A bad witch's blog

International Cat Day Wisdom: Appreciate your Family

2026-08-07T09:58:31.918+01:00

Tomorrow is International Cat Day, so I've used the Cat Wisdom oracle in a reading for the world. The card is family, and the message in the book that comes with the set reads:

"Appreciate your family. They are a source of unconditional love and guidance to which you can turn whenever you need advice."

To me, family doesn't necessarily mean your actual relatives. As a witch, I know my brothers and sisters in the Craft will always be there to help me if I need it, even if I haven't been an actual coven member for many years. We can have chosen families too - our close friends and loved ones.

Our pets are also our adopted family members. International Cat Day reminds us to look after our fur-babies by making sure they are happy and as healthy as possible. In this hot weather, please also put water outside your home to help any outdoor moggies stay hydrated.

Here's a link to International Cat Care, which co-ordinates International Cat Day on August 8 every year.

You can view the Cat Wisdom Oracle on Amazon

(Please note, I earn commission from some links)

Authors On Their Writing: Greek Priestess Elyse Welles

2026-08-06T08:00:00.000+01:00

Elyse Welles is a native Greek Priestess reviving the lost earth temple arts in her work with land spirits and the frame drum. She teaches online classes and guides immersive pilgrimages to Greece's sacred places in and around Delphi and Eleusis. She's also a prolific writer. I've chatted to her about her books in my interview series Authors On Their Own Writing.

Q: Out of all that you've written, which is your favourite published work?

A: My favorite book I've written that's currently published is Sacred Wild: An Invitation to Connect with Spirits of the Land.

Q: What’s it about?

A: Sacred Wild is the first book in which I share my practices for connecting to and working with land spirits. As I was writing it, I was surprised to realize no one had categorized spirits of the land in such an accessible way, exploring not only fairies but the actual spirits that reside and hold dominion of land, as the land. This book explores the reciprocity required to work with land spirits and how to begin that relationship, regardless of your spiritual path.

Q: Why is it your favourite?

A: This is the book the land gave me. It is my favorite for many reasons, but it's also the one that feels most like an offering to the land who taught me so much. I am grateful for the opportunity to bring more people to the power of working with the land.

Q: Tell me a bit more about yourself and anything else you’ve written.

A: My work is reviving the lost earth temple arts: the oneness, re-enchantment, and empathy for life and land that our ancestors across the world knew and cherished. I am a multicultural witch and priestess, both an American and Greek citizen. I've lived in both countries and split my year to be able to bring the magic of Greece to festivals, conferences, and experiences in the US, where magic and hope for a less patriarchal world are so needed! I work with the oracle sites of mainland Greece, including Delphi, and am working to uncover the forgotten oracles of Mycenaean, Minoan, and older, pre-patriarchal tribes of Greece whose relationship with land inspires much of my work.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: A new book going deeper into magic and practices for working with the land spirits is coming in 2027. I also write for Llewellyn's annuals in the coming years, including a chapter on Ostara and Persephone for the Sabbats Almanac of 2027. I have a chapter on Thetis, Queen of the Nereids and mother of Achilles in the Lesser Known Gods anthology with Crossed Crow in 2027.

My next big project is Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth. Inanna is the original goddess at the liminal cusp of the transition between tribal and patriarchal living in the ancient Near East who greatly influenced the Mediterranean cultures in the successive millennia. She is a force of empowerment during times of great patriarchal oppression like no other, and the goddess who brought me home to my work many years ago. I am so excited to share that with the world through Moon Books' Pagan Portals series.

Where to find out more

Sacred Wild: An Invitation to Connect to Spirits of the Land is published by Llewellyn Books.
You can find her website at elysewelles.com and follow her at @seekingnumina on Instagram and Facebook.
You can also view Sacred Wild on Amazon

Previous related posts

https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/07/authors-on-their-own-writing-green.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2025/07/authors-on-their-own-writing-lisa.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/07/authors-on-their-writing-feminist-witch.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2025/07/authors-on-their-own-writing-katie-ness.html

Magical Online & London Events in the Next Weeks

2026-08-05T08:00:00.000+01:00

Here's a list of events for pagans, witches and those with similar interests over the next couple of weeks. There are online things you can do anywhere (highlighted in bold) plus in-person talks and workshops in or near London, and some festivals further afield.

Now – 29 November; The Coming of Age Exhibition - including displays on witches and crones. Venue: Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE. Open daily 10am-6pm. Free. https://wellcomecollection.org/

Now - 8 September; The Sun and The Moon: Art Inspired by the Celestial. Exhibition. Venue: Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Road, London, SW3 4RY. Open 10am-6pm. Tickets from £13. https://www.saatchigallery.com/whats-on

Now to 13 September; Hail, Delirium! Surrealist Dorothea Tanning art exhibition. Venue: The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities and Last Tuesday Society. Time: during normal opening hours. Free entry. https://thelasttuesdaysociety.org/museum/

Now - 11 September; After Fragments by Hannah Hughes - Exhibition. Venue: Swedenborg House, 20/21 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TH. Time: during daytime opening hours. Tickets free. https://www.swedenborg.org.uk/

Now – 16 August; Olivia Plender: Little Fennel’s Complaint Exhibition. Venue:: Modern Art Oxford, 30 Pembroke Street, Oxford, UK, OX1 1BP. Open from 11am Tuesday - Sunday. Tickets from £7.21. https://modernartoxford.org.uk/

Now – 13 September; The Material Heart: Front Line to Home Front. Exhibition of WWI folk art. Venue: Fashion and Textile Museum, 83 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3XF. Open: Tuesdays – Saturdays, 11am – 6pm. Tickets free with general museum admission ticket or a ticket to the Paint, Pattern, Print exhibition that's also on, costing £11.50. https://fashiontextilemuseum.org/

Now on; Vikings: The Immersive Experience. Venue: Dock X, Unit 1 Canada Water, Surrey Quays Rd, London SE16 2XU. Opening hours: daily from 9am. Adult tickets from £23 and children from £16. https://vikings-immersive.co.uk/london/?

Every Tuesday to Sunday except over bank holidays; College of Psychic Studies - pop in to have a look around the lovely building. Venue: College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time: 11am-4pm. Free entry. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk

https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Most lunchtimes and some other times: Meditation - in-person or online. In-person venue: Inner Space, 36 Shorts Gardens, Covent Garden, London · WC2H 9AB. Time: 1pm (for lunchtime meditation). Free. https://www.meetup.com/inner-space-covent-garden/events/

Every lunchtime: Rainbow Spirit offers a shared vegetarian lunch from a flat in Soho, London, for all people LGBT+Allies. The foundation is British witchcraft. Each meal is followed by Ancestor Circle, passing the talking stick. Alcohol-free event. To attend join the Whatsapp chat group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LhDxaCzGsmE2YI6AReyw3W

or email: rainbowawakening1@gmail.com

Wednesday 5 August (montlhly); Allan Johnson leads a discussion of 'Lolly Willowes', Sylvia Townsend Warner’s novel of witchcraft and freedom at Treadwell's Esoteric Book Club. Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £15. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Wednesday 5 August (first Wednesday of the month); Drumming and Meditation online with Taz Thornton. Time: 7pm. Free https://www.facebook.com/TazThorntonOfficial

Wednesday 5 August; A Demonstration of Psychic Mediumship with Daniel Pitt. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 7pm. Tickets: £30. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Wednesday 5 August (every Wednesday); Feeling Sound. Venue: She's Lost Control, 42 Valentine Road, London. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £18. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events

Wednesday 5 August; An Exploration of Tarot and Comic Books with B.Earl. Talk online via The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities and Last Tuesday Society. Time: 8pm. Tickets ·from £6.59. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619

Thursday 6 – 10 August; Out To Grass - Malvern: The Great Heathen Gathering - Friggsmoot. Venue: Woodend Farm/Bromyard Rd, Malvern WR13 5JW. Adult tickets £140/£125/£45. https://www.asatruuk.org/

Thursday 6 August (every Thursday); Midweek Meditation with the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 3pm. Tickets: free for members/£7.50 non members. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk

Thursday 6 August; Sussex Coils and Loops with Paul Holman. Talk and signing, Venue: Watkins Bookshop, 19-21 Cecil Ct, London WC2N 4EZ. Time: 5pm. Free but reserve a place https://www.watkinsbooks.com/events

Thursday 6 August; Where the Shadows Linger: Folklore and the Dark Woods. Author event by Forbidden Planet. Venue: 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8JR. Time: 5:30pm. Tickets £11.55 (£10 can be redeemed against the cost of a book) https://www.eventbrite.com/e/where-the-shadows-linger-folklore-and-the-dark-woods-tickets-1994794401754?

Thursday 6 August; Ancient myths and legends with authors Eliza Chan and Sunyi Dean. Venue:

Waterstones, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5EJ. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £6 - £26. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/15241684138?

Friday 7 August (every Friday); Live Chat hosted by Rachel Patterson, author of Gods and Goddesses of England and the Kitchen Witch series of books. Online event. Time: 9am. Free. https://www.facebook.com/RachelPattersonbooks/

Friday 7 August (1st and 3rd Friday each month); Pagan Portal Podcast by Moon Books. Time: noon (or listen to recording later). Free event. https://open.spotify.com/show/11N4kNj65tTz9NFUcZTMa7?

Friday 7 August; Know: Where the Status Quo Ends and You Come to Life with Amy Vasterling. Talk and signing, Venue: Watkins Bookshop, 19-21 Cecil Ct, London WC2N 4EZ. Time: 5pm. Free but reserve a place https://www.watkinsbooks.com/events

Friday 7 August; Lions Gate Ritual. Venue: Wicca Moon, 50 Well Hall Road, Eltham SE9. Time: 6.30pm. Tickets £25. https://www.wiccamoonuk.com/shop/events-and-workshops/lions-gate-ritual/? or https://www.facebook.com/wiccamoonuk/

Friday 7 August (and other dates); Holistic Sound Bath Meditation - Summoning The Sacred. Venue: Training Points Fitness and Therapy, 5-6 Cooper's Yard, London SE19 1TN. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £25. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/20043657289?

Friday 7 August (and other dates); Magic, Mystics and Martyrs Walking Tour with Maria Beadell of Herstorical Tours. Meet: Fish St Hill, London EC3R 8AH. Time: 8pm. Tickets: £19. https://www.herstoricaltours.co.uk/book

Saturday 8 - Sunday 9 August; Wolfheim Viking Festival. Lots of activities including a talk on Heathenry by author Thea Prothero. Venue: Arreton Barns, Isle Of Wight. Starts 10am. https://www.facebook.com/events/1797888204486628/?

Saturday 8 August; Karmic Configurations talk by Zsuzsanna Griga. Online talks via the Astrological Lodge of London. Starts 10.30am. Tickets £6/£9. https://astrolodge.co.uk/

Saturday 8 August; Source Healing to Meet Your Multidimensional Self workshop with Giancarlo Serra. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 11am. Tickets: £130. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday 8 August (and other dates); New Moon, Full Moon or Divine Union Cacao Ceremony,Heart Ritual and Gong Bath. Venue: Private Location near Wandsworth Town/Clapham Junction. Time: noon. Tickets from £36.17. https://www.eventbrite.com/o/7885666957?

Saturday 8 August; Hindu Gods Tarot with Iulia Filipovscaia. Talk and signing, Venue: Watkins Bookshop, 19-21 Cecil Ct, London WC2N 4EZ. Time: noon. Free but reserve a place https://www.watkinsbooks.com/events

Saturday 8 August; 8/8 Lionsgate Portal Soul Alignment with Gemma Petherbridge. Online event. Time: 2pm. Tickets: £90. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday 8 August; Qigong Workshop. Venue: Flopsy Wood, Cock Lane, Hoddesdon EN11 8LS. 2pm. Tickets £10. https://www.facebook.com/HertsEvents

Saturday 8 August; Son’s of Shadow: Men of Craft. Venue: Wicca Moon, 50 Well Hall Road, Eltham SE9. Time: 2pm. Tickets £10. https://www.wiccamoonuk.com/shop/events-and-workshops/lions-gate-ritual/? or https://www.facebook.com/wiccamoonuk/

Saturday 8 August (and other dates); New Moon, Full Moon or Divine Union Cacao Ceremony, Heart Ritual and Gong Bath. Venue: Private Location near Wandsworth Town/Clapham Junction, London. Time: 3pm. Tickets: From £32.93 https://www.eventbrite.com/o/fouzia-javaid-7885666957

Saturday 8 August; Lions's Gate -8-8-8 Ceremony with London Woodland Witches and Pagans. Meet at Hollyhock Cafe, Richmond, London. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £8. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/mani-woodland-witch-34325436803 or https://mani.org.uk/ or https://www.facebook.com/PaganFrontiersOfLondon.

Sunday 9 August; The British Museum and the Magical Revival Walking Tour with Caroline Wise organised by Treadwell's Bookshop. Meet at: British Museum (North Entrance), Montague Place, London, WC1B 3DG. Time: 10.50am. Tickets: £50. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Sunday 9 August; Unseen - Alexandrian Witchcraft x Bexhill Museum. Live online viewing of Alex Sanders exhibition with walkthrough by Julian Porter. Time: 4pm. Tickets: £7.50. https://www.alexandrianwitchcraft.com/unseen

Sunday 9 August (date tbc but usually second Sunday of the month - not confirmed for August); Luna Iter (Ritual in the Tower). In-person ritual in Hackney, East London for members of the group, guests and seekers on the path. Meet at the Pembury Tavern, 90 Amhurst Rd, London, from 4.30pm, moving on to a historic site to start the ritual at 6pm. Entry: £10. https://www.hildegardmaier.co.uk/luna-iter or https://www.facebook.com/groups/1230392930656154

Sunday 9 August; Mantra Journey. Venue: Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, 3 Pilgrim's Place, London NW3 1NG. Time: 7pm. Free, but donations welcome. https://www.rosslynhillchapel.org.uk

Sunday 9 August ; Psychedelic Plant Medicines and Faerie Realms with Zina Brown. Talk online via The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities and Last Tuesday Society. Time: 8pm. Tickets ·from £6.59. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619

Monday 10 August; Weaving with Angela – make a wand, dream catcher, weave a stick. Forest School chidlren's activities, must be acccompanied by an adult. Meet at: Gate next to 53 Riverview Park, Lodnon SE6 4PL. Time: 10am. https://www.facebook.com/events/2237093010425445/? or https://wildcatwilderness.org/?

Monday 10 August (every other Monday); MHA The Wilderness forest bathing walk (all mobilities welcome). Meet MHA The Wilderness, 17 Shirley Church Road, Croydon CR9 5AL. Time: 11am. Free. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/parkbathe-34393467709

Monday 10 August; Horror Movies and Psychology with Katie Evans. Venue: Viktor Wynd's Museum of Curiosities, 11 Mare Street, London E8 4RP. Time: 6.30pm. Tickets from £16.14, includes a cocktail. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-last-tuesday-society-viktor-wynd-museum-33776720489

Monday 10 August; Theosophy. Venue: Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, London, NW1 6XT. Time: 7pm. Tickets free https://www.meetup.com/rudolf-steiner-spiritual-science/events/

Monday 10 August; Popular Curses and Their Remedies. Online Workshop with Rebecca Beattie via Treadwells Online. Time: 7pm start, delayed viewing available. Tickets: £15. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Monday 10 August (date tbc but usually on a Monday early in the month - not confirmed for August); South East London Pagans Moot. Venue: The Ivy House, 55 Stuart Road, London, SE15 3BE. Time: 7.30pm. Free. https://www.facebook.com/groups/7046502195365834

Monday 10 August (tbc but usually every Monday); Tea With a Druid. Free online event by the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Time 8pm. https://druidry.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/druidry

11-20 August; Discovery Days with the Royal Parks. Free children's storytelling with Vanessa Woolf Sessions, Venue: The Learning Centre, Hyde Park W2 2UH . Time: from noon. Tickets free. https://londondreamtime.com/calendar/)

Tuesday 11 August (and other dates); Yoga for Mind, Breath and Body. Venue: Beckenham Place Mansion, Place Park, The Mansion, Beckenham BR3 1SY. Time: 6.15pm. Tickets: £12. https://www.beckenhamplace.org/whatson/

Wednesday 12 August (and other dates); Viktor Wynd Museum Guided Tour and a Devil's Botany Absinthe. Venue: Viktor Wynd's Museum of Curiosities, 11 Mare Street, London E8 4RP. Time: 6pm. Tickets from £12. Price includes a cocktail with Devil’s Botany. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-last-tuesday-society-viktor-wynd-museum-33776720489

Wednesday 12 August (tbc but usually 2nd Wed each month); Enfield Town Circle Moot. Venue: Crown and Horsehoes, Horseshoe Lane, Enfield, EN2 6PZ. Time: 7pm. https://www.facebook.com/groups/EnfieldTownCircle/

Wednesday 12 August; Soul-to-Soul Readings with Tyrone Cusack. Start of 2-session online course. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £95. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Wednesday 12 August (most Wednesdays); Gong Bath. Venue: Akasa, Hackney Wick, London E9. Time: 7pm. Tickets: from £23.46. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/sunita-kaur-34415293427

Wednesday 12 August; Sekhmet Power and Leo New Moon and Solar Eclipse magic with London Woodland Witches and Pagans. Meet at Bankside Beach by Millennium Bridge, 52 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH. Time: 7.30pm. Tickets: £6.13. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/mani-woodland-witch-34325436803 or https://mani.org.uk/ or https://www.facebook.com/PaganFrontiersOfLondon.

Thursday 13 and Friday 14 August; Summer Spirit Circle with Nicoletta Stephens. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 11am-5pm. Tickets: £265. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Thursday 13 August (2nd Thursday each month); Magick Without Tears Moot. Venue: Fitzroy Tavern, 16 Charlotte St., London W1T 2LY. Time 6pm. https://www.facebook.com/groups/mwtpubmoot

Thursday 13 August; Drum Circle. Venue: Wicca Moon, 50 Well Hall Road, Eltham SE9. Time: 6.30pm. Tickets £15. https://www.wiccamoonuk.com/shop/ or https://www.facebook.com/wiccamoonuk/

Thursday 13 August; The World of Santería alk and Soirée with Iyalorisha Odofemí (Morgan M Page). Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £10. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Thursday 13 August; Way of the Witch monthly online circle with Samantha K. and Jacqui C. Time: 8pm. Tickets: £10. https://www.meetup.com/sammi-k-shamanic-practitioner-psychic-medium/events/

Thursday 13 August; Folklore of Dorset. Talk by Cunning Folk at South East London Folklore Society. Venue: The Electric Elephant Cafe, 186A Crampton Street, London, SE17 3AE. Time: 8pm, Free but £5/£8 donations welcome. Email cunningfolkmusic@gmail.com to book a space or visit https://www.eventbrite.com/o/cunning-folk-7829505560

Friday 14 August (and other dates); Drum Birthing Workshop with Lynn Gosney. Venue: Shamanic Centre Caer Corhrain, Minster, Kent. Starts 8.45am. Tickets £225/£250. https://www.facebook.com/shamaniccentrecaercorhrain

Friday 14 to 16 August; Awakened Spirit Festival. A community based festival with workshops and live music. I'll be running a cloud and tree scrying workshop on Saturday afternoon. Venue: Crossland Riverside, Box End, Bedford, MK43 8RN. Weekend ticket including camping £150, Day tickets £60. https://awakenedspirit.co.uk/

Friday 14 August (and other dates); Hex and the City Walking Tour with Maria Beadell of Herstorical Tours. Meet: Cowcross St, Farrringdon, London EC1M 6BY. Time: 7.30pm. Tickets: £25. https://www.herstoricaltours.co.uk/

Saturday 15 - Sunday 16 August; Vintage Tarot Fair. Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Time: noon-5pm. Tickets: £5 early access, otherwise free entry. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Saturday 15 August; Psychic Fayre and Witches' Market organised by Herne and the Goddess Events. Venue: Wainscott Memorial Hall, Holly Road, Wainscott, Kent ME2 4LG. Time: noon. Free entry. https://www.facebook.com/events/1000721825913928?

Saturday 15 August; Mantra, Sound and Consciousness workshop with Ann Mathie. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 1pm. Tickets: £95. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday 15 August; Afternoon of Mediumship. Venue: Flopsy Wood, Cock Lane, Hoddesdon EN11 8LS. 2pm. Tickets £10. https://www.facebook.com/HertsEvents

Saturday 15 August; Psychic Development Workshop. Venue: Wicca Moon, 50 Well Hall Road, Eltham SE9. Time: 2pm. Tickets £25. https://www.wiccamoonuk.com/shop/ or https://www.facebook.com/wiccamoonuk/

Sunday 16 August (then 13 Sept, 18 Oct, 15 Nov); Base Chakra. Wicca Women’s Circles Focus on a Chakra. Venue: Crystal Wicca, West Wickham, BR4. Time: tbc. Tickets: £33 or £55 for two classes. https://www.facebook.com/TheCrystalWicca

Sunday 16 August (tbc but usually a Sunday each month); Dawn of the Oak Pagan moot. Venue: The Sir John Oldcastle, Farringdon Road/Greville Street, London EC1M 3JF. Time: 2pm. https://www.facebook.com/groups/dawnoftheoak/

Sunday 16 August; Tree Folklore and Bookbinding Workshop organised by London Wildlife Trust. Venue: Grosvenor Square,

London W1K 6LF. Time: 2pm. Tickets: £21.68 https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/7357843879?

For activities after these dates please visit my events page.

Please note that I am not responsible for the content of these events except my own talks and workshops. Contact organisers directly if you have questions or to check ticket availability. Where a practitioner is offering information about magical healing, this is *not* medical advice. If you're running an event you want included, please email me at badwitch1234@gmail.com Also please note I earn commission from advertisers for some links.

Green London: Nature Suffering in the Drought

2026-08-04T08:00:00.000+01:00

I often write that London is one of the world's greenest cities, but it is now far less green than it should be. We might not be experiencing wildfires here, but everywhere is suffering in the extreme heat. The photos on this page show expanses of brown grass, a river far lower than it should be, and ducks in the mere puddles that remain of their dried-up lake.

A few years ago I walked part of Waterlink Way through South East London following the Pool and Ravensbourne rivers. It was a idyllic corridor of natural beauty running throught the city, and you can see what it looked like here. Last weekend I decided to continue the walk to the Thames, then under it by the Greenwich foot tunnel. It still took me through urban nature reserves, parks and beside flowing water, but it was tragic to see how much plants and wildlife are struggling in the heat.

What makes it even more poignant for me is that I did my earlier walk as part of an eco-awareness project, involving writing to hightlight the problems of climate change and other environmental issues. I hope this post continues to do that.

We can all do a bit to help by conserving water. Personally, I'm not flushing the toilet every single time I go for a wee. If everyone one reduced their number of flushes, it would make a bit of a difference. I'm also leaving bowls of water out in my garden for birds and animals. I know there's still more I could be doing, and I'd welcome comments with suggestions how how we can all do our bit.

London's 'Green' Places Pictured

Woman and Fish statue at Millwall Park with London's Docklands skyline in the background
The lake at Brookmill Park. If you look closely you can see a sad looking duck at the edge. This park also contains a small nature reserve
The Ravensbourne river at Lewisham, SE London
Island Gardens, which is next to the Thames on the north side of the Greenwich foot tunnel.

I regularly write Green London posts to show that the city isn't all concrete. It has many parks, commons, woods, nature reserves and other places where nature usually thrives.

Other Previous Related Posts

https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/06/green-london-bloomsburys-secret-gardens.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2023/07/green-london-strange-things-in-soho.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2023/07/green-london-st-jamess-park-ghost-and.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2023/06/green-london-lincolns-inn-fields.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2023/06/green-london-great-plane-in-brunswick.html

My Witchy Events: Cloud & Tree Scrying + Poppets

2026-08-03T08:00:00.000+01:00

Here are details of the witchy events I'm involved with from now until the end of September. I'll be at the Awakened Spirit festival in August where I'll be teaching cloud and tree scrying, then in September I'll be at Romford Pagan Moot to talk about poppets and magical dolls.

August

Cloud and Tree Scrying at the Awakened Spirit Festival
This lovely community based festival runs from Friday 14 to 16 August, offering workshops and live music. I'll be running a cloud and tree scrying session on Saturday afternoon. The venue is Crossland Riverside, Box End, Bedford, MK43 8RN. Weekend tickets including camping are £150, day tickets are £60. https://awakenedspirit.co.uk/

September

Poppets and Magical Dolls at Romford Moot
On Tuesday 1 September I will be talking about Poppets and Magical Dolls at Romford Moot. This monthly Pagan gathering meets at The Golden Lion, 2 High Street, Romford. it starts at 7.30pm. Entry is just £4, pay at the event. You can find out more about the moot here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064489640955

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.

A Card for the World: 4 of Bows in the Wildwood Tarot

2026-07-31T08:00:00.000+01:00

For Lammas Eve I drew a card for the world from the Wildwood Tarot and revealed the Four of Bows. It shows joyous figures dancing around a blazing fire. The bows are unstrung, there's food and drink aplenty, and it's a time for parties and celebrations, not conflict or work.

These days it's rare I find such happy cards when I do a reading for the world, but it is appropriate. We are at the feast of the first fruits of the harvest, and at the start of the summer holidays for many. Let yourself enjoy life's pleasures.

For pagans that could well mean going to an actual festival or ritual outdoors, putting aside cares and worries, and maybe even dancing around a bonfire (if allowed for saftey reasons, of course!). Personally, I will be at the Awakened Spirit Festival from Friday 14 to 16 August, and this card has made me look forward to it even more than I was already.

If you can't get away yourself, at least allow yourself time to do things purely for fun. Go out with friends or visit them, sit in a park or garden and enjoy late summer, hold a party - big or small - and invite those you want to celebrate with.

As a genuine prediction, I believe the next few weeks could well hold things that can be celebrated. I'm not saying all the world's problems will be solved. They certainly won't be. But it's important to recognise success, achievement and bounty - especially when life is otherwise difficult.

The Four of Bows in the Wildwood Tarot corresponds to the Four of Wands in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, and can also indicate weddings, anniverseries and birthdays. If you are involved in any of those kinds of events, this is a very good card to see.

You can view The Wildwood Tarot on Amazon.

(Please note I earn commission from some links)

Lammas Rites & Pagan Events Near London & Online

2026-07-29T08:00:00.000+01:00

Lammas is on August 1 and is a festival to celebrate the start of the harvest in the Pagan Wheel of the Year. Here are details of some of the magical events in and near London over that time and the week ahead, as well as a few further afield and some online talks and rituals.

https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Now – Friday 31 July; Celtic Lughnasa Celebration: The Games! Family days out. Event organised by Celtic Harmony Camp. Venue: Brickendon Lane, Brickendon SG13 8NY. Times from 10am. Tickets £16.96. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/celtic-lughnasa-celebration-the-games-tickets-1993344076793?

or email: rainbowawakening1@gmail.com

Wednesday 29 July; Bloomsbury Folklore Club – Merfolk. Via London Dreamtime. Venue: Gower Street Waterstones event space, 82 Gower Street, Lower Ground Floor, London WC1E 6EQ. Doors at 6.30pm.Tickets £10. https://connectionwithwonder.com/events/

Wednesday 29 July; Members-Only Summer's Night at The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 6.30pm. Tickets: free. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Wednesday 29 July (monthly); Melissa's Tarot Club. Monthly In-Person Workshop. Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Time: 7pm. Cost: £15 per person. https://www.treadwells-london.com/ or reserve a place by visiting the shop.

Wednesday 29 July (every full and new moon); Moon Space online event via She's Lost Control. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £15. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events

Wednesday 29 July; Full Moon Walk in Richmond Park with London Woodland Witches and Pagans. Meet at Richmond Park Gate, Star and Garter Hill, Richmond TW10 5HU. Time: 7pm. Free. More info: https://mani.org.uk/ or visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/mani-woodland-witch-34325436803

Wednesday 29 July (every Wednesday); Feeling Sound. Venue: She's Lost Control, 42 Valentine Road, London. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £18. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events

Wednesday 29 July; Spirit of Creativity with Zara Waldeback. Creative writing session online via The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities and Last Tuesday Society. Time: 7.30pm. Tickets ·from £6.59. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619

Thursday 30 July - 11 September; After Fragments by Hannah Hughes - Exhibition. Venue: Swedenborg House, 20/21 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TH. Time: during daytime opening hours. Tickets free. https://www.swedenborg.org.uk/

Thursday 30 July (every Thursday); Midweek Meditation with the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 3pm. Tickets: free for members/£7.50 non members. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk

Thursday 30 July; Sian Sibely on Black Paths and Green Cathedrals. Talk and signing, Venue: Watkins Bookshop, 19-21 Cecil Ct, London WC2N 4EZ. Time: 5pm. Free but reserve a place https://www.watkinsbooks.com/events

Thursday 30 July; Death Rituals. Talk and Soirée with Dr Sarah Hiepler-Basty. Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £10. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Thursday 30 July; PF London Lammas Open Ritual via Pagan Federation London. Venue: Pirate Castle, Gilbey's Wharf Oval Road NW1 7EA London, UK Time: 7.15pm. Entry £8 for PF members, £10 for non-members (cash only). https://www.facebook.com/groups/pflondon

Thursday 30 July; Full Moon Celebration with South East London Pagans. Venue: One Tree Hill, Honor Oak, South London. Time: 7.30pm. Free. https://www.facebook.com/groups/7046502195365834

Thursday 30 July (last Thursday every month); Celebrating Lammas and Lughnasad at Hertford Pagan Moot. Venue: The White Horse Pub, 33 Castle Street, Hertford, Herts SG14 1HH) (45 mins from central London). Time: 8pm. https://www.facebook.com/groups/104788436218047

Friday 31 July (every Friday); Live Chat hosted by Rachel Patterson, author of Gods and Goddesses of England and the Kitchen Witch series of books. Online event. Time: 9am. Free. https://www.facebook.com/RachelPattersonbooks/

Friday 31 July; Women's Circle - Harvest, Gratitude and Renewal, with ReNurture. Venue: Northumberland Road, Harrow HA2 7RB. Time 7pm. Tickets tbc. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/womens-circle-harvest-gratitude-renewal-tickets-1994204018903?

Friday 31 July; Harvest Healing: A Lammas Ceremony and Guided Shamanic Journey by Priest of Indigo Earth Joseph Atiase. Venue: Hackney Marshes, 146 Lea Bridge Road, London E5 9RB. Time: 7.30pm. Tickets by donation. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/35528479563?

Friday 31 July (and other dates); Cosy Candlelit Gong Bath by Claire The Soul Nurturer. Venue: Secret Soul Sanctuary, Sydenham Hill, London SE23 3PH. Time: 7.45pm. Tickets: £21.84. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/claire-the-soul-nurturer-35479207053

Saturday 1 August; Walking in the Footsteps of your Year, at this Lammas Solar Festival. Walk with Jeremy Rye. Meet under the Tower of London sign, Tower of London, London EC3N 4AE. Time 10am. Tickets: £26.64. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/31055883021?

Saturday 1 August; Equine Healing and Communication classs with Elizabeth Whiter. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 10am. Tickets: £135. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday 1 August; Essex Witches and Pagan Lammas Festival by by Earth Spirit Events. Venue: Galleywood Heritage Centre, CM2 8TR. Time: 10:30am – 4pm. Entry £3. https://www.facebook.com/events/1098254762270990/?

Saturday 1 August; Family: Folk Craft Morning to celebrate Lammas, also known as Lughnasa. Venue: Chelsea Physic Garden, 66 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London SW3 4HS. Time: 11am-1pm. Tickets:

£15-£20. https://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/visit/whats-on/

Saturday 1 August; Ancestral and Past-Life Influences class with Julia Shepherd. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 11am. Tickets: £130. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday 1 August; Lammas Mini Outdoor Retreat with Cacao and Fire Ceremony and Gong Bath. Venue: Private Location near Wandsworth Town/Clapham Junction. Times from 11.45am. Tickets from £64.63. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lammas-mini-outdoor-retreat-with-cacao-fire-ceremony-gong-bath-tickets-1993928329308?

Saturday 1 August (tbc but usually Saturday closest to the festival); Lammas at Coldrum Stones with Kent Gorsed. Venue: Coldrum Long Barrow, West Maling, Kent. Time: noon. Free. https://www.facebook.com/kentgorsedd/

Saturday 1 August; Blessing Your Home With Solar Magic. Venue: Wicca Moon, 50 Well Hall Road, Eltham SE9. Time: 12.30pm. Tickets £25. https://www.wiccamoonuk.com/shop/events-and-workshops/blessing-your-home-with-solar-magic-workshop-25-00/ or https://www.facebook.com/wiccamoonuk/

Saturday 1 August (Saturday closest to the festival); Lammas free and open Gorsed of Caer Abiri ritual at Avebury stone circle in Wiltshire. Meet at the Red Lion pub from noon for druidic ceremony at 1.30pm. Offering of bread, mead, or Bardic performance always welcomed. Free event, just turn up. https://www.facebook.com/groups/49080749624/

Saturday 1 August (Saturday closest to the festival); Woodland Lammas Harvest Ritual 2026 with London Woodland Witches and Pagans. Meet at Queens woods cafe', 42 Muswell Hill Rd, London N10 3JP, to be led into woods to the ritual spot. Time: 4pm. Tickets £6.13. More info: https://mani.org.uk/ or visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/mani-woodland-witch-34325436803

Saturday 1 August; Lammas Day Yoga, Cacao and Sound Healing Ceremony with Little Pause Retreats. Venue Light Centre Monument, Idol Lane, London EC3R 8DU. Time: 5.30pm. Tickets £22.38. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lammas-day-yoga-cacao-and-sound-healing-ceremony-tickets-1991716356237?

Saturday 1 August; Folklore Feast of Gold with the Kitchen Witch for Lughnasa. Venue: Chelsea Physic Garden, 66 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London SW3 4HS. Time: 6.30pm-8pm. Tickets:

£50. https://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/visit/whats-on/

Saturday 1 August (date tbc but usually first Saturday each month); Gong Bath. Venue: Upminster Sanctuary Pea Lane, Upminster, RM142XH. Time: 7pm. Tickets: tbc. https://upminstersanctuary.com/

Saturday 1 August; Concrete Atlantis presents: A Lammas Night Gathering with Gilroy Mere live. Venue: The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, London WC1N 1JD. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £11.55. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/concrete-atlantis-present-a-lammas-night-gathering-with-gilroy-mere-live-tickets-1991469794765?

Sunday 2 August (closest Sunday to the festival); Pagan Federation Online Lammas Festival. Starts 10am. Free. https://www.facebook.com/paganfederation/events

Sunday 2 August; Introduction to Shadow Integration with Charlie Morley. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 11am. Tickets: £130. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Sunday 2 August; Orpington Alternative Market. Venue: The Priory, Church Hill, Orpington. Time: 11am. Free entry. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1335736923852705/

Sunday 2 August;; Tree Walk with David Hamblin via North West Kent Pagans Moot. Organised by NWK Pagans for members of the group. Meet outside the coach house cafe, Beckenham Place Park. Time: 11.30am. https://www.facebook.com/groups/445487428816887

Sunday 2 August (closest Sunday to the festival); Druidic Ritual to celebrate Lammas on Primrose Hill with the Loose Association of Druids. Gather in the Hawthorne Grove at Primrose Hill, London, NW1 8YH, at 12.30pm to prepare the site for the ritual at 1pm. Nearest tube: Chalk Farm. Bring a small contribution of food and drink to share. https://www.facebook.com/LooseAssociationOfDruidsOfPrimroseHill

Sunday 2 August (closest Sunday to the festival); Lammas ritual for members of the Woodspirits group. Venue: Highgate, London. Meet from noon for a social then ritual at 3pm. https://www.facebook.com/groups/4032235040150960

Sunday 2 August; The Bard’s Garden: Folk Songs of Herbs and Healing. Venue: Chelsea Physic Garden, 66 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London SW3 4HS. Time: 1pm. Tickets:

£25. https://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/visit/whats-on/

Sunday 2 August (tbc but usually the closest Sunday to the festival); Anderida Gorsedd Lammas open ritual. Venue: Long Man of Wilmington, Wilmington, near Eastbourne, East Sussex. Meet near the car park between 1.30pm and 2pm, walk up to the chalk hill figure at 2pm. Afterwards, the Giants Rest pub. https://www.facebook.com/groups/227609495203/

Sunday 2 August; Tarot Psychogeography class with Bel Senlle, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 2pm. Tickets: £90. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Sunday 2 August; Lammas Festival. Venue: Flopsy Wood, Cock Lane, Hoddesdon EN11 8LS. 2pm. Readings £20. https://www.facebook.com/HertsEvents

Sunday 2 August (closest Sunday to the festival); Lammas Wheel of the Year: Pagan Ceremony. Venue: Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, 3 Pilgrim's Place, London NW3 1NG. Time: 7pm. Free, but donations welcome. https://www.rosslynhillchapel.org.uk

Sunday 2 August (first Sunday each month); Gratitude and Abundance - Collective World Meditation with Pauline Flitton. Online event. Time: 7:30pm - 8:30pm. Free. Contact Pauline 07415 054280 or Email

contact@crystal-manifestations.co.uk for the free Zoom link. Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1514249646502331/?

Sunday 2 August; The History of Mermaids, Sea Spirits and Women via Seed talks. Online event. Time: 10pm. Tickets from $19.95. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/cc/seed-talks-online-1262239?

Monday 3 August; Family Activities: Witch’s Knots and Braiding Spells. Venue: Chelsea Physic Garden, 66 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London SW3 4HS. Time: 2pm. Tickets:

£25/£20. https://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/visit/whats-on/

Monday 3 August; The British Cemetery with Dr Roger Bowdler. Venue: Viktor Wynd's Museum of Curiosities, 11 Mare Street, London E8 4RP. Time: 6.30pm. Tickets from £16.14, includes a cocktail. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-last-tuesday-society-viktor-wynd-museum-33776720489

Monday 3 August; Radio Sorcery with Dr Matteo Polato. Talk online via The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities and Last Tuesday Society. Time: 8pm. Tickets ·from £6.59. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619

Monday 3 August (tbc but usually every Monday); Tea With a Druid. Free online event by the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Time 8pm. https://druidry.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/druidry

Tuesday 4 August (fortnightly); Writing Group. Venue: Swedenborg House, 20/21 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TH. Time: 6pm. Tickets free. https://www.swedenborg.org.uk/

Tuesday 4 August (and other dates); Yoga for Mind, Breath and Body. Venue: Beckenham Place Mansion, Place Park, The Mansion, Beckenham BR3 1SY. Time: 6.15pm. Tickets: £12. https://www.beckenhamplace.org/whatson/

Tuesday 4 August; Overcoming Magical Self-Sabotage. Start of 2-Part Workshop with Mark Vincent via Treadwells Online. Time: 7pm start, delayed viewing available. Tickets: £50. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Tuesday 4 August; Beginner Tarot (Major Cards). Start of 4-Part Course with Adrien Mastrosimone. via Treadwells Online. Time: 7pm start, delayed viewing available. Tickets: £150. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Tuesday 4 August; Beginner Tarot (Minor Cards). Start of 4-Part Course with Delphine de la Mar. Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Time: 7pm. Cost: £150 per person. https://www.treadwells-london.com/ or reserve a place by visiting the shop.

Tuesday 4 August (tbc but usually first Tuesday each month); Talk at Romford Pagan Moot. Venue: The Golden Lion, 2 High Street, Romford. Time: 7.30pm. Entry £4: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064489640955

Tuesday 4 August; Academy of Witchcraft (Advanced) Online Introduction Evening via Wicca Moon. Free Event. Time: 9pm https://www.wiccamoonuk.com/shop/events-and-workshops/academy-of-witchcraft-advanced-introduction-evening-free-event/

Wednesday 5 August (first Wednesday of the month); Drumming and Meditation online with Taz Thornton. Time: 7pm. Free https://www.facebook.com/TazThorntonOfficial

Friday 7 August (tbc but usually 1st and 3rd Friday each month); Pagan Portal Podcast by Moon Books. Time: noon (or listen to recording later). Free event. https://open.spotify.com/show/11N4kNj65tTz9NFUcZTMa7?

Saturday 8 August; Karmic Configurations talk by Zsuzsanna Griga. Online talks via the Astrological Lodge of London. Starts 10.30am. Tickets £6/£9. https://astrolodge.co.uk/

Saturday 8 August; 8/8 Lionsgate Portal Soul Alignment with Gemma Petherbridge. Online event. Time: 2pm. Tickets: £90. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday 8 August; Son’s Of Shadow: Men Of Craft. Venue: Wicca Moon, 50 Well Hall Road, Eltham SE9. Time: 2pm. Tickets £10. https://www.wiccamoonuk.com/shop/events-and-workshops/lions-gate-ritual/? or https://www.facebook.com/wiccamoonuk/

Saturday 8 August (and other dates); New Moon, Full Moon or Divine Union Cacao Ceremony, Heart Ritual and Gong Bath. Venue: Private Location near Wandsworth Town/Clapham Junction, London. Time: 3pm. Tickets: From £32.93 https://www.eventbrite.com/o/fouzia-javaid-7885666957

Sunday 9 August; 8/8 Goddesses of Land, Sea and Sky workshop with Frances Billinghurst. Online event. Time: 10.30am. Tickets: £90. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Sunday 9 August; Unseen - Alexandrian Witchcraft x Bexhill Museum. Live online viewing Alex Sanders exhibition with walkthrough by Julian Porter. Time: 4pm. Tickets: £7.50. https://www.alexandrianwitchcraft.com/unseen

Sunday 9 August (tbc); Luna Iter (Ritual in the Tower). In-person ritual in Hackney, East London for members of the group, guests and seekers on the path. Meet at the Pembury Tavern, 90 Amhurst Rd, London, from 4.30pm, moving on to a historic site to start the ritual at 6pm. Entry: £10. https://www.hildegardmaier.co.uk/luna-iter or https://www.facebook.com/groups/1230392930656154

For activities after these dates please visit my events page.

Moon Books Podcast: Celebrating Lughnasadh

2026-07-28T08:00:00.000+01:00

This weekend I'll be celebrating Lammas, or the first fruits of the harvest. I'll probably pick blackberries from my garden and make a crumble or maybe berry flapjacks. Yum. Otherwise known as Lughnasadh, Lammas is the first harvest festival in the Modern Pagan Wheel of the Year, and takes place at the start of August.

On a recent Moon Books podcast, Rachel Patterson chatted with Jessica Howard, Katie Ness, and me - Lucya Starza - about how we work with the magic of the season.

We discuss baking bread, making corn dollies, river offerings, foraging, journaling, working with deities, and simple seasonal spells, as well as a few personal stories. We also talk about how changes in the seasons and climate can affect traditional celebrations, why gratitude matters more than obligation, and how it's fine if your practice is different from others.

Even for non-Pagans, this can be a time to pause, notice what has grown, be grateful for what you have, and get ready for the slow shift toward autumn. This conversation offers some practical ideas, as well as fun and laughter.

Authors On Their Writing: Feminist Witch Susan Harper

2026-07-27T08:00:00.000+01:00

I've chatted to witch, cultural anthropologist, and author Susan Harper about her work, continuing my interview series Authors on Their Own Writing:

Q: Out of all that you've written, which is your favourite published book?

A: That's a tough one! But it's probably Feminist Witchcraft, from Moon Books. I write for both popular audiences and academic audiences, so if I get to choose my favourite academic work alongside Feminist Witchcraft, it's the book I recently published with my writing partner, Doing Ethnography.

Q: What’s Feminist Witchcraft about?

A: The book is meant to be an introduction to feminism-centered witchcraft as I practice it, and as it has grown from the Women's Spirituality of the 1970s and 1980s. It's a short little book, since it's in the Pagan Portals series, and is meant to give readers a taste of what feminist witchcraft can look like and how they can begin to build a practice.

Q: Why is it your favourite?

A: It's the book I wish I had had in my 20s. I had dreamed about writing a book about witchcraft for three decades, so to see it come to life was quite something. It's also my favourite because it's my attempt to be a good ancestor -- many of the writers who founded feminist witchcraft and whose work shaped me have turned out to hold trans-exclusionary ideologies and to act in ways that are harmful to Black, Brown, and Indigenous women, and this broke my heart because I believe that these attitudes are antithetical to the feminist project. I have met many folks who are skeptical of feminist witchcraft spaces because of the reputation they have due to these public figures. My philosophy has always been that the best way to navigate having ancestors who were not great is to endeavor to be better ancestors for the next generation. Feminist Witchcraft is my way of doing that, by offering a vision of feminist witchcraft that rejects these narrow views and offers a path to empowerment for anyone who wants to walk it.

Q: Tell me a bit more about yourself and anything else you’ve written.

A: I've been practicing witchcraft in various forms since the mid-1990s, and I am also a scholar of Contemporary Paganism. My doctoral dissertation was entitled Navigating Gender Identity and Social Identity in an American NeoPagan Community and examined the ways in which Pagans in Texas found their paths and built community. I still write for an academic audience about Paganism and a variety of other topics, including pop culture, social science methods, reproductive justice, and queer identity and issues. I've been reading tarot for my entire adult life and that is another area in which I do research and offer workshops. I work in higher education at a large public university in the US Midwest. I'm involved with increasing college access through two large scholarship programs principally. When I'm not working or writing, I love to garden, offer workshops on tarot and witchcraft both online and in my local community, crocheting, spending time with my wife and my three cats, and spending time on the beautiful prairies where I live.

I've written quite a few things, including essays in three Moon Books anthologies -- Naming the Goddess, The Goddess in America, and Seven Ages of the Goddess. My favourite among those is probably the piece I wrote for The Goddess in America, "The Goddess and the Feminist." It holds the seeds of what became Feminist Witchcraft. I've published two scholarly articles on Pagan topics -- "All Cool Women Should Be Bisexual": Female Bisexual Identity in an American NeoPagan Community (Journal of Bisexuality, 2010) which also appears in an an edited volume, Sexuality, Religion, and the Sacred; and "In the Service of All LIfe: Towards a Contemporary Pagan Ethics of Abortion" (Gender and Religion, 2022). My writing partner and I published Doing Ethnography, a guide to doing ethnographic research (the signature method of anthropology and sociology) last year (Guilford, 2025). We also published a chapter in an anthology, Monstrous Mothers (Demeter Press, 2023) -- our chapter is called "Science Put Babies in My Belly: Motherhood and Monstrosity in Orphan Black."

Q: What are you working on now?

I'm working on three major things right now. The first, with my writing partner, is a chapter for an edited volume on the Witch in Popular Culture titled They Can't Burn Us All. Our contribution is titled "The Revolution Will Not Be Instagrammed: Witchcraft, Wellness, and Commodification in the 21st Century" and looks at the way in which witchcraft is repositioned as self-care or wellness and as something you can purchase. My two larger projects are a volume for Moon Books' Practical History of Pagan Britain series about the 19th century occult movement -- I joking call it the Weird Victorian Guys book, and it's just fascinating really digging into the history and focusing on Britain since I typically work in the US. The second is an outgrowth of the article I referenced above about Pagan ethics of abortion -- Bloomsbury asked me to turn that article into a book length monograph, which was a bit heady! It focuses on US Pagans and their ethics about abortion, something that there's not a lot of other writing about.

You can find out more about Susan Harper here:

Her website: www.susanharper.com
Her Moon Books author page: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/authors/susan-harper
You can also view Pagan Portals - Feminist Witchcraft on Amazon.

Please note I earn commission from some links.

Previous related posts

https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/07/authors-on-their-own-writing-green.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2023/10/authors-on-their-writing-bard-of-ely.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2023/11/authors-on-their-own-writing-daniela.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2023/09/authors-on-their-own-writing-rachel.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2023/09/authors-on-their-own-writing-laura-perry.html

Review: Hecate, Goddess of Magick & Witchcraft

2026-07-24T07:21:54.978+01:00

Hecate is the goddess of the crossroads. She stands with torches to light the way in darkness. As Irisanya Moon writes in Pagan Portals - Hecate, Goddess of Magick and Witchcraft, she's thought of as being among the witchiest of goddesses, and is invoked by the "weird sisters" in Shakespeare's Macbeth.

I read Pagan Portals - Hecate because I always enjoy Irisanya Moon's books. She has a lovely style of writing and offers accurate historical research as well as practical ways of working with goddesses as modern pagans while referring to ancient practice too. However, I soon realised that this is the book I needed to read now, and Hecate is the goddess I need to work with because I'm at a crossroads in my own life.

Next month - Augtust 2026 - I will start receiving my state pension. I could, technically, retire, but I'm not in a standard job. I'm a freelance writer and teacher of magical workshops. I love doing those things, but writing and teaching have never earnt me huge amounts of money. I've had to be frugal and sometimes take on paid work because I desparately needed the cash even though I would rather have spent the time doing other things. My state pension will give me a bit more financial security.

I have no desire to stop writing, but I can afford to be more choosy about what I write. Writing a book is a big commitment. Part of my crossroads means deciding whether to propose another Pagan Portals book or concentrate on another novel following on from my first that was published, Erosion. A practical magic book would sell more copies, but fiction writing is where my heart lies.

Hecate is the right goddess to ask for help in choosing the path forwards. Inspired by Irisanya's book, I'll be lighting a candle, scrying, and asking the help of the goddess to show the way.

But, that's enough of my own life story. Here's the synopsis of Pagan Portals - Hecate from publisher Moon Books' website:

"Hecate waits for us at the crossroads, torches in each hand. The goddess of land, sea, and sky is wise and wondrous, terrifying and holy. Triple-faced Hecate does not tell us the way; she shows us what can happen when we step into our power. With practices, trances, spells, and immersive exercises, you can build a relationship with Hecate: light-bringer, gate-breaker, and star-walker. The Goddess of Magick and Witchcraft inspires, guides, and grants safe passage in the darkest moments."

About the author

Irisanya Moon is a writer, witch, teacher, poet, and Reclaiming initiate who has practiced magick for 20-plus years. She blends grounded, graceful, and radically authentic facilitation to inspire transformation and liberation at the personal and collective levels. Her previous books include Pagan Portals titles on Reclaiming Witchcraft, Aphrodite, Iris, Norns, Artemis, Circe, Hestia, and The Muses.

You can view Pagan Portals - Hecate on Amazon.

(Please note: I earn commission from some links)

Magical Online & London Events in the Next Weeks

2026-07-22T08:00:00.000+01:00

Here's a list of events for pagans, witches and those with similar interests over the next couple of weeks. I mainly include in-person things in or near London, because that's where I'm based, as well as online talks and workshops you can do anywhere (highlighted in bold for clarity).

https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

or email: rainbowawakening1@gmail.com

Wednesday 22 July; A Consensus of Symbols: Patterns in Ritual Building Protection book launch with Wayne Perkins. Venue: The Atlantis Bookshop, 49a Museum Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1A 1LY. Time: 2.30pm Cost £20 https://theatlantisbookshop.com/

Wednesday 22 July; Norwegian Trolls and the Hidden World with Lena Heide Brennand. Talk online via The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities and Last Tuesday Society. Time: 6pm. Tickets ·from £6.59. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619

Wednesday 22 July; Chris French on The Science of Paranormal Activities for the Pint of View lectures. Venue: The Alpaca, 84-86 Essex Rd, London, N1 8LU. Time 7pm. https://www.tickettailor.com/events/pintofviewlondon/2247184

Wednesday 22 July; Alchemy and Creative Writing. Workshop with Bernadette Russell via Treadwells Online. Time: 7pm start, delayed viewing available. Tickets: £15. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Wednesday 22 July; Magnetism in the 19th Century. Talk and Soiree with Kristof Smeyers and Kurt Vanhoutte. Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £10. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Wednesday 22 July; Introduction to Norse Mythology, with Dr Tom Morcom via Seedtalks. Hybrid event. In-person venue: The Blues Kitchen Brixton, 40 Acre Lane, London SW2 5SP. Time: 7pm. Tickets: from £11.50. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/cc/seed-talks-in-london-1252979?

Wednesday 22 July (most Wednesdays); Gong Bath. Venue: Akasa, Hackney Wick, London E9. Time: 7pm. Tickets: from £23.46. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/sunita-kaur-34415293427

Wednesday 22 July (every Wednesday); Feeling Sound. Venue: She's Lost Control, 42 Valentine Road, London. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £18. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events

Thursday 23 July; Reiki 1 with The Reiki Academy. Start of 2-session course with Claire Hall and Olivia Griesser. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 9.30am. Tickets: £247. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Thursday, 23 July; The Natural Way: Summer Celebration pilgrimage walk, chance to connect with nature, discover local history, and meet fellow nature enthusiasts. Location in north London. Time: 10.30am -2pm . Free but reserve a spot. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-natural-way-summer-celebration-tickets-1993135079677?

Thursday 23 July (every Thursday); Midweek Meditation with the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 3pm. Tickets: free for members/£7.50 non members. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk

Thursday, 23 July; Colour Therapy with Nina Ashby. Talk and signing, Venue: Watkins Bookshop, 19-21 Cecil Ct, London WC2N 4EZ. Time: 5pm. Free but reserve a place https://www.watkinsbooks.com/events

Thursday 23 July; Isis and Magdelene Festival and Crossbones Vigil to Honour the Outcast Dead of Crossbones Graveyard, Southwark. Location: Redcross Way, London, SE1 1TA. Time: 6.45pm for 7pm. Free, just turn up You can also view the vigil online. http://crossbones.org.uk

Thursday 23 July (details and date tbc); Drumming for Infinity. Venue: Wicca Moon, 50 Well Hall Road, Eltham SE9. Time: 6.30pm. Tickets £15. https://www.wiccamoonuk.com/shop/ or https://www.facebook.com/wiccamoonuk/

Thursday 23 July; Bibi's Circle: Women's Circle - Women's Herbs for Maiden, Mother and Crone. Venue: East Dulwich Community Centre, 46-50 Darrell Road, London SE22 9NL. Time: 7pm. Tickets £16.96. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/bibis-circle-56277271483

Thursday 23 July; Deconstructing the Séance Room with Dr Kate Cherrell. Talk online via The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities and Last Tuesday Society. Time: 8pm. Tickets ·from £6.59. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619

Friday 24 July (every Friday); Live Chat hosted by Rachel Patterson, author of Gods and Goddesses of England and the Kitchen Witch series of books. Online event. Time: 9am. Free. https://www.facebook.com/RachelPattersonbooks/

Friday 24 - Sunday 26 July; Valhalla Viking Festival. Venue: Dummer Down Farm, Basingstoke. Day tickets from £5. Weekend tickets from £145. https://valhallavikingfestival.co.uk/

Friday 24 July; Aura Power with Sushma Sagar. Talk and signing, Venue: Watkins Bookshop, 19-21 Cecil Ct, London WC2N 4EZ. Time: 5pm. Free but reserve a place https://www.watkinsbooks.com/events

Friday 24 July; Lammas Ritual In The Wild with Wicca Moon. Venue: Wilberforce Scouts Downe Road, Keston, BR2 6AD. Time: 6.30pm to start at 7pm. Tickets: £15. https://www.wiccamoonuk.com/shop/events-and-workshops/lammas-ritual-in-the-wild/?

Friday 24 July; Drumming Circle celebration of Lughnasaha with a ritual via Wicca Moon. Venue: 15 Prospect Place, Bromley, Kent, BR2 9HL. Time: 7pm. Tickets £15. https://www.wiccamoonuk.com/shop/events-and-workshops/drumming-circle-july-2026/?

Saturday 25 July; Yaku and Kuntur: Andean Love Ceremony. Venue: Berkeley farm, Essex, a few miles outside London. Time: 9am start. Tickets: £249. https://www.aho.community/

Saturday 25 July; Coffee Morning with Hand Readings. Venue: Flopsy Wood, Cock Lane, Hoddesdon EN11 8LS. 10am-3pm. Readings £10. https://www.facebook.com/HertsEvents

Saturday 25 July; Honouring the Dark Goddess 2-day workshop with Jane Meredith, author of Journey to the Dark Goddess. Venue: The Atlantis Bookshop, 49a Museum Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1A 1LY. Time: 11am Cost £65. Bookings through Atlantis Bookshop 020 7405 2120. https://theatlantisbookshop.com/ More details: https://www.facebook.com/events/961331719692257/?

Saturday 25 July; Predicting with Tarot class with Avril Price. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 11am. Tickets: £130. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday, 25 July; Grosvenor Square: Wild London: Free Family storytelling with Vanessa Woolf Sessions.. Venue: Grosvenor Square Gardens, Mayfair, W1K 6AN. Time: noon. Tickets free. https://londondreamtime.com/calendar/)

Saturday 25 July; Journey into the Divine Matrix Oracle with Mara Branscombe Talk and signing, Venue: Watkins Bookshop, 19-21 Cecil Ct, London WC2N 4EZ. Time: noon. Free but reserve a place https://www.watkinsbooks.com/events

Saturday 25 July; Sacred Sweat Lodge Ceremony Celebrating Lammas. Venue: Shamanic Centre Caer Corhrain Kent. Run by Lynn Gosney. Time: noon start Tickets £30 min donation, email lynn.gosney@hotmail.com for info and to book. https://www.facebook.com/shamaniccentrecaercorhrain/

Saturday 25 July; Creating Witch Bottles, Class with Tia Price. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 1pm. Tickets: £95. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday 25 July; The Everyday Intuitive. Class with Jeremy Turner-Welch, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 5pm. Tickets: £95. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday 25 July (usually 4th Friday or Saturday of the month); SLAY: The World's First Book on Female Dragon Slayers with Jasmine Elmer. Online event via the Folklore Library and Archive. Time: 8pm. Tickets: £6.13. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-folklore-library-archive-68703440013?

Sunday 26 July; Shamanic Group with Les Fuller. All welcome Venue: Woodford Church at 9 Grove Crescent, South Woodford, London E18 2JR. Time 11am-3pm. Tickets: £10. http://woodfordchurch.com/

Sunday 26 July; Woking Alternative Market. Venue: Fiery Bird, 27 Goldsworth Road, Woking, GU21 6. Time 11am. https://www.facebook.com/events/1177146647251176/?

Sunday 26 July; Astral Projection and Lucid Dreaming class with Tree Carr. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 11am. Tickets: £130. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Sunday 26 July (and other dates); Viktor Wynd Museum Guided Tour and a Devil's Botany Absinthe. Venue: Viktor Wynd's Museum of Curiosities, 11 Mare Street, London E8 4RP. Time: noon. Tickets from £12. Price includes a Cocktail with Devil’s Botany. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-last-tuesday-society-viktor-wynd-museum-33776720489

Sunday 26 July; Connecting the Trees - A Call to Arms. Meet at: Wimbledon Common Windmill, Windmill Road, · Wimbledon Common, · London SW19 5NR. Time: 12.30pm. Free. https://www.facebook.com/events/995325766639931?

Sunday 26 July; The Greek Magical Papyri. Start of 3-Part Course with Lusete. Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Time: 1pm. Tickets: £80. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Sunday 26 July; Women's Mindful Stroll and Forest Bathing in South Norwood Lake and Grounds. Meet at Sylvan Road, London SE25 4AN. Time: 1pm. Free. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/parkbathe-34393467709

Sunday 26 July; A Journey to Self-Discovery with Sarah Tyler-Walters, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 1pm. Tickets: £95. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Sunday 26 July; Meeting of Heathen Kindred Blot (was Kith of the Tree and the Well). Venue: The Horseshoe Inn, 26 Melior Street, London SE1 3QP. Time: 1.30pm. Entry £3. https://www.facebook.com/groups/dawnoftheoak/events and https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/113978234531?

26 July; Storytelling Sunday: Birds (Guest Host: Emily Hanna). Venue: Love Shack 299 Cambridge Heath Road #Arch 298 London E2 9HA. Time: 2pm. Tickets £6.66 https://connectionwithwonder.com/events/storytelling-sunday-doors/

Sunday 26 July; Channelling with the Causal Chakra. Class with Gemma Petherbridge, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 2pm. Tickets: £90. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Sunday 26 July; Live Music and Meditation. Venue: Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, 3 Pilgrim's Place, London NW3 1NG. Time: 7pm. Free, but donations welcome. https://www.rosslynhillchapel.org.uk

Monday 27 July – Friday 31 July; Celtic Lughnasa Celebration: The Games! Family days out. Event organised by Celtic Harmony Camp. Venue: Brickendon Lane, Brickendon SG13 8NY. Times from 10am. Tickets £16.96. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/celtic-lughnasa-celebration-the-games-tickets-1993344076793?

Monday 27 July (every Monday); MHA The Wilderness forest bathing walk (all mobilities welcome). Meet MHA The Wilderness, 17 Shirley Church Road, Croydon CR9 5AL. Time: 11am. Free. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/parkbathe-34393467709

Monday 27 July (monthly); Melissa's Tarot Club. Monthly online Workshop via Treadwell's Bookshop. Time: 7pm. Cost: £15 per person. https://www.treadwells-london.com/ or reserve a place by visiting the shop.

Monday 27 July (and other dates); Full Moon Gongh Bath in the Mansion. Venue: Beckenham Place Mansion, Place Park, The Mansion, Beckenham BR3 1SY. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £35. https://www.beckenhamplace.org/whatson/

Monday 27 July (4th Monday each month); Pythia of the Brush and Pen: Upstairs at the Angel with Caroline Wise. Talk at Nova Stella pagan moot. Hybrid event. In-person venue: The Angel, City Road, London EC1Y 18D. Time: 7.30pm. Entry £5/£6.13. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1472510443017948 or https://www.eventbrite.com/o/120712003251?

Monday 27 July; An American History of Psychic Science with Alicia Puglionesi. Talk online via The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities and Last Tuesday Society. Time: 8pm. Tickets ·from £6.59. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619

Monday 27 July; (tbc but usually every Monday); Tea With a Druid. Free online event by the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Time 8pm. https://druidry.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/druidry

Tuesday 28 July; Crafting the Question: Divination as a Living Language with author JoAnna Farrer. Venue: The Atlantis Bookshop, 49a Museum Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1A 1LY. Time: 2pm Cost £60 https://theatlantisbookshop.com/

Tuesday 28 July (and other dates); Yoga for Mind, Breath and Body. Venue: Beckenham Place Mansion, Place Park, The Mansion, Beckenham BR3 1SY. Time: 6.15pm. Tickets: £12. https://www.beckenhamplace.org/whatson/

Tuesday 28 July (and other dates); Trippy Tuesdays: Surreal Still Life Drink and Draw with Devil’s Botany. Venue: Viktor Wynd's Museum of Curiosities, 11 Mare Street, London E8 4RP. Time: 7pm. Tickets from £26.20, includes a cocktail. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-last-tuesday-society-viktor-wynd-museum-33776720489

Tuesday 28 July; Establish a Relationship with Your Personal Dragon. Start of 2-session course with Pixie P Carney, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £95. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Tuesday 28 July; Full Moon Cacao and Goddess Ceremony with London Woodland Witches and Pagans. Meet at Wimbledon Common outside Windmill Tea rooms, Windmill Road, London SW19 5NR. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £7.50-£15. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/mani-woodland-witch-34325436803 or https://mani.org.uk/ or https://www.facebook.com/PaganFrontiersOfLondon.

Tuesday 28 July; The Highgate Vampire.Talk presented by London Fortean Society. Venue: The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London, E1 7EX. Door time: 7.30pm. Start time: 8pm Tickets £5.50/£3.30. http://forteanlondon.blogspot.com or https://www.facebook.com/LondonForteanSociety/ or https://wegottickets.com/f/22872?

Wednesday 29 July; Members-Only Summer's Night at The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 6.30m. Tickets: free. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Wednesday 29 July; Full Moon Walk - Richmond Park with London Woodland Witches and Pagans. Meet at Richmond Park Gate, Star and Garter Hill, Richmond TW10 5HU. Time: 7pm. Free. More info: https://mani.org.uk/ or visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/mani-woodland-witch-34325436803

Wednesday 29 July (every full and new moon); Moon Space online event via She's Lost Control. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £15. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events

Thursday 30 July; RDeath Rituals. Talk and Soirée with Dr Sarah Hiepler-Basty . Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £10. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Thursday 30 July; Full Moon Celebration with South East London Pagans. Venue: One Tree Hill, Honor Oak, South London. Time: 7.30pm. Free. https://www.facebook.com/groups/7046502195365834

Saturday 1 August; Walking in the footsteps of your year, at this Lammas Solar Festival. Walk with Jeremy Rye. Meet under the Tower of London sign, Tower of London, London EC3N 4AE. Time 10am. Tickets: £26.64. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/31055883021?

Saturday 1 August (tbc but usually Saturday closest to the festival); Lammas free and open Gorsed of Caer Abiri ritual at Avebury stone circle in Wiltshire. Meet at the Red Lion pub from noon for druidic ceremony at 1.30pm. Offering of bread, mead, or Bardic performance always welcomed. Free event, just turn up. https://www.facebook.com/groups/49080749624/

Saturday 1 August (date tbc but usually first Saturday each month); Gong Bath. Venue: Upminster Sanctuary Pea Lane, Upminster, RM142XH. Time: 7pm. Tickets: tbc. https://upminstersanctuary.com/

Sunday 2 August (closest Sunday to the festival); Pagan Federation Online Lammas Festival. Starts 10am. Free. https://www.facebook.com/paganfederation/events

Sunday 2 August; Orpington Alternative Market. Venue: The Priory, Church Hill, Orpington. Time: 11am. Free entry. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1335736923852705/

Sunday 2 August Ritual for members of the Woodspirits group. Venue: Highgate, London. Meet from noon for a social then ritual at 3pm. https://www.facebook.com/groups/4032235040150960

Sunday 2 August (closest Sunday to the festival); Lammas ritual for members of the Woodspirits group. Venue: Highgate, London. Meet from noon for a social then ritual at 2pm. https://www.facebook.com/groups/4032235040150960

Sunday 2 August (tbc but usuallyclosest Sunday to the festival); Anderida Gorsedd Lammas open ritual. Venue: Long Man of Wilmington, Wilmington, near Eastbourne, East Sussex. Meet near the car park between 1.30pm and 2pm, walk up to the chalk hill figure at 2pm. Afterwards, the Giants Rest pub. https://www.facebook.com/groups/227609495203/

Sunday 2 August; Tarot Psychogeography class with Bel Senlle, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 2pm. Tickets: £90. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

contact@crystal-manifestations.co.uk for the free Zoom link. Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1514249646502331/?

Sunday 2 August; The History of Mermaids, Sea Spirits and Women via Seed talks. Online event. Time: 10pm. Tickets from $19.95. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/cc/seed-talks-online-1262239?

For details of events after these dates, please visit my events page.

Please note that I am not responsible for the content of any of these events except my workshops on candle magic and scrying. Contact organisers directly if you have any questions or to check ticket availability. Where a practitioner is offering information about magical protection, this is *not* medical advice. If you know an event you want included, please email me at badwitch1234@gmail.com

Celebrating the Return of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

2026-07-21T08:00:00.000+01:00

A year ago I went for a sad walk around Crystal Palace Park to say goodbye to the giant Victorian dinosaurs. I knew then that they weren't going for good, but it would be last time I'd see them for a long while because they were much in need of repair. I blogged about it with photos at the time, and you can see the post here.

Last weekend I went to the park again for a celebration of their full restoration. They were specially illuminated with coloured lighting for two nights. I took the photos you can see on this page.

They aren't all dinosaurs. The statues represent a variety of prehistoric animals including amphibians, reptiles and early mammals. They're also not exactly accurate, but were what they were believed to look like back in the 19th century. Nowadays they are part of London's history and folklore, and are worth seeing even without lighting effects.

Green London

I consider myself lucky to have Crystal Palace Park on my doorstep, as well as several other parks, and I regularly blog about London's green spaces in an effort to dispel a prevalent myth in the pagan community that the city is just all concrete. Even in the City, which is of course heavily built up, there are still places where nature thrives, while Greater London has huge areas of woods, commons, gardens and, of course, public parks.

The pictures on this post were all taken by me. Please do not use them without my permission.

Authors On Their Own Writing: Green Witch Sian Sibley

2026-07-20T08:00:00.000+01:00

Sian Sibley is both a witch and a scientist, and is passionate about the environment. She's also a prolific author. I've interviewed her about her books including Black Paths and Green Cathedrals, which highlights how paganism has been seduced by consumerism, and the dangers inherent in that.

Q: Out of all that you've written, which is your favourite published work?

A: Without a shadow of a doubt, my most important book so far is Black Paths and Green Cathedrals.

Q: What's it about?

It's a look at the impact pollution and consumerism has on the world, and whether paganism is truly a move away from that, or whether we've simply dressed the same appetites in different robes.

Because that's the uncomfortable question underneath the book. We like to think of paganism as the antidote to consumerism, and then we walk straight into the same trap wearing different clothes. Crystals are mined, and mining is mining, whether it's coal or quartz. The ground doesn't care what we intend to do with what we tear out of it. Witch boxes, the subscription kind, curated and shipped in plastic month after month, are consumer culture with a pentacle stuck on the lid. We didn't reject the machine. We just gave it a different altar to sell from.

And then there's what we do to the land itself when we go looking for magic in it. Clooties left to rot and choke a hawthorn instead of biodegrading the way they're supposed to. Rock piling, cairns built by hands that think they're honouring a place, when really they're rearranging it, leaving a mark where the point was always to leave none. We tell ourselves we're closer to the earth than the world we're rejecting, and then we behave exactly like it.

Black Paths and Green Cathedrals looks at all of that straight in the eye and does not flinch. If paganism is going to mean anything as a force for change, it has to survive its own reflection first. We cannot preach reverence for the land while we're still buying our way through it.

Q: Why is it your favourite?

Because it was filled with my rage. Rage at what I could see happening to a culture I love, watched from the inside, which makes it so much harder to say plainly. We accept greenwashing far too easily. We call ourselves a green religion, a green culture, and repeat that claim until it feels like fact, while some of our own actions are blatantly not green at all. I could not keep pretending not to see that. I carry a two-fold identity too, a scientist who trusts data and a witch who trusts the land, and Black Paths and Green Cathedrals asked me to stop keeping those two selves separate and let them judge the same evidence together. I wrote it slowly. I wrote it angry. Then I wrote it clear-eyed, because rage on its own teaches nobody anything, it only exhausts the person carrying it. It's the book where my biology and my magic finally sat at the same table and stopped arguing, and where my love for this path had to survive being honest about it. Every book since owes something to what I learned writing that one.

Q: Tell me a bit more about yourself, what else you've written, and any books due to be published.

I'm a short, rather plump Welsh woman who has had the extraordinary luck to spend her working life in fields she actually loved. I trained as a biologist first, and my early career was in pharmaceutical research. Later I spent years in a classroom teaching children how ecosystems work, how everything is owed to everything else, before I ever called myself an author. I lead a coven of wild witches called DragonOak, here in South Wales, and we have circled together for around thirty years now. Ye gods. I am old.

Alongside Black Paths and Green Cathedrals, I've written Drinking Tea and Herding Spiders and Unveiling the Green. As for what's coming, the one closest to my heart right now is a new book with Moon Books, out in January, Pagan Portals: Medusa about working with the serpent-crowned goddess. It's another book of rage, in its way. Rage at how the female is treated in this world, and at how we go on carrying that treatment as though it were simply weather. It calls on Medusa's power to help us work through trauma, both personal and ecological, because I don't believe those two kinds of harm are as separate as we like to pretend. It's my first real foray into eco-feminism, and I'm deeply proud of it. I've worked with Medusa for a long time, using that relationship to help others find their way through sexual assault and trauma, so this is a book I have been living inside for years before I ever put it on the page. I will love seeing it out in the world.

Q: What are you working on now?

I have several projects on the go at the moment. I run magical conferences all over the UK, and the latest one lands in October this year, with authors and practitioners travelling in from all corners to present their work. It's one of my favourite parts of the year, watching that many strands of practice sit in one room together.

Book-wise, I'm mid-edit on The Slow and Fatal Dance for Aeon Publishing, a history of healing and its intersection with the modern medical world. There's a little bit of rage in that one too, if I'm honest. Seems to be a running theme with me.

I've also written a bit of a strange little book called Wisdom in Wet Knickers, coming from O Books, which shares my experience, both magical and scientific, with that wonderful thing called the menopause. So many of us go into it blindly, because it's something we simply don't talk about, and I'm hoping this book is one of the things that finally breaks that silence for the women who read it.

Beyond that, I've got several ideas for next year circling round my head, though nothing settled yet. I'm planning to properly rest from August through to January, because I have been writing without a break since the Covid shutdown, when I started out of a real need to keep myself occupied and my mind busy. A rest is overdue, and I intend to actually take it this time.

Meet Sian Sibley at Watkins Bookshop in London

On Thursday 30 July; Sian Sibely will be talking about Black Paths and Green Cathedrals at Watkins Bookshop, 19-21 Cecil Ct, London WC2N 4EZ. The talk starts at 5pm and is free but you can reserve a place. Find out more here: https://www.watkinsbooks.com/events

You can also view Black Paths and Green Cathedrals on Amazon

(Please note: I earn commission on some links)

Upcycling Crafts: A Pretty Paper Hand Fan

2026-07-16T08:00:00.000+01:00

Hand fans are the essential accessory in this summer's heatwave. I made the one in the picture by upcycling a pretty picture from an old calendar.

You need a square or oblong of paper that's at least 30cm wide and reasonably stiff. That's what my calendar was. A bit wider would probably be better. Ideally pick something that looks pretty to make you feel happier when you use it.

As well as paper, you need a ruler, scissors, string or yarn, and ideally an old-fashioned "dolly" type clothes peg for the handle. If you don't have a peg you could use two sticks - even upcycle a pair of ice lolly sticks.

Measure your paper and mark it evenly across the top and bottom at distances that are the same width as your peg or pair of sticks. For me, that was every 1.5cm. Fold the paper in concertina folds at each mark. I found it best to score an indentation from top to bottom using the ruler and blunt side of the scissors before doing the folding.

Put one end of the folded paper into the opening in the peg or sandwich it between two sticks. Bind the paper in place by wrapping yarn tightly around and tying it in place. This forms a good handle. Gently open out the top of the concertina'd paper a bit so you can then use it as a fan to cool down.

You could also place a fan at the eastern quarter of a ritual circle to represent the element of air, and use it to waft incense when doing magical cleansing.

You can find more ideas for seasonal makes in my book Pagan Portals - Rounding the Wheel of the Year, published by Moon Books.

https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/06/craft-making-viking-glass-bead-at.html

Magical Online & London Events in the Next Weeks

2026-07-15T08:00:00.000+01:00

Here's a list of events for pagans, witches and those with similar interests. There are online things you can do anywhere (in bold) plus in-person talks and workshops in or near London, and some festivals further afield.

Now -17 July; That Large Ghost, Curated by Jack Catling Exhibition. Venue: Swedenborg House, The Swedenborg Society, 20/21 Bloomsbury Way London WC1A 2TH. Free. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/private-view-that-large-ghost-curated-by-jack-catling-tickets-1990949444383

https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

or email: rainbowawakening1@gmail.com

Wednesday 15 July (and other dates); Tea with a Medium. Venue: The Atlantis Bookshop, 49a Museum Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1A 1LY. Time: 2.30pm Cost £60 https://theatlantisbookshop.com/

Wednesday 15 July (and other dates); Viktor Wynd Museum Guided Tour and a Devil's Botany Absinthe. Venue: Viktor Wynd's Museum of Curiosities, 11 Mare Street, London E8 4RP. Time: 6pm. Tickets from £12. Price includes a Cocktail with Devil’s Botany. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-last-tuesday-society-viktor-wynd-museum-33776720489

Wednesday 15 July; Summer Witchcraft Practices. Workshop with Levannah Morgan, via Treadwells Online. Time: 7pm start. Tickets: £15. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Wednesday 15 July (every Wednesday); Feeling Sound. Venue: She's Lost Control, 42 Valentine Road, London. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £18. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events

Wednesday 15 July (tbc but usually 3rd Wednesday each month); The More Mead Moot. Venue: The Hope pub, Carshalton, Surrey. Time: 7pm. Free. https://www.facebook.com/Pagan-FutureFests-352385661439366/

Wednesday 15 July; The Weekly Planetary Grand Tableau. Start of 2-session course with Laetitia Barbier, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £90. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Wednesday 15 July; A Women’s Shamanic Apprenticeship. Start of 6-session course with Beáta Alföldi, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £200. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Wednesday 15 July; The Magic of the Iron and Pearl Pentacles with Jane Meredith via British Reclaiming Online Conversations. Online talk. Time: 7.30pm. Free. Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1386542789955184?

Thursday 16 July (every Thursday); Midweek Meditation with the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 3pm. Tickets: free for members/£7.50 non members. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk

Thursday 16 July; Artist's Guide to Lucid Dreaming with Dave Green. Talk and signing, Venue: Watkins Bookshop, 19-21 Cecil Ct, London WC2N 4EZ. Time: 5pm. Free but reserve a place https://www.watkinsbooks.com/events

Thursday 16 July; Renaissance Art and Magic Talk and Soirée with Clare Lapraik Guest . Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £10. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Thursday 16 July; Meeting the Horned Deity. Workshop with Julian Vayne, via Treadwells Online. Time: 7pm start. Tickets: £15. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Thursday 16 July; Poetry Evening. Venue: Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, London, NW1 6XT. Time: 7pm. Tickets free https://www.meetup.com/rudolf-steiner-spiritual-science/events

Thursday 16 July; Gong Bath. Venue: Akasa Felstead Street, London E9 5LT. Time: 7pm. Tickets: from £23.46. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/sunita-kaur-34415293427

Friday 17 July (every Friday); Live Chat hosted by Rachel Patterson, author of Gods and Goddesses of England and the Kitchen Witch series of books. Online event. Time: 9am. Free. https://www.facebook.com/RachelPattersonbooks/

Friday 17 July (1st and 3rd Friday each month); Pagan Portal Podcast by Moon Books. Time: noon (or listen to recording later). Free event. https://open.spotify.com/show/11N4kNj65tTz9NFUcZTMa7?

Friday 17 July; Cyprianus: St. Cyprian and the Black Book in Scandinavian Folklore with Simone Kotva. Talk and signing, Venue: Watkins Bookshop, 19-21 Cecil Ct, London WC2N 4EZ. Time: 5pm. Free but reserve a place https://www.watkinsbooks.com/events

Friday 17 July; Mr Wright and Mrs Always Right: Gary Wright and Geraldine Beskin in Conversation. Venue: The Atlantis Bookshop, 49a Museum Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1A 1LY. Time: 6.30pm Cost £20 https://theatlantisbookshop.com/

Friday 17 July; Travel with the Sacred Drum with Heather McDonald. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 6.30pm. Tickets: £45. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Friday 17 July; Shamanic Cacao Ritual in the Woods (July) with London Woodland Witches and Pagans. Meet at the entrance to Queen's Woods, Queen's wood Road, London N6 5UU, to be led into woods to the ritual spot. Bring a torch and wear suitable clothing and footwear. Time: 7pm. Tickets £10.50. More info: https://mani.org.uk/ or visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/mani-woodland-witch-34325436803

Friday 17 July (and other dates); Hex and the City Walking Tour with Maria Beadell of Herstorical Tours. Meet: Cowcross St, Farrringdon, London EC1M 6BY. Time: 7.30pm. Tickets: £25. https://www.herstoricaltours.co.uk/

Saturday 18 July; A Festival of Tarot and Oracle Wisdom wwith marketplace, deck signings, deck creator meet and greets, readings, talks, raffle, and cafe. Venue: St. Augustine's Arts and Events Centre, Stanford Ave, Brighton BN1 6EA. Time: 10.30am to 5pm. Tickets: general entry: £3 on the door. Full-day talk ticket: £45 early bird (until end of May) £55. Details at thetarotfayre.co.uk Follow at instagram.com/thetarotfayre

Saturday 18 July; Embrace the Light with Joan Osborne. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 11am. Tickets: £130. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday 18 July; A Mary Magdalene Festival organised by Wicca Moon. Venue: Spiritualist Church, Eltham. Time: 11am. Tickets £45w. https://www.wiccamooninherservice.co.uk/ or https://www.facebook.com/wiccamoonuk/

Saturday 18 July (and other dates); Auralis 7D Transformative Breathwork W/ Levin. Venue: Hilton, 61 - 67 Great Eastern Street, London EC2A 3HU. Time: 11am. Tickets from £30. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/121074557489?

Saturday 18 July; The Opening of the Red Tent. Venue: Wicca Moon, 50 Well Hall Road, Eltham SE9. Time: 11am. Free event. https://www.wiccamooninherservice.co.uk/ or https://www.facebook.com/wiccamoonuk/

Saturday 18 July (and other dates); Sonie Alchemy and Reiki. Venue: Hilton, 61 - 67 Great Eastern Street, London EC2A 3HU. Time: 12.30pm. Tickets from £30. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/121074557489?

Saturday 18 July; The Laboratory of Magic. Start of 2-day workshop with Julian Vayne exploring collaborative ritual and chaos magic. Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Starts at 1pm. Tickets £120. https://www.treadwells-london.com/

Saturday 18 July; The Isis and Magdalene Energies with Mel Collins, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 1pm. Tickets: £90. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday 18 July; Magical Herbalism with Bel Senlle, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 2pm. Tickets: £90. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday 18 July; Pagan School Lammas Under 35s by Evangeline. Venue: Queen's Wood, Queen's Wood Road, North London. Time: 2pm. Tickets: £10-£12. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/87136041303?

Sunday 19 July; The History of Witchcraft and Women: Magic, rituals and the patriarchy via Seed talks. Online event. Time: 8am. Tickets from $18.95. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/cc/seed-talks-online-1262239?

Sunday 19 July; Waverley Abbey, The Witch Cave and Leafy Surrey Intermediate 21km Hike via Trail Therapy. Start/End point: London Waterloo Station. Meet at 8.40am. Tickets: £31. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/114618142751?

Sunday 19 July; Writing and rewriting fairytales course via City Lit. Venue: Keeley Street, London. Time: 10.30am. Fee: £79/£40. https://www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/writing-and-rewriting-fairytales

Sunday 19 July; How to Read Auras and Chakras with Nishant Sharmaa. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 11am. Tickets: £130. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Sunday 19 July; Mythic London Walking Tour with with Caroline Wise, organised through Treadwells. Meet outside St Mary Le Strand Church, Strand, London WC2R 1ES. Time: 11.20am. Tickets: £35. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Sunday 19 July (then Sunday 16th Aug, 13th Sept, 18th Oct, 15th Nov); Base Chakra. Wicca Women’s Circles Focus on a Chakra. Venue: Crystal Wicca, West Wickham, BR4. Time: tbc. Tickets: £33 or £55 for two classes. https://www.facebook.com/TheCrystalWicca

Sunday 19 July; London Socialist Feminist Bookclub: 'Hags - the demonisation...' Talk by Victoria Smith. Venue: Effra Social, 89 Effra Road, London SW2 1DF. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/london-socialist-feminist-bookclub-hags-the-demonisation-tickets-1992716905908?

Sunday 19 July; Dawn of the Oak Pagan moot. Venue: The Sir John Oldcastle, Farringdon Road/Greville Street, London EC1M 3JF. Time: 2pm. https://www.facebook.com/groups/dawnoftheoak/ or https://allevents.in/london/dawn-of-the-oak-london-pagan-and-heathen-meeting-15th-february-2026-tickets/80001854227648

Sunday 19 July; Southwark Hysteries with Maria Beadell of Herstorical Tours. Meet: Green Dragon Court, London SE1 . Time: 4pm. Tickets: £22.50. https://www.herstoricaltours.co.uk/book

Monday 20 July (tbc); Free online talk via the Astrological Lodge of London. Starts 5pm. Tickets free. https://astrolodge.co.uk/

Monday 20 July; Bibi's Circle Divination Picnic. Venue: Outdoors with a picnic if the weather is good, otherwise indoors at Rons Coffee House, Holdrons Arcade 135a, Rye Lane London SE15 4ST. Time: 6pm. Tickets free. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/bibis-circle-56277271483

Monday 20 July; The Old Stones: Prehistoric places of Britain and Ireland with Andy Burnham. Venue: Viktor Wynd's Museum of Curiosities, 11 Mare Street, London E8 4RP. Time: 6.30pm. Tickets from £16.14, includes a cocktail. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-last-tuesday-society-viktor-wynd-museum-33776720489

Monday 20 July; Psychic Sensitivity and Boundaries. Class by Aude Firmin, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £90. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Monday 20 July; Seeing Psi with a New Lens with Dean Radin. Online presentation hosted by the Society for Psychical Research via Zoom. Time: 8pm. Tickets: Free for members/£5 non members. https://www.spr.ac.uk/

Monday 20 July; (tbc but usually every Monday); Tea With a Druid. Free online event by the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Time 8pm. https://druidry.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/druidry

Tuesday 21 July (fortnightly event); Writing Group. Venue: Swedenborg House, 20/21 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TH. Time: 6pm. Tickets free. https://www.swedenborg.org.uk/

Tuesday 21 July; Historic Building Mythbusting with James Wright. Talk via the Folklore Society online. Time: 7pm. Tickets £6. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-folklore-society-32190494089

Tuesday 21 July; The Knights Templar: Soul Alchemy, Waters of Wisdom and Grail Mermaidens. Talk by Helena B. Scott, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £22. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Tuesday 21 July; Transpersonal Psychology and Tarot. Start of 8-session course with Tiffany Lazic, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £255. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Wednesday 22 July (tbc but most Wednesdays); Gong Bath. Venue: Akasa, 5a Prince Edward Rd, Hackney Wick, London E9 5LX. Time: 7pm. Tickets: from £23.46. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/sunita-kaur-34415293427

Wednesday 22 July; Introduction to Norse Mythology, with Dr Tom Morcom via Seedtalks. Hybrid event. In-perosn venue: The Blues Kitchen Brixton, 40 Acre Lane, London SW2 5SP. Time: 7pm. Tickets: from £11.50. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/cc/seed-talks-in-london-1252979?

Thursday, 23 July; Colour Therapy with Nina Ashby. Talk and signing, Venue: Watkins Bookshop, 19-21 Cecil Ct, London WC2N 4EZ. Time: 5pm. Free but reserve a place https://www.watkinsbooks.com/events

Thursday 23 July; Crossbones Vigil to Honour the Outcast Dead of Crossbones Graveyard, Southwark. Location: Redcross Way, London, SE1 1TA. Time: 6.45pm for 7pm. Free, just turn up You can also view the vigil online. http://crossbones.org.uk

Friday 24 - Sunday 26 July; Valhalla Viking Festival. Venue: Dummer Down Farm, Basingstoke. Day tickets from £5. Weekend tickets from £145. https://valhallavikingfestival.co.uk/

Friday 24 July; Aura Power with Sushma Sagar. Talk and signing, Venue: Watkins Bookshop, 19-21 Cecil Ct, London WC2N 4EZ. Time: 5pm. Free but reserve a place https://www.watkinsbooks.com/events

Friday 24 July (tbc but usually 4th Friday of the month); The Wild Wood Tarot study group. Free online event. Time: 7pm. https://www.meetup.com/astrotarotkitchen/events/

Saturday 25 July; Yaku and Kuntur: Andean Love Ceremony. Venue: Berkeley farm, Essex, a few miles outside London. Time: 9am start. Tickets: £249. https://www.aho.community/

Saturday 25 July; Coffee Morning with Hand Readings. Venue: Flopsy Wood, Cock Lane, Hoddesdon EN11 8LS. 10am-3pm. Readings £10. https://www.facebook.com/HertsEvents

Saturday 25 July; The Everyday Intuitive. Class with Jeremy Turner-Welch, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 5pm. Tickets: £95. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Sunday 26 July; Shamanic Group with Les Fuller. All welcome Venue: Woodford Church at 9 Grove Crescent, South Woodford, London E18 2JR. Time 11am-3pm. Tickets: £10. http://woodfordchurch.com/

Sunday 26 July; Woking Alternative Market. Venue: Fiery Bird, 27 Goldsworth Road, Woking, GU21 6. Time 11am. https://www.facebook.com/events/1177146647251176/?

Sunday 26 July; A Journey to Self-Discovery with Sarah Tyler-Walters, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 1pm. Tickets: £95. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

For activities after these dates please visit my events page.

Folklore: St Swithun's Day, Rain & Apple Christening

2026-07-14T08:00:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow, 15 July, is St Swithun's Day. Most people have heard the saying that if it rains then it will rain for 40 more. There's a rhyme that goes:

St Swithun's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St Swithun's day if thou be fair
For forty days 'twill rain nae mare

The Bishop of Winchester, who died in the year 862, would probably be forgotten if it wasn't for that bit of folklore. However, he wasn't associated with rain until after his death. According to a legend, he had asked to be buried outdoors but his remains were later reburied inside the church. A storm brewed on the day his body was moved, and rain continued to pelt down for over a month. It didn't stop until he was reburied out in the churchyard. This was taken as a miracle.

But the rain wasn't always seen as a bad thing, and the saint's water-bringing powers became associated with growing apples. According to Steve Roud in The English Year, it was believed that rain on St Swithun's Day and afterwards was essential to produce a good crop. A Warwickshire saying was that you should never eat apples until St Swithun had "Christened them".

Having an apple tree in my own garden, I know that getting rain at this time of year is important to help the fruit plump out properly. Otherwise they can be too small and hard.

I've looked at the weather forecast for tomorrow and at the moment it isn't saying rain. I might do a spell to help the clouds water the garden.

Rounding the Year

Quite a few annual customs linked to Christian saints' days are more about seasonal cycles and harvests than religion.

My book Pagan Portals - Rounding the Wheel of the Year offers more ways to acknowledge and celebrate the seasons in ritual, magic, folklore and nature. You can view Rounding the Wheel of the Year on Amazon, find it at esoteric bookshops or via my publisher Moon Books: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/our-books/pagan-portals-rounding-wheel-year

(Please note: I earn commission from some links.)

Planning to Spend More TIme Enjoying Nature

2026-07-13T08:00:00.000+01:00

If you follow my blog you probably noticed I didn't post anything on Thursday or Friday last week. I strained my back badly while taking gardening waste to the recycling centre on Wednesday, then spent the next couple of days in bed as I was hardly able to move.

While I couldn't do much that was physical, I did do a lot of thinking. This included reassessing what was really essential while I was unable to get about, but also what I wanted to spend time doing when I recovered.

From my bedroom window I could see trees and watch birds including a delighftul flock of parakeets. While I'd have much rather been able to move about more and get into the garden, just being able to watch nature through the window helped cheer me up.

Over the past few months I've been reading the novels of Ann Radcliffe for a course run by Sam Hirst via Romancing the Gothic. Radcliffe's heroines also often take consolation in nature. Even if they're imprisoned in some gloomy castle there is usually a window through which they can see forests and greenery outside, and feel their spirits improve.

Nowadays, science has shown the natural world can help us feel better if we have the blues. So, I've taken the decision to cut back a little on the time I spend sitting at a desk staring at my laptop screen this summer, and more time enjoying the outdoors. Instead of sharing things about 5 times a week, I'll probably post 3-4 times.

It isn't the first time I've taken a bit of a summer break from blogging, and I'll try to share more pictures of trees and flowers and birds via Insta. You can find me on Instagram as @starzalucya.

The photo at the top is one I took in my local park last year

Magical Online & London Events in the Next Weeks

2026-07-08T08:00:00.000+01:00

Here's a list of events for pagans, witches and those with similar interests over the next couple of weeks. There are online things you can do anywhere (bolded) plus in-person talks and workshops in or near London, as that's where I'm based, and some conferences and festivals further afield.

Now - 11 July; Rediscovery: The Gary Dickinson Exhibition. Venue: The Atlantis Bookshop, 49a Museum Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1A 1LY. Time: 11am-6pm Free entry https://theatlantisbookshop.com/

https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

or email: rainbowawakening1@gmail.com

Wednesday 8 July; Shadow Work with the Dark Goddess. Workshop with Abiola Abrams, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 2pm. Tickets: £95. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Wednesday 8 July; Revealing the Stele, with Gary Dickinson. Venue: The Atlantis Bookshop, 49a Museum Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1A 1LY. Time: 2.30 pm. Tickets £25. https://theatlantisbookshop.com/

Wednesday 8 July; Sacred Gong Meditation with Joe Summerfield. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 7pm. Tickets: £45. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Wednesday 8 July; Sylvia Plath, Witchcraft and Radical Poetry. Talk via Seed talks online. Time: 7pm. Tickets from £13.50. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/36463428713?

Wednesday 7 July (every Wednesday); Feeling Sound. Venue: She's Lost Control, 42 Valentine Road, London. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £18. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events

Wednesday 8 July (tbc but usually 2nd Wed each month); Enfield Town Circle Moot. Venue: Crown and Horsehoes, Horseshoe Lane, Enfield, EN2 6PZ. Time: 7pm. https://www.facebook.com/groups/EnfieldTownCircle/

Thursday 9 July (every Thursday); Midweek Meditation with the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 3pm. Tickets: free for members/£7.50 non members. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk

Thursday 9 July; Monstrous Women with Elisabeth Brooke. Talk and signing, Venue: Watkins Bookshop, 19-21 Cecil Ct, London WC2N 4EZ. Time: 5pm. Free but reserve a place https://www.watkinsbooks.com/events

Thursday 9 July (2nd Thursday each month); Magick Without Tears Moot. Venue: Fitzroy Tavern, 16 Charlotte St., London W1T 2LY. Time 6pm. https://www.facebook.com/groups/mwtpubmoot

Thursday 9 July; Healing with Your Higher Power. Start of 2-session course with Kim Chestney, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 6.30pm. Tickets: £95. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Thursday 9 July; How to Kill a Witch Launch and Soirée with Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi. Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £10/£20. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Thursday 9 July; The Medium’s Path: Foundation. Start of 6-session course with TJ Higgs, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £200. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Thursday 9 July; Way of the Witch monthly online circle with Samantha K. and Jacqui C. Time: 8pm. Tickets: £10. https://www.meetup.com/sammi-k-shamanic-practitioner-psychic-medium/events/

Thursday 9 July; Pan. Talk by Cunning Folk at South East London Folklore Society. Venue: The Electric Elephant Cafe, 186A Crampton Street, London, SE17 3AE. Time: 8pm, Free but £5/£8 donations welcome. Email cunningfolkmusic@gmail.com to book a space or visit https://www.eventbrite.com/o/cunning-folk-7829505560

Friday 10 July (and other dates); Drum Birthing Workshop with Lynn Gosney. Venue: Shamanic Centre Caer Corhrain, Minster, Kent. Starts 8.45am. Tickets £225/£250. https://www.facebook.com/shamaniccentrecaercorhrain

Friday 10 July (every Friday); Live Chat hosted by Rachel Patterson, author of Gods and Goddesses of England and the Kitchen Witch series of books. Online event. Time: 9am. Free. https://www.facebook.com/RachelPattersonbooks/

Friday 10 July; Trance Mediumship with Master Chou, by Sarah Tyler-Walters. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 7pm. Tickets: £30. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday 11 - Sunday 12 July; Sacred Tobacco Training with Renato Guerrero. Venue: Berkeley farm, Essex, a few miles outside London. Time: 10am start. Tickets: £260. https://www.aho.community/

Saturday 11 - Sunday 12 July; Persephone's Journey. Two-day workshop with Jane Meredith, author of Journey to the Dark Goddess. Venue: Sheffield, UK Times: - 10am - 5pm both days

Cost - £180, concession £160. Priestesses & Melissas of the Sheffield Temple - special price £135 (paid directly to Ann). Registration at https://forms.gle/qBuPhT7c33Xq9a4CA More details: https://www.facebook.com/events/726993956934621?

Saturday 11 July; Your First Steps into Mediumship with Claire Broad. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 11am. Tickets: £130. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday 11 July; Mindfulmess in the Park (Bromley Town Centre). Venue: Church House Gardens, 53 Mill Vale, Bromley, BR2 0EN. Time: Noon. Free. https://www.facebook.com/events/1544720900390348/?

Saturday 11 July; Qigong Workshop. Venue: Flopsy Wood, Cock Lane, Hoddesdon EN11 8LS. 2pm. Tickets £10. https://www.facebook.com/HertsEvents

Saturday 11 July; Sound Bath. Venue: Flopsy Wood, Cock Lane, Hoddesdon EN11 8LS. 4pm. Tickets £15. https://www.facebook.com/HertsEvents

Saturday, 11 July; Secret Garden: Storytelling for Adults 2026. Venue: St John’s Church, Waterloo, Waterloo Road, London SE1 8TY. Time: 5.30pm. Tickets free. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/secret-garden-storytelling-for-adults-2026-tickets-1988329391735 (also a London Dreamtime event https://londondreamtime.com/calendar/)

Sunday 12 July; The British Museum and the Magical Revival Walking Tour with Caroline Wise organised by Treadwell's Bookshop. Meet at: British Museum (North Entrance), Montague Place, London, WC1B 3DG. Time: 10.50am. Tickets: £50. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Sunday 12 July; Goddess Sekhmet Healing Ceremony with Pixie P Carney. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 11am. Tickets: £130. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Sunday 12 July; Satanic Flea Market Midsummer Mayhem. Venue: Multi Story, Peckham Levels, Level 5, 95a Rye Ln, London SE15 4ST. Time: noon-6pm. Tickets £5. https://www.facebook.com/events/1288909286744032/?

Sunday 12 July; 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/.

Sunday 12 July: Mapping Lost London - afternoon of talks via London Monthy of the Dead. Venue: The Guinness Vaults, London WC2H 9FA. Time: 1.30pm. Tickets £30 for the entire event. https://londonmonthofthedead.com/index.html?

Sunday 12 July: Forest Bathing in Crystal Palace Park. Meet at Sydenham Gate, CP Park, London SE20. Time: 2pm. Free, but parking is paid. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/parkbathe-34393467709

Sunday 12 July: Luna Iter (Ritual in the Tower) Celebrating Early Harvest. In-person ritual in Hackney, East London for members of the group, guests and seekers on the path. Meet at the Pembury Tavern, 90 Amhurst Rd, London, from 4.30pm, moving on to a historic site to start the ritual at 6pm. Entry: £10. https://www.hildegardmaier.co.uk/luna-iter or https://www.facebook.com/groups/1230392930656154

Sunday 12 July; Harnessing the 12 Zodiac Signs with Carmen Turner-Schott, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 6pm. Tickets: £90. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Monday 13 July (every Monday); MHA The Wilderness forest bathing walk (all mobilities welcome). Meet MHA The Wilderness, 17 Shirley Church Road, Croydon CR9 5AL. Time: 11am. Free. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/parkbathe-34393467709

Monday 13 July; Blake, Ginsberg and “Ah! Sunflower”: Film, Music and Conversation. Venue: Swedenborg House, 20/21 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TH. Time: 6.30pm. Tickets £5. https://www.swedenborg.org.uk/

Monday 13 July; The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn: Magic Arts and the Occult Revival, with Felix John Taylor . Venue: Viktor Wynd's Museum of Curiosities, 11 Mare Street, London E8 4RP. Time: 6.30pm. Tickets from £16.14, includes a cocktail. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-last-tuesday-society-viktor-wynd-museum-33776720489

Monday 13 July; Sketch: The Trial of William Lilly, followed by Sir Elias Ashmole: astrologer, alchemist, antiquary, and more, talk by Bernard Eccles, via the Astrological Lodge of London. Hybrid event. In-person venue: Steiner House, 35 Park Road, London, NW1 6XT. Starts 6.30pm. Tickets £6/£9. https://astrolodge.co.uk/

Monday 13 July; Theosophy. Venue: Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, London, NW1 6XT. Time: 7pm. Tickets free https://www.meetup.com/rudolf-steiner-spiritual-science/events/

Monday 13 July; South East London Pagans Moot. Venue: The Ivy House, 55 Stuart Road, London, SE15 3BE. Time: 7.30pm. Free. https://www.facebook.com/groups/7046502195365834

Monday 13 July; (tbc but usually every Monday); Tea With a Druid. Free online event by the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Time 8pm. https://druidry.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/druidry

Tuesday 14 July (and other dates); Yoga for Mind, Breath and Body. Venue: Beckenham Place Mansion, Place Park, The Mansion, Beckenham BR3 1SY. Time: 6.15pm. Tickets: £12. https://www.beckenhamplace.org/whatson/

Tuesday 14 July (every full and new moon); Moon Space online event via She's Lost Control. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £15. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events

Tuesday 14 July; Finding the Philosopher's Stone. Talk by Eliza Swann, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £22. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Tuesday 14 July; New Moon: Birth of Isis Thames ritual with London Woodland Witches and Pagans. Meet at Millennium Bridge, Thames Embankment, · London. Time: 7.30pm. Tickets: £6.13. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/mani-woodland-witch-34325436803 or https://mani.org.uk/ or https://www.facebook.com/PaganFrontiersOfLondon.

Wednesday 15 July (and other dates); Tea with a Medium. Venue: The Atlantis Bookshop, 49a Museum Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1A 1LY. Time: 2.30pm Cost £60 https://theatlantisbookshop.com/

Wednesday 15 July; Summer Witchcraft Practices. Workshop with Levannah Morgan, via Treadwells Online. Time: 7pm start. Tickets: £15. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Wednesday 15 July (tbc but usually 3rd Wednesday each month); The More Mead Moot. Venue: The Hope pub, Carshalton, Surrey. Time: 7pm. Free. https://www.facebook.com/Pagan-FutureFests-352385661439366/

Wednesday 15 July; Sea Alchemy, Seidr and the Goddess Mysteries of the Deep with Helena Scott. Talk online via The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities and Last Tuesday Society. Time: 8pm. Tickets ·from £6.59. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619

Thursday 16 July; Drumming for Infinity. Venue: Wicca Moon, 50 Well Hall Road, Eltham SE9. Time: 6.30pm. Tickets £15. https://www.wiccamoonuk.com/shop/ or https://www.facebook.com/wiccamoonuk/

Thursday 16 July; Meeting the Horned Deity. Workshop with Julian Vayne, via Treadwells Online. Time: 7pm start. Tickets: £15. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Thursday 16 July; Poetry Evening. Venue: Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Road, London, NW1 6XT. Time: 7pm. Tickets free https://www.meetup.com/rudolf-steiner-spiritual-science/events

Thursday 16 July; Gong Bath. Venue: Akasa Felstead Street, London E9 5LT. Time: 7pm. Tickets: from £23.46. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/sunita-kaur-34415293427

Friday 17 July (1st and 3rd Friday each month); Pagan Portal Podcast by Moon Books. Time: noon (or listen to recording later). Free event. https://open.spotify.com/show/11N4kNj65tTz9NFUcZTMa7?

Saturday 18 July; The Isis and Magdalene Energies with Mel Collins, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 1pm. Tickets: £90. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday 18 July; Magical Herbalism with Bel Senlle, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 2pm. Tickets: £90. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Sunday 19 July; Writing and rewriting fairytales course via City Lit. Venue: Keeley Street, London. Time: 10.30am. Fee: £79/£40. https://www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/writing-and-rewriting-fairytales

Sunday 19 July; Southwark Hysteries with Maria Beadell of Herstorical Tours. Meet: Green Dragon Court, London SE1 . Time: 4pm. Tickets: £22.50. https://www.herstoricaltours.co.uk/book

For activities after these dates please visit my events page.

Please note that I am not responsible for the content of any of these events. Contact organisers directly if you have questions or to check ticket availability. Where a practitioner is offering information about magical healing, this is *not* medical advice. If you're running an event you want included, please email me at badwitch1234@gmail.com I earn commission from advertisers for some links.

Book Endorsement: Herne the Hunter - God of the Forest

2026-07-07T08:00:00.000+01:00

Herne the Hunter is a folkloric figure much loved by modern pagans, but his origins are mysterious. Andrew Anderson explores that mystery in his book Herne the Hunter, which comes out soon and is published by Moon Books. I was lucky enought to read it before it went to press and wrote this endorsement:

“Herne – is he a pagan god, the ghost of hanged man, an English folk hero, a spirit of the wildwood, or a character created by Shakespeare to entertain Elizabethan audiences?
"Andrew Anderson’s Herne the Hunter shows that he has been depicted as all of these. Fascinating and meticulously researched, this book takes a deep dive into the history, legends, myths, and creative interpretations that have turned a horned man said to haunt the woods of Windsor into one of the most popular archetypes honoured in modern paganism.
"As a student of literature, I was personally fascinated to learn that Herne’s metamorphosis is primarily due to the way writers have re-imagined him, from Shakespearean theatre, to Gothic novels, to television’s Robin of Sherwood and even descriptions in books that come with oracle cards. Andrew Anderson shows the power of storytelling in shaping the way we envisage both forces of nature and deities.”

Herne the Hunter is beautifully written and full of excellent research. I highly recommend it.

About the author

Andrew Andersone is a Druid with the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. He lives in Stratford-upon-Avon and works as an environmental manager. He loves working with the spirit of a place and spending time in the nearby Cotswold hills.

You can also view Herne the Hunter on Amazon.

Please note: I earn commission from some links

Florence Farr Day: What Raffle Prize Would You Pick?

2026-07-06T08:00:00.000+01:00

These were just some of the amazing prizes in the raffle at the Florence Farr Conference on Saturday. What would have you taken if your ticket was picked?

I was really lucky. One of mine was chosen early and I got the lovely Isis statue that I'd had my eye on all day. I later also won some beautiful jewellery.

It's probably unfair to focus on the raffle, even though I'm still glowing with happiness at the things I got, and the money raised from it went to a breast cancer charity. The entire conference was wonderful. Hosted by the College of Psychic Studies, it celebrated the extraordinary visionary, dramatist, pioneer of women's rights and leader of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Florence Farr. She was one of the most extraordinary women of the Victorian era, but until recently was almost forgotten.

This year saw the fourth in-person day of celebratiing her magic, art, drama and literature. There were talks and performances led by Caroline Wise, Sue Terry, Isabella Javor. Melissa Seims, and Sally North.. all of whom are experts in esoteric fields of study.

I'm looking forward to next years' event already, but you might see me post more photos of my Isis statue and maybe see me wearing the jewellery.

My Witchy Events: Candle Magic and Cloud Scrying

2026-07-03T08:00:00.000+01:00

Here are details of the witchy events I'm involved with from now until the end of August. There's a London-based workshop on candle magic. I'll be at the Awakened Spirit festival in August where I'll be teaching cloud and tree scrying.

July

Candle Magic Workshop In-Person at Treadwell's
On Sunday 12 July I'm running a workshop based on my book Pagan Portals - Candle Magic at Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. It starts at 1pm and tickets are £25 per person. Visit https://www.treadwells-london.com/ or reserve a place by visiting the shop.

August

Awakened Spirit Festival
This lovely community based festival runs from Friday 14 to 16 August, offering workshops and live music. I'll be running a cloud and tree scrying session on Saturday afternoon. The venue is Crossland Riverside, Box End, Bedford, MK43 8RN. Weekend tickets including camping are £150, day tickets are £60. https://awakenedspirit.co.uk/

About me

Pagan Eye: Catalpa Tree Blossom on a London Street

2026-07-02T08:00:00.000+01:00

This beautiful blossom is on a catalpa tree growing near where I live in London, SE20. I photographed it with another flower behind it - an example of the street art that has also bloomed in the area.

At one time catalpa trees, or bean trees, were relatively rare in England. They're native to America. However, in recent years they've been planted more frequently in gardens and beside roads in my country because they're really pretty with heart-shaped leaves and huge blossom in summer rather than spring. Long bean pods appear in the autumn.

Many years ago I blogged about the Rochester catalpa tree. I tried to research what it meant in folklore and for magic, but didn't come up with much. Googling on the topic again, I learnt that now people are saying it can represent a huge range of things including tenacity, beauty, connection to spirit, and love. None of the sites mentioned their sources.

Apparently the tree has very long tap roots and can survive in areas with little rainfall, so I'd like to think it represents both beauty and tenacity in difficult situations.

If you are in the SE20 area, there's another bean tree in Crystal Palace Park and it's listed in a tree trail you can do. Here's the link: https://crystalpalaceparktreetrail.wordpress.com/

On each Pagan Eye post, I show a photo that I find interesting, with a few words about it. I'm not quite sure what I'll be including - it could be a seasonal image, a pagan site, an event, or just a pretty picture. 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 and you must confirm that you are submitting it for A Bad Witch's Blog.

Other previous related posts:

https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2025/07/pagan-eye-camomile-growing-in-my-local.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/05/pagan-eye-what-do-you-think-girls.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2013/05/the-rochester-catalpa-tree.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2015/08/the-rochester-catalpa-tree-revisited.html

Magical Online & London Events in the Next Weeks

2026-07-01T08:00:00.000+01:00

Here's a list of events for pagans, witches and those with similar interests over the next couple of weeks. There are online things you can do anywhere (bolded for clarity) plus in-person talks and workshops in or near London, as that's where I'm based, and some festivals further afield.

Now - 11 July; Rediscovery: The Gary Dickinson Exhibition. Venue: The Atlantis Bookshop, 49a Museum Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1A 1LY. Time: 11am-6pm Free entry https://theatlantisbookshop.com/

Friday 19 June -17 July; That Large Ghost, Curated by Jack Catling Exhibition. Venue: Swedenborg House, The Swedenborg Society, 20/21 Bloomsbury Way London WC1A 2TH. Free. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/private-view-that-large-ghost-curated-by-jack-catling-tickets-1990949444383

https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

or email: rainbowawakening1@gmail.com

Wednesday 1 July; Begninners Tarot. Start of 8-session online course with Jane Meredith. Time: 9.30am. Tickets AUD $400, concession: $350. https://www.facebook.com/events/1688469552400307/?

Wednesday 1 July; Venus Rising Oracle with Outi Harma. Talk and signing, Venue: Watkins Bookshop, 19-21 Cecil Ct, London WC2N 4EZ. Time: noon. Free but reserve a place https://www.watkinsbooks.com/events

Wednesday 1 July (most Wednesdays); Gong Bath. Venue: Akasa, 5a Prince Edward Rd, Hackney Wick, London E9 5LX. Time: 7pm. Tickets: from £23.46. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/sunita-kaur-34415293427

Wednesday 1 July (usually on a Wednesday each month); Sophie Hollinshead: Lincolnshire Witches and Cunning Folk. Online talk via the Folklore Centre. Time: 7pm. Tickets £5. https://www.folkloremythmagic.com/

Wednesday 1 July (every Wednesday); Feeling Sound. Venue: She's Lost Control, 42 Valentine Road, London. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £18. https://sheslostcontrol.co.uk/collections/all-events

Wednesday 1 July (first Wednesday of the month); Drumming and Meditation online with Taz Thornton. Time: 7pm. Free https://www.facebook.com/TazThorntonOfficial

Wednesday 1 July; Deathbed Visions: What do we see at the edge of life? with Stuart Gray. Talk online via The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities and Last Tuesday Society. Time: 8pm. Tickets ·from £6.59. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619

Thursday 2 July (every Thursday); Midweek Meditation with the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 3pm. Tickets: free for members/£7.50 non members. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk

Thursday 2 July; Fungi: Creatures and Cultures with Kit Ondaatje Rolls. Talk and signing, Venue: Watkins Bookshop, 19-21 Cecil Ct, London WC2N 4EZ. Time: 5pm. Free but reserve a place https://www.watkinsbooks.com/events

Thursday 2 July (tbc); Event with Kingfisher Coven. Venue: Lost Souls Pizza Camden, 245 Eversholt Street, London NW1 1BA. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £6.13 https://www.eventbrite.com/o/keith-broad-kingfisher-coven-88810783003

Thursday 2 July; Ancient Divination. In-Person Workshop with Jules McArthur. Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £25. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Thursday 2 July; Gong Bath. Venue: Akasa Felstead Street, London E9 5LT. Time: 7pm. Tickets: from £23.46. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/sunita-kaur-34415293427

Friday 3 July (every Friday); Live Chat hosted by Rachel Patterson, author of Gods and Goddesses of England and the Kitchen Witch series of books. Online event. Time: 9am. Free. https://www.facebook.com/RachelPattersonbooks/

Friday 3 July (1st and 3rd Friday each month); Pagan Portal Podcast by Moon Books. Time: noon (or listen to recording later). Free event. https://open.spotify.com/show/11N4kNj65tTz9NFUcZTMa7?

Friday 3 - 5 July Rewilding The Witch Summer Camp. Venue: The Leftfield, High Birch Road, Weeley CO16 9BU. Tickets: £40-£90. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rewilding-the-witch-summer-camp-tickets-1980770918137

Friday 3 July; Revealing the Stele, with Gary Dickinson. Venue: The Atlantis Bookshop, 49a Museum Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1A 1LY. Time: 6.30 pm. Tickets £25. https://theatlantisbookshop.com/

Friday 3 July (and other dates); Holistic Sound Bath Meditation - Summoning The Sacred. Venue: Training Points Fitness and Therapy, 5-6 Cooper's Yard, London SE19 1TN. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £25. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/20043657289?

Saturday 4 July; Journey to the Akashic Records workshop with Frances Billinghurst, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 10.30am. Tickets: £90. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Saturday 4 July; Florence Farr and the Magical Imagination IV, esoteric conference. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time: 11am -6pm. Tickets £70. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/special-events/esoteric/florence-farr-conference/?

Saturday 4 July; Shamanic Drumming. Venue: Flopsy Wood, Cock Lane, Hoddesdon EN11 8LS. Noon-2pm. Tickets £20. https://www.facebook.com/HertsEvents

Saturday 4 July; Trip to Brighton March of the Mermaids with London Woodland Witches and Pagans. Meet at Brighton Peace Statue at noon. Donation to charity - £3 recommended. More info: https://mani.org.uk/ or visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/mani-woodland-witch-34325436803

Saturday 4 July; Travelling Beyond the Body. In-Person Workshop with Fio Gede Parma. Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Time: 1pm. Tickets: £50. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Saturday 4 July (date tbc but usually first Saturday each month); Gong Bath. Venue: Upminster Sanctuary Pea Lane, Upminster, RM142XH. Time: 7pm. Tickets: tbc. https://upminstersanctuary.com/

Sunday 5 July; The History of Mermaids, Sea Spirits and Women via Seed talks. Online event. Time: 8am. Tickets from $18.95. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/cc/seed-talks-online-1262239?

Sunday 5 July; The Power of Breath with Sven Carlson. Start of 6-session course with Maria Antoniou, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 10am. Tickets: £200. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Sunday 5 July; Talk on Mediumship at North West Kent Pagans Moot. Organised by NWK Pagans for members of the group. Venue: Chislehurst Caves, NW Kent. Time: 11.30am. https://www.facebook.com/groups/445487428816887

Sunday 5 July; Midsummer ritual for members of the Woodspirits group. Venue: Highgate, London. Meet from noon for a social then ritual at 3pm. https://www.facebook.com/groups/4032235040150960

Sunday 5 July; Kundalini: The Lived Phenomena. Workshop with Ann Mathie. Venue: The College of Psychic Studies, 16 Queensberry Place, London, SW7 2EB. Time 1pm. Tickets: £95. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Sunday 5 July; Understand Grief and Trauma with Tarot. Workshop with Jo Tiller, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 2pm. Tickets: £95. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Sunday 5 July (first Sunday each month); Empowerment and Inner Strength - Collective World Meditation with Pauline Flitton. Online event. Time: 7.30pm - 8.30pm. Free. Contact Pauline 07415 054280 or Email

contact@crystal-manifestations.co.uk for the free Zoom link. Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1514249646502331/?

Monday 6 July (every Monday); MHA The Wilderness forest bathing walk (all mobilities welcome). Meet MHA The Wilderness, 17 Shirley Church Road, Croydon CR9 5AL. Time: 11am. Free. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/parkbathe-34393467709

Monday 6 July; Week 6 – The Houses (Part 2). Free online talk via the Astrological Lodge of London. Starts 5pm. Tickets free. https://astrolodge.co.uk/

Monday 6 July (and other dates); Ascending with Angels, led by David Goddard. Venue: The Atlantis Bookshop, 49a Museum Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1A 1LY. Time: 6.30 pm. Tickets £40. https://theatlantisbookshop.com/

Monday 6 July; The Final Portrait: A History of Death Masks with Nick Reynolds. Venue: Viktor Wynd's Museum of Curiosities, 11 Mare Street, London E8 4RP. Time: 6.30pm. Tickets from £16.14, includes a cocktail. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-last-tuesday-society-viktor-wynd-museum-33776720489

Monday 6 July; The Witch's Apprentice: Everyday Magic. Start of 4-Part Course with Rebecca Beattie, author of Planetary Magic and Nature Mystics, via Treadwells Online. Time: 7pm start. Tickets: £80. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Monday 6 July; Hermetic Magical Training, Stage 1. Start of 4-Part Course with Julia Phillips, via Treadwells Online. Time: 7pm start. Tickets: £120. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Monday 6 July; Talk onDoing Astrology in a Conscious Universe with Wendell Perry followed by chart discussion. Online talks via the Astrological Lodge of London. Starts 7pm. Tickets £6/£9. https://astrolodge.co.uk/

Monday 6 July (tbc but usually a Monday early in the month); Sister Sharing Circle by Claire The Soul Nurturer. Venue: Secret Soul Sanctuary, Sydenham Hill, London SE23 3PH. Time: 8pm. Tickets: £14.79. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/claire-the-soul-nurturer-35479207053

Monday 6 July; Monstrosity, Folk Magic and Mysticism Against The Canon with Sergei Zotov. Talk online via The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities and Last Tuesday Society. Time: 8pm. Tickets ·from £6.59. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-viktor-wynd-museum-amp-the-last-tuesday-society-12203346619

Monday 6 July; (tbc but usually every Monday); Tea With a Druid. Free online event by the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Time 8pm. https://druidry.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/druidry

Tuesday 7 July (and other dates); Yoga for Mind, Breath and Body. Venue: Beckenham Place Mansion, Place Park, The Mansion, Beckenham BR3 1SY. Time: 6.15pm. Tickets: £12. https://www.beckenhamplace.org/whatson/

Tuesday 7 July; Connect with the Seasonal Cycles. Talk by Tiffany Lazic, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £22. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Tuesday 7 July; Hypnosis and Trance For Magic. Start of 2-Part Workshop with Mark Vincent via Treadwells Online. Time: 7pm start, delayed viewing available. Tickets: £50. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Tuesday 7 July; Tarot Reversals. Start of 4-Part course with Delphine de la Mar. Venue: Treadwell's Bookshop, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury London, WC1E 7BS. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £150. https://www.treadwells-london.com/events

Tuesday 7 July; Dragons and their Hoardswith Jeremy Harte. Talk via the Folklore Society online. Time: 7pm. Tickets £6. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-folklore-society-32190494089

Tuesday 7 July (tbc but usually first Tuesday each month); Talk at Romford Pagan Moot. Venue: The Golden Lion, 2 High Street, Romford. Time: 7.30pm. Entry £4: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064489640955

Wednesday 8 July; Sylvia Plath, Witchcraft and Radical Poetry. Talk via Seed talks online. Time: 7pm. Tickets from £13.50. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/36463428713?

Wednesday 8 July (tbc but usually 2nd Wed each month); Training group workshop by the Wytchery. Venue: Treadwells, 33 Store St, London WC1E 7BS, UK. Time: 7pm. Tickets: £10. https://www.meetup.com/the-wytchery/

Thursday 9 July (2nd Thursday each month); Magick Without Tears Moot. Venue: Fitzroy Tavern, 16 Charlotte St., London W1T 2LY. Time 6pm. https://www.facebook.com/groups/mwtpubmoot

Thursday 9 July; Way of the Witch monthly online circle with Samantha K. and Jacqui C. Time: 8pm. Tickets: £10. https://www.meetup.com/sammi-k-shamanic-practitioner-psychic-medium/events/

Saturday 11 - Sunday 12 July; Sacred Tobacco Training with Renato Guerrero. Venue: Berkeley farm, Essex, a few miles outside London. Time: 10am start. Tickets: £260. https://www.aho.community/

Saturday 11 - Sunday 12 July; Persephone's Journey. Two-day workshop with Jane Meredith, author of Journey to the Dark Goddess. Venue: Sheffield, UK Times: - 10am - 5pm both days

Saturday 11 July; Mindfulmess in the Park (Bromley Town Centre). Venue: Church House Gardens, 53 Mill Vale, Bromley, BR2 0EN. Time: Noon. Free. https://www.facebook.com/events/1544720900390348/?

Sunday 12 July: Forest Bathing in Crystal Palace Park. Meet at Sydenham Gate, CP Park, London SE20. Time: 2pm. Free, but parking is paid. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/parkbathe-34393467709

Sunday 12 July; Harnessing the 12 Zodiac Signs with Carmen Turner-Schott, via the College of Psychic Studies. Online event. Time: 6pm. Tickets: £90. https://www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk/

Sunday 12 July; South East London Pagans Moot. Venue: The Ivy House, 55 Stuart Road, London, SE15 3BE. Time: 7.30pm. Free. https://www.facebook.com/groups/7046502195365834

For activities after these dates please visit my events page.

Rounding the Year: Taking Stock of my Goals & Wishes

2026-06-30T08:00:00.000+01:00

How has the past 6 months gone for you? It seems to have gone quickly for me, and it's been a rollercoaster of good things and unpleasant surprises.

Every January I make a list of ambitions (you can see it here) and a Wheel of the Year vision board, which you can see in the picture above. I try to check how I'm doing regularly. The half-year mark is a good time.

When it comes to my blogging intentions, I've been on track with what I aimed to do each month, including writing about seasonal folklore, books, crafting, and posting divinations for the world.

One of my resolutions I've not worked towards yet is "Interview at least 6 pagan authors". So, if you are a pagan author who hasn't been interviewed by me yet but wants to be, let me know. You can email me at badwitch1234@gmail.com.

The vision board reflects some great social events and a writing opportunity that flowered between Spring Equinox and Beltane. The Greenoaks Gathering was fun and something of an adventure before the Summer Solstice. I hope there'll be more days out and holidays before Lammas, rather than just "coming home", which I wrote on the chart. I wonder if I manifested those things, or if they'd have happened anyway?

The worst unpleasant surprise of the year so far was my cat Tommy dying suddenly. I still miss him. When I look at the vision board, however, I see that dark spiral before Imbolc. I intended it to mean a time for rest and introspection, but not laying my cat to rest. Still, I accept life always has moments of sadness. No one can guarantee they won't happen at any time.

Looking further round my Wheel of the Year vision board I see the time of harvest. I was in my garden yesterday and noticed fruit and berries filling out on the trees and bushes, although some fell prematurely in the recent thunder storm. I hope we don't have too many more of them before summer ends.

How are your plans for the year doing? Please leave a comment.

Rounding the Wheel of the Year

My book Pagan Portals - Round the Wheel of the Year offers more ways to acknowledge and celebrate the seasons in ritual, magic, folklore and nature. You can view Rounding the Wheel of the Year on Amazon, find it at esoteric bookshops or via my publisher Moon Books: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/our-books/pagan-portals-rounding-wheel-year

(Please note: I earn commission from some links.)

Other previous related posts

https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/01/the-bad-witchs-10-new-year-resolutions.html
https://www.badwitch.co.uk/2026/01/magical-craft-my-2026-wheel-of-year.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2024/12/rounding-year-reflections-on-new-years.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2024/12/new-year-resolutions-looking-back-at-my.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2024/01/the-bad-witchs-10-new-year-resolutions.html

Art: Frida Kahlo & Day of the Dead Imagery @ the Tate

2026-06-29T08:00:17.472+01:00

I went to the new Frida Kahlo exhibition at London's Tate Modern yesterday and loved it, both as someone who enjoys art and who is interested in folklore and mythology. Day of the Dead imagery is one aspect of Mexican culture that appears both in Frida's paintings and in other artist's work that she inspired.

The photo at the top shows Altar for Frida Kahlo by Carmen Lomas Garza with other paintings in a room displaying creations in homage. The picture to the right shows one by Frida herself called Girl with Death Mask.

Here's more general information about the exhibition from the Tate website:

"Frida: The Making of an Icon... showcase[s] over 30 of Kahlo’s most iconic works that introduce her ‘many selves’ – the dedicated wife, the intellectual, the modern artist, and the political activist. Alongside treasured garments, jewellery, photographs and memorabilia, there are over 200 works by her contemporaries and the artists she inspired from later generations, celebrating her lasting impact on those who continue to reimagine and reclaim her remarkable story."

Frida: The Making of an Icon  is on at the Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG until 3 January 2027. Tickets are £25 or free for nembers. You can find out more here: https://www.tate.org.uk/