I'm away on holiday this week, but discovered there's no internet and hardly any phone signal. So, I won't be able to blog much. I'll try to upload photos to Instagram of places I visit and things I get up to. You can find me there as starzalucya. Getting out and about with a break from tech can be good every so often.
Monday, 15 August 2022
I'm Having a Summer Holiday, But No WiFi
I'm away on holiday this week, but discovered there's no internet and hardly any phone signal. So, I won't be able to blog much. I'll try to upload photos to Instagram of places I visit and things I get up to. You can find me there as starzalucya. Getting out and about with a break from tech can be good every so often.
Friday, 12 August 2022
Pagan Eye: Reynard Junior the Young Fox
This photo of a young fox was taken by my friend and fellow witch Jane Mortimer. Like me, she has been enjoying watching cubs in her garden since springtime. This particular fox has become very friendly. Jane wrote:
"I've managed to get a decent photo of our young fox visitor. I think he's a he, and I've called him Reynard Junior. He's one of three cubs that first appeared in our back garden in the spring, and we've watched him get bigger and bolder as the weeks have gone on. He started coming into our back room a few weeks ago, and got up on the sofa bed to look studiously at the bookshelves. Now he comes in, bold as brass and polishes off any cat food that's left over. I don't mind him coming in on the scrounge. Now we've all got wheelie bins in this area, it's so much harder for our urban foxes to find food."
I've been putting a bowl of water in my garden for wildlife this summer, but my cats won't allow young foxes into my house - they chase them out if they try to come in!
My Pagan Eye posts show photos that I find interesting - seasonal images, pagan sites, events, or just pretty pictures. If you want to send me a photo for a Pagan Eye post, please email it to badwitch1234@gmail.com Let me know what the photo shows and whether you want your name mentioned or not. For copyright reasons, the photo must be one you have taken yourself.
The photo is copyright Jane Mortimer.
Previous related posts:
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/05/pagan-eye-fox-cub-in-bluebells-by-trail.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2020/09/the-triple-tree-seeing-and-hearing.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2020/10/pagan-eye-apple-pie-for-feast-of-pomona.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/05/photos-ronald-huttons-queens-of-wild.html
Thursday, 11 August 2022
Interview with Traditional Witchcraft Writer Lee Morgan
Q: You are the author of non-fiction books on Traditional Witchcraft and sorcery as well as novels and and your background includes a PhD thesis on occult literature as well as practicing traditional witchcraft and animistic spirituality. What started your interest in the esoteric?
A: Due to some rough life experiences at that time my PhD was never awarded, but yes, I wrote it, and researched it, and forced three non-practitioner markers to listen to me speak supportively about magic. As to my interest in the esoteric I suppose early visionary experiences with spirit visitation was the main source. Ever since that began I was looking to find a term for what had been activated and awakened. The stories of how people like Bessie Dunlop, the so-called faerie witch, got started had a lot of resonance for me.
Q: How would you best define your own spiritual and magical path or tradition?
Most of the time I prefer not to! Words have an off-kilter relationship with witchcraft, to my way of seeing things, it very much is a deed beyond names. I fall back when I must on the term Traditional Witchcraft because I follow a practice that has been passed from one person to another, which is not Wicca, and has a certain local focus making it unique in some ways, but recognisably similar to other forms of Traditional Witchcraft in other ways. Unlike a lot of people though I’m not deeply attached to the term and see being anti-Wicca as a bit 90s. In some ways I think it was initially a term that was created to express the fact that not all forms of witchcraft were Wicca, nor follow the same rules as those publicised at the time. Whether or not the era in which we need make that distinction so vehemently has passed I will leave up to the viewpoint of history, I suppose. If I had to define my path without those words I would say that it’s a form of sorcery only suitable for some people, those we describe as Marked. Those people have certain forms of perception already in place which can be developed further. It’s a life-way that involves stepping outside not just of the Hedge for flight, but also out of the standard viewpoints of society. It is Other. It is foreign to every culture. In some ways it is monstrous, and from that same place it derives its grace.
Q: Do you prefer writing fiction or non fiction and why?
A: I would once have said fiction, but then there is a certain buzz to research and the positive reaction you get from providing people with well-tested tools that they can use to throw off limiting perspectives they got from inside the Hedge… We’re living in an era where I think shaking up worldviews is a potent undertaking. Whether or not the people receiving those tools class as witches to me is almost beside the point. I don’t actually care to extend that judgment outside of my own coven really. What interests me is providing insights from the eyes of the Other to people who are otherwise immersed in the limiting mindset inside the Hedge. Sometimes the alienness of both our life-way and our perspective can really liberate people who are ready to hear. I’m interested in doing that both through fiction and non-fiction. Fiction has the liberty of the fact you don’t need to reference your insights, yet people don’t always let it in the same way they do with non-fiction. I think a lot of that has to do with how we view fiction in our society, where storytelling isn’t viewed as having the same spiritual or intellectual heft that we accord to non-fiction. I think that’s a bit of a shame because there is still a difference between empowered storytelling and less powerful types… though it would take something thesis length to actually unpack what I think that difference is.
A: I find that a difficult question as, due to my situation, my focus is currently on the things I haven’t written yet. I’m inclined to say Standing and Not Falling simply for the fact I’ve had some really great feedback from that, where people have said it changed, or even saved, their lives.
Q: Apart from reading your books, what advice would you offer someone who wanted to learn about traditional witchcraft and the other forms of spirituality that you write about?
A: Ideally I’d say to find a good solid working group who is open to adopting and training them. Knowing how rare such groups seem to be I’d say instead to really dedicate to a process. Even if it’s something really simple, show up for it with a full heart and work it through, even if it’s something as simple as placing symbols of the ideas and habits you want to leave behind in a bundle and dropping it next to a real hedge, and you do that every month for a year, or cleaning your nails of your old faith every night for a year. The spirits that govern witchcraft will pay more attention to your persistence with this than they will to anything half-hearted or half-finished. Also, dedication to something beyond the self is important too, and this sense of connection and service should ideally extend to both human and other-than-human community.
Q: I read that you had an operation earlier this year. I wish you all the best for recovery. Do you mind me asking whether that has changed the way you view your spiritual path and the way you practice?
A: I’ve had four operations and radiation this year and I cannot over-emphasis how life-altering it has been. A risk to the function you discover you care about the most, and being four months off dying from said situation, is quite a sobering thing to go through. The meningioma that was removed from my skull was quite sizeable (about as big as a tennis ball) and has certainly changed my whole cognition. It’s probably too soon to say much about that, beyond that the experience has altered the way I perceive the world in substantial ways. I’m still settling in though as the first MRI to look at the spot and see what my brain’s doing in there now does not occur until September. Until then the whole thing will have to remain a dark and delightful mystery that I haven’t yet been able to fully unwrap.
A: My novel ‘The Gusty Deep’ , an epic medieval folk horror offering exploring the life of the daughter of one of the Green Children of Woolpit and Robin Goodfellow will be published by Rebel Satori in September. I’m quite excited about that because it’s my first novel set in a different era. I wrote it to try to explore the place of the weird/wyrd and the queer people in other times. I also have a non-fiction witchcraft book cooking away. I’m trying to build up my physical strength to further our homestead so that we can improve our home for wayward witches and exiles down here in Van Diemen’s Land.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to say?
A: I think witchcraft - or that queer business outside the perimeters of normal consciousness - has a lot to offer in this era of discontent and much-needed rebellion. Even for non-witches. I believe there is enough we can talk about despite privacy oaths to introduce some radical viewpoints. We don’t have to tame our ideas to talk on social media, or anywhere else, we can bring our strange along with us. Social media has its own magic that tends to push towards conflict, drama, and posing. As a sorcerer you don’t have to play along, you can do your own thing with this immense power. I really admire the practice of people like Bayo Akomolafe and Sophia Strand, to name two excellent writers who make the space their own. We have this access to a voice that shoots out around the world and so many people are on there bitching about how awful it is… Don’t play its game. Work within its magic with your own voice, give up caring what mediocre people think of you and use this free resource to say uncanny things.
You can view Lee Morgan's author page at publisher Moon Books.
Previous interview links
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/07/interview-with-soul-tender-and-animist.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/03/interview-jessica-howard-art-of.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/03/interview-rachel-patterson-on.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/03/interview-laurie-martin-gardner-and.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/05/interview-janet-munin-on-polytheistic.html
Wednesday, 10 August 2022
This Week's Pagan Events Online & Around London
Here is a listing of weird, wonderful and witchy events in London or online plus a few in other parts of the UK over the next couple of weeks. If you know of an event you want listed, please email the details to me at badwitch1234@gmail.com.
Now - 25 September. Feminine Power: The Divine to the Demonic. Exhibition at the British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG. Tickets: £15 for adults/free for members. https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions-eventsNow to 6 January 2023; Wicked Spirits? Witchcraft and Magic. Exhibition at Colchester Castle, Essex, CO1 1TJ. https://colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/wickedspirits/
Every Wednesday and Friday; Open Days at the College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time: 11am - 4pm. Free, just pop in. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/
Wednesday 10 August; Excellent Booke: A Manual of 16th century English Necromancy. Zoom talk by Dr A Cummins through The Last Tuesday Society and The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. Time: 8pm. Tickets · from £5.82. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619
Wednesday 10 August; Awakening Wednesdays: Online Drop-in Group with Harry MacDonald via the College of Psychic Studies. Time: 8pm. Tickets: £10 (free for members). https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/
Thursday 11 August; Midweek Meditation with the College of Psychic Studies. Time: 3pm. Tickets: free for members/£7.50 for non members. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/
Thursday 11 August; Pathworking Afternoon. Venue: Wicca Moon, 50 Well Hall Road, London SE9 6SH. Time: 3pm. Tickets: £5. Call to reserve a space: 0208 850 7803. Details: https://www.facebook.com/wiccamoonuk
Thursday 11 August; The Afterlife Tarot. Talk and signing by Ever Orchid Venue: Watkins Bookshop, 19-21 Cecil Court, · London WC2N 4EZ. Time: 6.30pm. Tickets: free. https://www.meetup.com/WatkinsBooks
Thursday 11 August; The Universe Within. Online talk with Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki via Magickal Women and Company. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £10. https://www.magickalwomenconference.com/events
Thursday 11 August; A Sea Witch in Conversation. Levannah Morgan talks moon magic and sea mysticism with Christina Harrington. Free online book launch event for A Sea Witch's Companion via Treadwells Online. Time: 7pm start.. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events
Thursday 11 August; Full Moon Ritual in Aquarius with Yasmin Boland. On Facebook Live. Time: 7pm. Free. https://www.facebook.com/yasminbolandmoonologyThursday 11 August; Full Moon Celestial Sound Journey. Venue: She's Lost Control, Valentine Road, London. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £15/£25. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events
Thursday 11 August (every Thursday); Talk on a paranormal subject for ASSAP members. Time: 7pm. Free event, with Zoom link details emailed out to members. To join ASSAP, for £5 per year, visit http://www.assap.ac.uk/.
Thursday 11 August; Full Moon In Aquarius Circle. Venue: She's Lost Control, Valentine Road, London. Time: 8pm. Tickets: £30. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events
Thursday 11 August; Giants: A talk with Cunning Folk via South East London Folklore Society. Venue: The Electric Elephant Cafe, 186A Crampton Street, London, SE17 3AE, Time: 8pm, Free but donations of £5/£3 welcome. https://www.eventbrite.com/o/cunning-folk-7829505560
Friday 12 August; Full Moon Event with Peace Fires. Light a candle or fire for peace wherever you are in the world, for just for 10 minutes or an hour or longer and state the intention: “Let there be peace on earth and love for one another.” Free. Details: http://peacefires.org/
Friday 12 August; Practical Magic: Incense Making. In-person workshop with Rebecca Beattie. Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Time: 7pm. Cost: £22 per person. https://www.treadwells-london.com/ or reserve a place by visiting the shop.
Friday 12 August (and other dates); Laughter Yoga Playshop. Time: Time: 7pm. Free online event but £2 donations welcome. https://www.meetup.com/freestuffandfreeevents/
Friday 12 August; Wicca Full Moon Ceremony by the Thames with Mani via London Woodland Witches, Wiccans and Pagans. Meet at the Millennium Bridge, Thames Embankment, London. Time: pm. Tickets: £5. https://www.meetup.com/LondonWoodlandWitches/
Saturday 13 August; Sweat Lodge organised by Aho Studio. In-person event. Venue: Berkeley farm, a few miles outside London. Time: 1pm - 6pm. Tickets: £80. www.aho.community
Saturday 13 August; Positive Affirmations for Sensitive People. Online workshop with Mel Collinsvia the College of Psychic Studies. Time: 2pm. Tickets: £75. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/
Saturday 13 August; IRL Women's Sacred Healing Sharing Circle Meet Up. Venue: Kyoto Garden, Holland Park, Holland Park Avenue, · London. Time: 3pm. Tickets: £5.80. https://www.meetup.com/soul-tribe-in-search-of-a-deeper-connection-with-others/
Saturday 13 August; Launch Party for Paul Watson Art Show. The aart show itself will continue for three weeks. Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Time: 6pm. Tickets: free. https://www.treadwells-london.com/ or reserve a place by visiting the shop.
Saturday 13 August; Creating Talismans with Astrological Magic. Online workshop with Rebeccah Dean via Magickal Women and Company. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £10. https://www.magickalwomenconference.com/events
Sunday 14 August; Annual Osun River Ritual 2022 by Way Wive Wordz. Venue: Morden Hall Park, Morden Hall Road, London, SM4 5JD. Time: 11am. Free. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/way-wive-wordz-16931449271
Sunday 14 August; Shamanic Group with Les Fuller. All welcome Venue: Woodford Church at 9 Grove Crescent, South Woodford, London E18 2JR. Time 11am-3pm. Cost: £10. http://woodfordchurch.com/
Sunday 14 August; Labyrinth Walking Meditation. Venue: Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, 3 Pilgrim's Place, London NW3 1NG. Time: 7pm. https://www.rosslynhillchapel.org.uk/
Sunday 14 August; Touchstones of Belief: a Rich Legacy of Charms and Amulets in Scotland. Zoom lecture by Professor Hugh Cheape through The Last Tuesday Society and The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. Time: 8pm. Tickets · from £5.82. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619
Sunday 14 August; Paganism 101 Workshop. Online event by Covenant of Earth and Sky. Time: 8pm. https://www.facebook.com/events/714184329689151
Monday 15 August; Near-Death Experiences: Four Decades of Research. Online talk by Jan Holden via The Society for Psychical Research. Time: 8pm. Tickets free for members, £5 non-members. https://www.spr.ac.uk/
Monday 15 August; The Green Girl and other Suffolk Stories by Kirsty Hartsiotis. Zoom event through The Last Tuesday Society and The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. Time: 9pm. Tickets · from £5.82. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619
Tuesday 16 August; The Role of the Shadow in Tarot & How to Read It. In-person workshop with Avril Price. Venue: College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time: 10am - 5pm. Tickets: £115. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/
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Tuesday 16 August (date tbc); Witches of London Gathering with Children of Artemis. Venue: Cittie of Yorke, 22 High Holborn, London WC1V 6BN. Time: 7.30pm. Free. https://www.facebook.com/childrenofartemis
Tuesday 16 August; Sacred Waters: Healing Holy Wells and Folk Science. Zoom lecture by Dr. Celeste Ray through The Last Tuesday Society and The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. Time: 8pm. Tickets · from £5.82. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619
Wednesday 17 August; Cunning Folk Reading Group - 'Weird Woods Tales from the Haunted Forests of Britain' from the British Library Tales of the Weird series.. Online event. Time: 7pm. Price: Free. https://www.eventbrite.com/o/cunning-folk-7829505560
Wednesday 17 August; Top 7 Herbs for Spells. Herbal lore talk with Hannah Sanders, via Treadwells Online. Time: 7pm start. Tickets: £10. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events
Wednesday 17 and 24 August; Creating a Magical Servitor. Two-session workshop with chaos magician Mark Vincent, via Treadwells Online. Time: 7pm start. Tickets: £40. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events
Wednesday 17 August (tbc, usually 3rd Wednesday each month); The More Mead Moot. Venue: The Hope pub, Carshalton, Surrey, Time: 7.30pm. Free. https://www.facebook.com/Pagan-FutureFests-352385661439366/
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Wednesday 17 August; Cunning Libraries: Magic Books of Early Modern Folk Magicians. Zoom lecture by Dr Cummins through The Last Tuesday Society and The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. Time: 8pm. Tickets · from £5.82. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619
Thursday 18 August. Drum Circle run by Lynn Gosney. Venue: Shamanic Centre Caer Corhrain Kent. Time: 7.45pm. Entry: donations welcome. https://www.facebook.com/events/4881017145315028/4881017188648357/
Friday 19 August; Sacred Tea Ceremony and Earth Balancing Meditation with Sound Bath with Freya via London Woodland Witches, Wiccans and Pagans. Venue: Hampstead Heath, London. Time: 1pm. Tickets £7, you must reserve a place. https://www.meetup.com/LondonWoodlandWitches/
Friday 19 August; Guyanese Kwe Kwe and Folk Songs practice sessions, organised by Way Wive Wordz. Venue: Johmard Community Centre, 65-67 High Street Colliers Wood, London, SW19 2JF. Time: 7.30pm. Free. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/way-wive-wordz-16931449271
Saturday 20 August; Spirit Portraits with Mediumship. In-person workshop with June-Elleni Laine. Venue: College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time: 11am - 5pm. Tickets: £110. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/
Saturday 20 August; Crystals for Psychic Self-Defense. Online workshop with Nicholas Pearson via the College of Psychic Studies. Time: 2pm. Tickets: £80. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/
Sunday 21 August; Astral Projection Workshop. Venue: She's Lost Control, Valentine Road, London. Time: 11am. Tickets: £48. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events
Sunday 21 August; Dawn of the Oak. Pagan moot. Venue: The Sir John Oldcastle, Farringdon Road/Greville Street, London EC1M 3JF. Time: 3pm. https://www.meetup.com/The-Kith-of-The-Tree-and-The-Well/
Sunday 21 August; More Treasures from The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic. Zoom lecture with Simon Costin through The Last Tuesday Society and The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. Time: 8pm. Tickets · from £5.82. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619
Note: I am not responsible for any of these events. Although I try to make sure the details on my listing are accurate, I do not always know about late changes or ticket availability etc. Please contact the organiser before attending any event.
Tuesday, 9 August 2022
Pagan Eye: A Cover Photo Idea for My New Book
I'm editing the manuscript for my next Pagan Portals book, which is on the Wheel of the Year. Here's one of the early ideas I've had for an image to go on the front cover. I wanted to include flowers and other natural objects, so I started planning last autumn when I preserved leaves. I also had a go at drying snowdrops in the spring. A couple are in the picture but they did shrivel somewhat. The dried rose petals were more successful.
A few of the blooms on the circle of wood are made of paper. Other leaves, flowers and berries are fresh and came from my garden. The arrangement's likely to be changed a bit before I come up with one I feel is perfect, but I quite like this one as a starting point. What do you think?
You can see examples of my earlier book covers on my author page at Moon Books.
My Pagan Eye posts show photos that I find interesting - seasonal images, pagan sites, events, or just pretty pictures. If you want to send me a photo for a Pagan Eye post, please email it to badwitch1234@gmail.com Let me know what the photo shows and whether you want your name mentioned or not. For copyright reasons, the photo must be one you have taken yourself.
More previous related posts
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/06/craft-making-flower-crown-just-from.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2019/09/pagan-eye-seeing-double-by-athame-books.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2021/10/pagan-eye-book-table-at-london-month-of.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2021/04/pagan-portals-scrying-unwrapping-first.html
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