Hello Kathryn,

As founding director of Phoenix Rising Academy I wish to answer your points as I feel there are some rather unhelpful misunderstandings here.

What we call "Creative Arts" at Phoenix Rising Academy included four courses on Creative writing and one other on drama in last year's curriculum, and we are in the process of developing courses relating to figurative art, drama, archetypes and myth within creative writing, the function of archetypes in fairytales, and so forth. As far as I am aware, this content fits neatly, and accurately, under the rubric "creative arts" since we do not teach conventional literature or art history, since that is already offered at mainstream universities, and we are interested in the intersection between the arts and esotericism. As for "no actual creatives teaching there", I would like to invite you to read the faculty listings and biographical notes on our website, as you will find that you are mistaken, unless there is some misperception here regarding the term "creative". I was a professional artist long before I turned to academia, and we include professional musicians, poets, performers and authors in our faculty, all of whom have successfully combined through studies in esotericism with their respective arts. My original reason for pursuing esoteric studies was precisely so that I could acquire a more formal and solid grounding for my use and understanding of artistic symbolism, and en route, I expanded my area of research and professional activity. 

I must also point out that you are equally mistaken when you say (of us at PRA) that " they restrict methodology and subject matter to the narrow focus and opinions already established as "Western Esotericism." We do not. In fact, we do quite the opposite. If you wait for the complete set of papers and video of the event to be posted in due course, then you will see this for yourself. I would recommend suspending judgement, especially in a public forum, until such time as we can make these available. But, for the record, you can see a summary of the event here: http://phoenixrising.org.gr/en/3666/phoenix-rising-at-the-aar-annual-meeting-2011-1/  along with my own address. 

With regard to the Pagan Studies groups, for the record, not only were members of these communities present at our event, both as speakers and in the audience, but I attended all the Pagan Studies panels and am delighted to be forging new lines of communication and possible future collaboration with many people whom I met there, and for whom I have nothing but respect, especially since I happen to find it an altogether friendlier arena than that of Western Esotericism. So I must say that I find what appears to be a quite a loaded question, "were they demonized by PRA?" in a forum such as this, rather misplaced to say the least. 

In addition, I need to clarify the following. At PRA we do insist that all our faculty members are well-versed in the extant methodology debate, and that they are familiar with the issues surrounding it. This does not necessarily mean that we fully support this methodology; indeed, this is what our event at the AAR was all about: the idea of developing and expanding on this methodology. But, to do that, we first need to understand what is already acceptable to the academy, and if one is going to counter it, one must counter it on its own terms. To simply ignore it, or attempt to side-step it, or to try to counter it head-on without being fully versed in what it says takes one outside the dialogue and weakens ones arguments. As Wouter Hanegraaff has often noted, if one wants to play tennis, one has to play by the rules. This is what we are doing, while making it very clear that we feel the rules need modifying. We are trying to open channels of dialogue, not of conflict. But to do this demands careful, diplomatic handling. And this is why every member of our faculty has a clear and solid grounding in Western Esotericism, or in which ever discipline it is that they also teach, and this is why all speakers on our panel were selected on the basis of their understanding of the methodology debate - even if that meant that this was not the time or the place for more creative solutions - because creative solutions can only work when they are rooted on solid ground. First we build the foundations, then we decorate the building. For now, PRA is still working on the foundations. But to make firm and lasting ones, you can be sure that we don't demonize anybody. We get enough of that from those who feel that we are *too academic* - or *too creative* as it is.

I hope that is clear and I am sorry if it is not to everybody's liking. It is certainly with the best of intentions.

Sasha Chaitow