User:FridayGladheart

Friday Gladheart is the pen name (nom de plume, or literary double) of Audrey Minahan. Born on the full moon on December 15, 1969, Friday has studied biology, marketing, art (specifically ceramics) and psychology at a variety of colleges and universities.

In 1984 she began studies in the paranormal, alternative healing, neo-Paganism, Wicca, herbalism, witchcraft and debunking. As there were few resources in the midwest at the time on these topics, she enrolled in both Our Lady of Enchantment: Seminary of Wicca and The Church and School of Wicca simultaneously. These correspondence courses fueled her curiosity and she became initiated into Wicca in 1987.

In 1989 she began publishing "Cognizance & Free Thought" an underground newsletter distributed in universities, libraries and coffee houses throughout Nebraska. The newsletter focused on traditional journalism, covering a variety of topics such as politics, the economy and the budding new neo-Pagan movement.

Always restless and ready for a new challenge, she began "Oak Tree & Ivy Herbals" in 1991, offering natural lip balm, soap and hand crafted "millefiori" style beads from clay. At the same time she had become the chef at a well respected country club, the youngest person in the state of Nebraska to run a full professional restaurant kitchen.

In 1997 she founded PaganPath.com, home of the oldest Pagan, Wiccan and witchcraft Academy online.

For two decades she worked as a "psychic counselor" with a national psychic help line, eventually becoming the manager and then vice president of the corporation, organizing over 250 readers across the United States, managing media placement and assisting West Interactive Corporation with programming, brain storming and voice-over recording for some of the first effective voice-recognition and telephone credit card payment systems. Her voice can still be heard on many recorded messages when providing billing information for numerous companies served by West.

Friday was considered "gifted" as a young person, and in 1992 was given the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale by a trained psychologist, scoring 183 or "highest genius". She currently lives on a Pagan sanctuary that she founded with her partner in 2012. The sanctuary adjoins the Ouachita National Forest and is a teaching garden, food-bank orchard and hub of several volunteer and community outreach project. In 2014 she became a Master Gardener with the University of Arkansas division of Agriculture, and continues serving her local community through volunteer programs, hosting over 50 neo-Pagan websites free of charge, and is the publisher of ARPagans.com, PaganPath.com and PracticalWitch.com (home of the Practical Witch's Almanac).