Earth Day 2024 Musings

Happy Earth Day! 🌎

Blessings from the Other Side o’ the Solar Eclipse!

“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. ❤️

Happy 48th Anniversary, Fellowship of Isis!

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)!

Happy Spring/Autumn Equinox, Folks!

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!

Paganicon 2024: Day Three

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…

Paganicon 2024, Day Two

What a profoundly satisfying and wonderful day this has been! I am very pleased to say that my “Hands-On Heka; Magic in Ancient Egypt” workshop was a resounding success!

Paganicon 2024, Day One

A wonderful first day of workshops has concluded and my recap of the day’s adventures will be brief as I’ve got a devotional ritual to Pan to attend that starts at 9 p.m. CST. I know the room will fill up fast as Jason Mankey is co-facilitating it and he’s pretty popular in these here parts.

Hello from Paganicon 2024!

Good evening on this exciting eve of Paganicon 2024, which is organized every March by Twin Cities Pagan Pride. I am excited to be one of the presenters this year of not one but two workshops, starting tomorrow with my Encounters With the Dark Goddess: Ritual Reimagining of Sylvia Plath’s Poetry. I am even more excited that one of my dearest friends, a gal who means as much to me as my own blood kin, is able to join me from far-away Detroit. She came to my house this morning and away we schlepped, in the pouring rain, from far NE Illinois to the suburbs of Minneapolis, a trip that took us just over 7 hours due to inclement weather (at least it wasn’t a blizzard like last year!) and our ogling of curious cliffside rock formations in the delightful, Stephen King-esque hamlet of Black River Falls, Wisconsin. We’re geology nerds, what can I say, and Wisconsin is an ice age enthusiast’s paradise!

Happy Imbolc!

Sunrise approaches as I type this. I just went into the backyard to retrieve my brat Bhride, “Mantle of Brigid,” which I’d left outdoors overnight last night per Scottish folk custom. Now I have a valuable aid in my healing work.

It’s lovely to see the sun starting to peek over the gables of houses in the east while in the southwest, a lovely waning quarter moon in Libra graces the skies.

Imbolc Eve: Recipes and Ritual Preparations

When it comes to my personal or coven-based ritual celebrations of the Four Greater Sabbats / Celtic Fire Festivals, the eve of the Sabbat always proves to be a time as energetically charged as the day or feast days themselves. Imbolc Eve is one of my favorite liminal stations in the Wheel of the Year.