Praying in the Dark is here!
Theme: Magicians Reporting for Duty
Week 24: in which we see the dark and decide to pray our way through
NEW EMAIL
Did you find me in your spam folder?
Please put my domain email in your address book
All newsletters will come from this email address from now on. The old one with tampabay.rr in the address is dead and gone. So don't even try!
Beautiful Magicians,
Praying in the Dark is ready for you. But before you rush over to read about it on my website and register, may I tell you a few things about what it is and how it came to be?
And, in what might feel like a sidenote—but is not—how you can transform your journal from a dense forest of words into a clear, easy to use and easy to search book complete with Table of Contents.
Let me start with that last bit first.
Because when I asked myself today how did Praying in the Dark come to be, I couldn’t remember. That might seem odd to you, considering how dear this new prayer intensive is to me, but I’m in a deep deep creative space right now as we reach the conclusion of the 3 ½ year project, The Witch Sequence. It’s glorious and wildly mystical, and the most intense of the 7 intensives in the sequence.
Plus, I’m also creating this radical new prayer intensive with mystic artist and oracle, Cathy Stevens Pratt.
And, somehow, moving through the dark that is the demise of patriarchy.
It’s a lot. A lot. But that “lot” is also the reason Praying in the Dark is arriving at the perfect moment.
But first, let's talk about your journal.
People ask me all the time how I am able to effortlessly open a journal and find something I wrote days, weeks, even years ago.
Here’s my method.
When I open a new blank journal—I get all my journals from Cathy’s website hersacredimage—I leave the first three pages blank and start numbering the pages on the fourth page. On the first blank page I write my solar and lunar vows. Writing them feels like sanctifying my journal. I leave the next two pages empty.
Then, when something surfaces in deep soul writing that I want to find again, I go to the two blank pages and write the number of the page that holds this nugget and a word or two or a little symbol to help me remember what it’s about. If later I realize OH this really matters, I will go back and circle that page number on the Table of Contents or write a little clue like PD which stands for Praying in the Dark in the margin.
Then, when I want to find something like “When did Praying in the Dark first emerge,” all I have to do is glance at the TOC. It’s a magical system.
That’s what I did just now. I glanced at my TOC, saw the first PD entry on p 41, opened my journal to that page and voila there it was. The exact title Praying in the Dark arrived on Tuesday May 19 while I was watching a repeat of a gathering in Art 7 Dragon. Under the title I wrote: How visionaries pray in a time of collapse. Wow, title and purpose in one burst.
I had to do the numerology. The title comes to 90. That felt like a Goddess kiss because 9 is the full circle of the feminine. And 0 means it’s multiplied by divine energy. So 90 is perfect.
Then, looking back at the TOC, I could follow the trail of how Praying in the Dark evolved. It’s fun to revisit your creative process. When I do, I always discover little pieces I’d forgotten.
If setting up your journal with a TOC sounds useful, start doing it when you get a new journal. And maybe your new journal will be the one Cathy is creating for Praying in the Dark. I'll give you the link to order as soon as Cathy is ready. Maybe by next Sunday.
So now, what is Praying in the Dark?
I spent days writing this description trying to capture just how radical and powerful this new prayer practice is. Read this aloud and see how it lands for you:
"Praying in the Dark is a radical new 28-day prayer intensive inaugurating the first and only rosary completely untethered from religion; one that sings of our original masculine-feminine partnership. This unique rosary—The Song of the Morning of the World—holds the transcendental power and vision we need to carry us through the rough transition from suffering under patriarchy into a whole and holy way of living with reverence and devotion for all."
On the landing page, I tell the story of how this intensive began in 2018 with prayer artist.
But also how the timeline Cathy painted just two weeks ago for ART 7, a timeline we call The Song of the Morning of the World, illustrates evocatively how humanity has moved through 35,000 of matrilineal, matrifocal, non-violent living from the time of the Upper Paleolithic until warring tribes with their male sky gods arrived about 5,000 years ago.
But note that the timeline doesn’t end with the pain of patriarchy. Cathy marked our moment as we experience the death throes of patriarchy with a black X. But look beyond that X and you can see a lush green future with flowers and bees and frogs.
The timeline is magnificent. I've ordered a 19" version. Cathy will have it available in other sizes, but on this newsletter it's tiny, I know. Hope you can see the X.
We are standing in that X.
And it sure feels dark. Fascism, misogyny, war, violence, out-of-control greed…. It’s dark. But a few glimmers shine through the cracks. Here in the United States, we are cheering the dictator-wanna-be’s name being removed from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It’s a beginning of the emergence of the light.
That timeline explains why we must pray. And pray NOW. Not only is it a time of patriarchal collapse, but it’s also a summer of wild cosmic support for change. I’m recording a special bonus video for Praying in the Dark with shamanic astrologer and depth numerologist Emma Kupu Mitchell next week. I’ll try to condense her wisdom into a few paragraphs in next Sunday’s Notes from the Field. But just know that every astrologer, current and past, is describing this month, this summer, and the rest of 2026 through 2027 as a period of massive change.
Does that sound a tad scary? Or dark? That’s exactly why we are going to pray in the dark. In community. In a way that has never existed before: a rosary practice that is completely untethered from religion.
So, guess who our Goddess guide is? She who sees in the dark? Why Hecate of course!
Cathy put Hecate at the center of our logo. Isn’t she magnificent? We need not be afraid. Our ancestors prayed with Hecate for tens of thousands of years. And now, we ask them, our guides and guardians, angels and mystic families, to join us in Praying in the Dark.
Click to read all about this prayer intensive, get the schedule, peruse the bonuses and register.
We meet on 4 Tuesdays July 14,21, 28 and August 4 at 6pm eastern, a time that works well for the Americas and the Pacific Rim.
Then, to serve everyone who can't make the Tuesday gatherings, I'm hosting Watch Parties on Thursdays at 1pm eastern.
Plus, because we need to just sit and talk about this radical new prayer practice, we'll also have three Sunday cafes.
I've kept the fee very low and even made it possible to invite a friend.
Life is fragile, handle with reverence
and radical, beautiful, life-changing prayer
Janet
PS: if you have questions, write to me at janet@janetconner.com
website: janetconner.com
blog (all newsletters): janetconner.com/blog
facebook: janet conner prayer artist
YouTube: Janet Conner