The Life and Stories of H.C. Andersen
Long before Disney and Pixar, there was Hans Christian Andersen—a poor shoemaker’s son from Odense whose imagination would enchant the world. In this lecture, we journey through the extraordinary life of Denmark’s most celebrated storyteller, from his humble beginnings and restless travels across Europe to his friendships with royalty, artists, and literary greats.
We will uncover the inspiration behind timeless tales like The Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen, and The Ugly Duckling, exploring how Andersen’s own triumphs, heartbreaks, and unrequited loves found their way into his fables. Alongside his fairy tales, we will meet the man himself—eccentric, romantic, and endlessly curious—through his diaries, letters, and the anecdotes of those who knew him.
Blending biography, history, and literary magic, this talk invites you to step into a 19th-century world of candlelit parlours, grand salons, and windswept northern shores, where every life holds the seed of a fairy tale—if only we learn how to tell it.
Speaker Bio
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, Lena’s New Book – Mythical Creatures in Scandinavian Folklore is now available on Amazon
Speaker Bio:
Cat Irving has been the Human Remains Conservator for Surgeons’ Hall since 2015 and has been caring for anatomical and pathological museum collections for over twenty years. After a degree in Anatomical Science she began removing brains and sewing up bodies at the Edinburgh City Mortuary. Following training in the care of wet tissue collections at the Royal College of Surgeons of England she worked with the preparations of William Hunter at the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University, where she is now Consultant Human Remains Conservator. Cat is a licensed anatomist, and gives regular talks on anatomy and medical history. She recently carried out conservation work on the skeleton of serial killer William Burke
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
Lecture Two – Pox and Prejudice: The Story of Herpes Through the Ages
From the physicians of ancient Greece to the virologists of the 21st century, herpes has fascinated, frustrated, and stigmatised in equal measure. In this second lecture, we unravel the complex story of the herpes simplex viruses—agents of an infection so old that it is woven into the DNA of human civilisation itself. We will examine its earliest written descriptions by Hippocrates, its curious role in Renaissance court scandals, the myths and moral panics it sparked in the 20th century, and the scientific breakthroughs that reshaped both treatment and public perception.
Through an interdisciplinary lens—combining medical history, epidemiology, and cultural analysis—we will explore how herpes has been portrayed in art, law, literature, and the media, and why its social stigma endures despite its ubiquity. This is the story of a virus that is both commonplace and culturally charged, told with the precision of history and the intrigue of human drama.
Speaker Bio
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, Lena’s New Book – Mythical Creatures in Scandinavian Folklore is now available on Amazon
Speaker Bio:
Cat Irving has been the Human Remains Conservator for Surgeons’ Hall since 2015 and has been caring for anatomical and pathological museum collections for over twenty years. After a degree in Anatomical Science she began removing brains and sewing up bodies at the Edinburgh City Mortuary. Following training in the care of wet tissue collections at the Royal College of Surgeons of England she worked with the preparations of William Hunter at the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University, where she is now Consultant Human Remains Conservator. Cat is a licensed anatomist, and gives regular talks on anatomy and medical history. She recently carried out conservation work on the skeleton of serial killer William Burke
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
Paranormal Ethnographies of Ketamine
Over the past six years, this ongoing investigation into the paranormal dimensions of psychoactive experiences has continued to identify Ketamine journeys as uniquely significant. Ketamine remains a profoundly paradoxical substance at once celestial and infernal. Its remarkable psychedelic capacities intertwined with its well-documented potential for dependence. Nonetheless, accounts of deep Ketamine “breakthroughs” stand out as particularly compelling for the study of anomalous and paranormal phenomena. The substance seems to grant access to liminal territories where conventional understandings of reality and unreality, as well as time and space, can be dismantled and reconfigured in unexpected ways.
This lecture revisits and expands upon the “magical” qualities attributed to Ketamine, emphasizing its capacity to open hyperdimensional experiential spaces that, although sharing affinities with other psychedelics, remain strikingly distinct. Over the years, Ketamine has gained increasing prominence within an underground psychonautic occulture, a community drawn to the esoteric and metaphysical potentials of altered states, as well as within the broader field of contemporary psychedelia.
The ethnographic material presented reflects an evolving archive: a continually expanding collection of interviews, uncanny experiences, and reports of alternate or “alter(n)ate” realities shared by adventurous psychonauts across diverse sets and settings. Together, these accounts trace a living, open-ended inquiry into the ways Ketamine continues to shape, distort, and illuminate the boundaries of human perception.
Speaker Bio
Giorgia Gaia is an independent researcher, with MA degrees in Cultural and Social Anthropology and in History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam. Since her early twenties she has been involved in the underground scene of rave culture, as a DJ and cultural producer. Her academic research has focused on countercultures, esoteric communities, occultism and psychonautic. Being herself continuously involved in the creation of alter(n)ate realities and magickal experimentations, since 2013 she is co-curator of Ozora Festival’s cultural area. In 2018 she founded Occulture Conference, a Berlin based festival exploring occultism and esoteric arts.
https://occultureconference.com
Curated and hosted by
Maya Bracknell Watson is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, retired cult leader and psychedelic researcher.
Her background is in psychedelic parapsychology research with Greenwich University, specialising in exceptional human experience and entity encounters on psychedelics, and as an artist. She has studied shamanism for 10 years, working closely with Amerindian indigenous shamanic cultures of Mexico and Peru and western neoshamanic groups, focusing on the introduction and integration of indiginous and animistic knowledge and perspectives to westerners and western ontologies.
She publicly lectures on the subjects of psychedelics and shamanism, and produces art on the subjects informed by her research and experience, including films, performances, writing and immersive worlds. She has performed and exhibited at the Tate Britain and Breaking Convention and is the creator and host of Psychedelicacies, an online lecture series.
Walking between the worlds of art, psychedelic science and shamanism she works to bridge them and uses each as investigatory tools to inform and articulate each other.
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
Extraterrestrials, Evolution and AI: The Future of Intelligence
“From Non-human Intelligence (NHI) to Transhuman Intelligence (THI): The Extratempestrial Hypothesis, Evolutionary Psychology, and AI Development
This talk explores the idea that the so-called “aliens” people encounter—especially the classic Greys—might not be extraterrestrial at all, but humans from the future. Anthropologist Michael Masters suggests that if we evolved far enough—larger heads and eyes, smaller bodies—we might look just like them. He argues they could be time-traveling scientists, studying us like we would study ancient human ancestors.
But evolution today isn’t just biological. As we merge with technology—AI, brain-computer interfaces, and more—our future selves may become something entirely new: transhuman. These beings might be part-human, part-machine, and their advanced technologies could even blur the lines between life and death, time and timelessness.
This possibility raises deep questions about consciousness, identity, and why so many of these encounters feel emotionally overwhelming or reality-shattering—what’s sometimes called “ontological shock.” If these entities are us, just much further along, what are they trying to tell us—and are we ready to listen?”
Speaker Bio
Dr. Pascal Michael BSc, MSc (UCL), PhD completed his doctorate in Psychology at the University of Greenwich in 2023 on a comparative analysis of the neurophenomenology of both DMT (& analogous) experiences and the near-death experience (NDE). He has been a lecturer (PT) there since, teaching and researching the phenomenology, psychology & neuroscience of psychedelics, NDEs, alien abduction/UFOlogy, related ‘exceptional human experiences’, and the intersections therein. He was program lead of the professional certificate in Psychedelics, ASCs and Transpersonal Psychology, and is currently a PhD & MSc supervisor, at the Alef Trust.Pascal has presented at many conferences, including the largest European conference on psychedelics, Breaking Conventions, and been invited to give several talks, such as for the privately held Tyringham Initiative, or give keynotes such as for the Institute of Psychedelic Therapy. His invited public talks and interviews number in the 30s. He has published many articles and chapters, including some of the most read articles in Frontiers in Psychology, which have been featured in several major news outlets including The Conversation. He is on the board of advisors for Noonautics and The Tyringham Initiative. He was PA to the chair of the Parapsychological Association, and was the 2020 recipient of the Schmeidler Outstanding Student award. Most lately, he was named one of the top 25 thinkers in psychedelic research.
Curated and hosted by
Maya Bracknell Watson is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, retired cult leader and psychedelic researcher.
Her background is in psychedelic parapsychology research with Greenwich University, specialising in exceptional human experience and entity encounters on psychedelics, and as an artist. She has studied shamanism for 10 years, working closely with Amerindian indigenous shamanic cultures of Mexico and Peru and western neoshamanic groups, focusing on the introduction and integration of indigenous and animistic knowledge and perspectives to westerners and western ontologies.
She publicly lectures on the subjects of psychedelics and shamanism, and produces art on the subjects informed by her research and experience, including films, performances, writing and immersive worlds. She has performed and exhibited at the Tate Britain and Breaking Convention and is the creator and host of Psychedelicacies, an online lecture series.
Walking between the worlds of art, psychedelic science and shamanism she works to bridge them and uses each as investigatory tools to inform and articulate each other.
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
Please note this is NOT a ZOOM event but an in person workshop at our museum – tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Absinthe
The Last Tuesday Society is delighted to invite Lucya Starza to host an in-person scrying workshop at our most curious venue.
In this live workshop, Lucya Starza teaches the art of scrying: the ancient visionary practice of gazing on water surfaces, mirrors, flames and crystal balls. It can be used for personal guidance, inspiration, far-seeing, fortune-telling and even prophecy. This two-hour hands-on class covers the history, theory and techniques of scrying with various tools and devices, and includes a practical session of water divination. All materials are provided, plus there’s a handout to take home.
About Lucya Starza
Lucya Starza is an eclectic witch living in London, England. As well as being a Wiccan and having a long-standing interest in traditional witchcraft, she grew up in a family where folk magic practices were part of everyday life. She writes A Bad Witch’s Blog at www.badwitch.co.uk and is the author of Pagan Portals – Scrying as well as other books published by Moon Books on candle magic, poppets, guided visualisations and the Wheel of the Year.
Devil’s Botany is London’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour & Cocktail Bar.
Please note this is NOT a ZOOM event but an in person workshop at our museum – tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Absinthe
The Last Tuesday Society is delighted to invite Lucya Starza to host an in-person scrying workshop at our most curious venue.
In this live workshop, Lucya Starza teaches the art of scrying: the ancient visionary practice of gazing on water surfaces, mirrors, flames and crystal balls. It can be used for personal guidance, inspiration, far-seeing, fortune-telling and even prophecy. This two-hour hands-on class covers the history, theory and techniques of scrying with various tools and devices, and includes a practical session of water divination. All materials are provided, plus there’s a handout to take home.
About Lucya Starza
Lucya Starza is an eclectic witch living in London, England. As well as being a Wiccan and having a long-standing interest in traditional witchcraft, she grew up in a family where folk magic practices were part of everyday life. She writes A Bad Witch’s Blog at www.badwitch.co.uk and is the author of Pagan Portals – Scrying as well as other books published by Moon Books on candle magic, poppets, guided visualisations and the Wheel of the Year.
Devil’s Botany is London’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour & Cocktail Bar.
Harness the magical powers of nature in your very own botanical cocktail bitters making workshop. Whether it is love, luck, or good fortune, there is an herb or spice that’s been known to conceal the hidden virtues you’re after.
Join co-Founder of Devil’s Botany & Director of The Last Tuesday Society, Allison Crawbuck, for a magically-charged cocktail bitters-making workshop exploring the principles of magical botany and herbal astrology.
Guests will begin the workshop with a Devil’s Botany London Absinthe cocktail on arrival (non-alcoholic substitutes are available). We will focus on the botanicals incorporated in the distillation process of absinthe and explore their different uses in natural magic, herbal astrology and cocktail making.
Finally, guests will be invited to create their own cocktail bitters based on their chosen natural flavours and supernatural powers. Your finished botanical bitters is the perfect bespoke gift or addition your home bar magically-charged twist to any cocktail.
Tickets include a welcome cocktail as well as admission to The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. All materials will be provided for the cocktail bitters making-workshop, including a 75ml bottle of neutral spirit, a selection of botanicals and a magical botany menu to use as a tool to navigate their magickal powers.
Cocktails and a witchy workshop — the perfect experience to book for hen-dos, birthdays, team bonding or your next celebration. £25 per person / £300 minimum.
Event suitable for over 18s only.
Email [email protected] to enquire.
About the Host
Allison Crawbuck and Rhys Everett have always shared a passion for unearthing curious tales and rendering them in liquid form. The duo are co-owners of The Last Tuesday Society’s cocktail bar in East London, transforming Hackney’s best-kept secret into the city’s favourite Absinthe Parlour. In 2019, it was voted the Best Bar in London at the 7th annual Design My Night Awards by a public vote of over 180,000 Londoners, and in 2020, their absinthe menu was shortlisted for Imbibe’s Specialist List of the Year.
In January 2021, Allison Crawbuck and Rhys Everett launched the UK’s first Absinthe distillery: Devil’s Botany located in the city’s east end.
They are also authors of Spirits of the Otherworld: A Grimoire of Occult Cocktails & Drinking Rituals, published by Prestel/RandomHouse (Sep 2021 | ISBN 9783791387147).
Refund Policy: Refunds for in-person events are only possible up to 14 days prior to the event date.
Caterwauling and Demon Raising: The Ancient Rite of the Taghairm?
The taghairm refers to an ‘ancient’ Scottish rite of divination or prophecy used, presumably only resorted to in extremis, as a practice aimed at gaining knowledge or to foretell future events. Three methods of the taghairm are identified as follows: water-, hide- and cat-summons. Occasionally, the first two methods are found in combination but for the sake of clarity these will be classed separately before considering the last-mentioned method involving cat sacrifice. All three methods are mentioned by Martin Martin (c. 1668–1718), a native Hebridean from the Isle of Skye, whose A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland, circa 1695 (1703), provides some of the earliest ethnographical descriptions, and much else besides, of supernatural beliefs, customs, traditions, and ways of life then current in Gaelic Scotland. The purpose of this presentation is to explore the taghairm traditions in their cultural context and, more specifically, to analyse the most bizarre taghairm rite involving cat sacrifice, or feline immolation, rendered by William Mackay taghairm nan cat [summons of cats]. Before discussing the taghairm of cats in greater detail, the other two methods of the taghairm will be analysed and discussed in the light of various antiquarian notices, especially accounts given in both Irish and Welsh traditions as well as those identified in classical sources. In light of this discussion, I hope then to offer some tentative conclusions regarding the origins and cultural development of taghairm nan cat.
Bio
Andrew Wiseman is a cultural historian, specialising in the Scottish Highlands from the late medieval to the modern period, who has developed a keen interest in Scottish Gaelic intangible culture. He is currently editing a number of works and has authored around twenty chapters and articles as well as numerous blogs and mainstream publications. As editor of the forthcoming titles Your Work Will Remain: Diaries of Calum I. Maclean (1951–1954), From Lochaber, Badenoch, Morar, Arisaig, Moidart, Easter Ross and Sutherland and The Highlands and Selected Writings of Calum I. Maclean, a detailed and engaging account of Calum Maclean’s fieldwork diaries as well as his academic and mainstream publications will offer an opportunity to reassess the legacy of one of Scotland’s most important twentieth-century ethnologists and folklorists.
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.
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
Spectral Embodiments: Manifesting and Visualising the Ghost Child
This talk examines the transformation of the ghost-child figure from oral folklore and legends to their literary incarnations in Anglophone cultures of the long nineteenth century. They are mostly found as a small but concerted sub-genre of the emerging literary Ghost Story of this period, but also appear sporadically in elegies and in images from spectral photography to illustration. We will see how the ghost child of this period occupied a liminal space not only between life and afterlife, but between puritanical and liberal forms of Christianity, between images of innocence and sin, between pity and terror, between oral tradition and textual manifestation, and between the ethereal and the corporeal. (Please note that there may be a few images of real (historical) child death shown).
Bio
Dr Jen Baker is an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick, UK. Her research interests are childhood, death studies, the Gothic, short form and illustration from the late c18th to the present on which she has published a range of articles and chapters and is currently working on her monograph Spectral Embodiments: Anxious Manifestations of Child Death in the long c19th. She is compiler and editor of Minor Hauntings: Chilling Tales of Spectral Youth (2021) for the British Library’s Tales of the Weird series.
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.
Caption: Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman, “The Lost Ghost”, Everybody’s Magazine, May 1903.
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
