Latest posts by Zita Christian
Read my latest blog articles
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Romance, Alzheimer’s, and the Alchemy of Ritual
I recently marked the third anniversary of my husband’s death. He had Alzheimer’s. These days, I find myself looking back through photographs, journal entries, notes I made in the margins of my cookbooks, and the birthday and anniversary cards we gave each other over the years. The passing of time has shaped my vision of…
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Yemaya, Part 2: The Middle Passage ~ Aug 25, the Day of Healing
In Part 1 of this article, I explored the connection between seashells and the Yemana, the Yoruba Orisha known as the Mother of All. I shared rituals inspired by cowrie shells, murex shells in general, and in particular, the Venus Comb Murex. With Yemaya in mind, I designed those rituals to help women discover and…
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How Did I Survive the Caregiving Journey? Truth, Strength, and Walter Cronkite
I grew up listening to Walter Cronkite. He signed off each nightly newscast with “And that’s the way it is.” As a kid, I was often alarmed by the news. But I reasoned that if Walter Cronkite respected me enough to tell me the truth, surely that meant I could handle it. Yes, my reasoning…
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A Summer Solstice Ritual Inspired by My Dying Husband
My husband died in the summer of 2022. He had Alzheimer’s. We had been married for 41 years. I cared for him at home until the end. Ours was what family and friends called a fairy tale marriage. Odd as it might sound at first, his dementia journey and my experience as his caregiver…
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Ritual: Soup to Heal the World
All over the world, relationships are nourished with food.I created a ritual to provide virtual nourishment. My inspiration? Spiritual activist Caroline Casey who says, “Imagination lays the tracks for the reality train to follow.” All aboard! Parliament of the World’s Religions Do you want to help the world? Look for hope. I…
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Spirit Spoons: Your Magic Wands
Follow the Sun Did you use a spoon to stir your coffee or tea this morning? Did you feel a sense of power? From at least the 1700s, ancient cultures in Europe, and I suspect elsewhere, too, considered clockwise movement to be the movement of the sun. Since the sun was seen as the…
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Bowls of Abundance: A Spiritual Ritual for a Moon Circle
For many years, I led a women’s moon circle in my home. Our purpose was to: Celebrate the seasons the way our ancestors did Align our spirits with the cycles of nature Honor the Divine Feminine We met once a month on or near the full moon. There were four of us. We came…
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Our Need for Spiritual Rituals
In the summer between the third and fourth grades, I read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum thirty-four times. With each reading, I felt certain I would find the secret that would help me endure that difficult summer. It would be decades before I realized that simply having the right shoes did…