Possession Ritual
Polish/West German DJ and conceptual performance artist Jemek Jemowit is possessed by American Satanist Jex Blackmore in this 2022 ritual piece.
Aesthetics
The Atomic Priesthood Project
The Atomic Priesthood Project was initiated in the early 1980s as a collaboration between semiotician Thomas Sebeok and nuclear physicist Alvin Weinberg. The Project is: (…) an ongoing multidisciplinary project illustrating the relationship(s) between humans and deep time through the culture of nuclear waste stewardship. The Atomic Priesthood was a proposed system of communicating the … Read moreThe Atomic Priesthood Project
“This is not black magic”: the Voodoo renaissance in New Orleans
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.
ManWoman and Church Punk
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
“Solarpunk humanism: How we dream bigger than despair”
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”
The Sky Meadow Mystery School, Harvest 2024 in a few words and many images
Taking place during late August of 2024, the inaugural Sky Meadow Mystery School was a free, week-long, residential immersion into wholesome permaculture practice and the mythopoetic mysteries of Life and Death. As an experiment in countercultural community-building, the Mystery School was also a time and place to learn new skills and perspectives. One of our … Read moreThe Sky Meadow Mystery School, Harvest 2024 in a few words and many images
“Devotional Arts” with Swan Frayne-Dao
Brendan Graham Dempsey of the Sky Meadow Institute interviews Swan Frayne-Dao, director of the Institute of Devotional Arts. The Institute plans to hold its first American gathering at the Sky Meadow Retreat Center in July.
The Spring 2024 Metamodern Spirituality Lab at Sky Meadow
I’ve recently returned from Sky Meadow, a soulful home-away-from-home retreat center deep in Vermont’s magical Northeast Kingdom. The Spring ’24 retreat was part of an ongoing series conceived and hosted by Brendan Graham Dempsey and Layman Pascal (whose own reflection upon the event is available here). The theme for this season was “God” (or perhaps … Read moreThe Spring 2024 Metamodern Spirituality Lab at Sky Meadow
The Institute of Devotional Arts
A trailer for a 2023 retreat with the Institute of Devotional Arts, whose manifesto reads: We believe we are both actors and spectators of the divine comedy we call life. As spectators, we cultivate our sense of wonder and reverence. As actors, we find ever new ways to give expression to the human experience. Devotion … Read moreThe Institute of Devotional Arts
Thanksgiving/Day of the Dead in Cicely, Alaska (Northern Exposure, 1992)
The good people of Cicely, Alaska enjoy their eccentric, Day of the Dead-inflected version of Thanksgiving in this scene from Northern Exposure (1992). As explained by Marilyn Whirlwind (Elaine Miles), the indigenous people of Cicely do not regard the orthodox Thanksgiving as a day of celebration. In fact, they carry a lot of ancestral anger … Read moreThanksgiving/Day of the Dead in Cicely, Alaska (Northern Exposure, 1992)