Sasha Chaitow, PhD – Image and Logos: Symbolic Vocabularies & Inspired Revelations

Sasha Chaitow is a historian of culture, a professional artist, an author, and gallerist. Her work experience includes international academic and cultural event organisation; various roles within academic publishing; investigative and cultural journalism; international exhibitions, lectures, teaching, and publications. She is currently (March 2018-) serving as Managing Editor for the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, while running two galleries and developing my own art and writing projects.

Sasha earned her doctorate at the University of Essex, focusing on the history of culture, science, and literature and the relationships between them that converged in the work of French fin-de-siècle author Joséphin Péladan (1858-1918) and his contemporaries. Prior to that her studies encompassed Communications and Media (BA University of Indianapolis 2002), Literature (MA University of Indianapolis 2004) and Cultural History/Western Esotericism (MA EXESESO – University of Exeter 2008).

As an artist Sasha has held 13 solo exhibitions in Greece, Sweden, and the UK, and participated in group shows in Spain, Greece, and the UK. I have published widely on Peladan, and lecture frequently at international academic and cultural institutions and conferences.

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Image and Logos: Symbolic Vocabularies and Inspired Revelations Through the Eyes of Joséphin Péladan

Occult visionary author Joséphin Péladan (1858-1918) dedicated his life and prodigious literary output to his attempt to provoke a collective social awakening through the display of symbolist artwork and production of symbolist literature on a massive scale. He produced copious theoretical tomes explaining the esoteric theory that underpinned both his motivation and his guidance to members of his audience seeking a gnostic awakening. Although notorious for his eccentricity, his influence reached as far as South America and influenced literary and artistic circles in several European countries. Despite being forgotten for the best part of the 20th century, recent years have seen a revival of interest in Péladan and attempts have been made to provide a deeper understanding of the purpose of the Salons de Rose+Croix that were his brain-child.

After summarising both the context and the specifics of Péladan’s worldview, aims, and modus operandi, I will discuss the syncretic framework upon which his vision was built and explore the questions of how this was meant to work in practical terms. He combined Orphic Mysteries, Aeschylean tragedy, Scripture, and Enochian revelation, perceiving humanity as the epicentre and deciding force in the Platonic attempt to emerge from the cave of darkness. In a surprising twist on Platonic thought, he used the arts in their entirety to approach the world at large, convinced that in so doing, a deeper human impulse would discover its celestial heritage. Although the results of these attempts were undoubtedly mixed, on an artistic level in particular, Péladan influenced many artists to produce work inspired by these notions. The unwavering goal was to spark a form of revelation in his contemporaries. It is the shape, content, and mechanism of that revelation that this talk will explore.

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OUT NOW FROM FULGUR PRESS:
"Trans-States: The Art of Crossing Over"
Edited by Cavan McLaughlin
Foreword by Alan Moore.

BUY THE BOOK HERE: https://fulgur.co.uk/books/edited-by-cavan-mclaughlin/trans-states-art-crossing/

Select Papers from the first Trans- States conference, The Art of Crossing Over, which themed itself upon the Major Arcana card, The Hanged Man, and focused on boundary-crossing, liminality, and the queering of normativity.