After centuries of displacement, have contemporary peoples landed somewhere coherent? Our faulty Myth of Progress would have us believe so. As Western witchcrafts gather followers and boldly promise new visions for our future, this myth's inherent fallacies and whole-swath-disappearing means of survival embed in these new and growing cultures a groundless base for delivering on their hype. Between all and no cosmologies with mostly decentralized, non-region specific practices, where is the here from where we go? Issues of cultural appropriation aside, both ancestral footprints and past life resonances remind us that ever-migratory bodies and souls require intimacy with specificities that are worth our slowing down to excavate, savor, and renew.
As a consultant, Chiron will also perform divination / trance work to see what his spirits say about The Witch Institute, its goals and intentions, and how achieving these might be enhanced. This narrated audio file of Chiron in session will be available throughout the Institute, along with typewritten notes regarding the themes that were explored and suggested next action steps.
Participants:
Chiron Armand
Chiron Armand is an artist-scholar, author, and shamanic hacker with a background in global folk magic traditions, Haitian Vodou, Brazilian Quimbanda, and spirit-induced initiatory processes. He is descended from many peoples including the Dogon, Choctaw, and Scots. Founder of Impact Shamanism, he is the author of Deliverance!: Hoodoo Spells of Uncrossing, Healing, and Protection (Missionary Independent, 2015) and Clearing Spaces: Inspirational Techniques to Heal Your Home (Sterling Ethos, 2017). Armand holds an MA in Performance Studies from NYU and a BA in Ritual Anthropology and Queer Studies from Hampshire College. Born and raised in NYC, he lives in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala and is pandemically-based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.