We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Eliza Swann a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Eliza, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?
I’m laughing while I read this because the logic that led me to being an artist is an artist’s logic! In other words, I feel that I had no choice but to answer the deep call towards creativity and mysticism. When I was very young, I wanted to be a poet and a saint. The adults in my life told me some version of “those aren’t jobs” or “you have no aptitude for those things.” In my teens and twenties I pursued becoming an artist and an alchemist because no one seems very clear on what success at those things means, but there’s vaguely some gold attached so I got less flack! These days I mostly write poetry and pray – a return to my original desires. I also lecture on alchemy and art, so my callings keep calling, and to answer your question – I’ve never been happier. I have a lot of hustles stacked up like a tower of cards to support this vision and I’m not sure I’ll know any other way to exist. I got fired from every job I had waiting tables, I did alright as a florist, and now I teach alchemy to support myself.
Eliza, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m an artist, writer and a mystic. In 2014, I founded the Golden Dome School as a space for artists who are interested in mysticism and magic to teach and learn from one another. I also teach alchemy at the Golden Dome and at Pratt Institute. I’m elated to say that I’m a lecturer in residence at the Philosophical Research Society this year – giving talks on magic and mysticism in the house that Manly Palmer Hall built is a dream come true. I’m working on a book of sonnets, a book on the connections between art and mysticism, and a book on alchemy … my head is a jumble of words right now!
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I got my GED and left home as a teenager, heading to art school and into studying Gnosticism and alchemy from a young age. Although there was a kind of feral joy in taking that strange path it led to me having a very scrappy DIY attitude that was way too riddled with rugged individualism – I didn’t realize this until recently when I found myself completely depleted financially and physically after several years of running unfunded arts organizations. For a few years I ran a gallery called Heliopolis with my partner at the time, and shortly after founded the Golden Dome School. Both projects had no funding and were self-organized and I tried to do all the behind-the-scenes labor myself without pay or support. This led to my withdrawal from Heliopolis and the near-collapse of Golden Dome several times. Now Golden Dome is a non-profit and runs cooperatively, with people offering their vision, strength and skills to make the school thrive. This feels like a healthy way to organize and show care, and one that aligns much more with the biological reality that we are all interconnected. I love reading Lynne Margulis’ writings on microbiomes: “We are all of us walking communities of bacteria. The world shimmers, a pointillist landscape made of tiny living beings.” I had to unlearn an isolated and individualistic world view of creativity and lean in to cooperation and connection as the true mechanism of creation. I’m still unlearning and learning things about this.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I am always wondering what art and spiritual practice can do to help mitigate the disastrous effects of capitalism and climate change – if anything. That question propels me constantly. For me, the study and practice of magic has helped me to repair my relationship to this world, so that I feel it and speak to it and lean into the quantam possibilities nestled within its voice. I give psychic tours of art and gardens and teach classes about magic in the hope that I can pass along what has worked for me in terms of opening the doors of connection and possibility.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://elizaswann.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecircularserpent/
- Other: https://www.golden-dome.org/