Hi again, Friends:
As the release of my book, Fixed Stars Govern a Life: Decoding Sylvia Plath draws near (yes, the subtitle has been changed from "Sylvia Plath's Qabalah Code," but the content remains the same), I am looking into doing a little bit of early marketing...and I could use your help!
I do not have the release date or the artwork yet to set up pre-orders on Amazon.com and all the rest, but I assure you that will come ASAP. In the meantime, please know the following:
1.) I would love to have your name and email address, if you are interested in an opt-in mailing to receive updates and news about me, book tours, major events, etc. I give you my word that you will not be spammed, receive too many notices, or have your information sold to any other parties. You may email your information to me privately at jgordonbramer[at]gmail.com.
2.) If you're an English professor or administrator interested in having me visit your school in person, or to speak to classes via Skype or conference call, please email me! If you're a member of a spiritual center (I'm especially interested in groups focusing on Alchemy, Tarot, Qabalah, Creativity Work, Mythology, the work of Carl Jung, etc.), if you run a bookstore, or if you are affiliated with literary workshops and presentations, I also want to hear from you! I will be doing some small tours over the next year and may be able to plan your location into the mix.
3.) If you believe that I would be a good fit as speaker/presenter at your conference/symposium/seminar/workshop/retreat, I'd love to hear more about it. Maybe we can make it happen.
About the book:
Fixed Stars Govern a Life: Decoding Sylvia Plath volume one, will be out in 2013 (release date TBA) by Stephen F. Austin State University Press. The book is ALREADY generating controversy, and if you're in the media, please give me a call or email and I would love to tell you about it. This book will change the way we look at Sylvia Plath's poems, and demolishes her fifty-year-long reputation of being merely a depressive poet/author and tragic suicide. Readers will see that Sylvia Plath was a genius like no other, and on top of that, Plath gives the gift of showing a blueprint for Qabalah--a divine order to the universe.
If you're a Plath fan, or new to Plath and just wanting to understand what the hubbub is about, this book will change your life. Don't care for poetry? You'll still be astounded by the historical, mythological, astrological, astronomical, alchemical, and artistic correlations.
You will never view the world in the same way again.
Cover art will be designed by the incomparable Amy Bautz.
Some early blurbs: [more coming soon]
"With clarity and erudition, Ms. Gordon-Bramer illuminates how Plath's masterpiece Ariel reflects a clear and intentional alignment with the Tarot and the Qabalah's Tree of Life. With each poem, and the collection as a whole, Gordon-Bramer weaves the esoteric mysteries with historical interpretation in a fascinating scholarly analysis that is original, provocative, magical. Fixed Stars Govern a Life is an incantation of great resonance and power, and its publication will be a sensation."
-- Susan L. Woods, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Women's Studies, Eastern Illinois University
"Lucid and intriguing... Fixed Stars Govern a Life is a great source study with commentary on what Plath read, and what was happening at the time of the poem." -- Carl Rollyson, author of American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath [St. Martin's Press]
Have an idea for me and/or my book? Reach out to me at jgordonbramer[at]gmail.com, or call: 314.517.0158.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Friday, June 7, 2013
Spells, Curses, Black & Chaos Arts, and Free Will
Doing the Renaissance Faire has brought me face-to-face with some interesting characters. This whole Fantasy crowd are usually quite intelligent, they do a lot of reading, and pride themselves on their wild imaginations and even wilder outfits. They grew up on Dungeons & Dragons and H.P. Lovecraft, and I usually don't have to explain any references to Greek mythology or Qabalah to these guys (and girls). I am getting used to people telling me off-handedly that they are Wiccan, or are "doing some energy work with Isis," that they're struggling with a blocked chakra, or have been practicing their mediumship abilities. It's all cool. Whatever you're into. Some of them I take quite seriously (and sometimes their cards will echo psychic abilities), and others I smile and shrug off as residue from playing with too many Magic: The Gathering cards. However, I have yet to get used to someone sitting down in front of me and requesting a spell or a curse. I get requests for people on the phone for these too. All the time.
Gypsy legend has it (and hey, I just discovered that my Bohemian roots probably do qualify me for having a trace of real Gypsy blood way back down the line) that whatever you put out there toward somebody, for good or for evil, will come back to you three times. This is actually very much in line with Qabalists, Taoists, and pagan beliefs too. It amounts to this: What goes around comes around. Good brings good and bad brings bad. It's quite simple.
The Qabalists say: "As above so below; as inside, so outside." What happens in the God-mind happens in the body. What happens in the body happens outside the body. Everything is a mirror.
Some people ask about sacred objects: talismans, voodoo dolls, lucky t-shirts, and such. I do believe that there is power to these things if we believe it and give the object power. The ancient Chinese have been doing the same sort of energy work with positioning objects through Feng Shui. Use symbols to clear energy and keep a healthy, good flow.
But let's talk about negative energy for a minute:
We have all been in the situation where we have been so angry with someone that we want revenge. Sometimes we feel so justified in it that we're willing to suffer ourselves. But I ask you: are you willing to suffer three times greater? That's an awful lot of energy you are giving to your enemy, and to your own demise, when you could be building yourself up. Think of the attention you give a person you're angry with, and then think of how that translates into wasted time.
Somewhere along the line, we have all felt unrequited love too. After angry curses, love spells are what I get the most requests for. And to those people I ask: would you really want to make someone love you? That's not true love, and the energy is bad. Get someone to notice you, sure. I can even teach you to put your own energy toward doing just that. But force is never a good thing, even in matters of the heart.
My husband has a motto: the use of force against another is never acceptable, under any circumstances except in self-defense. This principle applies to every area of his life, and I tend to agree with it.
At the Renaissance Faire, I have had people casually state to me that they are Black magicians. I think that they believe, since I am a tarot card reader, that I am either one myself, or that I tacitly approve. Black magicians practice Black Magic, or some call it "Chaos magic." Black and Chaos magic are essentially screwing with the systems of life. They do not respect ideas such as individuality and free will, and some go as far as not to respect life and death. I do not support Black Magic, curses, or negativity in any form. I have had some experience with it in the past and I am not interested in ever going there again. Black magicians, unsurprisingly, usually deal with a lot of depression, emotional, financial, physical, and professional problems. You will almost never meet a Black magician who you would say is successful in life. They are getting their Gypsy three-times-back, and then some.
I may have written this aphorism before, but it bears repeating: "The Devil is all in your head, and that is the worst place he could be" (Marianne Williamson).
So, you know where I stand as far as practicing Black Magic. Do I believe that I could be a victim of Black Magic and Chaos Magic? To a point, yes. I believe that if I think I'm a victim of it, if I believe that I'm weak and a sucker to it, then I just might be. But I also know that I am a part of this great system of life energy, which I call God. That makes me entirely powerful to live and behave as I want. I choose to live in the light, and since I first made this conscious choice, absolutely everything has opened up to me.
I had a conversation with someone close to me about protective spells recently. I believe protective spells are neutral--neither good or bad energy. Like Aikido or Tai Chi, they are the deflection of forceful attack against you, and while you are prepared, you are never first to strike. They are the reaction to the offensive reaction. There is a lot we can do to protect ourselves, simply by looking inward and seeing what we are attracting with our own belief systems. There are outward symbols of protection you can do too. If you're interested in a tarot card reading to explore this, or any issue, please email me at tarot[at]nighttimes.com, or call 314.517.0158.
Gypsy legend has it (and hey, I just discovered that my Bohemian roots probably do qualify me for having a trace of real Gypsy blood way back down the line) that whatever you put out there toward somebody, for good or for evil, will come back to you three times. This is actually very much in line with Qabalists, Taoists, and pagan beliefs too. It amounts to this: What goes around comes around. Good brings good and bad brings bad. It's quite simple.
The Qabalists say: "As above so below; as inside, so outside." What happens in the God-mind happens in the body. What happens in the body happens outside the body. Everything is a mirror.
Some people ask about sacred objects: talismans, voodoo dolls, lucky t-shirts, and such. I do believe that there is power to these things if we believe it and give the object power. The ancient Chinese have been doing the same sort of energy work with positioning objects through Feng Shui. Use symbols to clear energy and keep a healthy, good flow.
But let's talk about negative energy for a minute:
We have all been in the situation where we have been so angry with someone that we want revenge. Sometimes we feel so justified in it that we're willing to suffer ourselves. But I ask you: are you willing to suffer three times greater? That's an awful lot of energy you are giving to your enemy, and to your own demise, when you could be building yourself up. Think of the attention you give a person you're angry with, and then think of how that translates into wasted time.
Somewhere along the line, we have all felt unrequited love too. After angry curses, love spells are what I get the most requests for. And to those people I ask: would you really want to make someone love you? That's not true love, and the energy is bad. Get someone to notice you, sure. I can even teach you to put your own energy toward doing just that. But force is never a good thing, even in matters of the heart.
My husband has a motto: the use of force against another is never acceptable, under any circumstances except in self-defense. This principle applies to every area of his life, and I tend to agree with it.
At the Renaissance Faire, I have had people casually state to me that they are Black magicians. I think that they believe, since I am a tarot card reader, that I am either one myself, or that I tacitly approve. Black magicians practice Black Magic, or some call it "Chaos magic." Black and Chaos magic are essentially screwing with the systems of life. They do not respect ideas such as individuality and free will, and some go as far as not to respect life and death. I do not support Black Magic, curses, or negativity in any form. I have had some experience with it in the past and I am not interested in ever going there again. Black magicians, unsurprisingly, usually deal with a lot of depression, emotional, financial, physical, and professional problems. You will almost never meet a Black magician who you would say is successful in life. They are getting their Gypsy three-times-back, and then some.
I may have written this aphorism before, but it bears repeating: "The Devil is all in your head, and that is the worst place he could be" (Marianne Williamson).
So, you know where I stand as far as practicing Black Magic. Do I believe that I could be a victim of Black Magic and Chaos Magic? To a point, yes. I believe that if I think I'm a victim of it, if I believe that I'm weak and a sucker to it, then I just might be. But I also know that I am a part of this great system of life energy, which I call God. That makes me entirely powerful to live and behave as I want. I choose to live in the light, and since I first made this conscious choice, absolutely everything has opened up to me.
I had a conversation with someone close to me about protective spells recently. I believe protective spells are neutral--neither good or bad energy. Like Aikido or Tai Chi, they are the deflection of forceful attack against you, and while you are prepared, you are never first to strike. They are the reaction to the offensive reaction. There is a lot we can do to protect ourselves, simply by looking inward and seeing what we are attracting with our own belief systems. There are outward symbols of protection you can do too. If you're interested in a tarot card reading to explore this, or any issue, please email me at tarot[at]nighttimes.com, or call 314.517.0158.
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