Special Announcement: Subscription tier adjustments & summer sale

Greetings, reader. I'll keep this as brief as I can. Don't bother reading if you hate these financial dances as much as I do.

After a recent mention that I'm hoping to make this project more financially worthwhile for the longterm, and after some previous discussion with my existing Occult subscriber base, I'm adjusting a couple things again about this newsletter's subscription options.

Original $5/month benefit now available for $1/month

For a while now, I've offered a perk for some paid subscribers to submit questions to my e-mail for receiving a carefully composed, philosophical answer in a seasonal Q&A post.

However, this benefit was originally just available to people subscribed at the Occult tier ($5/month) or higher, and I do not have many Occult subscriptions, so I've yet to receive any questions. Although I may simply retire this benefit altogether, first I'd like to see if any Supporter-tier subscribers would like to participate. Therefore, the differences between Supporter and Occult subscriptions are now as follows:

Supporter ($1/month, $12/year)

• Read all locked posts except Occult posts. Fairly self-explanatory.
• Submit questions for a seasonal Q&A post. You can e-mail questions to me at thehunterskiss@gmail.com from the e-mail you subscribed with, and I'll answer questions in batches for January, April, July, and October. Since you can already comment on existing posts, seasonal Q&A questions don't have to be about anything I've already written. Feel free to ask what I think about something I've never discussed. It can even be quite unrelated to what normally goes in Salt for the Eclipse. Even if it's not a question I feel comfortable answering directly, I will still give you some kind of reply. I want to especially emphasize this benefit for readers who don't know me personally and therefore have no other way to stay in touch.

Occult ($5/month, $50/year)

• Occult posts are made visible at this tier. These posts go into knottier, artsier, weirder territory than what I usually put here, aiming intentionally for a grey area between essay and literature.
• Monthly music mailing. Music is a very important part of my life and my seasonal observances. Near the end of each month, separate from Friday posts, I send out an Occult-tier post with embedded links to 3-5 songs I associate with that time of year. Sometimes the connections will be obvious, and other times I will leave the associations up to you. Hopefully you'll find some indirect inspiration for your own rites, and I'll be paying it forward to musical artists I admire: please buy their music if you like it.

Meanwhile, if you've considered paying a substantially larger amount...

Sale on Alchemist-tier subscriptions

This is even more experimental and I don't know if it will accomplish anything — I don't have any Alchemist subscriptions yet so I don't know what's worked so far. But maybe it's the entry price point.

Should you wish to play more of a patronage role in this newsletter, please consider it, and from now until the autumn equinox if you subscribe or upgrade to the Alchemist tier it will be only $16/month instead of the usually advertised $20/month, for the first 3 months. To get this discount, click here: https://salt-for-the-eclipse.ghost.io/summer-special

As a reminder, these are the tier's benefits:

• Same benefits as lower tiers. Speaks for itself.
• Request special posts on a topic of your choice (subject to my discretion), read them within the month. You can make requests to thehunterskiss@gmail.com from the e-mail you subscribed from. I've still never been able to do one of these, but once I can, these will also be posted separately from the usual Friday material, but still as standalone posts (not lumped in with the seasonal Q&As). They may be shorter as a result, but it will depend on how much the topic interests me and what I have to work with. I will publish these posts for all paid readers to see, but credit you (under whatever name you prefer) as the reader who asked.
• Seasonal anti-horoscopes. This is another huge experiment, if it comes to pass. As discussed elsewhere, I'm skeptical of using planetary positions to predict mundane terrestrial events, even though I find natal charts to be compelling psychological tools. I also do not personally choose to charge for divinations, anyway. However, if you find impersonal astrology services frustrating and opaque, or you want to toy with constellational storytelling minus the vague directives, at this tier you can e-mail me your date of birth (and location, if comfortable, for your rising sign). After privately e-mailing you a natal chart with a few personal interpretations I will also send you private reflections in March, June, September, and December, which I'm going to call anti-horoscopes. These will not predict anything, and will not rely on current planetary positions, but will instead give you meditative questions for the coming months based on star positions, seasonal changes, and what I know of the points on your natal chart that we both agree have powerful symbolic value. The questions are for you to work out on your own, and you never need to tell me the answers. I have no idea how this will turn out, but I'm very curious to see if it's a) engaging for anyone else, and b) ideally, useful.

Again, you should go to this link: https://salt-for-the-eclipse.ghost.io/summer-special in order to activate the discount.

Thank you

I feel like despite my best efforts and desires not to, I've been asking for money a bit more than my habit; but after a year and a half here I'm feeling a little closer to facing the proverbial music. If I don't earn anything from this at all — and I'm still losing money on hosting — then unfortunately no amount of enthusiasm from free readers will really help me continue this once I run out of the things I really feel compelled to write.

If you made it through to the end of this pitch but are still on a free subscription, please consider making this nonsense worth both our whiles. Thank you very much, and I'll have a real, better post on Friday. Be well!