{"product_id":"the-occult-sylvia-plath","title":"The Occult Sylvia Plath","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eExplores Sylvia Plath’s enduring interest and active practice in mysticism and the occult from childhood until her tragic death in 1963\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e• Decodes the alchemical, Qabalistic, hermetic, spiritual, and Tarot-related references in many of Plath’s poems\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e• Based on more than 15 years of research, including analysis of Plath’s unpublished personal writings from the Plath archives at Indiana University\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e• Examines the influences of Plath’s parents, her early interests in Hermeticism, and her and husband Ted Hughes’s explorations in the supernatural and the occult\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSharing her more than 15 years of compelling research—including analysis of Sylvia Plath’s unpublished calendars, notebooks, scrapbooks, book annotations, and underlinings as well as published memoirs, biographies, letters, journals, and interviews with Plath and her husband, friends, and family—Plath scholar Julia Gordon-Bramer reveals Sylvia Plath’s enduring interest and active practice in mysticism and the occult from childhood until her tragic death in 1963. She examines Plath’s early years growing up in a transcendentalist Unitarian church under a brilliant, if stern, Freemason father and a mother who wrote her master’s dissertation on the famous alchemist Paracelsus. She reveals Plath’s early knowledge of Hermeticism, how she devoured books on the occult throughout her life, and how, since adolescence, Plath regularly wrote of premonitory dreams. Examining Plath’s tumultuous marriage with poet Ted Hughes, she looks at their explorations in the supernatural and Hughes’s mentoring of Plath in meditation, crystal-gazing, astrology, Qabalah, tarot, automatic writing, magical workings, and use of the Ouija board.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLooking at Plath’s writing and her evolution as a person through mystical, political, personal, and historical lenses, Gordon-Bramer shows how Plath’s poems take on radically new, surprising, and universal meanings—explaining why Hughes perpetually denied that Plath was a “confessional poet.” Contrasting the versions in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eLetters Home\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e with those held in the Plath archives at Indiana University, the author also shows how all occult influences have been rigorously excised from the letters approved for publication by the Plath and Hughes estates. Revealing previously undiscovered meanings deeply rooted in her mystical and occult endeavors, the author shows how Plath’s writings are much broader than the narrow lens of her tragic autobiography.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJulia Gordon-Bramer\u003c\/strong\u003e is a professional Tarot card reader, award-winning writer and poet, Sylvia Plath scholar, and former professor for the Graduate Writing Program at Lindenwood University. She has appeared on MTV, Nickelodeon, and many television and radio shows to share her Tarot talents and scholarship. Recognized as one of St. Louis’ Top Ten Psychics (Psychic St. Louis) and St. Louis’ Best Fortune-Teller (CBS Radio), she is the author of several books, including \u003ci\u003eFixed Stars Govern a Life: Decoding Sylvia Plath\u003c\/i\u003e. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50601706389813,"sku":"9781644118627","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0556\/6506\/6057\/files\/TheOccultSylviaPlath.jpg?v=1758858789","url":"https:\/\/bmshou-ston.shop\/products\/the-occult-sylvia-plath","provider":"Body Mind \u0026 Soul Houston","version":"1.0","type":"link"}