The Daimon Symposium took place on 20th took place on 20th /21st September and received much interest in the world of literature, religion and Morenian psychodrama.
We were very kindly hosted at the Austrian Literature Society where the various speakers explained the context in which this publishing project developed.
Daimon, the title of the magazine, first published a hundred years ago, comes from a Greek word and was chosen by J.L. Moreno. A revolutionary magazine whose aim was to bring together different intellectual threads after the terrible experiences of the First World War. The disorientation caused by the pain and suffering demanded new and opposing answers that would give birth to a new society based on authentic encounters between people*. The Daimon magazine expressed the heart felt plea of avant-garde movements of the period and urged them to gather around J L Moreno who was so important in promoting these ideas in the magazine.
After Manfred Muller’s and our president Marco Greco’s warm words of welcome, René Marineau opened the engaging inaugural address followed by Michael Wieser who described “ the Austrian perspective “. Then Murray J Hall and after Johann Sonnleitner spoke about socialization of poetic art and forms and themes of lyric poetry. Finally, Kira Kaufmann went on to talked about the aesthetic strategies of esoteric and religious themes which highlighted the overpowering force of the combination of “Literature and Life “ placed under the primacy of spontaneity.
In 1918 an unexpected literary religion warmed the hearts of JL Moreno’s entourage. They wanted to address their message to the whole of humanity, exhorting it to break free from the materialistic shackles ( of the modern world ) and embrace a dynamic vision of life aimed at universal love. How much food for thought for the historical analysis of yesterday and today ?
