The Welsh Occult Conference 2025

Today and for the next few days I will be releasing a series of blog posts inspired by my adventures at the Welsh Occult Conference, held on Saturday 17th May 2025 at Gregynog Hall, in Powys, Wales – just over the border from Shropshire.

In brief: I enjoyed it immensely, so much so that I would want to return in future, even if I am not one of the speakers as I was this year.

All credit must go to the organisers, Gary St Michael Nottingham and Leslie Jackson, whom both my fiancée and I would like to thank not just for inviting me to take part, but for their generosity and hospitality generally.

There were over a hundred people there, some from as far away as Canada and Malta. One lady even came up to me and told me she had come to the conference purely to hear me speak!

Gary himself talked about Israel Regardie and Alchemy, illustrating the kind of thing up to which Regardie would have got with examples from his own Alchemical practice.

Meanwhile, I spoke about Abramelin: whilst after lunch, Carrie Kirkpatrick spoke about her forthcoming film “World War Witches”; Elaine Bailey talked about Anna Bonus Kingsford; Anne Turner talked about her parents Robert and Patricia Turner, leading members of the Order of the Cubic Stone; and Geraldine Beskin talked about Annie Horniman.

Stephen Skinner in the end did not attend in person, but recorded a talk which was played to the conference. This really annoyed me, as I had brought all my Stephen Skinner books with me in the hope he would autograph them – only to get the message that he had taken ill after we had set out for Wales!

As well as friends whom I already knew well, I was fortunate to meet a number of Facebook Friends for the first time! As well as many others whom I rarely get to see in the flesh.

Finally I would like to thank my fiancée as well – especially as she did all the driving this weekend. I did offer, but for some reason she thought it would be safer if she was behind the wheel instead of me.