marco Pasi | Heterodoxology

Call for papers: “Trans-States: the art of crossing over”

There’s an exciting, experimental conference coming up this September at the University of Northampton, England. Featuring the legendary graphic novel author Alan Moore, the Crowley-biographer Richard Kaczynski, and the specialist of modern occultism and art Marco Pasi as keynote speakers, Trans-States is looking to be a very interesting trans-disciplinary event.

The call for papers is open until March 20. But beware: it is not just another academic conference, so the powerpoint with paper that is too long to read in 20 minutes is not the only possible medium:

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on March 9, 2016 at 10:52 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Alan Moore, Cavan McLaughlin, marco Pasi, Richard Kaczynski, Trans-States

Theosophical Appropriations – videos from a workshop

INASWE workshop on Theosophy, kabbalah, Western esotericism, and appropriations of traditions

The INASWE [Israeli Network for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism] has done it again. Videos from a workshop held last December on the theme of “Theosophical Appropriations: Kabbalah, Western Esotericism, and the Transformation of Traditions” are now online, and they show an impressive number of great scholars talking about intriguing aspects of modern esotericism, angled through the Theosophical current one way or another. The conveners Julie Chajes and Boaz Huss have done a great job putting together this group. One of the nice aspects of this collection is the global scope, giving a panoramic view of Theosophical groups across a number of different countries.

As in previous years, it is wonderful that all of this is made available online. So go and watch Karl Baier talk about how the chakras were introduced into Theosophy, John Patrick Deveney lecture on Theosophy as Lesenmysterium, Moshe Idel pontificate on Theosophy and Kabbalah in Romania, Massimo Introvigne entertain on the topic of Canadian Theosophy, and let Marco Pasi enlighten you on the role of the Theosophical movement in Italian esoteric milieus. And much, much more.

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on May 30, 2014 at 6:13 pm Comments (1)
Tags: Boaz Huss, chakras, ESSWE, INASWE, John Patrick Deveney, Julie Chajes, Karl Baier, Lesenmysterium, marco Pasi, Massimo Introvigne, Moshe Idel, Theosophical Society

New Webinar: Marco Pasi on Gustav Meyrink & His Esoteric Novels

The latest in a long series of webinars created by the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica and the Centre for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents in Amsterdam has just been released. This time Marco Pasi talks about the Austrian author Gustav Meyrink (/Meyer), arguably the most important contributor to early 20th century esoteric fiction. The relation between modern esotericism and fiction is one of Pasi’s specialties (check out his work on Fernando Pessoa), and as he tells in this webinar, he’s also been a Meyrink fan since his late teens. For a solid contextualisation of Meyrink’s work, and the influence of his work (including quite a few personal anecdotes), do check out this video.

You might also want to check out the introductory interview with Marco, introducing his new contributions to the Infinite Fire Webinar series.

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on February 21, 2014 at 8:12 pm Comments (2)
Tags: Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Centre for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, Esotericism and fiction, Fernando Pessoa, Gustav Meyrink, Infinite Fire Webinar, marco Pasi

The esoteric in modern art

Over the last few years, there appears to have been an increased interest, at least from academics and curators, in the relationship between esotericism and art. A couple of my colleagues have spent considerable research time investigating this relation, and I want to use this post to recommend their work. This seems particularly relevant given certain recent publications, which I will get to in a second.

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on February 27, 2013 at 11:19 am Comments (1)
Tags: abstract art, André Breton, Christopher Partridge, marco Pasi, Nina Kokkinen, occulture, surrealism, Tessel Bauduin, Theosophy

Kabbalah and Modernity – more than red strings and pop queens

I have made a habit out of making the pre-print versions of some of my book reviews available here at Heterodoxology. I was recently reminded of one that I had completely forgotten about: a review of the excellent volume Kabbalah and Modernity: Interpretations, Transformations, Adaptations (Brill, 2010). It is edited by three good colleagues of mine (Marco Pasi, Boaz Huss, and Kocku von Stuckrad), and features contributions by many other friends and acquaintances, but hopefully my review is not too biased. Moreover, symptomatic of the extreme delay in academic publishing, I should say that this review was written in 2010, and only appeared in print last year. The review was published in Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft (summer 2012).

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on January 23, 2013 at 1:32 pm Comments (10)
Tags: Abraham David Ezekiel, Adolphe Franck, Andreas Kilcher, anti-Semitism, Blavatsky, Boaz Huss, Dialectic of Enlightenment, Eliphas Lévi, Elliot Wolfson, Eric Jacobson, Erwin Neutzsky-Wulff, Freemasonry in Russia, Fritjof Schuon, Gershom Scholem, Giulio Busi, Hasidism, Jean-Pierre Brach, Johann Georg Hamann, Judaism studies, Kabbalah Center, Knorr von Rosenroth, Kocku von Stuckrad, Konstantin Burmistrov, Madonna, marco Pasi, Max Horkheimer, Menahem Mendel Schneerson, Paul Vulliaud, René Guénon, Romanticism, Sara Møldrup Thejls, Sha’ar ha-Shamayim, Shekhinah, Shoa, Theodor Adorno, Theosophical Society, tikkun, Traditionalism, Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Yehuda Ashlag, Zohar

“Fernando Pessoa and Western esotericism”, a public lecture by Marco Pasi

Curious about the relationship between modern literature and Western esotericism? On December 7, my colleague Dr. Marco Pasi will be giving a public lecture in Amsterdam, on his ongoing research into Fernando Pessoa’s intricate but little understood engagement with esotericism. Marco has been working on this for some time, and co-organised (with Jerónimo Pizarro) an international and interdisciplinary workshop on the subject earlier this year. The upcoming Amsterdam lecture is open to the public, and entirely free of charge. For an abstract and more information, see below – or download this flyer.

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on November 14, 2012 at 2:11 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: esotericism and literature, Fernando Pessoa, Jerónimo Pizarro, marco Pasi

“Varieties of Magical Experience” – a new article on Crowley, magic, and psychologisation

Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft (Penn Press)

The November issue of Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft ran an article by my colleague Marco Pasi, titled ”Varieties of Magical Experience: Aleister Crowley’s Views on Occult Practice”. It may safely be characterised as the most complete academic treatment of Crowley’s magical thought and practice that has so far been published in a peer-reviewed journal. It also ties in neatly with a discussion here at Heterodoxology and a couple of other blogs earlier this year (Tyromanteia and Invocatio), namely the question of the “psychologisation of magic”. A review is definitely in order.

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on December 26, 2011 at 7:01 pm Comments (6)
Tags: agnosticism, Aleister Crowley, Alex Owen, Holy Guardian Angel, magic and modernity, marco Pasi, psychologisation, scientific naturalism, Thomas Henry Huxley

Errata, and a lesson of caution for “culturomics”

In the previous post I shared my enthusiasm about possible applications for digital, quantitative tools for studying historical data. Focusing on how Google’s N-gram Viewer may lead to interesting findings in the field of esotericism, both in order to gauge trends in popularity or spread of a certain term (such as “esotericism” itself) in various languages, and in order to research philological matters. In the latter case, one of the preliminary results seemed much more like a breakthrough at first sight than it really appears to have been. In fact, now instead we have an illustration of a serious difficulty with this kind of research, which emphasises the necessity of the critically-minded, suspicious human scholar in the middle of all digital tools.

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on January 30, 2011 at 12:10 am Comments (3)
Tags: culturomics, digital humanities, Google, Henri Martin, Jacques Matter, Jean-Pierre Laurant, marco Pasi, n-grams, Pierre Leroux

Esotericism, Religion and Science in Toronto – report on the IAHR (part 2)

Following up the last post, here comes a report on the esotericism panels at the IAHR in Toronto, organized by Marco Pasi. As you can read about below, they go straight into a central debate in the field of esotericism studies at the moment.

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Esotericism, Religion and Science in Toronto – report on the IAHR (part 1)

As shamelessly advertised on this blog before, there were several esotericism-and-science-related things happening at this years quinquennial world congress of the International Association of the History of Religion (IAHR) in Toronto. There was a three-session panel on esotericism, organized by my colleague Marco Pasi, and a two-session panel on science, religion and the arts in the early 20th century (under the title Seduced by Science), organised by my colleague Tessel Bauduin and myself. Having had more than a week now to overcome what was only a minor jet lag after all, it is time for a short report on events.