Dear Colleagues,
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cross-posting.
Call For Papers, Presentations, Workshops, Rituals and Performances
Mapping the Occult City: Exploring Magick and Esotericism in the Urban
Utopia
A pre-conference for the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of
Religions in Chicago, on Friday November 16, 2012, presented by Phoenix
Rising Academy and DePaul University.
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Description:
In his classic essay, “Walking in the City,” ethnologist and historian
Michel de Certeau distinguished between the “exaltation of a scopic and
gnostic drive” that comes from viewing the city from a high vantage
point and the quotidian negotiations of the walker at street level, who
creates his or her own map, takes shortcuts and resists the strategies
of typical urban planning. One perspective is totalizing and distancing,
constructing an illusory, unified view of the metropolis, while the
other seeks out hidden avenues of knowledge and intersections of
stories, myths, and happenings. The occultist tends to shift between
both views, sometimes spinning grand narratives of the city as a New
Atlantis, a utopian civilization of knowledge and wonder, other times
imagining a secret world of dark mysteries, unknown to most passersby,
that lay just beyond the twilight of the streetlamps.
Many esotericists, conspiracy theorists, and urban fantasy authors have
speculated on the occult meaning of symbols, monuments, and architecture
in major cities, from Cleopatra’s Needle in London to the Washington
Monument in Washington D.C. Or they see powerful sigils in the neon
signs, building facades and billboards. Some speak of urban ley lines
and “energy centers” that bubble with occult power ready to be tapped
into by those with the right sense and ability. These energy centers are
focused on geometric street patterns or the lines created by the
placement of sacred sites in the city, such as churches, temples, and
cemeteries. Others speak of haunted places, charged with story and
legend, often full of the sense of violence, trauma and the urgency of
events that occurred there.
Historically, cities have been home to countless esoteric groups who
have met, planned, and conducted ritual within the towering buildings
that glitter the metropolitan skyline. For instance, Chicago, the
location of this year’s AAR conference, was once the home of the 32
floor Masonic Building, owned by the Illinois Freemasons, and the
tallest building in the world in 1892. Prominent figures in the esoteric
world have spoken, performed and offered their wisdom to the masses
through the many salons, lectures, performances, congregations,
conferences, and world’s fairs that have been either publicly advertised
or available only to those with the right password and invitation.
Cities are where the ideas of Western esotericism spread to the masses
through these public events and the many urban publishing houses. Cities
are also home to public events and happenings that connect the esoteric,
the theatrical and the political world through protest and public
actions and happenings, such as the W.I.T.C.H. protests at Chicago’s
Federal Building on Halloween 1969. Finally, cities are centers of
diversity and diaspora and often become hothouses for the development of
hybrid traditions based on immigrant cultures, such as Santeria and Vodun.
For scholars of magick and esotericism, cities like Chicago can offer up
rich resources for tracking group activities and events through library
archives and public records. Understanding occult life in the city, in
both its historical and contemporary contexts, is crucial in mapping the
proliferation of ideas and connections between practitioners and
traditions. Popular practical texts have addressed how the practice of
magick changes in an urban setting, especially when the magician or
witch must adapt a nature-centered practice to a city-based practice.
Investigating esoteric actions in the city can reveal the ways in which
the practitioner is caught up and complicit with strategic structures of
power while also offering possibilities for the occultist to resist
those structures through the kind of tactical, magical moves described
by de Certeau. As the Occupy movement and other political protests
proliferate, especially in America’s election year, what are the
possibilities for harnessing and directing the energy of the occult city?
Phoenix Rising Academy would like to explore these intersections of the
esoteric and the urban, focusing on the city as a locus for power and
knowledge, both hidden and revealed. Are cities oppressive entities that
stifle creative and esoteric drives or do they hold in their structures
the potential for powerful action? To this end, we invite scholars and
practitioners to submit proposals for papers, presentations, rituals and
performances that address these questions pertaining to the occult city.
Though our focus is primarily on American cities, particularly Chicago,
we welcome explorations in other prominent global metropolitan centers.
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Structure:
For this pre-conference, we plan on creating 2-3 panels of papers,
presentations, performances, rituals, workshops, roundtables, or
discussion groups. Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):
· The activities of certain groups, traditions, and communities, both
historical and contemporary, in particular cities.
· The city life of prominent esoteric figures and how that city life
shaped their ideas and practices.
· Particular events, meetings, lectures, performances, happenings,
protests whose urban setting featured prominently in their execution and
influence.
· The mythology of the occult city, based on legend, occult symbolism,
and esoteric symbolism of architecture and urban planning.
· A practical approach to working magick and ritual in the city, perhaps
based on Urban Shamanism or Chaos Magick.
· Interpretations of the city and its occult power by urban fantasy authors.
· The intersections of the occult and the political through the use of
ritualized protest actions, focusing on setting and urban scene.
· Though not focusing on hauntings per se, an investigation of
spiritualism, mysticism and psychic practices prominent in urban settings.
· A study of how hereditary or hybridized indigenous practices survive,
evolve and adapt in an urban setting.
With your submission, please include the following:
Presenter information (name, mailing and email addresses, phone number)
Type of presentation (paper, non-paper presentation, workshop,
performance, roundtable). Note: if you are proposing a roundtable
discussion, please submit info for all participants.
Title and affiliation (institution, organization, independent scholar,
or practitioner).
Proposal or abstract (not to exceed 250 words). Should include title of
presentation and a clear description of the presentation’s intent, plus
any audio/visual needs.
Biographical data (not to exceed 200 words).
Contact and submissions:
Please email all submissions by August 20th to:
Dr. Jason L. Winslade
DePaul University
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Conference website:
http://phoenixrising.org.gr/en/3932/call-for-papers-presentations-workshops-rituals-and-performances-mapping-the-occult-city-exploring-magick-and-esotericism-in-the-urban-utopia/
Please include “PRA Pre-Conference” in the subject line. All submissions
will be reviewed and you will be notified of a decision one week after
the deadline.
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