Tammara-Nicole Gardner
Author of Books on
Manifestation, Witchcraft, Astrology & Seasonal Living
Chapter 49
Cronehood | Witchcraft | Seasonal Living | Astrology | No Bullshit
Twenty years ago, I was a single mother on public assistance, my worldview colored with circumstance and a gritty will to survive. Today, I'm an attorney, an author, and a modern witch.
The space between restless warrior and wise woman did not call for conquering the world. It called for a greater challenge: setting it aside.
Somewhere in clawing my way toward my golden ticket, I noticed something that initially perplexed me: the more I achieved, the less interesting it became. So, I started asking different questions - ones that led me to much different answers about what it means to be divinity incarnated in a physical body, in a strange world.
In the midst of all that questioning, I didn't become someone new. Rather, I stopped performing the version of myself that made other people comfortable.
That unraveling led me to study the metaphysical. I didn't haphazardly fall down a rabbit hole; I deliberately moved toward astrology, manifestation, seasonal living, and a deep spiritual practice - and distanced myself from the world's trite definitions of success, validation, and expediency. The result: a rebellious way of living that rejects much of what my parents, religion, and school taught me about what mattered.
My first book, The 12 Guiding Stars System, came out of it - a framework built on the 12 Astrological Houses for examining the major dimensions of a life.
More stirs in me. There is more to be said. About topics that some find frightening, threatening, or weird. I'm not going to apologize for any of it.
I have crossed the threshold into my Crone phase - a rite of passage that permits me to forgo overexplaining, overdoing, and over-functioning. The stretch of a woman's life when she starts simply being.
That opens the space for the writing that truly speaks to me. I write for readers who've outgrown mainstream spiritual fluff and who are ready for something more substantial - ready to sit with difficult questions and lift the veil on the knowledge our ancestors kept, long before the world taught us to be ashamed of it.
When I'm not writing, much inspires me: yoga, astrology charts, whatever metaphysical book is currently open on my nightstand, badly practicing Spanish with my husband, with two cats - Hera and Persephone - who supervise all of it.