Queer Covens

A shared resource for London based witches to find their Queer Covens!

[queercovens]

[queercovens]

I'm interested in mapping temporary, outdoor queer spaces. How do queer people take up space in London? How is this fluid and wide spread? For so long, queer people have relied on nightlife venues to be able to exist and love safely. However, as queerness has become far more accepted and celebrated, members of the LGBTQ+ community can take up more space, beyond the dance floor. This also allows for queer community that can celebrate nature and our urban cityscape. These locations are just a few of the many destinations of LGBTQ+ meet ups that I found on social media. Would a more permanent intervention in one of these places serve the queer community positively? 

[queercovens]

Researching witches and covens; their links to queerness and sex!

[queercovens]

[queercovens]

Hampstead Ponds are very special to me. I grew up coming here with my mum. She would tell me stories about my grandma coming here when she'd just moved to London from Demark in the 60s. I trapsed here on many sweltering summer days throughout my teens with my best friends. And I now continue coming here, mostly on the grey days, mostly on my own. Everyone that comes here knows it's special. Maybe just because this muddy duck pond is the best we can hope for in the way of swimming spots as Londoners. Or maybe there truly is a tangible low level buzz of energy that draws people in. If we all believe something to be true, then it is, right?   The space is not without its criticisms, with a loud minority of people aiming to exclude trans women from enjoying this peaceful and joyful place. So far they have, thank goddess, been unsuccessful in their plight to exclude, bar and barricade out members of the ponds community. Creating these harmful divisions would, of course, strip the beauty from the ponds, the low level buzz that keeps us all coming back, to be part of something, to be accepted and celebrated.  

[queercovens]

[queercovens]

[queercovens]

[queercovens]

A pilgrimige to Derek Jarman's Prospect Cottage!

[queercovens]

The Sage Archetype represents an internal intuition and confident wisdom in one's self. It prioritizes the pursuit of knowledge of external and internal worlds. However, when drawn as a reversed card, it reflects the loss or untrust of one's own intuition. It also suggests that one is looking for validation from others through the perception of their intelligence.  

The 'third eye' is considered in a lot of religions to symbolise mystical intuition and insights. This bears resemblance to The Sage Architype in terms of the significance they place on external and internal wisdom. I have depicted a reflection of the figure to symbolise that there two sides of this. Just like the tarot card, these qualities can be both positive and negative. Additionally, rather than a 'third' eye, there are many eyes. This symbolises that society may have traditionally perceived women that had 'mystic intuition' as knowing too much or unnatural in their wisdom.  

[queercovens]