https://astromagia-org.zoom.us/j/89786604745
JD Kelley
Heavenly Bodies: Divinity, Imagination, Embodiment, Theurgy, & Telestic Art
Heavenly Bodies journeys into the mystery of divine embodiment — the ways in which gods are given form, breath, and body through art, ritual, and devotion. Across cultures, the making of statues and images has served not as imitation but as invocation: a remembering of the world’s living divinity. This talk opens a pathway through these traditions, exploring how the body itself — human and cosmic — becomes a field of consecration.
Drawing from Tantric Buddhist ritual, where statues are enlivened as the living Buddhas, and from the somatic magic of witchcraft and ecstatic movement, the inquiry follows the winds and channels that shape inner and outer space alike. Here, the microcosm pulses with the macrocosm; the flesh bears the signs of the zodiac; the breath turns with the stars.
Through the theurgic vision of Iamblichus, the body is revealed not as a prison to be transcended but as a divine instrument— the place where parts and wholes are reconciled, and matter itself becomes luminous. When we open up ourselves to the gods, allowing them to inhabit and instill our imaginations, we remember that they have never left us — that their substance flows through blood and stone, through rhythm, ritual, and the ever-living dance of the heavens made flesh.
John-David (JD) Kelley is the chairman of the Scottish Astrological Association, having served since 2020; the founding president of the International Association of Astral Magic (IAAM), and the organiser of Astro Magia.
JD is a professional natal and electional astrologer, as well as a practicing astral magician and talisman crafter. His astrological leanings are both traditional and modern alongside a deep interest in astrological and astral magic. JD is influenced by historical approaches to magic, the mixing of magical traditions throughout the world, by an animist view of the Cosmos, by art and art-making, and by visionary and ecstatic practices. You can find him at Cunning as Folk where he teaches and practices his range of esoteric and interpretive arts, or you can follow his dance on instagram @cunningasfolk.