04 Jun Ùna Maria Blyth
Ùna Maria Blyth
LECTURE
Muses No More: Portraits of Occult Women
Ùna Maria Blyth will read from her landmark book “Muses No More: Portraits of Occult Women” (Hexen Press, 2024). Relax, sit back and listen to a seasoned storyteller weave her magic!
Muses No More: Portraits of Occult Women is a meandering ghost train through the lives, work, politics and beliefs of both familiar and lesser-known female occultists from the distant past to the 21st century. From the freedom fighting New Orleans Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau to the witch-next-door personality of Sybil Leek, these biographical portraits bring light to women often sidelined in occult spaces and memory in favour of the (white, male) heavyweights such as Arthur E. Waite, Aleister Crowley and Gerald Gardner.
Readers will discover that there was much more to Pamela Colman Smith’s magical undertakings than her illustrations for the Rider Waite Smith tarot deck, and that Doreen Valiente, whilst valiantly fighting for the modernisation of Wicca, was an ardent follower of televised football.
Filled with fascinating historical trivia, there are deeper narratives at play in this compendium too – the struggle for women’s liberation, pleas for modernisation of religious movements, the reign of the patriarchy in many magical traditions, and the fight for civil rights.
Thoroughly well-researched and written with the flair of an impassioned queer, feminist occultist, Muses No More tells the centuries-spanning stories of women who threw off their aprons in favour of the search for greater esoteric knowledge.
The book concludes with tried and tested personal practices and rituals, respectfully designed in honour of these wondrous women.
Bio
Ùna Maria Blyth (she/they) is a queer, neurodivergent writer and practitioner of peatbog folk magic living in the Shetland Isles, a remote archipelago located between Scotland & 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).
Ùna’s work is interested in queer, feminist explorations of the occult, as well as the fine line between magic and madness.
