The Expanding Salon on Freemasonry for Women and Men

The Salon on Freemasonry for Women and Men was founded approximately six months ago in the Los Angeles areas as an informal meetup for an educated discussion and exploration of the subject of Liberal Freemasonry for women and men. It has with the New Year expanded and now the Salon on Freemasonry for Women and Men is meeting on both coasts. The Salon is pleased to report that yesterday, Jan 29, The Philadelphia Chapter of the Salon held its first meeting. A short piece of Architecture based on an original Spanish one was presented and a general discussion was had, well lubricated by fine coffee, tea, and some truly sinful chocolate.

The Salon has this to say about itself: "'a salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to please or to educate" ("aut delectare aut prodesse est"). Salons, commonly associated with French literary and philosophical movements of the 17th century and 18th centuries, were carried on until quite recently, in urban settings, among like-minded people.' The current Salon is intended to be a gathering of people all who are inspiring, equal and progressive/creative in outlook. Initial topics are the value spheres of the arts, ethics and science in Freemasonry and in wider civil society. Non-Mason and Mason are invited. Other areas of discussion are the traditions, current status and future developments of Freemasonry. Anyone with a disciplined curiosity about human experience and interested in meeting like-minded and new people should join. One unifying purpose of the group is the comparative and global study of tradition, initiation, myth, symbol and renewal."

The Salons, both the Los Angeles and Philadelphia chapters, may be accessed through the Meetup.com site.

http://www.meetup.com/Salon-on-Freemasonry-for-Women-and-Men-Los-Angeles/

http://www.meetup.com/Salon-on-Freemasonry-for-Women-and-Men-Philadelphia/

It should be noted that the salons, while having a web location exist primary to arrange monthly face to face meetings, and thus are not open to anonymous web memberships.

And so steps are being taken to assist in the growth of a responsible, serious Liberal Freemasonry in the United States.

Fifth International Conference: Mystic and Esoteric Movements in Theory and Practice

HISTORY AND DISCOURSE
Historical and Philosophical Aspects of
the Study of Esotericism and Mysticism

2-5 December, 2011 - St Petersburg (Russia)

Keynote lecture: Dr. Prof. Wouter J. Hanegraaff (University of Amsterdam)

The historical approach plays a highly important role in the study of mystical and esoteric movements as all other approaches are to an extent reliant on it. The extraordinary importance of historical analyses requires, however, special attention. It is well-known that over the course of the history of western culture mystical and esoteric phenomena have been to a great extent excluded from the cultural mainstream and have often been oppressed by dominant ‘exoteric’ discourses. This is because historians of esotericism and mysticism are often confronted with the discursive nature of historical witnesses and descriptions and are called for "not confusing our constructs with historical reality” (W. J. Hanegraaff). Could a supposedly realistic description of some esoteric phenomenon merely be a result of polemical discourse? Do clichés or even pure inventions appear in place of expected historical analysis? How do discursive formations influence the way mystical and esoteric aspects of religious culture have been perceived and represented during a particular period of time in history? How can a historian ‘separate the wheat from the chaff’ in (self)descriptions of mystical and esoteric phenomena? These and other related issues still call for more awareness and conceptualization within historical and philosophical research of deviant religious and cultural phenomena.

Conference Languages
Russian & English

Conference Fee
The conference fee is 40 Euro (for participants who are not from countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States). The fee for non-CIS citizens who plan to arrive in Russia by opening a tourist visa is 30 Euro. The fee is to be paid upon registration.
Addresses of the Conference
191023 Saint-Petersburg, 15 Fontanka Naberezhnaya.
Phone: +7 812 3143521 and +7 921 3843029
Conference E-mail and Homepage

For additional information about the conference, please send an e-mail to the conference organizers (esot.conference2011@gmail.com).
The latest information about the conference will be published at the homepage of the Association for the study of Esotericism and Mysticism (ASEM) http://asem.ucoz.org/