Imagining Astrology: Painted Schemes
and Threads of the Soul
A Two-Day International Conference
at the University of Bristol
Supported by the Bristol Institute for Research
in the Humanities and Arts and the Centre for
Medieval Studies
July 10th and 11th 2010
Organized by Darrelyn Gunzburg and Liz Greene
See the webpage for pg bursary information :
http://tinyurl.com/23hfx7g
Conference abstract:
Astrology as a way of understanding the world
has woven its thread into cultures since
Mesopotamian times. Along with its technical
descriptions of calculation and interpretation,
whether written on clay tablets or vellum, using
stylus, quill or printing press, it has also
taken form in sculpture, mosaics and painting,
as well as inhabiting such esoteric bodies of
knowledge as Kabbalah, alchemy and magic.
Modern scholarship, viewing astrology from the
outside, pays little attention to the language
incorporated in such esoteric lore and has
assigned it solely a cultural meaning, assuming
astrology to be a form of divination, shaped by
Aristotelian cosmology and Neo-Platonic philosophy.
In so doing the Academy has failed to understand
that astrology forms a lingua franca stitching
together multiple paradigms of thinking. These
fall beyond cultures, and bind, underpin and
flow through them, reflective of and inherently
part of human experience.
Speakers:
Ronald Hutton
Professor of History,
The University of Bristol
'The Strange History of Astro-Archaeology'
Elliot Wolfson
Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies,
New York University
'Theosis, Vision, and the Astral Body
in Medieval German Pietism and the Spanish Kabbalah'
Kocku von Stuckrad
University of Groningen
(from September 2009)
'Jewish Astrological Imagery in Late Antiquity'
Roger Beck
Professor Emeritus,
University of Toronto
'Imagery and narrative in an ancient horoscope:
P. Lond. 130 (Greek Horoscopes no. 81)'
Peter Forshaw
Assistant Professor in Western Esotericism,
University of Amsterdam
'Astronomia Inferior et Superior:
Some Medieval and Renaissance Instances
of the Conjunction of Alchemy and Astrology.
Geoffrey Shamos
Postgraduate research student,
University of Pennsylvania
'Astrology as Sociology:
Depictions of the "Children of the Planets,"
1400-1600'
Liz Greene
Postgraduate research student,
University of Bristol
'The magical astrology of the
British occult revival, 1885-1939'
Bernadette Brady
Postgraduate research student,
Bath Spa University
'The visual cartography of the sky
since Mesopotamian times'
Darrelyn Gunzburg
Postgraduate research student,
University of Bristol
'Medieval frescoes and sculptures
as astrological documents'
More information and registration form:
University of Bristol
http://tinyurl.com/23hfx7g
|