Brief Report on Western Esotericism Conference in Strasbourg
I have just returned from the 2nd ESSWE European Western Esotericism conference in Strasbourg, France. It was organized between 2nd and 4th of July by the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE) in partnership with MISHA (Maison Interuniversitaire des Sciences de l’Homme d’Alsace) at the University of Strasbourg. The conference included plenary presentations by major esoteric scholars, including: Carlos Gilly, Andreas Kilcher, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Kocku von Stuckrad, Mark Sedgwick, Christine Maillard, and Joscelyn Godwin. Other major participants included Wouter Hanegraaff, president of ESSWE, Antoine Faivre, former chair at the Sorbonne, and Jean-Pierre Brach, current History of esotericism chair at Sorbonne. Outside of these sonorous names, MA, PhD students, lecturers and independent scholars have contributed their papers to this event.
The theme of the conference was “Capitals of European Esotericism and Transcultural Dialogue”. Thus, we learned about the impact of the legendary count of St Germain’s visit in the Hague (Caroline de Westenholz); the freemasonic lodges of Halle, Germany (Renko Geffarth & Markus Meumann); the reasons of Nuremberg’s prohibition of alchemy in the Renaissance (Hereward Tilton); the esoteric scene of the 1960’s – 1980s London (Christopher McIntosh); the image of Prague in Meyrink, Kafka and Kubin (Cecile Wolff and Amanda Boyd); the Jerusalem Kabbalists reaction to Christian Kabbalists (Judith Weiss); New York state spiritualities (Joscelyn Godwin); Giordano Bruno’s influence in Germany (Joyce Pijnenburg); Corfu esotericism (Sasha Chaitow); esoteric traditions of Glastonbury (Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke); cyberspace esotericism (John Crow); the topography of Russian esotericism (Konstantin Burmistrov) or the alchemical and freemasonic traditions of Sibiu, Romania (yours truly). In addition to these presentations, a secondary theme referred to imaginary spaces and landscapes: Stuckrad talked about escapism in Hermann Hesse and Mircea Eliade, Clare Goodrick-Clarke about the mundus imaginalis of Wessex, Maillard about Jung’s initiatory journeys, Aurelie Chone about Shambala and Agarthi in Tibet, Sara Thejls on Atlantis and the community of Damanhur. There were a lot more presentations that should deserve mention, including an intriguing discussion about the “West” in Western esotericism.
I should end this short report by mentioning briefly the wonderful times the participants had at the conference. We had the opportunity of meeting old friends and discovering new ones. We sat down, drank esoteric beer and shared inciting debates on Kabbala, alchemy and Second Life. We shared contacts and established new meeting points at future conferences. When we finally departed, we did so enriched and inspired by this unique Strasbourg experience, ready to explore newly discovered themes and subjects of esotericism.
Tags: academic, esoteric, esotericism, esswe, strasbourg, western esotericism
