Aesthetics
“The Witch of Kings Cross” (2021)
Recommended to anyone with an interest in recent Pagan/countercultural history, this suitably artistic documentary delves into the radical life, art and legacy of Rosaleen Norton, known in her heyday as the Witch of Kings Cross. The extraordinarily conservative climate of 1950s Australia was unable to perceive Norton’s lifeworks, which included the ritual veneration of Pan, … Read more“The Witch of Kings Cross” (2021)
In Memoriam: Steve Aydt (1963-2026)
Sad to learn of the recent passing of Steve Aydt, a longtime fixture, mover and shaker in the Texan counterculture scene and founder of the Eulessyinian Hot Tub Mystery Religion. I interviewed Steve on that subject in late 2024, and that interview is part of the second volume of the anthology Poetic Faiths: New Religions … Read moreIn Memoriam: Steve Aydt (1963-2026)
Sky Meadow 2026
Just returned from our much-anticipated, at-least-annual visit to the Sky Meadow Retreat in Vermont’s Northeastern Kingdom mountains. The Sky Meadow property was first developed as a working farm in the 1850s, later became derelict, was rehabilitated and transformed into a spiritual/nature retreat in the 1980s and sustains a more recent ambition to serve as the … Read moreSky Meadow 2026
“Xenotheology and Personal Myth with [M] Dudeck and Javi Acevedo”
Coincident with the recent Metamodern Meaning Lab at Sky Meadow, Brendan Graham Dempsey interviewed [M] Dudeck and Javi Acevedo on their upcoming book Xenotheology: The Transmedial Scriptures and on the practice of creating one’s own religion as a work of art.
“Why raves are such a reliable source of spiritual experience”
Alexander Dillabaugh writes on the spiritual neuroscience of the rave scene: For these adherents, underground dance culture functions as a kind of spiritual technology. That is, a set of environmental and social conditions that reliably produce the kinds of experiences that humans have long called sacred. Viewed through this lens, rave culture appears less like a … Read more“Why raves are such a reliable source of spiritual experience”
“How to Imagine the Future”
The inimitable M. Dudeck on This Podcast is a Ritual, discussing Xenotheology and the intimate relationships between imagination and spirituality.
“Embrace the edge!”
Charles Foster writes for Aeon on the subject of edginess: The cosmos is an edgy place. We are on the far edge of a rapidly expanding Universe, hurtling into nothing. Earth is now further away than it was when you began to read this sentence, from the place where, at the time of the Big … Read more“Embrace the edge!”