A ritual for today:
allow yourself at least one moment
of complete contentment.
Allow yourself
at least one full breath
of the holy.
Allow yourself
to step into the sacred
and expand your view,
remembering your own belonging
to this wild web of incarnation
we all weave together.
Allow yourself
a moment of grace
and a moment of return.
It is brave to be here,
inhabiting at all.
Welcome to this week’s Rituals of Returning newsletter! This week, we have another herbal ally for May: Raspberry! How are you savoring sweetness in your life and days?
There is not a shop update for today as I am in Illinois for a Women’s Weekend event. We do, however, have some beautiful color experiment goddesses in multiple styles in the shop!
This week's magic:
11 minute mini ritual video: savoring sweetness and cultivating balance
I have several poems in the Beltane She Speaks issue.
Reminders:
My newest book, Thunder and Roses, is now available worldwide on Amazon! Orders from the Etsy shop also include special bonuses only available directly from us.
free mini zine: A Festival of Wonder
May’s practice update for #30DaysofGoddess!
We’ve started a new newsletter for Gaea Goddess Gathering! Coming up in September right here in Missouri.
Earthprayer!
My special offering for May is an Earthprayer series unfolding via the Goddess Magic Mystery School. This series includes weekly live practices, daily posts, inspiring rituals, and FOUR printable card decks for exploring our daily themes.
Back to the Roots
Coming up in June FREE for everyone as part of the Goddess Magic Mystery School, I’m so pleased to offer this Back to the Roots series in celebration of our 2000th day of #30DaysofGoddess. If you’re brand new to daily practice, this is for you—you are here on the 2000th day and it is a perfect day to begin! If you have been here since the beginning, this is for you—lets celebrate the life-changing power of daily practice and how devotion has changed, inspired, and nurtured you! If you have been here for any days in between, this is for you—I’m so glad you’ve shared your days with this community!
During this series, we’ll revisit the roots and purpose of #30DaysofGoddess and daily practice and we will also explore 7 days of guided practices, all with a roots-related theme. I’ve got a printable prayerbook, prayercards, and ritual deck all ready for you and I can’t wait to share! Our primary celebration will take place June 17-24, but I have background support resources to share starting on June 1 as well.
What do I mean by back to the roots?
Your roots can be:
Your own past self, a time at which you felt free to be who you really are, an original self. (Can also be ancestry, heritage, legacy, and place—ancestors of bone and ancestors of stone.)
Newness when starting out on your path, the early days, your beginners mind.
Core realities and knowings that anchor you and bring you back to center in the present moment.
What is stabilizing and supporting you and centering you right now and what you want/need to tend to.
What nourishes you, what holds and supports you as you bloom.
Life’s Bits and Pieces:
This is where the magic is,
right where we are.
We touch the mighty mystery,
step into the sacred,
and ease into the boundless
We don’t have to seek the absolute
or long for the holy.
We can open our eyes
and reach out our hands,
right here, right now,
we have already arrived.
reading:
(to self) Paladin’s Grace—I have been waiting and waiting for the first book in this Saint of Steel series by T. Kingfisher to come in at the library. The final three books in the series did come in and I have all of them, but there is a big waiting list for the first. Finally, I just went ahead and bought it! This one is about a paladin of the war god (the Saint of Steel) and the god suddenly and inexplicably dies, leaving his followers utterly bereft and broken. Now, he is living at the Rat Temple (to the rat god) and doing service there. I have only read the first two or three chapters, but looking forward to getting into it!
(to kids) Above the Veil, book four in the Seventh Tower series—more sinister secrets are unveiled as Tal and Milla struggle to survive in a world that wasn’t what it seemed to be.
just finished listening to: The Windeby Puzzle a fictional + historical interpretation of a 2000 year old Iron Age “bog body” and what might have happened in the person’s life before they died in the bog.
just finished: Wolf Worm—gothic horror about a 19th century illustrator who goes to work for an eccentric scientist who studies parasitic organisms. Way too many botflies ensued! T. Kingfisher’s horror books are very Poe-esque in creepiness and atmosphere. I couldn’t tolerate anything more gory, though this one teeters into extreme grossness. One of the things I like about her though is that there is usually only a single “Big Bad Thing” that happens in the book, no string of murders or atrocities. They teeter just at my own edge of what I can personally handle reading before it becomes too much.
just re-got to finish listening to: Hemlock and Silver. I got 41% through this several months ago, when it got sent back to the library and then I’ve been waiting since January, I think, to rise back to the top of the waiting list so I can actually finish it! This one is a loose Snow White retelling by T. Kingfisher (same author as Wolf Worm above. I love basically all of her stuff).
just got: Somatic Shamanism after joining the Book Club level of the Girl God’s Patreon.
Note: I am on Fable if you want to follow along with what I read there!
Resource Reminders:
I’ve started to add our monthly activation replay videos for this year’s #30DaysofGoddess practice to the homepage! Scroll past the “2026 Practice Updates” section to access the videos. Note: Live monthly activations are available to any member of the Goddess Magic Mystery School Patreon community free and paid both!
Free Everyday Magic series!
FREE class:
Savoring Sweetness and Finding Balance
(Note: video becomes available on 5/17) In this week’s Rituals of Returning video, we continue to explore our goddess of the month, Bast (Bastet)—joyful Egyptian cat goddess of pleasure, independence, protection, and abundance—alongside an additional herbal ally from the Herbcrafter's Tarot: raspberry.
Together, Bast and raspberry invite us to:
Savor the sweetness of life (even among the thorns)
Honor pleasure, delight, and playfulness as sacred
Nourish the body with simple, everyday rituals
Balance independence and connection
Root ourselves in love and let the heart lead the way
You’re invited to pause, place a hand on your heart, and let your own inner compass guide you toward a life you love—rich with play, sweetness, and everyday magic.
Reminder: I do create monthly handbooks for members of our Goddess Magic Mystery School community and May’s handbook is available here.
Expanded post available here. Bonus affirmation set for paid subscribers was included in our first newsletter of May.
Questions to explore:
How do you balance your social interactions with solitude?
Where might you be giving your power away to others’ opinions?
How can you give yourself more permission to play? What feels playful and nourishing to you right now?
Where have you been taking life too seriously?
What does your body need right now to feel nourished and strong?
What does being “rooted in love” feel like in your body?
If your heart were your compass, what is one small choice it would lead you to make today?
Where are you experiencing both sweetness and thorns in your life?
Affirmations:
I nourish my body.
I savor simple pleasures.
I belong to myself.
I am confident, competent, and up to the task.
I keep myself strong.
I balance my social interactions with solitude.
I am rooted in love.
The Cattywampus Way…
This month we have been blessing the sacred nature of the cattywampus way.
I often say “beware of spirituality that is actually perfectionism in disguise.” It is helpful to remember that real life is messy and not curated. Candles blow out, papers fall, people burp, we bump into chairs, we forget what we’re saying, distractions are everywhere.
That’s okay. It doesn’t mean we give up. It doesn’t mean we quit. It doesn’t mean we’re not “doing” spirituality “good enough.” Instead, are invited to remember that we are practitioners of the sacred nature of the cattywampus way.
Reflection questions from this month’s ritual:
Where might you be trying to “straighten” what is meant to be crooked?
What would it feel like to bless the imperfection instead of fixing it?
Practice:
Hold prayer beads or a crystal or your Bast statue and chant three times: “I embrace the sacred nature of the cattywampus way.”
May you find holiness in the off-kilter and magic in the messy. May you cherish what refuses to be polished and yet somehow shines anyway. May you be brave enough to lift your voice and raise your hands, offering what magic you can into this swampy brew of human living.
Note: the phrase “the cattywampus way” comes from the book Goddess Days by Nancy Blair.
Celebrating May
And so May dawns,
bright and beautiful,
the greening spread
across the land.
We anoint our hands and faces
with dewdrops
and gratitude,
tipping our faces to the sun
and embracing one another
with love.
These are the rites
and reminders
of May
simple and sacred,
letting joy lead you
and inspiration bless you,
and love light your way.
Sending love to all of you.
Keep living your magic,
Molly, Mark, + Family
