Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic at ONLINE VIRTUAL Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Summer Salon, June 26-28, 2025 (SWPACA 2025)
Online
Organization: Southwest Popular/American Culture Association
Event: SWPACA 2025
Call for Papers
ESOTERICISM, OCCULTISM, AND MAGIC
Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)
2025 SWPACA Summer Salon
June 26-28, 2024
Virtual Conference
https://swpaca.org/
Submissions open on March 25, 2025
Proposal submission deadline: April 15, 2025
Proposals for papers are now being accepted for the SWPACA Summer Salon. SWPACA offers nearly 70 subject areas in a variety of categories encompassing the following: Film, Television, Music, & Visual Media; Historic & Contemporary Cultures; Identities & Cultures; Language & Literature; Science Fiction & Fantasy; and Pedagogy & Popular Culture. For a full list of subject areas, area descriptions, and Area Chairs, please visit https://swpaca.org/subject-areas/
Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic invites proposals relating to magical worldviews, practices, and representations, as well as consciousness transformation, the preternatural, hidden meanings, the power of transmutation, and related phenomena. Characteristic methods, beliefs, perspectives, paradigms and techniques include: arcane symbolism, imagery, and aesthetics; unseen forces, spiritual intermediaries, and invisible agencies; synchronous patterns, non-ordinary causation, and anomalous processes. Examples of ideas and systems include Hermeticism, Gnosticism, Sufism, Tantra, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, Satanism, witchcraft, sorcery, demonology, astrology, alchemy, yoga, shamanism, parapsychology, as well as psychic and paranormal phenomena, along with beliefs and practices relating to altered states of consciousness, overlapping with the study of mysticism and New Age spirituality, channeling, positive thinking, manifestation, reality shifting, the power of intention, numerology, guardian angels, and Ascended Masters. Esoteric, occult, and magical concepts, beliefs, and practices appear in every culture and civilization; contemporary media and popular culture have embraced them enthusiastically, yet at times have reacted against them. The impact of esotericism, occultism, and magic on genre formation/content and popular cultural perceptions has been profound.
Special themes and topics of interest proposed for the Summer Salon 2025: Normalization, mainstreaming, and/or politicization of EOM; memes, propaganda, infohazards; totalitarianism ideology, and EOM; magical systems, practices and/or their representation in, or use through, speculative fiction; hypothetical syncretisms; fictional paradigms; EOM and conceptions of alternate, alternative, parallel, and/or mirror universes, as well as concepts of the “multiverse” and/or “omniverse”; reality-selection, timeline-selection, time-travel, “chronomancy”; cosmotechnics, technodiversity; protoscience and pseudoscience; magical machinery; materialistic magic; the elements; ecomagic; EOM and “bugs”, parasites, virii, diseases, symbiotes, replicants; magical disgust and revulsion; carnality and embodiment; the familiar; EOM and post-humanism; extremes and extremism; magic and the trickster; concepts of evil and “maleficia”; EOM and concepts of virtue, value, ethics, and economics; EOM and indigenous and/or aboriginal worldviews; EOM in “space”; EOM and dread; cryptids; EOM and paranoia.
Sample Ideas for topics categorized by media:
Literature: Fiction by practitioners, such as Philip K. Dick, William S. Burroughs, C. S. Friedman. Books by practitioners (for example, Evola, Gurdjieff, Crowley, Anton LaVey, Gerald Gardner, Peter Carroll, Edgar Cayce). Influences and themes in magical realism, speculative fiction, gothic fiction, weird fiction, historical fiction, urban fantasy, paranormal romance and adventure. Fiction influential on practitioners, such as Zanoni, Goethe’s Faust, The Illuminatus! Trilogy. the Elric saga. Historical representations of magicians, witches, and wizards, including stylized and mythic figures (Merlin, Morgan La Fey, Circe, Medea, Kostchie the Deathless, etc.), in genre fiction (contemporary Arthurian adaptations) or modernizations (Neil Gaiman, Tim Powers, Jim Butcher, Susanna Clarke), indigenous futurism and fantasy (Octavia Butler, Rebecca Roanhorse, N. K. Jemisin), popular conceptions of magic influenced by specific representations pervasive through particular media (“Vancian” magic from Jack Vance’s Dying Earth series as popularized through Dungeons and Dragons, the ubiquity of quantitarian conceptions of “mana” as represented in video games, frequent depictions as cues in visual media of physical side-effects and fatigue due to the use of magic and psi, the association of meditation with the recovery of expended magical power in various media of gaming), New Age and/or popular manifestation guides, such as The Secret. Conspiracist and/or extra-terrestrial cosmologies related to esoteric concepts (David Icke, the Seth transmissions to Jane Roberts, the Michael channelings, etc.), representations of esoteric, occult, and/or Gnostic myth and countermyth (Kushiel’s Universe of Jacqueline Carey, His Dark Materials of Philip Pullman)
Visual Art: Examples: Hilma af Klint, Wassily Kandinsky, Austin Spare, Rosaleen Norton, Michael Bertiaux.
Film: Content as in The Conjuring series, A Cursed Man, The Occult, Spell, Tarot, Dagr, Late Night with the Devil, The First Omen, The Exorcism, Exhuma, Suspiria, In the Lost Lands, Babylon 5: The Road Home, Malum, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham, It Lives Inside, Nefarious, Hellraiser, The Color Out of Space, The Witch, Hereditary, Midsommar, Apostle, The Endless, A Dark Song, Kill List, Drag Me To Hell, The Skeleton Key, The Serpent and the Rainbow, The Ninth Gate, The Wicker Man; Gnostic allegories such as The Matrix, Dark City, The Truman Show; explorations of consciousness such as eXistenZ, Altered States, 2001 Space Odyssey, Dune; representations of occult aesthetic, such as Eyes Wide Shut, occult conspiracy, such as Starry Eyes, traumatic initiation, such as the Saw series, immersive fiction as initiation, such as The Game; stylized depictions of magicians, wizards, and witches (Dr. Strange, Shazam, Maleficent, Oz, Warlock, Balthazar Blake of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Thulsa Doom of Conan, Jafar of Aladdin) ; esoteric/occult films such those by Kenneth Anger and Alejandro Jodorowsky; pseudo- and crypto-history in fiction (Assassin’s Creed, Tomb Raider, National Treasure); New Age documentaries, such as The Secret; conspiracist receptions of esoteric and occult history, such as Zeitgeist.
Television: Theme and/or content examples Occult Squad, Severance, Evil, Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale, Mayfair Witches, A Discovery of Witches, True Detective (season one and season four), House of Usher, Taboo, The Changeling, Archive 81, Lodge 49, Requiem, Undone, Fortitude, Yellowjackets, Wandavision, Brand New Cherry Flavor, The Devil’s Hour, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, The Exorcist, Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon, The Witcher, The Magicians, Midnight Mass, The Devil In Ohio, The Order, Dark, Shadowhunters, NOS4A2, Outcast, Zone Blanche/Black Spot, Stranger Things, Westworld, The Man in the High Castle, His Dark Materials, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Twin Peaks, Penny Dreadful, DaVinci’s Demons, American Horror Story, Carnivale, Babylon 5; Significant characters, representations, and personifications American Gods, Lucifer, Constantine, Sandman, Preacher, Strange Angel (fictionalized biography of occultist/magician Jack Parsons); fourth-wall-breaking or uncanny figures, presented with esoteric, occult, or quasi-ritualistic aesthetics (Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Frank Underwood of House of Cards).
Comics / Graphic Novels: Contain esoteric, occult, and magical motifs and tropes. Some are actively esoteric; Grant Morrison The Invisibles and Alan Moore Promethea as personal magical workings; the graphic novels of Neil Gaiman embrace esoteric, occult, magical themes and characters.
Animated Series: Among the general adaptational overlap with prior categories, iconic examples include Made In Abyss, Fullmetal Alchemist, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and many similar examples that foreground EOM elements amid frequently genre-bending trope-reconfigurations.
Music: Specific artists (e.g. Genesis P-Orridge, David Bowie, Coil, Marilyn Manson, Ghost, Watain, Dissection, Behemoth, Wardruna, Tori Amos, Loreena McKennitt, Gustav Holst), genres (dark ambient, dungeon synth, black metal, viking/Nordic ambient, apocalyptic folk, military industrial, witch house).
Video Games: Theme and content, e.g., Astrologaster, Apollyon: River of Life, The Council, Goetia, Solium Infernum, Hell Is Others, The Chant, American Arcadia, Cyberpunk 2077, Saturnalia, A Plague Tale, Cult of the Lamb, Medium, Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator, Dead Synchronicity, The Witcher, Silent Hill, Cultist Simulator, The Shadow Government Simulator, Secret Government, Secret World, This Book Is A Dungeon, Xenogears, Exiler, Magic Research series, Devil May Cry, Murdered: Soul Suspect, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, Arcana, Prognostic, Signalis, Soulmask, Amazing Cultivation Simulator, Transient, The Mortuary Assistant, Shadow Hearts, Arx Fatalis, Eternal Darkness; pseudo-history Assassin’s Creed, Tomb Raider, Broken Sword; historical worldviews, Civilization VI (secret societies), Crusader Kings (cults, witchcraft, demonolatry), The Elder Scrolls, Destiny 2, Genshin Impact, Shin Megami Tensei (Gnosticism & Hermeticism), Curious Expedition series (historical occultists as playable characters, occult revival + pulp aesthetic); Deus Ex, SOMA, State of Mind (transhumanism); methodology (Nevermind, when utilizing biofeedback)
Tabletop Roleplaying Games: The Esoterrorists and Yellow King (Pelgrane Press), Esoterica (Fire Ruby Designs), Kult: Divinity Lost (rebooted by Modiphius Games), Liminal (Modiphius), Sigil & Shadow (Osprey Games), Esoteric Enterprises (Dying Stylishly Games), White Wolf’s Mage (classic World of Darkness) and Demon: The Descent (Chronicles of Darkness), World of Darkness generally, Atlas Games Unknown Armies, Monte Cook’s Invisible Sun, Kevin Crawford’s Silent Legions. RPGs have influenced the conception of magic in popular culture across media, and present extensive representation of magical figures. Esoteric and gnostic themes intersect with transhumanism in examples such as Eclipse Phase.
Other possible topics:
Influence of esoteric/occult/magical/New Age beliefs, practices, symbols on popular culture and aesthetics (e.g., memes, clothing, tattoos, jewelry).
Influence of popular culture on esoteric/occult/magical beliefs, practices, and practitioners (e.g., Lovecraft mythos as actual magical practice, fictional gods of chaos in Chaos Magic, and real vampire communities using concepts from Vampire: The Masquerade).
Popular beliefs about esotericism/occultism/magic: fads, trends, moral panics, witch-hunts, witch-crazes, conspiracy theories (e.g., anti-occult-conspiracism in QAnon; Illuminati paranoia, bloodline of the Holy Grail beliefs, Satanic Ritual Abuse scandals).
Reactions and polemics against esoteric/occult/magical beliefs and practices
All proposals must be submitted through the conference’s database at https://swpaca.org/app
For details on using the submission database and on the application process in general, please see the Summer Salon FAQs and Tips page at https://swpaca.org/faq-summer-salon/
Registration information for the conference will be available at https://swpaca.org/summer-salon/
Unfortunately, we are not able to offer any financial assistance for the Summer Salon.
Individual proposals for 15-minute papers must include an abstract of approximately 200-500 words. Only one proposal per person, please; unfortunately, we cannot accommodate roundtables for the Summer Salon.
If you have any questions about the Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic area, please contact its Area Chair, Dr. George J. Sieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, at georgejsieg@gmail.com. If you have general questions about the conference, please contact us at support@southwestpca.org, and a member of the executive team will get back to you.
We look forward to receiving your submissions!
George Sieg
