Monthly reflections from the edge of the stacks · May 2026
Hey! This post is my monthly missive to let you know about my astrology and other esoteric posts on my blog, The Last Page Before Dawn, research rabbit holes, book stuff, and whatever I’m doing that’s free for you or a bonus you won’t find anywhere but The Spiritual Eclectic website.
Daily Best Life
- My orchids are blooming for the 3rd time. I never thought I’d have any luck with them — and I never have except in my current home — but I let them bloom out in my home office, then they go outside in my back yard until they start to bloom again, and I cycle them back inside. I’m savoring them.
- I’ve been playing with making little music videos from the soundtracks I’ve been writing that go with some of my novels, and I’m having a blast. Some of the songs are from decades ago. Being a musician myself, I’ve had several musician boyfriends in my life, and we always planned to collaborate. That never happened, so I’m relying on software to fill in the gaps for me and … just having fun with it. You can find them on Spotify and other platforms under the name Lorna Tedder and the Warrior Librarians, but I’ll share a no-charge site below.
- Speaking of music, I saw both Florence + the Machine and Journey in concert this month. Even better, I got to enjoy them with my oldest kiddo. I finally live close enough to a big city that attracts musicians, including ones from my college days who are now doing their farewell tours. It’s kinda like retirement parties, and I’m taking advantage of the concert venues while I live here.
- I’m hoping to start physical therapy for my knee this month because I’m missing my 10-mile walks combined with dictation. I’m lucky right now if I can get 2 miles in and one full chapter, but I have a plan. I got good news back on all my other medical tests, including the Galleri test. Some would say I’m overdoing the biohacking but after 15 years, I’ve been able to stay ahead of bad stuff I couldn’t have otherwise.
What I’m Currently Working On
My main focus for the month will be getting through “revision hell” on 3 books I finished a while back that have been waiting for me to get through personal life situations so I could turn my attention back to them:
- Contracting for Rapid Acquisition, a Federal acquisition business guide that includes the best of my advice for the next generation of procurement experts. I wrote this one a couple of years ago but have been sitting on it to see what changed in regulation overhauls.
- The Mature Empath, which introduces all-new lessons I learned while writing and living the lessons of Shielding Techniques for Empaths. There’s a lot I’ve changed my mind on and have evolved how I handle my empath “super powers.”
- A stand-alone Southern Gothic suspense novel with ghosts, stalkers, and a taste of back home. One final readthrough and this one can fledge.
Newly available
I put some of my oldest published romance novels on my website at no-charge and discounted other novels on my author store, specifically for my subscribers. I know times are tough right now for a lot of readers, and if you don’t mind reading novels set before a phone-in-the-hand was the norm, I’ve got you covered.
My 7-song musical companion to the short read A Reverence for Trees is available for you as a bonus. Enjoy!
I’m a little conflicted, though. I’ve been burned a few times with load-your-ereader deals because, in general, people don’t value free as much and downvote books that are less spicy, so we’ll see how this goes. If it goes well, I’ll offer more.
✍️ Fresh on the Blog: What You Might Have Missed
Catch up on the latest reflections, experiments, and stories from the past month:
Gemini Season: Follow the Thread of Curiosity (May 17)
Category: Astrology
Gemini season is restless by design. It wants you to follow the thread — the random idea, the unexpected connection, the question you’ve been too afraid to ask. This is the season that rewards curiosity over certainty.
Travel for Solar Return: Month One’s Surprising Results (May 13)
Categories: Applied Astrology & Case Studies | Travel
Part 7 of an ongoing experiment in relocation astrology. After traveling to Colorado for my Solar Return, I came home to Tampa — and found that Month One looked almost entirely like my home chart: structured productivity, systems building, emotional containment. The Colorado imprint hasn’t taken hold. Yet.
Learner CliftonStrength (May 9)
Category: Personal Evolution
There’s a particular kind of message we’re raised on. It’s not always spoken out loud, but it’s everywhere: Push harder. Sleep less. Keep going. We learn it young, but what happens when we choose a different metric for growth?
Still Walking, Thank You Very Much (May 7)
Categories: Aging Well | Grief | Serene Living
A red hiking pole from the Camino de Santiago became my mother’s, then mine — and an unexpected conversation with a 90-year-old neighbor about why we refuse the cane.
Input CliftonStrength: The Joy of Collecting Pieces That Matter (May 5)
Category: Personal Evolution
There’s something almost magical about the moment you realize your so-called weakness might actually be your superpower. I’ve always been a collector — of antiquarian books that whisper promises from their spines, ideas scribbled on napkins, and scraps of dialogue overheard in coffee shops.
Florence + the Machine: When a Concert Becomes a Ritual (May 1)
Category: Rituals
At a Florence + the Machine concert, I recognized the same charged collective energy I’d felt in Southern Baptist tent revivals and large Wiccan gatherings. Different traditions, same underlying current — songs functioning as spells and prayers.
Travel for Solar Return: Is It the Location — or the Solar Cycle? (Apr 27)
Categories: Applied Astrology & Case Studies
The experiment has focused heavily on location. Now for the uncomfortable question: what if the pre-Solar Return activation has nothing to do with where you travel?
The Problem I Didn’t Know Was Mine (Apr 23)
Categories: Aging Well | Personal Evolution | Serene Living
A rushed afternoon, a dangerous open water meter, and a small decision that wasn’t my job. Sometimes the fix you make for someone else quietly circles back.
🔭 What’s Fascinating Me Now
Curated stories from the research rabbit holes that opened up around things I’ve already written.
Because I wrote about Pompeii in Dark Revelations of Joan of Arc…
He Fled Pompeii With a Bowl on His Head and a Lamp in His Hand. We Just Found Him. Archaeologists excavating outside Pompeii’s southern gates discovered two skeletons of men who fled the 79 CE eruption of Vesuvius — and the older man, in his mid-30s, was found curled up holding a terracotta bowl over his head (exactly as eyewitness Pliny the Younger described survivors doing) and an oil lamp in his other hand. Researchers used AI to create a haunting reconstruction of his final moments running through ash-covered streets. Smithsonian Magazine – April 30, 2026
Because I wrote about star maps in Altered Destiny…
The Universe Hidden in Ink: A 2,000-Year-Old Lost Map of the Night Sky Is Coming Back Into Recognition. Scribes in medieval monasteries often scraped away ancient scientific texts to overwrite them with religious translations, creating rare layered palimpsests. Now, using non-destructive, powerful X-ray beams from a particle accelerator at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, scientists are uncovering the long-lost star catalog of ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus hidden inside the Codex Climaci Rescriptus. The newly revealed text proves he mapped the entire night sky with highly precise mathematical coordinates centuries before the telescope. Times of India – May 2026
Because I wrote about Atlantis in The Lost Teachings of Dead Monks…
A Real-Life Atlantis? Underwater City Off India Could Rewrite History. Scientists have revisited a submerged city discovered in India’s Gulf of Khambhat — spanning five miles long and nearly two miles wide — with artifacts and human remains potentially dating back 9,000 years, which would make it far older than any known organized civilization in the subcontinent. Daily Galaxy – April 2026
Because this sounds like something out of every Secret Lives of Librarians story…
The Oldest English Poem Just Got an Older Copy — Found in Rome. A remarkable manuscript discovered in Rome contains a rare early copy of Cædmon’s Hymn, widely considered the oldest known poem in the English language, pushing back the documented history of English literary tradition in an unexpected direction. ScienceDaily – Ancient Civilizations
Because I wrote a guide on Christian meditation…
Seven Days of Meditation Can Rewire Your Brain. A UC San Diego study tracking participants through a seven-day intensive retreat found measurable changes in brain connectivity, immune signaling, and neurochemistry — with brain patterns that strikingly resembled those produced by psychedelic substances, without any drugs involved. ScienceDaily – April 2026
Last updated: May 2026 · Sources: Smithsonian Magazine, Times of India, Daily Galaxy, ScienceDaily.
📚 From My Bookshelf
The best deals on my books are always direct from me. No middleman, no marketplace algorithm — just you and the book.
This Month I’m Featuring: Dark Revelations of Joan of Arc
Free direct from me through the end of May. The novel that sent me down the Pompeii rabbit hole at the top of this letter — history’s most famous saint, the visions she said she received, and what gets revealed when you go looking past the canon. If you’ve been meaning to try one of my novels, this is the month to do it on the house.
The full bookshelf is open year-round: fiction, essays, astrology, the empath work, the short reads. Sometimes a title is free; sometimes it’s deeply discounted; always you’re buying direct from me, which means more of what you spend stays with the person who actually wrote the book.
Closing Reflection
This letter is written between midnight and dawn, like the rest of my work. That’s the page the title comes from — the last one before the light comes back.
Thank you for being here.
The Last Page Before Dawn is a monthly dispatch from thespiritualeclectic.com. Forward freely.