The faculty of Phoenix Rising Academy comprises accomplished scholars, all of whom hold at least a Master’s degree in their field, and all of whom have considerable academic experience.

United by a desire to see education regain its true purpose as laid out in the mission statement, as well as to provide knowledge which can have an immediate effect in students’ lives, their courses have been designed especially for  Phoenix Rising Academy, while many of them also teach in universities and other accredited institutions around the world.

Cody Bahir is currently working toward obtaining his PhD in Philosophy and Religion specializing in the intellectual and spiritual traditions of China at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Prior to pursuing his doctorate he was faculty at the graduate and rabbinic programs of the American Jewish University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion where he respectively obtained his BA in Classical Judaic Studies and MA in Jewish Studies, specializing in Medieval Kabbalah. His MA thesis was entitled Aina d’Satna I’la’ah: The Incarnate Wickedness of the Zoharic Evil Eye and its Transformation from Superstition to Cosmology.

Though as an academic he describes himself as a “phenomenological contextualist”; one whose methodology aims at understanding each tradition on its own terms and within its own context from the vantage point of a practitioner, he conducts quite a bit of comparative work. This methodology is no doubt linked to his own spiritual path.

Born into and raised by an evangelical Christian family in rural Kentucky, he left home at the age of fourteen to adopt the lifestyle of an authentic Hasidic Jew. After spending four years of translating Hebrew and Aramaic texts into Yiddish, the latter being the only language he was allowed to speak, in such places as Brooklyn, NY and Zefat (Safed), Israel-the home of the Kabbalistic Renaissance and birthplace of Lurianic Kabbalah, he left the Hasidic lifestyle and began to pursue the academic study of philosophy and religion.

Cody Bahir’s core areas of interest currently include but are not limited to: Daoist monastic practices, Daoist influence on Tantric Buddhism, Comparative Jewish and Chinese mysticism, the notion of the demonic in the Zohar, Yi Jing (I-Ching) studies and the relationships between Western Esotericism, Jewish Kabbalah and Eastern traditions.

Additional to his faculty experience, he has also taught at a variety of settings including Synagogues, Adult Education programs as well as metaphysical and retreat centers.

Conference Papers:

• “Zen’s Civil War over the Definability of Consciousness: Medieval Asian Roots of Contemporary Conceptions of Consciousness.” Biannual Conference of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona. Tuscon Convention Center, Tuscon, AZ, 4/14/10

• “Individualistic Spiritual Medicine: Yang Zhu’s Prescription for Zhuangzi’s Diagnosis.” 6th International, Biannual Conference on Daoism. Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, 6/5/10
• “The Charitable Hedonism of Yang Zhu: Revisiting the Yang Zhu Chapter of the Liezi.” 44th Annual Conference of Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast. Portland State University, Portland, OR, 6/19/10 “Sexual Metaphor and Universal Love in the Chinese Classic of Change (Yi Jing).” Annual Conference of the Society of Asian and Comparative Philosophy. Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, CA, 6/19/10
• “Yin Yang Theory and the Tree of Life: A Comparison of Kabbalistic and Chinese Scriptural Interpretation.” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.
• Atlanta, GA, TBD Publications: “Sinic and Semitic Esoterica: Exploring the Bridge between Daoism and Kabbalah” Points East: The Quarterly Journal of the Sino-Judaic Institute Vol. 25, #2, 2010.

Austin Christopher Case is an MA graduate and Merit scholarship recipient in Western Esotericism and Mysticism from the department of Religious Studies at the University of Amsterdam, and holds a BA in Religious Studies and Esoteric Studies with a Minor in Philosophy, from Webster University, St. Louis.

His areas of focus have included ‘The Pragmatic Aspects of Paradigmatic Ritual Magic’ (BA thesis), while his MA thesis was entitled ‘Exploring Tenuous Spaces: A Psychological Investigation of Astral Projection in the Golden Dawn’ (acheived with Merit). He has received several scholarships and awards for his academic work, including Departmental Honors from Webster Religious Studies Department, the Webster University Arts and Sciences Scholarship and the SBC Foundation Scholarship.

Austin speaks six languages, with conversational skills in German, ancient Akkadian, French, Thai, and Dutch, has travelled extensively for volunteer work and is recipient of the World Traveler Award. Austin’s further areas of research interest include:

• The history of Kabbalah from roots in Merkavah mysticism to modern Esoteric and New Age traditions.
• Investigations of instances of induced altered states occurring in different Western Esoteric traditions.
• The historical delineation of Mesmerism to its influences in Parapsychology; focus on instances of Near Death Experiences.
• Analytical and iconographic inquiry into the influence of various esoteric traditions on Western Art from the Renaissance to the Modern/Post-modern.

Publications:

• “Exploring Tenuous Spaces: A Psychological Investigation of Astral Projection in the Golden Dawn”; MA Thesis – University of Amsterdam, 2009. http://bit.ly/awcQ0n
• “A Mentally Integrative Model of Abraham Abulafia’s Mysticism”; University of Amsterdam, 2009.http://bit.ly/aMo7i3
• “From the Spirit to the Brain: The Transition from Parapsychological to Brain Based Models of Explaining Near-death Experiences”; University of Amsterdam, 2009. http://bit.ly/93HlSq (Publication in ‘Skepsis’ pending.)
• “The Psychedelic Hermes: Endogenous DMT in the Hermetica”; University of Amsterdam, 2009.http://bit.ly/aaKWXN

Sasha Chaitow  is the founding director  of Phoenix Rising Academy.

Sasha Chaitow  is conducting doctoral research at  the Centre for the Study of Myth at the University of Essex. She holds an MA in Western Esotericism (EXESESO, Exeter, 2008) and an MA in English Literature (Indianapolis-Athens, 2004). Her current area of study focuses on French Symbolist Art in relation to the French Occult Revival in 19^th century France, and her MA thesis (distinction) focused on the alchemical emblems in Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens.

Sasha is the founding director of Phoenix Rising Academy of Esoteric Studies and Creative Arts, (London and Athens), an independent academic institution for the promotion of the Academic Study of Western Esotericism and Art. Her research interests include art and esotericism, mind and consciousness, ritual and initiation, and Modern Greek Masonic history.She is also an artist, painting portraits on commission and alchemically surrealist-symbolic images on inspiration. Sasha directed the 1st International Phoenix Rising Conference entitled “A Dying Society or a Renaissance for the 21st Century, ” which took place on 6th & 7th November 2009, in Athens, Greece. She was also coordinator for Greece for the 2008 Esoteric Quest Conference, on the theme of Ancient Greek Mysteries and Philosophy, hosted by the New York Open Centre in Samothrace, Greece.

Click here for a list of publications and conference papers by Sasha Chaitow

For more on Sasha’s academic research, see http://peladan.orgFor her art and creative writing portfolio, see http://istar.phoenixrising.org.gr 

I am currently a doctoral candidate at the University of South Florida working on my dissertation under the direction of Dr. Phillip Sipiora. I expect to complete and defend my dissertation on the relationship between art and religion in the work of W. B. Yeats and Aleister Crowley by May 2011.

I have experience teaching a variety of subjects in the humanities, including courses in English literature and composition, art history, and film. Additionally, for the past two years I have conducted classes as a teaching assistant for Dr. Stephanie Moss for the course Literature and the Occult.

In addition to my doctoral work in literature and film, my educational background includes degrees in art and art education, with extensive undergraduate coursework in music as well. These wide-ranging interests give me a distinct advantage in inter-disciplinary teaching.

My dissertation topic reflects several of my scholarly interests: the relationship between religion, ritual, myth, magic, and the arts, and the work of William Butler Yeats and Aleister Crowley. I am tracing the theoretical conjunctions of art and religion in the Romantic era, and, building upon this foundation, analyzing the performative use of myth and ritual in the poetry and plays of Yeats and Crowley. In order to further my study of Yeats, in 2008 I received scholarships to attend the Yeats International Summer School in Sligo, Ireland.

My other research interests include speculative and dystopian fiction and film. My areas of focus for my doctoral exams were 19th century British literature, early 20th century British and American literature (with an emphasis on poetry), and film (for which I earned a pass plus, i.e. pass with distinction).

In addition to my scholarly pursuits, I am a practicing artist and musician. For my visual art, I work primarily in oil and acrylic. One of my major paintings, Fractal Tree of Life (1997), is on permanent display in the Isis-Urania Temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in Florida. My musical pursuits include bass guitar and vocal work with a number of bands throughout the years, in addition to teaching lessons on bass guitar.

Geoffrey Cornelius has over many years undertaken the study of contemporary Western spirituality and divinatory practice, arguing for the appropriateness of academic exchange and discourse in these areas. His main area of divinatory interest and practice is astrology, but he has also studied New Age trends in Tarot and its adoption of I Ching, the classical Chinese oracle.

His approach is informed by a wide range of reading in ancient and modern philosophy, psychoanalytic thought, and anthropology. Dr. Cornelius has practised and taught astrology for many years. He has taught at Masters level on astrological and divinatory practice and theory at the University of Kent between 2003 and 2010, and has a Ph.D. from Kent on the hermeneutics of divination.

“I came into astrology directly through the I Ching and a love of divination. I had, therefore, already come with a particular attitude toward the practice of astrology, viewing it within the context of other divinatory practices. That means I was already comparing the horoscope with the random cut of the Tarot deck, the throw of the coins, or the division of the yarrow stalks.

For many people, however, astrology is the first form of symbolic thinking they have explored, making their experience somewhat different. For them, astrology seems to be evidence of a universal and impersonal pattern, at work at all times and places, lawful and not random at all, and certainly not in any way dependent on a diviner’s decision to take a divination. Because of my avid interest in divination and symbol systems, in my early years in astrology I eagerly attended astrology lectures and read astrology books for illumination on the topic.

Lecture after lecture and book after book, I almost never encountered the word “divination” in relation to astrology, except in the general sense already mentioned, that astrology allows us to intuit some higher reality. But never in the sense that the formal practice of astrology – its methods, techniques, and its mode of interpretation – is a divinatory system that can be studied in the light of what we know about that whole gamut of practices called divination. It is my understanding that the core of our practice has omen reading at its origins.

Astral omen reading goes back at least to the civilization of Mesopotamia, to a truly archaic mode of consciousness that observed the omen as significant. This idea is intimately bound up with the ancient conception that the whole universe is filled with spiritual being and intelligence of all grades and levels both close to us and far from us. These conceptions have come from societies with the polytheistic and pagan understanding that the planets, the stars, and all things of nature are innately divine. The work of the diviner and the stargazer is to divine, or know, the will or movement of these spirit beings and how they relate to us.”

Click here for article by Kirk Little, ‘Geoffrey Cornelius: defining the divinatory perspective’

Publications

• Chicane: Double-Thinking and Divination among the Witch-Doctors’, in Divination: Perspectives for a New Millennium’ , ed. Patrick Curry (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010) 119-142.
• Astrology for Beginners (with Maggie Hyde and Chris Webster, London: Icon Books, 1995)
• The Moment of Astrology (Bournemouth: Wessex Astrologer, 2002)
• The Language of Stars and Planets: A Visual Key to Celestial Mysteries (with Paul Devereux, London: Duncan Baird, 2003)
• ‘Verity and the Question of Primary and Secondary Scholarship in Astrology’, in Astrology and the Academy, eds. Nicholas Campion, Patrick Curry and Michael York, Bristol: Cinnabar Books, 2004), 103-113.
• The Complete Guide to the Constellations (London: Duncan Baird, 2005)
• Forward to Horary Astrology: the Art of Astrological Divination (Derek Appleby,Astrology Classics, 2005).
• ‘Introduction’ to The Imaginal Cosmos: Astrology, Divination and the Sacred eds. A.Voss & J. Hinson Lall (Canterbury: University of Kent, 2007)
• ‘The Unique Case of Interpretation: Explorations in the Epistemology of Astrology’ in Seeing with Different Eyes: Essays in Astrology and Divination eds. P. Curry & A. Voss (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008) 227-256

Originally from Mexico, Orlando was first introduced to esotericism through his mother’s Mexican shamanic practice. During his adolescent years he felt that the Western Esoteric tradition was a better fit for him and started to study and practice with several esoteric organizations operating in Mexico City, such as the Theosophical Society, AMORC and Builders of the Adytum.

In addition to his interest in the esoteric, Orlando had a keen interest in science and mathematics. He completed his bachelor degree in Mathematics and Physics at the Faculty of Sciences of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM). After graduating he emigrated to France where he obtained his DEA in Mathematical Physics from the Université de Paris, where his research focused on mathematical aspects of Quantum Mechanics. In 1998 he moved to the UK where he continued his scientific studies at King’s College, London.

During his time in France and the UK he remained involved with several esoteric organizations. At a London meeting of the Theosophical Society Orlando first encountered the academic study of Western Esotericism and so embarked on the EXESESO MA in Western Esotericism at the University of Exeter, from which he successfully graduated in 2007.

Orlando’s scientific background and lifelong involvement with esotericism led him to pursue doctoral research at EXESESO bridging the two, and he is presently finishing a PhD dissertation about the esoteric influences on the Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics proposed by the American physicist David Bohm. Orlando lives in Cambridge, UK.

I am an Anthropologist specializing in contemporary Celtic cultures, with an emphasis on modern Cornwall and contemporary Esoteric culture and history. I received my PhD in 1998 from UCLA in Folklore and Mythology and my dissertation was on the intersections between various constructions of Celtic identity in Cornwall, both ethnic and spiritual. I have worked with the Cornish since 1994, and have also undertaken comparative research in Ireland, Wales, and the U.S.

In terms of Western Esoteric Studies I have particular interests in the intersections between esoteric movements and intellectual history, identity politics, research methods and also in Pagan and esoteric spiritual tourism. My recent projects have focused on a study of the life and work of Surrealist artist Ithell Colquhoun where I seek to understand her position within the development of several different streams of British intellectual and spiritual culture in the mid to late 20th century.

I am a specialist in online learning and teaching and have been designing and teaching online courses in the Humanities and Anthropology since 1999. I’m a firm believer in the power and potential for online and distance learning to reach people and also to bring together people from different communities in learning experiences. I teach as an adjunct (or, as an “academic mercenary”) for four different schools in the United States, and work entirely online. I rather love it.

In my spare time I enjoy walking, writing, going to the gym, barbershop singing, occasional video blogging, and supporting the local roller derby team. I live in San Jose California with my husband Rhett and our two cats Opie and Germoe, but I can also be frequently found in London or Cornwall.

Click here for a list of Select Publications by Amy Hale

Daryl Morazzini received his BA from the University of Southern Maine in Philosophy and History, with a minor in Creative Writing. He graduated magna cum laude, honors in both philosophy and history, a recipient of a presidential scholarship, and he was the Student Commencement Speaker for his graduating class. His multidisciplinary approach to academics, brought him to Yale Divinity School, where he received his Masters of Religious Studies in Religion and Literature, his work focusing on the mystical and occult aspects of Literature. From there he studied at Andover Newton Theological Seminary, as well as Boston University School of Theology, before deciding the priesthood was not for him.

He received his MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, in Creative NonFiction, while doing intense study on Mysticism, Esoterics, and the Goth in Literature. His areas of expertise and interest include the intersection between Religion and Literature (especially where mysticism and esoteric subjects appear), Literature and the Occult, and the genre of the Gothic. He has taught at Newbury College, Emmanuel College, and Tufts University.

Daryl lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where he teaches Literature and Religion classes at Emmanuel College through their GPP program, as well as in person at Mars Hill College. A lifelong student of Ceremonial Magick, and Goth enthusiast, he is currently pursuing a career as a writer, completing his first Memoir and book of Short Fiction, as well as doing deep research on Southern Gothic and Folklore.

Click here for a list of Daryl Morazzini’s published works.

Dr. Stanley Sfekas is professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Indianapolis/Athens Campus and was born in the United States. After receiving his B.A. in Philosophy and English from the University of Maryland, he went on to earn both his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from New York University. His doctoral dissertation is titled “The Problem of Individuation in Aristotelian Metaphysics”. Dr. Sfekas has taught in various institutions of higher education including Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, The New York Institute of Technology, George Washington University in Washington D.C., and the American College of Southeastern Europe.

Dr Sfekas has also published scholarly articles and books and has been a critic for the American Philosophical AssociationGreece. and several international journals. He has been the book critic for the international journal, Philosophical Inquiry. He has also been the educational advisor to the Fulbright Foundation in

As a public lecturer in the Athenian academic community, Dr. Sfekas has delivered over 150 public lectures since 1986 and frequently appeared on Greek television as an academic spokesman. Apart from his scholarly publications, he has translated, between 1995 and the present, the scripts of seven historical films and 35 archaeological documentaries. He was also the philosophical consultant to the various productions.

Dr. Sfekas appeared in 12 televised episodes of the documentary “From Aristotle to Hawking”, speaking on Aristotleand Ancient Greek Cosmology, and was also the translator of the series from theGreek to the English language.

Click here for a partial list of publications by Stanley Sfekas

I am currently a lecturer in Religious Studies in the School of European Culture and Languages at the University of Kent, where I am the Director of the MA in the Cultural Study of Cosmology and Divination.

I completed my first degree in Combined Arts at the University of Leicester, followed by a Diploma in Early Music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. After working for several years as both a professional musician and administrator (for Anthony Rooley and the Consort of Musicke), I studied for an MA in Music Performance Studies at the City University, London. By this time I had been introduced to the writing of the Renaissance philosopher and astrologer, Marsilio Ficino, and had become immersed in the world of 15th century music and magic. I therefore decided to embark on a Ph.D. to explore the generally misunderstood astrological practice of Ficino. This was completed in 1992 as ‘Music, Astrology and Magic: the astrological music therapy of Marsilio Ficino and his role as a Renaissance Magus’.

As a practising astrologer and musician myself, I have always felt it is vital to understand the phenomenology of practice as a basis for study, and this has continued to inform my research and teaching. A highpoint of my career was the devising and making of a CD, Secrets of the Heavens, an imaginative reconstruction of Ficino’s magical Orphic Singing. The live performance in a medieval church in London, complete with the appropriate incense for each deity, was an event in which pagan and Christian spirituality merged in true Renaissance spirit and I regard it as the impetus for all my work on the relationship between the imagination and religious experience.

Since 2000 I have been teaching at the University of Kent, at first for the MA in the Study of Mysticism and Religious Experience, out of which emerged the MA in the Cultural Study of Cosmology and Divination in 2006. The MA was established due to the generous sponsorship of the Sophia Trust, and has focussed on divinatory theory and practice, symbolic interpretation, the function of the imagination as a mode of knowledge and traditional cosmology. I have published numerous papers on Ficino, as well as an edited collection of his astrological writingsfor North Atlantic Books, Western Esoteric Masters series. I am now moving into the territory of symbolism and the imaginal, exploring the erotic life of statues, Life between lives and past-life therapy, ancient Greek mysteries and the metaphysics of divination. For the MA programme at Kent I have been offering modules on The Imaginal Cosmos and Cosmology and the Arts, which investigate the Platonic cosmos, neoplatonic theurgy, Renaissance astrology and magic, the nature of the symbol, Corbin and the mundus imaginalis, mystery initiation and the cosmic dimensions of music and literature.

I live with my two teenage sons and when not occupied with my work am learning to be a jazz and rock drummer.

Click here for full list of publications by Angela Voss

Jason Lawton Winslade is an initiate in several esoteric traditions, including Hermeticism, Wicca, and the Academy, which led to his PhD in Performance Studies at Northwestern University in 2008. Since 1992, he has studied esotericism as both a scholar and a practitioner, combining his interest in ritual theatre, performance art, postmodern theory, popular culture, and ecstatic drumming and music. He concentrated on literature, theatre and film as an undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame, and specialized in avant-garde theatre and Native American art and performance for his MA at the University of Michigan. For his graduate work in Performance Studies at Northwestern University, he examined anthropology, ethnography, post-structuralism, religion, and performance theory. His dissertation focused on Western initiation rites and their relation to texts, rhetoric, activism, and popular culture.

He has taught courses at several universities on rites of passage, mythology, folklore, occultism in media and politics, performance of literature, gender studies, and writing. For many years, he has taught seminars on occultism and popular culture, comic books, and a popular course on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

His publications have been on wide-ranging topics such as witchcraft on television, kabbalah and popular culture, initiatory practices in participatory theatre, reality tv and occultism, esoteric themes in comic books, and performance practices at Pagan festivals and fire circles. He has presented both scholarly and personal work in the form of academic papers, workshops and live performances at academic conferences, counter-culture festivals, and art and theatre festivals in the US and UK.

As a scholar and a performer, he is interested in performance and the esoteric in their myriad manifestations, whether that performance takes place on a stage, in a ritual space, online, or in everyday life. He rejects the notion that performance always implies an inauthenticity and is a firm believer in the notion of alchemical performance, that through performance modes like singing, music, drumming, dance, and theatre, practitioners can transform their work and their lives, particularly when done in a ritual space, like a communal fire.

Selected Publications:

(2010 “‘The Magic Circus of the Mind’: Alan Moore’s Promethea and the Transformation of Consciousness through Comics,” co-authored with Christine Hoff Kraemer in Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books, edited by A. David Lewis and Christine Hoff Kraemer, Continuum Press.

(2009) “Alchemical Rhythms: Fire Circle Culture and the Pagan Festival” in Handbook of Contemporary Paganism, ed. James R. Lewis and Murphy Pizza, Brill Press, 241-279.

(2003) “The (Oc)cult of Personality: Initiating the Audience in The Edwardian Mysteries”, in Audience Participation: Essays on Inclusion in Performance, ed. Susan Kattwinkel, Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 199-212.

(2000) “Techno-Kabbalah: The Performative Language of Magick and the Production of Occult Knowledge,” The Drama Review 44.2, 84-100.