Today we’d like to introduce you to Eliza Swann.
Hi Eliza, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi, I’m Eliza Swann — my magician’s name is Emerald. I’m a writer and painter, as well as an alchemist and scholar. I’ve always been fascinated by the ways mysticism and art overlap, and that curiosity has shaped everything I do as an artist, writer and teacher.
I earned my BA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2004, and later got my MFA from Central St. Martins in London in 2012. Along the way, I’ve studied a wide range of spiritual and esoteric traditions. I teach art and mysticism as a single, living practice. In 2014, I founded Golden Dome, an artist-in-residence program centered on the relationship between magic, mysticism, and the arts.
I also teach at Pratt Institute, where I created and teach a class called “The Alchemical Imagination” — a deep dive into how alchemical ideas can inform contemporary creative work. In 2025, I founded the Emerald School of Alchemical Arts as a branch of Golden Dome that explores alchemy as a living, evolving, and trans-disciplinary practice.
I am publishing a book on alchemy next spring called “The Alchemical Imagination” with Weiser books!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road!
I created Golden Dome in 2014 because I couldn’t find any art spaces that were interested in magical artwork and I wanted one to exist. Even though mysticism has found a more welcoming corner in the art world, I can’t exactly say I’ve been embraced by it. It also turns out an “art school for witches” isn’t a big draw for traditional funders. Financial support for Golden Dome has been really hard to come by.
In 2021, Golden Dome became a non-profit in an effort to secure grant funding. In 2024, between health challenges, housing instability, ongoing board meetings, developing membership programs, and running fundraisers that still weren’t enough to sustain our initiatives, I struggled to find solid footing. The pressure of trying to keep a magical community thriving within the corporate structure of a non-profit took a toll on both my health and my relationships. Last year, I stepped down from directing the project to give someone else the opportunity to take it on and manage it with a more business-oriented approach.
No one stepped forward to direct Golden Dome so I moved back into a directorial role, but in that pause, I got really honest with myself about what I could sustain. The violence that capitalism enacts on time, nature, and our sense of connection is completely incompatible with alchemy and magic, which ask us to slow down, listen, and actually feel the soul of things.
Giving myself permission to find quiet created space for The Emerald School of Alchemical Arts, where I now teach alchemy as a living, evolving practice. Golden Dome still exists, but in a gentler way — it’s become a slower, more spacious entity that will, in its own time, host exhibitions and support artists who share our ethos. Stepping back gave me time to breathe, to stabilize, and to think deeply about what kinds of radical art models can actually last without burning everyone out.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My deep loves are painting and poetry.
Right now, I’m immersed in a new painting series called “In the Key of Venus.” I’ve been making my own copper oxide pigments using alchemical recipes, and it’s been such a beautiful way to merge my studio practice with my esoteric studies. Copper is the metal that carries the signature of Venus in alchemy, and the metal mirrors the planet’s double-bodied gender-fluid aspect with its hues shifting from copper to green.
Last year, I published a book of queer love sonnets called “Green Mary” with Cosmic Dog House Press, and I’m really proud of that collection. It celebrates the magic and power of queer love in all its dimensions — the kind of love that carried me through illness and housing insecurity, and the kind of love that is carrying me through this horrifying time in this country.
I’ve also been writing a lot about Mary Magdalene, who was a main character in “Green Mary” and who’s become a guiding presence in my work. I have some workshops coming up this December with the Philosophical Research Society, where I’ll be exploring the Gospel of Mary Magdalene.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
It’s always wonderful for an author if our books get pre-ordered. You can pre-order “The Alchemical Imagination” from Powell’s Books online.
You can join me in December for some online Mary Magdalene workshops hosted by the Philosophical Research Society.
Next year, I’ll be teaching a year-long online immersion into alchemy that will launch around the release of my book in spring 2026. We’ll meet once a month and move through the twelve stages for creating the Philosopher’s Stone over the course of a year — it’s deep, transformational work that blends art, mysticism, and personal practice.
I’ll also be teaching a week long class about plant medicine and alchemy at the Omega Institute.
If you’d like to stay in touch, you can visit www.emerald.school and join my mailing list — that’s the best way to hear about everything that’s happening. You can also find me on Instagram at @thecircularserpent and @goldendomeschool
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Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.elizaswann.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecircularserpent/
- Other: https://www.emerald.school/
Image Credits
1) NO IMAGE CREDIT (I TOOK IT MYSELF)
2) Eliza Swann lecturing at Honey’s Brooklyn, Photo by Raphael Lyon, 2023
3) Eliza Swann and Syd Buffman lecturing on alchemy at the Philosophical Research Society, 2022
4) Green Mary, Cosmic Dog House Press, 2024
5) Saint Clare, Pigment and Ink on Paper, 2025
6) In the Key of Venus I, Pigment and Ink on Paper, 2025
