{IN PERSON} La Notte di San Giovanni – the Night of St John and Italian American Folk Traditions of Midsummer

PLEASE READ: This class is IN PERSON. TICKETS ARE NOT TRANSFERABLE.

Class fees are non transferable, we stick to the student agreements agreed upon during registration. Please ensure you are able to attend the scheduled class time.

The summer solstice is an important date to folk practitioners and witches alike – our longest day of the year. A celebration of the sun and his gifts. A lengthening. A shortening.

Join Frankie Castanea for this in-person, exclusive look into the midsummer traditions of Italian-American folk magic taking place on la Notte di San Giovanni, the night of St John.

Together, we will talk about various practices that Italian-Americans and folk practitioners alike can participate in – cleansing, making herbs bundles, and l’acqua di San Giovanni, or the water of St John. We will talk about the collection and utilization of plants on the summer solstice, which plants and flowers may be included in the traditional water, and the ways in which this water and holiday intertwine with earlier ideas of the Italian agricultural year and Catholic syncretism within this particular folk magic.

This class will be hands-on – we will be touching plants and meeting them as teachers and allies. We will be learning to cleanse each other and lean deeply into the magic that happens on the longest day of the year – not just its traditional usage, but its reconstruction and how we, as modern practitioners, can begin to utilize it.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR:

Frankie Castanea, also known as Chaotic Witch Aunt, is a practicing folk witch, animist, Italian American folk practitioner, and spirit worker.  They have been on a journey of reconnection to culture and ancestral practices for almost five years now, a practicing witch and diviner for almost a decade. Within this, they have found a passion for learning and teaching Italian-American ways of being, animism, ancestors, and spirit relationships. They have and continue to be a student of Lisa Fazio and Mary Beth Bonfiglio, and have, in the past, learned from Austin Toney of Cat and Cauldron. They learn from being in community with other Italian-Americans and folk practitioners, their own spirits, and are driven by their ancestors in almost all things they do, sharing their ways of reconnection and reconstruction via Instagram, Youtube, Patreon and their blog, Chaotic Folk Magic, through their website (chaoticwitchaunt.com). They run a small online shop of ancestral and folk magic guided wares, believes in the power of the color red, and reads tarot, Italian playing cards, and offers professional spell consultations at Ritualcravt in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. They are the author of two books, “Spells for Change” (2021), and their upcoming book “Ancestral Magic” (2025).