Heterodoxology

The 1st International Conference on Contemporary Esotericism is drawing close. Kennet and I have been working hard the past two weeks on putting together a program schedule, editing the book of abstracts and collating other  useful information. Those who are already registered for the conference will already have received the schedule by email. Now it is also available online at the conference website. Better yet, the complete book of abstracts can be found as a pdf here. I add a copy of the schedule below as well. If you want to find more about a particular paper, you can go to the book of abstract. And of course: If this looks tempting, you are still welcome to join the conference! Registration is open continuously online.

Conference Schedule

Monday August 27

9:30-10:00 Welcome [Hörsal 11]

Egil ASPREM& Kennet GRANHOLM

10:00-11:00 Keynote Lecture 1 [Hörsal 11]

Christopher PARTRIDGE, ‘Occulture is Ordinary’

11:30-13:00 Parallel Sessions 1

1.1 Occultural I: Old Media / New Media [Room F413]
Chair: WOODMAN
– DUGGAN, ‘Chaos and the Zine Scene’
– GREER, ‘”Bob Was a Futurist and I’m a Luddite”’
– KINGSEPP, ‘The Power of the Black Sun’

1.2 Gender & Queer [Room F420]
Chair: BRACH
– HEDENBORG-WHITE, ‘Towards a Theoretical Framework for the Study of Gender and Contemporary Esotericism’
– ROBERTSON, ‘The Self as “Other”: Non-Human Ontologies ’
– BURROUGHS, ‘Meditations on Lesbians Who Meditate on Lesvos’

1.3 Satanism & the Left Hand Path [Room F389]
Chair: BOGDAN
– PETERSEN, ‘Bracketing Beelzebub’
– FAXNELD,‘Secret Lineages and De Facto Satanists’
– SIEG, ‘Left, Right, and Sinister’

13:00-14:30 Lunch

14:30-15:30 Keynote 2 [Hörsal 11]

Jay JOHNSTON, ‘Productive Trouble: Gender – Esotericism’

16:00-18:00 Parallel Sessions 2

2.1 Occultural II: Popular (oc)culture [Room F413]
Chair: PETERSEN
– DUCHEMIN, ‘Comics, Cinema, and the Esotericism of Alejandro Jodorowsky’.
– SANTOS SILVA, ‘Jorge Ben Jor and Raul Seixas ’
– KARLSON-WEIMANN, ‘Is Black and Death Metal Esoteric in Itself?’
– WOODMAN, ‘The MiBs and the Migo’.

2.2 EsoPolitics I: The Esoteric Right? [Room F420]
Chair: KINGSEPP
– SENHOLT, ‘Right Wing Heretics’
– HALE, ‘The Branding and Marketing of the New Right in Pagan and Esoteric Communities’
– LINDE, ‘The Occult Roots of Duginism’
– RAMSTEDT, ‘Nationalism and Interest in National Heritage within the Alternative Spiritual Milieu in Finland’

2.3 Psychology, Health, and Alternative Medicine [Room F389]
Chair: HARRINGTON
– MAGUS, ‘Austin Osman Spare and the Conquest of the Imaginal’
– CROWLEY, ‘Embedding the Esoteric in Contemporary Psychotherapy’
– LAUFENBERG, ‘The Metaphysics of Licensure’

Tuesday August 28

9:30-10:30 Keynote 3 [Hörsal 11]

Kocku von STUCKRAD, ‘Rejected Theory in the Study of Esotericism’

11:00-12:30 Parallel Sessions 3

3.1 Rejected Theory, Rejected Method? (I): General [Room F413]
Chair: OTTO
– HARRINGTON, ‘The Effects of Developing the Academic Study of Esotericism’
– BARONI, ‘How Italian Scholars Discovered Western Esotericism’
– MARLOW, ‘Interviewing Contemporary Mystics’

3.2 EsoPolitics II: The Esoteric Left? [Room F420]
Chair: TILTON
– BAKKER, ‘The Black Esoteric Milieu’
– GIUDICE, ‘Occupy and Occultism’
– RADERMACHER, ‘The Environmental Movement, Eco-Spirituality, and Consumer Culture’

3.3 East / West / North / South? Global Perspectives [Room F389]

Chair: KWANTES
– PODOLECKA-NIEWDANA, ‘South African New Age as a Conglomerate of Western and African Philosophies’
– MONDAL, ‘Esotericism in Sufism and its Impacts on the Bauls of Bengal’

12:30-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:00 Keynote 4 [Hörsal 11]

Wouter J. HANEGRAAFF, ‘Entheogenic Esotericism’

15:30-17:30 Parallel Sessions 4

4.1 Rejected Theory, Rejected Method? (II): Anthropology of Esotericism[Room F413]
Chair: CROWLEY
– HEGNER, ‘Hex and the City’
– SUDHÖLTER, ‘The Entheogenic Experience of Dutch Santo Daime Members’
– DUPPILS, ‘Neospiritism’

4.2 Contemporary Milieus [Room F420]
Chair: RADERMACHER
– CHAITOW, ‘Neomythology and Mythopoeia: The Esoteric Landscape of Modern Greece’
– TILTON, ‘Discord and Desecration at Esoteric Glastonbury’
– LIEBERMAN-AVITAL, ‘”Healing by Salt”- Traditional Feminine Magical Practice in a New and Renewing Environment’
– KWANTES, ‘Bnei Baruch vs. “Mainstream” Jewish Religiosity’

4.3 Magics I: Magical Pluralism [Room F389]
Chair: BUTLER
– OTTO, ‘Chaos Semantics: “Magical” Meanings in the 20th and 21stCentury’
– HARARI, ‘A Black Demoness, Angels, and a Curse’
– BOGDAN, ‘Kenneth Grant and the Re-Enchantment of the Occult’
– KARLSSON, ‘Modern Grimoires and Talismanic Books’

19:00- Conference Dinner

Wednesday August 29

10:00-11:30 Parallel Sessions 5

5.1 Magics II: Psychologization [Room F413]
Chair: RAMSTEDT
– BRACH, ‘Psychic Disciplines: the Magnetizer as Magician’
– BUTLER, ‘Dion Fortune’s Group Mind and the Intersection of Occultism and Psychology’
– BAKARLAZ, ‘The Concepts of the Self in Chaos Magic’

5.2 Initiation & Secrecy: Sociological and Psychological Perspectives [Room F420]
Chair: HALE
– KENNEY, ‘Freemasons Today: Thematic Claims of Life Changes Since Becoming a Mason’
– ROSTAD, ‘Contemporary Fraternalism in Norway as Moral Elitism’
– FUTERMAN, ‘Societies of Silence in an Open Source World’

11:30-13:00 Lunch

13:00-15:00 Roundtable Discussion and Conclusion [Hörsal 11]

Partridge, Johnston, von Stuckrad, and Hanegraaff, are publicly interviewed by Asprem & Granholm, and engaged in a roundtable discussion.

15:00- Extra Programme: Walking Tour of Occult Stockholm, with Dr. Thomas Karlsson