled, lifelong possessions.

2) The Book of Ogham Meanings, which is a companion text for this course. This 5500 word PDF provides meanings for each Ogham, and is embellished with my full color, original sacred art.

So you quickly can access Ogham interpretations, I put them all in this one booklet, instead of spread throughout the weekly lessons.

3) A complete Ogham set to use for divination and talismans. This full-color digital painting has the twenty Ogham letters, set up so you can print them all on one sheet, then cut along its clearly marked cutting lines to create a twenty-piece Ogham divination set. I spent months painting magical art, to create a set specifically for this course’s participants, so they 1) have a set I hope they will treasure and 2) can start doing Ogham divination right away,  instead of having to find a set.

This is a mini-sized deck, easily kept nearby to use whenever you want and, since it fits on one page, you only need to print one sheet for a full deck.

Here’s a photo of the divination set after I printed it and cut up the paper, then arranged the cards to show most of my favorites. As the course progresses, I hope you’ll have your favorite cards:

The set’s artwork tickles me. It makes me happy, partially out of pride for my work, but also because looking at it just pleases my eyes and my spirit. In fact, I display the page, uncut, as a piece of art, in my home.

Detail and clarity of all the course’s artwork is excellent. Images in this post are blurred, by necessity, their lesser quality allowing this post to load quickly.

4) I’m available by phone, for up to 45 minutes. If you have questions about the material, need support 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.

5) Bonus feature: a digital file of a second Ogham divination set! If you want to try divination with a completely different style of artwork, here it is. I myself like trying different divination sets. Your bonus mini-sized deck:

A personal story about the second set: to practice painting with watercolors, which I hadn’t done for a while, I created this set in only a day. So the set is nowhere near as polished as the one I spent months on. I’d planned to use the watercolor Oghams exclusively for my private divination, knowing that quickly-rendered art can have its own type of power, joy, and beauty. Then, to my surprise, the watercolor touched several people’s hearts. I realized many folks who are drawn to the highly personal energy I put into all my work, including the set I spent months on, might find using the second set as dynamic as I do. I hadn’t planned on offering the watercolor to anyone, so turning it into a shareable item took digital maneuvering. The painting was so large that I had to scan it in pieces, then digitally resize them to all fit in one graphic, then painstakingly reassemble the pieces—it took time to digitally line up pieces precisely with each other—then even more painstakingly digitally paint their edges so they blended back together. It was worth it because I love sharing my sacred art. I hope you enjoy it.

The course starts Sunday June 12, 2022 when you receive your first lesson.

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

Full cost for lessons, The Book of Ogham Meanings, two decks, and one-on-one support is $400. Scroll down to pay securely with PayPal:





If you prefer two monthly payments of $200 each, click the Subscribe button below:





No experience needed. But even advanced practitioners should find worthy material. If you need more information, or want to discuss scholarship, trade, or a special payment plan, phone me. My number is below the next paragraph. No refunds. This online course is not a transcription of an oral tradition class (which I teach by phone). My online courses are special unto themselves—magic tailored to be spectacularly useful, exciting, effective, and safe when learned online.

Decades of doing divination professionally and teaching others how to divine taught me a lot about the best ways to develop this course. My family tradition also honed my teaching approach: I was raised to be a creator of new, otherworldly material.

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Prosper in All Ways

Prosper in All Ways

Prosper in All Ways

I’ll cast a spell for you.

I’ll cast a spell for you.

The spell will be money magic, good luck mojo, a protection spell, and lots more.

The spell will be money magic, good luck mojo, a protection spell, and lots more.

This Three-Month Ritual for You to Prosper Begins March 7, 2022

Enroll by March 2.

You don’t need to attend an event, meditate, or do anything else. Just go about your business, while I do the work for you.

Most people immediately feel substantial results that increase over the three months, continue to build afterwards, and are long-lasting.

Money money money money money
Joy Joy joy
Self-expression self-expression self-expression
The chance to be of service to be of service to serve
Love love love

There are many ways to prosper. There’s an abundance of abundances.

Abundance of love
Abundance of satisfactions
Abundance of goals met
Abundance of physical health
And all other possible bounty

To help you prosper in all ways, I’ll even cast a three-month-long love spell for the exact love(s) you need—romance, self-love, the Fairy Gods’ loving generosity, or another love altogether. The energy of the spell adapts to what you most desire.

For three months, five days a week, I’ll perform your ceremony. Five days a week for three months is a lot of magic done on your behalf. This is big.

Are things going well for you? You still deserve magical support.

You deserve the best life.

You deserve all possible goodness.

Maybe you’re optimistically and wholeheartedly creating bounty. And you have plenty of plenty.

You still don’t need to go it alone.

You deserve magic that supports your efforts—adds good luck to your day, strengthens your resolve, adds some money magic so you needn’t work as hard, or gives you whatever else you need, inside and out, to create abundance and all the types of abundance you truly desire, whether financial, spiritual, creative, or …

Heck, nowadays, some folks are doing everything possible to improve finances, despite feelings of hopelessness. The transmission can help boost your morale, for an abundance of emotional happiness.

I have your back.

The ritual consists of direct spiritual transmissions, also called spiritual transmissions or, in the case of my work, blessing ceremonies.

Here’s an explanation of my transmissions:

I was born generating a beneficial field of energy. It adapts to your needs, e.g., financial well-being, soul-healing, great physical health, joy for your wild heart, safety on the mundane and etheric planes, the strength to get back up when life’s knocked you down, personal growth, peace …

So my transmissions can be protection spells, money magic, love spells, and more, all rolled into one.

It’s an abundance of abundances. The transmissions (again, sometimes it helps to think of them as blessing ceremonies) do not focus on one benefit only but bless you as a whole being. They also bless your life overall, adding luck to your day.

For clarity’s sake: someone else’s direct spiritual transmission is not necessarily carried out the same way mine is or might have different goals than mine.

My spiritual transmissions are congruent with the ancient Faery Faith and the precious, loving Faerie secrets.

When I do a direct spiritual transmission, the Great Mother Goddess is like the wind at my back. The Old Fey Gods believe material happiness is holy beauty. The Magna Mater, Great Mother Goddess, is known worldwide as the Fairy Queen in various traditions. She loves you, holds you sacred, and wants you to enjoy a bountiful life to the max. She will bless my work for you by contributing Her power to my magic.

Click the subscribe button to pay securely with PayPal: three easy, automatic monthly payments of $150. You receive mega-support each month for that amount. Total cost: $450. Payments appear on the credit card associated with your PayPal account.





If you do not receive an email confirming your payment within a few days, please check your spam filter and spam mailbox. If the email is not there, please call me. Also feel free to phone me to discuss another payment plan, scholarship, partial scholarship, or trade, or if you want additional info. No refunds, but you may cancel your subscription any time.

Since the transmission adapts to your needs, it not only sends more abundance your way, it also helps provide what you need, inside and out, to work toward abundance.

This blessing ceremony can even act as a healing for you if you need it. Examples:
* You think you don’t deserve abundance so can’t get yourself to work hard toward it.
* Or you despair of ever getting ahead financially, so can’t even imagine a better life.

My spiritual transmissions help shift your energy so you can be more proactive about financial well-being, inner nourishment, and an ideal life.

Receiving these transmissions is a way to say yes to the Goddess’ love showering bounty upon you and opening doors to all good things. Click the subscribe button:





Francesca De Grandis is the bestselling author of Be a Goddess! Her work couples Goddess mysticism with practical magic and a down-to-earth philosophy. Raised in a traditional Strega family tradition that has Celtic shamanism in its heritage, she practices an ancient European witchcraft that is a form of multicultural Fairy shamanism.

Magic is not a substitute for psychiatric counseling, medical care, or other therapeutic treatments. Participants are responsible for the consequences of their participation. This shamanic ceremony is extraordinarily effective but may not work for all individuals.

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A Surrender: Diving into the Void

My latest animation, 24 seconds long, no audio.

Please note: At about 11 seconds, movement stops. That is a pause—intentionally—but not the end.

I’m proud of the piece. It represents improvement in my relatively new animation skills. And, as someone who relies on word-crafting more than on visual art to communicate, I was happy that I could represented a truth that is important to me without using words except the piece’s title. In the same vein, to give a substantive message within seconds felt empowering to me as a visual artist.

Posted in Art, Writing, and Music, Spirit, The Whole Thing | 2 Comments

Grief Can Lead to Blessings

The Power in Mourning
Releasing the Old Me

This post is a personal account of three somewhat disparate themes that came together experientially for me over the course of decades:
* It is okay—even normal and healthy—to mourn the loss of that which hurts us.
* Looking for a magic bullet is a way to avoid responsibility for oneself.
* The grieving process can draw joy, power, and all other blessings.

I hope sharing my personal journey reveals more aspects of these themes than theoretical exposition might, and that some of the lessons I learned through my experiences are useful to you.

Letting Go of the Old Me

Forty years ago, I started putting the old me to rest. The old me:
* None of my problems are my fault.
* Circumstances dictate my happiness or lack thereof.
* Poor me, nothing I can do about it.
* I expect society or someone to rescue me from life.

The New Me Is Happy

A new me began:
* I admitted that, while I don’t cause every problem that comes my way, I sure the heck cause some of them.
* I admitted I sure the heck can exacerbate problems that are not originally my fault.
* I rose above circumstances to thrive, even though the situations would’ve crushed–if not killed—most people.
*I am proactive, taking command of my life.
* I began daily self-examination that allowed me, among other things, to spot when I was not fully participating in life, co-creating the cosmos, but was instead needlessly centered in inner turmoil (explanation about this is below).

A Magic Bullet Is Part of Death Culture

Expecting someone to save me from life was subconsciously wishing for death. Numbness. Life is inescapable as long as I breathe. Life includes hardship and misery. Life is also beautiful and joyful. Expecting a person or circumstances to be a magic bullet robs me of life’s beauty and joy. The idea of a magic bullet is death culture.

Subtle Self-Sabotage

Recently, I found the old me is still here, in subtle ways I had not spotted:

* I felt that if a certain friend would only love me, would only see how much I love him, would only accept my love, would only see the lengths I go to, to do every last thing he asks of me, then I would feel okay. Ha! (Argh, the hoops I jumped through! Good grief, yes, the old me remained.) If my feelings do not seem subtle to you, I agree. But they were operating in me subconsciously for a while.

* My moods were swinging from a sense of security and contentment to despair and rage when he would disparage my efforts, belittle my expert opinions, or assign negative motives to my positive actions. (His way of doing all this was also subtle, at first. So I didn’t recognize it initially.)

I am grateful that I was taught a life of self-examination.

I am grateful I was taught that self-examination had to include looking for selfishness.

I am grateful I learned that, when I let myself be emotionally bounced around by circumstances or someone’s opinions of me, I am selfish, in that my inner turmoil robs me of time, energy, and focus needed to contribute to community, participate in life, co-create the cosmos.

I am grateful I have tools to change myself. It is a wonderful thing.

Mourning the Old Me

So here I am, letting go of the old me more deeply.

I grieve her passing.

I cry.

It is not enough yet, more tears will spill.

Enough will spill.

My tears will be the pyre from which my Phoenix new self will rise again with new powers, including the power to leave my friend behind, soon.

I don’t want to face the pain of weeping, but it will end.

Avoiding Mourning
by Shedding Tears with the Wrong Person

I want to avoid the pain of mourning and the scariness of self-reliance by crying in my friend’s presence, hoping that my pain will motivate him to change his behavior.

The old me believes that my happiness depends on him changing. Hah!

I see no evidence he would change. Besides, he has a right to be exactly as he is.

My tears with him would be attempted manipulation. My tears would be shed in the expectation that he would take responsibility for my happiness. But only I can step up to the plate to meet my needs.

So, I have to shed tears free of expectations and face my grief over the loss of my old self, my closeness to my friend, and my foolish dream of being rescued from life.

I will cry alone and with those who respect my grief. Good for me!

Avoiding Mourning by Living in Anger

Though I will move away from my friend, the old me would prefer to live in anger at him, at me, and at the world instead of facing loss and grief and striking out on my own. Anger feels safe because it provides me a false sense of control. Grief feels wild, untenable—my Dictionary app defines untenable as “not fit to be occupied, as an apartment, house, etc.”

My grief is without walls, tumbling me in to a void, the impossibility of false ideals coming true, the futility of old selves remaining.

But I do not have to live in anger, and I need not live in grief, with its emptiness of uncertainty.

I have to enter, visit, and move through grief—enter, visit, and move through its emptiness of uncertainty.

Avoiding Sorrow Would Make Me Lose Myself

I reject escape from grief. Sorrow avoided would become a stone in my heart, stone growing until I became Richard the Lionhearted—ever-militant, with pretenses of superiority, instead of admitting that my crusade is simply rage and the desire to control the wild.

I choose life.

I would lose myself if I did not let go of—and grieve—my old self.

If I do not let go of—and grieve—closeness to my friend, he will continue to rob me of myself.

Moving through Grief into Joy and Power

So I will mourn my losses, face the emptiness that grief pulls close to me, and embrace that wild void. It is life.

Hence, a home worthy of occupancy will come:

I will know my Gods and myself more fully, more than ever give myself over to life that I might serve life, and more than ever allow the feral void to bear abundance and all other blessings to me, if it will.

So mote it be!

—————

If you resonate with my above sentiments about self-sufficiency and facing emptiness, please check out my event that starts January 16, 2021—Shamanic Rituals that Fill the Spiritual Void: https://outlawbunny.com/2021/11/03/shamanic-rituals-that-fill-the-spiritual-void/

Posted in Spirit, The Whole Thing | 2 Comments

Absolutely Nothing

There came a point when there was nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Not the rug pulled out from beneath me
but the floor gone,
nothing holding me from falling
into endless irredeemable deprivation.

There came a point when there was
absolutely nothing except the nothing to which
I had to surrender
if I was to find more power, beauty, and joy than ever,
and if I was not to live in fear.

Terrorized by the possibility of no security,
I had grasped at magic bullets
—the right friend, enough money, the perfect solution,
feeling utter connection to my Gods—
though no substance, image, or Divine elation
could replace diving into the floor-less flawless depths
of my unknowing and the future’s uncertainties.

I had to understand this eerie fall is not necessarily
into the aforementioned abyss of hardship.

There came a point when there was nothing,
absolutely nothing
except the nothing into which I dove—
instead of dangling perilously from
substance, image, or bliss—
because the barren vacuum had become the place I could
know my Gods and myself fully,
give myself over to life that I might serve life,
and allow the void to bear abundance and all other blessings to me, if it will. Hah!

Dear reader, if my above thoughts about spiritual surrender resonate with your belief system, please check out my event that starts January 16, 2021—Shamanic Rituals that Fill the Spiritual Void: https://outlawbunny.com/2021/11/03/shamanic-rituals-that-fill-the-spiritual-void/

Posted in Spirit, The Whole Thing | 4 Comments