Memoria

Spirit Parks: Symposium to Reimagine Cemetery 2020

Here’s Chicago architect Mark A. Miller’s compelling vision towards reinventing cemeteries to better match contemporary sensibilities: In the United States, the centuries old traditional model of cemetery is failing to resonate with current generations and changing ideals about death, grief and memorialization. People are looking beyond the rituals of traditional religions and the constructs of … Read moreSpirit Parks: Symposium to Reimagine Cemetery 2020

Invocation of the Queer Spirits: The Arts of Ritual, “Seance” and Memorial

From an interview with artist/healer AA Bronson: What happens in the séances? The séances are designed in a format suitable to the history of the location: in New Orleans, we have devised a ritual that utilizes the methods of Afro-Caribbean spiritual traditions, especially Voodoo, together with the methods of European ceremonial magic. Peter and I … Read moreInvocation of the Queer Spirits: The Arts of Ritual, “Seance” and Memorial

The Rogers Park Black Lives Matter Shrine, Updated

Over the course of the winter, the Black Lives Matter shrine in Rogers Park, Chicago has grown from a gallery of posters and a scattering of flowers and candles into the much more elaborate memorial shown above, complete with an ornate wooden altar. The repurposed Chicago Reader newspaper vending box next to the altar stores … Read moreThe Rogers Park Black Lives Matter Shrine, Updated

The Placebo Magick Podcast on the Metaphorical Afterlife

“Placebo Magick” is Garrison Benson’s podcast series explaining his concept of “magick” from a strictly non-supernatural, psychological point of view; as he says, “magick is a metaphor, and metaphors are magickal”. In this episode he considers the advantages of imaginary afterlives and also the practical legacy lessons to be drawn from this perspective on death … Read moreThe Placebo Magick Podcast on the Metaphorical Afterlife

Falling Flower: a Simple Memorial Ritual

Oh, that sweet fragrance of falling petals…. With kind words, it is ended. Farewell. The time to go is now. It may be that the people who would most benefit from symbolic ritual are those who are least likely to partake in it. The inclination towards formal, poetic gestures in moments of truth may very … Read moreFalling Flower: a Simple Memorial Ritual

“Monuments to Unbelief”

Leigh E. Schmidt’s essay for Aeon.com examines the phenomenon of public memorials representing humanism, freethought and atheism: American freethinkers had long been preoccupied with the public memorialising of their incredulity and anticlericalism. They wanted to enshrine their commitment to scientific rationality over biblical revelation, their strict construction of church-state separation, and their worldly focus on … Read more“Monuments to Unbelief”