Whether one is self-taught or belonging to established temples and traditions, acknowledging one's influences and inspirations can help in particularizing the complex rhizome of lineages, belief systems and practices someone find themselves entangled into within the occult sphere - roots, branches, stems, saplings, buds, flowers and berries, twigs and seeds that constitute the hedge.

To foster honesty, I wish to provide this clarity on my own embroilments, holding space for others with whom I recognize a manner of kinship and fealty, but also others who challenge me, and others again who have and continue to help me learn, grow and change, better enhancing my own work.

Here be friends, peers, colleagues, mentors, and superiors aplenty.

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When it concerns fairy doctoring, my tradition is a quiet one - a closed Irish family lineage in which I was welcomed back in 2017, recognized as a student with the potential to learn. My mentor, who does not have an online presence, taught me what they knew just as it was handed over to them from their own elders. We trace our abilities back to the gods and ungods whom we serve and are pacted to. They are our primary teachers - where it is never about the individual, but the collective.

Contemporary practitioners walking a similar road are few and far between, for it is never a good sign when many of us are found in the same place. Some of those I look up to fondly include the likes of author Morgan Daimler, and faery intercessor and prodigious pellar, Lailoken. I would also recommend the work and research on Fairy of Phro Nesis.

It is worth mentioning that I do not draw inspiration or employ methodology; nor in fact condone, use, recommend or endorse, such techniques and approaches as are described in the grimoire tradition when it comes to interacting with the Pale Ones.

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My particular strand of magical craft is now primarily informed by many years of personal gnosis and acute study. As a folk practitioner, a traditional witch and animist, the wellspring of my inspiration is located in primary sources and oral bouts of folklore, myth, stories, tales, and songs. I am not, however, typically versed in high magic, and being no ceremonialist, I do not cultivate a particular interest for classical grimoires. But to satiate my curiosity in these matters, I like to regularly acquaint myself with the works of Digital Ambler and With Cunning & Command.

I find kinship, in my witch and cunning craft, with the wise woman, the poet and the heretic, and solace in the countryside, water edges and burial mounds. Whilst I can understand the language of the priest and the bird, I am also a woman fond of books; as my Library would demonstrate.

Contemporary practitioners who informed my path where it stands now include Sarah Ann Lawless, Lyra Ceoltóir, Nuno, Gemma Gary, Lee Morgan, Robert J. Horne, Daniel Schulke, Levannah Morgan, Josephine McCarthy, Shani Oates, and Nigel Pearson. I am infinitely grateful to Dr Alexander Cummins for his extensive collection of courses and workshops, and those on British folk magic in particular. Predecessors who helped shape my understanding of the craft also comprise Agrippa, Andrew Chumbley, Doreen Valiente, Gerald Gardner, Patricia Crowther, and Michael Howard.

Whilst I approached covens and communities in the past, I have found that, for better or worse, I seem to fare better on my own.

Sabbatic Witchcraft has always been a huge inspiration for me since I was introduced to the Viridarium Umbris grimoire, and I self-initiated into the system through the Dragon Book of Essex in the summer of 2021. My research within this current is still budding, but very much ongoing.

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My fascination for astrology is lifelong, but my revival of interest has been particularly kindled by the incredible workshops, talks and keynotes from Kaitlin & Austin Coppock, Sasha Ravitch, and Amaya Rourke - all individuals with truly pioneering work. They are the practitioners I feel most indebted to when it comes to bridging animism and astrology, in particular, and the ones who taught me astrolatry. Other respected practitioners include the likes of Ivy Senna, Azur, and Diana Rose Harper. Teachers I like to refer back to include Bernadette Brady, Chris Brennan, and Christopher Warnock.

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Whilst I do incorporate magical herbalism in my work, most of my knowledge is currently self-taught, supplemented by courses and books where applicable. I am indebted to Daniel Schulke, Corinne Boyer, Maeg Kane, Nicholas Culpeper, Mary Beith, Scott Cunningham, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Gina McGarry for my current understanding of this sacred medicine. I do have at heart to familiarize myself with my local flora and fauna, consulting an abundance of foraging and larking guides, almanacs, and gardening calendars.

In the upcoming years, I would like to dedicate myself more to the path of radical and holistic herbalism, and will start my journey with Rowan+Sage and Commonwealth Herbalism.

My favourited apothecary is Atephra Botanica, and I have been also loving the works of Eryn (Les Herbes d’Avalon).

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Where it pertains to the complex devotional allegiances I cultivate, much of it is new to me still, and so it is hard to pinpoint a definite religious lineage.

I do, however, feel grateful to Segomâros Widugeni as well as the traditions of Tairis and Gaol Naofa, Toutâ Galation, the Followers of the Wheel, Morpheus Ravenna and Senobessus Bolgon. Mention must also be made of authors Mircea Eliade, James George Frazer, Éva Pócs, Lady Jane Wilde, Marissa Hegarty, and Mark Williams, as well as of the works of Ceisiwr Serith, Morgan Daimler, Jan Fries, John Beckett, and Mallorie Vaudoise.

The Carmina Gadelica, by Alexander Carmichael, is (despite its flaws) the book I consider to be my Bible, and the sacred lithurgical text that has been with me the longest.

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As for my personal philosophies and sensibilities as well as my artistic and aesthetic education, together with my academical background, this list would not be complete without singling out the profound impact the works of Mary Douglas, Jeanne Favret-Saada, Julia Kristeva, Roland Barthes, Helene Cixsous, Judith Butler, Bram Dijkstra, Philip Jullian, Simone de Beauvoir, Bruno Bettelheim, Pierre Bourdieu, Jacques Derrida, Andrea Dworkin, Michel Foucault, Thomas Laqueur, Monique Wittig, George Bataille, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Pascal Quignard, Gilles Deleuze, Rebecca Solnit, and Angela Carter had on me; in shaping the way I think and providing necessary tools and nourishment both to my psyche and my magic.