Call for submissions ideas and prompts

Metapsychosis journal
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I asked chatGPT for 10 ideas. My only direction was to scan the Metapsychosis Journal and also, the Weirdosphere page (tied to the Weird Studies community). This is what it spat out:

(these are of course in addition to Genniefrey’s call)

After looking at both communities, I think there is a very fertile overlap between them.

  • Metapsychosis tends toward consciousness, literature, philosophy, spirituality, poetics, visionary art, and cultural transformation. It has a strong literary identity and welcomes work that sits at the edge of philosophy, mysticism, and artistic practice. (Metapsychosis)

  • Weirdosphere tends toward the uncanny, philosophy, religion, art, imagination, myth, technology, the numinous, and serious play. Rather than horror or genre fiction, it cultivates the Weird as a way of thinking—a mode of inquiry that preserves mystery instead of explaining it away. (Weirdosphere)

The sweet spot is serious intellectual work that is also imaginative and aesthetically adventurous.

Here are ten themes I think could attract both audiences.

1. The Return of Enchantment

Premise

How does enchantment survive in an age of algorithms, AI, bureaucracy, and disenchantment?

Possible contributions

  • essays

  • fiction

  • poetry

  • visual art

  • photography

  • comics

  • interviews

Questions

  • What does enchantment actually feel like?

  • Can modern life still become sacred?

  • What practices cultivate wonder?

  • Is enchantment discovered or created?

2. Strange Ecologies

This feels particularly timely.

Premise

Explore relationships between consciousness, landscapes, animals, fungi, machines, weather, ruins, and invisible ecologies.

Think:

  • forests

  • abandoned places

  • oceans

  • parasites

  • ghosts of ecosystems

  • AI ecologies

  • symbiosis

This theme could attract artists, philosophers, and environmental thinkers simultaneously.

3. Thresholds

One of my favorites.

Premise

Everything interesting happens at boundaries.

Contributors might explore

  • waking and dreaming

  • life and death

  • human and machine

  • sound and silence

  • visible and invisible

  • memory and imagination

  • sacred and ordinary

Thresholds naturally welcomes interdisciplinary work.

4. The Intelligence of Things

A beautiful bridge between philosophy and Weird Studies.

Questions include

  • Do objects think?

  • What memories do places hold?

  • Can architecture dream?

  • What agency belongs to materials?

  • How do tools shape consciousness?

Influences could range from animism to phenomenology to speculative realism.

5. Cartographies of the Invisible

Instead of maps of geography…

maps of

  • dreams

  • spirits

  • symbols

  • memories

  • psychic landscapes

  • imaginal worlds

  • forgotten cities

  • impossible architectures

Artists could literally create maps.

Writers could invent them.

Scholars could interpret them.

6. The Beautiful Monster

A Weird Studies classic.

Rather than horror…

ask contributors to investigate

  • beauty inside monstrosity

  • the sublime

  • sacred terror

  • holy grotesques

  • angels

  • tricksters

  • hybrids

  • impossible beings

This has enormous artistic potential.

7. Listening to the Unknown

As someone curating Acousmatic Crossings, this immediately struck me.

Rather than making it about sound alone…

expand listening into a philosophical practice.

Possible topics

  • deep listening

  • silence

  • voices

  • dreams

  • landscapes

  • music

  • spirits

  • AI

  • memory

  • prayer

  • impossible conversations

This would fit perfectly within Metapsychosis while remaining broad.

8. The Future Mythic

Instead of asking what mythology was…

ask

What myths are being born now?

Topics might include

  • AI

  • UFOs

  • internet folklore

  • memes

  • simulation

  • posthumanism

  • digital ritual

  • crypto mysticism

  • virtual pilgrimage

This could become one of the journal’s most shared calls.

9. Impossible Encounters

Everyone has experienced moments that resist explanation.

Invite stories, essays, poems and artworks exploring encounters with

  • strangers

  • doubles

  • forgotten places

  • impossible coincidences

  • dreams

  • saints

  • monsters

  • gods

  • animals

  • machines

  • artworks

  • music

The emphasis would be phenomenological rather than paranormal.

10. The Art of Orientation

Probably my favorite conceptually.

Modern people are constantly asking

How do we orient ourselves?

Not politically.

Existentially.

Invite work exploring

  • pilgrimage

  • wandering

  • maps

  • stars

  • inner compasses

  • rituals

  • attention

  • navigation through uncertainty

It feels both ancient and contemporary.

Three ideas I think could become signature Metapsychosis issues

The Secret Life of Attention

Not mindfulness.

Attention as

  • magic

  • devotion

  • perception

  • aesthetics

  • contemplation

  • artistic practice

  • philosophical method

This intersects beautifully with phenomenology, mysticism, psychology, and art.

Worlds Within Worlds

The premise is wonderfully simple.

Every artwork opens a world.

Every dream opens a world.

Every myth.

Every game.

Every ritual.

Every piece of music.

How do these worlds intersect?

Strange Hospitality

This may be the most original.

What does it mean to welcome the unknown?

Possible “guests”

  • ghosts

  • ideas

  • strangers

  • future selves

  • impossible animals

  • divinity

  • dreams

  • artworks

  • silence

The issue would become an exploration of openness itself.

If I were choosing just three

These strike me as the strongest blend of literary appeal, philosophical depth, and “weird” resonance:

  1. Thresholds

    • Broad enough for every medium.

    • Philosophically rich.

    • Instantly evocative.

  2. Cartographies of the Invisible

    • Strong visual identity.

    • Appeals equally to writers and artists.

    • Feels distinctly Metapsychosis.

  3. The Future Mythic

    • Timely.

    • Bridges ancient myth with emerging technologies and cultural forms.

    • Likely to attract both established and younger contributors.

Each of these themes aligns with the shared sensibility of Metapsychosis and the Weird Studies community: they invite contributors to explore mystery without reducing it, to approach philosophy as a creative act, and to treat art as a mode of inquiry rather than mere illustration. (Weirdosphere)

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I kinda think calls for submissions should be areas which we are passionate about, rather than an AI-generated list. If one of these topics appeals, then go for it. But let’s solicit suggestions from our community first?

For instance, a subject that appeals to me is Transgressions. But I am already managing one call, so don’t pay any attention to me :slight_smile: I had lots of feedback on my recent posts on the forum, so I think calling out to our community could be effective. The issue is placing the topic in right category. Maybe not the Metapsychosis Journal category but rather the Commons?