Session: Deities in Neo-Paganism, Occultism and the New Age
This fascinating session, organized and chaired by Prof. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro, dealt with deities in Neo-Paganism, Occultism and the New Age.
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May 17, 2023
Feminism gender and sex / Geography / History / Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Magic and paganism / Myth / State politics and law / Typology and comparative study
Lecture: “And the Canaanite was then in the land” – Local Deities from Ba’al to Mother Earth in the Last Century
Two Israeli Pagan movements of the last century have glorified an ancient panteon of god. What is the difference between them? In this lecture we've presented both similarities and differences in the relation to deities in the two movements.
May 17, 2023
Critical theory / Disputation or conflict / Feminism gender and sex / Israel / Magic and paganism / Methodology and models
Lecture: Neo-Shamanism in Israel – Authenticity and the Invention of Tradition
This lecture dealt with Neo-Shamanism in Israel, but… actually, how can one describe Neo-Shamanism in Israel when it's unclear what Neo-Shamanism is? And indeed, the tern is unclear. The lecture discussed the term and its problematization, the question of relation between Shamanism and Neo-Shamanism, the search for the common denominator of "Shamanic" phenomena, and more.
December 6, 2022
Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Critical theory / Magic and paganism / Methodology and models / Mind and psychology / Popular culture and mass media / Postmodernism / Science/medicine and technology / Typology and comparative study
Lecture: Versions of Theme Design Reality Creation in New Age Culture
We create our own reality - this is a major idea in the contemporary cultural discourse. But how? From the Matrix to a magic stick, from positive psychology to mind control technics. Various lectures presented the research on this spiritual (or perhaps actually secularized) theme...
December 5, 2022
Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Critical theory / Magic and paganism / Methodology and models / Mind and psychology / Popular culture and mass media / Postmodernism / Science/medicine and technology / Typology and comparative study
Article: The Creating-Our-Reality Motif in Contemporary Western Popular Spirituality
One of the most prominent themes in the contemporary spiritual discourse, as well as in the general popular discourse, is that we are those who create our own world. This idea has various versions. For instance, the positive psychology version depicts how thoughts and expextations may create a reality through the change of behaviour; the science fiction version sees us as players in a virtual space that choose and shape their enviroment; the magical version teaches us to cast spells of reality; and more. This research analyses the popular spiritual discourse on the creation of reality, and thereby reviels a few insights on the contemporary cultural tendencies, the cultural contradictions, and the emergence of a new ethic.
December 4, 2022
Lecture: Sanctifying Randomness – The Theological Imagination of Alternative Spirituality with Connection to Internet Technologies
This lecture deals with the ideational-ideological aspect of the transformatio processes in contemporary spirituality and religion following the rise of Cyber culture, via a study case: divination rituals (such as a Tarot cards' spread). In the shift of those rituals from the physical traditional space to cynerspace, I argue that a new rationale emerges - namely sanctified randomness.
November 24, 2022
Lecture: Sanctification of Randomness – The Theological Imagination of Virtual Divination
Cyberspace changes our life and our outlook. Practices that go online are not merely a "copy-paste" case, but actually change radically. In the case of divination rituals (such as a Tarot cards' spread) - I argue that a new rantionale emerges - one that sanctifies randomness.
November 23, 2022
Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Feminism gender and sex / Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Magic and paganism / Mind and psychology / Typology and comparative study
Lecture: Jewish Spirituality in the New Age
This lecture (about 30 min.) surveys and maps the various ways in which New Age and Judaism meet and mix together. The full name of the lecture was: "Jewish Spirituality in the New Age - Emerging Jewish-Israeli Phenomena in the Junction with New Age Culture". It presents ten "types" of these meeting places, accompanied by many examples, while presenting a relevant theoretical background, and discussing the characteristics and trends of this emergent multifaceted space, one of them being the exotization of Judaism process in the New Age realm.
November 20, 2022
Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Feminism gender and sex / Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Magic and paganism / Mind and psychology / Typology and comparative study
Lecture: The Exotization of Judaism in the New Age
This lecture (see 30-min. film and a presentation, in Hebrew) took place in a seminar celebrating the publication of an anthology of researches which included my article on the meeting place of Judaism and New Age in Israel, at Ben Gurion University. The lecture focused on the characteristics of Israeli New Age Judaism, especially the exotization of Judaism within those circles.
November 20, 2022
Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Feminism gender and sex / Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Magic and paganism / Mind and psychology / Typology and comparative study
Article: The Roadmap of Israeli Judaism(s) in the New Age
This fundamental and encompassing article (about 12000 words, in Hebrew) surveys and maps the various ways in which New Age and Judaism meet and mix together, in Israel. It presents ten "types" of these meeting places, accompanied by many examples, while presenting a relevant theoretical background, and discussing the characteristics and trends of this emergent multifaceted space, one of them being the exotization of Judaism process in the New Age realm.
November 16, 2022