Join Eliza Swann for this lecture on the spiritual philosophies of Zosimos and how ancient alchemy can support our creative practices. ONLINE via the Philosophical Research Society.

In this 90 minute lecture, we'll learn about the ancient art of alchemy and how it can uplift and support us in diverse contemporary creative practices. We'll focus specifically on the creative and spiritual philosophies of Zosimos of Panopolis, an alchemist living in Egypt in the 3rd century CE. Against the wider backdrop of alchemical religion and philosophy, we'll examine Zosimos’s spiritual and artistic methods that use meditative practices, astrology, and the conjuration of the spirits of nature to achieve insight and transformation. Zosimos reveals an alchemy in which spiritual and material realities are ultimately nondual; in which materials become living bodies for divine spirits. In getting to know Zosimos, we can learn to employ his strategies for creative breakthrough and generative connection in our own lives.

Eliza Swann is an interdisciplinary artist, intuitive, writer, and educator based in New York City and Twentynine Palms, CA. Eliza received a BA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute, and an MFA from Central St. Martins in London. They are currently teaching alchemy at the Pratt Institute. Eliza founded the Golden Dome School in 2014 as an educational and curatorial platform for artists to explore mysticism.

This event is in being held in support of BOILING AND DIVINE: Art and Alchemy with the Golden Dome School on view in the Hansell Gallery from 9/17-10/15.