Groundwork for a Philosophy of Magic

We have all had at least one experience we couldn’t explain: a visitation from the dead, an excursion outside the body, a strange object caught spinning in the sky, a coincidence that defied all probability… 

Modernity has done nothing to eliminate such phenomena. Yet it resists our every attempt to include them in the fabric of real experience. The situation amounts to one more contradiction the modern world asks us to blindly accept. Some things happen, that never do.

But what if modernity simply hasn’t followed its own logic to the end? What if our problem isn’t that we are too modern, but not modern enough?

Rethinking the Real

In this seven-week series of exploratory lectures and discussions, writer and filmmaker J.F. Martel, co-host of the Weird Studies Podcast, will argue that reality rests on a foundation of fantasy, in the truest sense of the word.

Whereas most attempts at “re-enchanting” our world have hinged on damming up or diverting the currents of reductive materialism, a different slant may be all it takes to see that even the most dogmatic iterations of modern thought presuppose a magical cosmos in which all things are possible. Martel will draw deep on philosophy, literature, art, religion, and the occult to reimagine what it means to be real.

The course aims at inspiring a new vision in its participants. It amounts to an act of weirding, whereby the foundations of experience are restored to the strangeness, danger, and hope of an existence rooted in story, meaning, and mystery.  

Groundwork for a Philosophy of Magic assumes no philosophical training on the part of students, and all concepts will be explained as we move through the material. Reading material and suggestions for further study will be provided.  

For students who attended Martel's previous courses, Art and Contemplation and Weird Religion, the course will be something of a culmination, as various threads join to complete a new pattern of thought, albeit one that confirms some very old intuitions.  

Class Outline

Lectures will be held on Tuesdays at 8 PM Eastern Standard Time. At the same time on the Thursday following each lecture, an "Office Hours" session will allow students discuss with the instructor and the rest of the group. 

May 3rd            Lecture 1: The Black Iron Prison and the White Whale

May 10th          Lecture 2: Hyperchaos

May 17th          Lecture 3: Pulp Metaphysics

May 24th          Lecture 4: The Known Unknown

May 31st          Lecture 5: Mythical Creatures

June 7th           Lecture 6: The Second Spear

June 14th         Lecture 7: Toward a Philosophy of Magic

Please note that all lectures and discussion groups will be recorded and made available to students on the Nura Learning site throughout the duration of the course.

The site also includes a course-specific discussion forum and a section for course materials.

Student Learning Outcomes

Students will:

·      be exposed to a variety of philosophical, artistic, and occult ideas that have shaped -- or resisted -- the modern world.

·      renew their sense of wonder by remembering the true weirdness of existence.

·      have the opportunity to share and exchange with the instructor and fellow students on their own experience, interpretations, and ideas. 

·      join a community of seekers concerned with the direction our world is taking and convinced that a different way of seeing the world is possible.

Registration: $165

Alumni receive a $25 discount. Please send us a note if you would like to receive access to alumni registration.
Student rates:
Send us a note to receive a pay-what-you-can registration link: info (at) nuralearning (dot) com

Thank you, and see you in class!

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