Everything Everywhere But Not All at Once
A mid-August Get Out of Jail card, a TikTok sojourn, my Jeffrey Dahmer romance novel news, and some Mercury Retro reading worth reading.
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I CAME ACROSS a beautiful antidote by the Swiss philosopher Henri-Frédéric Amiel that acts as a countermovement to the fervor most of us find our lives spinning through:
“Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for the unknown God.
Then if a bird sing among your branches, do not be too eager to tame it. If you are conscious of something new—thought or feeling—wakening in the depths of your being—do not be in a hurry to let in light upon it, to look at it; let the springing germ have the protection of being forgotten, hedge it round with quiet, and do not break in upon its darkness; let it take shape and grow, and not a word of your happiness to any one!
Sacred work of nature as it is, all conception should be enwrapped by the triple veil of modesty, silence, and night.”
This advocates sitting back and releasing the bit from the ego’s mouth. In doing so, we might notice what force or influence actually dominates our lives. There are spiritual names for this force. I keep it simple and call it ‘nature.’
We also might recall that each of us has limited time; this sentiment is doubly true if we’ve lost both of our parents. There’s something about our parents still being alive that supports the secret notion each of us harbors that while other people might die, we will live forever.
Right?
TikTok (Really?)
I’ve been curious about TikTok for the past couple of years, but assuming it was primarily for teens suffering from ADD, I never spent time checking out its Weltanschauung. Last week, I set up an account and entered the fray.
There are lots of awful astrologers on the platform—influencer types with hundreds of thousands of followers—sporting the standard hairdo you’d see on any of the housewives in the Real Housewives franchise. It’s always the same grifty shit they’re proffering. Idiotic cliches about the signs and ways to discover your past life by studying your chart’s South Node 😩—tacky shit you’ve seen all over social media during the past 15 years.
One of TikTok’s secrets I came to understand right away is that they provide video filters for recording that are mindblowing. I went from looking like a 70-year-old hobo to a semi-presentable, sane person in seconds.
Anyway, I’m going to try the platform out for a couple of months and see if I can crack its mysterious (and quite punishing) algorithm. If you want to follow me, here is my profile.
And here’s one of my first vids discussing the synastry between Trump and JD Vance’s horoscopes:
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Some News About My Jeffrey Dahmer Romance Novel
My first book was published by a mainstream publisher years ago, and I was out of the loop regarding things like cover design and everything involved with that process. For my Dahmer book, I decided I’d do the cover myself. While prepping the InDesign files for the POD company I’m working with, I discovered that the font I used for the cover required a licensing fee of over a thousand dollars. WTF?
I’m embarrassed to admit that I had no idea fonts were licensable. Now, I’m going back to the drawing board to rework the cover and find an affordable display font comparable to what I had in place initially. IOW: There’s a bit of delay on a project I’d hoped to have out at the end of the month. If you want to follow along with updates and purchasing info, you can do so on my other Substack, The Dahmer Diaries, here.
Make Some Time To Read
• Tarot scholar
’ final entry in the back-and-forth Tarot odyssey we explored regarding Kamala Harris’ VP pick. I had no idea AI could be employed like this with the Tarot, but leave it to Cynthia to school me otherwise.• Astrologer Jessica Murray’s latest close-read on the US’s weird political climate. In her latest blog post, Weird.
• Astrologer
’s wildly fresh, stream-of-consciousness take on the current Mercury retrograde.• And my take on what happens in our unconscious when Mercury goes retrograde. (Which kinda explains what Jenn did in her poetic, mercurial transmission).
Love,
Opening collage via Tumblr, artist unknown.
⭐️ My new book, I Love You Jeffrey Dahmer arrives in the summer 2024! ⭐️
• Is Astrology Making You Crazy?
• Blonde on Blonde: Taylor Swift! Donald Trump! When World’s Collide
• Charisma: What’s YOUR Quota?
• Can Science Prove or Disprove Astrology?
• Trump Fatigue: How Will His Current Court Case Play Out?
• Mark Zuckerberg: Trouble Child
• Nonsense & Malaise: Astrological Insights for Maneuvering the Hive
• When Mars Turns Against You—Uh oh!
• The 12th House: Astrology’s House of the Rising Sun
• Bad Astrology is Everywhere (my most popular last year).
Always, and in all ways, do I finish reading an edition of yours both genuinely inspired and better educated, having been exposed to yet another page from the increasingly rare and precious archive of Woodruffian literary and meta-philosophical wisdom. THAT QUOTE AND THAT GENIUS Henri Frederic Amiel!!! Omg. Nothing could be more of a bulls-eye prescription for now (and at all times, surely). Note To Self.
Be Strong, Be Well, dear brother.
“Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for the unknown God.”
Wow! Beautiful