The Mysteria Mundi Project
Writing, translations, and other resources that bring the wisdom of the Ancient Mediterranean ancestors to modern spiritual nerds
Dear readers,
It feels so good to be in contact with you again. I’ve had quite a difficult 2022—Long Covid and the death of my beloved partner have been just two of the lowlights so far. But in my experience as someone who has lived with PTSD for 35+ years, trauma’s shadow is often accompanied by unexpected and sometimes illuminating gifts. In this case, it’s brought me the gift of needing to slow down and rethink.
A new medium: the Mysteria Mundi Substack
What I had originally planned as an online school (which some of you may have visited) needs to take a new form—something simpler and easier for me to manage according to the whims of my body-mind-spirit, which is much more unpredictable these days than it has been in the past.
So…with great pleasure, I announce the opening of this Mysteria Mundi Substack site, which will be my primary mode for transmitting my writings, teachings, and translations of Ancient Mediterranean wisdom traditions that help us attune more fully to our shimmering, living cosmos.
Another Option for Learning: my Podia site where you can buy classes and seminars
As of March 2023, I’m launching a second site (on Podia) where you can purchase recordings of classes, seminars, and talks I’ve given in other venues. This is a great way to get a more comprehensive overview of some of the basics of the Orphic tradition, or a way to dive more deeply into a single topic that is covered in-depth in a seminar.
Back to this Mysteria Mundi substack: What will you get with your Subscription?
For free subscribers
I’ll be offering regular newsletters containing my musings on topics related to ancient and modern animist cosmologies. And anything else that catches my fancy.
As a paid subscriber
You’ll get the newsletter, of course, but you’ll receive
my personal translations of ancient Greek esoteric texts, beginning with some poems of Sappho and the Orphic Hymns to the planets. These will come out as they are completed—usually about once or twice a month—and will include a brief commentary along with each text.
audio recordings of the translations in English and ancient Greek
Other audio-visual material and/or links
As a “Founding Member”
You’ll receive all of the above plus the joy and good juju that comes to you from the knowledge that you are deeply supporting my work. And in return for that support, you’ll get:
20% off any courses or seminars I offer
Why subscribe?
Let’s face it: you may already own a copy of the Orphic Hymns, or Anne Carson’s gorgeous translations of Sappho. You may also follow the many other excellent teachers out there on ancient astrology, myth, and magic. And there certainly are a TON of people out there telling you how to live your life. So what makes this site different?
In a word, I do. What you’re getting here is my particular combination of rigorous academic credentials (see my bio for more details), life experience, AND personal devotional practice.
So, for example: With each translation I go through a process not just of exhaustive research, but also of spiritual inquiry. In meditation, I open myself to receiving guidance from the original author or the object of devotion themselves. “What does Sappho herself think is missing from other translations?” I might ask, as I begin to look at her poems in the original Greek. Or, “What does Mercury Themself want Their hymn to look and sound like?” More than once, I’ve received translation nudges from the ethers—insights that I can’t claim as my own, but that come as gifts to me through my intuitive process.
And this same type of process informs my essay-writing as well. And pretty much everything else I do.
Ready to subscribe yet? I hope so.
If you are able to subscribe as a paying member, please do. It helps to feed me and my little family. And if not, but you find value from it, please share the free newsletter widely. (I kindly ask that you NOT share the paid material, since that is my means of support.)
Thank you from the bottom of my cosmically wired and connected heart,
Kristin