Ampersand Gazette #81
Welcome to the Ampersand Gazette, a metaphysical take on some of the news of the day. If you know others like us, who want to create a world that includes and works for everyone, please feel free to share this newsletter. The sign-up is here. And now, on with the latest …
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How to Remain a
Reality-Based Human in 2025
Well, January has been interesting. If the first month of 2025 with its blazing fires, bitter cold snaps and pilot episode of “Trump Gone Wild” is any indication, the coming year is bound to challenge anyone trying to hold fast to the norms of basic human existence.
But however broken your brain may feel, there’s no need to pass the steering wheel entirely to GPS. Herewith, some meditations to help moor you to a fact- and human-centered world.
Remember artificial isn’t always better. Every time you start to worry about A.I. taking over your world, think about maraschino cherries. While those neon-red “fruits” may be occasionally welcome on the tip of a plastic sword atop a cocktail, nobody wants an entire bowl of them. If the bot that has started summarizing emails—e.g., “expressing excitement and appreciation of Pamela,” “expresses shock and well wishes”—on my iPhone 16 is any indication of how emotionally intelligent A.I. is, natural intelligence still has a significant edge.
Refuse to react. Your emotional landscape does not follow the laws of Newtonian physics and therefore your brain does not need to have an equal and opposite reaction to everything Donald Trump does. If you think that most maximalist positions on the right sound unhinged and inhumane, consider that their corresponding positions on the left may be zany in their own special ways. Whether your spiritual guide is a yogi, the Stoics or the Confucian Doctrine of the Mean, you can still engage in nuance, complexity or indecision.
Reject all vibes. Whatever is supposedly emanating from TikTok according to six people you know from a group chat, you can let it waft by like a bad smell. Remember that these are synthetically produced moods created by online influencers and there is never any need for you to be demure or brat or trad. That’s their hustle, not yours. Feel free also to reject anyone who tries to theorize about vibes. Yes, that includes vibe shifts.
Stop being social online. Now that social media has splintered into the shrieking horcruxes of Bluesky battiness, fact-free Meta and the shambolic X, and with TikTok possibly heading back to China, you might reconsider whether allowing the algorithm to dictate your experience of the world is a sensible habit. You need neither hold space nor take up space on one of these platforms. Nobody will look at you if you give them nothing to see.
Disregard Musk. While it’s tempting to analyze Elon Musk’s simultaneously robotic and chaotic facial expressions and bodily movements, it will offer no spiritual benefits. Like those infernal word logic puzzles involving seven sisters named Sue going to the supermarket, you will never find the solution and will only be left demoralized.
Engage in mini-rebellions. We know that Resistance is Out or at least cowering in a corner clutching its Hydroflask and alternating between A.S.M.R. and a Theragun. But that doesn’t mean you must submit entirely to the current order. Take a card from Roz Chast’s comic on “mini-rebellions,” which offers examples of satisfying micro-revolts like paying rude cabdrivers with “very old, torn, dirty money.” Personally, I avoid using favorite Trump words like “beautiful” and “huge,” which nobody else notices but which brings quiet satisfaction. Make whatever adjustments you need to prove that you neither approve of nor participate in what is happening.
Let go of 2020. Like skinny jeans and bucket hats, not everything that appealed five years ago looks as good in the cold harsh return-to-office lighting of today. Feel free to retire any residual circa-2020 flourishes like the compulsion to virtue-signal your progressive bona fides, whether it’s wearing an N95 mask to meetings despite having no underlying medical condition or attaching italicized pronouns to your email signature like an ancestral signet or fancy job title.
Remember fun. Scowling your way through the next four years isn’t likely to be a good time. I spent several months after Trump’s first inauguration trying to manifest a presidency-ending faux pas at the White House Easter Egg Roll and when that didn’t work out, segued into hours of listening to legal podcasts that dissected Russiagate. Neither sparked joy.
Break up with your tribe. Belonging to any group that requires ideological, behavioral and even aesthetic commitment isn’t necessarily the best way to connect with fellow humans in a highly pixelated and polarized world. You can be a singular individual while still forging community with the people around you—preferably in actual geographic space rather than an imagined cyberspace—despite your disagreements. Technically, it is possible to embrace people who differ from us and still stay true to who we are.
Remember, we are all, every one of us in our own imperfect way, simply trying to hold onto a swiftly tilting planet without letting ourselves go.
An Opinion Essay by Pamela Paul in The New York Times
“How to Remain a Reality-Based Human in 2025”
January 30. 2025
Earth really does feel much like a swiftly-tilting planet at this point. I won’t make a list of the calamities—you can do that on your own time—but I will happily remind us all that the only, (did you see that?) only, I’ll say it again, only … constant … is change.
The only constant is change, Beloved.
And, sadly, even though we know better, sometimes the path to change, especially when we don’t wanna, can be fraught. On a macro-level, things certainly look that way from the good ol’ U.S. of A.
But it gives me great joy to tell you that life—everyday life—isn’t lived at the macro-level, not even by those whose choices, words, and behaviors seem to be causative for that change.
Nope, everyday life, happily, is micro. Furthermore, it is here, now, in everyday life wherein the second gift of the Divine to each and every one of us is exercised.
A small theological detour: Divinity gives us two things when we incarnate, and two things only: Life itself, and Free Will. These are the two major building blocks needed for an everyday life. No more, no less.
Free Will has another name, of course, which is choice. Metaphysicians the world over will tell you that you always have a choice.
And before you get into your dudgeon, high or otherwise, hold on a sec. The place where you have the most choice is in your everyday life, which means that the quality of your everyday life is up to you.
No one likes it when I add the next part of the axiom: No matter what else is happening.
Yep, the quality of your everyday life is up to you no matter what else is happening.
If we do not live as if this is so, then we automatically live to one degree or another as victims.
That sounds harsh, doesn’t it? But look at Ms. Paul’s essay again. I almost never use an entire piece in the Gazette, but this one was too letter-perfect to change a word. The bold italics are the things that struck me as important. Here’s a list of them:
Natural intelligence still has a significant edge.
You can still engage in nuance, complexity or indecision.
Reject all vibes.
Reconsider whether allowing the algorithm to dictate your experience of the world is a sensible habit.
Disregard Musk.
Make whatever adjustments you need to prove that you neither approve of nor participate in what is happening.
Let go.
Remember fun.
Any group that requires ideological, behavioral and even aesthetic commitment isn’t necessarily the best way to connect with fellow humans.
Alright, Beloved, consider this. You have the power, as astrologer Chani Nicholas wrote last week, to “withdraw your cortisol from the whirligig willy-nilly.”
Don’t misunderstand me please. Things are tough right now, and especially tough for some of us more than others. That cannot be denied. As a possible immediate antidote, I refer you to your everyday life and pose these genuine questions:
Are you letting your natural intelligence out to play?
Are you letting nuance into your thoughts and feelings?
Are you letting the energy around you buffet you?
Are you letting an algorithm tell you how you are?
Are you letting particular people get under your skin?
Are you letting your behavior indicate your values?
Are you letting go of anything that harms you?
Are you letting yourself have some fun every day?
Are you letting your common sense have a say?
The bottomline, and it took me a little while to get here, which, considering I’ve been a practicing metaphysician for over forty years tells you how rough things really are right now … the bottomline is you don’t have to feed the insanity with your body, heart, mind, or spirit.
Choose. Use your will. If you don’t like the results, choose again, and again, and again, and again until you do. Your wellbeing is contingent on it.
P. S. Here’s an even more radical list of ways to handle what’s happening right now. It’s an essay by Huffington Post’s Personal Editor Noah Michelson: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fight-back-resist-united-states_n_6798d909e4b035ecd67cc987
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Feeling Stuck? Here Are 5 Ways
to Jumpstart Your Life.
From the outside, it looked as though Adam Alter was gliding along. But he felt stuck. He likened it to being trapped on a conveyor belt. “I was making a career for myself,” he said, “but I wasn’t sure if those were the ways I wanted to succeed.”
Dr. Alter, who has now been a professor for 15 years, has devoted much of his career to researching the notion of feeling stuck. In 2020, he surveyed hundreds of people on the topic, and every respondent said they felt stalled in at least one area: failed creative pursuits, stagnant careers, unsatisfying relationships, an inability to save money—the list went on.
Falling into a rut or feeling stagnant from time to time is a universal experience, said Dr. Alter, whose latest book, “Anatomy of a Breakthrough,” offers 100 ways to get unstuck.
Do a ‘friction audit’ The friction audit is one way organizations weed out areas of inefficiency. Individuals can apply the same principles to their own lives by identifying the things that create obstacles and add complications or stress, Dr. Alter said.
Reframe negative thoughts Maybe you engage in “catastrophizing,” or thinking the worst will happen. Or maybe you are overly harsh with yourself and have a case of “the shoulds.” Try to reframe your thinking. “I’m having this thought. What’s the evidence for it? And what’s the evidence against it?”
Try ‘futurecasting’ “Imagine a future life where you are unstuck.” What does it look like? How do you feel? Then think about the specific steps that would help you work toward that vision. Write those steps down—ideally by hand. Paint the future that you’re seeking.
Share your goal Telling other people about your plans can also be helpful. The added benefit is that people may want to help you out. Somehow, the universe will help you achieve this goal.”
Do something meaningful “Spending time on activities that align with your values moves you forward if you feel stuck in completely unrelated domains of your life,” Dr. Alter said.
“We need meaning more than ever when we’re feeling stuck.”
Excerpted from a Well Column by Christina Caron in The New York Times
“Feeling Stuck? Here Are 5 Ways to Jumpstart Your Life.”
January 25. 2025
This must be the Gazette for lists … I hadn’t realized that. In any case, don’t let the lists overwhelm you. They’re not assignments or to-dos; they’re suggestions to get your body, heart, mind, and spirit clicking and clacking along together in your own behalf.
Not that I didn’t know this, but seeing in print that everyone gets stuck was affirming, especially in the current national climate. And again, these are merely positive ways to utilize that second gift, Free Will, instead of how most of us use it, which I dubbed many years ago, Free Won’t.
Even if you’re stucker than stuck, as Dr. Seuss might say, you’ll still have to use your ability to choose in order to change it, and it is still true all the time that you cannot create out of what you don’t want. In fact, attempting to do so only brings whatever you don’t want to you faster!
Let’s have a look at these five through a metaphysical lens:
The friction audit, or a resistance audit. Think about the issue. Where are the sticking points? Can they be changed? Can you change them on your own? Do you need the help or cooperation of another? If they can’t be changed in the outer, how can you change from within? Make the steps smaller than baby steps. Do one-a-day till you’re done.
Reframe negative thoughts. When you’re drowning in a thought spiral downward, this can be hard to do. The fastest way to reframe is to go to the opposite extreme. If there’s a leak in the ceiling, sing in the rain, tap dance, solve global warming. Be ludicrous. What you’re actually looking for is perspective. If you can’t get there, get a friend to go hog wild on the subject.
Try futurecasting. I had to laugh. This is the visualization that metaphysicians have been doing for millennia. Yes, dream a week past the problem, a year, ten years. See yourself in the picture having already accomplished it. One of my favorite ways to do this is to imagine that Oprah has asked me, “So, Dr. Corso, how did you do it?” I sit across from her and answer the question in the past tense as if it’s already happened. Get into the feels if you can.
Share your goal is a standard accountability technique. Some of us humans need accountability to another person when we’re working toward something. If that’s you, get an accountability partner. Make sure it’s someone who’s supportive of you and your dream. Make your reporting consistent, even if it’s only ten seconds a day.
Do something meaningful. This is always a valuable technique as it nearly guarantees a return to the fullness of your blessed self. It has to be meaningful to you—which means that it has to be something that you value. It doesn’t matter whether it’s scrubbing bathroom grout with a toothbrush or solving world peace. As long as you will feel good about you when it’s over, do it.What you do then is imagine the problem in the context of those good feelings, and see if it doesn’t ease a bit, or even resolve itself.
Most of these are heart, mind, and spirit fixes. There’s another one that works like magic, and few of us remember it when we need it. Move. If you always sit in X place when you think about the issue, do ten jumping jacks and then sit there again. Have things shifted? If not, do another ten, and sit somewhere else. Tell yourself the problem aloud in one spot of a room, and then deliberately move to another place that gives you a different perspective. You’ll see it differently. If it’s chronic, dedicate pieces of your workout to working it out.
One of the things that I stress to people all the time is that you have what you need within you. You do! The issue isn’t whether that’s the case of not. The issue is: where have you hidden it within? Are there things blocking it? How can you access them?
Sometimes the best way to get unstuck is to tell yourself something like this: I’m going into the kitchen to get a glass of water. I’m going to drink this whole glass and by the end of it, I’ll know what to do, or at least, a next step.
One of the great secrets of money, of metaphysics, and the Divine is that they all work not, as we have been taught, on supply and demand, but instead on demand and supply. Belovèd, think on these things.
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Here’s a universal affirmation. It works every time, for everyone, always and forever …
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And in publishing news …
I know I promised you an explanation of the final image from the last issue of the Gazette. Here it is again …
I am quite blessed to have found a WP wizard who is even now writing me a proposal for the set-up of my new blog …
I’ve wanted to have a spiritually-based Q&A column since I started working with clients more than 40 years ago. BLTN. Better late than never. There is no such thing as a stupid question, dear one, so if you have a spiritual conundrum, others will share it, so email me and ask.
There was a good book written once in which it promises ask, and you shall receive, not hang out or complain and receive. Ask.
The longer story is that a dear client of mine sent me a mug for my birthday which said on it: I WRITE what’s your superpower? I set it on my altar, which I can see from my desk, and one day, when it grabbed my glance, I thought, yeah, that’s true. That is my superpower.
The subtitle is—the nexus of spirituality, energy, and creativity.
So …
What if these wings were yours?
Who would you be? What would you do? How would things be different? How would you be different? What sort of superpower is yours?
The coolest thing is: we all have at least one, and it always, but always, begins in an intangible. My real superpower isn’t writing; that’s its outer manifestation for now. My superpower is EXPRESSION. What’s yours?
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Here’s some happy end-of-the-year news …
My books were downloaded
more than 8,000 times this year!
In 22 countries!
And furthermore …
Oklahoma! Hex, the first book of The Mex Mysteries, has been on the Amazon Metaphysical Fiction Bestseller List since April 2024—that’s 9 months! And counting.
Gemma Eclipsing, the third book of The Subversive Lovelies, has been on the Amazon LGBTQ+ Bestseller List, the Amazon Metaphysical Fiction Bestseller List, the Amazon Women’s Historical Fiction Bestseller List, the Amazon Women’s Literary Fiction Bestseller List, and the Amazon Historical Literary Fiction Bestseller List since June 2024—that’s 7 months! And counting.
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And now, for a relatively new thing … a writing round-up …
The Mex In-Betweens are up on Amazon as ebooks and paperbacks. If you’re a Mex fan, you’ll enjoy the backstories. If you’re not yet, these thirteen short stories are a way to ease into all ten supernatural musical mysteries.
Well, Freebooksy doesn’t do LGBTQ+ Romance Series as a separate category, but the books still qualify for romance, so one of my tasks this week is to book a promo for this series.
In reviewing my notes for Jaq Direct, the final book in this speculative fiction series, I had the last breakthrough I needed, so now I am merely awaiting the writing angels’ Go, and cleaning like a fiend which is usually a good sign of a book (or in this case, books) aborning.
I received the first edits from Tony, and am determined to get the new blog up and running ere I dive deep into them. As you know, this edit is more about world-building than anything else. The characters are there. The story is there. I just need to figure out how to put them together.
I am slightly stalled in the process of creating tiny courses on chakra subjects because—would you believe it—I have an out-of-date Taber’s Medical Dictionary, my go-to for medical intuition work, but, happily, a new edition comes out February 17th. The first four courses will be Body, Heart, Mind, Spirit chakra teachings. Each is a dive into one aspect of learning how to have Exponential Energy—something we all need right now.
Impending Decision, the fifth book of The Boots & Boas Romances, is almost ready to start. I found the perfect book on Mardi Gras to give me all the deets I need, and some great Mardi Gras music recordings. Jaq Direct is on as well because of the spate of news on that moral hysteric, smut-smasher Anthony Comstock.
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My review request this issue is … first, a great big thank you to those who left a review! And, if you love speculative fiction, would you please read Jezebel Rising—the permafree book that starts my Subversive Lovelies? If you love it, would you leave a stellar review? I need THREE MORE reviews of four stars and above to do one of my special series promotions … please. This will take you right there.
Here's one as a possible inspiration for your own …
5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece of Women's Strength and Resilience
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2024
Verified Purchase
Jezebel Rising is a dazzling historical novel that seamlessly blends literary sophistication with the thrill of adventure. From the very first page, I was drawn into a richly imagined world where every detail has been meticulously crafted, making for an immersive and unforgettable reading experience.
This is the story of four sisters in old New York, who inherit four buildings from their visionary father. Jezebel and her sisters decide to use this inheritance to create opportunities for themselves and other women. As they navigate the complexities of embarking on this journey, the sisters explore the power of family, the strength of sisterhood , and the transformative potential of legacy.
Reviews really are the engine that powers the career of an indie author.
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Last night, doing a final check of my email before powering down into my analog evening, I opened an email from my favorite editor, Tony Amato, and what did I find? An amazing picture of a Mardi Gras House that he’d seen on Facebook. It looks like the perfect clubhouse for kids involved in Mardi Gras, which he knows is part of one of my next books! Now what editor do you know does things like that? Mind you, unsolicited.
As I’m so fond of saying, I know a guy. Tony Amato is my favorite editor for lots of reasons. Tony has a magical combination of talents that serves authors and their books in a way unlike any other editor I know, or know of. May I encourage you to reach out if you need book-husbanding? Now more than ever the whole world needs your creative input. Really, you name it, he’s done it. Like I said, if you need anything in your writing life, Tony Amato is the person. Find him here.
P. S. Did you have a chance to visit Tony’s substack? Tony Amato, as you know my favorite editor, has a new substack. He’s writing about writing and he’s sharing some of his own fiction. Yesterday’s post had me in tears. Subscribe here.
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Harry Potter and …
Every once in a while, when I have books on the verge of beginning their external birthing process, I have to stop reading new material.
This time Tony suggested I return to the Harry Potter books, and I’m tearing through them. It’s been years since I’ve read them! Amazing.
Now I am not wild about a certain author’s politics or behavior upon occasion, but I will not throw the baby out with the bathwater. I loved the books when they first came out, and as themselves, they are stand-out world-building.
It's, I suppose, something of a rest for my busy brain as it dutifully coughs up complicated plots, wild scenarios, and, hopefully, delicious prose.
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Are you waiting for a sign?
How about this one?
This is one of the first images I ever
received via text message,
probably in 2004, from …
Tony Amato.
These redwoods are a magnificent
message and a reminder
That we, like they, are
GROUNDED, WINGÈD,
And here to make a difference.
I am, without doubt, certain that And is the secret to all we desire.
Let’s commit to practicing And ever more diligently, shall we?
Until next time,
Be Ampersand.