Cultivate Magic

Weird Wessex 2026 is a gathering for everyone fascinated by the mysterious, the magical and uncanny, the overlooked stories woven into places and lives. This year’s theme is “A Wessex State of Mind,” how certain landscapes, legends, histories and experiences shape the way we see the world.

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Speakers already lined up :

• 'Finding the Goddess in the Wessex Landscape' Caroline Wise will introduce the  ancient female deities of Wiltshire, Berkshire and Somerset, like Epona who arrived with the Legions, and tracing those who were here before, following  Caroline's discoveries in the ancient astrological sign of Virgo linking white horses on land and in the stars above

• Michelle Eve host of 'Mystical Times' podcast will be speaking about  Black Dogs and Alien Big Cats. Sharing stories of the mysterious anomalous animals roaming the British countryside of Weird Wessex - tell us your own spooky encounter tale!

• 'Bastards, Baby-Farmers and the Near-Death of a Rural Idyll'  John Terry tells how the dark side of industrialisation in Berkshire led to psychic disruption, an armed siege, horrible consequences for families - and a new hope

• Historian Melissa Seims "A Very British Witchcraft Drama: Witchcraft & Weirdness in 1950s-60s Surrey' : The sorry tale of two Surrey men, one  claiming that his strange carved wooden effigy was over 2000 years old, an ancient effigy of Atho - the Horned God of Witchcraft. The other man ran a herbal beauty balms business. How did their friendship end up in trespass, covert surveillance, newspaper expose’s and ultimately a High Court Case in London? Melissa tells us the bonkers and very weird story of the Coven of Atho at a time when British Witchcraft was very much on the rise…

• 'From Warminster to Westminster', Dr. Sue Terry will be delving into the British UFO phenomenon in its Wessex heartland in the  1960s -1980s, uncovering relationships between lights in the sky, weird encounters and ancient sites in Wiltshire, mysterious 'Men in Black' and the House of Lords. 60 years of UFOs later, what's changed, what do we know now and what's next?

• A screening of  'World War Witches',  a new dramatised documentary from Carrie Kirkpatrick, an independent filmmaker and producer,  telling the amazing true story of how a secret society of witches took on the Nazis in World War Two to help Churchill and the Allies win the war through a Magical Battle of Britain over the skies of Southern England - and in the Otherworld.

• More speakers to be announced!

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But we'd like to hear from you too!

If you've got a story to tell that evokes the spirit of Weird Wessex, come and tell us in October. ​

See below for how to apply - we look forward to hearing from you.

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