Trans-States: The Art of Crossing Over
Various Authors
Trans- States is an experimental, transdisciplinary conference held at the University of Northampton that seeks to bring about a valuable convocation of esoterically-inclined minds: a meeting of academics, independent scholars, magical practitioners and artists with shared interests in both the study and production of contemporary occulture.
A shameless pun, a ‘trans- state’ (playing on ‘trance state’) is, among other things, a coincidentia oppositorum: an alchemical wedding that defines the fixed place, where boundaries are actively transgressed – where the role of the magician, mystic and artist collide.
This volume features a collection of essays inspired by, and in some cases developed directly from, the inaugural Trans- States conference in 2016. Our contributors offer different perspectives on work produced by artists undergoing – or seeking – alterations in consciousness; on art created for the very purpose of bringing about transformations in the artist, the wider culture, and even: reality itself.
Trancing in the Streets – Alan Moore
On the Art of Crossing Over and What Lies Beyond – Cavan McLaughlin
Within the Hyperdream Magic Circle: Manifesting the unconscious through illustration games – Carlos Ruiz Brussain
Hermes and the Spider God: Invisible texts and hidden subjectivities in the study of esotericism – Georgia van Raalte
Ritual Occultation and the Space between Worlds: Exploring the discursive nature of the ‘flow’ state in Black Metal and Pagan performative practice – Jasmine Shadrack, Charmaine Sonnex and Chris A. Roe
Transmutation and Transmission of a New Iconography in the Thoth Tarot – Richard Kaczynski
Blurs from Beyond: UFO photography and the image-ination – Laura Thursby
The Naked Soul: Ecstasy, elitism and secrecy in the work of Stanislaw Przybyszewski – Per Faxneld
Saving the Lives of Angels: Joséphin Péladan’s vision for redemption through the arts – Sasha Chaitow
Black Wholes and Dark Continents: Flesh as a language frontier – Stefanie Elrick
Knowledge, Affect, and Ritual Magic – Rebekah Sheldon
Modern Angels: Exploring transdermal body art and body modification as transformative practice and political resistance – Roy Wallace
