Nature & Art: Beauty & Destruction in Wartime London

This painting is called  The Haberdashers' Hall 8th May 1945. That's the date WW2 hostilites ended in Europe. It's on display at Beauty and Destruction: Wartime London, a free exhibition that tells the story of London during the Second World War as seen by artists, and is at the Imperial War Museum until November 1st. 

It's a really moving exhibition, showing the turmoil and devastation the city experienced during the war. Most of the pictures depict things like air raids, buildings on fire, people in shelters, and wounded being treated. I chose to focus on this one for my blog, because it's about nature thriving in the aftermath of destruction. 

Artist Eliot Hidgkin wanted to capture plants growing on a bombsite "before post-war rebuilding sweeps them away forever."  Although I wasn't alive during the war, I do remember there were still some bombsites covered in wildflowers when I was very young.

The flowers in the painting include "bombweed", or rosebay willowherb, known for  being one of the first plants to emerge where buildings have been destroyed. It has pink flowers and long leaves. I can also see what looks like ox-eye daisies and possibly ragwort, but I'm not entirely sure. If you think you can identify the  various wildflowers better, please leave a comment.

I'd never been inside the Imperial War Museum before, because I'm not someone who feels war should in any way be glorified, but I'm glad I saw this exhibition. I very much recommend it for anyone interested in London's history.

The museum is situated in a large park, which I'll be blogging about in a separate post as part of my Green London series, but I thought this picture was worth mentioning first. The park will be there for a long while (hopefully), but the exhibition ends in just a month.

Previous related posts
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/06/art-frida-kahlo-day-of-dead-imagery-tate.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/08/art-richard-dadd-beyond-bedlam-at-ra.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/04/pagan-eye-witch-at-coming-of-age.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/09/book-review-art-of-unknown-visual.html

My Witchy Events: Scrying, Candles & Poppets

Here are details of the witchy events I'm involved with from now until the end of November. I'm teaching an online divination course and in-person candle magic and poppet workshops in London. 

October

Scrying Online via the College of Psychic Studies 
On Wednesday 7 and 14 October; I'm running a two-part online evening class on Scrying: Divination Using Crystals, Mirrors, Water and Fire via the College of Psychic Studies. Each class starts at 7pm. Tickets are £90, with discount for members. Find out more here: https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/workshops/psychic-training/scrying-with-crystals-mirrors-more/?

Candle Magic in London
On Sunday 18 October I'm teaching a candle magic workshop based on my book Pagan Portals - Candle Magic. The venue is Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. It starts at 1pm and tickets are £25 per person. To find out more and reserve a place visit: https://www.treadwells-london.com/.

November

Poppets and Magical Dolls

On Sunday 22 November I'm running an in-person workshop based on my book Pagan Portals - Poppets and Magical Dolls. Everyone will make and enchant an easy poppet for protection to take home with them. 

The venue is Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. It starts at 1pm and tickets are £25. 

 Find out more at https://www.treadwells-london.com/ or reserve a place by visiting the shop.   

About me

I'm Lucya Starza and as well as writing A Bad Witch's Blog I'm the author of books in the Pagan Portals series on Candle Magic, Guided Visualisations, Poppets and Magical Dolls, Scrying, and Rounding the Wheel of the Year. My Gothic novel Erosion is also published by Moon Books.

You can buy my books at Treadwell's Bookshop, via Amazon, at the College of Psychic Studies in London and at other bookshops as well as at my author page at publisher Moon Books. Please note I earn commission from advertisers for some links.

Book Review: The Art of the Unknown - A Visual Treasure

Art has always been one of humanity's most effective ways of depicting the mysterious - of showing experiences and phenomena that cannot easily be defined. The Art of the Unknown - A Visual Treasury of the Esoteric, Uncanny, and Unexplained is a beautiful new book that explores the ways in which artists have done that over the centuries.

To me, art, spirituality, and magic all feel very closely connected and I loved this book, which brings out those themes in a way that's easy to read and gorgeously illustrated. It has the perfect mix of reproduced images and text about them.

The Art of the Unknown is published by Frances Lincoln, an imprint of The Quarto Group, and this is the official description:

Discover how artists across the centuries have explored the unexplainable, documented the impossible and illuminated the dark unknown. What lurks at the edges of human perception? Across time and cultures, artists have found themselves drawn to document encounters with forces and phenomena that defy comprehension, from ghostly manifestations and cosmic energies to twilight realms and parallel dimensions. While science seeks answers, artists illuminate the unknown through intuition, imagination and vision, creating visual records of the esoteric, the uncanny and the unexplainable. The Art of the Unknown brings together nearly 200 artworks that delve into the limits of perception and belief, for example:

• William Blake’s celestial visions

•Léon Spilliaert's mysterious paintings

•Penny Slinger's spectral photographs

•Daniel Martin Diaz’s symbolic diagrams

Uniting historical artists with contemporary creators who continue to push at the boundaries of reality, this book asks: what worlds exist alongside our own – and how do artists give form to what can’t be seen? The Art of the Unknown is an enthralling journey for anyone fascinated by mystery and the esoteric, inviting you to look again at the forces that persist just beyond the threshold of ordinary reality, and to discover how artists have long attempted to make the invisible visible.

Whether you read it from cover to cover, or just dip into it, this book really is a treasury. I know my copy will inspire me in both the art and the magic I create in the future.

You can view The Art of the Unknown on Amazon

(Please note: I earn commission from some links)

About the Author

S. Elizabeth (aka Mlle Ghoul) is a writer, curator, and frill-seeker. She is a columnist for Rue Morgue Magazine, her essays and interviews focusing on esoteric art have appeared in Haute Macabre, Coilhouse, Dirge Magazine, Death and The Maiden, and her occulture blog Unquiet Things, which intersects music, fashion, horror, perfume, and grief. She is the co-creator of The Occult Activity Book Vol 1 and 2. Her books include The Art Of The Occult: A Visual Sourcebook For The Modern Mystic (2020), The Art Of Darkness: A Treasury of the Morbid, Melancholic and Macabre (2022) and The Art of Fantasy: A Visual Sourcebook of all that is unreal (2023). Each work reflects her deep engagement with the weird and the wonderful, blending personal insight with artistic exploration.

Previous Related Posts

https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/08/art-richard-dadd-beyond-bedlam-at-ra.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/06/art-frida-kahlo-day-of-dead-imagery-tate.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/05/pagan-eye-austin-osman-spare-exhibition.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/04/pagan-eye-witch-at-coming-of-age.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2025/10/art-ronald-hutton-and-sara-hannant-on.html

A Bad Witch's Blog Named Among the Top Witch Sites

A Bad Witch's Blog has once again been listed among the top 60 Witchcraft blogs worldwide according to Feedspot. This year I'm at number 13, which is lucky enough, but slightly lower than my placing last year. You can find the full list here:  https://bloggers.feedspot.com/witchcraft_blogs/

Feedspot ranks the best Witchcraft blogs based on multiple factors, including content relevancy, subject expertise, posting frequency, and freshness of content. 

I'm also on the list of top Pagan blogs, but a bit lower down. You can find that here: https://bloggers.feedspot.com/pagan_blogs/?

Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you subscribe to blogs, news sites, and any website you want to keep up with.

Previous related posts

http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2017/11/im-top-witchcraft-blogger-with-two.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2018/06/it-seems-ive-won-yet-another-blogging.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2025/04/a-bad-witchs-blog-named-among-top-witch.html

Manningtree, the Witch Trials, and Folk Stories

A few days ago, I sat on the bench you can just see in the shadow of the large house and spent a few moments honouring Anne West, Helen Clark, Marian Hocket, and Anne Cooper, who were cruelly treated by Matthew Hopkins, the self-appointed Witchfinder General.  The pleasant-looking little village green, high on a hill in South Street, Manningtree, is where the four women were hanged after being accused of witchcraft in 1645. At least, that was what I read on a pdf I downloaded called Walking With Witches. 

I was also sititng there waiting for the opening time of Manningtree Museum, just along the high street, which I'd been told was full of information about the 17th Century East Anglian witch trials. When I got to the museum, I learnt that a lot of what I'd just read - and in fact much of what's online about the area's witch persecutions - is conjecture, overly romanticised folk stories, or just fake news. 

While it's true those poor women were executed in Manningtree, the site of the gallows wasn't recorded. It might have been there, but more likely was in the old marketplace, which was larger. Nevertheless, South Street is one of the roads where Matthew Hopkins resided. The only other place he is recorded as having lived is the old rectory of Mistley Heath Church. But plenty of other places claim he once dwelt there, especially if they're tourist attractions. It's good for business even if it can't be proven. 

While I was at the museum I bought a booklet called Manningtree 'Witch-hunts' - The full facts. It isn't professionally produced, but it was painstakingly researched and put together by a local historian and the Manningtree Museum and Local History Group. The information inside, I was told, is reliably accurate. The group was also behind the plaque you can see in the photo in the middle of this post.

The picture at the bottom shows Old Knobbley, a huge hollow oak which is the second oldest tree in Essex, at around 900 years. I saw it on the Walking with Witches trail. According to legends it was a sanctuary for witches fleeing persecution. As amazing as the tree is, that's almost certainly another bit of romantic storytelling.

I should add that Manningtree is now a really delightful town. It's situated on the Stour and is also famous as part of Constable country. Flatford Mill is about 4 miles away - a pleasant walk along the riverbank.

Previous related posts
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2022/03/pagan-eye-plaque-to-those-accused-of.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2017/08/review-witch-history-of-fear-by-ronald.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2016/11/seriously-suspicious-conspiracies-helen.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/02/salem-1692-is-this-social-deduction.html