Isabelle Gerretsen writes for the BBC: At the start of the Odyssey, the epic poem’s war-weary protagonist finds himself trapped on a remote island by the goddess Calypso. She promises Odysseus immortality and eternal youth if he chooses to stay with her. But after 10 years of waging war against the Trojans alongside other Greek heroes, Odysseus … Read more“For 1,000 years, a cult worshipped the hero of the Odyssey”
In Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s The Egypt Game (1967), a group of children transforms a hidden yard into an improvised sacred world inspired by ancient Egypt. They invent names, costumes, gods, ceremonies, initiations, sacrifices, funerary rites and an oracle, gradually developing a shared mythology that feels consequential without requiring literal belief. As an example of cultpunk … Read moreThe Egypt Game
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.
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”
The inimitable M. Dudeck on This Podcast is a Ritual, discussing Xenotheology and the intimate relationships between imagination and spirituality.
Nyx Shadowhawk writes on the deeply playful “religion” of Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s award-winning children’s novel, The Egypt Game: Part of what’s appealing about The Egypt Game is that its characters have a fantastical secret double life, but the story doesn’t involve any actual magic. The gods don’t start actually talking to them, there’s no Egyptian … Read more“Playful Rites: Revisiting The Egypt Game”
“First three months were great. Waking up in Paradise.”
Trailer for this upcoming documentary on one of the High Priests of psychedelic counterculture. The producers are aiming for a late 2028 release and are crowdfunding to cover their completion costs.
According to The Church of Ambrosia: We are not a church built around a set of rules you must accept or a God you must name. We are a church built around direct experience. The Church of Ambrosia exists for people who believe that the most direct path to spiritual understanding runs through the body, … Read moreThe Church of Ambrosia