It’s that time of year when a small business owner’s mindset turns toward in-person vending opportunities! I’m happy to have signed contracts and made payments securing my vendors’ spaces for Jackal Moon Designs at two upcoming events: the June 29 Rooted Holistic Healing & Wellness Fair in Round Lake Beach, IL; and the Greater Chicagoland Pagan Pride Day, September 22, at Riis Park in Chicago’s Belmont-Cragin neighborhood. Mark your calendars!
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Happy Earth Day! 🌎
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I am so incredibly giddy! My English-language book of prayers to La Santa Muerte has just been published and is available wherever books are sold! This is a dream come true for me, and, more importantly, it’s the fulfillment of my oath to La Hermana Hermosa! I promised Her late last year that I would complete and publish such a work as my offering to Her in 2024. Felicidades!
I would love it if you could ask your local bookseller or metaphysical retailer to please order copies of this ISBN: 979-8-218-38918-5.
Here’s the link! And I love my marketing copy for the back cover, if I do say so myself!
https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?vhWJeMI7vIvfoAeIqR5rVIrPMTfvmTayaDZwXh2TEno
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If you’re not already doing so, please follow my Author page on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/author/rev._anna_applegate
Thank you! And VIVA LA SANTISIMA!
“Belief in Mysteries, all manner of Mysteries, is the only lasting luxury in life.”
—Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Witches of Worm (1972)
Words cannot adequately describe the state of post-ritual, post-eclipse experience of complete euphoria that is surging through my body-mind-spirit as I type this. I truly hope that everyone who sought to marshal and direct the powerful energies at work during the profound astronomical phenomenon that only just recently concluded experiences the manifestation of their magical intentions. I feel so powered-up it’s as though I might be capable of fueling the city of Chicago’s electrical grid all by myself! Wow! Thank you, total solar eclipse at 19 degrees Aries Conjunct Chiron! What a profoundly healing event I will forever treasure in my soul. ❤️
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I vividly remember the “Great American Total Solar Eclipse” on August 21, 2017, when the moon’s shadow eclipsed the Sun at 28° Leo. My then-husband and I drove seven hours south from Chicago to arrive at the southern tip of Illinois, in a town called Makanda, which is beautifully nestled in the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail. Our destination to view the eclipse with approximately 2,000 other ticket-bearing folks that day was a winery, actually (the beautiful Blue Sky Winery), and I can still recall the visceral response my body experienced at approximately 3 p.m. when the moon’s shadow completely eclipsed the light of our beloved Sun. Lasting several minutes in duration, the moment of totality was profoundly eerie to me, but I was ritually ready then with an altar to Sekhmet laid out on my mandala-themed picnic blanket stretched out across the grass, onto which I’d laid my Egyptian-made Sekhmet statue, my sistrum, an offering plate with various spicy foods for the Goddess, and my massive chunk of quartz crystal, which I intended to program as a “battery” to house the profound healing energies the “detonation” event of an eclipse can bring, spiritually/energetically speaking.
At first hushed, the crowd began cheering, whistling, applauding, and even screaming at the moment of totality. I was grateful for the noise as my own shouting of my prayers whilst vigorously shaking my sistrum went largely unnoticed by folks seated around us (though afterwards, I did field respectful questions on what I was doing from a nearby couple that drove all the way from Louisiana with their adorable Siberian husky just to witness the eclipse). The temperature immediately dropped by several degrees. All wild birds had gone completely silent. It was a complete sensory experience tinged with Numinosity and yes, terror.
While I do heartily recommend that spiritually attuned folks make the most of these cosmic energies by bringing intentionality to their experience of especially a total solar eclipse, you have to be mindful that there are costs or tolls to be paid. On a mundane level, a logistics nightmare of travel to and from cities and towns in a given eclipse’s pathway awaits. You have to deal with limited infrastructure in terms of roadways, jammed as you’ll be with perhaps tens of thousands of other stargazers wanting to create a mass exodus and head home simultaneously. Plan for that. (Our return drive to Chicago took us a whopping 19 hours!)
On an emotional level, eclipses take a toll as well because they invariably eclipse things in our lives we hold dear (e.g., health, jobs, relationships, financial stability, living situations, etc.). A total solar eclipse is always a detonation event. The “Great American Solar Eclipse” of 2017 eclipsed my marriage. This is where astrology can somewhat prepare us, but never truly emotionally prepare us, for the sweeping changes that may arrive in the wake of a total solar eclipse. Tomorrow’s eclipse is a doozy because of the important cosmic backdrop of a powerful array of planetary aspects that are afoot; some will exactly align with the moment of the eclipse itself, while others will build and find fullest expression towards the end of the month. As this is Aries season, it’s always a wild ride, so buckle up!
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Give me a Follow, eh? And if you’ve downloaded/are currently reading In Praise of the Lady of Power on Kindle or in paperback format, I’d love to receive your review! Thank you from my whole heart! Viva La Santísima, La Dama Poderosa!
While I eagerly await the final production hurdles for the print version to be overcome, I am very pleased to announce you can purchase the Kindle / ePub version of my just-released devotional prayer book to La Santa Muerte, In Praise of the Lady of Power: An English-Language Booklet of Prayers Dedicated to La Santa Muerte! It’s available for immediate download on Amazon for just $3.95!
I began writing the book on Serbian Christmas Day this year (January 7) and by March 7, the files were ready to be uploaded to my distribution partner. I will let everyone know once the print version is ready, and then you can request your local metaphysical or other bookstore of the brick-and-mortar variety to order it!
Viva La Santísima! This is the culmination of my chief devotional offering to Her. ❤
On March 20, 1976, the Fellowship of Isis was founded in Ireland by former Anglican bishop Lawrence-Durdin Robertson, his wife Pamela, and his sister, Lady Olivia Robertson. In the week prior, so the story has been told to me, Lawrence heard and saw the goddess Isis / Aset manifest in his vicarage whilst he was holding service! The rest, as they say, is history.
I am very grateful to be celebrating my 12th year as a legally ordained priestess within the Fellowship and having a teaching temple that I might bring awareness of the realities of the ancient and powerful, engaging and loving Kemetic Deities to modern devotees. You can learn more about the FOI by reading its Manifesto. If you find yourself in alignment with it, you can consider yourself a member!
Happy 48th Anniversary, Fellowship of Isis! Hail the resplendent Akhu of Rt. Rev. Olivia Robertson, Lawrence Durdin-Robertson, Pamela Durdin Robertson, Rt. Rev. Loreon Vigné (who ordained me), and the Rt. Rev. Deena Butta (my mentor in the Chicago chapter via the Lyceum of Eleusis)!
I wish all my fellow dwellers in the Northern Hemisphere a joyful Spring Equinox / Ostara and my friends and followers in the Southern Hemisphere an abundant Autumn Equinox / Mabon! Blessings of Balance, no matter where you are! May prosperity, pleasure, and peace be yours! And so it is!
Hail, Holy Powers, Bestowers of Blessings too numerous to count! Hail, the Deathless Gods! Hail, fecund Earth! May we be ever mindful to tread lightly upon You!
I feel a swirling host of deep emotional currents within me as I sit to begin this post at a quarter to eight in the evening, reflecting on the outstanding day I had and the transformative, evolutionary weekend at Paganicon 2024 this has proven to be for me. Powerful feelings of jubilation and gratitude wrestle with an increasing melancholy as my mind and heart come to terms with the fact that save for the long drive back home tomorrow, this weekend of fellowship, discovery, learning, sharing, and connecting has come to an end. Winter winds whistle through the night air, as if nature itself is keening, partaking of my waxing sadness. Swirling currents. As within, so without. But what wondrous things I have to regale you with, my friends. Do read on…
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amor et mortem 