What is Praying in the Dark?

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.

“The prayer that breaks through the darkness is the prayer uttered in song so that the chorus of my calling out is not sung alone”
Christopher Marmolejo The Red Tarot

“When a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order.”
Nobel Prize-winning chemist, Ilya Prigogine

 

Welcome to Praying in the Dark!

When prayer artist arrived eight years ago, I began to write a whole new genre of prayer as love songs and offer prayer intensives with mystics such as Kahu Lahela and Rabbi Tirzah Firestone. When I opened the dictionary and read the juiceless definition that reduces prayer to supplicating an external god figure following a formula, I knew I had to redefine prayer. It took me six years to perceive seven radiant definitions including sacred medicine, living relationship, and a vibration of love that goes beyond all universes.

The essence of everything I do and offer is prayer. As prayer and I built a deeper and deeper relationship, I began to perceive morphic memories of how beautiful and powerful prayer once was in the time before religion. In a recent intensive on how to live in reverence and devotion, we explored 35,000 years of matriarchal cultures from the Minoan and Neolithic all the way back to the Paleolithic caves where shamanism was born. As we reveled in these matrifocal, Earth-centric, creative cultures, we realized we weren’t learning anything, we were remembering something.

Cathy Stevens Pratt created this evocative timeline to help us remember humanity’s long history of living in harmony with Mother Earth and with one another until warring tribes and their weapons arrived about five thousand years ago. They worked aggressively to replace all the faces of the Goddess with singular male gods who spewed laws, demanded obedience, and meted out punishments in this life and even in the next. Thus began our dark history of living under patriarchal systems of fear, control, and misogyny.

But notice where we are.

The astrology, numerology, and global chaos erupting around us make it clear that we are standing in a time of massive change—epochal change. This is a time for prayer—real prayer. Not prayer that begs an external god to come and save us, but prayer that has the power to carry us through the demise of the chaos and discord of patriarchy and into a world of reverence, wholeness, and harmony. How can a prayer affect such a miraculous change? By awaking memories and visions of how to live with reverence, not power.

 

The Song of the Morning of the World Rosary

Note 1: You do not need to have any history praying with a rosary. If you did grow up with the rosary, you’ll be delighted to discover this beautiful non-religious rosary.
Note 2: You do not have to purchase this rosary. You can use any beads you love like a mala or rosary. Or you might wish to make your own rosary. Or simply use your fingers.

This is the first new rosary in hundreds of years. And it is radically different:

  • Religion-free: There are no religious symbols no creed, no theological stories
  • Guides: The medallion of Hecate or Minotaur, or whomever you wish to pin to the lobster clasp, invites you to stop, breathe, speak a simple anointing to activate your intuitive senses, and listen in silence for echoes emanating from our matrifocal past
  • Partnership: There is a larger bead at the beginning and at the end on which we speak the Masculine-Feminine Partnership prayers
  • Blooms: There are five Blooms of eight beads each: one masculine and seven feminine. Each Bloom heals one of the 5 crimes of patriarchy. The crystals chosen align with the energy of the healing.
  • Personal: Everyone can write their own prayers.

 

 

Our Unexpected Guides!

If this new rosary is untethered from religion, you might wonder who our cosmic guides might be. Three immediately stepped forward to bring us the powerful feminine, joyful masculine, and unique nature of the two in one plant.

 

Hecate
Hecate is the original Goddess of the crossroads. She sees in the dark and guides us through our own dark—personal and collective. Patriarchy was so afraid of Hecate that they transformed her into a three-headed monster.

 

Minotaur
The original Minotaur danced joyfully across Paleolithic cave wall thousands of years before patriarchy lied about him and made him into a monster. Minotaur reminds us who the masculine was and will be again.

 

Corn Plant
Corn is an unusual monoecious plant containing both the masculine pistillate and feminine staminate flowers on the same stalk. Corn is a perfect symbol of the original partnership between the holy masculine and the sacred feminine.

 

The Bees!
Bee life shows us their highly evolved, collaborative, cooperative societies where the well-being of ALL comes first. These guides lead us in a new way to approach our families, relationships, our daily tasks and life.

 

Hecate Speaks re Praying in the Dark
June 9, 2026 1:30 am thru Cathy in Deep Soul Writing

"Do not be afraid.

Come, listen, discover.

I will be your eyes so you may find your way.

My path is well-worn and smooth for precious wanderings. We travel in the darkest of lands where your eyes are confused. Feel deeply into your heart’s chasm and together we see in the darkness. Leaving our usual awareness behind, the otherworld sensing sings! We pray, we chant, we find love’s rhythm. Gather together and your one voice becomes fresh, more potent and endlessly beautiful. This gives life to your longings, wakes the ancestors, the trees bow and iridescent wings carry your prayers to Her. I am alive when you pray your devotion."

Minotaur Speaks re Praying in the Dark
thru Cathy in Deep Soul Writing

"Come closer.

Trust the ground.

Trust my breath.

Stars tumble down my horns

for you.

Breathe them in,

you come alive.

See me.

I am alive.

Walk with me.

I walk with you.

Ask.

Listen.

Trust.

Pray.

Walk with me.

I walk with you.

We."

Who you will be praying with

Janet Conner—prayer artist, mystic witch, firekeeper
Cathy Stevens Pratt—mystic artist, tarot oracle, journey guide
Tony Goncalves—sacred masculine shaman initiated by Minotaur

with additional support from
astrologer and numerologist, Emma Kupu Mitchell

 

Exploration

All gatherings begin with opening prayers, and invocations of beloved angels, mystic guides, and ancestors, and close with The Blessing of Isis.

Discovery Gathering 1—Introduction  

  1. What is Praying in the Dark?
  2. What is The Song of the Morning of the World timeline?
  3. Who are the Guides praying with us in and through the dark?
  4. What are the 5 Crimes of Patriarchy?
  5. Why is this the perfect and perfectly necessary moment to pray?
  6. How is this rosary different from all others?
  7. Pray together: the Medallion, Anointing, Masculine-Feminine Partnership, and first Bloom to heal the first crime—theft of our birthright dignity

Discovery Gathering 2—Masculine-Feminine Partnership

  1. Explore the opening of the rosary: what is the intuitive anointing, what happens when you speak it, what are echoes, how do you hear them?
  2. Deep exploration into the five crimes that perpetuate patriarchy by poisoning male-female relationships and the five prayers that transmute those crimes
  3. Deep dive into the Masculine-Feminine Partnership prayers: where they came from, who first received them, why they the heart of prayer and the massive missing link in previous rosary practices
  4. How to write your Masculine-Feminine Partnership prayers
  5. Pray together: Medallion, Anointing, Masculine-Feminine Partnership, first and second bloom

Discovery Gathering 3—Listen with the Plants

  1. Deep dive into the Blooms, what are they, how were they developed, how does a Bloom generate a future of reverence and devotion, how do the two voices, the one masculine and seven feminine prayers work together to create a Bloom
  2. Discover how the plants teach us how to listen
  3. Pray together: first four blooms of The Song of the Morning of the World rosary

Discovery Gathering 4—Praying in the Dark from now on

  1. What do we now know about the blessings, power, and joy of praying in the dark
  2. What the bee community has to teach us
  3. How do we live this Song of the Morning of the World prayer practice
  4. Staying connected in prayer communities
  5. Gathering evidence of the power of prayer
  6. Pray together: entire The Song of the Morning of the World rosary


What you will receive

  • 4 live Discovery Gathering recordings

Resource Page

Access to password-protected Resource Page filled with recordings of all gatherings, plus a feast of support materials

Getting Started PDFs

  • Welcome Handbook
  • Prayer Handbook
  • The 5 crimes of patriarchy and the prayers that transmute them

Bonus Videos

  • Janet and Cathy on Falling In Love with the Rosary
  • How to get your Natal and Transit Astrology chart with Emma Kupu
  • How patriarchy lied about three sacred masculine figures: Minotaur, Dragon, and Lucifer, a powerful bonus event from ART 7 Dragon
  • Conversation with Emma Kupu Mitchell about the intense astrology at this time and the potential for world change the cosmos is supporting
  • Seven Steps to Get into Theta teaching video by Janet, plus 25 minutes of Theta music to help you drop into mystical theta

Optional

  • membership in a private Praying in the Dark Facebook discussion group
  • purchase The Song of the Morning of the World timeline in 2 sizes
  • purchase The Song of the Morning of the World rosary with choice of 3 medallions
  • purchase Praying in the Dark 8 x 11 blank Journal

Registration
Your investment in this astonishing new Prayer Intensive is $88.

Your Prayer Partners

Meet Janet Conner

I am a Prayer Artist, Mystic Witch, and Fire Keeper, creator in the Theatre of the Miraculous, and mistress of the threshold—the mystical thetabrain wave state. But first and always, a devoted daughter of the Sacred Feminine. My first book, Writing Down Your Soul, was a surprising success and led to The Lotus and The Lily, Soul Vows, and more. But all that was warmup. In the dark on February 24, 2018, I clearly heard prayer artist in my left ear. I knew prayer artist would change everything, but I said yes anyway. That yes led me to write a whole new genre of prayer as love songs, redefine prayer altogether, and begin to offer prayer intensives with other mystics.

Two years later, witch arrived via a stunning endorsement from Rabbi Tirzah Firestone. I was ecstatic; my agent was not. I ended that relationship to follow witch where she wanted to go. She knew exactly what she wanted: transmute witch from a word that strikes terror back into an honorific that awakens a bone-deep memory of being revered for our WitchArt gifts. I have followed that directive and created several witch intensives, including the 7-part The Witch Sequence. All are available On Demand.

To do this profound work, I need lots of silence and mystical theta and my home in tiny Ozona Florida on the Gulf of Mexico is perfect. Here, I am surrounded by the songs of screeching ospreys, the shadows of swooping woodstorks, and the call of one very protective hawk.

 

Meet Cathy Stevens Pratt

Once upon a time a little girl knew she was a witch. I played in the magical woods, prayed the rosary walking around the pond with my grandmother, and made potions with my cat. Then for decades I worked as a freelance illustrator and lived all over this country. Moving around taught me people are good, generous and kind and reminded me that the world is alive. Everything is alive. The trees, rocks, plants, creatures, clouds and stars all speak to me when I listen.

I am an oracle who takes human shape as an artist, mom, and partner. I live on the dark side of a mountain in the middle of Vermont. Here trees fall, winds howl, winter is brutal, summer is vibrant, water trickles and rages, and I am visited by many woodland creatures. The combination of being surrounded by wild beauty and a daily practice of Deep Soul Writing opens me to listen to my voices and to see into the unseen. This Imaginal Realm speaks through me so I may create sacred art in the form of paintings, words, fiber Mighty Dolls, rosaries and beads, and Visual Medicine™.

My offerings include:

  • Oracle/Tarot readings using multiple decks, my own art and intuitive custom journeys
  • One-of-a-kind fiber Mighty Dolls as talismans of power and healing
  • Personal rosaries and mala beads dreamt into being for focus and joy
  • Creative Journeys to inner realms to solve problems, open creativity, meet ancestors and guides, awaken inspiration
  • Teaching Visual Medicine™ easily bridges the real world with the mystic and invisible

I love to share with my sister-witch collaborator Janet Conner. I create community, safe spaces, and conversations about creativity, the ancestors, deep deep time, and forgiveness work. Supporting others in their personal and creative journeys gives me great joy.

I have a 7th house Cancer sun, Taurus Moon, Capricorn Ascendant. My Pars Fortuna is Pisces 5°.  I’m having a Jupiter return this year, something big is coming! My lifepath is 34/7—a seven of course! I’m in my first of six years in an Essence 10/1.

 

Meet Tony Goncalves

Tony’s spiritual work lives at the intersection of prayer, ritual, healing, and spiritual disruption. Rooted in his love of chanting mantras on malas and praying the rosary, his path has also involved breaking apart inherited spiritual practices and asking what still feels alive inside them. Much of his work explores healing religious and patriarchal trauma while bringing sacred traditions into honest relationship with the world we are living in now rather than the hierarchical and often disconnected systems from which many of them emerged.

Over the years, Tony has created and facilitated a wide range of nontraditional rosaries and prayer experiences, including practices centered on climate change, the five senses, the natural elements, and inter-spiritual practices inspired by Green Tara. A growing focus of his work has been healing and restoring the divine masculine through mythic exploration, including the creation of a transformational journey exploring the healing of the Minotaur as a sacred masculine archetype. His work draws wisdom from multiple traditions, though he never feels bound by any single one.

At the heart of his work is a desire to cultivate compassion, emotional honesty, and healing between the masculine and feminine within himself and others. Through prayer, ritual, and shared reflection, Tony hopes to create spaces where people can encounter the sacred in ways that feel embodied, restorative, untamed, and fully alive.