The ECLECTICS Newsletters
Hello! I am Kathryn Madsen. I’ll be writing about art, politics, psychology, metaphysics, education, philosophy, TV, film, memoir, and fiction. Yeah, all that.
I am coming into these topics from the sides, maybe the diagonals.
Everything is connected to everything else.
All the Things
I worked for an arts-as-education theater company for a decade, trained at a theater conservatory in NY, and spent 15 years as a producer, actor, and director in NY, CA, and CO. I have a B.F.A. in Painting and Behavioral Science (double major). I did graduate work in English Literature and Philosophy, and by the time I was 12, I had read everything my parents had in our eclectic home library. I taught art, English, and theater for 25 years in traditional and small, project-based, start-up K-12 schools.
I have worked in retail, waited tables, painted faux murals in homes, and tutored Chinese kids in English online using puppets. I also spent about a decade writing for national humanities textbook projects.
I am (finally) a proud eclectic weirdo. You?
I might as well say it: I have an ADHD sun (and moon), with an Autism Rising. This means I can be both a righteously indignant, rigid perfectionist and sloppy AF. You will see that in my writing.
I have had many obsessive special interests in my life. I know a lot about a lot of different things, and I cannot ever shut up about them, even when I don't really want to be around people at all, and nobody asked me. People roll their eyes at me a lot.
At one point, I became obsessed with the phenomenon of fainting and read everything I could find about it. This was after obsessively reading dozens of 19th and early 20th-century novels when I was maybe 10. For a few weeks, I couldn't get the idea out of my head that all the women around me might faint. Do you need to know anything about why people faint and the stats about hitting your head? I’m your girl.
I spent a lot of time kicked out of classrooms for being “off-task" or talking. I pretended I was out there by choice to examine the art in the hallways. Then I taught elementary art for a couple of years, helping kids create better art for ADHD and autism-inclined kids to look at while they sat in the halls fuming.
I have many sensory oddities. As a kid, I would freak out over things like the smell of worms after the rain, the sound of someone touching styrofoam (okay, I still have that), and I would sob if I had to wear tights, colorful socks, or denim and wool.
I would become so excited about new discoveries, like the planets circling the sun (as my kindergarten teacher described them with an orange and classroom objects), that I would hyperventilate, get dizzy, and sometimes throw up. In second grade, I screamed out—in a very staid Lutheran church we were visiting—that it was shaped like a cross if you looked down from the ceiling.
If there is an incessant beeping noise or what most people consider medium noise stimulation, they can ignore it, but I get angry and a bit hysterical about how to make it stop.
The need for equilibrium is why I became a Buddhist.
My superpower is recognizing voices. I see the patterns of a voice. That’s right, I said “see.” Take me to an animated movie, and I’ll be leaning over to whisper who plays what (I can see the face in my head, but not always the name, so it’s a lot of you know, that guy who was in that thing) before the credits roll. You’ll be rolling your eyes, but I won’t care.
Anyway, that’s my story, and I am sticking to it.
Everything comes back to the stories we tell ourselves and each other, and the stories we tell our future selves.
NEWSLETTER #1 | In Our Stars
Welcome to the #1 Newsletter for Arts and Entertainment with an Astrological Spin! It’s the ONLY one, as far as I know.
I believe you can choose or identify your own sign and that you are not confined to birthdays, times, and places. Nowhere does this work better than in fiction.
Astrology is storytelling, inspired by myth and astronomy and drawing on philosophy, religion, and psychology.
The 12 personality types are just that, personality types as valuable as the Myers-Briggs types, which is to say, as valuable as a well-constructed compass or magnifying glass for an inner journey. I do not claim either one is empirical in the sense that they are objective, verifiable, or measurable.
But they are based on thousands of years of poetic observation of human nature.
Fantasy is true, of course. It isn’t factual, but it is true. -Ursula LeGuin
My takes are about 20% Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell (astrology is made of universal archetypes), 20% John Dewey Experiential Education (experience is stories and stories are experience), and 40% William James (astrology is artistically and psychologically useful), and the rest is simply my (sometimes hot) takes on these archetypes.
(Yup, all percentages were pulled out of my . . .)
To better understand what I am trying to do here and what I know about astrology, start with these articles ⬇️.
🟣Inspirations for In Our Stars
🟪 WHY it’s Important to Know the Astrology Archetypes Well (and no, most people do not).
IF YOU BELIEVE IN BIRTHDATE ASTROLOGY, YOU BE YOU!
I’m NOT here to change your mind, and I am writing these articles so it's fun for you, too!
Free Subscribers get . . .
The monthly newsletter and access to all the articles. I just can’t justify a paywall for knowledge, although I can justify affiliate links and ads, so you might find some of those.
At In Our Stars, all readers (& listeners) will receive a monthly newsletter with articles about the main themes of astrology itself, the archetype of the sign of the month, and astrological reviews and recaps of popular television shows, films, and books.
I include excerpts, and you can choose your own adventure.
For example, the first newsletter contains . . .
An article excerpt about the Amazon Prime show “Fallout” and its many Sagittarius-influenced characters and themes. The newsletter includes a link to the longer article.
An article excerpt on the Sagittarius archetype itself, how it evolved, and some of the many characters we know that embody it, like Bilbo Baggins, Eowyn, and Gandalf in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, Cormoran Strike from the BBC show C.B. Strike, and the Ghoul in Fallout.
An excerpt from an educational piece discussing the astrological calendar in different cultures.
It also describes how the relationship of the sun, constellations, and Earth has shifted since ancient times. You may not be the sign you think you are based on your birthday. I think you can choose the sign you are, but this article is for birthday believers.
A quick aside about the Asian Year of the Fire Horse.
Paid Subscribers Get . . .
The knowledge you support some out-of-the-box thinking that can enrich the lives of audiences, superfans, writers, authors, actors, and directors.
Coming soon: DISCORD discussions and debates.
Soon, some PDFs of modules for what will eventually be a course, along with free access to additional course content.
