As some of you know, even while I have been reading tarot cards for over thirty-three years, I have not been a professional tarot reader in all that time. I started professionally while I was in graduate school, initially at the urging of a professor who had witnessed my readings in class and at parties, and had brought me in as a guest to some of his classes. The career blossomed from there. I had never set out to be a professional tarot card reader; the universe created the job for me, and it has been a blessing while I pursue my first love of writing.
Being a professional has all sorts of weird baggage attached to it. While there are guides and associations and what-have-you for jobs in medicine, law, sales, management, etc., there is no rule book for the psychic realm. With each new client I get, I get my own lessons, and I realize that I am growing along with my clients. Sometimes, like anyone, I'm resistant and I just wish that I could keep things status quo. Sometimes growth hurts.
Some big lessons I am learning lately are in responsibility, boundaries, and attachment to how things are supposed to look.
The tarot is a tool for self-discovery, revelation, and understanding what you already know on a higher level; I am bringing your truth to your consciousness. The thing about the tarot is that it reflects your energy of who you are today. Because I do not believe in a fate written in stone, and because I believe that we have power and choice in our lives, the direction of your energy can change from day to day or even minute to minute. What does this mean for my clients? It means that this is about the inner journey, not the outer one. It means that tarot is not a thing to use to set schedules, to sign documents, to seal down the things of the world. Rather, it can show you if you're in a good place to do those things (or not), and why or why not.
It gets tricky. If you ask me during a tarot reading, say, how a court case will go, I will tell you what I see. But that is based upon who you are, what the current circumstances are, and how you're behaving. Don't ask, "How will my court case go?" but rather, "What can I do to be most effective in my court case?" Remember that it is about personal power and choice. That is all we've got in this life.
I have had many, many clients say that things have happened exactly as I said they would. Occasionally, though, something goes awry. No reader is perfect. Some clients seem to attract more positive results and some attract more negative. What is this about?
It can be very hard for me not to take on the responsibility for someone's life, because I tend to care very much about my clients, especially my regular ones. Yet, I know that when I become too much of a counselor or a life-coach, firstly, that's not my training, and second, it is not honoring myself and what I need to be doing. The trick is that when I spend a certain amount of time with a person, I become vested. I want to see success for that person, maybe also (if I want to get really honest) in part for my own ego as I want to be known as effective. It can be hard to have to draw the boundaries, to have respect for myself and my own time. When that desperate, sad call comes at almost midnight, it is sometimes hard to let the phone ring because the time is not appropriate for business. Sometimes I have to say, "I am sorry things are not working out for you, but I'll have to talk to you tomorrow." I have to remember that I am not a psychologist, an AA sponsor, or even a best friend. A tarot card reader can't take all that on, and then multiply it across all clients, and still have a personal life of one's own.
The other big lesson I have learned over these years is that I cannot make anyone take my advice, and I cannot control the outcome. I can only tell what I feel, and what I see in the cards. I can only offer guidance. Sometimes a person is full of anger, or addiction, or hopelessness, or self-sabotage, and maybe he or she just needs to be in that place and suffer through it for awhile, to learn the things that must be learned. There is nothing I can do to wake him up out of it until he finally can't take it anymore and takes the steering wheel on his own life. Lord knows that I have tried to steer other's lives before, and it ends up just making everyone feel worthless and ineffective.
It is not empowering to tell someone, "Here is what you have to do to get your life together," or even, "Here, let me help you." The message behind those words is, "I know you can't manage your own life, so here, let me do it for you." Ridiculous. We can all manage. We either take control of our lives, or we don't. As Yoda famously said, "Do or not do. There is no try." Sometimes people think they want to get their acts together, but they are not consistent in this feeling. Sometimes people want to give up, because that feeling of hopelessness and confusion is a place they can hide and not take responsibility for their actions. It is a place where they can cry in self-defeat, saying, "I don't know!" instead of just buckling down and making a decision, right or wrong, and just getting on with life. Through the cards, I can look at why that is, but I can't make them change. I am not living the life of my client, and I have to always remember this.
Buddha teaches us that we get attached to how we think things are supposed to go. That can be very limiting. We think success must look one way, and it can surprise us and look like something so much better. Sometimes things look like disaster: failed marriages, bankruptcy, whatever... and it can turn into the best thing that ever happened to us. I had become attached to a career plan of getting my MFA, and then making my living as a teacher while I wrote. Life designed it differently, and while I teach occasionally now, the tarot supports me better, financially, in time spent, and in promoting my scholarly work and books. I could never have imagined it as well as it has turned out. Dreams can be very restrictive, and they change as you will change; don't hold yourself fast to them.
If you come to me as a client, I can promise you that I will tell you what I see with full honesty and an open heart. I will listen, and hear you, and respond. I will do my best to give you the tools you need to make your dreams, or what you think are your dreams, come true. But I will also set the rules down that it is not my job to "fix" you. You are whole and complete already, even if you don't always feel it. Even if you haven't owned that yet. Perhaps it will be your job to remind me of this, and together we will make the world a better place, owning our own lives and what we do with them.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Presentations, TV, and Radio
Life couldn't be busier!
Here is an update on my schedule of public appearances, presentations and public events for the next few months:
I was recently on Show Me St. Louis again. Check it out here.
On Wednesday, Feb. 13th, 4:30 - 6:00 pm: I'll be doing on-air readings on the Dave Glover show, 97.1 FM.
Thursday, Feb. 14th, 7:00 - 9:00 pm: I'll be at the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum for their "Unhappy Hour", giving free tarot card readings.
Saturday, Feb. 23rd, 2:00 - 2:30 pm, I'll be presenting on "Tarot Toward Self Actualization" at the Working Women's Survival Show.
Saturday, Mar. 9th, I'll be on the Kelley Lamm radio show, 100.7 FM and 1380 AM, 9:00 - 11:00 AM.
Saturday, Mar. 30th, I'll be presenting on Sylvia Plath's poem "The Courage of Shutting-Up" at the Popular Culture Conference, Marriott Wardham Park, Washington, DC. The week prior I will be available for in-person readings in Washington DC, Maryland, and Ocean City, Maryland. Contact me for details.
Finally, June 21st and 22nd (exact time TBA), I'll be returning to London, England to present on Sylvia Plath's poem, "The Detective", at the Sherlock Holmes Conference, University of London, Senate House. Details forthcoming.
Please email if you are interested in having me appear at your public or private event, or if you would like to schedule an appointment for a personal reading.
Here is an update on my schedule of public appearances, presentations and public events for the next few months:
I was recently on Show Me St. Louis again. Check it out here.
On Wednesday, Feb. 13th, 4:30 - 6:00 pm: I'll be doing on-air readings on the Dave Glover show, 97.1 FM.
Thursday, Feb. 14th, 7:00 - 9:00 pm: I'll be at the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum for their "Unhappy Hour", giving free tarot card readings.
Saturday, Feb. 23rd, 2:00 - 2:30 pm, I'll be presenting on "Tarot Toward Self Actualization" at the Working Women's Survival Show.
Saturday, Mar. 9th, I'll be on the Kelley Lamm radio show, 100.7 FM and 1380 AM, 9:00 - 11:00 AM.
Saturday, Mar. 30th, I'll be presenting on Sylvia Plath's poem "The Courage of Shutting-Up" at the Popular Culture Conference, Marriott Wardham Park, Washington, DC. The week prior I will be available for in-person readings in Washington DC, Maryland, and Ocean City, Maryland. Contact me for details.
Finally, June 21st and 22nd (exact time TBA), I'll be returning to London, England to present on Sylvia Plath's poem, "The Detective", at the Sherlock Holmes Conference, University of London, Senate House. Details forthcoming.
Please email if you are interested in having me appear at your public or private event, or if you would like to schedule an appointment for a personal reading.
Spiritual Credentials
Many times I am asked, "How did you learn to read tarot?" or "Where do you get your knowledge?"
I know that I am different from most tarot card readers, who simply reveal the meanings of the cards and that's the end of it. I personally incorporate a lot of spiritual and psychological teachings to my readings. When, say, a Seven of Swords comes up, I might point out issues where someone believes they don't deserve good things, and we might explore why those circumstances came to be, and what might be done about this negative mindset.
There are most certainly established tarot schools and tarot programs, and these may be very beneficial for someone new to the tarot who wants to learn. I am unable to comment on them. I have never pursued any of these, and to me, tarot is such a personal, progressive, feeling sort of thing that I just don't buy into the idea of a hard, formal education or certification on the subject. I have known since I was a young girl that I was very sensitive, and could feel what was going on sometimes when I didn't even have words for it. I have been conscious of premonitions since I was a teenager, and I have always been a lucid dreamer. Could one teach me how to feel? Can I be taught to dream? No, a formal tarot course has never been for me. For the most part I am autodidactic (self-taught), but my tarot readings draw upon my long spiritual journey (almost fifty years), as well as studies of psychology, religion, symbolism, arts and the humanities.
I got my first tarot deck when I was sixteen years old, a Rider-Waite deck, and taught myself how to read it from the free little white booklet that came with it (in tarot circles, these are actually called "LWB's"). I acquired many books over the years after that, probably learning the basis for the cards from Jane Lyle's Tarot. It is now out of print, but for me this was an essential first book.
Over the years, I have been a devout reader of the psychologist Carl Jung, who developed Jungian alchemy, pursued mysticism and used the tarot for himself and his patients. I have many other contributing resources of knowledge: I took a summer to study meditation with Buddhist masters; I have been through the Understanding Yourself and Others course; I have been a long-time study of dreamwork and archetypal symbolism, of which I think the tarot is closely aligned; I have been coached and take periodic workshops with spiritual teacher Blair Kneiss (out of Austin, TX); and I have studied A Course In Miracles, the Tao Te Ching, the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible, the Zohar, and other sacred texts. My work with the poetry of Sylvia Plath opened me up to the connection between tarot and the Qabalah, and that has occupied a great deal of the last seven years, as I understand synchronicities and the mirrors life gives us. Finally, my best friend, Judy Ryan, has also taught me a great deal through her work in redirect and understanding human behavior and motivators. All of this, plus a continual quest to read and learn, has made me a better tarot reader and spiritual counselor. Please know that I do not profess to be a trained psychological counselor, although many people have told me they have benefited this way too.
There are some people out there who do not want to do the work of inner exploration, and they are probably not the ideal clients for me. If you are seeking just to have a good time and get your "fortune told," then I may be a disappointment. I may also disappoint you if you want a lot of hocus-pocus, witchy activity conjuring spirits or talking to the dead. That's not my style. But if you are on the road toward the process of self-actualization (reaching your highest potential, or as Jung put it, "Individuation,"), then my services may be of value to you and I welcome you to call at 314.517.0158 or email me at tarot[@]nighttimes.com for an appointment in person, by phone, by Skype, or email.
I know that I am different from most tarot card readers, who simply reveal the meanings of the cards and that's the end of it. I personally incorporate a lot of spiritual and psychological teachings to my readings. When, say, a Seven of Swords comes up, I might point out issues where someone believes they don't deserve good things, and we might explore why those circumstances came to be, and what might be done about this negative mindset.
There are most certainly established tarot schools and tarot programs, and these may be very beneficial for someone new to the tarot who wants to learn. I am unable to comment on them. I have never pursued any of these, and to me, tarot is such a personal, progressive, feeling sort of thing that I just don't buy into the idea of a hard, formal education or certification on the subject. I have known since I was a young girl that I was very sensitive, and could feel what was going on sometimes when I didn't even have words for it. I have been conscious of premonitions since I was a teenager, and I have always been a lucid dreamer. Could one teach me how to feel? Can I be taught to dream? No, a formal tarot course has never been for me. For the most part I am autodidactic (self-taught), but my tarot readings draw upon my long spiritual journey (almost fifty years), as well as studies of psychology, religion, symbolism, arts and the humanities.
I got my first tarot deck when I was sixteen years old, a Rider-Waite deck, and taught myself how to read it from the free little white booklet that came with it (in tarot circles, these are actually called "LWB's"). I acquired many books over the years after that, probably learning the basis for the cards from Jane Lyle's Tarot. It is now out of print, but for me this was an essential first book.
Over the years, I have been a devout reader of the psychologist Carl Jung, who developed Jungian alchemy, pursued mysticism and used the tarot for himself and his patients. I have many other contributing resources of knowledge: I took a summer to study meditation with Buddhist masters; I have been through the Understanding Yourself and Others course; I have been a long-time study of dreamwork and archetypal symbolism, of which I think the tarot is closely aligned; I have been coached and take periodic workshops with spiritual teacher Blair Kneiss (out of Austin, TX); and I have studied A Course In Miracles, the Tao Te Ching, the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible, the Zohar, and other sacred texts. My work with the poetry of Sylvia Plath opened me up to the connection between tarot and the Qabalah, and that has occupied a great deal of the last seven years, as I understand synchronicities and the mirrors life gives us. Finally, my best friend, Judy Ryan, has also taught me a great deal through her work in redirect and understanding human behavior and motivators. All of this, plus a continual quest to read and learn, has made me a better tarot reader and spiritual counselor. Please know that I do not profess to be a trained psychological counselor, although many people have told me they have benefited this way too.
There are some people out there who do not want to do the work of inner exploration, and they are probably not the ideal clients for me. If you are seeking just to have a good time and get your "fortune told," then I may be a disappointment. I may also disappoint you if you want a lot of hocus-pocus, witchy activity conjuring spirits or talking to the dead. That's not my style. But if you are on the road toward the process of self-actualization (reaching your highest potential, or as Jung put it, "Individuation,"), then my services may be of value to you and I welcome you to call at 314.517.0158 or email me at tarot[@]nighttimes.com for an appointment in person, by phone, by Skype, or email.
Monday, February 4, 2013
Happenings
Hi Friends,
A couple of updates for you on my whereabouts, local and otherwise:
On Wednesday, February 13th, I'll be on the Dave Glover Show, FM News Talk 97.1 FM, in the 4:30 - 6:00 pm time slot. Listen to call for a free on-the-air reading!
On Valentine's Day, February 14th, get your free tarot card reading at the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum's "Unhappy Hour." Here's a clip on the event featuring Yours Truly around two minutes in. The St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum is on Washington Avenue, just off of Grand, near the Fox Theater and next to the Pulitzer.
On Saturday, February 23rd, I'll be presenting "Tarot Toward Self-Actualization" at the Working Women's Survival Show, 2:00-2:30 pm. Click here for more.
On Saturday, March 9th, I'll be doing free tarot readings on the Kelley Lamm Radio Show, 9am to 11am on 100.7fm and 1380am.
On Saturday, March 30th I'll be presenting on my Sylvia Plath/Tarot work at the Popular Culture Conference in Washington DC, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, 1:15 pm. The poem I am focusing on is "The Courage of Shutting-Up." It is Sylvia Plath's quiet advocacy for gay rights in a time when such things did not exist. Write for details (and more specifics are given in the preceding blog).
There is even more good news brewing, so watch this space and I'll post as it is finalized.
A couple of updates for you on my whereabouts, local and otherwise:
On Wednesday, February 13th, I'll be on the Dave Glover Show, FM News Talk 97.1 FM, in the 4:30 - 6:00 pm time slot. Listen to call for a free on-the-air reading!
On Valentine's Day, February 14th, get your free tarot card reading at the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum's "Unhappy Hour." Here's a clip on the event featuring Yours Truly around two minutes in. The St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum is on Washington Avenue, just off of Grand, near the Fox Theater and next to the Pulitzer.
On Saturday, February 23rd, I'll be presenting "Tarot Toward Self-Actualization" at the Working Women's Survival Show, 2:00-2:30 pm. Click here for more.
On Saturday, March 9th, I'll be doing free tarot readings on the Kelley Lamm Radio Show, 9am to 11am on 100.7fm and 1380am.
On Saturday, March 30th I'll be presenting on my Sylvia Plath/Tarot work at the Popular Culture Conference in Washington DC, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, 1:15 pm. The poem I am focusing on is "The Courage of Shutting-Up." It is Sylvia Plath's quiet advocacy for gay rights in a time when such things did not exist. Write for details (and more specifics are given in the preceding blog).
There is even more good news brewing, so watch this space and I'll post as it is finalized.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Coming Out to the World with "The Courage of Shutting-Up"
Happy to announce that I'll be presenting at the 2013 Popular Culture Conference in Washington, DC at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel on Saturday, March 30th at 1:15 pm.
Here is an abstract on my paper:
Shattering the Room Full of Mirrors: Sylvia Plath’s Poetic Recount of the Destruction of the Feminine Aspects in Men
Sylvia Plath’s poem, “The Courage of Shutting-Up” has never been one of her most famous, in part because of its difficulty. Viewed through a lens of mysticism, however (Plath and her husband Ted Hughes were avidly interested in and practitioners of the occult), this poem focuses on the witch hunt over time against the hermaphrodite, the homosexual, and the witch herself, within ancient and modern literature and contemporary media. The poem tells the story of the public and private crimes against men born with feminine aspects, and the terrible silence that has been required to survive over the ages.
Paper
Topic area: Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Studies
This will be a really cool opportunity to give Sylvia Plath the recognition she has never received as a supporter of queer rights. In a time when few mentioned this topic aloud, Plath had to watch one of her favorite professors and colleagues at Smith College, Newton Arvin, have his life destroyed when it was discovered that he was homosexual.
Those of you who know Tarot know that the World card, for which Plath's poem "The Courage of Shutting-Up" correlates, features the hermaphrodite. It is a card of uniting male and female natures.
For more information about the PCA National Conference, click here.
Here is an abstract on my paper:
Shattering the Room Full of Mirrors: Sylvia Plath’s Poetic Recount of the Destruction of the Feminine Aspects in Men
Sylvia Plath’s poem, “The Courage of Shutting-Up” has never been one of her most famous, in part because of its difficulty. Viewed through a lens of mysticism, however (Plath and her husband Ted Hughes were avidly interested in and practitioners of the occult), this poem focuses on the witch hunt over time against the hermaphrodite, the homosexual, and the witch herself, within ancient and modern literature and contemporary media. The poem tells the story of the public and private crimes against men born with feminine aspects, and the terrible silence that has been required to survive over the ages.
Paper
Topic area: Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Studies
This will be a really cool opportunity to give Sylvia Plath the recognition she has never received as a supporter of queer rights. In a time when few mentioned this topic aloud, Plath had to watch one of her favorite professors and colleagues at Smith College, Newton Arvin, have his life destroyed when it was discovered that he was homosexual.
Those of you who know Tarot know that the World card, for which Plath's poem "The Courage of Shutting-Up" correlates, features the hermaphrodite. It is a card of uniting male and female natures.
For more information about the PCA National Conference, click here.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
What The Apocalypse Really Means
Hi Friends,
Over the last few months, I've had a lot of Tarot clients asking me about my feelings about December 21, 2012. Do I really think it's the Apocalypse?
No. Well, not in the literal way.
Astrologers tell us that we are at an end of an Age, and beginning a new one. We have traveled through the Age of Pisces in the zodiac, and we are now moving into the Age of Aquarius. Remember that old Broadway classic, "Hair," with its big hit, "The Age of Aquarius"? The Age of Pisces, what we're just finishing up, is considered to be a warring, paternalistic age. The Age of Aquarius, astrologically, is about femininity, peace and love. Wouldn't that be great?
I don't believe that change will happen overnight, unfortunately. Maybe not even in our lifetimes, although it would be wonderful if we could be a part of moving that energy forward, away from school shootings, away from the fiscal cliff, away from Hurricane Sandy, and the like. We ARE at the end of an age. This is the time when all of our systems are breaking. The old ways don't work any longer. Look around you: Every system we have, be it politics, economy, environment, education, health, religion, the traditional family, it is all in a time of violent upheaval as we learn new ways to live and quit fighting to preserve the old status quo. This is the Apocalypse.
Some of you know that in addition to reading Tarot and teaching Humanities, I am a Sylvia Plath scholar. If you're interested in what Sylvia Plath had to say about this end-of-the-world, please check out the PowerPoint presentation I made for the Plath Symposium, this past October. You may view it here.
Over the last few months, I've had a lot of Tarot clients asking me about my feelings about December 21, 2012. Do I really think it's the Apocalypse?
No. Well, not in the literal way.
Astrologers tell us that we are at an end of an Age, and beginning a new one. We have traveled through the Age of Pisces in the zodiac, and we are now moving into the Age of Aquarius. Remember that old Broadway classic, "Hair," with its big hit, "The Age of Aquarius"? The Age of Pisces, what we're just finishing up, is considered to be a warring, paternalistic age. The Age of Aquarius, astrologically, is about femininity, peace and love. Wouldn't that be great?
I don't believe that change will happen overnight, unfortunately. Maybe not even in our lifetimes, although it would be wonderful if we could be a part of moving that energy forward, away from school shootings, away from the fiscal cliff, away from Hurricane Sandy, and the like. We ARE at the end of an age. This is the time when all of our systems are breaking. The old ways don't work any longer. Look around you: Every system we have, be it politics, economy, environment, education, health, religion, the traditional family, it is all in a time of violent upheaval as we learn new ways to live and quit fighting to preserve the old status quo. This is the Apocalypse.
Some of you know that in addition to reading Tarot and teaching Humanities, I am a Sylvia Plath scholar. If you're interested in what Sylvia Plath had to say about this end-of-the-world, please check out the PowerPoint presentation I made for the Plath Symposium, this past October. You may view it here.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
The Next Big Thing: Fixed Stars Govern a Life and The Magician's Girl
The Next Big Thing is a blogging meme conceived by She Writes that gives authors an opportunity to discuss their next book, whether it’s being published or not.
Thanks to P.H. Davies for approaching me to be a part of this project. I am honored that he finds my work of interest. You can read about P.H. Davies’ work here.
What is the title of your book?
I have two companion books nearing completion that can be read either separately or together: Fixed Stars Govern a Life: Sylvia Plath’s Qabalah Code, and The Magician’s Girl: History, Mysticism and the Lives that Shaped Sylvia Plath.
What genre does it fall under?
Both are nonfiction. Fixed Stars may be considered Literary Criticism; The Magician’s Girl is Biography.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie?
That’s already been done. ;-)
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Because there are two books, you get two sentences:
Fixed Stars Govern a Life is a study of Plath’s Ariel poems as they correspond to the Tarot and Qabalah, dramatically reinterpreting her work in a way that’s been missed for fifty years.
The Magician’s Girl is a biography that looks not only at Plath’s life, but the people and events happening around her, and how these found their ways into her work.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I’m in the process of figuring all of that out right now. I have some proposals out. A university press is likely to be my best option over mainstream publishers, as many would consider this topic to be “academic.” But who knows, right? Sylvia Plath is still a very hot topic, and even fifty years after her death they’re making movies on her, reprinting and re-collecting her poems, and producing her play, “Three Women.” I’ve even seen Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes dolls on Etsy. I’ve also been exploring ebooks and/or self-publishing options. While I love the dream of seeing my books sitting printed and bound on someone’s personal library or bookstore shelf, I also like the idea of my books in digital format, being searchable for scholars and students. As we know, the publishing industry has gone through great changes this past year. As with what happened to the record industry in the 1990s, more artists are going independent due to the ease of availability and communication of the Internet, and widely-available, quality digital publishing tools.
How long did it take you to write the first draft?
I am into my seventh year of work on both books. The Magician’s Girl originally began as an introduction to Fixed Stars Govern a Life, but it soon took on a life of its own.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
There are some very good literary criticisms on Plath out there, but none have taken on my perspective of Qabalah and mysticism. Actually, it’s kind of odd that no one has thought to do this. Especially considering Plath’s interest in Tarot and the occult were not too secret with her writings about using the Ouija board, her picture with the crystal ball, all the talk of astrology and meditation, etc. She worshiped her husband, Ted Hughes, for most of their marriage, and Hughes has been widely written of in his literary-occult pursuits.
Sylvia Plath with Crystal Ball
I do believe that both of my books are breaking new ground, and may even cause some controversy, as they essentially build the case that Sylvia Plath’s poetry has been mostly misunderstood for half a century.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
While obtaining my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, I had a semester final project in my Poetry, Form and Theory class. My professor, Dr. Steven Schreiner, suggested that I look more deeply into all the Tarot symbolism I kept noticing and commenting on in Plath’s work. I have been a Tarot card reader for over thirty-three years, you see. The modern Tarot was designed to correspond to the structure of the Qabalah Tree of Life. It might have taken both a Tarot scholar and a Plath scholar to see the connection. There probably aren't too many people like me out there.
That was the beginning of work that would swallow up every waking minute, as well as some sleeping ones, over the next six years of my life. And here I go into the seventh…
What else about this book might pique the reader’s interest?
Well, first, no biography has explored the importance and practice of mysticism in Sylvia Plath’s life, as well as the influence of the personalities of Plath’s family, friends, and professors.
Second, no one has aligned Sylvia Plath’s work with the historical events of the time. In addition to her mystic pursuits, she was a very political person, aware of the issues around her. Yet scholars continue to narrowly view her work as mere autobiography. It’s quite unbelievable to me.
To view Sylvia Plath’s poetry through these new perspectives lends exciting new interpretations of Plath’s older poems, and new levels of understanding toward The Colossus and Ariel books. My work is primarily drawn from already-published materials that have never been viewed as collective whole, and also from unpublished letters and archival documents. The reader will come to understand Plath’s development as a poet as she learned to layer in outside meanings in her work, to understand the Jewish and Holocaust references for which she’s received so much flak, and to realize that Sylvia Plath was a great deal more than her terrible personal drama.
There is a larger take-away from these books as well. Both books, but especially Fixed Stars Govern a Life, tangibly illustrate Qabalah as a kind of “divine road map”; it is a system of how our universe works, and to read even several poem interpretations in a row, one has to marvel that Plath did this forty times in Ariel. To me, this proves that Sylvia Plath was a literary genius like no other, and/or that there is some kind of undeniable higher order. Or both. It’s been the most exciting and important work of my life.
Thanks to P.H. Davies for approaching me to be a part of this project. I am honored that he finds my work of interest. You can read about P.H. Davies’ work here.
What is the title of your book?
I have two companion books nearing completion that can be read either separately or together: Fixed Stars Govern a Life: Sylvia Plath’s Qabalah Code, and The Magician’s Girl: History, Mysticism and the Lives that Shaped Sylvia Plath.
What genre does it fall under?
Both are nonfiction. Fixed Stars may be considered Literary Criticism; The Magician’s Girl is Biography.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie?
That’s already been done. ;-)
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Because there are two books, you get two sentences:
Fixed Stars Govern a Life is a study of Plath’s Ariel poems as they correspond to the Tarot and Qabalah, dramatically reinterpreting her work in a way that’s been missed for fifty years.
The Magician’s Girl is a biography that looks not only at Plath’s life, but the people and events happening around her, and how these found their ways into her work.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I’m in the process of figuring all of that out right now. I have some proposals out. A university press is likely to be my best option over mainstream publishers, as many would consider this topic to be “academic.” But who knows, right? Sylvia Plath is still a very hot topic, and even fifty years after her death they’re making movies on her, reprinting and re-collecting her poems, and producing her play, “Three Women.” I’ve even seen Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes dolls on Etsy. I’ve also been exploring ebooks and/or self-publishing options. While I love the dream of seeing my books sitting printed and bound on someone’s personal library or bookstore shelf, I also like the idea of my books in digital format, being searchable for scholars and students. As we know, the publishing industry has gone through great changes this past year. As with what happened to the record industry in the 1990s, more artists are going independent due to the ease of availability and communication of the Internet, and widely-available, quality digital publishing tools.
How long did it take you to write the first draft?
I am into my seventh year of work on both books. The Magician’s Girl originally began as an introduction to Fixed Stars Govern a Life, but it soon took on a life of its own.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
There are some very good literary criticisms on Plath out there, but none have taken on my perspective of Qabalah and mysticism. Actually, it’s kind of odd that no one has thought to do this. Especially considering Plath’s interest in Tarot and the occult were not too secret with her writings about using the Ouija board, her picture with the crystal ball, all the talk of astrology and meditation, etc. She worshiped her husband, Ted Hughes, for most of their marriage, and Hughes has been widely written of in his literary-occult pursuits.
Sylvia Plath with Crystal Ball
I do believe that both of my books are breaking new ground, and may even cause some controversy, as they essentially build the case that Sylvia Plath’s poetry has been mostly misunderstood for half a century.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
While obtaining my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, I had a semester final project in my Poetry, Form and Theory class. My professor, Dr. Steven Schreiner, suggested that I look more deeply into all the Tarot symbolism I kept noticing and commenting on in Plath’s work. I have been a Tarot card reader for over thirty-three years, you see. The modern Tarot was designed to correspond to the structure of the Qabalah Tree of Life. It might have taken both a Tarot scholar and a Plath scholar to see the connection. There probably aren't too many people like me out there.
That was the beginning of work that would swallow up every waking minute, as well as some sleeping ones, over the next six years of my life. And here I go into the seventh…
What else about this book might pique the reader’s interest?
Well, first, no biography has explored the importance and practice of mysticism in Sylvia Plath’s life, as well as the influence of the personalities of Plath’s family, friends, and professors.
Second, no one has aligned Sylvia Plath’s work with the historical events of the time. In addition to her mystic pursuits, she was a very political person, aware of the issues around her. Yet scholars continue to narrowly view her work as mere autobiography. It’s quite unbelievable to me.
To view Sylvia Plath’s poetry through these new perspectives lends exciting new interpretations of Plath’s older poems, and new levels of understanding toward The Colossus and Ariel books. My work is primarily drawn from already-published materials that have never been viewed as collective whole, and also from unpublished letters and archival documents. The reader will come to understand Plath’s development as a poet as she learned to layer in outside meanings in her work, to understand the Jewish and Holocaust references for which she’s received so much flak, and to realize that Sylvia Plath was a great deal more than her terrible personal drama.
There is a larger take-away from these books as well. Both books, but especially Fixed Stars Govern a Life, tangibly illustrate Qabalah as a kind of “divine road map”; it is a system of how our universe works, and to read even several poem interpretations in a row, one has to marvel that Plath did this forty times in Ariel. To me, this proves that Sylvia Plath was a literary genius like no other, and/or that there is some kind of undeniable higher order. Or both. It’s been the most exciting and important work of my life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)