Archives: Digital Events

Seasons of the Witch – a Zoom lecture with Dr Alex Carabine

In this Zoom talk, Dr Alex Carabine will explore the folklore, history and later depictions of witchcraft, with a focus on Gothic literature and film

Everyone knows the witch. Her green skin and warts give her away. Or perhaps you have seen her in the woods, dancing in a circle after having flown in on her broom? Maybe your signature is next to hers in the Devil’s book? Then again, your witch might be a woman with flowing hair and velvet dress, gathering dried flowers and igniting a candle with a breath. Your witch could even be a man who can sour butter with a glance – or a youth with black eyeliner carrying a grimoire in their school bag…

Everyone knows the witch. Yet throughout history the witch has been a slippery, shapeshifting figure. If they can appear so different – in so many disparate forms – how are we apparently able to identify them so easily? What do all of these depictions of witches have in common? And how was the malevolent hag of the late-medieval era transformed into the supernatural feminist icon we might recognise today? Join Dr Alex Carabine as she explores the folkloric origins of witches, their pacts with the Devil, the feminist reclamation of the figure, and their ongoing transformation through Gothic literature and film.

In this illustrated Zoom talk, Alex will discuss the Malleus Maleficarum and its femicidal origins, as well as its impact on the Pendle and Salem witch trials. From these historic underpinnings we will move into literature to consider the transformation of the witch in narratives like Shakespeare’s Macbeth and various nineteenth century Gothic novels. As the twentieth century progressed, we will note how the witch was domesticated through films like I Married a Witchand Bell, Book and Candle and why, in the wake of the World Wars, this domestication was considered so necessary. As the century waned and the Millenium neared, we will investigate the witch’s feminist reclamation through the soft Gothic sisterhood of Practical Magic and shows like Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now, in the twenty-first century, the witch is undergoing another metamorphosis: Robert Eggers took her back to her Satanic roots in the The VVitch, while Anna Biller’s The Love Witch acts as a feminist critique of contemporary witchcraft itself.

The witch is a multivalent symbol through which we can examine the boundaries of power and gender. But why is the witch so prevalent across history, and who is safe to be othered? Come to this lecture and find out if you are as familiar with the witch as you think you are.

 

About the Speaker

At the turn of the Millenium Dr Alex Carabine was a teenage witch – she had the pentacle, the tarot deck, and the bad attitude. Now, she has a PhD in Gothic literature, specifically on the influence of medieval culture on Gothic narratives in the nineteenth century. ‘Seasons of the Witch’ is taken a from a book she is writing on the history of the Gothic, which fuses academic rigour with entertaining literary analysis aimed at the general reader. Alex has lectured at the University of Liverpool, supervised dissertations at Oxford University, and runs online lectures, workshops and events through her freelance business, Gothic University.

Your curator and host for this event will be the author Edward Parnell, author of Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country. Ghostland (William Collins, 2019), a work of narrative non-fiction, is a moving exploration of what has haunted our writers and artists – as well as the author’s own haunted past; it was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley 2020 prize, an award given to a literary autobiography of excellence. Edward’s first novel The Listeners (2014), won the Rethink New Novels Prize. His latest book is All the Fear of the Fair (pub. Oct 2025) the second anthology he’s edited for the British Library’s Tales of the Weird series. For further info see: https://edwardparnell.com

Don’t worry if you can’t make the live event on the night – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day.

 

[Image: http://zidanio.livejournal.com/22246.html, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]

The Book of Beasts: Reclaiming Animal Wisdom—Zoom with Elizabeth Sulis Kim

This talk considers animals, who we think they are, and who they really are: gods or demons; friends or foe; familiars or pests; ‘were’ creatures and other shapeshifters.

For millennia, we’ve been combining our image with other animals in our art, stories and spiritual beliefs, and looking to the natural world with awe and reverence, with envy and fear. Since prehistory, animals have pawed and slivered through our material culture, and probably through our stories, from the 40,000-year-old animal figurines found in Swabian Jura to the explosion of cave paintings that followed. In the ancient world, animals gave form to gods, guardians and monsters, from the monumental sphinxes and lamassu to the Potnia Theon (or Mistress of Beasts) and were frequently referenced in myths, sometimes as creatures to protect, at other times as monsters to slay. In many regions, animals still dominate human pantheons. But in dominant cultures our relationships with animals have transfigured. Animals still weave through our foundational myths, place names, nursery rhymes and children’s stories, but are strangely absent in our contemporary adult stories. Writing The Book of Beasts, Elizabeth Sulis Kim set out on a journey around the world, and across time, to find out what happened to our relationships with other animals, and to meditate on what our future relationships could look like if we told different stories.

 

About the Speaker

Elizabeth Sulis Kim is a Scotland-based writer and the editor of Cunning Folk magazine. Her writing has appeared in/on Mslexia, the LA Review of Books, TANK, Ambit, BBC Culture, The Guardian, Hellebore, and Fiddler’s Green, among others. She holds an MA in French & Italian from the University of Edinburgh and is an independent ‘folk’ researcher. She is the author of The Book of Beasts: Reclaiming Animal Wisdom, published by Chatto & Windus, and The Art of Folklore, published by Frances Lincoln.and award-winning radio writer, including as lead dramatist for the National Edgar Allan Poe Theatre on the Air podcast drama which, in 2020, was archived by the Library of Congress for its ‘historical and cultural significance’.

Your curator and host for this event will be the author Edward Parnell, author of Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country. Ghostland (William Collins, 2019), a work of narrative non-fiction, is a moving exploration of what has haunted our writers and artists – as well as the author’s own haunted past; it was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley 2020 prize, an award given to a literary autobiography of excellence. Edward’s first novel The Listeners (2014), won the Rethink New Novels Prize. His latest book is All the Fear of the Fair (pub. Oct 2025) the second anthology he’s edited for the British Library’s Tales of the Weird series. For further info see: https://edwardparnell.com

Don’t worry if you can’t make the live event on the night – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day.

[Image: Detail from ‘Two fantastical beasts’. Gouache painting by a Persian artist. Source: Wellcome Collection (ref: 582624i).]

The Unseparated State: the Coast Salish Stories from the Beginning of Time – Paul Chiyokten Wagner – Zoom

6. The Unseparated State: the Coast Salish Stories from the Beginning of Time

The Unseparated State: the Coast Salish Stories from the Beginning of Time

Stand hand-in-hand with the Unseen.

In this grand finale of the first season of Fey’s Shadow Salon, we are joined by Paul Chiyokten Wagner, a Coast Salish Native flutist and storyteller. Through the medium of our virtual salon, the ancient wisdom of the Coast Salish people is going to be invoked through story and song. Join the séance to partake in the knowledge handed down since the beginning of time and enter the Unseparated State, where humans, animals, plants, and forms of life more ethereal co-exist in deep connection with each other and in alignment with the Sacred Mother Earth.

Speaker Bio:

Paul Chiyokten Wagner is the founder of Protectors of the Salish Sea, an indigenous-led organization dedicated to protecting and restoring the Salish Sea region through direct action. Chiyokten is also a cultural educator, bringing forward the words given by his Coast Salish ancestors which have allowed the First Peoples here to co-create paradise for many thousands of years. Chiyokten and Protectors have stood on the front lines of many places of indigenous-led resistance such as Standing Rock, Line 3, Sabal Trail Pipeline, Lelu Island, Mauna Kea, Thacker Pass and Fairy Creek, Olympia State Capitol Climate Change Occupations, Chase Bank divestment campaigns and Salish Sea Prayer Walks. Chiyokten is an award-winning Coast Salish Native flutist and storyteller and has performed with artists such as Kitaro of Japan and Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

Hosted and Curated by:

Fey, a mediator between the otherworldly and the mundane. Outside of the salon (Ada Kałużna), a researcher with interest in philosophy of mind, psychedelic experience and the extraordinary Past scientific officer at the Beckley Foundation. Community-builder and traveler.

LINK: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ada_Kaluzna2

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

Fey’s Shadow Salon – a lecture series where we explore the elusive, chart the intangible, and investigate the invisible. Come around as we initiate the first season of the Salon, the Study of the Unseen, on the eclipse of 3rd March and stay for the ride through labyrinths of the human psyche, from the seven circles of the Jungian unconscious, to the psychedelic fountains of creativity, to the tall peaks of imagination where the ancient Spirits dwell.

1. “Books of Visions”: Jung, Dante, and the Making of the Red Book – 3 Mar 2026

2. Psychedelics as Catalysts of Creativity – 30 April 2026

3. Dreams of Death: Navigating States of Dazzling Darkness – 14 May 2026

4. The I Ching Oracle – 28 May 2026

5. Spirit of Creativity – 28 July 2026

6. The Unseparated State: the Coast Salish Stories from the Beginning of Time – 26 Sep 2026

The Heart of the Castle: Created by Turntale Theatre and performed by Jonathan Lambert – Zoom

Heart of the Castle: Created by Turntale Theatre

The Heart of the Castle is a multimedia one-person show combining storytelling with a range of visual and audio elements. Developed from a traditional tale, it combines oral storytelling with live acoustic looping, masks, props, pop-up constructions, shadow puppetry and green-screen video.

The show explores themes of perseverance, loyalty, and courage, while highlighting the incredible power of kindness and compassion.

Bio:

JOHN O’LEARY is a popular author, illustrator and paper engineer whose books have a particular emphasis on discovery, game play and illusion. He has used his skills as a paper engineer to create giant pop-ups for theatre, art trails and art residencies. He is a regular visitor to schools, museums, libraries and other venues where he delivers talks and runs workshops in pop-up design, illustration and literacy.

John has had twelve children’s books published, all of which have been translated into many languages. https://johnolearyillustration.co.uk/

Curated & Hosted by:

Lena Schattenherz Heide-Brennand is a Norwegian lecturer with a master degree in language, culture and literature from the University of Oslo and Linnaeus University. She has been lecturing and teaching various subjects since 1998. Her field of interest and main focus has always been topics that others have considered strange, eccentric and eerie, and she has specialised in a variety of dark subjects linked to folklore, mythology and Victorian traditions and medicine. Her students often point out her thorough knowledge about the subjects she is teaching, in addition to her charismatic appearance. She refers to herself as a performance lecturer and always gives her audience an outstanding experience

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

One-Armed Jack: Uncovering the Real Jack the Ripper – Sarah Bax Horton – Zoom

One-Armed Jack: Uncovering the Real Jack the Ripper 

The Jack the Ripper murders of 1888 are the most compelling unsolved crimes of all time. Sarah Bax Horton investigates the killings in honour of her Whitechapel police ancestor Sergeant Harry Garrett, who worked on the case. Using criminal profiling, she discovers a little-known suspect, an East Ender whose distinctive physical attributes match the contemporary eye-witness descriptions.
In 1888, Hyam Hyams was a 36-year-old cigar maker living on Wentworth Street, with a history of physically abusing his wife. By August of that year, with an unhealed broken arm, his epilepsy and alcoholism worsening, his violence against women escalated onto the streets. A seemingly harmless character, he was trusted by the local sex workers who became his victims.
In a gripping analysis, the author of One-Armed Jack proves his guilt, finally identifying the man who was Jack the Ripper. Join Sarah Bax Horton to find out more about the evidence behind her hypothesis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaker Bio:

Sarah Bax Horton is an award-winning true crime writer based in London. Fascinated by genealogy, her discovery of a Whitechapel ‘H Division’ police ancestor inspired her re-examination of the Jack the Ripper case in One-Armed Jack: Uncovering the Real Jack the Ripper (Michael O’Mara Books, 2023). Her second book Arm of Eve: Investigating the Thames Torso Murders (The History Press, 2024) won the ‘Ripperology Books And More’ Book of the Year award in 2024. Sarah is acclaimed for combining meticulous historical research with modern investigative methods.

Photo credit: Photographer: Julian Calder

Curated & Hosted by:

Lena Schattenherz Heide-Brennand is a Norwegian lecturer with a master degree in language, culture and literature from the University of Oslo and Linnaeus University. She has been lecturing and teaching various subjects since 1998. Her field of interest and main focus has always been topics that others have considered strange, eccentric and eerie, and she has specialised in a variety of dark subjects linked to folklore, mythology and Victorian traditions and medicine. Her students often point out her thorough knowledge about the subjects she is teaching, in addition to her charismatic appearance. She refers to herself as a performance lecturer and always gives her audience an outstanding experience

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

 

 

Cryptozoology: Hunting the Impossible – a Zoom talk with Richard Freeman

Join leading cryptozoologist Richard Freeman as he gives us an introduction to more than a quarter of a century of leading expeditions in search of unknown animals such as the yeti, the Mongolian death worm, the giant anaconda, the almasty, the orang-pendek, the gul, the naga, the ninki-nanka, as well as known species (and sub-species) that have been classified as extinct including the Caspian tiger and the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger).

About the Speaker

Richard Freeman is a cryptozoologist, author and journalist who serves as the zoological director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) and co-edits its journal Animals & Men. He has written and contributed to numerous publications, including Fortean Times and Paranormal Magazine, and has lectured widely across the UK. Inspired from a young age by Doctor Who, Richard studied zoology at the University of Leeds and began his career as a zookeeper at Twycross Zoo, where he became head reptile keeper working with hundreds of species. He later worked in an exotic pet shop, a reptile rescue centre, and briefly as a gravedigger before discovering the CFZ, rising from contributor to Yorkshire representative and then full-time member, culminating in his current leadership role. Richard is the author of more than ten books, with his most recent being The Highest Strangeness (2024).

Your curator and host for this event will be the author Edward Parnell, author of Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country. Ghostland (William Collins, 2019), a work of narrative non-fiction, is a moving exploration of what has haunted our writers and artists – as well as the author’s own haunted past; it was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley 2020 prize, an award given to a literary autobiography of excellence. Edward’s first novel The Listeners (2014), won the Rethink New Novels Prize. His latest book is All the Fear of the Fair (pub. Oct 2025) the second antholoigy he’s edited for the British Library’s Tales of the Weird series. For further info see: https://edwardparnell.com

Don’t worry if you can’t make the live event on the night – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day.

Image [Left]: Richard Freeman and an orang-pendek witness standing next to a giant titan-arum flower in Sumatra. [Right]: a female thylacine (front) with its juvenile male offspring (rear), in Washington D.C. National Zoo, c. 1904. Attribution: Baker; E.J. Keller., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Romantic Divination Customs in Early Halloween Postcards – Lisa Gabbert – Zoom

Lecture  4 – Romantic Divination Customs in Early Halloween Postcards – Lisa Gabbert

This talk examines the folk beliefs and practices represented in early Halloween postcards. Although Halloween in the US today is largely associated with death, horror, and even gore, 19th and early 20th century postcards and other sources reveal that Halloween was more of a romantic time, closely associated with love divination practices. People engaged in romantic parlor games and participated in customs designed to predict one’s future marital prospects, such as the burning of nuts, pouring wax or lead into water, and mirror divination. Such customs give context to other early Halloween images, such as witches, fairies, and even human-like pumpkins, which are sometimes depicted as potential paramours.

Bio:

Lisa Gabbert is Professor of Folklore Studies in the Department of History at Utah State University. She is the author of three books and numerous book chapters and articles. She is interested in all things folkloric, but particularly festivity and its overlaps with play, legendry, and sacred and supernatural figures. Other interests include folklore and landscape, and folklore in medical contexts. She currently is co-editor of the Journal of American Folklore and President of the Western States Folklore Society.

Caption: Vintage Halloween Card (1909). Public Domain.

Divining the Past, Present, and Future: Oracles, Series 2 – Four Lectures

Join us for Series Two as we journey once again into the histories and mysteries of divination. Delivered by leading scholars in the field

Curated & Hosted by

Marguerite Johnson is a cultural historian of the ancient Mediterranean, specialising in sexuality and gender, particularly in the poetry of Sappho, Catullus, and Ovid, as well as magical traditions in Greece, Rome, and the Near East. She also researches Classical Reception Studies, with a regular focus on Australia. In addition to ancient world studies, Marguerite is interested in sexual histories in modernity as well as magic in the west more broadly, especially the practices and art of Australian witch, Rosaleen Norton. She is Honorary Professor of Classics and Ancient History at The University of Queensland, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She lives in Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesvos.

Attendees will receive a recording of each lecture valid for 4 weeks.

 

 

 

The Future is in Your Hands: Palmistry in Britain and the United States – Joan Navarre – Zoom

Lecture  2  – The Future is in Your Hands: Palmistry in Britain and the United States 

In the waning years of the nineteenth century, a palmistry craze swept through Great Britain and the United States. On both sides of the Atlantic, people gazed at the lines in their hands and searched for clues about their future. Join Dr. Joan Navarre in a fascinating consideration of Palmistry—or Cheiromancy—the time-honoured art that seeks insight through consulting the hand. Could wealth be on your horizon? Romance? A long life? The Future is in Your Hands.

Bio

Joan Navarre, PhD, is a Trustee of The Museum of Soho (London) and the International Vice Chair of the Æ George Russell Society (Dublin).
A tenured Professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, USA, she has authored numerous articles on the subject of palmistry. Co-founder of the Oscar Wilde Society of America, she is currently completing a documentary on Oscar Wilde’s 1882 tour of the United States. Joan owns and operates Merrion Square Productions, a film company dedicated to researching, documenting, and interpreting stories central to the Irish Literary Renaissance.

Caption: Frontispiece from Edward Heron-Allen’s A Manual of Cheirosophy (1885). Public Domain.

Divining the Past, Present, and Future: Oracles, Series 2 – Four Lectures

Join us for Series Two as we journey once again into the histories and mysteries of divination. Delivered by leading scholars in the field

Curated & Hosted by

Marguerite Johnson is a cultural historian of the ancient Mediterranean, specialising in sexuality and gender, particularly in the poetry of Sappho, Catullus, and Ovid, as well as magical traditions in Greece, Rome, and the Near East. She also researches Classical Reception Studies, with a regular focus on Australia. In addition to ancient world studies, Marguerite is interested in sexual histories in modernity as well as magic in the west more broadly, especially the practices and art of Australian witch, Rosaleen Norton. She is Honorary Professor of Classics and Ancient History at The University of Queensland, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She lives in Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesvos.

Attendees will receive a recording of each lecture valid for 4 weeks.

The Prophecy of Rope and Silver: The Unique History and Symbolism of Tibetan Rope Divination – Alexander K. Smith – Zoom

Lecture  3 – The Prophecy of Rope and Silver: The Unique History and Symbolism of Tibetan Rope Divination

Divination in Tibetan societies employs a wide range of divination practices, from state oracles and astrological calculations to everyday techniques involving dice and rosaries. This lecture explores one such practice: a rare form of rope divination known as ju thig. After examining the ritual procedures and social contexts surrounding Tibetan rope divination, I consider the roles played by diviners within their communities and the kinds of questions brought before them. Finally, I situate ju thig within the broader history and mythology of Tibetan divination, highlighting its complex synthesis of Tibetan, Central Asian, Indian, and Chinese influences.

Bio:

Dr. Alexander K. Smith is a Tibetologist, ethnographer, and filmmaker. He currently serves as the creative director of Ligature Historical, a Frankfurt-based animation studio specializing in historical and cultural documentaries. He holds a PhD in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies from the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE–PSL, Paris) and an MA in Tibetan Studies from the University of Oxford. His research focuses on Tibetan divination, ritual practice, and social history, drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Tibetan communities in North India. His scholarly publication include Divination in Exile: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Ritual Prognostication in the Tibetan Bon Tradition, published by Brill in 2021.

Caption: Jamgön Ju Mipham Gyatsho (Ju Mipham, 1846–1912), Zhang zhung ju thig. Monastic Library, sMan-ri Monastery, Dolaji, Himachal Pradesh. Photo by Dr. Alexander K. Smith (2014).

Divining the Past, Present, and Future: Oracles, Series 2 – Four Lectures

Join us for Series Two as we journey once again into the histories and mysteries of divination. Delivered by leading scholars in the field

Curated & Hosted by

Marguerite Johnson is a cultural historian of the ancient Mediterranean, specialising in sexuality and gender, particularly in the poetry of Sappho, Catullus, and Ovid, as well as magical traditions in Greece, Rome, and the Near East. She also researches Classical Reception Studies, with a regular focus on Australia. In addition to ancient world studies, Marguerite is interested in sexual histories in modernity as well as magic in the west more broadly, especially the practices and art of Australian witch, Rosaleen Norton. She is Honorary Professor of Classics and Ancient History at The University of Queensland, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She lives in Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesvos.

Attendees will receive a recording of each lecture valid for 4 weeks.

 

 

Astrology in Renaissance – Michelle Pfeffer – Zoom

Lecture  1 – Astrology in Renaissance

In this talk we return to a period in European history when astrology was considered a science. For centuries astrologers were learned mathematicians with respected positions in universities and governments. Astrology was even taught at Oxford! Yet by the seventeenth century, astrology was fast losing its place in mainstream science. This talk explores contests over astrology’s legitimacy that were taking place at the same time as astrology was thriving in the public sphere more than ever before.

Bio:

Michelle Pfeffer is a historian of science and religion at the University of Oxford. Her latest book, Inventing Immortality (2026), was about the history of the soul, and she is now writing a new book about how astrology stopped being considered a science. With David Zeitlyn she curated an exhibition at the Bodleian Library, ‘Oracles Omens Answers’ (Dec 2024-April 2025), and co-edited the related book, Divination, Oracles, and Omens, published by Bodleian Library Press.

Caption: Horoscope diagram from BL Royal Manuscript Collection. Public Domain.

Divining the Past, Present, and Future: Oracles, Series 2 – Four Lectures

Join us for Series Two as we journey once again into the histories and mysteries of divination. Delivered by leading scholars in the field

Curated & Hosted by

Marguerite Johnson is a cultural historian of the ancient Mediterranean, specialising in sexuality and gender, particularly in the poetry of Sappho, Catullus, and Ovid, as well as magical traditions in Greece, Rome, and the Near East. She also researches Classical Reception Studies, with a regular focus on Australia. In addition to ancient world studies, Marguerite is interested in sexual histories in modernity as well as magic in the west more broadly, especially the practices and art of Australian witch, Rosaleen Norton. She is Honorary Professor of Classics and Ancient History at The University of Queensland, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She lives in Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesvos.

Attendees will receive a recording of each lecture valid for 4 weeks.