Author Archives: Jessica Reidy

About Jessica Reidy

Jessica Reidy worked on her MFA in Fiction at Florida State University and holds a B.A. from Hollins University. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and has appeared in Narrative Magazine as Short Story of the Week, The Los Angeles Review, The Missouri Review, and other journals. She’s Managing Editor for VIDA: Women in the Literary Arts, Art Editor for The Southeast Review, Visiting Professor for the Cambridge Writers' Workshop retreats, Outreach Editor for Quail Bell Magazine, and works as an adjunct professor and a freelance editor and writer. She also teaches yoga and works her Romani (Gypsy) family trades, fortune telling, energy healing, and dancing. Jessica is currently writing her first novel set in post-WWII Paris about Coco Charbonneau, the half-Romani burlesque dancer and fortune teller of Zenith Circus, who becomes a Nazi hunter. Visit her online at www.jessicareidy.com.

Romani Resistance Day

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‪It’s #RomaniResistanceDay commemorating the day Roma & Sinti prisoners of Auschwitz took the damn place apart, fashioning weapons out of scraps of wood, metal, and anything else they found, and then drove back guards to delay execution. And the Romani and Sinti communities are still dismantling oppression today.

#OpreRoma ‬

Here are some links if you would like to read more about this important day in history, and the Romani and Sinti genocide of WWII.

https://romediafoundation.wordpress.com/2016/05/16/16-may-romani-resistance-day/

https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/forgotten-history-romani-resistance

http://2august.eu/the-roma-genocide/16-may-romani-resistence-day/

Also check out Jud Nirenberg’s phenomenal book, Johann Trollmann and Romani Resistance to The Nazis, free on Kindle and totally worth it in paperback.

#WeirdHoroscopes Week of May 13th

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It’s time for my #WeirdHoroscopes for the week of May 13th! Live by them.

Taurus: Change is coming from within you in the form of an Athena-like lightning-burst out through your skull. Allow this new, sassy-smart electricity being to revamp everything from your wardrobe to your nervous system. Crackle onward!

Gemini: There is a sentient seashell in your ribcage. Pry open the bone-hinge, hold it to your ear, & listen. It’s whispers are calling b.s. & telling good truths, for it is all-knowing. Put your faith in yourself, your voice, & in psychic seashell.

Cancer: As it happens, your myriad, shimmering, weird impulses are the guiding force to the world’s happiness. Unlock the tiny bird-sized door of your throat & let the bluebird of your happy weirdness voice its prophetic delights!

Leo: you woke up this morning as the regent of a technicolor kingdom you didn’t know existed. Guide your surprise-subjects with blood wisdom & the intelligent ruby embedded in your guts. It scents change & demands fiery glitter. Be the ruler we deserve.

Virgo: You’ve been keeping dreams under your tongue like lozenges to soothe you but what if you glitter-spit those dreams into the world’s face & let the glorious spatter guide you to adventures that you only dared dream before. SPIT IN THE WORLD’S FACE, DARLING

Libra: You want to use leg magic to run away, but instead pirouette to the skeletons in your closet & invite them to high tea. Do feelings together over finger sandwiches & whatever skeletons eat (finger sandwiches?), even irrational ones. Ask them for advice.

Scorpio: Are you giving away parts of your flesh, bones, & eternal soul for free? The masses’ demand for you is akin to the Catholic mystic body cult’s demand for saint relics. Don’t let the people imbibe your magic ashes. You need them… for reasons.

Sagittarius: Don’t look back at failed adventures & shake your head. Look deep into your emerald veins & see that the present is an ever-churning river of blood magic, & you‘re tubing down like, WHOA, who’s even steering this fate innertube!? You are, baby. You.

Capricorn: Create balance in your busy life by running around in circles flinging coffee everywhere & shouting about how busy you are. Then, take to the hills & gather your talking animals friends for a lovely yet comforting story hour, & sleep beneath the stars.

Aquarius: Transform into a nymph, sprite, or scary merperson & let the enchanted waterfalls power-wash away all that no longer serves you. Pay no mind to the cynical squirrel guardians who say change is impossible. They’re just pissed their TV pilot didn’t sell.

Pisces: Try writing the conspiracy theories for a change. You have the wit to actually make them fun. Plus you also have the latent chaos-creator magic to make them true. That explains why you’re so good at visualization manifestation, like The Secret. Too good.

Aries: You awoke to find your body became a Transformer-style crime-fighting robo-suit. Collaborate with the team of friendly scientists who manifested in your bathroom to make the best of your new gear, talents, & life purpose. Also avoid emotional spending $$$

Featured Image by Melly Kay, Custom No. 109, 2013

Gypsy Holiday Ederlezi and Spring Purity

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This is pretty belated, but on May 6th I was lucky to perform at an Ederlezi celebration in Brooklyn. Sometimes the night is so good that you forget to document it until much later. Ederlezi is a spring holiday for Roma in the Balkans, and a variant on St. George’s Day. There’s a lot of singing, dancing, flower-throwing, and feasting of lamb to imbibe its purity and thus be renewed. Much of Romani spirituality centers on spiritual purification, and this holiday is a beautiful testament to this. Each activity cleanses the soul, and whenever possible, the holiday is celebrated by a river to bathe in and throw in flowers for luck.

My Romani family doesn’t actually celebrate the holiday because my ancestors settled in Western Europe, but I love the holiday and like to observe it in my own small way. This year, it was by dancing, singing, & invoking Sara la Kali at X Marks the Loft. So many thanks to JunXion for creating this beautiful event to celebrate the Balkan Romani holiday of spring and renewal. I’m also very grateful to the Bulgarian Voices Trio, who gave such a beautiful performance and then helped me sing “Ederlezi” because I’m not really a singer actually…. Check out their beautiful music. Joro Boro also provided us great music & energy, and a real love for the holiday and for the Romani people. I was also touched by the way Chef Davo prepared the lamb so mindfully, slaughtering it himself with the respect and solemnity the holiday calls for, and pouring his intention for the holiday into cooking a delicious feast. We talked a little in Romanes, though mine is very broken due to my family losing the language in the war, and I learned that he lived alongside Roma back in Bulgaria and has a great affinity for the culture. The whole night I felt the respect and love of Romani allies who really wanted me there and encouraged me to share part of the Romani community’s culture.

Also, t his is my favorite rendition of the song “Ederlezi” by Haimana Gipsy Band, featuring Tatiana Eva Marie

💚❤️💙

#WeirdHoroscopes Week of May 6th

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Here are the slightly belated #WeirdHoroscopes for the week of May 6th by Jezmina Von Thiele, delayed because of the underworld of finals. Have a weird week, babies.

#Taurus You have the ability to speak with the wind, & it’s as sick of bullshit as you are. You & the wind are the ultimate power couple, calling the ethereal shots between pillow talk & erosion. Use your joined powers for hilarious pranks & more noble ends.

#Gemini If your version of reality doesn’t match others’ then the lesson you should take away is that reality is meaningless & we are but the brilliant scatterings of light flung from the void’s disco ball. Don’t let the universe gaslight you. Get up to get down

#Cancer It’s the ideal time to lead a rebel army of affectionate puppies & assorted baby animals. Take to the streets with extreme cuddling. Stage a hostile takeover of the UN & do not relent until everyone has snuggled & frolicked to peace. It’s your destiny.

#Leo You’re lucky that you alone know how your friends should run their lives & how the universe should be arranged. Expect an invitation to star in a reality TV show in which you join the pantheon of divine beings & intervene as desired. Shit’s gonna get cray.

#Virgo You are going to makeout with a chaos fairy & leave a trail of mayhem & destruction, like blood-soaked flowers traipsing from a murder scene—the liberating murder of your ego, of perfectionism, & also an actual murder. Have a good time, baby.

#Libra The Roma believe that Death is a beautiful woman & it’s true. She wants you to look your fear of loss in the eye, cloak yourself in your most toxic perfume, & get sexy. Your children will be bats, then charming ghosts, & you & your death will rule eternity

#Scorpio You have fought with god & won. Lilith will throw you a celebratory witches’ soirée this week. The attire will be sabbath casual, black cat optional, bring your our goblin. Try the punch. It’s definitely not blood.

#Sagittarius it’s time to balance your side hustles. Working dark magic by night, ferrying sacred crocodiles across the Nile by day, and reassembling Osiris to impregnate yourself with the sun king is too much for any winged being. Streamline, baby soul.

#Capricorn If you are bearing the guilt of ages, let down your burdens. You are not the reason why Rome burnt while Nero fiddled, or why all those Vermeers, or why your closets are full of dead spiders. Go outside & scream ABSOLUTELY NOT to absolve yourself.

#Aquarius You have built an intricate underground system of tunnels & refuse to resurface, but some of the world’s greatest leaders were also gophers or lived among them. Let your subterranean friends lift you up, figuratively, & help you find your power.

#Pisces If you feel an urge to test the laws of gravity, refrain. You have people who support you, but not on this. Your perceptive lunar magic is powerful but gravity is a mistress who will not be ignored. Look at the ground & say, I ACCEPT, to clear your heart

#Aries Instead of slaying the dragon, become the dragon. Toughen your flesh into scales, hoard treasure in an enchanted mountain cave, & study fire breathing at the circus. You’ll find your life becomes richer, warmer, & more varied.

Featured Image by Debra, “Premonition Machine,” 2013

Beltane!

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Three of Disks

Today marks the Pagan spring holiday, Beltane, the time when the veil between us and the elemental spirits is thinnest. It’s the perfect time for divination, dreams, wishes, and making out. The holiday celebrates the divine, sexy union between the god and goddess, and the cosmic birth that follows, propelling the wheel of the year forward.

I pulled a tarot card to see what wisdom the spring will impart, and it was the Three of Discs. This card heralds cooperation amongst friends and colleagues to help you manifest your dreams into reality. It’s a good time for business growth and working on projects. Collaboration brings you and your peeps great success.

Here are some fun, simple things to do!

I made these midnight muffins

Make honeyed bread to celebrate the return of the sun, fertility (of all kinds), and sweetness. I used this flourless banana bread muffins recipe from Running with Spoons.
Buy flowers for your home, especially bright happy flowers
Make a flower crown and just own it. Check out this post by Arcane Alchemy about its history and how to make one!
Pull a tarot or oracle card and ask for a message for the spring. If you’re not sure what it means, you can look up definitions online. It’s also a great time to have your cards read by a friend or professional.
Tie ribbons on a tree or bush representing your wishes for the spring and ask the fae or earth elementals to help you manifest them, or make a wishing tree like this one from Mooky Chick.
Actually frolic around a Maypole
Jump over a small fire or candle for good luck, or a broom stick if you’re not feeling the flames. You can do this with a partner and make it sexy/a show of your dedication to each other.
Interpret your dreams
Make out with someone you like. It’s a total makeout holiday.

However simple or elaborate your celebration is, give thanks for the new surge of life coming your way, and enjoy the magic.

Featured image of tulips by shickadeaz

Flowers in Brooklyn

Weird Horoscopes Week of May 1st, 2018

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#WeirdHoroscopes Week of May 1st, 2018 by Jezmina Von Thiele

Taurus After the full moon, your dreams will answer your most pressing questions about love, magic, & adequate hydration. Yes, even that dream about harmonizing with an all-spider a capella group. Especially that one. Keep a dream journal bound in fairy spittle.

Gemini The great thing about being dazzling is that everyone is drawn to you, but the terrible thing is also that everyone is drawn to you. It’s the clove cigarette paradox. Consider dabbling in some well-meaning psychic manipulation. Read Circe’s secret diaries

Cancer Whether or not you meant to, at the full moon, you supped on the youth of the world’s children, & you will never age. However, now you have the whims & fancies of an unrestrained child, & you must do your best to indulge the delightful madness that ensues

Leo Forget burning your candle at both ends. You doused the candle pile in gasoline, struck a match, then stalked away in slow motion. Are you busting yourself because of your childhoo–NOPE. Don’t look back there. It’s haunted. Buy a citrine quartz & take a nap

Virgo Listen, Satan has crush on you. You’re that cool. Your phone has been oozing hell-slime off the hook & disembodied emails are scrabbling at your threshold. It’s vampire rules: Just don’t invite him in & continue to slay. But keep the baby bat. Sooo cute!

Libra When was the last time you read through your old grimoires? Pore over the centuries of spells & stream-of-consciousness punning in search of codes from your higher self. Practice deep listening & draw boundaries with a poisoned athame. Your needs come 1st!

Scorpio You are in love with the moon, & she is changeable. She gifted you oceans, but full of sea monsters. You gifted her the starlight you secrete from the special gland all Scorpios have. It’s ok to ask the moon for commitment, balance, & splitsies dinners

Sagittarius You have crushed every bad thing that happened to you through your powerful cocktail of battle strategy & black magic. Now that the past is literally dead to you, light an arrow on fire & shoot it into a forest. The tree it hits will tell your future

Capricorn Hold interviews for your dream coven by inviting your friends into your dreams using tincture of mugwort & blue lotus, & a portkey. Set them psychic tasks & only let in the loves who wow you with kindness & green witchery. You deserve stellar support.

Aquarius When your subconscious fears materialize as, say, spiderbears, hold the offal of your terror-consciousness up to the crystalline light that pours in through your ceiling. It’s there to remind you that you are wonderful & to destroy, say, bloodeagles.

Pisces The full moon calls you to create your own spirituality. You don’t have to start by summoning hot Jesus from the Madonna video but you can! You have already have divine spirits from ethereal realms speaking through you, so preach from here to the YMCA!

Aries You are illuminated from within, literally emanating silvery lunar light from your skin, highlighting all aspects of your life, truth, & the universe. You can’t look away. No one can. It’s part of the curse. Learn from your light as you hover above mortals

Romani Rapper Nancy Black is the edgy anti-Nazi boom you’ve been looking for

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The idea of the Gypsy woman performer conjures so many exoticized and sexualized stereotypes, and Nancy Black shatters them all with her new song “Trushula,” which is translated into English, calling out Nazi culture and Roma who have turned on their community with powerful lyrics and seriously boom beats. Check out her out on Instagram and her blog. Keep an eye out for her upcoming album, too. She is seriously something.

Image by Chris Hawes

Weird Horoscopes Week of 4/22/2018

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Photo by Nicola Albertini

#WeirdHoroscopes for the week of 4/22/2018

#Taurus: all acts of love & beauty are in your name this week, so ask mirror mirror on the wall what your self care should look like. Keep your spells & ruby apples for yourself, & rock that cape with a collar day & night.

#Gemini now is the time to bathe in donkey’s milk, encase your heart in golden honey, & teach your little asp to be your accomplice instead of your executioner. See how many bangles y’all can sneak out of the pyramids between you

#Cancer How can you best serve the Mother Darksome & Divine, & in turn, yourself? Try tattooing your lover in their sleep, mentoring at-risk bats, or start a school for wayward girls with pyrokinesis. Find the right cause to bring you back to your clawed heart.

#Leo If you are bored, it’s not you. It’s them. Your mantra: Be the gala at the haunted mansion. Be the reason the portraits’ eyes follow you through a room. Like, attracts like, dear Leo, & you’re well on your way to catching the eye of a charismatic succubus.

#Virgo It’s great that you appreciate aesthetics, but stop hiring your friends from model casting calls. Instead, summon some of the lovelier daemons from the realm of ether & fog. That #squad is much more your speed. Go hit the clubs!

#Libra Love is waiting for you in unexpected places, like secret passageways, a plucky werewolf pack, a forgotten pharaoh’s cursed tomb. Love is like The Hanged Man, upended, making it rain, loosely referencing ravens picking out your liver, but for the better!

#Scorpio Dress for the vigilante antihero job you want, not the one you have. Whether you’re more of a Mata Hari or Punisher, think carefully about the props you need—poison darts? Pitchforks?—what they say about you, & the energy they attract from the throngs

#Sagittarius If things don’t go@your way, make the chaos entertaining, like the Boschian nightmares you know & love. Let the farm animals indoors, fill the wells with perfume, adopt a tarantula, go to magic camp! It might be the most fun you have this year.

#Capricorn When was the last time you rolled around on the floor for the sheer pleasure of it? Or made friends with the rats at the park or on the subway? Prioritize glee. Teach a religious leader how to hula-hoop. Quit the banal. Become the Emperor of Ice Cream.

#Aquarius go outside, take a deep breath, & build the enchanted citadel you dreamt of through the long winter & planned with the thousands-year-old angels. Now is the time for your plans to blossom into gargoyles, flying buttresses, & architectural cryptomancy.

#Pisces What do you need to create an impenetrable sense of home? Whether you fill your garden with the top 10 poisonous plants, or build a thrifty diy fence of recycled daggers, be sure to give offerings to your house spirit & call your alien overlord collect.

#Aries Even the war gods need to chillax once in a while. Bring Cerberus, your three-headed puppy, out for a long walk in the sulphuric fjords, fashion a hammock from the flesh of your enemies, and just let the world melt away. Tiny umbrellas for your chalice!

Romani Gypsy fortune telling, poetry, and family history interview with Agape Editions

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Photo by Viktor Pachas

I had so much fun being interviewed by Eniko Vaghy of Agape Editions for their series Cards on the Table. I discuss the relationship between Romani “Gypsy” fortune telling and persecution, my family’s line of Romani medicine work, eclectic witch magic, writing techniques using tarot, my rituals before reading for clients, and lots more! I loved Eniko’s thoughtful questions, and I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

Weird Horoscopes: Week of April 16, 2018

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Weird Horoscopes by Jezmina Von Thiele! Here are my best cryptic predictions to keep you healthy and whole this week.

#Aries:You’ve been bowing to the powerful specter who lives inside you for too long. No one tells you what to do! Not even your own specter. Now is the time to rise up inside yourself & implement a ruthless revolution. & then treat yo’self to a sheet mask or date night.

#Taurus: You need to build an R&R-burrow to do some feelings, & because you draw comfort from tangible things, demand that the spirits of ether manifest. Let the archangels burn with splendor! Because for you, it isn’t real unless it’s right there blazing in your self-care bunker.

#Gemini: All the shady AF creatures you invited to your glam nocturnal garden parties are kind of douchey, so you’ve whisked yourself away to smokier realms. Stick to high standards for your infamous social calendar from now on. Enchanted fawns and Sumerian serpent priestesses only.

#Cancer: Your ambition to build the best crystal-shell palace is admirable, & your often-unseen blood-thirst for success is Queenly. Make sure your creatures will aid you in your deeds, & support your journey to be better than everyone. The bonding that follows is transcendent.

#Leo: If you’re wondering if everything is a lie & your anxiety is manifesting as hoards of spiders crawling up the walls, you’re right where you’re supposed to be. The new moon is an excellent time to take up hatchet throwing AND and hatchet burying. & maybe buy a funky crystal.

#Virgo: Everyone is really into you telling them what to do. People will probably pay you to do it, so dig deep & sweetly delve into their childhood issues in the boardroom. You’ll have your CEO crying like a baby & handing you that promotion in no time. You’re THAT delightful!

#Libra: If you’ve been disappointed by people recently, they’re stupid. Appeal to the magic boar of the forest to bring your true peeps (alive). Y’all might be scared at first bc the boar is bigger than expected, but open your heart, for he is gentle, & will also bring scones.

#Scorpio: This week is all about rituals. Add a drop of dove’s blood to your bath (or pomegranate for vegans!) invoking the powers of sex and death. Cast spells from your desk with a discreet athame & that candle from Karen. Illustrate your grimoire with the black ichor of ages.

#Sagittarius: Have you been practicing your insect orchestra? The world is taken with your immense creative talent, as well as the thousand glittering eyes of your garage band. It’s time for you to monetize this. Humans & bats alike applaud your hard & unfathomable work.

#Capricorn: It’s like you’re writing your tell-all memoir to let people know what you will absolutely not tolerate, who should have behaved better, & who the real hero/ine is after all. & then a steamy romance novel about a tortured painter/werewolf lover that slowly comes true….

#Aquarius: To-do lists are too subtle for you. Now that you clawed your way out of darkness, you need totemic gauges in the altar you’ve made to your gods of blood, love, & magic. Hunt obscure ingredients at the new moon with the nocturnal gusto of a predator. This is #selfcare

#Pisces: Did you know that witches used “flying ointment,” an orgasmic herbal vaginal salve that made the user transcendent with pleasure? This is#goals for all areas of your life. You are in luxury so intense that it could be a religion. Do it up, merwitch style.

Featured image: Night Blossoms, 2018, Jezmina Von Thiele