About
Queen Mama Donna
Donna Henes is an internationally renowned urban shaman, award-winning author, popular speaker, and workshop leader
whose joyful celebrations of celestial events have introduced ancient traditional rituals and contemporary ceremonies to
millions of people in more than 100 cities since 1972. She has published four books, a CD, an acclaimed quarterly journal
and writes a column for UPI (United Press International) Religion and Spirituality Forum. Mama Donna, as she is affectionately called, maintains a ceremonial center, spirit shop, ritual practice and consultancy in Exotic Brooklyn, NY where she works with individuals, groups, institutions, municipalities and corporations to create meaningful ceremonies for every imaginable occasion.
Read her blog at:
http://queenmamadonna.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/queenmamadonna
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Consult the
Midlife Midwife
The transition from Maiden and Mother to Queen can be a difficult one, fraught with hard lessons and lots of loss. It takes great determination and courage to confront and embrace the changes brought about by the midlife passage.
It can be really helpful during this confusing time to have the inspiration, advice and encouragement of a counselor, coach, or mentor - someone who has been there and done that and is ready to help you do the same.
Queen Mama Donna offers upbeat, practical and ceremonial guidance for individual women and groups who want to enjoy the fruits of an enriching, influential, purposeful, passionate, and powerful maturity.
TURN YOUR MIDLIFE CRISIS INTO YOUR CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT!
For more information, call 718-857-1343 or email the Queen at thequeenofmyself@aol.com
Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.
-Lucille Ball
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Good News!
The Queen of My Self is now in its second printing! To celebrate this milestone and as a measure of my appreciation, I am offering a complimentary Great Women Rulers of the World ruler for every book ordered through the website www. The queenofmyself.com.
ORDER YOUR AUTOGRAPHED COPY NOW
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A Queen Event
Near You
GLOBAL
January 7, 2008
Monday 10PM EST 7PM PST
Women's Voices with Kristin Suratt
KZYX Mendocino, CA
http://www.kzyx.org/joomla/
March 19, 2008
Wednesday 9PM EST 6PM PST
Voices of the Sacred Feminine Internet Radio
Interview with Karen Tate
www.karentate.com/Tate/radio_show.html
June 3, 2008
Tuesday 11AM EST, 2PM PST
Third Age Radio
www.thirdagefoundation.com
NEW YORK
March 8
International Women's Day
Saturday 11AM-5PM
A WOMAN'S GUIDE TO POWER:
CLAIM IT! EMBRACE IT! USE IT!
Mama Donna's Tea Garden
$100. (advance registration required)
Call 718 857-1343
www.thequeenofmyself.com
March 22
Saturday 5PM
VERNAL RENEWAL RITUAL
The Community Center
208 West 13th Street (between 7 & 8 Avenue)
Manhattan
$6.
Information and registration:
(212) 222-2467
PENNSYLVANIA
March 27, 2008
Thursday 6:30 PM
Power: Claim it! Embrace it! Share it!
Keynote Speech
Women of Intention (outside guests welcome)
Harrisburg, PA
Information and registration:
(717) 774-1275
VickiFoxPro@aol.com
www.vickifoxproductions.com
$25.00 Includes dinner and talk
March 28, 2008
Friday 10AM - 8PM
Individual Tarot Readings with Mama Donna
Harrisburg, PA
Information and registration:
(717) 774-1275
VickiFoxPro@aol.com
www.vickifoxproductions.com
$100. (Special $50. discount!)
March 29, 2008
Saturday 10:00AM - 4:00PM
The Queen Of My Self Workshop
Radiance
9 W. Grant Street
Lancaster, PA 17603
Reservations required
Information and registration:
717 290-1517
labyrinthherbs@aol.com
$90
March 30, 2008
Individual Tarot Readings with Mama Donna
Radiance
9 W. Grant Street
Lancaster, PA 17603
Reservations required
Information and registration:
717 290-1517
labyrinthherbs@aol.com
$100. (Special $50. discount!)
CONNECTICUT
May 31-June 1, 2008
Saturday 10AM-9PM & Sunday 10AM-3PM
Wise Woman's Guide to Power Weekend Retreat
Someday Farm
272 Roast Meat Hill Road
Killingworth, CT 06419
Information and registration:
860-663-2768
someday.farm@snet.net
$275. if paid by May 10, 2008
$295. thereafter
Includes workshop tuition, four meals, one night's lodging,
labyrinth walk, fire ceremony, crown and amulet bag.
PENNSYLVANIA
June 12-15, 2008
Thursday-Sunday
Womongathering
Mama Donna will be giving several workshops at this annual
gathering.
Information and registration:
856-694-2037
www.womongathering.com
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Have Crown, Will Travel!
To discuss booking Queen Mama Donna for a reading, presentation or workshop in your area, call her at 718-857-1343 or e-mail her at TheQueenOfMySelf@aol.com
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Kudos to the Queens!
Saundra Mandel, CA and Susun Weed, NY on the birth of their first grandchildren.
Nancy Azara, NY, Darla Bjork, NY, Karen Fitzgerald, NY, Aviva Rahmani, ME, and Barbara T. Smith, CA on the exhibitions of their artwork.
Janet Conner, FL, Writing Down Your Soul, and Puja Thomson, NY, After Shock: From Cancer Diagnosis to Healing, on the publication of their new books.
Gwen Goldsmith, NY, Victoria Moran, NY, Patricia Smith, NY, and Shirley Taylor, NY on their new homes.
Hilary Mandel, BC, Canada on her new position as Director of Development for Smart Growth BC. |
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Circle of Concern
Please send your requests for physical and spiritual healing and positive energy so that the powerful women of The Queen's Court might send their prayers and blessings to you in your time of need.
Healing and Peace of Mind
Amy, TX, Amy, NY, Cristina, NY,
Deni, NY, Donna, NY, Gail, OH,
Geraldine, CA, Irma, FL, Jeanmarie, CA,
Jo, AZ, Kimi, NJ, Letitia, VA, Lillian, NY,
Marjorie, NY, Marsha, NY, Naomi, NJ,
Naomi, MD, Vila, IN, Yvette, NY
Rest in Peace
Dandelion the Dachshund
Joanna Kouns
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The Queen's Emporium
Make sure to visit The Queen's Emporium, which specializes in all manner of elegant, practical, and frivolous goods to fulfill all the royal needs and fantasies of The Queen of Your Self. Therein you will find a choice collection of goods to augment and accessorize your royal prerogative.
Anoint, Adorn, Enjoy!
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Hail Queens!
Well, it has been quite a ride since the last issue of The Queen's Chronicles was published. Or, to be more precise, it has been a non-ride, a total no-go for nearly two months.
I had a bad fall, right here in my office. I don't know what happened. Falling is a funny (though definitely NOT humorous) thing. One minute you are going about your business and the next, you are on the floor.
To make a long, painful convalescence short, I have had an enforced period of rest and slow living, which I have so desperately needed for a very long time. Which is probably why I fell in the first place. My body really needed to sit down and stay put for a while. For weeks on end, as it turned out.
I have had quite a few nasty falls in my adult life, five this year alone. Some people fall ill when they are overworked and overwhelmed. I just fall. Fall down on the job, as it were. I keep keeping on until I am standing on my last leg which can no longer support me. And so then I fall.
Clearly the lesson is in learning my own limitations. In honoring my own exhaustion. In slowing down for a change. In stopping while I am still standing. In being kind and indulgent to my Self. In respecting my royal prerogative to rest when I feel like it.
Sound familiar?
We Queens live lives enriched by our own hard won sense of purpose, passion and power. We live in an expanded universe of possibility as we strive to fulfill our own best potential, and at the same time further the causes that we promote for the good of all.
We hold positions of influence and responsibility. We are directed and enthusiastic. We are excited and charged. We are also, some of us, driven. There is, after all, so much to do and so little time. We are raring to go. And go. And go.
My dear, regal sisters, we mustn't allow ourselves to get carried away by busyness. (Do you hear me, Queen Mama Donna?) It is so easy for the demands of the outer world to lure us away from our essential Selves, to sever us from our own inner center of gravity.
All you need is deep within you waiting to unfold and reveal itself. All you have to do is be still and take time to seek for what is within, and you will surely find it.
-Eileen Caddy
This internal/eternal Self is what gives us our energy, our inspiration and our moral authority. If we lose contact with our soul being, we lose our balance, our perspective and our effectiveness. We lose everything.
We must, for the sake of our Selves, for the sake of each other, for the sake of our entire beleaguered planet, make our Self-care become a priority. Let us take the time to nap, to meditate, to walk under the trees, to stare out the window. Time to be. There is so much at stake.
You must learn to be still in the midst of activity
and to be vibrantly alive in repose.
-Indira Gandhi
We must be vigilant Queens, unrelenting in the defense of the sanctity and sovereignty of our own Self-concern - physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual - if we are to be fit, wise and worthy enough to rule our domains.
May we enter this new year with both feet on the ground and our ideals and ethics, our prayers and blessings, our best intentions of love and peace soaring above in celestial majesty.
With best regal blessings,
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Tribute to the Queen of a Democratic Dream
Benazir Bhutto June 21, 1953 - December 27, 2007
Benazir Bhutto, twice the popularly elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, was assassinated in Rawalpindi at a campaign rally for her reelection. She was 54 years old.
Bhutto was born in Karachi, Pakistan to a prominent political family. At 16 she left her homeland to study at Harvard's Radcliffe College where she completed her undergraduate degree. She obtained her graduate degree at Oxford University in England in 1977.
Later that year she returned to Pakistan where her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had been elected prime minister, but days after her arrival, the military seized power and had her father imprisoned and ultimately hanged.
Bhutto herself was also arrested many times over the following years, and was detained for three years before being permitted to leave the country in 1984. She settled in London, where along with her two brothers, she founded an underground organization to resist the military dictatorship. When she returned to Pakistan in 1985 for her brother's burial, she was again arrested for participating in anti-government rallies.
After her release, she went back to London but returned to Pakistan in 1986 to join the seething anti-government movement. The public response to her return was tumultuous, and she publicly called for the resignation of Zia Ul Haq, whose government had executed her father. Her personal grief never embittered her. Democracy was the best revenge.
When free elections were finally held in 1988, she became Prime Minister. At 35, she was one of the youngest chief executives in the world, and the first woman to serve as prime minister in an Islamic country.
I had faith in myself. I had always felt that I could become Prime Minister if I wanted.
Only two years into her first term, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissed Bhutto from office. She initiated an anti-corruption campaign, and in 1993 was re-elected as Prime Minister.
Bhutto's platform has always been leftist, including food for the hungry, health care, jobs, slum clearance, housing, and a monthly minimum wage. While in office, she brought electricity to the countryside and built schools all over the country, and looked forward to continuing to modernize Pakistan.
In 1996 the Guinness Book of Records named her "The world's most popular politician." Due to Queen Benazir's personal world popularity, Pakistan's relation with other countries improved during her terms. Her moderate foreign policy has been credited for improving the wrong image of Pakistan around the world, however domestically she and her party have been widely blamed for excessive corruption.
President Leghari of Pakistan dismissed Benazir Bhutto from office in 1996, alleging mismanagement, and dissolved the National Assembly. A Bhutto re-election bid failed in 1997, and the next elected government, headed by conservatives, was overthrown by the military. Bhutto's husband was imprisoned, and once again, she was forced to leave her homeland.
For nine years, she and her three children lived in exile in London and Bahrain, where she continued to advocate the restoration of democracy in Pakistan. Finally, in the face of death threats from radical Islamists, and the hostility of the Musharraf government, she returned to her native country on October 18, 2007 to seek reelection as Prime Minister.
It's true that General Musharraf opposes my return, seeing me as a symbol of democracy in the country. He is comfortable with dictatorship. I hope better sense prevails.
She was greeted by enthusiastic crowds, and within hours of her arrival, her motorcade was attacked by a suicide bomber. She survived this first assassination attempt, although more than 100 bystanders died in the attack. With national elections scheduled for January 2008, her Pakistan People's Party was poised for a victory that would make Bhutto prime minister once again.
She returned to Pakistan because she was a genuine leader who felt that the battle for democracy in Pakistan was her calling. A brave woman undeterred by the repeated threats of death, Queen Benazir walked on to Pakistan's deadly political stage to make the ultimate sacrifice. She fought for people's rights until her last.
The next few months are critical to Pakistan's future direction as a democratic state committed to promoting peace, fighting terrorism and working for social justice.
Only a few weeks before the election, the extremists struck again. A gunman fired at her car before detonating a bomb, killing himself and more than 20 bystanders. Bhutto was rushed to the hospital, but soon succumbed to injuries suffered in the attack.
In the wake of her death, rioting erupted throughout the country. The loss of the country's most popular democratic leader has plunged Pakistan into turmoil, intensifying the dangerous instability of a nuclear-armed nation in a highly volatile region.
Queen Benazir leaves a legacy of a courageous no-holds-barred struggle for democracy. At her final rally she thundered: "Your country and my country is at risk. This government cannot handle this. We will defend it. We will handle it through people's force."
In her last speeches, she repeatedly said that she wanted a place in people's hearts. This she has certainly found. In her death, Benazir has become the inspiration and rallying cry for millions fighting for a democratic Pakistan. Nasim Zehra, an Islamabad-based national security strategist eulogized her by writing, "For millions she is the queen of hearts."
Democracy is necessary to peace and to undermining the forces of terrorism.
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Introducing The Queen's Court
The Queen's Court is a gathering of sovereign women of a certain age -
our dear peers - who graciously offer guidance, inspiration and
encouragement to each other.
We Queens know what we know. And
we know a great deal. Our experience has made us wise. So, feel free to
consult with our cyber-counsel when you are need of sage advice or wish
to explore a particular topic of interest.
We
don't accomplish anything in this world alone...and whatever happens is
the result of the whole tapestry of one's life and all the weavings of
individual threads from one to another that creates something.
-Sandra Day O'Conner
Here is our first inquiry. Please send your responses to
thequeenofmyself@aol.com
Your letters will be printed in the next Queen's Chronicles.
Self Destructive Daughters
Dear Mama Donna,
I
am a woman in my Queen years with a thirteen-year-old daughter who is
into "Emo" and cutting herself. She is in therapy, but I feel so alone
and isolated in this situation. Are there any Queen readers of your
letter who have or are experiencing this in their families? And how do
you help your child and keep your sanity in the process? I am hoping
someone your letter reaches has had some experience with this and from
what I've read there are one in fifty people (usually teen girls) who
have a problem with "cutting." My other hope is that this may help
others who are going through this! Any help/advice would be greatly
appreciated. Thank you,
-Morgan, OH
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Turn your midlife crisis into
your crowning achievement! |
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