Reflections…

*This page serves to satisfy the qualifications piece, and to give you a glimpse into my world. Although I invite you to begin to walk the Path of Deep Trust, and rather to feel into the frequency of this space, my words, the aesthetics, and see what somatic information comes up for you as you read and explore. There is an introductory episode on my podcast page that speaks to my journey in a bit more detail. As a leader, teacher, and guide, I prioritize my humanity above all else. What you will find woven throughout all of my work is a connection to my deep, imperfect, humanness. I do not ever don the cloak of performance or perfection. If you are looking for a guide with a brand, I am probably not for you.

Introductions: My name is Damascena, and I am The Founder of Red Moon Revival & The Planetary Priestess Mystery School. This school and body of work was born the moment I stepped off a plane in Tel Aviv, and breathed the air of my ancient homeland. The first step I took on the earth ignited a deep remembrance within me. It was the beginning of a winding journey that has taken me deep into the essence of my incarnation.

Red Moon Revival, and The Planetary Priestess Mystery School is in service to: helping our students and clients uncover and ultimately embody the wisdom of Ancient Earth, and our relationship to the Stars & Planetary Cycles, along with their corresponding Myths and Archetypes. Using Astrology to guide our path of growth and evolution is the most highly individualized spiritual curriculum I’ve ever come across. This work ultimately helps us come in contact with our own unique Mission, Purpose, and Intention in the world. And reconnects us to the RED THREAD we have traveled with across lifetimes and between incarnations.

Innate Gifts and Wisdom

As the product of a closed adoption, I grew up in the in-between. In between families, identities, genealogies, ancestries, and histories. I used to think this existence; growing up inside a deep well of grief and longing, was a curse. Only what I have come to understand through cultivating a relationship to these “wounds” is that, in fact, this “exile” was a form of magic, seeded into my mysterious beginnings. In fully living out this experience I came to understand that I have always known exactly who I am, and why I am here. I had never actually lost touch with the self inside of me that could never be destroyed. Which has become the medicine I now share with the world. Helping people cultivate deep inner gnosis, and understand the purpose of their unique incarnation and the medicine to embody.

Being adopted into my particular family caused me to become deeply intuitive and able to read energy. As a survival adaptation, I needed to understand what made people tick. I did that by studying them and their patterns. I also needed to know if they were a safe person, which I could ascertain by reading their field. As a person who was profoundly sensitive to subtle fluctuations in mood, and energy, I could take the metaphorical temperature of any space I entered, instantaneously. I could also see what others could not, what others were slyly attempting to hide. Being adopted gave me incredible “sight”, beyond a sixth sense.  

Being an only child in a closed adoption left a void of secrets in my world. Thusly I cultivated a bright and vivid imagination in order to fill in the gaps. In so doing, I became an avid animist. Everything in my world was infused with spirit. Flowers, trees, rocks, water, even my toys. It was the only way I knew how to relate to the ghosts of my missing family. This animism has served as the backdrop of my psychological practice, and is the foundation of my unique body of work. 

In 2012 as Pluto Passed over My Ascendant, I conducted a professional deep dive into my ancestry, I was finally able to fill in the missing details of my lineage. Hailing centuries ago from people who both ruled & worked the lands of the Celtic Druids, of Scotland, Wales, England, and the Mediterranean. My more recent lineage consists of journalists, academics, scientists, philosophers, psychologists, entrepreneurs, and homesteaders, on the male side. On the female side, I hail from a line of midwives, medicine women, herbalists, researchers, storytellers, mythmakers, weavers, alchemists, musicians, artists, and authors. I was finally able to see where I fit. Where my compulsion to “report” the astrological happenings come from. Where my work with mothers and babies was inspired, why I’ve always preferred to make herbal medicines in my kitchen rather than run out to a pharmacy. And most importantly, how I developed a deep love for existential detective work.

My own psycho spiritual journey began at 19, when I enrolled in Landmark Education’s Forum. Throughout the next decade I completed several courses with Landmark including the coveted “Wisdom” course, while simultaneously studying the Ancient Hermetic Texts. Fate stepped in when I met and married my husband and found myself living in Palestine where I had the unique opportunity to experience The Feminine in a way that is largely foreign to us in Western Culture. Stepping out of the Airport in Israel for the first time, I felt the embers of an Ancient Lineage ignite. My love for the land, the sea, and the air of this place, was total. I was suddenly aware of the strong Feminine Archetypes and Ascended Masters I learned about in my childhood, whose footsteps I now had the opportunity to walk in.

Women made medicines in their kitchen’s, and literally healed by sharing their love and deep presence with others. Mothers were mothered, and Grandmother’s wisdom is revered. Through their lens, tending to their homes, families, and each other, is an embodied form of artistry. Women in Palestine have the advantage of still living in close knit communities, and will have participated in several initiation ceremonies, or rites of passage, by the time they embark on the world. I would delight in the experience of crossing the threshold of each new home I visited, knowing I was quite literally entering a temple, and there I would be cared for, nurtured, and honored. In Palestine, each woman is the Priestess of her domain. Knowing her unique woman-craft (or medicine as we say here in the west) is part of what holds the community together.

When I turned thirty we came back to the states and I experienced several of my own initiations, only these were initiations by fire. I had to come to terms with several unresolved childhood traumas that were constantly threatening to derail my life. Believing that this is earth school, and we each have to take radical responsibility for our own journey, I knew I would find healing in community with other woman. For the most part, western culture is devoid of ceremony, initiation, and daily ritual, which leaves our lives often feeling hollow and without mythopoetic context. This is something my Mission with Red Moon Revival seeks to rectify. Normalizing the need to go deep, and lean into each other, to trust in the mystery of our own incarnation, and the inherent benevolence of the force that created us, allowing our unconscious contents a safe container to be explored.

I have worked and studied in the field of Natural Health for the last 15 years. In addition to holding a certificate in Nutritional Wellness, I am an Ayurvedic Practitioner, Grief Whisperer, and Former Birth & Post Partum Doula, specializing in childbirth education, traumatic birth recovery, and breastfeeding assistance.

I am also Writer, Astrologer, and a recently Bereaved Mother, living on the shores of Lake Erie with my three earth bound children. I’m currently learning how to be the mother of a child who has journeyed beyond the veil.

LINEAGE: As a teacher of the Path of the Red Thread, Lineage is extremely important to me. Below are the teachers who have impacted my life.

My most profound teacher to date, is Perri Chase. I have been a student of her school of Energetic Mastery since early 2021.

In addition: I am an Ordained Moon Priestess with Goddess Rising. And a 13 Moon Mystery School Priestess, both tracks originate in the Lineage birthed through Ariel Spilsbury.

In the realm of Astrology; I completed an apprenticeship in Archetypal Astrology with Renn Butler, world renowned Master Astrologer, Author, and student of Rick Tarnas & Stan Grof.

Additionally, I studied general Astrology under Adam Sommer, Synodic Cycles with Shamanic Astrology Mystery School and Daniel Giamario, Sacred Astronomy with Gemini Brett, and Story Cycles (Progressions) with Gray Crawford. I am currently a member of Master Astrologer, Gary Caton’s Gold circle to stay up to date on my skills. All of these teachers bring the Living Sky into their practice. The living wisdom of the night sky is an essential ingredient when one is seeking to bring heaven down to earth, and embody the Astrology.

It has been my profound honor to have deepened with teachers who have earned their wisdom.

As a devotee of the Feminine, I am passionate about how Astrology and the Synodic Cycles, Venus’ especially, can help us revive a fulsome, embodied understanding of the Primordial Deep, Wild, Feminine, not just Her culturally “acceptable”, angelic, transcendent, emanations.

One of my areas of focus is in the realm of emerging Archetypes, and the need our society has for new story templates. Especially when it comes to the Feminine that has been molded by Patriarchal Culture. I love guiding my clients and students to reclaim unrecognized, or unconscious pieces of themselves. And working with archetypal and mythological templates is the perfect portal into this deep work.

These days I can be found intently interpreting a natal chart through the lens of mythic/archetypal astrology, exploring our rich regional landscape with my family, and deepening my exploration of how planetary cycles, and their mythopoetic stories live through us. Ever aspiring to quench my insatiable hunger for experiential learning.

I love collaboration. As a Speaker, Guide, Teacher, and Writer, I am regularly featured on podcasts, and invited to teach on Astrology, The Cosmos, Archetypes, The Venusian Mysteries, Grief, Death, and Loss, & a whole host of other topics.

Click here to learn more about how to invite me to speak at your next event.