Pagan Eye: Photo from the Doreen Valiente Conference

Here's a photo of Julie Belham-Payne being presented with a certificate recognising her as a co-founder of the Doreen Valiente Foundation. She was handed the certificate on stage by foundation chairperson Emlyn. This took place at the start of a fabulous day of talks, ritual and entertainment at London's Conway Hall yesterday.

I was there as a volunteer on the raffle stall but I was able to listen to talks by renowned pagan historian Professor Ronald Hutton, author of Doreen's biography Philip Heselton and famous pagan author Vivianne Crowley as well as see a display of some of Doreen's artefacts. A lovely ritual took place in the main hall at the end of the lecture programme, then guided visualisations based on Doreen Valiente's poetry in Conway Hall's beautiful library. The evening's music was by Inkubus Sukkubus.

Doreen Valiente was an author and poet, and has been called the Mother of Modern Witchcraft. She was highly influential in Gardnerian Wicca and involved in other traditions including Cochrane’s Craft and the Coven of Atho. The Doreen Valiente Foundation is a charitable trust set up to to protect artefacts important to the past, present, and future of pagan religions, including core objects belonging to Doreen. You can find the website here: https://www.doreenvaliente.org/

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.

Previous related posts
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/09/day-for-doreen-valiente.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2016/02/review-doreen-valiente-witch-by-philip.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2016/04/candle-magic-doreen-valientes-candle.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2018/10/craft-making-dark-mirrors-scrying-balls.html