A few hours left of the FLASH SALE (30% off Cosmic Edges subscriptions HERE).
8 more days to sign up for COSMIC RIGOR, a 4-week course on Tuesdays (zoom, recorded, beginning October 1) via Morbid Anatomy. Affordable, weird, fun. I stole the term cosmic rigor from dissident and Virgo Antonin Artaud, and it guides my research and this newsletter. In class, we’ll delve into art and astrology, and astrology as art. We’ll begin with what Dane Rudhyar said about astrology as “threshold knowledge.” From there, we’ll consider some astrological undercurrents of surrealism, psychoanalysis, H.D.’s poetry and writings on Freud, Yeats and his visions, and more. Trippy and colorful slideshows per usual. Come as you are, zero preparation needed.
VIVIENNE has been in the world for 11 days. It’s been surreal, slow, and rewarding. I could quote from the reviews but ultimately that doesn’t matter. What matters is connecting to readers and taking risks. To write and publish a book is to put it all on the line. It either works or it doesn’t. I’ve been writing this newsletter regularly for nearly 5 years, and this readership means everything to me: the smart notes I get from you, generous email responses, and those of you who come to the rogue classes I teach and share your thoughts and work.
If you read Cosmic Edges, you’ve already been getting the dreamlike and odd runoff energies of Vivienne, as I was writing the book and thinking about it alongside of and within these posts for months, years. The reality is, it’s a bizarre time to publish a novel. As a shop owner I recently met on Martha’s Vineyard said, “it’s a tough time to be an artist of any kind, as more and more, people don’t value art.” I’m not sure if that’s true, but it is true that the market is totally crowded, and it’s very hard to sell books. As a first time novelist who isn’t a superstar, I gotta hustle.
In today’s world, selling a thousand copies can be the difference between success and failure, publishing another book or not. So if you, reading this (hi, thank you) grab the strange and surreal (and fun, I’m told) Viv, it will help tremendously. In short, if everyone who opens this newsletter buys the book and spreads the word, it’ll have a shot. Get Vivienne here or wherever you get your books. xo, ER
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End of Virgo season: we creep into the fall equinox. When the night is equal to the day and the the night-force begins its slips, takes over, stays. The strength of the sun vanishes, maudlin. Dane Rudyar writes: “But how can one go on with strength and faith vanishing? Who can teach the technique of activity in ease, of work without strain? At this stage, the Virgo phase of the unfoldment of consciousness begins. It begins with a question mark. It may end with true Illumination at the fall equinox, as Libra begins. It should end with a greater understanding of the meaning of the social process, of the nature of the Night-force.”
Situated between ferocious sun and autumnal dark, mercurial Virgo provokes, pets, and edits the Lion while holding Libra’s scales of justice. Virgo vanishes us into autumn, spits us into night’s issues which offer other visions as the veil gets thinner. The night force, lit.
Might be instructive, at this point in the year, to catapult back to where you were half a year ago, during the spring equinox. What’s gone on? How do the final intestinal moments of Virgo eye that strange line between land and sea, day and night, Aries and Pisces? Here’s an unlocked post from late March when the Ram’s emboldened day-force took over from those slippery nocturnal fishes—-day crushes night and night, day, at varying intensities, infinity:
xo
E