- - that's me. But this is no bunny-without-a-cause. My motto is "Never doubt that one wee creature can change the world."

However, right after saying that - - and, I mean, the very first time - - I went for a walk, during which I passed road kill.

I'm a country rabbit, so this is not unusual, though obviously awful. And since I was musing on the motto, it was one of those days that a tiny, squashed being particularly hit home.

I continued my stroll and was immediately passed by a truck. In the back were three men, each with hunting rifles, and dayglow-orange hats and vests. A daunting sight.

Road kill. Hunters. A message from the universe, for sure. Hence the following, improved, longer motto:

Never doubt that one wee creature can change the world. But be ready to run like hell, and avoid morons.

The second sentence is from a friend of mine. It might be misquoted, but she may have stolen it from Bugs Bunny, anyway, since she pronounced "morons" as "maroons," accent on the second syllable.

Read on.

This site's in process. More to come.

Outlaw Bunny's Bio Francesca De Grandis is, according to Thom Fowler, “one of those multi-hyphenated types.” Peter Coyote wrote, “Like all good humorists, Francesca De Grandis has a radical and subversive agenda in her new book, ‘The Modern Goddess’ Guide to Life.’” The book is women's humor, shelved in stores with the self-help texts. Francesca is also a pagan - - small “p,” not Neo-Pagan, large “P” - - and channeled a shamanic Goddess tradition now practiced throughout the world. Her more serious books, "Be A Goddess!" (HarperSanFrancisco), "Goddess Initiation" (HarperSanFrancisco), and “Be a Teen Goddess!”(Citadel), represent this work.

She is also the creator of Another Step, a curriculum for mystics of any faith. Regarding Another Step: Outlaw Bunny thinks that she and others in the alternative community have done an amazing job with revolutionary change, but that we need to grow yet more: We can move forward in our lives, but then need to take another step, and another, and always another, if we're to fully achieve our dreams, our peace, our potential. No statis! Keep moving on. And alternative modalities, though they've brought us miles and miles, don't provide those steps. This rabbit is devoted to creating them, one after another, and hence the Another Step curriculum.

After a quarter of a century in San Francisco, De Grandis was kidnapped by Faeries - - again! - - and relocated to rural Northwestern Pennsylvania where she lives with trees and sylphs, does environmental research, tries unsuccessfully to avoid deep thoughts - - a typical shaman! - - and juggles a large number of projects, some solitary, some international.

With twenty years experience as a grass-roots interfaith minister and spiritual healer, Francesca helps people of all faiths - - and those who are just fine without one - - through spiritual counseling, classes, workshops, and books, all geared toward both personal fulfillment and empowering people to make a difference in the world. She practices Goddess Spirituality and Chi Gung, is a long-time student of philosophical Taoism, and enjoys a relationship with Christ. She’s also been told she's somewhat of a Buddhist.

The first kidnapping by Faeries occurred when she was working in clubs as a musician and comedian. The next thing she knew, she had completed a rigorous seven-year training to become a traditional spiritual healer. Her thesis at New College of California included the creation of The Third Road. Third Road and Another Step are curriculums of transformative and sanity-sustaining spiritual exercises. Between the two bodies of work, Francesca's material is practiced in the U.S., Great Britain, Australia, Germany, Canada, Poland, China, and other parts of the world.

But, then, Outlaw Bunny has a weird habit of starting impossible and international underground movements. In 2006, she founded Faerie Nation - - a global village of mystics, faeries, wolves, dragons, poets, clowns, and other healthily mad folk. Faerie Nation, like Another Step, is an interdisciplinary, interfaith, intertwining of newly-evolving DNA.

De Grandis teaches international teleseminars - - classes by phone. In addition, clients living everywhere from Boston to Canada to France to Arabia to the Czech Republic call her for professional pastoral counseling by phone.

More of Outlaw Bunny's bio as it pertains to Another Step classes is here. For Francesca's bio as it pertains to her seminars in writing and publishing, and to her editorial services, click here.

About My Blog 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. Send me feedback. Click here to go to my blogs.

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

Manifesto Outlaw Bunny is the only genius there is. Not! However, we can save the world - - not to mention have great lives - - if we all learn to perceive, develop, and support the genius of every living, and supposedly non-living, being. Ditto, if we appreciate the multifaceted gem each person, the planet, and society are. Therefore, she tries to express all her talents, respect all her aspects, honor diversity, and help others do the same. Outlaw Bunny's other goal is to make lotsa jokes - - which, of course, are some of those aforementioned sparkly facets on the gem of life.

The introduction to my blogs (above) expands on all this.

Gaia's Stewards Many an owner of a small lot thinks it's useless as far as making an environmental impact goes. Gaia’s Stewards is a list for owners and renters of small properties who want to use them to protect endangered herbs, explore permaculture, enjoy native plants, garden organically, provide sanctuaries for wildlife, or otherwise tend to the health of the planet. This list is a place to ask questions of each other and/or share the knowledge you’ve gained in your environmental adventure. Nature gifts us with tiny wonders that not only make our hearts sing but also play pivotal roles in the earth’s well being. Your little piece of land - - whether it’s an acre, a 5’x5’ container garden, or a windowsill - - can be one of these small gems.

Classes & Counseling Pastoral counseling - - renegade style by crazy shaman - - for people of all faiths & those fine 'n' dandy without one. Classes for pagans and other wild hearts to help you live fully and make a difference. Celebrate spiritual, environmental & your own inner diversity: click here for info about counseling (this'll bring you to my other site), here for class info, and here to get on my mailing list for announcements of upcoming classes.

Faerie Nation: I'm one of those people for whom the alternative movement just isn't alternative enough. The people who study with me or whom I counsel tend to be like me - - the lunatic fringe of the alternative movement. The same goes for my close friends. All these folks are the most wonderful, crazy, and wild folks I could imagine.

However, there are people who haven't been lucky enough to find like-minded lunatics, and they feel isolated. Or perhaps someone wants to join our lunacy, but doesn't care to study with me. What's more, I deeply need a global community of mad mystics. So I started Faerie Nation, a global village for faeries, mystics, poets, clowns, spiritual outlaws, and anyone else who wants in. Go here for more info.

My other site Click here to check out my Wiccan site.

It has rituals, articles, and more. That's also where to get info on my classes and books that are specifically Wiccan or shamanic - - as opposed to my classes and books about every other thing in the world. However, I'm misspeaking somewhat when I say that.

For one thing, I'm kind of a one-woman interfaith community. What's more, all my beliefs weave together - - call me "uber-holistic girl" - - in everything I do. So the site you're presently on, as well as my books etc. that aren't officially pagan, are very much for lovers of the earth as well as for wild-hearted pagans. However, by the latter - - here's where it gets a bit tricky - - I mean mystics and/or people who believe life should be lived fully; and they're from all religious faiths, or might be folks who are perfectly happy without any formal path. I mean, note I said "pagan" - - lowercase "p" as opposed to organized religion style "Neo-Pagans," uppercase P. (In fact, neither site is into organized religion, with all the dogma that invalidates sincere, free-thinking seekers. Good Goddess, no! I don't even want to support Wiccan dogma.)

It's simply that, while this site you're on is about anything under the sun, and the integration of all those gems - - uber-holistic girl, remember - - the Wiccan site is specifically focused. I hope you check my other site out. It's my baby. I put it up in the mid-nineties, and it's been such a great adventure that, after ten years plus, it motivated me to put up this anything-under-the-sun site you're on.

Contact Info and FAQ I regret that I can't answer mail unless it's in keeping with the guidelines below.

See Gaia's Stewards for your gardening questions. It's a handy-dandy free service from your bunny-with-delusions-of grandeur-who's-out-to-save-the-entire-world-and-loves-watching-old-Robin-Hood-movies.

Click here for info about my counseling services, and how to reach me for them.

Click here for info about classes and how to receive notice of upcoming events.

To receive free newsletters, as well as announcements of upcoming classes and books, and other grooooovy info, click here.

Do not email me asking for free gardening, political, spiritual, or other personal advice. I truly apologize that you can't be an exception even though you're clever, in crisis, or unusual. I'm already swamped with gratis work for the clever, in crisis, and unusual.

In the same vein, look for your answers - - about my services - - on the site before emailing me for them. Otherwise, I'll think you're wasting my time. Then, I won't write back. I'm here to serve you - - really want to - - and need your thoughtful cooperation to do so. Thank you bunches.

Media Queries I welcome queries from the media. It is a fun way I can serve community, and my life is about service and fun. I've been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, and Cosmopolitan. I've also hosted radio on an ABC subsidiary, and appeared on national TV (21 major U.S. markets). VCR footage is available. I've written for major market television and radio. If your media needs are time-sensitive, call 814-337-2490 because I see my email only once a week, sometimes less.

Patricia Sullivan, Director of Clinical Services for U.C.S.F. AIDS Health Project (a national model for mental health care) wrote, “Training with Francesca has had a significant impact on my work as a therapist, teacher, and administrator working within the HIV epidemic.” Adrienne Amundsen, Ph.D., and clinical psychologist says, “She has the trustworthy ethics of a Buddhist priest [and] . . . psychologically sound respect for the complexity of human process . . . The techniques Francesca teaches for spiritual growth and healing of psyche, soma, and soul are creative and powerful.” Magazine "Complete Woman" says, “De Grandis teaches others how to have great sex, spiritual power, and enjoy the world, too.”

Click here for my bio.

While the above pictures are older, the next two are recent. Photo Credit: Brian Peterson. I love Brian.

And, finally, this last is NOT from a drunken bash. I'll admit I don't know who took it. But I don't drink. It's that a lot of the time I approach clothes et al like an eight-year-old playing dress up. So a snapshot like this one could've been taken anytime! This particular shot is old, but I didn't have a real recent photo showing a typical day's drag. Well, the photo isn't quite my daily drag. It's usually way more creative and wild, and I really wish I had photos to share because I have so much fun. But I guess the wild drag is just for the moment, part of life's immediate - - but also immediately lost - - pleasures, because there's never a camera at hand when I'm done up in my day-to-day way. Much as that frustrates me, maybe it's just as well since that camera's never there to catch me in my other day-to-day drag, which all artists, mystics, stay-at-home mothers, shamans, and professional writers know: grubby PJ's or sweats - - which have been worn for three days 'n' nights straight - - unruly hair, and expression of either manic concentration or addled exhaustion.

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Contents of this site, Copyright 2005-07, Francesca De Grandis. Reproduction of any part without written permission is illegal. Don't steal something in the name of "Power to the people." I'm one of the people - - help a fellow-lunatic keep her work going. If you want to reproduce something herein, email and ask nice. And tell me I'm pretty.

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