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. |
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CALLING ALL QUEENS!
The Queen's Chronicles
Offers
upbeat, practical, and ceremonial inspiration for all women who want to
enjoy the fruits of an influential, passionate, and powerful maturity.
I would appreciate it if you would please forward The Queen's Chronicles to people who might value it.
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I feel so inspired and empowered every time we have our consultation.
- Tonya, MI
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!
Further information: www.thequeenofmyself.com
Click on Individual Consultations.
Sessions are available in person and by phone. To make an appointment, call 718-857-1343 or email the Queen at TheQueenOfMySelf@aol.com
Age is getting to know all the ways the world turns, so that if you cannot turn the world the way you want, you can at least get out of the way so you won't get run over.
- Miriam Makeba |
A Queen Event
Near You
GLOBAL
Wednesday, December 3
9PM EST
LIVING JUICY Radio with Edie Weinstein-Moser
www.isysinnervision.com
NEW YORK
NOVEMBER
Monday, November 17
6 Mondays Beginning November 17
November 17, 24,
December 1, 8, 15, 22
7PM
SPIRIT SUPPORT GROUP
with MAMA DONNA HENES
Mama Donna's Tea Garden& Healing Haven
Park Slope, Exotic Brooklyn, NY
Advance reservations required: 718-857-1343
cityshaman@aol.com
$240.
DECEMBER
Saturday & Sunday, December 13-14
12-6PM
SPIRIT SHOP HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE
Enjoy holiday cheer with like-minded folks.
Mama Donna's Tea Garden & Healing Haven
Park Slope, Exotic Brooklyn, NY
For info: 718-857-1343
cityshaman@aol.com
Sunday, December 21
6:30AM
7:04AM Solstice Moment
7:11 Sunrise
REVERENCE TO HER: 34th ANNUAL WINTER SOULSTICE CELEBRATION
Bring back the sun!
Grand Army Plaza
Park Slope, Exotic Brooklyn, NY
FREE
JANUARY
Saturday, January 31
1-4PM
PSYCHIC PROTECTION FROM ENERGY VAMPIRES:
Spirit-Depleting People, Places and Predicaments With Mama Donna Henes, Urban Shaman
Learn how to protect yourself against the predators and parasites who steal away your personal power and resolve.
Mama Donna's Tea Garden & Healing Haven
Park Slope, Exotic Brooklyn, NY
For info: 718-857-1343
cityshaman@aol.com
$40. If prepaid
$50. At the door
FEBRUARY
Saturday, February 28
10-4PM
BECOME THE QUEEN OF YOUR SELF: MEANING, MOXIE AND MAJESTY IN MIDLIFE
A ritual workshop with Mama Donna Henes
The Grace Within
195 Blue Point Avenue
Bluepoint, New York 11715
631-772-6469
thegracewithin@yahoo.com
$100. (includes crown and amulet bag of royal treasures)
MARCH
Sunday, March 1
12-5PM
INTUITIVE TAROT READINGS
With Mama Donna
The Grace Within
195 Blue Point Avenue
Bluepoint, New York 11715
631-772-6469
thegracewithin@yahoo.com
$100. |
Have Crown, Will Travel!
To discuss booking Queen Mama Donna for a reading, presentation, workshop, or a keynote address in your area, call her at 718-857-1343 or e-mail her at TheQueenOfMySelf@aol.com
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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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Imagine Your Ad Here!
Welcome back to our loyal advertisers. Thank you for your support and your desire to network with our fabulous royal readers around the globe. May you be successful in your endeavors and blessed with spiritual and material abundance.
Would you like to offer information about your business to the 4000+ Queens in our royal network across the country and around the world?
Advertising listings in the Queen's Chronicles are available for $50/per issue with significant discounts for ongoing listings.
For more information and to place your order contact: thequeenofmyself@aol.com or call 718-857-1343.
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Royal Resources
for Queenly Women
Our extended circle of Queens includes some mightily talented women. Please support them by availing yourself of their superior services and by buying their excellent products.
Maguire Pubic RelationsExpertise in journalism and marketing qualifies us to position and deliver the news of our clients
Licensed Acupuncturist and Chinese Herbalist.Focusing on women's health and other chronic issues
Psychic reader, medium,
pet communicator
Simple Recipes for Hibachi
Herbal Magic & Sacred Space
SpiritLiving E-Magazine
Offering Everyday, Practical Eco-Spirituality to Connect the Hearts, Minds and Spirits of People Across the Globe
The Dreaming Goddess
Unique gifts for Body, Mind and Spirit Turquoise Specialist For Jewelry DesignersEnhance your designs and create one-of-a-kind pieces with Sleeping Beauty, Campo Frio, Sonoran Nacozari and Kingman Turquoise at the lowest prices on the web! Safe buying guarantee. Fast, dependable delivery. Friendly personal service |
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Kudos to the Queens!
Darla Bjork, NY; Joyce Kozloff, NY; Tiffany Ludwig, NJ; Renee Piechocki, PA; Jane Runyean, PA; and Linda Vallejo, CA; the exhibitions of their art work.
Laurie Sue Brockway, NY, The Goddess Pages: A Divine Guide to Love and Happiness;and Shulamith Burton, MA, Oklahoma! Hex;on their new books.
Michelle Mais, CA; Kay Turner, NY; on their theatrical success.
I am 51 years old, and just completed my first marathon, the Chicago Marathon!!! I trained for seven months, lost 30 pounds in the last year, and had a GREAT time accomplishing my goal. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
- Lisa Flanagan, IL
Send
your good news, achievements, accomplishments, successes and
celebrations so that our international circle of sovereign sisters can
send you blessings and accolades.
And we are glad to so. It is
a joy and a privilege to share in the fortune of another woman. I
recently heard Oprah say the saddest thing ever - "The hardest thing
about being successful is having someone to be glad for you."
It
takes a centered and confident Queen to break that pattern. There are
60 million thrones out there. One for each of us. There is plenty of
purpose, passion and power for us all. May we use it well!
It is important that you recognize your progress and take pride in your accomplishments. Share your achievements with others. Brag a little. The recognition and support of those around you is nurturing.
- Rosemarie Rossetti |
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Circle of Concern
Please
Offer Your Purest Thoughts, Your Heart-Felt Prayers, Your Great Good
Feelings, And Your Very Best Blessings For Healing and Peace of Mind to:
Amy,
NY; Amy, TX; Berenice, NY; Carol. NY, Daile, NY; Deni, NY; Dominique,
NM; Donna, NY; Edie, PA; Gail, OH; Geraldine, CA; Ilene, NY; Irma, FL;
Jo, AZ; Joan, ME; Josie, MI; Kimi, NJ; Letitia, VA; Linda, NJ; Linda,
NY; Lucia, TX; Lynne, NY; Maureen. NY; Marjorie, NY, Naomi, NJ; Randi,
NY; Roberta, NY; Sherli, NY; Susan, MA; and Terry, CA.
May Their Spirits Rest in Peace:
Nancy Cataldi, NY
Miriam Makeba, South Africa
With Sincere Condolences:
Margi Flanagan, NY
Mary Kay Land, OH
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.
A sunbeam to warm you,
A moonbeam to charm you,
A sheltering angel, so nothing can harm you.
- Irish Blessing |
It is my
hope that as more and more women rise to reign in the fullest potential
of our supremacy, we will harness our purpose, passion, and power and
direct it toward creating a more balanced and peaceful world. This is
the legacy of Her majesty.
- QMD
Turn Your Midlife Crisis
into Your Crowning Achievement!
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Hail Queens,
When we expand and grow and the situations of our lives start to flow, when the going is good and the living gets easier, it seems only natural to be thankful. But what about all those times when nothing seems to budge? When we are stuck in the rush hour traffic jam of daily life and our bodies and souls start to feel like banged up bumper cars? When we are tested and pounded and pummeled. When things seem so crazy and out of control we wonder what do we have to be thankful for?
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.
- Melodie Beattie
The greatest gift of the mind is, perhaps, perspective. Our reflective, rational side keeps us in balance, helps us from running wild with our myopic emotions. "Well," my dear Daile once calmly commented in the midst of an intense work disaster that would normally have driven her quite mad, "at least nobody died." That's it, exactly. If we have a healthy sense of perspective, our lives become infinitely more precious to us and we automatically operate with an attitude of gratitude. In the words of Queen Doris Lessing, gratitude is "to feel heat strike the skin, a delight to stand upright, knowing the bones are moving easily under the flesh."
Those of us who have ourselves been ill, or who care-take others, have earned a certain understanding of this point of view. Aging helps, too. Even so, for most of us it is a daily, hourly, minutely learned lesson - one that we easily forget. One that we would be wise to remember. Despite the fears of economic doom, we all have an amazing abundance of abundance in our lives. Let us give thanks.
We are in possession of the greatest gift of being alive. Let us appreciate the bountiful blessings of breath and food and love. All we have in this world is our life. We owe it to ourselves, the living, to be very, very grateful to be alive in this magnificent world. We owe it to the dead to honor their presence and influence in our life and times. We owe it to the entire complicated universe to live our precious life with full consciousness, conscience, and compassion.
And we owe it to Life, itself, to wake up each morning and retire each night filled with reverence and awe at the mighty miracle of it all, humbled, to have been even an infinitesimal part of the wonder, the wisdom, the intricately woven web of the world.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay
attention, how to fall down
into the grass...
how to be idle and
blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been
doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't
everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to
do with your one wild and precious life?
- Mary Oliver
"The Summer Day"
With blessings of profound gratitude,
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Empress of Influence
 Sarah Josepha Hale was born on a farm in
1788 in Newport, New Hampshire. Her early
education was provided by her mother and
her brother Horatio who taught her what he
had learned at Dartmouth; later on, Hale
was self-taught. She married David Hale, a
young lawyer, in 1813 who was a supporter
of her continued education. Together with friends they started a small literary club and Hale began experimenting with writing.
In 1822 her husband died suddenly leaving her with five children to support. In order to help her raise funds, her friends published an anonymous collection of her poetry, The Genius of Oblivion Other Original Poems. The modest success of this volume allowed Hale to write a novel, Northwood which also met with success. Northwood was striking in that it dealt directly with the issue of slavery.
In 1828 she was hired to edit Ladies' Magazine, the first American women's magazine. She moved her family to Boston and took up the helm. Under Sarah Hale's scrupulous editorial standards Ladies' Magazine solicited work from female contributors, published only original material, and printed articles that were meant to improve the lives of her readers.
Her next position was editor of Godey's Lady's Book after Godey purchased the Ladies' Magazine. In 1837 she moved to Philadelphia and made Godey's the leading American women's literary and fashion periodical for the following four decades until she retired at 90. She was one of the most famous women of her time and an important and influential arbiters of American taste. An Oprah before her time.
Next to genius is the power of feeling where true genius lies.
Hale was a strong advocate for a number of causes. She consistently advocated education, exercise, property rights, and sensible fashion for women. Her championship of education for women began with her editorship of the Ladies' Magazine and continued until she retired. She is credited with helping make the founding of Vassar College acceptable to a public unaccustomed to the idea of women's education.
Throughout her long, productive career, Hale was tireless in her championship of the advancement of women. She supported Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell's bid to become a physician, as well as the attempts of women to become overseas missionaries. She did not join the suffragists' call for women to enter the political arena but rather concentrated on the education and development of women.
What matter though the scorn of fools be given
If the path follow'd lead us on to heaven!
Sarah Hale wrote many novels and poems, publishing nearly fifty volumes of work by the end of her life. Her collection Poems for Our Children includes the now-famous "Mary Had a Little Lamb", which was published in 1830 as "Mary's Lamb."
Queen Sarah died in 1879 at the age of ninety-one, a role model to the women of her time, and to us, as well.
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The Queen of Thanksgiving
In addition to all her other contributions to society, Sarah Hale was responsible for making Thanksgiving a national holiday, an effort that she began in 1827.
We have too few holidays. Thanksgiving like the Fourth of July should be considered a national festival and observed by all our people. There is a deep moral influence in these periodical seasons of rejoicing, in which whole communities participate. They bring out... the best sympathies in our natures.
Hale felt that the spiritual dimension of Thanksgiving could help to prevent the insanity of civil war in America. As the hostilities heated up between North and South and the prospect of war became more immediate she bombarded both national and state officials with requests for the national holiday.
Sarah Hale doggedly wrote thousands of these letters in her own hand over a period of 36 years to five presidents: Zachary Taylor, Millard Filmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln. "If every state would join in Union Thanksgiving on the 24th of this month, would it not be a renewed pledge of love and loyalty to the Constitution of the United States?" Hale wrote in an 1859 editorial.
She finally found a sympathetic ear in Lincoln. In 1863 as the Civil War ravished the land President Lincoln issued his now famous Thanksgiving Proclamation in which he honored America's blessings, even in its darkest hour.
And so it came to pass that Americans celebrate Thanksgiving together on the fourth Thursday of November each year, thanks to Queen Sarah Josepha Hale.
Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It's a way to live.
- Jackie Windspear
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Resounding Miracle
This day, like every day,
we wake - we wake!
We are the alive ones, the ones here, now,
in this world, in this life,
in love and able for gratitude.
Sun pouring in on a honey of a morning,
scent of autumn in chamisa and aster,
drench of ponderosa and nuthatch chirrup.
Peace in the early rooms of our heart, this earth house,
hearth of the body's holy spin.
Crazy & elegant; fresh, sacred and wholly blessed!
I am here with you, as you with me,
and we are home, opening the door,
lucky us! 
To the Beloved.
Judyth Hill
www.rockmirth.com
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Farewell Mama Africa
 Miriam Makeba, the South African
singer who for more than half a
century brought the intricate
rhythms of her native land to
millions of listeners and whose role
as a spokeswoman against apartheid subjected her to 31 years of exile, died earlier this month after a concert in Italy. She was 76.
From the beginning, her life was marked by struggle. Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born in a Johannesburg jail in 1932. Her mother was a Swazi sangoma, a practitioner of herbal medicine, divination and counseling, who was incarcerated. Baby Zenzile spent the first six months there. Her father, a Xhosa, died when she was six.
As a child, she sang at the Kilmerton Training Institute in Pretoria, which she attended for eight years. Her professional career began in the 1950s singing with the Manhattan Brothers, before she formed her own all women group, The Skylarks. She sang a blend of jazz and traditional melodies of South Africa. Her successes in her native land lead to invitations to perform in Europe.
Makeba traveled to London where she met Harry Belafonte, who sponsored her to come to the United States and helped her to establish a performing career here.
When she tried to return home in 1960 for her mother's funeral she discovered that her South African passport had been invalidated. After testifying against apartheid before the United Nations in 1964 her South African citizenship and her right to return to the country were revoked. She has had nine passports, and was granted honorary citizenship of ten countries.
Everybody now admits that apartheid was wrong, and all I did was tell the people who wanted to know where I come from how we lived in South Africa. I just told the world the truth. And if my truth then becomes political, I can't do anything about that.
In 1966 she collaborated with Belafonte on an LP about the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid. It won a Grammy. She married Trinidadian civil rights activist and Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968, which caused an uproar in the United States. Her record deals and tours were canceled. As a result of this, the couple moved to Guinea.
Makeba separated from Carmichael in 1973, and continued to perform primarily in Africa, South America and Europe. She also served as a Guinean delegate to the United Nations and in 1986 she won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize. Her only daughter Bongi Makeba died in 1985, after which she moved to Brussels. In 1987, she appeared in Paul Simon's Graceland tour. Two years later, she joined Odetta and Nina Simone for the One Nation tour.
In the mind, in the heart, I was always home. I always imagined, really, going back home.
Makeba returned to South Africa in December 1990 soon after Nelson Mandela's release from prison. She performed her first concert in her homeland in thirty years. She was welcomed as the returning Queen to her royal domain. "She was a mother to our struggle" eulogized Nelson Mandela, " and to the young nation of ours."
Makeba remained active as a musician for more than 50 years. She toured constantly and played to stadiums filled with adoring fans. She recorded albums, appeared in plays and films. In 1995, she formed a charity organization to raise funds to help protect the women of South Africa. "Girls are the future mothers of our society, and it is important that we focus on their well-being. There are a lot of homes for boys, but very few for girls, that is why I chose to do for girls."
 Muzi, as she was affectionately known,
started a worldwide farewell tour in
2005, holding concerts in all of those
countries that she had visited during her
working life. And it was while on tour
she died three years later. She collapsed
on stage while singing and passed over
later that night. She died as she lived,
with pride and with song.
Queen Miriam Makeba never forgot her struggle. Never stopped identifying with those who were downtrodden and suffering. An activist to the end, her last performance was at an Anti-Racism and Anti-Mafia Event in Italy. She always spoke the truth of her convictions. She was the pride of South Africa and citizen of the entire world.
I look at an ant and I see myself: a native South African, endowed by nature with a strength much greater than my size so I might cope with the weight of a racism that crushes my spirit.
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The Queen's Correspondence
Thanks so much for taking the time to respond to the Queen's Chronicles. Please keep your comments coming. And do feel free to make suggestions about content you would like to see. Or anything else, for that matter. It is a joy to connect with you.
Letters In Response To The October 2008 Issue
Thank you for this inspirational email and your words of light. We truly need to remember love during these blessed times of change and transition. Keep writing and sharing your words of wisdom. They helped me remember what I needed to know this morning.
Blessings,
- Karen, MA
You are always fabulous. I'm running home from the library right now to change my phone message. Thanks for the inspiration. Always in art, life and laughter.
- Linda, NY
Great column. I love your answering machine message. Love,
- Vicki, PA
I believe each of us is called to be open to the possibility of reaching out to everyone we meet. The more we do it, the better our world gets. And if we each rejected a violent solution to our problems, imagine how much better our world would be. I'm tired of movies that choose violence as the only way to fix things. How boring and repetitive! Thanks for the good words!
- Margaret, NY
What great articles. There certainly IS a chance for peace. And I will remember that more often when I feel the despair. And how inspiring was Victoria Woodhull. She sounds like she was a real pistol. Another great role model. Thanks for bringing her story to light.
-Patricia, OR
I continue to enjoy your newsletters and to see what is happening in your world. Thank you for what you offer. I especially like your coverage and applause for all women through the centuries! It is such a pleasure to be able to reach out to other like-minded people who truly want the betterment for all humankind. Many blessings to you!!! Namaste,
- Jeanne, NY
For some reason, it's the hardest thing in the world for some people to just TALK to another human being. I have learned from my husband to talk to everyone! I spoke with a woman today, just because we were looking at the same glove display in the mall. We talked for about 5 minutes! Yesterday, I talked with a 9-year old boy about Halloween spiders! My friend and I picked the big brown fuzzy spider instead of the purple and black one, because he thought the brown one looked "the most real." A week ago, I talked with a lady about Halloween witches hats, again, just because we were both there. And not just a sentence-or-two exchange, but a good conversation! Because I just spoke up. I love creating even fleeting connections with others like that. Like when you're walking down a street or through a mall and look at the people around you, and just smile as you pass. Amazing how many who see you will smile back. Amazing how many refuse to see you. But the ones who do, share that smile with the next person THEY pass. I hope you don't mind my stealing your phone message!
- Shana, LA
Oh Donna! You are so, so right! We all want the same things really and how we've lost sight of that is a mystery and unimportant. The more of us who remember that we're all the same, the faster the change we so desire will come. I'm doing my piece for peace. Thanks for your always-illuminating prose.
-Susan, MA
Very cheery, especially remembering Victoria Woodhull. So she didn't get the job done - she tried!
- Terese, NY
Wonderful newsletter, my dear. Thanks from my heart. Love,
- Anne, AZ
Such a wonderful edition. Thank you. I'm always delighted when this shows up in my mailbox. Much love,
- Susan, MA
I really love this newsletter. Thanks so much Donna. I read it all the way through every time it comes in.
- Deni, NY
Letters In Response To The June 2008 Issue
I love your newsletter! I'd like to share a story with you in response to the issue on the bees. At Sri Sailam Temple in Andhra Pradesh, the Goddess is worshipped in the form of a black bee, or "bramarara." Her name is Devi Brahmarambika and Her story is somewhat similar to the Greek Io (Ionian Sea) who, in the form of a cow, was chased by a bee (gadfly). In Devi B's story, She followed Lord Siva for years (in the bee form) until he became old and haggard, finally asking Her, "Now would you want to marry such a one?" When She replied in the affirmative, he assumed his beautiful divine form and they were united. In this Andhra temple, in a spot in the wall, one can hear the bee sound. There is also a yogic posture, which stimulates the brain, named for the bee. When I came back from that temple to my guru's forest ashram, a large black bee came into my room (which only I was occupying). I captured it in a cup and set it free outside. The next day it came back and again I released it. After that, it returned again!! Finally, I realized it was not going to sting me, but just liked to be there!!! Om shanti with love,
- Smriti, CA/India
Please send your responses to thequeenofmyself@aol.com.
Your letters will be printed in the next Queen's Chronicles.
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Where the Queens Are
Dear Queen Mama Donna,
 I was guided to make a Doll of
my Queen-Self. I have learned
so much about myself by
making my Queen Doll. She
shows me an undiscovered me,
hidden in the shadows waiting
to be reclaimed. She is
beautiful, regal, fun, deep and
knowing. Her eyes sparkle and
her smile tells me She knows
the Mysteries. She is teaching me and is my guide to my Queen-Self, and I love Her. As we are getting to know each other, She comes most places with me. She was there with me in the Dark Goddess Cave at Ty Canol where I went for Samhain. She was my spirit companion at Pentre Ifan. At the moment She is presiding over my altar.
- Morgan, Queen of My Self, Wales
Please send your Queenly news! |
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