Programme

Saturday

This year’s evening social will be held in the Town Hall, with live music from Damh the Bard! Entry included with all Weekend and Saturday tickets.

LectureS

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  • Caitlin Matthews will be delivering the Keynote Lecture to open the Conference.

    Who Are You Trying to Reach, Caller?  : The Voice of Magical Evocation

    From the barbarous names of the Greek Magical Papyri to the invocations of high magic, the voice is our first magic tool, whether you are calling spirits from the vastly deep or angels from the realms of glory. We’ll explore the panoply of evocation and voice, with examples from Orpheus to Florence Farr, from Theurgy to Theosophy. From basic blessing to the great enchantment, with footnotes from Dion Fortune, Caitlín will do her best to connect you. 

    Caitlín Matthews is a ritualist and singer of souls. She is the author of 85 books on aspects of the Western Esoteric Tradition, including Walkers Between Worlds (with John Matthews), Celtic Devotional,  Art of Celtic Seership, and The Lost Book of the Grail, as well as creating many tarots and oracles. She lives in Oxford where she has had a shamanic healing practice for 36 years. For courses & books see www.hallowquest.org.uk Most of her new writing can be found at: https://substack.com/@caitlinmatthewstigerna

  • This talk explores the imagery and hidden meaning of the Green Man in his many forms, from The Green Knight to John Barleycorn. He looks at the challenges this ancient figures offers to everyone, and to acknowledge the things we have done and the things we may yet do – both to ourselves and to the world in which we live.  He explores how we can acknowledge this figure and what kind of response can we expect when we reach out to it.

    John Matthews is an independent scholar living in Oxford. He published his first book in 1980 and has since gone on to publish over 150 titles on Myth, Folklore, and ancient esoteric traditions. He has worked in the Film industry as an historical advisor and won a BAFTA for his work on the movie King Arthur (2004). He has made a lifetime study of every aspect of the Arthurian legends, from its origins to modern retellings.  Among his recent titles are Artorius: The Roman King Arthur (written with Linda Malcor, Amberley 2022) and The Great Book of King Arthur (Harper 2022) a huge collection of mediaeval stories omitted from Thomas Malory’s great work, Le Morte D’Arthur, retold for a modern audience and Realms of the Round Table, a sequel adding a further 30 forgotten tales to the collection. He is currently involved in a forthcoming TV series based on his work.  www.hallowquest.org.uk  He writes regularly at https://graal.substack.com

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Workshops

  • This year our Keynote and JSK Memorial Lectures will be the only 10:00am event.

  • A workshop centred on embodying the electional astrology of the moment we find ourselves in.

    Full details to follow

  • How did the modern pagan revival first get going? A lot has been written about the history of revived paganism in the 19th and 20th centuries, but the period before that is still relatively obscure. This talk takes the history of the revival back to its origins in the 1700s. It considers the poets, intellectuals and hellraisers who sought to reanimate the ancient gods, and it looks at how and why they went about doing so.

    Robin Douglas is a historian of religions who specialises in the history of pagan and esoteric traditions. He received his PhD from Cambridge University (examined by Ronald Hutton and Owen Davies). His website is www.robindouglas.org. His last book, Paganism Persisting (co-authored with Francis Young), was published by Exeter University Press in 2024. His next book, The Pagan Revival, is forthcoming from Equinox Publishing in autumn 2026.

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  • Robert Peter is an eclectic magician hailing from England. Walking in the footsteps of those who tread the path of both darkness and light to bring knowledge forth from parts unknown to the hearts and minds of seekers of the esoteric arts.

    He will be delving into the Angels of the Shemhamephorash and how to integrate them into your practise in simple yet powerful ways.

    Full details to follow.

Sunday

LectureS

  • The History & Mystery of the Secret Grimoire of Turiel

    Andy Mercer will delve into one of Jake Stratton-Kent’s final volumes, ‘The Sworn & Secret Grimoire.’

    Full details to follow.

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  • Art objects (such as Austin Osman Spare’s paintings and drawings) can act as portals between the divine, the unconscious, the imaginal, and the material world. Max Kornfield will expand understanding of of Spare’s infamous sigil practice by elaborating the magician’s gorgeous visual artwork. The lecture will cover some of Spare’s main visual motifs, their significance, and share the power of beauty and grotesquerie to entice the powers that be. The talk will conclude with examples from a contemporary artist-practitioner utilizing Spare’s artistic-magical method today.

    Max Kornfield, born in Los Angeles, CA, graduated from the School of Visual Arts, New York, NY. His interdisciplinary research is presented across Western Europe and the United States through oil paintings and exhibition curation. Kornfield’s paintings are rooted in the combination of artistic practice, community engagement, philosophical and theological inquiry across Jewish, Christian and Pagan esoteric, magical, and mystical traditions. His paintings embody ritual, prayer, meditation, and catharsis in chalk, gold, and oil. The resulting artworks represent visionary experiences entwining the symbolic and material to push unity and tension beyond the widest breadth and depth currently imaginable.

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  • What happens when a manic depressive, disillusioned witch moves home to the remote Shetland Isles after twenty years abroad? She begins interviewing spiritual leaders from across the globe about Madness, of course! Plus reading. Lots of reading. All winter long. This talk will mingle auto-fiction & neoteric research to explore the intersections of magic, Madness and the occult.

    Ùna Maria Blyth is a queer, neurodivergent writer living in the Shetland Isles, a remote archipelago located between Scotland and Norway. She is the author of Muses No More: Portraits of Occult Women (Hexen Press, 2024). 

    In addition to Muses No More, Ùna has written for a range of publications including Folklore for Resistance, Sabat, Rituals & Declarations, Doggerland, Fire & Knives, and the academic text Reframing Immersive Theatre (published by Palgrave Macmillan). 

    A former member of London-based ritual immersive theatre company FoolishPeople, her academic background lies in political philosophy (University of York) and film (Central Saint Martins). 

    Website: www.unamariablyth.com

Workshops

  • This year our Keynote and JSK Memorial Lectures will be the only 10:00am event.

  • Full details to follow

  • Dean will give an immersive workshop on the Assumption of Godforms, a key technique of the Western Mystery Tradition.

    Born was in Somerset and is a child of the Sixties… just! He is now based in northern Scotland, where Dean and his partner built their home and live in the Highlands. Having now retired, he had a career in education both here, in the UK, and abroad. For over twenty-five years he has been magus of three different magical lodges; became a Third Degree initiate; and a supervisor for students studying the Western Mystery Tradition. He is also a certified Master Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming, using it therapeutically and magically. He has also developed, written and presented in magical workshops over the years, the most recent, Solas Alba, in Perth. Dean is passionate about creating art, reading, the environment, hillwalking and all things culinary! From an early age he had a curiosity and wonder for all things existential.

  • Soror Brigantia has enjoyed many bizarre magical adventures and looks forward to many more. She has been a practitioner of magick for 30+ years both in groups and as a solo practitioner exploring deeply the magical paradigms that sing to her soul. She has been a member of the Illuminates of Thanateros for over 20 years and is a past Section head of this Order. She is a 2* witch and complementary therapist enjoying the practices of aromatherapy, reflexology and ayurvedic therapies.

    She enjoys many interests including history, art, literature, martial arts, dance, and exploring the world in which she finds herself. The biggest influence on her magick and on her life is the principle of Carpe Diem, recognizing that experiencing life deeply and to the fullest as the highest form of Art. She rejects the dualistic concept of there being another more “spiritual” realm that is better than the one in which we reside, viewing all of creation as a divine manifestation of chaos.

    In her workshop, Soror Brigantia will be demystifying some of the common misconceptions about chaos magick and presenting chaos magick as a life affirming path to exploring the multi verse.

  • Full details to follow