Program 2026
Working version – subject to further changes
(Lecture & information / Panel discussion / Accompanying programme / Blocks and languages / * short break)
- Friday 30 October -
12:00 - Tour of Brno's occult sites - advance reservation by email required (Czech/Slovak, English)
16:00 - Opening of the exhibitions on occult art and occult practice (Czech/Slovak, English)
16:30 - Panel discussion: Practical Magic in the 21st Century? - Ritual, Experience and the Magical Perception of the World (Czech/Slovak)
Guests: Lenka Jelena Příplatová, Olga Čejková, Zuzana Antares, Matouš Mokrý; moderated by Petr Soukup
*
OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE CONFERENCE
18:00 - Official Opening & Introduction of Conference Team (Czech/Slovak, English)
The opening address will be delivered by PhDr. Radoslav Ragač, PhD
*
19:00 - Mgr. Jan Ševčík: Jewish Magic and Mysticism in Czechoslovakia (Czech/Slovak)
*
20:00 - Magical Theatre (Slovak & English)
*
20:30 - Social gathering with buffet and “guitar night”
- Saturday 31 October -
MORNING BLOCK
8:30 - Tea ceremony
9:00 - Panel discussion: Syncretism in Magical Theory and Practice (Czech/Slovak)
Guests: to be announced
*
9:45 - Olga Čejková: Science, Faith and Superstition -
The Eternal Conflict Between Different Interpretations of the World (Czech)
*
10:30 - Róbert Adamec: The Chaldean Oracles and the Origins of Theurgy (Slovak)
*
11:15 - Ivo Chmelař: Josef Šimánek -
A Half-Forgotten Poet or an Initiate of the Mysteries? (Czech)
12:00 - Lunch
AFTERNOON BLOCK
13:45 - Calligraphy and tattoo performance
14:00 - György Szönyi: John Dee, An Early Modern Proteus (English)
*
14:45 - John Meek: Comparative Angelology as Seen In the Angels of the Week (English)
*
14:45 - Sasha Chaitow: Byzantine Alchemy (English)
*
15:30 - Noel Putnik: Structuring the Occult -
Agrippa’s Discursive Strategy and the Evolution of European Magic (English)
*
16:15 - Ike Baker: The Initiatory Paradigm of Transformative Mythologies (English)
*
17:00 - Break, book fair and special programme
EVENING BLOCK
18:00 - Panel discussion: Alchemy Across Cultures: Myth, Practice and Transformation (English)
Guests: Brian Cotnoir, Pablo V. Cazares; moderated by Jan Krása
*
19:30 - Underground ritual
*
20:30 - Dinner and social evening
- Sunday 1 November -
MORNING BLOCK
8:30 - Tea ceremony
9:00 - David Sater: Mythology in Alchemy (English)
*
9:45 - Jelena Lenka Příplatová: From Bowerbirds to Ceremonial Magic -
How Ritual as an Object of Study in the Natural and Social Sciences (Czech)
*
10:30 - Olha Tynytska: Visual Grammar of Protection -
Runic Magic and the Animal Style in Viking Age Scandinavia (English)
*
11:15 - Zuzana Hrašková: The Metaphysics and Occult Nature of Love (Slovak)
12:00 - Lunch and Occult swap
AFTERNOON BLOCK
14:00 - Greek performance
14:15 - Veronika Šulcová: GEDE: Death, Sex and Dictatorship (Czech)
*
15:00 - Feđa Šlaki: Mythologized Lives in the History of Occultism (English)
*
15:45 - Kateřina Horská: Between Two Worlds? The Experience of Magic and Everyday Life (Czech)
*
16:30 - Panel discussion: Occult Imagination: Between Myth, Art and Reality (Czech/Slovak)
Guests: to be announced
*
17:30 - Closing Ceremony of the Conference
