Dancing with Daimons + the Occulted Body w— Alkistis Dimech
"We can’t think in this finite way, in this defeatist way. Even if everything is ending…We can’t but bring joy and beauty into the world."
Artist, writer + publisher Alkistis Dimech highlights the daimonic space and what it means to interact with what she calls "the occulted body." She muses on how the body holds magic and is an ever-unfolding landscape in the dance that is life. We discuss the goddess Babalon, the pleasures of this world and the flesh, and orienting to different narratives about time. It sparkles.
Alkistis Dimech is a writer and artist – working principally with dance and the body. Her practice is grounded in butô (dark dance). Her work explores the occulted dimensions of the body and its subtle anatomy as an archaeology of the flesh – drawing from the esoteric and phenomenological traditions – and seeks to unfold a process and techne of bodily spiritual transformation.
With Peter Grey, she is the co-founder of Scarlet Imprint, an independent press which publishes practitioner-oriented works on the occult, esotericism and magic.
She has performed in the UK, Europe and the United States, solo and in collaboration with musicians and artists, notably Z’EV, Gast Bouschet and Nadine Hilbert, and Anji Cheung – and spoken on her practice, and given workshops, at conferences and events in the UK, Europe and the United States.
Selected works from 2008 to 2018 are documented in The Brazen Vessel (Scarlet Imprint 2019). She is currently creating Antimony, a work of texts and images on the angelic, alchemical transfiguration of the body.
we discuss
The intersection of her artistic + magical practices
The “occulted body” and her dissatisfaction with the dualism our culture brings to the mind, body and “energetic” body
The body as a way to re-learn and re-create language
Unifying the masculine and feminine energies into a hermaphroditic magic
Why witchcraft needs to be re-wilded
The role of the daimon and connecting with the sacred in-between
Connective tissue + divination
What it means to embrace an erotic eschatology
Connecting to cyclical time as a rejection of finality
How life desires life on a cellular level
The creative act as something that cannot be destroyed
links
If you enjoyed the episode, check out —
Erotic Ecologies + Embodiments w— Alkistis Dimech
More about our guest —
Mentioned in the episode—
The Brazen Vessel, book by Peter Grey + Alkistis Dimech
The Red Goddess, book by Scarlet Imprint
The Brazen Vessel, digital version
Antonin Artaud, A Theatre and its Double
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L I S T E N
We started this season reflecting on the house of the goddess, and now we end where we began — carrying water medicine and the wisdom of Her with us into the summer sun.