We are Cultpunks. We affirm that belief systems, rituals, symbols, pilgrimages, tenets, holy days, shrines, festivals, taboos, mythologies and pantheons can and should be created as works of art. If so, then surely any sufficiently advanced magic is likewise indistinguishable from technology, and religions may usefully be considered as psychological technologies. Just like any other tech, … Read moreRead this first: “A Cultpunk Manifesto”
The Chapel of Awe is an abbey for earnest contemplation, meditation, and communal brother-/sisterhood before the holy Mystery of existence: (…) The daily itinerary will be sparse but not ascetic, structured but not strictly regimented, serene but not silent. Beginning with a meditation sit at 9 am, each day will be devoted to reading, contemplation, … Read moreThe Chapel of Awe: A Temporary Monastic Container (December 6-14 at Sky Meadow Retreat)
Voodoo priestess Manbo Jessyka and high priestess Eshé introduce the practice as a way of life and as a means of connecting to ancestors through everyday rituals and spiritual reflection.
A re-cut of the “Meanwhile City” storyline from the 2008 movie Franklyn, in which private investigator/masked vigilante Jonathan Preest – the only atheist in a fantastical metropolis of bizarre religions – pursues a vendetta against a shadowy cult leader known as “the Individual”.
As niche and subversive a notion as CultPunk may be, it has some fairly recent cultural progenitors, if you look hard enough. One was the “Church Punk” aesthetic of the Canadian visionary artist and poet ManWoman, who sought to reclaim the ancient emblem of the sun wheel/swastika from association with Nazi atrocity and who wrote, … Read moreManWoman and Church Punk
A short documentary on two rural sanctuaries that are part of the Radical Fairie movement.
In Sound of My Voice, amateur documentarists Peter (Christopher Denham) and Lorna (Nicole Vicius) go undercover to investigate a secretive cult led by the enigmatic Maggie (Britt Marling, who also co-wrote the story), who claims to have traveled back in time from the year 2054. According to co-writer/director Zal Batmanglij: We were interested in fringe … Read more“The Sound of My Voice” (2012)
A simplified history of English Wicca as the life’s work of Gerald Gardner, gamely hosted in classic edutainment style by Professor Ronald Hutton.
M.L Clark writes for OnlySky: One unspoken tenet of anti-theist discourse is that we are limited by the religious stories at the core of our culture. For that slice of the nonreligious spectrum, it’s not enough not to believe, personally, in a god. The nature of religion poses a narrative problem that anti-theists feel must … Read more“Solarpunk humanism: How we dream bigger than despair”
Host Aviv Shahar of the Portals podcast interviews Layman Pascal and Brendan Graham Dempsey, organizers of the Metamodern Spirituality Labs at Brendan’s Sky Meadow Retreat in Vermont. My own memoir of attending the Spring 2024 Lab is available here.