Well... a lot of things have happened. Obviously, the entire world was thrown into chaos with the coronavirus pandemic. It's definitely been a tough few years. Even now, we're all still recovering, whether from grief, the illness itself, relationships and careers struggling to find their footing once more, life is definitely not what it once was.
A lot of things have changed in the house of Shanti since my last post, so I'm going to catch you all up. You'll have noticed some changes to the website as well, so this will all be explained.
He's not the only addition to the family. In late 2019, we also added two more cats to the furry army. This brings our total to 4 cats, 2 rabbits and a toddler. As you would expect, the house is pure chaos. But all our babies love each other fiercely (even if Cassie the Panther refuses to admit it), so it's a good chaos.
Lockdown and parenthood also caused a shift in my career as I scrambled to find avenues of income that I could use to offset my dance school, which has sadly taken a very big hit due to the pandemic.
Having a lot of time at home meant I had time to get back into my crafting and pick up some new skills. Some of these I put to use for my child- upcycling a crib, decorating some picture frames, knitting and crocheting clothes... I'm sure I did more, but it's escaping me at the moment! After he was born, I took a break and then got stuck into more things, like pyrography, engraving and several different forms of clay and jewellery making. Which left me with a lot of... things. So when Merlyn and Cath set up the Veiled Market, I jumped at the chance to set up a storefront. As time went on, I found myself with enough stock and enough of a following to set up as a trader, and I did my first event at Witchfest Market this November in Feltham. I had a wonderful time and plan to do even more, although I'll still be doing talks and workshops. In fact, I delivered talks at the newly returned Witchfest Midlands and the Artemis Gathering this year, and filled in for Rachel Patterson at Feltham as well.
I also did some other cool things during lockdown. I was asked to contribute a couple of essays to the Moon Books publication Naming The God, which is an anthology of different gods across the world.
I was also part of a group of Pagans to consult with the British Museum for their exhibition "Feminine Power: The Divine To The Demonic", which ran 19th May to 25th September 2022. It was an amazing experience and you can see our response to the exhibition in their blog.
Lastly, I started the Witching Around podcast! I'd been mulling over the idea of a Pagan themed podcast for a while, and then when I mentioned it to Cath and Merlyn, they were incredibly supportive and said they'd sponsor it. So, after some planning, we got the first episode recorded and released. It's so far had a great response and we've had some great guests already. From episode 5 onwards, my good friend Jenny has joined me as my cohost as well and we have so much more lined up, so if you haven't already, do like and subscribe!
Whew... well, I think that's everything. I will endeavour to write more.
Blessings,
Shanti
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