ENTER LIGHT - PORTAL TO THE SACRED
Visual artist Afruz Amighi will discuss how she uses light as a medium to activate the sacred in objects and materials commonly perceived as inorganic and associated with industry, masculinity, and capitalism. Afruz's sculptures and installations are constructed from steel, chain, glass and plastic, but rely on light as a mechanism of dematerialization and portal through which they are reacquainted with a former state of preciousness, lost after their brutal extraction from the earth and mass processing. Afruz will discuss how she and others before her have used light as a conduit to dehomogenize and reconnect the earth with itself - diminishing the lines of our own estrangement to it and thereby to the sacred. Through a survey of past works and selected poems, Afruz will elaborate on the homecoming that can take place as hard lines and distinctions dissolve with the entrance of light.
AFRUZ AMIGHI’s work has been exhibited in museums, galleries and sculpture parks throughout the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Houston Museum of Fine Art, and Morgan Museum & Library, among others. In addition to sculpture, Afruz has begun working with poetry and performance. In 2024, you can see Afruz's new work on permanent display at the Khalil Gibran Academy in downtown Brooklyn and at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Afruz will also be publishing a book of drawings and poetry called 'Blood Crystals'.
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THE QUEST FOR BROTHER M
Who was M? Not James Bond’s boss, but the author of two books of esoteric instruction, The Dayspring of Youth and The Lord God of Truth Within? Certainly a highly developed occultist, with an endearing penchant for gnomes and fairies. Not surprisingly, he also signed an English edition of Comte de Gabalis, the classic work on the elemental beings. Digging a little deeper reveals him as the “Brother M” of a roman à clef or “occult autobiography” by another pseudonymous character, Michael Juste. Deeper still finds him mentoring the young Paul Brunton, later a best-selling writer on spiritual philosophy, and even acting as godfather to Brunton’s son. Enter Lotus Dudley, a Buffalo magnate’s daughter and guru to Mabel Dodge Luhan, of Taos fame. Was she really responsible for the 1913 Gabalis? How did Meher Baba, Manly Palmer Hall, and the Atlantis Bookshop come into it? This paper attempts to pull these strings together into a coherent and intriguing story of early 20th century seekers after wisdom.
JOSCELYN GODWIN is a writer on the Western esoteric traditions, especially in connection with music. Born in Oxfordshire and educated at Cambridge and Cornell, he taught at Colgate University from 1971-2016. Among about 40 books that he has authored or edited are Harmonies of Heaven and Earth, Paul Brunton: Essential Readings, The Pagan Dream of the Renaissance, Atlantis and the Cycles of Time, Athanasius Kircher's Theatre of the World, and Upstate Cauldron. His latest projects are the translation of works on universal harmony by Hans Kayser, and an illustrated book, Universal Magic in the Age of Enlightenment, which explains a gigantic cosmological, Kabbalistic, mathematical, and magical system, designed by a French alchemist in 1775.
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THE SHINING
Dorothea Lasky, poet, teacher, and writer, will discuss the relationship of horror to our contemporary moment. She will focus on the creative possibilities in the intersection of horror and poetry and discuss the inspiration behind her new poetry book, The Shining, which is an ekphrastic horror lyric. She will talk about prevailing themes in horror, such as being trapped in haunted spaces, and will explore how objects in these spaces can come alive in these situations. She will imagine how haunted spaces and objects become bidirectional communication machines and create a sense of company and care in times of both crisis and healing. Generally, she will address how horror can be a source of creative inspiration for all of us.
DOROTHEA LASKY is the author of six books of poetry and a book of prose, including The Shining (2023), Animal (2019), and ROME (2014). She is also the editor of Essays (2023) and co-editor of Open the Door: How to Excite Young People About Poetry (2013). With Alex Dimitrov, she co-wrote Astro Poets: Your Guides to the Zodiac (2019). With Lou Florez, she co-founded the educational collective, WitchCraft, in 2020 as a way to channel the invisible creative potential of the everyday. Currently, she lives in NYC and teaches poetry at Columbia University School of the Arts.
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KAMEOT: JEWISH AMULETS FROM THE TORAH TO TODAY (or M’KASHEFAH TO MODERN JEWITCHERY)
Judaism has a long and complicated relationship with witchcraft, sorcery, and anything deemed occult. From the very beginning with passages like “you shall not suffer a witch to live,” found in Exodus 22:17 witches and occult practices were, in theory, prohibited. But the lines between prohibited and permissible can be fuzzier than one might think, as evidenced by the long history of Jewish amulets. Ketzirah haMa’agelet will offer a tour of Jewish magick from the Torah to today through the creation and use of amulets, known as “kameot” in Hebrew.
KETZIRAH LESSER, haMa’agelet (The Circle Maker), is a maker and teacher of the sacred arts who is an ordained Kohenet and Celebrant as well as holding a BFA from the University of Miami. Through Devotaj Sacred Arts, she explores Jewishly-rooted making, mussar, and magick to connect past, present, & possible future(s); cræfting artifacts for a forgotten future that is more equitable, just, and spiritually alive. The second edition of her oracle deck, Eit/Aht: a Netivot Wisdom Oracle, which is based on Jewish teachings recently funded in only five days on Kickstarter and will be available to the public in 5784. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband, two pet rabbits, and a house filled with ensouled teddy bears, enchanted appliances, and magickal creatures. For more visit: www.devotaj.com
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THE SPIRITUAL MAGICK OF REAL DOLLS
“They've been on the circuit, making their first appearance in Baltimore, then Atlanta, and now coming to NYU!
My Dolls.
Dolls. Not everyone is akin to having dolls do magickal work for them. Some people are terrified of dolls, but for those of us who are not, making a doll into a powerful ally, can be one the most rewarding magickal experiences, one can have. Dolls have been used as powerful forms of magick since humans first crafted images into clay. Dolls can be made from porcelain, fabric, or clay. They can be hand stitched or made in a factory. However, for this workshop, we will focus upon those special dolls which may be found in a bin in a secondhand store, gifted to us, or on display in a vintage, antique shop. It seems for those of us who work with dolls, they arrive in our lives at their own time and speed, ready and willing to become a part of our magickal family. In this workshop I'll discuss my relationship with dolls and how I use them as powerful juju to bring positive change into my life. I'll also introduce three of my most beloved dolls to the audience and discuss why they are important to me.”
NAJAH LIGHTFOOT is a multi-award-winning author. She is the author of Powerful Juju: Goddesses, Music & Magic for Comfort, Guidance & Protection, and the bestselling Good Juju: Mojos, Rites & Practices for the Magical Soul. She is a regular contributor to the Llewellyn annuals and a contributor to Taschen, The Library of Esoterica – Volume III – Witchcraft. Her magickal staff is on display and part of the permanent collection of the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft, located in Cleveland, Ohio. Najah is a fellow of the Sojourner Truth Leadership Circle, sponsored by Auburn Seminary. She lives in Denver, Colorado, where the blue skies and the power of the Rocky mountains uplift and fill her soul.
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ON THE VISIONARY (PAINT BRUSH AS MAGIC WAND)
Artist and educator Adam Putnam will be discussing the work of legendary East Village painter, Martin Wong and the site-specific artist Robert Smithson. Each, in their own way, sought to draw a line from the cosmic to the everyday. Guided by strange hand signs, constellations and Non-sites, this juxtaposition will serve as a starting point from which to chart a path through various visionary practices in and out of the Artist’s studio.
Through photography, drawing, sculpture, and film, ADAM PUTNAM examines the social and aesthetic dimensions of human bodies, often by pushing the physical limits of his own. Wrestling with the body’s relationship to light and space, Putnam engages with live action as a means of investigating the intersection of our physical selves with the architectural spaces we inhabit. Putnam’s work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including his most recent show Holes, at P·P·O·W. In 2010, he curated Everything Must Go, a solo exhibition of works by Martin Wong at P·P·O·W and in 2007, he co-curated Blow Both of Us with Shannon Ebner at Participant Inc, New York, NY. Putnam is the co-editor of the photo book imprint entitled ASMR4.
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GARMENTS AS PORTALS
Normandy Sherwood, playwright and costume designer (among other things), will present on magic in garments. She’ll discuss the relationship between the hand made, the material and the occult through the activation of performance/ritual. Her talk draws on her experience as maker of theatrical garments and objects, her decades of crafting and artificing glamours that open portals to the unknown. In her talk, she’ll contextualize the way making by hand, the tactile/textile and the occult and unknown operate in her own work through a study of other contemporary makers including sculptor and performance artist Suzanne Bocanegra, visual artist and breather-of-life-into-refuse Monica Canilao and her collaboration MCXT, and maker of handmade magical garments Rachel Blodgett (Serpent and Bow).
NORMANDY SHERWOOD is a theater maker who has been building worlds in NYC for two decades. She is a writer, a director, a costume and scenic designer and occasionally a performer. Her shows have been presented by The New Ohio Theatre, The Kitchen, The Public Theater and her newest piece, Psychic Self Defense, will premiere at HERE Arts Center in September 2023 as part of the HARP residency program. She currently makes work with her theater company, The Drunkard’s Wife and her band, God Is My Co-Pilot. From 2001-2017 she was a core collaborator in The National Theater of the United States of America (R.I.P.) and with this company she toured the US, won an OBIE award and published a book called A New Guide to Rhetorical Gesture and Action (53rd State Press). As a costume designer she has worked on productions by Faye Driscoll, Tina Satter/ Half Straddle, Young Jean Lee, Rachel Chavkin and Kristin Marting. She has been an artist in residence at Macdowell, Yaddo and Millay Arts. She is collaborating on Theater in Quarantine’s upcoming virtual production, the 3D-for-your-phone Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, presented by NYU’s Skirball Center on October 27-31. She is a Clinical Associate Professor in Expository Writing at NYU and is the programs Assistant Director for Writing at Tisch.
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SUB ROSA
Sub Rosa is a creative engagement with patterns of descent and decreation as precursors to the renewal of feminine power. In dialogue with forebears including Inanna, Ariadne, Simone Weil and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, and with an interest in psychedelic feminism, this presentation explores abjection and alchemy through the symbolism of the labyrinth, the rose and the Flower of Venus.
SARAH SHIN is a writer, publisher and curator whose work includes making books, texts, labyrinths, gardens, games, films, portals and practices. She is a founder of Ignota, a creative publishing and curatorial house exploring consciousness, technology and healing; Silver Press, the feminist publisher; New Suns, a literary festival at the Barbican Centre; and Standard Deviation, a spatial practice exploring the coincidence of psychic, geometric and inhabited spaces.
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WITCH HOUSES: THE MAGICAL HOMES OF THE MATRIARCHY
One of the most common locales for horror is the house and the home, synonymous with family and domesticity, has long been considered the intrinsic domain of women. But what happens to the home when the patriarchal family structure is challenged, and the predictable stability of the house becomes unreliable? This talk explores the image of The Witch House, both real and fictional, and how the home of the unmarried, childless, autonomous woman became a symbol of mystery, enchantment, and dread.
LEILA TAYLOR is a writer and designer focused on the horror of history and the gothic in contemporary culture. Author of Darkly: Black History and America’s Gothic Soul, her work has appeared in The Journal of Horror Studies, The New Urban Gothic: Global Gothic in the Age of the Anthropocene, The Repeater Book of the Occult, graphic novel Bitter Root and the journal liquid blackness. She lives in Brooklyn, New York where she is Creative Director for Brooklyn Public Library.
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MAPPING YOUR PATH TO OTHER REALMS
Amy C Wilson will discuss how to deepen spiritual connection through various processes and states of consciousness to discover various inquiries of life, knowledge, as well as connecting with deceased individuals and the living remotely through astral projection. Within this talk, discover how to form communication with the “other side” through sleep, dreamwork, meditation and working with your mind’s eye. She will provide demonstrations of various techniques to enhance your personal connection and develop your spiritual vehicle to help hone in on your personal experience.
AMY C WILSON is a celebrated Spiritual Medium, Psychometrist and practitioner of the Magickal Arts. She is a teacher of Witchcraft, gifted healer, psychic reader and long-time Witch. Amy is much sought-after for her Energy Work and has contributed her impressions in missing persons cases.
Amy has worked in various occult stores in New York City and in the Hudson Valley for over 30 years, specializing in healing others through Candle Magick. She is presently the proprietress of Other Worldly Waxes, an online and brick-and-mortar magickal apothecary located in Beacon, New York, that features hand-crafted magickal oils and incenses for spell-work, and custom-dressed and ritually charged spell candles for both online customers and her private clientele.
Highly knowledgeable on myriad occult and mystical topics, Amy is a gifted teacher of the Magickal Arts and Witchcraft. She regularly holds live classes at her apothecary and lectures at local venues on topics such as Magick, Energy Work and the Spirit Realm.
Amy also curates and hosts the unique Moon, Serpent and Bone Oddities and Curiosities Night Markets held four times a year around the esbats of Ostara, Litha, Samhain and Yule. These first and one of kind markets purvey an array of unique and rare items to various magickal clientele and curious “Fringe Folk” as she affectionately calls them.
Most recently, she adds to her accomplishments the role of guest lecturer and host of a magickal workshop at the famed Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York.
www.OtherWorldlyWaxes.com & www.MoonSerpentandBone.com
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PANEL DISCUSSION: PRESERVING AND PRESENTING THE OCCULT
How do we preserve hidden traditions? The occult is above all a series of social landscapes, and these landscapes have histories, lineages, and stories. Beginning to emerge out of the realm of myth in the 17th and 18th centuries, a space for historical accounts of the occult have been slowly emerging. With these histories are public-facing institutions that, via a variety of tactics, and coming from a wide range of positions, seek to present the occult to the public.
A discussion between directors of three institutions, Simon Costin of the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Cornwall, UK, Steven Intermill and Toni Rotonda of the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick in Cleveland Ohio, and Anna Björg Þórarinsdóttir of the Museum of Icelandic Witchcraft and Sorcery in Hólmavík, Iceland, will seek to elaborate the shared ideologies that propel these very unique spaces forward, as well as underline the different approaches each space takes with regards to collecting, presenting, and telling the stories of magic and the occult they present to their publics.
This panel will be moderated by conference co-organizer JESSE BRANSFORD.
SIMON COSTIN is a curator and creative director. He is also the director of the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic and the founder and director of the Museum of British Folklore. Born in London, he completed a BA in Theatre Design at Wimbledon School of the Art where he was taught by the film maker Derek Jarman, who recognised his fledgling interest in magical practise.
His creative process is informed by lucid dreaming techniques, museum and archival research and his own art practise. Costin has both exhibited his own work within and curated shows at leading cultural centres such as the ICA, Whitechapel Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and places off the grid, like a forest in Argyll.
He has curated exhibitions across the UK, most recently working with co-curators, Professor Amy De La Haye and Mellany Robinson on the UK’s first ever exhibition of British Folk Costume, ‘Making Mischief: Folk Costume in Britain.
His work within the commercial sphere includes an early seven year collaboration with Alexander McQueen as his runway designer. He’s also designed sets for photo shoots and events and runway shows alike, collaborating with photographers and designers like Tim Walker, Paolo Roversi, and Charles Jeffrey, and created many event landscapes for luxury brands such as Givenchy, Tiffany, Lanvin, and Hermes.
In 2015 he was recognised for his outstanding contribution to the creative industries and made an honorary Fellow of the Arts.
STEVEN INTERMILL is the Director of the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick, which operates out of Cleveland, Ohio. He spends his free time with his spouse Jillian, three cats Robat, Berti, and Lil Ricky, as well as his modular synthesizer. He's always trying to find the sine wave that opens up the Trans-Yuggothian gateways.
TONI ROTONDA is the High Priestess of the Temple of Sacrifice Coven in Columbus, Ohio and is the owner of the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magick. Her dedication to the craft led her to the restoration and preservation of Raymond Buckland's collection of witchcraft & occult items. Along with her spiritual pursuits, Toni restores Victorian homes as well works with rescue animals.
ANNA BJÖRG ÞÓRARINSDÓTTIR is the manager of the NPO Strandagaldur which runs the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft. She graduated with a bachelor degree in Tourism from the University of Iceland where she wrote her final thesis on rural development and how tourism can create new opportunities, using the Museum of Sorcery and Witchcraft as a case study. Following completion of her degree she worked for two summers at the museum and then stepped in when the then-manager and one of the founders passed away at the end of 2018.
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MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: RENA ANAKWE
RENA ANAKWE (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, poet and healer working primarily with sound, visuals, and scent. Exploring intersections between traditional healing practices, spirituality and performance, she creates works focused on sensory-based, experiential interactions using creative technology.
Most recently, she was awarded a 2022 Art Matters Artist2Artist Fellowship, a 2021-2022 MacDowell Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Arts, a 2022 Jack Nusbaum Artist Residency at BAM and the 2021 Canadian Women Artists’ Award from NYFA & the CWC of New York. Rena has collaborated, produced, and shown work at (select list): The Guggenheim Museum, SCAD Museum of Art, Creative Time/Governors Island Arts, Counterpublic, The Momentary, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Basilica Hudson, TFNA (Theatre for a New Audience), Park Avenue Armory/NY Live Arts, En Garde Arts/Brookfield Place, Weeksville Heritage Center and the Dia Foundation.
Under the moniker A Space for Sound, Anakwe released the first in an ongoing audio series titled “Sound Bath Mixtape vol. 1”, through New York City-based label and collective PTP. In Fall 2021, her album "Sometimes underwater (feels like home)" was released through RVNG Intl's Commend THERE series.
She is based in Brooklyn, New York, by way of Nigeria and Canada.
www.aspaceforsound.com
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CONFERENCE CO-ORGANIZERS
JESSE BRANSFORD is a New York-based artist whose work is exhibited internationally. He holds degrees from the New School for Social Research (BA), Parsons School of Design (BFA) and Columbia University (MFA). A professor of art at New York University, Bransford's work has been involved with belief and the visual systems it creates since the 1990s. Work has been presented in books from Fulgur Press, “A Book of Staves (Galdrastafabók),” and most recently “The Fourth and Fifth Pyramids.” He lectures widely on his work and the topics surrounding his work. He is the co-organizer of the biennial Occult Humanities Conference. More information can be seen at www.jessebransford.com.
PAM GROSSMAN is the creator and host of internationally beloved podcast, The Witch Wave ("The Terry Gross of witches" - Vulture), the author of the critically acclaimed books, Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power (Gallery Books) and What is a Witch (Tin Can Forest Press), and the co-editor of the WITCHCRAFT volume of Taschen's Library of Esoterica series. Her writing has appeared in such outlets as The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and Ms. Magazine. She is cofounder of the Occult Humanities Conference at NYU, and her art exhibitions and magical projects have been featured in such publications as Artforum, Art in America, and The New Yorker. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their two feline familiars. You can find her at PamGrossman.com and @Phantasmaphile.
