Ashley Mortimer

The Doreen Valiente Foundation and more TWPT talks to Ashley Mortimer

In March 2011 Nottingham's Ashley Mortimer became one of five trustees of the Doreen Valiente Foundation which oversees the legacy of magical artefacts, writings, documents and copyrights that belonged to Doreen Valiente. Ashley is also a director of The Centre For Pagan Studies, a firekeeper for WaNaNeeChe's Human Circle Of Life and a prominent member of Nottingham Pagan Network, Pagan Pride and Nottingham Empyrean as well as a frequent representative of the Pagan Federation. 

Ashley is an occasional writer, even more occasional musician and a prolific contributor to many different Pagan events and interests in and out of the East Midlands region. He speaks about the origins of Paganism, the history of Wicca/Witchcraft and leads ceremony and ritual with an ecclectic and pragmatic approach to spirituality underpinned with warm humour.

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M. Macha Nightmare

Cherry Hill Seminary TWPT talks to M. Macha Nightmare

M. Macha NightMare, P&W, is an internationally published author, ritualist and all-round Pagan webweaver.  A member of the American Academy of Religion, the Marin Interfaith Council, the Nature Religion Scholars Network, the Covenant of the Goddess (CoG), and the Advisory Councils of PEARL (Pagan Eldercare and Resource League) and Sacred Dying Foundation, Macha speaks on behalf of Paganism to news media and academic researchers, and presents at colleges, universities and seminaries, and teaches on the broomstick circuit.  She currently chairs the Board of Directors of Cherry Hill Seminary, the first and only seminary serving the Neopagan community. www.machanightmare.com  

She is the author, Witchcraft and the Web, and Pagan Pride: Honoring the Craft and Culture of Earth and Goddess, and, with Starhawk, The Pagan Book of Living and Dying (with Starhawk), voted #1 advanced Pagan book by reviewers of PanGaia Magazine.

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John Belham-Payne

The Centre for Pagan Studies TWPT talks to John Belham-Payne

"John Belham-Payne is perhaps best known as the last working High Priest of Doreen Valiente, England’s most famous contemporary Witch. He is also a co-founder of the Centre For Pagan Studies (CFPS) and custodian of Doreen’s extensive collection of artefacts, which together with Gerald Gardner’s original “Book of Shadows”, are considered to be modern witchcraft’s most important documents.

At Samhain (Halloween) in 1973 he was initiated into a traditional Welsh coven headed by Patricia and John Edwards.

“Like many new to the studies of the Old Ways I was desperate to be initiated and when I was, it soon became obvious that these people knew a lot less than I did. For me casting a circle seemed a natural extension to my arm. They seemed to be more concerned with getting the words right. They had a lineage, but I felt there was little in the way of content. I did go through a full traditional year and a day before initiation, but I now believe that I should have waited until the right teacher came along” from controverscial.com

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Other Community Focus Interviews available on TWPT

The Witch Shop of Staten Island TWPT talks to Mark Eadicicco