Monthly reflections from the edge of the stacks · June 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
- We’re under a heat advisory here, which means I’m outdoors for longer than 5 minutes only in early mornings and late evenings. This is one of my favorite oak trees, yet I never notice it during the day. Something about the way it’s backlit against a local park’s night lights makes it a standout.
- I finished writing 2 new soundtracks –not uploaded yet but the others are on Spotify under Lorna Tedder and the Warrior Librarians. The new ones are for Rite of Awakening and Rite of Letting Go.
- My physical therapy is going great! Like, way better than expected. I’m working with a PT doctor and after 2 full weeks with her, I can walk again without limping. We’ve tried a process called “dry needling” that kicked in after about 5 days and is really fixing the right Achilles tendonitis that has knocked my left knee out of alignment. Hip bone connected to the thigh bone and all that! It’s true that it’s all connected.
What I’m Currently Working On
My main focus for last month was getting through “revision hell” on 3 books I finished a while back and, well, I’m still in revision hell. That’s partially my own fault because some opportunities came up that I couldn’t pass up. The non-urgent projects got delayed. And yes, this is why I have such a backlog.
- Contracting for Rapid Acquisition, a Federal acquisition business guide that includes the best of my advice for the next generation of procurement experts. I’m down to revisions on the last 50 pages. I’m hot on deadline now and the Federal Government is making some big changes STILL that I either have to make the changes to or figure out how to write around them.
- I did finish first drafts for a secret trilogy that’s part of probably the biggest experiment I’ve ever done. I also wrote something new under my own name, the first draft for installment #9 of The Payback Archives. This one is Drusilla-centric and I’m going to call it The Rules for Protecting Your Own. We get to see what Dru is capable of. Maybe I’ve been mourning Anthony Head too much lately because she reminds me of Rupert Giles’ dark side in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- I’m continuing to update and improve the website. That includes adding new specific hubs: Vertex hub, Law of Attraction hub, Empaths hub, Solar Return hub, and Tarot hub.
- As a surprise for my biggest supporters, I’m creating an online library where you can read full books for free. Once it’s built out, it’ll be behind a free log-in because some of the content will be R-rated.
✍️ Fresh on the Blog: What You Might Have Missed
Catch up on the latest reflections, experiments, and stories from the past month:
Cancer Season: Come Home to Yourself (Jun 18)
Category: Astrology
After the brightness and busy-ness of Gemini season, the Sun slips into Cancer and the air changes. This is the season that stops performing and turns inward — toward home, the heart, and the quiet intelligence of emotion. An invitation to come home to yourself.
Fable 5 Saved My Fables (Jun 15)
Category: Writing Life
A beta reader stole this novel in the early ’90s, so I shelved it for thirty years. When I finally finished it, something still felt off. Then Claude’s Fable 5 named the problem in seconds.
When Foundational Beliefs Are Rocked (Jun 12)
Category: Personal Evolution
What happens when the beliefs you’ve built your life on suddenly crack? A look at what comes after the shaking stops.
The Story You Didn’t Realize You’ve Been Living Inside (Jun 9)
Categories: Personal Evolution | Writing Life
You’ve been living inside a story all along — you just haven’t noticed. Here’s how to read the narrative of your own life.
Travel for Solar Return: Month Two After the Return (Jun 5)
Categories: Applied Astrology & Case Studies | Travel
Part 8 of an ongoing experiment in relocation astrology. Month Two confirms the pattern from Month One — but something is starting to shift. Colorado is beginning to make itself known through unexpected public visibility, even as Tampa’s structure continues to define the work.
Gecko Totem: Renewal, Resilience, and the Gift of Adaptation (Jun 2)
Categories: Nature | Serene Living | Totems
The geckos that flourish around my century-old house feel like more than neighbors. They’re survivors who’ve mastered the art of renewal — shedding what no longer fits, regrowing what was lost, and clinging even when the world shifts beneath them. The gecko totem has a lot to teach.
What Vesta Really Means in Astrology (May 28)
Categories: Astrology | Personal Evolution
Vesta is often reduced to a single word: devotion. But that definition misses the real point. Here’s what this asteroid actually reveals about the quiet patterns that shape a life.
The Grief We Grow Old Enough to Understand (May 25)
Categories: Aging Well | Grief
I didn’t understand the old woman’s words of wisdom then. They were something it took 50 years to grow into.
What Juno Really Means in Astrology (And Why It’s About More Than Marriage) (May 24)
Categories: Astrology | Relationships
Forget the engagement-ring version of Juno. In your natal chart, she’s the blueprint for every sacred contract you make — who earns your loyalty, and on what terms.
🔭 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 hidden monastic texts in The Lost Teachings of Dead Monks…
A 700-Year-Old Illuminated Arthurian Manuscript Is Finally Coming Out of Hiding. The Clermont-Tonnerre Grail — written on vellum and decorated with gold leaf between 1290 and 1310, featuring 126 illustrations of King Arthur, Merlin shape-shifting, and the search for the Holy Grail — has spent 700 years in private hands, passing from a 15th-century knight to an “obsessive medievalist” to a 20th-century industrialist. It has never been publicly exhibited or studied in any detail. This summer Christie’s is putting it on the auction block in London with an estimate of up to $2.7 million. There are only three such manuscripts in private hands. This is the earliest. CNN — May 2026
Because I wrote about medieval France in Dark Revelations of Joan of Arc…
When Wild Strawberries Were Medicine: The Medieval Cure That Predated the Pharmacy by Centuries. Before strawberries became shortcake topping, medieval herbalists used them to reduce fevers, treat swelling and dysentery, and prescribed ointments of strawberry leaves for infected abscesses. By 1368, King Charles V’s gardener was growing 1,200 wild strawberry plants in the gardens of the Louvre. Wealthy estates and monasteries cultivated them for their “cooling” properties — the fruit that could bring down a fever became a staple of medieval medical texts. The history of how a humble wild fruit moved from pharmacy to dessert plate is the kind of detail that ends up in a novel. Archaeology Magazine
Because I often write about the South in The Payback Archives and Florida keeps handing me material…
The Florida Mineral Springs Hotel That Sold Water as a Cure — and Burned to the Ground in 1954. The Hampton Springs Hotel once competed with Florida’s finest: lush gardens, a covered pool fed by mineral springs, a nine-hole golf course among the first in the region, a grand ballroom, and a bottling plant selling spring water nationwide as a remedy for rheumatism, indigestion, and skin diseases. It served as military barracks during WWII. Then in 1954, it burned. What’s left is a state park in Taylor County — ruins, a rescued historic pool, and the postcards that prove it was real. Abandoned Florida
Because I wrote about ancient hidden civilizations in Altered Destiny…
Why the World’s Most Spectacular Imperial Tomb Has Never Been Opened — and Probably Shouldn’t Be Yet. The mausoleum of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, has never been excavated — not because archaeologists aren’t interested, but because they can’t do it without destroying what’s inside. Soil surveys confirm mercury concentrations more than seventy times normal levels (historical records say rivers and seas of mercury were simulated underground). Past excavations proved the Terracotta Warriors’ original painted surfaces crumbled on contact with air. The site covers 56 square kilometers — roughly 1,300 times the size of the Terracotta Warrior pits. China’s current policy is to wait for better preservation technology rather than risk irreversible damage to something that has been intact for 2,200 years. Travel China Guide
Last updated: June 2026 · Sources: CNN, Archaeology Magazine, Abandoned Florida, Travel China Guide.
📚 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: A Man Called Regret
My very first traditionally published novel — a romance suspense set in the Georgia farmlands. It’s where it all began for me.
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.