Dr Jenny Butler (Study of Religions, UCC), ‘Fairy Rings and Psychedelic Things: Interpretations of Fairy-Mushroom Encounters’

A diminutive fairy perched atop a large, white-spotted, red-coloured mushroom is a familiar image that appears in many contexts. This presentation traces the magical nature of mushrooms from Victorian-era literature, including Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, to cartoons of the 1980s and ‘90s to contemporary pop culture merchandise. In the folklore of Ireland and Britain, natural circular mushroom formations are known as ‘fairy rings’, considered to be the fairies’ dancing ground and entranceways to the otherworldly realm. Also frequent are legend motifs of being ‘turned around’, the experience of perceptual distortions of time or place, and visions or sightings of weird scenes and beings, which often correspond to first-hand accounts of psychedelic experience. Also explored in this analysis is the disjuncture between the more whimsical co-depiction of fairies and fungi that has persisted into modern pop culture and understandings of fairies and portals to the otherworld in spiritual traditions such as Paganism.

Dr Jenny Butler is a Lecturer in the Study of Religions Department at University College Cork and a Principal Investigator of UCC’s Sustainability Institute. She is a member of the Board of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE) and founder of the ESSWE-affiliated regional network, the Irish Network for the Study of Esotericism and Paganism (INSEP). She is a member of the Editorial Board of Monad: Journal of Occultural Studies and of Praxis-Knowledge, the journal of the Research Network for the Study of Esoteric Practices, and of The Pomegranate: International Journal of Pagan Studies. Her research interests are at the nexus of folklore and religion and she is currently conducting an ethnographic research project on the otherworld, legends and landscapes, which you can read more about at otherworldly.ie.

Patrick Everitt, ‘Entheogens, Esotericism, and Entities: Integrating weirdness in the psychedelic philosophies of Terence McKenna and Robert Anton Wilson’

Terence McKenna and Robert Anton Wilson were two highly influential thinkers in the late twentieth century psychedelic underground, whose work fits neatly into the categories of entheogenic esotericism (Hanegraaff, 2012) and psychedelic philosophy (Lyon, 2023). Their ritual use of psychedelics and their reflections upon their exceptional experiences, informed by theories and practices derived from traditional tribal shamanism, modern psychology, and the western esoteric traditions, not only helped shaped the underground psychedelic discourse, but also highlights the ongoing cultural tension between reconciling scientific, skeptical attitudes with radically non-ordinary and exceptional experiences. In the 1970s, McKenna and Wilson’s entheogenic use of psychedelics catalyzed a series of increasingly weird visionary experiences for both men, culminating in contact-like phenomena with seemingly autonomous yet utterly mysterious entities who functioned as initiatory guides in the visionary realm. Both went on to spend the remainder of their lives coming to terms with their exceptional experiences, while also shaping the underground discourse through their public speaking and writings about psychedelics and magic. This talk will explore their practitioner-centric approaches to integration, inspired by their own entheogenic use of psychedelics, as opposed to strictly therapeutic uses. A central component of their decades-long integration process involved navigating the tension between their scientific worldviews and their experiences of forms of weirdness which are traditionally ascribed to supernatural agency. Ultimately, both McKenna and Wilson rejected any supernatural interpretations of their exceptional entity-contact experiences and instead adopted a skeptical, non-dogmatic, multi-model approach which allowed them to embrace the mystery of their experiences while retaining not only their sense of proportion but also their sense of humour.

Patrick Everitt is an independent researcher of western esotericism and psychedelic philosophy from Ireland. He completed the Masters in Western Esotericism at the Center for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents in the University of Amsterdam, where his thesis investigated Aleister Crowley’s pioneering use of peyote for ceremonial magic in the first two decades of the twentieth century. His primary research interests are Aleister Crowley's philosophies of religion and magic, as well as entheogenic esotericism and psychedelic philosophy in the works of Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, and Terence McKenna. He has presented his research on esotericism, psychedelics, and philosophy at a range of international conferences and events, including the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism conference (ESSWE), the Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research (ICPR), the Occulture Conference, the Finnish Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelics (Psykedeelit), the Irish Network for the Study of Esotericism and Paganism workshop, Breaking Convention, the Altered Conference, and the O.Z.O.R.A. Festival.