Academic Work
PORTRAIT OF H. MUNCULUS: GUARDIAN OF THE LIBRARY OF FORGOTTEN HERMETIC KNOWLEDGE
This work is an artist statement based on seminar discussions and research for a course titled "Art, Alchemy, & the Occult," taught by Dr. Claudia Mesch at Arizona State University in the Spring of 2024. From Classical Greece to the surrealists of the 20th century, humans seem to be keenly interested in their connection to the spiritual world and how one may attain the hidden knowledge of the celestial realm. From alchemy to automatic writing, scholars, scientists, magicians, and artists have all – perhaps unknowingly – been searching for the elusive conduit to the divine. No matter the scientific or artistic endeavor, the name, or the prescribed practice of divination, all of these thinkers throughout time have been seeking a way to tap into divine knowledge and, in doing so, discover the secrets of existence: alchemist, necromancer, witch, black magician, psychoanalyst, and surrealist are, in the end, all on a quest for enlightenment through divine knowledge, their only difference is how they chose to get there. My piece aims to illustrate the vast quantity of this celestial knowledge while acknowledging that our current preoccupation with science and empiricism has led man to forget what hermeticism taught us before The Age of Enlightenment.
occultism & alchemy: Brian Gibbons on jungian psychology
In Chapter 7 of “Spirituality and the Occult,” Gibbons suggests that the development of Jungian psychoanalysis is predicated on, influenced by, and a product of occult thinking. Ultimately, alchemy was about the transmutation of souls rather than metals and is directly allegorical to Carl Jung’s theories about the human psyche, psychoanalysis, and symbol interpretation as a means to self-actualization. Indeed, there are several parallels between Jungian theory and alchemical thought, with Jung having argued that alchemical symbolism has been present in mythology and the human imagination the world over and throughout time. I agree that the alchemical practice, though undoubtedly physical and rooted in tangible experimentation, was, in fact, a means with which to effect self-transformation. This self-transformation, rooted in magical thought and emphasizing the accessing of angelic (or demonic if one is not careful) powers, was a quest for hidden knowledge. This secret knowledge was connected to the divine, and the occult idea “as above, so below” is akin to somatic psychology and Jungian philosophy surrounding the collective unconscious. Gibbons is right in his assessment that modern Jungian theory is a secularization of occult thinking and is allegorical to alchemical practice.
BURIED HISTORY: THE FORGOTTEN WOMEN OF EARLY ARCHAEOLOGY
Exploring some of the women who shaped and pioneered the field of archaeology but who are rarely recognized for their efforts and accomplishments.
A collection of essays on witchcraft and heresy in medieval Europe
This collection of essays was written for the course REL374: Witchcraft and Heresy in Medieval Europe in the Spring of 2021. The course was modeled around category analysis with a particular key category for each module, which you will see in bold in each of the essays. The idea was to analyze the assigned reading with particular attention paid to the key category. The key concepts included Identity, Power + Authority, Body/Bodies, Authenticity and/or Legitimacy, Adaptation and/or Evolution, and the Capitol Riots of January 6th (a genius 11th-hour update to the syllabus as we watched history unfold that semester).
Admittedly, the prose and citations are a bit lacking, as these are my first attempts at academic writing. However, I feel it is important to keep them around to remind myself where I started and how far I have come academically and artistically.
IDENTITY AND HERESY IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE: POPULAR OPINION AT ODDS WITH CHURCH DOCTRINE
Heretics were identified by the Church in Medieval Europe as anyone who did not wholly subscribe to the Church's definition of what it meant to live an authentic Christian life and refused corrective action prescribed by the Church. However, one was not deemed "heretic" until they had shown an unwillingness to acquiesce to Church doctrine and practice. "Obedience to ecclesiastical authority was increasingly becoming the cornerstone of orthodoxy in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries." Thus, anyone not willing to fall in line with and follow Church teaching to the letter could easily be labeled a heretic and face repercussions from such a label. This identity was invented by church authorities who saw themselves as non-heretic by definition and, therefore, qualified to levy such an epithet onto anyone practicing Christianity in line with the Good Christians and their ideals. This created a religious duality in Medieval Europe of Church orthodoxy vs. Good Christian "heresy."
POWER AND AUTHORITY IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE: THE ROAD FROM ACCUSATION TO INQUISITION
Obedience was instrumental to the Medieval European Church’s ability to maintain authority and power in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. While the inquisitorial process was a formalized method to bring lapsed Christians back under the authority of the Church, obedience was first imposed via Church regulation of the people and religious orders of the day. Outrage and resistance from the people of Medieval Europe signaled that the Church needed to shift its sight from accusation to inquisition.[1] However, to avoid such trials, the Church could instill obedience before heresy even became a question. The Franciscan order and lay religious women were two groups of people highly regulated by the Medieval Church to prevent heresy from taking root.
[1] Jennifer Kolpacoff Deane, A History of Medieval Heresy and Inquisition (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), 98.
MARKS, CURSES, AND INJURY: HOW THE BODY WAS IDENTIFIED, MANIPULATED, AND PUNISHED DURING THE BAROQUE EUROPEAN WITCH CRAZE
Bodies are a central theme in the witch craze of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries in Baroque Europe. Witches were often identified by their bodies or marks upon their bodies. They were persecuted for the effects they had on the bodies of the people around them and even what they did with their own bodies. These accused witches were ultimately punished with bodily harm and disgrace because of the accusations levied against them. In the minds of the people and authorities, witches were a very real and dangerous threat to Christendom. “They attacked men’s potency. They killed suckling infants and children. Threatening life itself, they attacked fertility in the natural and human world.”[1]
[1] Lyndal Roper, Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany (New Haven, Connecticut; London: Yale University Press, 2006), 5.
A LOSS OF HUMAN AND AGRICULTURAL FERTILITY: NATURAL PHENOMENA OR PROOF OF THE DEVIL & HIS WITCHES IN BAROQUE EUROPE?
The witch craze that ran rampant in Europe from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries is filled with fantastical stories and claims of malefice on the part of those accused. These wild and often gory tales were authenticated via the stories told by accused witches during their interrogations. Their legitimacy was further verified by the decline in reproduction at the time and the famine that popped up repeatedly in communities gripped by the craze.[1] Thus, we see the intersection of fantasy (of witches and their diabolical deeds) and the stark reality of life for the people of this time, culminating in the accusation and eventual death of thousands.
[1] Lyndal Roper, Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany (New Haven, Connecticut; London: Yale University Press, 2006), 134.
THE EVOLUTION FROM ADULT WITCH TO CHILD OCCULTIST: THE ADAPTATION OF INTERROGATION AND PUNISHMENT IN THE FACE OF YOUTH
By the late seventeenth and early to mid-eighteenth centuries, the German witch craze had evolved in multiple ways. While older women were still considered to be the quintessential witch, children became increasingly accused of witchcraft.[1] Along with the new ideas about the identity of who could possibly be a witch came an evolution of the signs that marked them as such. Indeed, even what was done with those accused of witchcraft and what their trials culminated in had drastically changed since the trials of the fifteen and early sixteen-hundreds.
[1] Lyndal Roper, Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany (New Haven, Connecticut; London: Yale University Press, 2006), 181.
CAPITOL HILL INSURRECTION: CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND CONTEMPORARY CONCERNS ABOUT WITCHCRAFT AND OR HERESY
The most obvious parallel between the witch hunts of medieval Europe and the QAnon conspiracy is that each operates under the assumption that their actions and goals are legitimate because they are in pursuit of the lord’s work. QAnon conspiracists believe that their works are in defense of Christendom and against the will of Satan. Just as the medieval Church sought out and exterminated witches, so too do the QAnon followers seek out and try to destroy the agents of Satan to save Christianity and their country. Both entities believe/d their means justify the ends as they are/were fighting an eternal war against evil in the name of God. Nothing can/could be more legitimate than the defense of righteous Christian values in a world on the brink of destruction at the hands of the Devil. In medieval times, Satan worked through the average human, usually an older woman, to do his work. In modern times, Satan has turned to politicians and the government. Both QAnon and the medieval Church believe/d they are/were embroiled in a divine war for the souls of their followers and communities.