From Ritual to Romance: Plath’s Pagan Primer (w/Tarot too!)

  Which book from Sylvia Plath’s library to review next? How about From Ritual to Romance, by Jessie L. Weston (thanks to Matthew Freeman for gifting this to me years ago). Notes on LibraryThing say Plath read this book 1954-55, wrote “Sylvia Plath 1958” inside of it, and that there is “much underlining” by Plath. […]

Know What Plath Read to Know Plath

In the previous blog I mention Literary Alchemy, and the conscious effort that some poets and writers have made throughout history to interweave mysticism into their art in order to make it into something larger than themselves. This is not a new idea, and I am not the first one to notice it. When Sylvia Plath […]

Proof Plath Knew Qabalah: The Painted Caravan

I thought I would do a series of book reviews on this blog on old books that Plath owned and read, as I’m becoming aware that few others have read them. I’m going to start with the one scholars know Ted Hughes bought Plath for her birthday in 1956, The Painted Caravan: a penetration into […]

What We Don’t Know

A reader saw Dr. Ann Skea’s 2012 posts about my first book, Fixed Stars Govern a Life: Decoding Sylvia Plath work and asked me some questions. I started to respond, and then decided to answer her here, to share with everyone, five years after the fact: Earlier in that year, Dr. Skea emailed me, letting me […]

And I Am The Arrow

I had the pleasure of speaking with Professor Robert Masterson from CUNY this past weekend, who will soon be acting as a visiting professor, distinguished scholar and lecturer at several universities across India. I’m delighted to learn that Professor Masterson is bringing Decoding Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” into his 2018 curriculum (I think he liked the […]

Plath Poetica Obscura

I jetted off to Washington D.C. this past weekend to rendezvous with my son Sam and tour the museums, most especially to see the One Life: Sylvia Plath exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery. For the Plath fan who has not had the privilege already to work in archives, this is undoubtedly a thrilling exhibit, […]

Is There a Difference Between the Occult and Mysticism?

Saying the word “Occult” sounds scarier than “Mysticism,” doesn’t it? That’s partly why I reference Mysticism often when referring to Sylvia Plath’s interests. The occult and mysticism are essentially the same thing, although mysticism, by definition, is becoming one with a higher power through occult means. Occult in fact, means nothing more than “hidden.” You’ve […]