Social Media and Oral Tradition

For a long time, no blog. I felt blogging all wrong for me. This may seem strange, given that my whole life, including all my work, has been about connectivity. I not only help others find connection with deep self, Divinity, and community, but I do so in a modality of deep connection.

Blogging allows a lot of folks to connect but, long story short, I felt it would actually get in the way of the connection I most need, and through which I am of maximum service. I have an enormous global network of friends, students, and clients. I just don’t do it the usual way.

For one thing, I am thoroughly imbedded in oral tradition. Example: For years, students have gathered in my living room for lessons. For me, teaching demands connectivity on a deeply personal level. Though an international spiritual leader, I continue to open my home and teach small groups there. Now I live in an isolated area, and illness keeps me housebound, so classes are mostly via group phone calls, but I still sit in my living room rocking chair, carefully guiding groups. I have set up a mystic’s lifestyle that allows me to enter into authentic relationship with clients and students. 

I have decided to blog and Tweet, embracing social media because I want all the tools possible to connect with people. But I also want to share the gifts of oral tradition with you. As devoted as I am to the written word, I am equally if not more devoted to oral transmission. And I  feel I cannot fully commit to the written word on this site if I do not say somewhere on the site that the written word is no substitute for oral tradition. They each have their place.

What I am saying may make no sense to some people, b/c there is no contemporary reference point for oral tradition. It is not a discusssion group. it is not a support group, it is a living breathing moment and experience. It is a state of being. It does not make sense until you do it. So the important thing for me here is not just to talk about it – – it cannot be conveyed in words, only in being – – but to be sure to invite you to join me in it!

So, the doorway into it is to sign up for my newsletters. From there, a lot of options show themselves. Example: I lead free global rites that meet via group phone calls; the newsletters announces their dates. Another example: What My Blog Is Like says my blog is an attempt to create an all-encompassing weave. What My Blog Is Like also describe how I teach, write, and approach all of my life. But the written word weaves something different from what oral tradition does; oral tradition weaves in the moment of our togetherness, and is about being. BEING, being together with people in an all-embracing cosmos. I hope you join me!

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I Can Draw? Huh?

Detail From My Beloved, Silk Painting by Francesca De GrandisIn July or August, I found out I can draw ‘n’ paint! I’d only just realized my sigils, decorative shapes, and calligraphy were okay.  Then suddenly I was able to draw literal things like a face – – Huh? – – this is freaky to me. But it is making me happy. (The pic to the left is a detail from a silk painting I did, of a Faerie.) As a child, I didn’t have good art supplies. Not my folks’ fault: no kids in my neighborhood had them. Well, a few months back, I WON a high quality silk painting kit that made me see what I can do. I also found out that I can manage silk painting and some other dye-arts despite my disabilities. This means I can put my energy out into the world via these paintings, even though illness keeps me homebound.  AND I CAN’T BELIEVE IT, I’VE ALREADY SOLD SEVEN PAINTINGS. THIS IS WEIRD. Expressing a part of me that I did not even know was neglected! I can’t wait to see where this will go! I REALLY hope you’ll share this with me at www.outlawbunny.etsy.com

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Bardic Alchemy

Woohoo, after FOREVER, my spoken word album is out. It’s called Bardic Alchemy: Enchanted Tales about the Quest for God/dess and Self.

The ancient Faerie Faith is alive. This recording is derived from my oral teachings of Goddess culture. I hope – and believe – that many listeners will find each story to be a shamanic experience: a direct meeting with the Goddess and a journey into Her fey realms, in which you truly touch magic.

Rather than expound theory, I try to guide listeners to their own truths. Goddess Spirituality (shamanism, Wicca, the Old Religion, witchcraft, Faerie Faith, paganism—identical terms for our purposes here) maintains that we need no priest to tell us how to act, and that anyone can talk directly to Deity. Hierarchical dogma is replaced with connectivity and personal revelation, through which one finds God/dess, self, and wholeness. Check it out at www.outlawbunny.etsy.com

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Pick the Apple From The Tree

My 1998 music CD, Pick the Apple from the Tree, went out of print about 2009, ‘cept for a few copies New Leaf Distribution has that merchants can order. So I burned a few copies at home to sell, nothing fancy, no art work (the art work here is only on the original liner), but the music is there. It is on sale at www.outlawbunny.etsy.com

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I Call My Tumor Fred

Star Child by FDGJune, 2010: I’m youtubed!!!! It’s at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Tpu9WLXwdA   I did it b/c want to share audio from my home recording studio. I’ve no vid experience but don’t want you to have to look at a blank screen, so gave the vid my best (which is obviously mega-limited, and makes clear that, yes, I am a screw ball). Also, I wanted to show the lyrics for the song in case they are unintelligible. My vid skill set = typing lyrics and printing them on cards to hold up in front of the camera! 🙂  Be gentle: I recorded the song after playing mando less than 2 years.

The song is “I Call My Tumor Fred.” I wrote it before I learned my tumor is benign. Not to worry: It is harmless. I only have to keep an eye on it, just in case. After an MRI showed a tumor, the song helped me thru three weeks until the doctor told me what was what. And then more weeks while I waited for a neurologist’s confirmation. When I sang the song to a friend, she told me that people who name their tumors are far more likely to survive. I bet that’s true! And I LOVE my home studio!! What I’m producing may be lo fi, but it is healing for me and fun.

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What My Blog Is Like

A wisecrack can crack open the cosmos. Then we can rearrange it, make a better home for our species and the other beings in this galaxy.

My blog’s pretty freewheeling; it deals with everything from environmental issues to the self-help movement to makeup tips. And I might talk about the environment or self-help via makeup tips. However, there’s a fundamental logic to my approach:

Some people no longer have purely spiritual, political, environmental, or self-help dialogs. They’re talking about a million different topics, simultaneously and thru the lens of a million different disciplines.

They want it all. And they want it all woven, every last part of it, into an inclusive, sustainable, joyful whole, by threads of love, careful analysis, and – – one of the points of my work is to prove that the following addition is not contradictory – – celebratory chaos.

Please, break out of the box labeled, “You can’t discuss this! You’re not authorized (by education, gender, class, whatever).” Girls and boys, talk about it all! In any context!

You’ll find my writing tends to include suggestions, geared toward helping you both have the life you want and make a difference in the world. These ideas, all my jokes aside, represent years of successful work with clients and students, so, hey, do try out a few of my ideas – – sitting on the page, they can’t change your life; you gotta use ’em.

I blog about once a week. Come on by. Please comment.

Hmm, I shouldn’t have said, “All my jokes aside.” They’re part of all those years of work.

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