Andrew Sage

In terms of the artistic performances, the musical metal goth music that was played.

but also a very practical and open approach to ritual.

It was highly inclusive.

Everyone who was there participated.

It did an exceptional job, I felt, of actually bringing, setting intention and adding to, I don't know, at risk of sounding too New Age, the vibrations that we all felt as we engaged and were present.

The theatrical quality, I have to say, was also very much improved.

Dark and spooky.

Dark and spooky, but something to be admired.

They did a very good job.

Definitely one of the more high-effort rituals of the weekend in terms of the performative aspect, with there being a little less than a dozen hooded, cloaked figures stationed at different points, either holding specific positions in a meditative state for probably over half an hour, standing still in a position that would become uncomfortable.

And then swinging incense or holding torches or lights.

Setting intention specifically is usually, if you talk to these people, the first step of any kind of magical working is setting your intention for what the work is supposed to do or accomplish in you or out into the world.

Mirroring the opening ritual, the Culture 2025 little booklet has a few paragraphs on the concept for this conference, talking about the cosmic craftsman as the demiurge who shapes matter and spirit alike, who embodies creation and transformation, revealing both the light and the hidden, the shadowed face of the divine.

as well as having cosmic balance and balancing destruction with creation and order and chaos and the hidden and the scene.

The last paragraph in which I will read, I think, relates specifically to this show and the cultural political aspects.

Quote, in the age of relentless acceleration, the craftsman becomes a figure of resistance.

His patience and ritual discipline reclaim sacred time, restoring a rhythm beyond the acceleration of modern life.

A Culture 2025 invites us to dwell in this threshold where creation, intuition, and the hidden divine converge.

And with that, we converge on an ad break.

Welcome back to the It Could Happen Here spooky special on the Occulture Conference.