Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Seeing Is Believing: Observing Trans Spirituality Through The Smith-Waite Tarot, Phoebe Santalla

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

In 1909 the Rider Company published the Smith-Waite Tarot deck which featured 78 illustrated cards by Pamela Colman Smith. With heavy use of appropriated and ambiguous symbology, the Smith-Waite deck became a meditation tool for realizing alternative realities. By observing the history of the deck, analyzing Smith’s approach to illustration, and retracing the counterculture occult explosion in the 1970s, this essay argues that the Smith-Waite deck is an object the reflects the queered body and self. The modern, trans-contentious, Western political climate creates an environment that obscures the fact that transgender people exist beyond the medicalization of their bodies. To …

Blake’S Green Symbols Of Humanity, Society, And Spirituality, Angela J. Heagy

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

William Blake is an exemplar of Romantic poetry characterized by depictions of the occult, the divine, and human nature. Despite Blake’s reputation as a Romantic poet, many critics claim that there is not sufficient evidence to consider him a nature writer. As a result, Blake’s name is frequently omitted from ecological discussions; some scholars go so far as to claim that Blake’s poetry demonstrates a disregard for nature altogether. This article argues that an eco-critical analysis of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience reveals nature to be Blake’s continual source of inspiration. Within this collection, nature represents the struggles …

Enchanted South Tarot: A Contemporary Interpretation Of Tarot, Hannah Mathis

Theses

This project uses qualitative research to create an original 78-card tarot deck. Its focus is to create a tarot deck informed by the rich history and symbolism of tarot while utilizing original art and unique experiences to create a one-of-a-kind deck. The deck’s artwork showcases flora, fauna, and manufactured objects of the Southeastern United States, referencing traditional tarot archetypes to select each card’s imagery. The deck’s guidebook introduces readers to some of the history of tarot and several historical and contemporary decks that inspired the Enchanted South deck. The project emphasizes tarot’s evolution and how each artist’s contribution adds layers …

Remedios Varo: Inspirations And Creative Strategies, Margaret Colbert

Theses and Dissertations

Remedios Varo is best known for the narrative, if enigmatic and symbol-laden, paintings she produced while living in Mexico from 1941 to 1963. This thesis argues that Varo’s key creative strategy was to mine and mimic the subject matter and motifs of other artists—Hieronymus Bosch and Leonora Carrington – as well as the visual culture related to the occult and other esoteric practices that she found in published sources, specifically by Carl Jung and Kurt Seligmann.

Manifesting Magic: Occultism And Feminism In The Art Of Leonora Carrington And Remedios Varo, Margaret Dirschl

MA Theses

The artworks of Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo are replete with
symbolism and evocations of the occult, formulating bodies of work that are charged with magic and mysticism. When studied within the context of their male contemporaries of the Surrealist group, it becomes apparent that this use of the occult operates as a compelling and historically based feminist strategy. Immediately stemming from the occult revival of the previous century and the issues for females presented by Surrealism, the foundations of this idea originate much earlier in the pagan traditions of antiquity and the witch hunts of the 15th through 18th …

How Poetry Saved Nostradamus From The Pope, Alexis Julander

Fall Student Research Symposium 2022

I came across the work of Nostradamus as part of a curatorial team working with books housed in special collections. Instantly, I was intrigued by the background of the man who's most enduring work is an attempt to calculate the events of the future based off the mathematics of astrology. Nostradamus was a doctor and astrologist living in France from 1503 to 1566. He wrote his first prophesies in 1550 after a visit to Italy sparked his interest in the occult. In order to keep his predictions from seeming to close to biblical prophecies, they were written using poetic forms.

Occult Conceptualism, Olivia Shao

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores and defines the term “Occult Conceptualism.” The term questions past models for Conceptual Art, in particular those rooted in Benjamin H. D. Buchloh’s 1990 text, “Conceptual Art 1962–1969: From the Aesthetic of Administration to the Critique of Institutions,” and Joseph Kosuth’s safeguarding of Conceptual Art in part two of his text “Art after Philosophy,” in which a number of artists (John Baldessari, Douglas Huebler, amongst others) are excluded from his canon. Arguing for a new approach to certain strains of conceptualism, this paper refutes the perspective that the conceptual movement was grounded only in theoretical and rationalist …

Digital Occult Library, Alexis Brandkamp

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project is a website, titled Digital Occult Library, hosted by the CUNY Commons and built with WordPress. The site address is:

digitaloccultlibrary.commons.gc.cuny.edu

It features (in this iteration) twenty-five unique pages with information on and discussion of occult and esoteric topics. It also hosts a forum that can be accessed and utilized by anyone, not just those registered on the Commons. The purpose of the site is to inform three types of interested parties on the highlighted topics: a general audience with no current knowledge of the occult, practitioners of esoteric traditions, and academics. Not only is the …

Burning, Nicolas Cooper

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Burning is a book of poetry about occult magic, the Catholic eye, the mind jewel, and the color of my skin under the summer sun. It is about my meditations in the shade under desert trees and the visions I had there about access, love, and social class. Burning is the flaming desire inside of me for success and recognition, and yet at the same time homage to the Zen Buddhist precepts of non-attachment and acceptance. It is my thirsting for the lost américa's touch somewhere between endless sands and yellow-painted concrete, about my parallel aspirations for poetic duende and …

Giving Voice To The Extra-Normal Self With The Extra-Normal Voice: Improvised Exploration Through The Realms Of Shamanic Chaos Magick, Insight Meditation And Gender Performance, Sage Harlow

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis documents practice-led research exploring the intersections of, and tensions between, improvised invocation ritual within a chaos magick paradigm and Buddhist insight meditation. I explore the extra-normal self—those aspects of consciousness not usually present, or not usually accessible, in day-to-day life—by mean of improvised ritual work with the extra-normal voice and seek to maintain a Buddhist ‘witness’ consciousness throughout these explorations. I also explore the tensions between politics, aesthetics and spiritual practice; in particular, queer and trans politics, a timbre-centred vocal aesthetics and chaos magick, shamanic and Buddhist spiritual practices. This work constitutes part of a larger project of …

The Ethics Of Occultic Communication: An Invocation Of Joshua Gunn And Sissela Bok, James Thomas Begley Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Occultic rhetoric, according to Joshua Gunn, is a genre of discourse concerned with the study and practice of secret communications. The strategic sharing of secret messages involves a host of methods and conventions designed for the selective disclosure of hidden knowledge, thus controlling the boundaries of (and accessibility to power between) insider and outsider groups. Occultic rhetoric has its uses in everyday encounters, but the abuse of such manipulative strategies, especially by those in the academy and other positions of power and trust, calls for an ethical response. This dissertation submits occultic rhetoric to moral investigation by incorporating the works …

Enchantment: A Teleology, Nathanael S. Toth

Senior Honors Theses

Despite the highly developed nature of his fictional world, Middle-earth, Tolkien never formally laid out a tabulated magic system for his fantasy creation. Nevertheless, unlike many stories by others in the fantasy genre, the magic he does include is far from just a shallow, world-building mechanism. Instead, it encapsulates the core theme of his fiction and the purposes which Ilúvatar (the God of Middle-earth) has given to the story’s many characters.

This paper will examine the nature and function of this magic from many angles: the identification of good magic with art and evil magic with domination; the delineation between …

Transcending The Panels: Varieties Of Experience And Selfhood In Comics., Will D. Simpson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I argue that the typical formal features of American comics over the past century have influenced the types of narrative content that tend to be communicated by said medium. I argue that the types of reader experiences that are afforded by the comics form, in part, shape the types of stories told through comics. The experiences that result from the ways we engage perceptually, cognitively, emotionally, and conceptually with comics imply a certain view of selfhood that is potentially subversive in the context of American cultural religiosity and spirituality. The formal features of comics, and the resulting …

The Gods Have Taken Thought For Them: Syncretic Animal Symbolism In Medieval European Magic, Solange Nicole Kiehlbauch

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates syncretic animal symbolism within medieval European occult systems. The major question that this work seeks to answer is: what does the ubiquity and importance of magical animals and animal magic reveal about overarching medieval perceptions of the world? In response, I utilize the emerging subfield of Animal History as a theoretical framework to draw attention to an understudied yet highly relevant aspect of occult theory and practice. This work argues that medieval Europeans lived in a fundamentally “enchanted” world compared to our modern age, where the permeable boundaries between physical and spiritual planes imbued nature and its …

Seeing Witchcraft, Bernhard Udelhoven

Journal of Global Catholicism

When Christians in Zambia struggle with witchcraft, they also struggle with African cultural and religious concepts that deal with life’s ambiguities and that require discernment. It is not by working against the cultural and religious heritage, but by working with it, as far as possible, that the pastor can identify the broken relationships towards which many witchcraft discourses point. However, before we place the concepts of witchcraft into the realm of superstition (as are the trends of mission Christianity) or the demonic (as are the trends of charismatic Christianity), the Church has the duty to look at the concepts, stay …

The Devil Of The Missionary Church: The White Fathers And Catholic Evangelization In Zambia, Bernhard Udelhoven

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article examines how Western Catholic missionaries in Zambia dealt with claims of witchcraft and Satanism. Within an analytic frame that draws upon cultural history, theology, and anthropology the article also considers how African Christians appropriated missionary notions of the devil.

Midheaven, Samantha R. Noseworthy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dossier and accompanying exhibition at McIntosh Gallery, both titled Midheaven, constitutes my Master of Fine Arts Degree at the University of Western Ontario. Within this dossier I reflect upon what guides my art practice. This includes various historical influences, such as artist and writer Carolee Schneemann, philosopher Manly Palmer Hall, and the astrologer Stephanie Clement. In addition to the inclusion of anecdotes from my own life, within my thesis I analyze various occult concepts and practices, particularly tarot and astrology. I consider these understandings to be a direct window into the thought processes that drive my art practice. …

An Expression Of Spirituality: Clothing, Skin, And Bodies In Xul Solar’S Early Figure Paintings (1915-1926), Erin Teeple

Theses and Dissertations

The Argentinian artist Xul Solar traveled Europe from 1912-1924, where he devoured knowledge from numerous sources, infusing his artwork with his personal spiritual beliefs along the way. An examination of the materiality of the subject matter, such as the clothing and figuration of the characters, in these early works allows for a deeper understanding of the development and meaning of the artist’s vision.

The Magic Of Yeats' "The Lake Isle Of Innisfree": Kabbalism, Numerology, And Tarot Cards, Genevieve Pettijohn

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Yeats’ poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” contains occult symbols derived from Kabbalism, numerology, and tarot cards. Although the poem was published near the beginning of Yeats’ induction into Hermetic Society of the Golden Dawn, “Innisfree” demonstrates the magical prowess requisite to advance in the Society and thus further Yeats' ability to practice magic, for which he had an alleged natural ability. I assert that an understanding of Kabbalism, numerology, and tarot cards is essential not only in decoding the meanings behind “Innisfree” but in gauging Yeats’ own understanding of the Second Order of the Golden Dawn, which he was …

Witchcraft, The Occult, And The Church, Bruce Bauer

Andrews University Seminary Student Journal

This paper suggests that fear, unwillingness to talk about witchcraft issues, ignorance concerning the protecting power of God, embrace of a powerless Christianity, a weak grounding in the Word of God and several other factors and conditions have permitted witchcraft and occult practices to exist among members in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Several practical steps are then listed that can be taken to reduce such practices.

Hex Workers: African American Women, Hoodoo, And Power In The Nineteenth- And Early Twentieth-Century U.S., Ann Kordas

The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs

No abstract provided.

The Memetic Evolution Of Alchemy From Zosimos To Timothy Leary, Ryan J. Hutchinson

History Undergraduate Theses

The subject of alchemy is often only relegated to a footnote of the history of modern chemistry. When framed as a discussion of the history of ideas and mankind attempting to understand their position in the universe, the language of alchemy is seen present in the writings of ancient Greece to 20th century counterculture. But how did this obscure art survive such a long journey over time and space? This paper explores alchemy as a meme (as defined by Richard Dawkins) that changed over time to fit the needs of its proponents. We find that the ideas in alchemy had …

Old Gods In New Clothes: The French Revolutionary Cults And The "Rebirth Of The Golden Age", Jennifer Boyet

Masters Theses

The French Revolution's state cults were possible because of French intellectuals' preference for pre-Christian Greco-Roman civilization, as well as France's history of heterodoxy. The philosophes endorsed ancient Greco-Roman civilization as embodying mankind's ideal and more "natural" state; French revolutionary leaders avidly read these ideas of the Enlightenment philosophers. This Enlightenment Classicalism influenced the designers of the French state religions to mirror Greco-Roman paganism in the new regime's festivals and iconography. The French people's fascination with the Occult further created the cultural and intellectual climate for the creation and acceptance of these new religions of the dechristianized republic. Under this worldview, …

Twa: A Masque, Jacqueline Kari

LSU Master's Theses

Twa: A Masque is a collection of poems arranged in five impossible plays, subsumed under one general dramatic architecture. The work plays with the tradition of balladic variation, locating in the violence and strangeness of murder ballads and other aspects of the folk base an opportunity to explore themes of gender, identity, and trauma, and to expand the performative potential for non-linear narrative voices inside narrative poetry. This project re-versions archetypal characters and storylines and synthesizes multiple registers of language against the backdrop of a necropastoral fantasyland. Twa: A Masque doubles and mis-takes poetry for theater, archaism for neologism, and …

L’Empreinte Du Renard De Moussa Konaté Et Les Transformations Africaines Du Polar, Alexie Tcheuyap

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Within sub-Saharan Africa, Moussa Konaté is undoubtedly the contemporary writer dedicated to producing the most original crime fiction. In L’empreinte du renard, he offers a fundamental subversion of the genre that breaks with conventional thought on crime narratives. Moreover, the subversion of the canon accompanies a subversion of political structures by which the end of the story accompanies the end of the postcolonial state as it is known, and often caricatured: the State of corruption. As a result, such intrigue also becomes that of governmentability.

Dangerous Instincts, Kirsten Holt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dangerous Instincts is a collection of poems unified thematically by recurring and interstitial questions of the wilderness, the natural sciences - particularly astrophysics - the occult, and the mythic universe. These poems explore the mystical implications of the natural world and its meaning in the aesthetic consciousness, particularly in a highly secular century. Implied is the poet’s selfdiscovery and search for the divine. The collection emerges, not simply as interpretation, but a means of coming to terms with the fear of and compulsion to question the universe, and through those questions find illumination in the ordinariness of lived life and …

Supernatural Experiences (Fa 74), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scans of two out of thirteen papers (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 74. [Supernatural Experiences] Project completed by Western Kentucky University students for a folk studies class taught by Lynwood Montell. Collection focuses on short supernatural events experienced by informants. Subjects include dreams, ghosts, Ouija boards, sleepovers, church experiences and others.

Religion As Aesthetic Creation: Ritual And Belief In William Butler Yeats And Aleister Crowley, Amy M. Clanton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

William Butler Yeats and Aleister Crowley created literary works intending them to comprise religious systems, thus negotiating the often-conflicting roles of religion and modern art and literature. Both men credited Percy Bysshe Shelley as a major influence, and Shelley's ideas of art as religion may have shaped their pursuit to create working religions from their art. This study analyzes the beliefs, prophetic practices, myths, rituals, and invocations found in their literature, focusing particularly on Yeats's Supernatural Songs, Celtic Mysteries, and Island of Statues, and Crowley's "Philosopher's Progress," "Garden of Janus," Rites of Eleusis, and "Hymn to Pan." While anthropological definitions …

Letter From Dr. Spengler To Wolfram Sievers, December 3, 1941, Wilhelm Spengler

Dowsing Research

In a letter to Obersturmbannführer Sievers, Dr. Spengler notes that dowsing rod researchers/users were not targeted in action taken against occult groups, but some may have been arrested if they were active in other occult activities. The letter states that the head of the security police and the SD want to meet with these groups to discuss scientific problems related to the occult. It was not expected that research of dowsing rods would be included in the planned work.

Letter From Reinhard Heydrich To Heinrich Himmler, March 29, 1941, Reinhard Heydrich

Dowsing Research

In this letter from Reinhard Heydrich to Heinrich Himmler, Heydrich summarizes the books confiscated from the publisher J. Huber and lists his recommendations based on the petition by the Reich Association for Dowsing and the assessment conducted by Josef Wimmer. The document includes notes on the side in response to the recommendations. It is also noted the Dr. Lutz of the Propaganda Ministry does not need to be involved in these discussions as a middleman.