I’m delighted to confirm that I will be speaking and vending at the Magickal Women Conference in Birmingham on 14th June! See the conference website for details and tickets.
My lecture abstract:
Chthonic brides and silken secrets
Greek folk bridal embroidery and crafted accessories hide a rich seam of history, magic, and ritual in their silken threads.
The exclusive province of generations of women, handed down through oral tradition in a cultural matrix drawing on centuries of myth, its symbols reveal the chthonic nature of the bride, the dangers she faces in the liminality as she transitions from girl to woman, the ritual sacrifice she endured, and the powerful protectors invoked to walk beside her. They also demonstrate the crucial importance of collective, ritualised transitions in Greek culture.
Greek folklore and its living traditions of folk magic are poorly explored in the anglophone literature, yet they are the most valuable sources for understanding the transmission of myth and magic from antiquity, embedded within syncretic folk Orthodoxy akin to Vodou or Candomble.
Starting with these threads of bridal embroidery, this talk honours the women of the past whose lives were ritualised through these life transitions, and explores their power, their secrets, and the magical practices embedded in the material artefacts of women’s lives, past and present.
Check out my article series on the topic over at my Substack!
