Viva Brighton Issue #45 November 2016

WITCHCRAFT
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Witchfest
‘Everything from Harry Potter to Aleister Crowley’
As Witchfest prepares to make
its debut here, organiser Merlyn
Hern talks to Viva about spells,
shamanism and socialising.
A modern witch is someone
who is in tune with nature,
believes in the possibility of
both a god and a goddess
and, obviously, believes in the
power of magic. Witches do
cast spells, but most witches
voluntarily follow the Wiccan
Rede, a code that says you can
do whatever you like providing
you don’t harm anything.
Generally spells relate to health problems, lack
of money - the small things. It’s about need rather
than greed. Witches sometimes do work together
to influence much larger events though. There’s a
story that we worked to prevent Hitler invading the
UK back in the Second World War. I wasn’t around
then and can’t verify the story, but certainly it’s
widely believed in witchcraft circles.
I started my path in witchcraft in Brighton.
My original coven was in Kemptown. Historically
the city has always had strong connections with
witchcraft, most famously [notorious occultist]
Aleister Crowley, and of course Doreen Valiente
[the Brighton woman described as ‘the mother of
modern witchcraft’]. Activity had been quiet for
a few years, but it’s starting to kick off again here,
with various local groups starting up. Unfortunately,
I can’t tell you about them.
The bad stuff you hear about witches is largely
fiction. Wiccans are the sort of people who support
Greenpeace, anti-fracking campaigns and animal
welfare charities.
There’s nothing in the world quite like Witchfest.
It’s a mixture of education - we get really good
quality talks and workshops; entertainment - live
bands, dancers and DJs; and a strong social aspect,
where we actively encourage
people to talk to each other.
We describe the event as
‘everything from Harry Potter
to Aleister Crowley’. At
one end you have wand-making
workshops, and at the other
you have talks on shamanism,
Western magical traditions and
Chaos Magic.
We usually attract around
3,000 people, predominantly
from the UK but also from
Australia, New Zealand, South
America, South Africa, Canada and the USA.
This is our first year in Brighton. We were in
Croydon for 15 years, but then the venue we used
shut down and the Doreen Valiente Foundation
recommended we try the Brighton Centre instead.
Brighton City Council is very sympathetic to our
cause, which saved us the usual uphill struggle of
having to explain that no, we’re not Satanists.
Anyone with an open mind is welcome to attend
Witchfest, and people do. Some of our staff are
not in any way Wiccan, pagan or anything like that
- some are even Christian.
Witches are still one of the most persecuted
groups on the planet. A lot of people don’t know
what we actually do and they don’t care - they just
don’t like us. It has got better - there are legal protections
now, especially in the workplace - but you
do get fanatics, so we have to be careful.
I think it’s Brighton itself that attracts witches.
It’s a very tolerant city. A lot of people know it as the
gay capital of the UK; in most towns that couldn’t
and wouldn’t have happened. But Brighton is quite
relaxed and open-minded - which we witches also
like! It’s good to feel welcome. To an extent we’re
part of Brighton’s history.
As told to Nione Meakin
Brighton Centre, 25th & 26th. witchfest.net
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