Dear Readers,
In 2020, I became interested in astrology, but not just sun sign astrology, all of it. I had read the book You Were Born For This by Chani Nicholas–highly recommended–and I was so curious about what the planets had to say about my past, present, and future life. This was also the year I was, for the first time, self-publishing my stories on Medium.com. It was also the year of my Saturn return and a Jupter-Saturn-Pluto conjunction.
Saturn returns are powerful. They change us. They come around our 30s and use the lessons of our early life to teach us about where we can go. Conjunctions are also powerful. They often initiate the creation of new paths. Saturn, the disciplinarian, Jupiter, the sage, and Pluto, the reformer, were all engaged in a beautiful Capricorn/Aquarius dance in 2020. All of these things happened at once. It was a big year. There was a pandemic after all.
I was in a job I didn’t really like, in a city that wasn’t for me, and, along with the horrors of an uncontrollable pandemic, I felt helpless. Until I looked to the sky. I studied my birth chart, I saw there was a part of my life I’d been ignoring. I had made a promise to myself when I decided to not major in music and work toward a biology degree. I had forgotten about it. The conjunction reminded me.
And in January 2021, I sent out my first story to a magazine and joined the Twitter literary community. I’ve been on this writing journey for over a year now. I’ve had incredible opportunities, including working with the Apparition Lit team to put together this beautiful issue. I couldn’t think of a better chance to honor the cosmic event that set me on this enriching path than a collection of amazing works!
- Join us under the microscope and witness the end of the world in Léon Othenin-Girard’s “A Personal Apocalypse”.
- Find out what Matt Richardson’s raven is warning us about in “Black Butterflies”.
- Tania Chen in “Heart-Eater” conjures the magic of the Hueseros and weaves a tale of beauty and wonder.
- Piece together Ann LeBlanc’s fragmented “Infinite Clay-Tablet Memories Sung Into the Flesh of the World” to discover the story of an ancient being.
- Come and be tempered by Marie E. Kopp’s “Apples in Hell” and soar to new heights in “What Use are Wings to a Creature of the Sea” by Vanessa Jae.
- Take a seat at the D&D table with Maria Schrater’s essay “Here There Be Dragons”.
I hope you enjoy this issue as much as I have enjoyed helping to put it together! May the omens guide you to new and exciting roads of your journey
Kevin M. Casin (he/they) is a queer, Latine fiction writer, and cardiovascular research scientist. His fiction work has appeared in If There’s Anyone Left, From The Farther Trees, 34 Orchard, Pyre Magazine, and more. He is an SFWA/HWA/Codex member, and First Reader for Interstellar Flight Press. He is a second-generation immigrant born in Miami, Florida to Cuban and Colombian parents. He loves to travel, play instruments, bake, crotchet, and take care of his orchid collection.
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Thank you for reading
Rebecca Bennett, Amy Henry Robinson, Tacoma Tomilson, and Clarke Doty
