The End of An Exciting Year; The Beginning of Even More

  Hello and Happy New Year! On this first day of 2023, we have a symbolic blank page on which to write our hopes, fears, prayers, and creative energies. All of these create our experience of this new year. Today, I hope that you celebrate possibilities and empower yourself to attract them. This is that […]

New Book Coming! Tarot Life Lessons

Hi Everyone, Sorry I’ve been so bad about blogging. I’ve been finishing up two books for Inner Traditions publishers, and then I went right into my busy Octoberfest/Halloween season. I should have a little break between now and the Christmas party rush and will hopefully catch up a little. In the meantime, I’m sharing the […]

What We Think We Want

I feel so protected. Looking back over my life and some decisions I have made or tried to make, I see in hindsight that if things had gone the way I wanted, it would have been a disaster for me.

My Favorite Miracle

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‘A Miracle!’ / That knocks me out –from Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” Several years ago, I dreamt that something extraordinary would happen when I had blue fingernails. Haha, dreams are so weird, right? Well, if you know me (and if you’re reading this blog, you likely do know me to some degree), you probably know […]

Plath Work, Web Work (Updates)

Hello! It’s been an exciting January as I have found my momentum for so many things again. I think the cold weather keeps me in at the computer and has energized me as of late. I’ve had a busy week or so expanding this website to include my poetic interpretations of Sylvia Plath’s early poems […]

“Spider”: Caught in Willie’s Winning Web

Ted Hughes positioned “Spider” as a 1956 poem, but the evidence suggests it may have been written in 1958. In the poem, Plath references the African folklore tale of Anansi, the trickster spider. Hughes noted in The Collected Poems that by the end of the year 1956 she had become greatly interested in African folklore, […]

“Maudlin”: The Monthly Curse

Of all the work in the 1956 section of The Collected Poems, “Maudlin” may be the one closest to Plath’s autobiography. However, this poem was probably written in 1959. After all, Plath wrote in her journals on May 25, 1959, “My Maudlin poem is a prophetic little piece. I get the pleasure of a prayer […]

“Crystal Gazer”: A Different Kind of Globe

Revisions to Plath’s poem “Crystal Gazer” were discussed in Hughes’ October 1956 letters, but Plath’s calendar notes reveal that she wrote 24 lines (probably the first four stanzas) on June 3, 1956 and worked on it through the next few days. On the 6th, she noted that she had barely begun reading Aristotle when she […]

“Ella Mason and Her Eleven Cats”: Cat Houses In The News

Plath wrote “Ella Mason and Her Eleven Cats” on June 2, 1956, per her pocket calendar. Plath spoke a bit of French, and the very near-homophone la maison translates to “the house.” This is less a poem about an animal hoarder, and more explicitly about a cat house, or a brothel. This subject was all […]

“The Beggars”: Neighboring Countries on Hard Times

“The Beggars” is one of Plath’s poems seemingly set in Benidorm, Spain. If Plath had been reading the newspapers from home, which Aurelia might have sent, she would have seen that a new version of Faust opened at the Theatre on the Green in Wellesley, running July through August. In an article entitled, “The Beggar’s Opera,” the […]