We are excited to be headed for San Diego! We'll be attending AJS, the Association for Jewish Studies' 51st annual conference. We're excited to be meeting scholars and researchers who might be interested in being a part of the Institute for Jewish Esoterica.
We're looking for scholars whose passion leads them down the sapphire brick-paved paths of the multifaceted Jewish Mystical Tradition. Astrology, Cosmology, and Kaballah all fall under that category. So does Merkevah Mysticism and Hechalot literature. Holy Names. Angelogy and Demonology, of course. Anything having to do with Magic, Amulets, Incantations, or Enchantments, "Folk" Healing, Medical Melothesia, and Women's Wisdom / Chochmat Nashim. Golems and Gilgulim. Gematria and Sympathetic Magic; Magic and Medicine, Divination and Dreams.
If this sounds like you, we want to meet you. We want to invite you to participate in the IJE's mission of connecting two communities with common interests whose respective institutions normally forbid intercourse: Scholars and Mystics.
The IJE is a community where scholars and mystics can meet without institutional pressures and status-driven constraints upon the sharing of knowledge. We aim to foster an atmosphere of mutual respect, healthy curiosity, intellectual rigor, informational access, and de-institutionalized space to explore, discover, and grow.
Our goal is to hold an annual conference, and to publish two issues of a peer-reviewed journal per year. We are looking for you if being part of the peer-review process is something you enjoy and value.
Our first conference is synced to the Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction of December 2020. The conjunction of Jupiter (Tzedek) and Saturn (Shabbtai) has a special place in Jewish astrological history, specifically in the area of messianic speculation. The last Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in the sign of Aquarius, the sign of the Jewish people according to B'nai Yissachar, Ibn Ezra and others, took place in 1405. The upcoming Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in December 2020 is the first time since the 1405 conjunction that the two giant luminaries of our solar system have met in Aquarius.
Our vision is to theme the December 2020 conference around this "Great Conjunction" by bringing together scholars and mystics focusing on the event from every angle. We envision the likes of Moshe Idel ("Saturn's Jews") in conversation with astrologer-academic Liz Greene ("Jung's Study in Astrology", etc.), Shlomo Sela (a leading researcher on all things Ibn Ezra) with astrologer-academic Meira B. Epstein, who applies Ibn Ezra's astrological techniques to her modern astrological practice, conversing about the medieval astral-magical commentators and their messianic expectations around the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. as well as others.
We are excited by the work of scholars such as Piergabrele Mancusco who is doing tremendous work around Shabbtai Donnolo's understanding of Jewish astrology, Josefina Rodriguez-Arribas who has reconstructed the language and terminology of Ibn Ezra and Bar Hiyya, and Dov Schwartz and his work on Astral Magic in Medieval Jewish thought. We are inviting these scholars and astrologer-academics, along with others, to participate in the December 2020 conference. We are inviting YOU as well! Consider this invitation a formal call for papers and proposals for discussion / lectures / workshops you would like to lead or participate in!
Look for Lorelai Kude if you're at AJS this week in San Diego and say hello. We'd like to hear about your work and see how participating in AJS's mission benefits you!
Send us an email with questions or comments
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