The Walker Art Center is a modern art museum in Minneapolis. Alpha News reports that the Walker has just hosted a family-friendly demon summoning event:
The Walker Art Center held a pagan ritual geared toward families last weekend, with a performance called “Lilit the Empathic Demon.”
“Demons have a bad reputation, but maybe we’re just not very good at getting to know them,” an event description reads.
The event, which took place at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, was part of the Walker’s Free First Saturdays program and featured artist Tamar Ettun who creates “demon traps.”
Based on her/they’s web site, I think this may be an example of a demon trap:
The Walker’s web site explains:
At August Free First Saturday, Brooklyn-based artist Tamar Ettun (she/they) will present Lilit the Empathic Demon. The performance is inspired by Lilit, an aerial spirit demon with origins in Sumerian, Akkadian, and Judaic mythology. Families are invited to create a vessel to trap the demon that knows them best—perhaps the “demon of overthinking”—
Or it might be, say, the “demon of dependence on government” or the “demon of getting hysterical whenever the weather is hot.”
–and then participate in a playful ceremony to summon and befriend their demon.
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After designing your trap, Lilit the Empathic Demon will come from the dark side of the moon to lead you in locating your feelings using ancient Babylonian techniques. This collective and playful demon summoning session will conclude with a somatic movement meditation, designed to help you befriend your shadows.
I share Hotspur’s skepticism about the efficacy of calling forth demons. Although, to be fair, much of what goes on in today’s America can only be described as demonic, and by demonic I don’t mean playful.
There is much more about Ms. (if I can be so presumptuous) Ettun’s work here, including this video on demon-trapping:
You may wonder, who pays for stuff like this? The answer, of course, is that taxpayers do. Because we have nothing better to do with our money than try to summon “empathic” demons from the dark side of the moon to help us locate our feelings.
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