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    • 2025-01-21
    • 18:15
    • Zoom https://fau.zoom-x.de/j/62556506187

    The 2016 presidential election in the United States saw the emergence of political magic as one modality through which voters attempted to influence the results. Both right- and left-wing groups wielded magic: the right in support of Donald J. Trump, the left as a form of resistance once he had won the election. We documented this range of responses in a special issue of the journal Nova Religio published in 2020; my article focused on the use of magic as a form of resistance by modern Pagan witches and other magical practitioners. Drawing on the work of Italian ethnologist Ernesto de Martino, I argued that Trump’s victory created a “crisis of presence” for the left which pushed them to develop a range of artistic responses, one of them being magic. In these artistic expressions, the witch emerged as a figure who could counter the destructive powers of darkness, bringing about transformation and regeneration. This lecture reprises my findings in the context of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Using both digital and in-person ethnography, and drawing on the work of Egil Asprem in the special issue cited above, I trace how the figures of the witch and the cat lady were deployed through memes and spells by a variety of left-leaning groups to create collective effervescence around Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate.


Past events

2024-12-10 Prof. William Mazzarella (University of Chicago): Advertising as Integral Magic - An Afterlife
2024-11-26 Prof. Per Faxneld (Södertorn University, Stockholm): A Touch of Zen - Spirituality in Japanese Martial Arts in Sweden
2024-02-06 CAS-E Lecture Series: The Gorilla in the Room - The Right to Practice Animal Sacrifice Amidst Growing Animal Rights Activism by Prof. Danielle Boaz (University of North Carolina)
2024-01-30 CAS-E Lecture Series: Śrīvidyā Goes West - Continuities and Transformations in Cross-Cultural Encounters by Dr. Monika Hirmer (CAS-E fellow)
2024-01-23 CAS-E Lecture Series: Islamicate Magic in the Twelfth Century - Hermetic, Islamic, and Jewish Entanglements by Dr. Liana Saif (University of Amsterdam)
2024-01-16 CAS-E Lecture Series: Hybrid Pathways to Orthodoxy - Esoteric Practices in 'Sharia Compliant‘ Exorcism by Prof. Dr. Dominik Müller (FAU, CAS-E)
2024-01-09 CAS-E Lecture Series: Translation and the Study of Esotericism by Prof. Dr. Birgit Menzel (CAS-E)
2023-12-19 CAS-E Lecture Series: Magic as Social Mediation by Dr. Jesper Sørensen (Aarhus Universitet)
2023-12-12 CAS-E Lecture Series: The Shades of Emptiness - The Alchemical Teaching of the Master Wei Yao 魏堯 by Dr. Ilia Mozias (CAS-E fellow)
2023-12-05 CAS-E Lecture Series: Identity, Body and Emotion among Yoga and Meditation Practitioners in Brazil by Dr. Cecilia Bastos (CAS-E fellow)
2023-11-28 CAS-E Lecture Series: American Idols and West African Spirits - Bewitching Superstars in New York City by Dr. Jane Parish (Keele University)
2023-11-23 CAS-E Lecture Series: The Tangki, A Spirit Medium in Chinese Temples in Kelantan. Ethnographic Perspectives by Dr. Alexander Stark and Dr. Yohan Kurniawan (Universiti Malaysia Kelantan)
2023-11-21 CAS-E Lecture Series: Chased by Blessings - The Metaphysics of the Olfactory by Dr. James Michael Edmonds (Arizona State University)
2023-11-15 The Politics of Authenticity in Esoteric Practices - CAS-E 2023 International Conference (Waischenfeld, Germany)
2023-11-14 CAS-E Lecture Series: On the Possibility of Esoteric Practices in the Amerindian Andes - The Perspective of Witches and a Ritual Song to Heal and Dance by Dr. Juan Rivera (CAS-E fellow)
2023-11-07 CAS-E Lecture Series: The Aesthetic Assemblage of Hawaiian Hula Dance - A Framework for Researching Practices in Their Embodied Dimensions and Global Perspective by Dr. Lina Aschenbrenner (CAS-E)
2023-10-31 CAS-E Lecture Series: Family Constellation Therapy in the Context of Esotericism by Dr. Julia Gyimesi (CAS-E fellow)
2023-10-24 CAS-E Lecture Series: The Transmission of Yijing Knowledge and Divination Practices in Contemporary China by Zheng Liu (CAS-E)
2023-10-17 CAS-E Lecture Series: Alternative Rationalities and the Reinvention of Tradition - Vedic Science and the Agnihotra-Fire Ritual by Prof.Dr. Andreas Nehring (FAU, CAS-E)
2023-07-18 “The Status of Esoteric Practices in Present-Day Taiwan” by Prof. Michael Lackner
2023-07-11 “Hybrid Pathways to Orthodoxy: Esoteric Practices in 'Sharia-Compliant‘ Exorcism” by Prof. Dominik Müller
2023-07-04 “Activation and Subjectivation: A Photographic Essay on Transformational Rituals that ‘Do’” by Dr. Raquel Romberg
2023-06-27 “A Case Study of Xuantong Dashu 《玄通大书》– The Great Book of Mystery: a Comprehensive Encyclopedia of the Yi Fate” by Dr. Aleksandrs Simons (IKGF)
2021-10-23 International Workshop on the study of New Age in Russia
2021-10-08 The Theosophical Movement and Globalism Interconnections, Innovations, and Comparisons
2021-09-29 2021 Meeting of ENSIE: Islam and Esotericism—Societies, Politics, and Practices
2021-05-25 Prof. Dr. Marco Pasi, University of Amsterdam ‘“Witchcraft with Capital W”: The Magical Art of Chiara Fumai’
2021-05-20 Dr. Susan Jean Palmer: Children of Chiliasm - Concepts of the “Child” in Contemporary Spiritual Movements, Questions of Identity, Symbolism and Ownership. ESSWE Online Lecture Series 2021
2021-05-18 Prof. Dr. Victoria Ferentinou (University of Ioannina): "Colours are things" - the visionary art of Frixos Aristeus
2021-05-11 Dr. Erin Yerby (Rice University): The Body as Spectral Shape: Spiritualist Mediumship and Anglo-American Iconoclasm
2021-05-04 Prof. Dr. Ehler Voss (University of Bremen): Magic Tipping Points. On Deceptions and Detections
2021-04-16 ESOGEN Symposium: Esotericism, Gender, and Sexuality
2021-03-25 Dr. Korshi Dosoo: What are the Magical Papyri? ESSWE Online Lecture Series 2021
2020-12-03 ENSIE2 “Islamic Esotericism in Global Contexts”
2020-11-03 Aesthetic and Scientific Epistemologies of the Occult in the XIX Century - lecture series
2020-09-14 Online Conference: "For There I, Hayyim, was Living: R. Hayyim Vital and His World" - An Online Conference Commemorating the 400th Anniversary of his Death (1620-2020)
2019-07-02 Call for papers: ESSWE7 - 7th Biannual Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (University of Amsterdam, 2-4 July 2019)
2017-06-01 The Sixth International ESSWE Conference: Western Esotericism and deviance
2016-10-27 Public Religions and Their Secrets, Secret Religions and Their Publics
2016-07-07 Thesis Workshop: Magical Traditions and Medieval Religions of the Book
2016-05-27 THE SECOND CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN NETWORK FOR THE ACADEMIC STUDY OF WESTERN ESOTERICISM
2016-03-24 Association For the Study of Esotericism and Mysticism, Eighth International Conference
2016-03-21 Call for Papers - Demon Things: Ancient Egyptian Manifestations of Liminal Entities
2015-11-21 Call for Papers: AAR - Western Esotericism Group
2015-10-22 Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference
2015-08-23 XXI World Congress of International Association for the History of Religions
2015-07-21 Magic and the Supernatural in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods
2015-07-10 Biennial London Chaucer Conference: Science, Magic and Technology
2015-07-06 Egyptian and Jewish Magic in Antiquity
2015-05-08 The Spirits as Artists: Spiritualism and the Visual Arts
2015-04-23 Marginal presences: unorthodox belief and practice, 1837-2014
2015-04-16 ESSWE5: Western Esotericism and the East
2015-03-19 The Marginalization of Astrology
2015-03-14 Interplay: Rethinking Music, Mathematics, and Alchemical Praxis in Michael Maier's Atalanta fugiens (1618)
2015-03-05 Magic and Intellectual History
2015-01-11 Exhibition: Rudolf Steiner - Alchemie van het alledaagse
2014-11-19 Um 1600 Konstellationen zwischen Schulmetaphysik, Konfessionalisierung und hermetischer Spekulation
2014-10-30 Art, Eros and Esotericism
2014-10-26 The Alchemist and the Royal Typographer: John Dee and Willem Sylvius
2014-10-24 SHAC Postgraduate Workshop: Geographies of Alchemy and Chemistry
2014-10-15 Latin Alchemical Literature of Czech Provenance
2014-10-09 Astrologie, divination et magie dans les cours (XIIe-XVIIe siècle)
2014-08-10 Art and Alchemy Exhibition: The Mystery of Transformation
2014-07-04 Jacob Boehme and His World
2014-07-04 Western Esotericism in Central and Eastern Europe - Over the Centuries
2014-06-28 The Marriage of Heaven and Earth: Images and Representations of the Sky in Sacred Space
2014-06-26 ‘Twice Upon a Time: Magic, Alchemy and the Transubstantiation of the Senses’
2014-06-26 New Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond
2014-06-26 Revisiting Early Modern Prophecies (c.1500-c.1815)
2014-06-08 Scripted Forms of Magic Knowledge: Grimoires in the Matrix of Western Cultures
2014-05-11 EASR14: Religion and Pluralities of Knowledge
2014-05-10 ESSWE Thesis Workshop: 'Alterations of Consciousness'
2014-04-23 Scientiae 2014: Disciplines of Knowing in the Early Modern World
2014-04-05 Art and Alchemy Exhibition: The Mystery of Transformation
2014-03-27 Tracking Hermes/Mercury
2014-03-20 Call for Papers - The Common Denominator 2014: A Postgraduate Conference in British Cultural Studies
2014-03-14 Call for Papers - Visions of Enchantment: Occultism, Spirituality & Visual Culture
2013-12-16 Theosophical Appropriations: Kabbalah, Western Esotericism and the Transformation of Traditions
2013-11-23 Call for Papers - Western Esotericism Session at the American Academy of Religion Conference 2013
2013-11-16 Call for Papers: Altered Consciousness, 1918-1980
2013-10-24 "Lived Religion" - 2013 Annual Meeting of the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion (NGG)
2013-10-23 Call for Papers - Forms and Transformations of Pythagorean Knowledge: Askēsis – Religion – Science
2013-09-25 Enchanted Modernities: Theosophy and the Arts in the Modern World
2013-08-28 Call for Papers - Occult Geographies: (im)material agents and the geographical imagination
2013-07-19 Methodische Reflexionen zum Spannungsverhältnis zwischen magischem Text und Bild
2013-06-26 ESSWE 4: Western Esotericism and Health
2013-06-22 CFP Celestial Magic: Eleventh Annual Sophia Centre Conference
2013-06-14 Call for Papers: Second Sight and Prophecy
2013-06-13 Esoteric Quest for Ancient, Arabic and Medieval Sicily
2013-06-11 Masterclass - "Satanism": Between Myth and Reality
2013-05-09 CFP - Societas Magica Sessions, International Congress of Medieval Studies
2013-05-09 CFP - Technical Communication in the Middle Ages
2013-04-22 Call for Papers: Demons and Illness - Theory and Practice from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period
2013-04-18 Call for Papers- Scientiae 2013: Disciplines of Knowing in the Early Modern World
2013-04-13 Call for Papers - SYNTHESIS: Esotericism and the Sciences Conference
2013-04-11 Call for Papers: Celestial Bodies and their Orbit in Art
2013-04-05 Text, Context, and Non-Text: Grimoires and Ritual Magic in Culture, Literature, and Art
2013-04-04 CFP Art and Healing, 1300-1700
2013-04-04 CFP The Ironies of Alchemy in Early Modern English Literature
2013-03-27 Call for Papers about Tarot for the PCA/ACA Conference
2013-03-16 In the Beginning: Sources of Alchemy and Chemistry
2013-01-30 CFP 21st-Century Science: Health, Agency and Well-Being
2012-12-03 Charming Intentions: Occultism, Magic and the History of Art
2012-11-16 CFP - Mapping the Occult City: Exploring Magick and Esotericisim in the Urban Utopia
2012-10-29 Narrative Magic: Transformations Through Story-Telling
2012-10-26 Call for Papers: Jung in the Academy and Beyond
2012-10-25 Sixteenth Century Studies Conference 2012
2012-10-15 Call for Papers - Russia and Gnosis: The Fates of the Religious-Philosophical Searches of Nikolai Novikov and his Circle
2012-10-11 Virtue Ethics and Renaissance Neoplatonism - PhD Workshop
2012-10-05 Purgatio spiritus: Banishment and Purification of the Spirits in the Sixteenth Century
2012-09-21 Exploring the Extraordinary
2012-09-07 Call for Papers - Edges of Freemasonry
2012-08-27 Call for Papers - Contemporary Esotericism
2012-08-17 Call for Papers - Capturing Witches: Histories, Stories, Images 400 years after the Lancashire Witches
2012-07-27 Literature, Science and Medicine in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods
2012-07-23 CFP - 'Magic is Might 2012': An International Academic Conference Exploring the Cultural Influences of the Harry Potter Books and Films
2012-07-14 Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition Conference 2012
2012-07-12 Call for Papers - Esoteric Traditions in the Ancient and Modern World
2012-07-06 ESSWE Magic Thesis Workshop
2012-06-30 Dee Day: A Conference exploring the World of Dr. John Dee
2012-06-23 Call for Papers - Astrology in Time and Place: Cross-Cultural Questions in the History of Astrology
2012-06-14 Association for the Study of Esotericism Fourth Annual Conference
2012-06-09 An Esoteric Quest for Ancient Alexandria: Greco-Egyptian Birthplace of the Western Mind
2012-05-23 Fernando Pessoa and the Esoteric Experience
2012-05-23 The Materiality of Magic
2012-05-21 Kabbalah and Science in Modern Jewish Culture
2012-05-18 Body, Soul, Spirits and Supernatural Communication
2012-05-06 Sixteenth Century Studies Conference 2012
2012-04-20 Call for Papers - Science and the Occult: From Antiquity to the Early Modern Period
2012-04-13 From Alchemy to Chemistry
2012-04-11 Call for Papers - Tarot at the 2012 PCA/ACA Conference
2012-04-07 Call for Papers - Perspectives in American Freemasonry and Fraternalism
2012-03-22 2nd Annual INASWE Conference
2012-03-21 Mito y Magia en Grecia y Roma
2012-03-20 Call for Papers - The 4th Israeli Conference for the Study of Contemporary Spiritualities (ISCSC)
2012-03-06 Lecture, Charles Webster, 'Paracelsus: Chemistry and Revolution'
2012-01-26 The Demonic Seminar
2011-12-02 Demons and Devils in Early Modern Europe
2011-12-02 Russian Association for the Study of Esotericism and Mysticism, Fifth International Conference
2011-11-21 ESSWE and Aries Reception at the AAR (American Academy of Religion) Conference
2011-11-05 Hermetische Harmonie
2011-10-22 XIII CMRC Conference: Freemasonry and Empire
2011-10-22 EMPHASIS: Early Modern Philosophy and the Scientific Imagination Seminar, 2011-2012
2011-10-13 Religion, Nature and Art
2011-09-22 Alchemy and Medicine from Antiquity to the Enlightenment
2011-09-15 Iconology: Neoplatonism and Art in the Renaissance
2011-07-25 Text & Image in Religious Cosmography: Reading Ilanot and Parallel Artifacts
2011-07-06 CFP ESSWE3: The Visual and the Symbolic in Western Esotericism
2011-05-12 Artificii Occulti: Knowledge and Discernment in the Artistic and Scientific Cultures of the Netherlands and the Spanish Habsburg World (16th-17th Centuries)
2011-05-06 Call for Papers - Daimonic Imagination: Uncanny Intelligence
2011-05-02 Knowledge to die for: Transmission of Prohibited and Esoteric Knowledge through Space and Time
2010-12-09 Call for Papers: Between Light and Darkness - International Symposium on Fin-de-siècle Symbolism
2010-10-09 Séminaire du GREMME: Programme 2010-2011
2010-05-05 ESSWE Thesis Workshop - Alchemy: Between Science and Religion
2010-05-01 The Rosicrucian Conference 2010: The Rosicrucian Tradition, Past, Present & Future
2010-04-29 Call for Papers: Science and Magic - Ways of Knowing in the Renaissance (Graduate Conference)
2010-04-27 Call for Papers: The Secret and the Manifest
2010-04-07 The Esoteric Crossroads: Intercultural Patterns in Early Modern Esotericism
2010-03-18 Hidden in Plain Sight: The Influence of Western Esoteric Movements on Modern Thought
2010-02-10 Call for Papers: Alchemy, Hermeticism, and Islamic and Jewish Mysticism Around the Time of Chrétien de Troyes
2010-01-19 Call for Papers 2: IAHR Quinquennial World Congress, "Religion: A Human Phenomenon" (Toronto)
2010-01-06 Call for Papers: IAHR Quinquennial World Congress, "Religion: A Human Phenomenon" (Toronto)
2009-10-30 Conference "Alternative Spiritualities, the New Age and New Religious Movements in Ireland"
2009-10-18 The 6th International Conference on "The Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena"
2009-09-14 Esotericism Panel at EASR Conference Messina (Italy)
2009-07-23 Conference "Religion, Nature, and Progress"
2009-07-10 Conference "Konversion und Transformation des Wissens: Interreligiöser Austausch im vormodernen Europa"
2009-07-02 Second International Conference of the ESSWE in Strasburg
2009-05-22 Astrology: Magic, Divination and Destiny
2009-03-18 Conference "Unbegreifliche Zeiten: Wunder im 20. Jahrhundert"
2009-03-13 Conference: The Threat and Allure of the Magical in Literature, Language, Philosophy, History and the Arts
2008-11-13 Conference "From Ma'ashallah to Kepler"
2008-10-31 Annual Meeting of the AAR with sessions on Western Esotericism
2008-09-07 ESSWE at the EASR
2008-08-15 Third Annual Alternative Expressions of the Numinous Conference
2008-07-02 Conference "Trance-Medien und Neue Medien um 1900"
2008-05-31 Research Symposium for Postgraduate Students at the University of Kent
2008-05-29 ASE Third International Conference: "Nature, Religion, and Esotericism"
2008-04-14 Conference "Music and Esotericism"
2008-03-25 Workshop on "Emblems, Magic, and Hidden Knowledge"
2008-02-06 Conference on "Imagining Outer Space, 1900-2000"
2008-01-17 Second major international meeting of the ISSRNC: “The Re-Enchantment of Nature across Disciplines: Critical Intersections of Science, Ethics, and Metaphysics”
2007-11-18 Annual Meeting of the AAR with sessions on Western Esotericism
2007-11-03 Conference "Visions of Utopia: Masonic, Religious and Esoteric"
2007-10-29 Conference "Forms and Currents of Western Esotericism"
2007-10-05 Conference on 'Divination and Dialogue'
2007-09-15 Conference "An Esoteric Quest for The Golden Age of Andalusia"
2007-08-15 Conference "Western Esotericism" in Åbo, Finland
2007-07-20 Inaugural Conference of the ESSWE on "Constructing Tradition: Means and Myths of Transmission in Western Esotericism"
2007-07-13 Conference "Naturmagie und Deutungskunst"
2007-07-04 Conference "Kabbalah and Modernity"
2007-06-07 CESNUR Conference on "Globalization, Immigration, and Change in Religious Movements"
2007-05-25 International Conference on the History of Freemasonry
2007-03-11 Conference on "The Occult in 20th Century Russia"
2006-11-18 Annual Meeting of the AAR with sessions on Western Esotericism
2006-09-28 Conference "Die Enzyklopädik der Esoterik: Allwissenheitsmythen und universalwissenschaftliche Modelle in der Esoterik der Neuzeit"
2006-09-28 Conference "Symbolism in 18th-Century Gardens"
2006-09-20 The 6th EASR Conference/IAHR Special Conference: "Religious History of Europe and Asia"
2006-09-08 Conference "Astrology and the Body, 1100-1800"
2006-08-31 Conference "An Esoteric Quest in Central Europe: From Renaissance Bohemia to Goethe's Weimar"
2006-08-18 Conference "Alternative Expressions of the Numinous"
2006-07-03 Kabbalah Seminar in Jerusalem
2006-06-08 ASE conference: Esotericism, Art, and Imagination
2006-05-29 David Pingree Memorial Seminar: Empires and Exact Sciences in Pre-Modern Eurasia
2006-04-28 Conference on Astrology and Divination: Seeing With Different Eyes
2006-04-21 Conference "Witchcraft and Masculinities in the Early Modern World"
2006-04-06 Conference "Exploring Religion, Nature, and Culture"
2006-03-15 Conference "Esoterik in der Aufklärung: Rezeption - Integration - Konfrontation"
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