Magic Maker: Creativity as Magical Act

NOTE: If you are having trouble purchasing tickets in-app on an iPhone, this is a known Eventbrite bug. Switch to a web browser on your phone, or purchase on a desktop browser.

This class will be conducted online via Zoom. A recording will be made available to attendees for 30 days after the class ends. Please not there are no refunds within seven days of the scheduled event.

Artists are not only makers—they are magicians. In her new book Magic Maker: The Enchanted Path to Creativity, Pam Grossman traces the hidden lineage of creative magic, from Sylvia Plath’s Ouija-inspired poetry to Hilma af Klint’s painting séances, Octavia Butler’s manifestation rituals, and David Bowie’s divinatory songwriting. She shows how imagination itself is a form of enchantment: a way of collaborating with unseen forces to bring the ineffable into form.

To celebrate the release of Magic Maker, Pam will present an illustrated talk on this enchanted history and the techniques that can help unlock creativity today.

She will be joined by poet and mystic Janaka Stucky, who will expand the conversation by drawing on Kabbalah, Western Hermeticism, and Advaita Vedanta.

Together we will explore how different mystical traditions converge on a single truth: that the creative act mirrors the Great Work itself—a ritual of purification, transmutation, and communion with the divine.

This evening is both a book launch and an initiatory workshop—an invitation to see your own creative practice as an enchanted path.

Two ticket options available:

• Event access
• Event access + signed hardcover copy of Magic Maker** [LIMITED to 50]

Join us for a night of vision, conversation, and creative awakening.

* Registrants will be emailed a link to the Zoom meeting the night before our class

** Orders with a book will be emailed instructions to have their signed copies mailed to them.

[Image: Gertrude Abercrombie, "Where or When (Things Past)," 1948]

-----

An integral part of occult practice is not only recognizing divinity in oneself, but also in others. While we continue to offer these classes and do our creative work, we also actively seek ways to cultivate a just and equitable society. Here are some of the organizations that we are actively donating to in this moment, and hope you will also consider donating to while you register for our class:

• Palestinian Children's Relief Fund
• ACLU
• Black Lives Matter
• Doctors Without Borders
• Never Again Action
• National Network of Abortion Funds

Pam Grossman is a writer, curator, and teacher of magical practice and history. She is the host of the internationally beloved podcast, The Witch Wave and the author of Magic Maker, Waking the Witch, and What Is A Witch. She is also coeditor and coauthor of the Witchcraft volume of Taschen’s Library of Esoterica series. Her writing has appeared in numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Ms. Magazine, and she has been a featured speaker at venues including MoMA: The Museum of Modern Art, Columbia University, and IFC Center. Her workshops on spellcraft, creativity, and occult history have been attended by thousands of students around the world. She divides her time between Brooklyn and the Western Catskills alongside her husband and their two feline familiars. Follow her at pamgrossman.com and @phantasmaphile.

Janaka Stucky is a mystic poet, performer, and founding editor of the award-winning press Black Ocean. He is a two-time National Haiku Champion, and is the author of four poetry collections including Ascend Ascend (Third Man Books, 2019), which was released as a live performance with cellist Lori Goldston by Neurot Recordings in May 2023. His writing has appeared in a variety of publications such as The Huffington Post and Poetry Foundation—and has been profiled in The Believer, Vice, and BOMB Magazine. He incorporates esoteric & occult influences to develop a trance poetics, which he has taught or performed in over 60 cities around the world. You can learn more about him at janakastucky.com and @janaka_stucky.