The Secret Life of Statues with Dr Angela Voss
..but you look at Apollo, and he looks back at you…When the true myth rises into consciousness, that is always its message. You must change your life. (Le Guin 1979)
Bringing images alive by the way we look and engage our imagination is a fundamental human experience, but one now relegated to the realms of superstition and illusion. But in the ancient world there was a fine line between the image and the living being it represented: statues could be prosecuted for committing crimes or celebrated as oracles, and they played a key role in theurgy.
In this session Dr Angela Voss will explore the experience of living statues and what it means when we find our imaginations so engaged with images that we see them as living, breathing beings. She will look at some powerful examples of statuary and consider the ancient practice of telestike or statue animation as a ritual which could eventually lead to the divinisation of the celebrant’s own soul through practices of active imagination.
Dr Angela Voss has a special interest in statues and their role in theurgy. She has directed two MA programmes in Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred in Canterbury, and has written extensively on Renaissance music, astrology, symbolism, esoteric traditions and transformative learning. She has always been a bridge-builder between the worlds of esoteric philosophy and practice, academic research and creativity. She can be contacted by email.
Tickets: £10 for an invitation on Zoom.