“Tending to the Ancestors”: The Winter 2018-2019 Issue of Isis-Seshat Journal Is Now Available!

It gives me great pleasure to announce, after several days of intensive copy editing and graphical layout, that the 48-page, full-color Winter 2018-2019 issue of Isis-Seshat journal has officially been released! With its theme of “Tending to the Ancestors,” the issue features various Polytheists’, Pagans’, and Witches’ perspectives on the importance of  cultivating and maintaining ancestor veneration in their daily devotional practices, how they do it, or why they abstain. Hailing from no less than 3 different continents, this issue’s contributors reflect a world of culturally contextualized traditions, from the Heathenry/Teutonic Polytheism of Northern and Central Europe to West African and Afro-Cuban Diaspora religions. I’m so deeply thankful to the gorgeous and deeply personal original works of art, poetry, and essays that were sent to me as submissions! This issue would not have been possible without so many peoples’ support.

TENDING TO THE ANCESTORS: A CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR THE WINTER 2018-2019 ISSUE OF ISIS-SESHAT JOURNAL

Seeking Submissions for the 2018-2019 Winter Issue of Isis-Seshat Journal on the Theme of “Tending to the Ancestors, Propitiating the Dead”—Deadline: Friday, January 18, 2019

“Iba se Eggun.”
(“I pay homage to the spirits of the ancestors.”) — Start of a Yoruba prayer recited in Ifá at the outset of certain rituals

I paid a visit to my Oluwo (Godfather in Ifá) last night and we had a chance to catch up on the whirlwind of life events I’ve been experiencing since my father’s cancer diagnosis two months ago. We consulted Ifá, and the voices of my own Orí (Destiny/True Will) and my Eggun (Ancestors) resonated strongly in the oracle’s spiritual prescriptions. The restless spirits of the dead, teeming hordes of the Eggun Buruku, were also vying for my attention, a fact confirmed by my lived experience of increased spirit activity at both my home and my parents’ house, where I recently (and totally by happenstance, and during a thunderstorm, no less!) made contact with the spirits of a young woman and children that had drowned in the river marking the northernmost boundary of my parents’ property. By their clothing, they appeared to have lived during the mid-nineteenth century. The children (blond-haired fraternal twins aged about seven or eight years old), unrelated to the young woman, were lost and crying out for their parents. The sight of them made my heart ache. But I couldn’t focus on them as I quickly realized the other spirit posed actual danger.

People of Prayer: A Call for Submissions for the Spring 2018 Issue of Isis-Seshat Journal

Seeking Submissions for the 2018 Spring Issue of Isis-Seshat Journal on the Theme of “People of Prayer”–Deadline: Friday, March 30

If meditation is the act of listening to the Divine, prayer is the art of speaking. It’s an under-discussed topic in Polytheistic and theistic Pagan communities, which is unfortunate, as it really is the most basic component of establishing and sustaining a devotional relationship to one’s Patron Deity or multiple Holy Powers. Many people who “come home” to a Pagan spiritual path may have an aversion to prayer because they associate the practice with the undesirable (Abrahamic) religion of their upbringing, but there are ways to overcome the negative perceptions and conditioning related to former religious experiences so that one can have a thriving, judgment- and distraction-free prayer practice that sustains the spirit. Those are the issues I’d like to explore in the Spring 2018 issue of Isis-Seshat journal, a quarterly journal of the worldwide Fellowship of Isis that is open to contributions from all theistic Pagans, Polytheists, animists, shamans, spirit-workers, and related practitioners besides FOI members (clergy and laity).

The Summer 2017 Issue of Isis-Seshat Journal Is Now Available

It’s been three years since I’ve inherited the mantle of executive editorship of Isis-Seshat journal, a quarterly magazine of the worldwide Fellowship of Isis, from my former Archpriestess-Hierophant, the late Rt. Rev. Deena Butta. The Summer 2017 issue–which is 80 pages long and features zero advertisements–has been released today as a result of much stellar international collaboration, and I have to say that this is among my favorite issues to date. My deepest thanks to all writers and artists who shared their content with me to make it all happen!

The theme, “Traditions Thriving in the Cross-Currents of Global Paganism,” elicited several thought-proving responses in essays, poetry, and photography regarding the issues of culturally specific spiritual traditions, cultural appropriation, identity politics, and whether or not one’s ethnic/racial heritage ought to determine to Whom one should devote their religious sensibilities and practices. Again, I want to thank my roster of outstanding contributors.

PDFs are available for purchase at $5 USD each on my Etsy site, JackalMoonDesigns.

I’ll be releasing my Call for Submissions for the Autumn issue, so stay tuned! It will be released in late November.

Blessings!

 

The Spring 2017 Issue of Isis-Seshat Journal Is Now Available!

Isis-Seshat journal is the quarterly publication of the Fellowship of Isis, a worldwide religious community that celebrates the 41st anniversary of its founding this spring. I’m pleased to commence my third year of serving as its Executive Editor, a position I inherited from my late Archpriestess here in Chicago, the Rt. Rev. Deena Butta. I’m happy to announce that the Spring issue is now available as a PDF.

Kickstarter Campaign for “The Ancient Egyptian Daybook: Perpetual Planner”

Signal boost: Calling all Kemetic polytheists! Egyptologist Tamara L. Siuda, a personal friend of mine and fellow priestess in the Fellowship of Isis, has 6 days remaining in her Kickstarter campaign to fund the publication of The Perpetual Planner, an ancient Egyptian calendar companion to her 2012 publication of The Ancient Egyptian Daybook. 

Please consider helping fund her campaign before time runs out; if she doesn’t meet her goals, the project will be kibboshed.

Seneb-ti–blessings!

Announcing the Call for Submissions for the Spring Issue of Isis-Seshat Journal

I hope the Lunar New Year of the Fire Monkey has gotten off to a very good start for everyone! This solar transit in Aquarius has kept me very busy (both my Ascendant and Moon in my natal chart are in Aquarius), very socially engaged in Chicago’s broader Pagan and occult/magical communities, and eager to implement projects both spiritual and artistic sprung from felicitous, unanticipated idea exchanges with like-minded souls met through networking. (My mentors in the business world have always been 100% accurate about networking: It happens everywhere, not just behind office doors at planned events–so yes, always have your business cards on hand whenever you leave the house!)

I was very pleased with how the Winter issue of Isis-Seshat journal turned out; it went into production and was delivered to contributors and subscribers three days early, despite a Mercury Retrograde! And all surplus printed copies, for the first time ever, have been completely sold out, so I want to extend my deepest thanks to all new readers who have approached me both online and offline to request a copy! The issue’s theme of Divination definitely resonated with many, and from places as far away as Germany, the UK, and even Australia, FOI members heeded the call for submissions and sent me informative and thought-provoking essays that made my heart happy to print. My thanks to everyone who helped make the Winter issue the wonderful publication that it is!

And so I naturally turn my thoughts, as the journal’s Executive Editor, to the Spring issue. As I plot Isis-Seshat’s editorial calendar for all of 2016, actually, I’m happy to announce that I’ll be continuing this trajectory of having very specific themes. I’ve decided that the Spring issue’s theme is going to be “Worlds Beyond: Mapping Out the Soulscapes Encountered in Ritual.” From exploring the states of consciousness we reach in the apogee of the rituals we perform to establish and maintain contact with our Holy Powers, as well as detailing our encounters with those Powers, to discussions of various culturally specific cosmologies that delineate the Worlds inhabited by our Gods and spirits, this Spring issue is going to serve as cartography for the ardent witch, the devoted priest(ess), the selfless shaman, the courageous magician, and the neophyte newly launched on her or his journey of spiritual self-exploration.   

Announcing the Call for Submissions for the Winter Issue of Isis-Seshat Journal

As the Executive Editor of Isis-Seshat journal, the quarterly publication of the worldwide Fellowship of Isis, I’ve decided that I want the Winter issue to focus on divination as the nexus of cultus, community, and culture. As the etymology of the word denotes, the purpose of divination is to reveal “the will of the Gods.” In our postmodern Western societies, of course, the concept has largely been divorced from its polytheistic impetus and has become co-opted by (or, if you prefer, degraded to) a secularist impulse for “fortune-telling,” largely for its entertainment value.

The Summer Issue of Isis-Seshat Magazine: A Call for Submissions

Pagan perspectives that are fit to print!

These are jolly times, friends! I’ve newly emerged from my solitary den of feverish writing and editing for the Spring issue of Isis-Seshat magazine, the quarterly journal of the worldwide Fellowship of Isis (FOI). In fact, earlier this morning before heading into the office, I stopped at my print vendor and scooped up the new hard copies of the Spring issue, which I am releasing today and tomorrow in honor of Earth Day. Not to toot my own horn, but I think it looks fabulous!

The lovely cover art of “Isis Unveiled” was generously donated by Oregon-based artist and Dark Wave Ambient musician, Amara Astrum.

And now that the Spring issue is under my belt, it’s time to think about the Summer issue, and I hereby issue forth a call for submissions. While Isis-Seshat magazine is primarily aimed at FOI members worldwide, who number some 26,000 strong, I’m accepting submissions from any and every person who identifies as “Pagan” or any of its related spiritual/esoteric shades in the alternative spirituality spectrum in the West: Witch, Heathen, Spirit Worker, Shaman, Polytheist, Wiccan, Druid, (Chaos) Magician. The cool thing about being the Executive Editor of a publication is, well, making executive decisions like who you will accept contributions from!

Here’s what I’m looking for: Submissions of articles related to spiritual development; essays on one’s personal spiritual practices; news reports from FOI Lyceums and Iseums if you belong to any, including accounts of Lyceums’ or Iseums’ ritual observances for Summer Solstice; meditations; poetry; short stories; seasonally appropriate ritual food recipes; metaphysical book reviews; reflections on the Goddesses and Gods of Summer (of any pantheon, not just Kemetic Deities), and photography and artwork! Essays/articles, submitted as Word docs, can be as long as 2,000 words. If you’re including any proprietary photos, please keep them under 8 MB in file size and saved in JPEG format.

Please submit your files to me at hekua.yansa@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is Friday, July 31. The Summer issue will be distributed the week of August 17.

I’m sadly not able to pay contributors but you will receive a complimentary hard copy of the magazine issue wherein your work appears.

Curious about the FOI? For starters, Isis Myrionymos, Lady of 10,000 Names, serves as the organization’s Patroness. And it saddens me to have to do this, but in these times of global political volatility I must assert that we have nothing to do with the abhorrent Middle Eastern terrorist organization whose acronym the corporate-controlled U.S. media incorrectly, and repeatedly, refers to as “ISIS.” Click here for our official statement/press release to the media on that issue.

While many FOI members are Pagan, many hail from Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy/Coptic Christianity, Reformed Judaism, Shintoism and other indigenous peoples’/First Nations’ religions. Interfaith religious dialogue has been a major FOI preoccupation since the late co-founder Rt. Rev. Lady Olivia Robertson represented goddess-worshiping religions under the auspices of the FOI at the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago. Anyone who believes in the concept of the Divine Feminine, however interpreted, is probably already in alignment with the FOI’s Manifesto.

So, fellow servants of the Muses, if you’ve got the write stuff (yes, I’m punny sometimes), whip out your writing implements of choice (Hail, Tehuti!) and send me your contributions!

Blessings in the name of Isis-Seshat, Goddess of Writing! May She always render you True of Voice!