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📅 13–14 November 2026📍 Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania
V. Putvinskio g. 23 · Room 106
🌕 The Baltic states – embracing Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia – hold a uniquely layered esoteric landscape shaped by pre-Christian traditions, folklore, modern occult revivals, cross-border exchanges, and contemporary spiritual subcultures. From Baltic neopaganisms and Theosophical networks to Soviet-era underground practices and emerging digital esoteric communities, the region offers a rich yet understudied field of inquiry.
🏵️ This conference brings together researchers working on historical, ethnographic, literary, artistic, philosophical, religious, and sociopolitical dimensions of esoteric thought and practice in the Baltic states, broadly interpreted.
🏛️ The conference explores regional traditions and mythologies; transmission and exchange; esotericism under political regimes; textual and artistic expressions; historical esotericism; contemporary spiritualities; and methodological and theoretical approaches to the study of esotericism in the Baltic context.
📖 The Book of Abstracts can be downloaded here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MelDaEMNFb7wGkwxNIYoMJBIH0TcWP9P/view?usp=sharing
PROGRAMME
FRIDAY, 13 NOVEMBER
10:00–11:15 | Registration
11:15–11:30 | Opening words
🔹 11:30–13:30 | Panel 1. Theosophy, Rationalism and Science
Moderator: Eglė Aleknaitė-Škarubskė
Tėja Snuviškė – Wilhelm Storost-Vydūnas (1868–1953): Theosophist, Mystic, and Public Pedagogue of Inner Transformation
Mait Talts – Brother Vahindra – An Esotericist or a Rationalist?
Vilius Dranseika – George Hackenschmidt and the Esoteric Borderlands of Physical Culture
Anita Stasulane – Konstantin Raudive and the Pursuit of “Scientific” Spiritualism
🍽️ 13:30–15:00 | Lunch
🔹 15:00–17:00 | Panel 2. Folklore, Mythology and Modern Paganism
Moderator: Adas Diržys
Ullrich R. Kleinhempel – Johann Gottfried Herder’s encounter with Latvian culture, and his philosophy of language and culture, as foundation for the Esoteric revival of Paganism, in the Baltics, and beyond
Andrius Kaniava – From the Black Book to the Snake-Master: Esoteric Themes in Lithuanian Folk Legend
Eglė Aleknaitė-Škarubskė – From National Religion to Hidden Knowledge: Diversity of Lithuanian Contemporary Paganism
Adam Ormes – Re-membering Prūsa: Linguistic Initiation and the Boundaries of Esotericism
☕ 17:00–17:30 | Coffee
🔹 17:30–19:00 | Panel 3. Concealed Teachings: Rosicrucian, Messianic and Kabbalistic
Moderator: Anita Stasulane
William L. Connelly (online) – The Fama Returned from Scandinavia: Bureus, Franckenberg, and the Baltic Export of Rosicrucian Reform
Giulio Dalla Grana – From Lithuania to Europe: Microhistorical Enquiries on the Hagiography of Andrzej Towiański (1799–1878)
Aušra Pažėraitė – Beyond Metaphor and Literalism: The Kabbalistic Hermeneutics of Rabbi Shlomo Elyashiv from Šiauliai
🎶 20:00 | Informal evening gathering & concert
After the Friday sessions, all conference participants are warmly invited to continue the evening informally over conversation and a drink at a concert featuring Society of the Silver Cross, Blood and Sun, and Linnea Hjertén.
📍 Klubas “Lemmy”, Girstupio g. 1, Kaunas
🎟️ Attendance is optional; admission and refreshments are at participants’ own expense.
Concert details: https://www.bandsintown.com/e/108938299-blood-and-sun-at-klubas-
***
SATURDAY, 14 NOVEMBER
🔹 9:00–11:00 | Panel 4. Science, Ideology and the Paranormal: Esotericism in Soviet and Post-Soviet Times
Moderator: Linas Tavaras
Mantas Antanas Davidavičius – Lysenkoism and Esoteric Epistemologies: Functional Analogies in the Lithuanian Case of Soviet Agrobiology
Emma Friedlander – “The Mystic Wave”: scientific atheists confront the New Age in the Baltics, 1982–1986
Kristel Kivari – Baltic Dowsers Association as a Network of Esoteric Inquiry. Some thoughts of Changing Tradition on “Earth Fields and Their Influence on Organisms”
Saulius Židonis – The Talgar Ring System in Lithuania (1991–1999): Reflex-Astrology, Biological Rhythms, and Psycho-Physical Training
☕ 11:00–11:30 | Coffee
🔹 11:30–13:00 | Panel 5. Literature, Art and Esoteric Imagination
Moderator: Andrius Kaniava
Gintautas Mažeikis – Four Theories about the Memory of Blood: Genealogy, Dignity, Rosicrucian Alchemy, and Witchcraft
Radvilė Racėnaitė – The Visual and Literary Works of Jurga Ivanauskaitė: Bridging Western and Oriental Aesthetics and Spirituality
Tereza Jobová – Visualising the Unseen: Photography as Haunted Medium in the Work of Agate Tūna
🍽️ 13:00–14:30 | Lunch
🔹 14:30–16:30 | Panel 6. Healing and Altered States of Mind
Moderator: Ina Kiseliova-El Marassy
Jolita Žukelienė – Shamanism as an Alternative Spiritual Practice in Lithuania
Linas Tavaras – Revealing the Mind: Psychedelia in Contemporary Lithuania
Andrus Tins – From Universal Life Force to Orgone Therapy: The Journey of a Concept from Ancient India to the 21st Century Estonian Practices
Reet Hiiemäe – Contemporary sauna rituals in Estonia as an autoethnographic research subject
☕ 16:30–17:00 | Coffee
🔹 17:00–18:30 | Panel 7. Remembering and Reinventing Tradition
Moderator: Kristel Kivari
Aliona Ikonnikova – Interpretations of the “Holy Fool” Phenomenon in the Vilnius Old Believer Community
Dovydas Skarolskis – How the East Recreates Europe’s Inner Orient: Central and East European Mythological and Religious Beings in Japanese Role-Playing Games, with Emphasis on the Baltic States
Ina Kiseliova-El Marassy – Localising the Religio Perennis: Algis Uždavinys and Traditionalist Esotericism in Lithuania
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Eglė Aleknaitė-Škarubskė · Adas Diržys · Andrius Kaniava · Ina Kiseliova-El Marassy · Kristel Kivari · Anita Stasulane · Linas Tavaras
ORGANISING INSTITUTIONS
Vytautas Magnus University · Daugavpils University · University of Tartu · Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore · Lithuanian Culture Research Institute · Vilnius University
PUBLICATION
Selected papers may be invited for inclusion in a planned edited volume in the Brill Esotericism Reference Library series focusing on Central and Eastern European esotericism.
🖼️ Cover image: Jurga Ivanauskaitė, The Path, from the series The Tibetan Book of the Dead (2000–2002). Property of A. Kumža. © R. Racėnaitė.
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Event venue
Vytautas Magnus MUN, V. Putvinskio gatvė 23, LT-44243 Kaunas, Lietuva, Kaunas, Lithuania
Tickets
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.