Esoterrorism, Occult Conspiracy, and Magical Treason: Political Demonology and Demonic Politics in Popular Culture

The Area for Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic for the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association invites paper proposals for a special panel on the intersections of demonology and politics in popular culture. 

These have been legion throughout history. The association of magical influence and secret societies with the pursuit of political power is ancient.  Those worldviews that have demonized esoteric, occult, and magical practices, especially when this antagonist projection is deployed for political purposes, have tended to reciprocally instigate their weaponization.  Overlay with legend and myth spawns increasingly fabulous examples of attempted magical murder of political opponents, multiple occult secret societies vying for influence, and esoteric plots to sway hearts, minds, rulers, and the spirits of nations themselves.  Darker imaginaries embrace demonic oppression, possession, and inhuman replacement of leaders religious and secular, infernal pacts on behalf of or against those in power, diabolical agents secretly pulling the strings, and terrible forbidden knowledge accessible to those with political or revolutionary capital. 

These tropes have inspired popular fiction and entertainment even prior to modernity, as accounts of rebel angels, demonic offspring, infernal familiars, and unclean spirits dwelling in the palaces, courts, and churches of Europe and Asia predate more familiar diabolical and conspiracist stories by centuries.  Already having their equivalents in the former “Third World”, the still-ongoing spread of European demonologies (and politics) through colonial power extension and religious conversion ensures that multiple layers of dark and fertile soil exist for the fabulous growth of novel demonological expressions extending their roots into revolutionary undergrounds and reaching up into the halls of state power.  Such representations in contemporary fiction have tended to greatly increase with the mainstreaming of esoteric, occult, and magical genre fiction, and such scenarios are now commonplace even in ostensibly secular representations of the past, particularly in speculative fiction.  The “occult Nazis” trope is so standard that its appearance barely requires alternate history, as their mainstream diabolization affords them access even to secular thrillers.  Christian spiritual warfare movements have embraced diabolization, demonology, and exorcism for decades.  Weaponized prayer is unremarkable, witch-covens publicly curse even the most influential political figures, and abortions continue to be identified as blood-sacrifices.  More extreme are the latest expressions of conspiracist demonologies associating hidden elites with predatory occult ritual abuse of children, reconfiguring ancient blood-libel tropes into novel forms.  Self-described “sinister” traditions combine diabolism with radical politics and accelerationist theory fueled by government-funded metafiction, while esoteric Traditionalist movements align themselves in support of exoteric nationalisms and conservatisms even as their own worldviews regard modernity itself as demonically degenerate.  Islamic radicals referring to the United States as “The Great Satan” is well-established rhetoric.  Russian state orthodox description of the West as Satanic, in what might be the ultimate post-Cold-War “Russian reversal”, owes much to the Neo-Traditionalist influence in Russia of figures like “Putin’s Rasputin”, Alexander Dugin.  Or at least this is what the emergent genre of “metaconspiracism” – conspiracism about the influence of conspiracism – would suggest.  Flourishing in popular journalism, independent conspiracism, mainstream entertainment, and niche interactive fiction,  the propagandistic deployment and metafictional entertainments of these tropes become increasingly accessible to political actors and creative artists alike, forming more cracks in the crumbling “fourth wall” between simulation and reality.

As such, this Area welcomes proposals relating to any aspect of the interaction of political and politicized demonology with popular culture.  Sufficient submissions will not be limited to a single special panel but organized into sub-thematic series, so all relevant and suitable proposals can be accepted.  For further details about the conference Area as a whole or to propose a contribution to these special panels, directly contact the Area Chair, Dr. George J. Sieg, at georgejsieg@gmail.com by November 14.  Given the proximity of the deadline, please phone (505) 440-2105 with any time-sensitive questions or concerns, as we value every proposal!