HERMENEIA
Esotericism in the Modern World: Bridging Scholarship
and Public Engagement
9 April 2026 | 11 am - 6 pm
Swedenborg House, 20-21 Bloomsbury Way
London WC1A 2TH
ἑρμηνεία
Interpretation, translation,
to translate meaning from one language to another,
a gift of the Spirit necessary for understanding
the gift of tongues in the assembly.
Hermēneia is a one-day conference for people who care about how esotericism gets translated into the modern world without being diluted, sensationalised, or turned into content sludge.
Across four talks and an extended panel discussion, we will follow the live wires between academic method and lived practice, between folklore on the ground and communities online, and between specialist research and public language that can actually carry nuance.
The day is designed to be rigorous but welcoming, with generous time for audience questions and a lunch break explicitly for conversation, connections, and the kind of networking that doesn't feel like networking.
Dr Justin Sledge is a philosopher and educator whose work focuses on the academic study of Western esotericism and related currents. He hosts the widely followed YouTube channel Esoterica, which explores the arcane in history, philosophy, and religion through a scholarly lens.
Dr Angela Puca is a lecturer in Philosophy and Religious Studies at Leeds Trinity University, specialising in magic, witchcraft, paganism, esotericism, and shamanism. She is also known for her public facing scholarship through the YouTube channel Angela’s Symposium, and for her research on Italian folk magic and shamanic currents, including Italian Witchcraft, Shamanism, and the Left Hand Path, with a new book on this subject forthcoming in 2026.
Dr Jenny Butler is a Lecturer in the Study of Religions at University College Cork, where she teaches courses on esotericism, new religious movements, mythology and folk religion. Her research focuses on ethnographic studies of religious and cultural movements, including witchcraft and Druidry.
Marco Visconti is an author and educator in the Western Esoteric Tradition, known for teaching practical Thelemic magick and mysticism through his online school Magick Without Tears. He is the author of The Aleister Crowley Manual and Aleister Crowley's Mysticism, and focuses on translating demanding material into workable practice without losing intellectual honesty.
DAILY SCHEDULE
Welcome and Introduction
11:00 - 12:00
Dr Justin Sledge
Restless Stitches: What can a Seam between Merkavah Mysticism and Kabbalah Teach Us?
Seams both join and yet denote separation. Such a seam appears in the Sefer Zohar as elements from Merkavah Mysticism were translated, transformed, appropriated and incorporated into the Kabbalah.
What did this radical process look like in the 13th century? What might this 800-year-old transformation in Jewish mysticism teach us about the contemporary academic/practitioner seam?
12:00 - 12:45
Marco Visconti
Becoming a Centre of Pestilence: Reading Liber AL vel Legis without Flinching
“Centre of pestilence” is one of those phrases that either gets turned into edgy cosplay or quietly skipped over, as if the text will be nicer if we do not look straight at it. This talk argues the opposite.
In Thelema, that line points to a kind of spiritual contagion: the willingness to carry a current that disturbs complacency, infects dead certainties, and makes people ask questions they have trained themselves not to ask, starting with the simplest and hardest one: what is my Will, really, when I stop performing it for an audience?
To do that responsibly, you cannot treat Liber AL vel Legis like a sacred object behind glass. You also cannot treat it like a hate-read for cheap catharsis. You have to handle it like a live wire: with intimacy, care, and a clear head.
12:45 - 13:30
Lunch Break & Networking
13:30 - 14:00
Dr Angela Puca
Italian Witchcraft: Folk Magic, Ritual Healing, and Living Traditions
An exploration of Italian witchcraft as it is actually practised today, moving beyond stereotypes of secret cults or ancient pagan survivals.
Focusing on everyday forms of folk magic and ritual healing, such as the traditions known as Segnature, the talk shows how these practices have been passed down within families and local communities, often existing alongside Catholic beliefs rather than in opposition to them. It also looks at how some modern practitioners draw on ideas of shamanism and other global spiritual traditions, reshaping older practices for contemporary contexts.
14:00 - 14:45
Dr Jenny Butler
Amid Rivers of Faery Light: Tracing Celtic Spirituality From the 19th-Century Celtic Revival to the Modern Day
Celtic spirituality as understood today is a particular kind of connection and relationship cultivated with land, nature, and the otherworldly or divine.
This talk examines the confluence of ideas and images that occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Britain and Ireland in a cultural movement known as the Celtic Revival that coalesced into a strand of spirituality that continued onward to influence contemporary religious movements such as Paganism.
Examining the role and impact of key figures in the movement—such as Irish painter and mystic Æ Russell, Irish writer and Druid, Ella Young, Scottish painter and theosophist, John Duncan, and Irish poet and occultist William Butler Yeats—the talk looks at how they each combined their passion and love of mythology, nature, and esotericism into a now familiar tradition of Celtic spirituality.
14:45 - 15:30
Panel Discussion: Translating Esoteric Knowledge for Public Audiences
15:30 - 17:30
Closing Remarks
17:30 - 18:00
Hermēneia will take place in the David Wynter Room at Swedenborg House on Bloomsbury Way,
a Grade II listed Georgian venue used for talks, study, and small scholarly gatherings.
The room is bright and calm, with high ceilings and tall windows,
and you are surrounded by the Swedenborg Society’s library atmosphere,
which suits a day built around careful listening and thoughtful discussion.
Capacity is strictly limited to 25 people.
This is intentionally intimate and aimed at attendees who are genuinely invested in learning and engaging in depth.
Please note that the David Wynter Room has no step-free access; it is on an upper floor, with no lift.
Swedenborg House hosts Arcana Coffee in the ground-floor bookshop,
so you can grab coffee, pastries, and quick bites on site throughout the day.
If you want something more substantial, Bloomsbury Way has plenty of restaurants
and quick eateries immediately outside the venue.
Tickets are non-refundable.
Because capacity is strictly limited, tickets may be transferred to another attendee.
To transfer your ticket, email us with the new attendee’s full name and email address.
Transfers must be submitted no later than 48 hours before the event.
No shows are not eligible for refunds or transfers.