Demons in the Academy: Renouncing Rejected Knowledge, Again? by Phoenix Rising

Demons in the Academy? Renouncing Rejected Knowledge, Again AAR Parallel Session Saturday, November 19th 2011 PRELIMINARY PROGRAM

NB: All keynote speeches are limited to 20 minutes. All Statements are limited to 10 minutes. All discussion will take place at the end of the session. Attendees will have the opportunity to note down questions and comments during the course of the presentations.These will be passed to the moderators before the start of the discussion at the end of the session.

Abstracts and Speaker Bios Amy Hale: I Am Not a Spooky Weirdo! The Contexts and Consequences of Methodology in Esoteric Studies I am an Anthropologist specializing in contemporary Celtic cultures, with an emphasis on modern Cornwall and contemporary Esoteric culture and history. I received my PhD in 1998 from UCLA in Folklore and Mythology and my dissertation was on the intersections between various constructions of Celtic identity in Cornwall, both ethnic and spiritual. I have worked with the Cornish since 1994, and have also undertaken comparative research in Ireland, Wales, and the U.S. In terms of Western Esoteric Studies I have particular interests in the intersections between esoteric movements and intellectual history, identity politics, research methods and also in Pagan and esoteric spiritual tourism. My recent projects have focused on a study of the life and work of Surrealist artist Ithell Colquhoun where I seek to understand her position within the development of several different streams of British intellectual and spiritual culture in the mid to late 20th century.

The notion that the texts and artifacts of that which we call “Western Esotericism” can be empirically separated from the people who created them is deeply flawed. As with esoteric practices in the rest of the world, Western Esotericism is deeply connected to world views and bodies of practice that run the gamut from mainstream to resistant. Ethnographic methodologies integrate, in fact demand, subjectivity and reflexivity (though not necessarily insider status) of the researcher in order to produce valid results. Ethnographers also know that you can produce valid research regardless of your status as in insider or your beliefs. In short, to try to insist that every scholar of religion be a detached atheist is not only impossible, we miss out on good data if we do that. This is not to say that all “ways of knowing” are considered methodologically acceptable within academic frameworks, but this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about them. So if we can demonstrate the use and validity of a range of well established subjective methods that are perfectly applicable to the study of Western Esotericism, what is the real issue here? This paper will address the history of the fear of academic engagement with practitioners of Western Esotericism, rooted in the construction of an inherent western rationalism, and which has some uncomfortable consequences for how we define “self” and “other” regarding esoteric practice. I will contrast this with the, also flawed, emerging discipline of Pagan Studies where the focus on establishing religious legitimacy also, ironically, excludes many practitioners of Western Esoteric traditions. In the end, both approaches actually serve to further marginalize Esoteric Studies. Hereward Tilton (recorded) Enthusiasms Sacred and Profane: Phenomenology vs. Empiricism in the Study of Western Esotericism. I am a specialist in the history of esotericism in early modern Germany, having published work on early Rosicrucianism, alchemy, Paracelsianism and magic, most notably my book 'The Quest for the Phoenix: Spiritual Alchemy and Rosicrucianism in the Work of Count Michael Maier (1569-1622)'. I currently teach on the Western esoteric traditions at the Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism at the University of Exeter; I have also taught courses in this field at the Center for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam and the Institute for Renaissance Intellectual History and Philosophy at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. My professional career began at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, where I lectured on psychoanalysis, parapsychology and the history of mysticism. www.phoenixrising.org.gr

This talk will examine the dominance of the empirical paradigm within the contemporary study of the history of Western esotericism with recourse to 1) its relation to associated post-modern critiques of the phenomenology of religion, 2) its more recent historical origins within the academic study of religion in the Netherlands, and 3) its broader historical situation within a Protestant antienthusiast tradition. Challenging the claim of empiricists to profess a methodological agnosticism, it will be argued that empiricism in the study of Western esotericism possesses an essentially partisan nature vis-à-vis the object of study which compromises its value as a tool for analysis. Looking beyond the history of ideas to consider esoteric forms of practice and modes of corporeal being, the purpose of this talk will be to seek out a methodological path beyond phenomenological essentialism on the one hand and the scientism and historicism of empirical method on the other.

Angela Voss (recorded) The Gnostic Scholar: Integrating Reason and Revelations For the past ten years Angela has lectured in Religious Studies in the School of European Culture and Languages at the University of Kent, where she directed the MA in the Cultural Study of Cosmology and Divination, and is also a member of faculty at the Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism (EXESESO). She is developing new collaborations while also teaching distance learning courses with Phoenix Rising Academy.

In this presentation I want to address the role of wisdom in learning and teaching. The author of the Platonic Epinomis asks the question “what is wisdom?” and concludes that it is impossible to define, but that “the soul has a confident trust, a prophetic divination, that she possesses such a native capacity, though what it is, when come by, or how, she can hardly discover.” Wisdom is not to be discovered through gaining knowledge of a particular art or science, or from a stance of detached, objective analysis. Wisdom implies experience, insight and a mysterious intuitive grasp of meaning. I will suggest that, in terms of Iain McGilchrist’s triumphant metaphor of brain hemispheres, wisdom is about a continual and fertile interplay between the observational and discriminatory skills of the left hemisphere and the capacity for symbolic—and religious—vision of the right. In terms of the study of esotericism, I want to draw attention away from the question of what is studied and how it is studied, to the researcher or teacher themselves and how, inevitably, their own degree of wisdom will be reflected in the approach they take to their studies. As Jeffrey Kripal has suggested, there are researchers who demonstrate an understanding of their subject which is “at once passionate and critical, personal and objective, religious and academic”. I will argue that this sacred marriage of rational clarity and passionate participation can inspire a truly transformative engagement—for both teachers and students—with texts and traditions which themselves arise from a deep sense of the spiritual necessity of unity between the divine and human aspects of the psyche. Jason Lawton Winslade: Alchemical Scholarship: Esotericism in Motion at the Festival Fire Jason Lawton Winslade is scholar of occultism, popular culture, and performance, having received his PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University. At DePaul University, he teaches courses on occultism, comic books, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as composition and rhetoric. He has published articles on Pagan festival culture, cult television, and comic books in various journals and anthologies. His most recent work includes a co-authored chapter on Alan Moore’s Promethea, featured in Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels from Continuum Press, as well as a chapter on fandom and pedagogy in Buffy in the Classroom: Essays on Teaching the Vampire Slayer, an anthology from McFarland Press. He is also on the faculty at Cherry Hill Seminary and Phoenix Rising. In his spare time, he is a musician and recurring member of the musical project, Faebotica, performing regularly on the festival circuit, and is a festival drummer.

The study of Western Esotericism often seems tethered to historical texts and accounts rather than the living practice of those who actually perform magic and engage in communal ritual and service. In this statement, I will address the issues of subjectivity and authenticity in performance theory and ethnography, concentrating on my recent work studying fire culture at Pagan and Thelemic festivals. Specifically, I will briefly outline associations commonly made between initiation and ethnography, and present instances of genuine insight that can occur from encounters around the fire and conversations with practitioners that engage with their spiritual beliefs in performative ways. Unlike ethnographies of specific magical groups, in which the ethnographer www.phoenixrising.org.gr

either initiates or remains outside the group, I would offer festival ethnography as a way to avoid specific insider/outsider dichotomies, since anyone can attend these festivals, where intense and intimate actions, within a magical context, can occur. I will examine the ways in which the field of Western Esotericism has rejected these paradigms and attempt to determine if we are speaking two different languages or if a bridge is possible. I will particularly address notions of “methodological atheism” that scholars of Esotericism have supported, comparing these to recent ethnographic approaches to festival culture, such as Lee Gilmore’s Theatre in a Crowded Fire: Ritual and Spirituality at Burning Man. Ultimately, I wish to consider the question of whether we can engage the present and future of Western occultism and esotericism as a practice, rather than as a relic of the past. Sasha Chaitow: Esotericism in a Brave New World Sasha is currently conducting doctoral research in Western Esotericism. She holds an MA in Western Esotericism (EXESESO, Exeter, 2008) and an MA in English Literature (Indianapolis-Athens, 2004). Her current area of study focuses on the French Occult Revival and French Symbolism in the 19th century, and her MA thesis (awarded with distinction) focused on the alchemical emblems in Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens. Sasha is the founding director of Phoenix Rising Academy of Esoteric Studies and Creative Arts, (London and Athens), an independent academic institution for the promotion of the Academic Study of Western Esotericism and Art. Her research interests include art and esotericism, mind and consciousness, ritual and initiation, and Greek esoteric history. She writes for academic journals, the Greek special-interest journals Avaton and Fainomena, and is an experienced speaker in both academic and public fora. For more see: http://www.phoenixrising.org.gr/en/academy/teachers/sasha-chaitow/ and www.peladan.org.

The significance of disinterested academic scholarship is self-evident. The field of Western Esotericism is a vast, and still largely unexplored domain. We need valid documentation, commentary and translations – and thus far, the admirable efforts of scholarly societies such as ESSWE, its sister organisations, and the chairs and scholars in these fields have achieved a monumental task and provided younger scholars with invaluable resources. However, the entrance of Western Esotericism into academe and the development of related disciplines such as Pagan Studies hold wider implications on a number of levels. The popularity of these subjects, whether in academia or popular culture, is far more than just some fad fuelled by Harry Potter and Dan Brown. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the modern rediscovery of these subjects, their new-found respectability and the increased availability of both academic and good quality mass market literature have burgeoned in response to a growing social need for alternatives to tried, tested, and failed approaches to critical social questions. Within the history of Western Esoteric currents, and the worldviews belonging to them, are embedded models and ideas that we can learn from and which can offer practicable and pragmatic ways in which to counter the social, moral and existential crisis that we are all experiencing, whether from the eye of the storm or the sidelines. When they are so inclined, scholars in particular, have a duty to communicate, disseminate and discuss these models and their potential applications. The potential applications are infinite, from sustainable development to sustainable economies, and now more then ever, the world – not just the classroom – are in need of new models and ideas. For something like this to be considered on a practical scale, it has to start with awareness and dialogue. Scholars who have the privilege of understanding how these concepts work, need to leave their ivory towers and talk both to their more positivist colleagues, and their ‘objects’ of study. Practitioners need to root philosophical and enchanted ideals in modern reality. It is esotericism that can provide a common vocabulary and vision; from there on, we need fruitful dialogue. In this paper I will outline some of the main reasons for which we feel that both the methodological question, as well as that of the role of this area of study, must be constantly reexamined, and I will also attempt to propose potential ways of doing so. Kirk Templeton: Towards an Imaginal Methodology in the study of Western Esotericism Kirk Templeton is a Ph.D. candidate in Philosophy and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies. His primary area of research is comparative studies involving Consciousness, the Self and the Metaphysics of Light in the Medieval Western, Islamic, and Hindu Tantric traditions. Kirk’s involvement with Western Esotericism goes back to the late 1960s when he was a member of a research consortium in Thelemic Magick and Computer Science at the Portola Institute in Palo Alto. Since that www.phoenixrising.org.gr

time he has served as core faculty at Transformative Arts Institute, a center for contemporary Shamanism, and as Director of Wind Mountain Institute, a center for integral studies.

Imaginal methodologies for the study of Western Esotericism must meet two sets of criteria. There are those mandated by the canons of the Western Academy and those mandated by the canons of the imaginal as such. The concept of imaginal knowledge was re-introduced into Western Academic discourse by Henry Corbin, who derived it from the Hikmat al-Ishraq or Wisdom of Illumination of the great 12th century Persian philosopher Shihāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī. A valuable first step in the development of imaginal methodologies is to investigate them at their source. This approach is all the more appropriate given the profound formative influence of the Islamic Esoteric tradition upon the Western. Suhrawardi’s methodology integrated methods of reason (baḥth) with methods based upon direct intuitive apprehension (ta’alluh). This provided access to the ‘alam al-mithal or imaginal world (Corbin’s mundus imaginalis) in a process of hermeneutic (ta’wil) which was thus validated by For Western Esoteric Studies, this suggests a program of first setting our own house in order by developing canons and protocols of legitimate imaginal practice which, while of sufficiently wide scope, are nonetheless based upon sound noetic knowledge and practice ( ta’alluh). This will in turn set the stage for the inevitable Kuhnian struggle of employing skilled and resolute rational discourse to shift the paradigm (ba ḥth). This task will be facilitated by the increasing global prominence and influence of intellectual cultures (India, China, Iran) in which the radical separation of the rational and noetic did not occur. Samuel Garrard: (recorded) The Limitations of Rationalist Epistemology, the use of Analogy and the Value of Revealed Knowledge Samuel Garrard is studying for his MA in Western Esotericism from the University of Exeter , and holds a BA (Hons) in English, specialising in transcendentalism, native American histories, psychoanalysis and literary theory. His interests include psychoanalysis, the psychologisation of magic, the Kabbalah, the Tarot, natural magic and witchcraft.

In this paper I will consider possible reasons why academic value-systems cling on to Enlightenment ideals despite the progressive work of certain post-structuralist theorists who have highlighted the limitations and corruptibility of this approach. I will explore the notion that Western science has vested sociological interests in emphasising materiality due to the support it gives to materialist culture and argue that many academic disciplines have managed to gain acceptance and support by aligning themselves with Eighteenth-century materialist paradigms and in doing so neglected more progressive epistemological approaches. I will briefly describe the developments in science, from the mechanist philosophy to the work of modern cosmologists and neurologists who admit that the unstable semantic qualities of academic epistemology undermine the principles with which one attempts to understand nature. Using various Neoplatonic portrayals of symbolic reality (such as Robert Fludd’s mnemonic illustrations), I will consider the implications of symbolic and revealed forms of knowledge as valuesystems that support individuality and personal expression, rather than social control and limited experience. I will argue that knowledge that emphasises the value of relationship as opposed to isolated truth, can have positive ethical implications for both the individual and society, looking at how analogy is used as a tool to impart a wisdom, operating in terms apart from literal comprehension. I hope to highlight the socio-political concerns that inform the basic premises and principles underlying rationalist epistemology. Peter Duchemin: Fountainheads: tapping visionary experience in an academic setting Peter G.H.A Duchemin is engaged in questions of mediation, technology, and the means by which values are by influenced by the imagination. Academically, he holds a B.A., Hon. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from Carleton University, an M.Phil in Humanities from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and is working on a Ph.D in Interdisciplinary Studies, across philosophy, sociology, religious studies, and classics. His MA Thesis "The Enchanted Circus: Language, Time, and the Circus Arts", explored three performance figures: the Fool, the Magician, and the Juggler, seeking to examine the full spectrum of these roles; from the level of embodied performances by professional artists to the the archetypal and mystical meanings of the symbols themselves. His current work extends this investigation further: into the mediating nature of enchantment understood in a broad sense. Methodologically, Duchemin combines physical practice, imaginal psychology, and philosophical realism. His travels have taken him worldwide to sacred sites, circuses, magic shows, and shamanic rituals, www.phoenixrising.org.gr

where he has traded magic, and participated in ceremony. He advocates experience-based, rigorously intuitive, philosophical and spiritual exploration.

Esoteric study is a balance between intellectual reflection and intuitive contemplation. The academic approach to esotericism is grounded in history, anthropology, and discourse analysis, and assumes that we can understand esoteric discourses, especially as they bear upon the emergence of modernity. But is it possible to practice esotericism while engaging in these researches? While sympathetic investigators may tap into the gnosis, it remains a dangerous sea to navigate. In order to engage authentically, the thinker must be absorbed into the magical life itself and cease, on some level, to be a thinker. In the wake of this process there lies a residual awareness that sustains intuition as a primary epistemic source.The temptation to divorce practice from analysis marks a divide between scholars OF esotericism, and esotericists themselves, but it IS possible for a thinker to be academically fruitful and draw on the intuitive roots of the esoteric experience itself: Formal rigor is re-engaged with intuition in the process of translation into discursive expression: The fountain of intuition flows through and over an architecture of criticism, that when engaged with energetically, assists in developing, extending, and supporting that flow. I will discuss visionary contemplation as an experimental field, that both engages and produces discourses that can be assessed but not exhausted by analysis. I will draw from Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze, & Michel Serres, on the terrain opened up by Yates, Rossi, Faivre, et al. My aim is to present a methodological blueprint for the critically engaged occultist.