2nd – 3rd April, 2011. University of Kent at Canterbury. Confirmed speakers include Luis Eduardo Luna, Paul Devereux, Mike Jay, Rick Doblin, Andy Roberts, Amanda Fielding, Andy Letcher. Plus films and music.

It’s a good number of years since the UK has seen a psychedelics-oriented conference like this, and it’s sure to be an intensely stimulating gathering. See you there?

Facebook, plus more details and registration.

In 2005 I went to the International Association for the Study of Dreams conference in Berkeley. It was a good excuse to visit the USA for the first time, and the conference itself was fantastic—an inspiring mix of solid dream research and the grassroots enthusiasm that characterizes much contemporary interest in dreams.

Since then, I think all of the IASD conferences have also been in the States. Not very “international”. But next year, they’re coming to Europe: to Rolduc, a former medieval monastery in Kerkrade, the Netherlands. Looks like an interesting venue, and I’m sure being in Europe will ensure a healthy blend of delegates.

I’ve not decided to go yet, but I’m very tempted. Check it out.

Patrick Harpur, the essential guide to Hermeticism and alchemy, author of Daimonic Reality, Mercurius and The Philosopher’s Secret Fire, is breaking his customary seclusion with a series of courses next year to be held in the heart of West Dorset.

Together with Jules Cashford (co-author of the excellent The Myth of the Goddess) and others, Patrick will host talks, discussions, films and field trips exploring soul, magic, Forteana, folklore, mythology, dreams, and other byways of the imagination. Full details can be found at The Mythic Imagination website.

The past decade or so has seen an intermittent but healthy blossoming of various conferences and festivals celebrating intercourse between esoteric thought and the wider culture, between academic and fringe archaeologies, between the many varied disciplines and perspectives that any serious-minded, open-hearted student of consciousness gets embroiled in. Thankfully there’s been no centre to this flowering, no bloom that has easily outshone the rest; but the Occulture Festival, back after a 6-year break, has been one of the more colourful (see my review of the 2003 event).

The term “occulture” was a neologism waiting for the 20th century, when supra-cultural and sub-cultural exploration of consciousness burst the confines of eccentric little clubs and spilled into the mainstream. This represented a chaotic, perhaps unfulfillable, but certainly vital rejoining of wider cultural practices and gnostic spirituality—arenas which “religion”, etymology notwithstanding, has torn ever further apart since the dawn of civilization.

The Occulture Festival espouses “tolerance, open mindedness and celebration of life”, reflecting a rejection of the kind of naive political ambitions that have marred some attempts to promote modern occultism, whilst holding fast to the belief that this maturing phenomenon has a positive role to play in the future. For every caricatured, visible example of the all-too-familiar failings of modern esotericism, I feel that dozens of inspirational fires are quietly ignited in every walk of life. At their best, gatherings like Occulture promise to bring some of those flames into public view, and fuel them with new connections before they disperse back into society.

Leading proceedings for Occulture this year on 23rd May in The Courtyard Theatre, Hoxton, is the prolific chronicler of recent esoteric currents, Gary Lachman. Also lined up are speakers from Scarlet Imprint‘s expanding catalogue, Iain Sinclair introducing his psychogeographic circumambulation of the captial, London Orbital, a premiere of Disinformation’s film on the 2012 phenomena, and performers such as Dreamflesh contributor Orryelle Defenestrate Bascule. More information and tickets available on the website…

Tickets are now on sale for the exciting-looking Equinox Festival, to be held from June 12th-14th at Conway Hall in London.

Performers include Comus, John Zorn, Aethenor, Z’ev and Arktau Eos; speakers include Ralph Metzner, Erik Davis, Stephen Grasso, David Beth, James Curcio, Philip Farber, Carl Abrahamsson and Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule; films include The Holy Mountain, Divine Horsemen and The Mindscape of Alan Moore.

Seems likely to be an essential gathering.

Coming up fast, over the last week of March, is the next Metageum conference. The last one was a fascinating event in Malta; this time, we’re in the slightly less megalith-rich, but hopefully more humanly hectic environs of London. Specifically, at the ever-conducive venue, Treadwell’s.

Speakers so far include Paul Devereux, Peter Lloyd, David Luke, Lydia Oukhaneva, Toni Perrott, Peter Knight, Donal Ruane and Deborah Marshall-Warren.

And me. I’m on March 28th at 1.30pm—sign up and I’ll see you there!

My talk has changed slightly from the blurb currently posted there. Here’s the latest version:

Darwin, Rock Art, and the Human Animal

Commemorating this year’s double anniversary (of Darwin’s birth and the publication of The Origin of Species), this talk will delve into the complex influence of evolutionary theory on both the study of prehistoric rock art in particular, and modern attitudes to “primitive” man in general. From the surprising origins of the myth of “the noble savage” in Victorian ethnology to Stephen Pinker’s contentions about prehistoric violence; from Terence McKenna’s mycological speculations to recent archaeological controversies about shamans and visions. This will be a wide-ranging trip through our varying perspectives on the prehistoric mind, what it means to be an animal with imagination, and the bearing of these stories on the ecological crisis we find ourselves in.

I was a little unsure about how my info-heavy talk would go down following the wonderful party vibe that kicked everything off (thanks to Stephen and Allison’s voodoo ceremonials). I was amazed that everyone kept a respectful quietness going throughout. Maybe everyone fell asleep! Judging by the lively and mixed feedback I got, thankfully not. Though Donal Ruane and Dave Luke’s much livelier talks got people going.

The biggest disappointment of the night was undoubtedly the question and answer section being squeezed out by time constraints. Since starting public speaking, it’s always seemed to me that actual talks are best as preludes to Q & A, something to get people sparked up enough to start thinking and questioning. I sorely missed that group interaction. Next time we’ll make a point of it.

Of course the whole night was an experiment in treading the line between spiritual celebration, intellectual melting-pot and boozy shindig. It came off for me; hope you had a great time.

I’m just about to set off to Italy (via a few days in Paris). Thanks to an invite extended when I met Christopher Fülling in Malta last year, I’ll be staying at the Art Monastery in Calvi dell’Umbria.

An evolved version of my Green Man talk on cup-and-ring art will form part of a mini-symposium at the former Ursuline convent that the Monastery is based in. More juicy stuff on the inherent multiplicity of prehistoric art and polar symbolism in Indo-European traditions—including some of my recent forays into studying Sufi mysticism. Christopher will be talking about “the possibilities of a Laboratorium for Ritual Studies and Performance” at the Art Monastery. If anyone’s in the area (I know, a long shot), it’ll be happening on Saturday 20th September.

Anyone bound to these rainy shores needn’t miss out though. I’ll be doing the talk again pretty much as soon as I’m back, on Wednesday 24th September, at the Moot With No Name. It’ll be at 7.30 for an 8pm start, upstairs at the Devereux pub near Temple tube, London.

It’ll be my first time this year at the Green Man Festival in Wales (15th-17th August), but the beautiful site and interesting line-up have me excited.

I’ll be there as part of Strange Attractor‘s remit to fill the cinema tent with esoteric delights on the Saturday night between 11pm and 2am. I’ll be ranging widely over the interpretation of cup-and-ring rock art; David Luke will be holding forth on some intersection between psychedelics and parapsychology; Robert Wallis will be giving us the low-down on animism and strange herbs; and Stephen Grasso will be shedding light on life as a modern Western voodoo practitioner.

Then there will be music.

Should be fun—see you there?

A day of seminars featuring cutting-edge thinking from pioneers in the field of magickal practice, followed by an evening of rituals demonstrating Chaos Magick in action. More info »