How do we gather amidst a collapse of empire time to observe and read the living world together with people? kL Mays and Alice Sparkly Kat are two shamans-in-training who facilitate an ongoing series about elemental divination. The workshops, which take place on riverbeds, piers, beaches, graveyards, parks, and the street call on participants to read for the elements of fire, water, wood, metal, earth, and air in places that are as historically sacred as they are ordinary. As wildfires, floods, agricultural overproduction, and mining disorient and displace most of us, our hope has been that elemental divination can give people a way to find coherency in time by relating to what we see together. In this age of speculation, people's divination is more important than ever because the people's divination is how people make history by trusting what we read together. This discussion will explore what we have learned about the ethics of gathering people to read the elements within what we call place together as facilitators over this two-year period.
Co-Sponsors: Capps Center, Department of Religious Studies
