Originally published August 16, 2023 8:00 pm PDT
“Demons have a bad reputation, but maybe we’re just not very good at getting to know them.”
QUICK FACTS:
- The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis recently hosted a so-called family-friendly event in which guests participated in a “ceremony to summon and befriend” a demon.
- Artist Tamar Ettun, who has previously done demon-centered projects, was also featured in the event.
- The event included a pagan ritual and performance called “Lilit the Empathic Demon.”
- According to the Walker Art Center’s website, 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’—and then participate in a playful ceremony to summon and befriend their demon,” the description continued.
- “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,” the website adds. “This collective and playful demon summoning session will conclude with a somatic movement meditation, designed to help you befriend your shadows.”
OTHER WORKS BY ETTUN:
- Ettun’s artwork was previously exhibited at the Richard and Dolly Maass Gallery in New York.
- “The exhibition parts with the historical gender binarism that associates Lilith’s archetype with unchecked violence and manipulation; here, Lilit mediates the inner demons and renegade instincts that are deliberately silenced,” a description of the display reads.
- Ettun also has “Texts from Lilith” on her website and encourages people to text “SUMMON” to a particular number.
- When the number is texted, the individual will receive monthly messages with demon drawings and “somatic empathy.”
- According to an artist website, the demon Lilit came to Tamar “when she was at a residency, spending her days and nights in a haunted firehouse-turned-museum making knots and having just found out she was pregnant.”
BACKGROUND:
- The art center’s event follows a rise of Satanic clubs across the United States.
- The first Satan Club in the state of Colorado opened up at Paonia K-8 elementary school after a parent requested the club be created.
- June Everett, The Satanic Temple’s (TST) campaign director for the After School Satan Club program and ordained minister of The Satanic Temple, said that the first meeting had seven children in attendance and that the school principal was welcoming and professional.
