About this Event
Saturday, January 16th – 7:30 PM – SMALL THEATER
LILITH INTENSIVE WORKSHOP + LECTURE WITH SCARLETT AMARIS: Refusal, Desire & the Dangerous Feminine
This intensive Workshop, Illustrated Lecture and Guided Visualization with esoteric author and screenwriter Scarlett Amaris (H.P. LOVECRAFT’S COLOR OUT OF SPACE) follows the ancient feminine figure of Lilith through her many cultural lives: from ancient night spirits and Jewish protective traditions to Adam’s rebellious first wife, the demonic counterpart of sacred order, and the magnetic woman of nineteenth-century literature and art. Amaris will explore what each period needed Lilith to embody, and why female refusal, sexual self-possession, and power outside sanctioned structures so often became signs of danger.
Particular attention will be given to the Romantic and later nineteenth-century fascination with the seductive yet perilous woman. Moving through Goethe’s Lilith, the fatal enchantress of Romantic poetry, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Lady Lilith, and John Collier’s serpent-wrapped figure, we will look at the femme fatale as both fantasy and warning: a woman made irresistible precisely because she cannot be governed. From there, the workshop will turn toward Lilith’s modern reclamation as a figure of autonomy, bodily sovereignty, exiled desire, and the refusal of inherited agreements.
The interactive portion will invite participants to reflect privately on an agreement they may have inherited rather than consciously chosen, what it asks them to suppress, how refusal has been named or judged, and what a more sovereign choice might sound like. Anyone who wishes may share a single insight with a partner or with the room, but disclosure will never be required. The intention is to make the workshop participatory and personally resonant without asking anyone to make their private life public.
The twenty-minute visualization will begin with grounding and move into an imagined encounter at a threshold or wilderness. Participants will be invited to meet the exiled or ungovernable aspect of the self and return with a symbolic object, word, image, or boundary. The tone will be spacious and invitational. Participants may sit, keep their eyes open, step out, or journal quietly instead, and the visualization will be followed by a few minutes of silence before the group comes back together.
Bio:
Scarlett Amaris is a screenwriter and author specializing in horror and occult studies. She co-wrote the anthology The Theatre Bizarre, the award-winning documentary L’Autre Monde, and H.P. Lovecraft’s Color Out of Space, starring Nicolas Cage. The latter earned her a finalist nomination from the Horror Writers Association for Superior Achievement in a Screenplay.
Scarlett has also written dark fiction novels and contributed to Making Magic Happen: Selected Essays from the Inaugural Magickal Women Conference. Her forthcoming book on dark goddesses will be published by Llewellyn Publishing in 2027. She hosts The Forbidden Pantheon, exploring the intersection of mythology, psychology, and magical practice.
Scarlett has presented at London’s Magickal Fiction Forum and Magickal Women Conference and appeared on numerous podcasts discussing the occult, witchcraft, weird fiction, and filmmaking. She has taught courses on modern witchcraft and world pantheons and is also an award-winning music video director. Scarlett currently has several film and television projects in development. Learn more at www.scarlettamaris.com.
Ticket Price: $20 advance / $25 at door.
Doors open at 7 PM, event at 7:30 PM at The 418 Project, 155 South River Street, downtown Santa Cruz at the Dragons Gate.
Event venue & nearby stays
Small Theater, 155 River Street South, Santa Cruz, United States
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