2024 Presenters
Tickets On Sale December 21st on Eventbrite
Botanica Obscura Conference is a gathering of herbalists, plant medicine practitioners, green witches, alchemists, botanists and other plant-passionate people from around the world. We seek to connect with people and plants and facilitate community and resource sharing between plant practitioners of all kinds.
All presentations are live and recorded!
Promotional graphic design by Steven Thomas Pearson-Walsh
2024 Keynote Speaker
Teffa Honan stands as a beacon in the realm of spiritual healing, embodying the role of a medicine woman with deep connections to the sacred traditions of Colombia. Her journey into the heart of holistic healing began over a decade ago, guided by a profound self-driven quest for spiritual knowledge and ancient wisdom. This path led her to the apprenticeship with Taita Pedro Davila, an expert of traditional Colombian healing arts, where she was chosen as an apprentice, further deepening her connection to ancestral healing practices.
As a certified sound healer, Reiki master, life coach, and in Kundalini practices, Teffa’s expertise spans a broad spectrum of healing modalities. These certifications and her rich apprenticeship have honed her abilities to facilitate transformative experiences for those seeking healing and growth.
Teffa's practice as a medicine woman is rooted in a holistic approach, blending the potent energies of sound healing, the gentle power of Reiki, and the profound wisdom of plant medicine ceremonies. Her methods are infused with empathy and empowerment, respecting each individual’s unique journey toward healing and self-discovery.
In her commitment to guiding others, Teffa embodies the essence of a modern medicine woman who bridges the gap between ancient healing traditions and contemporary therapeutic practices. Her dedication to the path of holistic well-being is a testament to her belief in the transformative power of spiritual healing, making her a trusted guide and healer in the community she passionately serves.
Follow @pachamama.munai and @teffahonan
Duncan Lynch
Duncan Lynch, ND, RH(AHG), is a naturopathic physician. He completed his naturopathic degree at Bastyr University in 2021 and his residency at the AIMS Institute in 2023. Dr. Lynch employs a variety of potent herbal preparations in an evidence-based approach, with a goal of developing reliable methods for clinically applicable botanicals both topically and internally. He draws on traditional and modern medicine, utilizing a variety of beneficial plants and types of applications.
Kristy Therrien
Kristy is a traditional witch, chiefly practicing Sympathetic Magic, Necromancy and walking the Poison Path with Hekate. When shes not throwing bones or performing cleromancy at local events; shes home, living like Baba Yaga with a hoarde of mandrakes as her children. She has studied mandrake from the ancient days of publicatication - all the way through to conducting her own scientific studies on parts of Mandragora and their integration with humanity. She could be considered as a Mandrake Specialist, or Mandragorist. You can find her at www.mandragorium.com !
Josh Williams
Josh Williams is a traditionally-trained clinical herbalist in practice in Salt Lake City, Utah. He works an ancient elemental approach to herbal medicine and is in deep relationship with the green realm. Josh is the author of two books, Spiritual Herbalism and The Green Arte, both published in London by Aeon Books. In addition to his private practice, Josh offers free weekly classes, advanced monthly classes, courses, guided plant spirit journeys, and more at www.TheGreenArte.com
Devin Hunter (San Francisco, CA) is the bestselling author of the Witch Power series (The Witch’s Book of Power, The Witch’s Book of Spirits, and The Witch’s Book of Mysteries- Llewellyn Worldwide 2016-2020) as well as the critically acclaimed pictorial formulary Modern Witch: Spells, Recipes, and Workings (Llewellyn 2020) and its critically acclaimed follow up, Crystal Magic for the Modern Witch (Llewellyn 2022.) Initiated into multiple occult orders himself, Devin is the founder of the Sacred Fires Tradition of Witchcraft as well as co-founder of the Black Rose Tradition of Witchcraft. In addition to his A.V. Club and Glamour Magazine favorited podcast Modern Witch, Devin has been seen on television shows like ABC’s To Tell the Truth and is expecting the release of his sixth book, HortOCCULTure available April 2024 from Llewellyn. Follow @mr.devinhunter
Sara L. Mastros
Sara L. Mastros is the author of The Big Book of Magical Incense, Orphic Hymns Grimoire, and The Sorcery of Solomon: A Guide to the 44 Planetary Pentacles of the Magician King. Recognized by her peers as a brilliant and original thinker, an engaging and inspiring teacher, a compelling and clever writer, and a generally decent human being, Sara spends a lot of time dreaming, thinking, enchanting, writing, and teaching about witchcraft, magic, and myth. But, her true passion is raising up an army of inspired, educated, empowered witches prepared to weave weird new ways of Being in a world that desperately needs us.
Morgana Brennan
'Modern Druid' Morgana Brennan is Chief Magic Maker of an aromapothecary and ritual lifestyle store focused on the arts, vibrational energy healing and tree medicine, located in Nyack, NY. She is a practitioner of the Ogham, an ancient Irish writing system that corresponds with plants and trees. Having distilled the 20 feda (letters) of the Ogham into intentional oils for use in healing work, she is especially fond of the magic inherent in the less friendly trees of the Ogham - Hawthorn, Blackthorn, and particularly the Yew. When not assisting souls across the mortal divide, she can be found blending oils, curating spiritual art and tools, and teaching Ogham at her namesake store, Modern Druid.
Jennifer Vatza
Belladonna’s Botanicals is owned by Jennifer Vatza, a practicing Occultist, Reiki Master, Crystal Healer, Certified Aromatherapist, herbalist, perfumer, and skincare formulator. Jennifer brings her unique background and studies in witchcraft, energy work, and plant medicine into her product creation and spirituality.
Belladonna’s Botanicals provides high quality handcrafted metaphysical and self-care products including flying ointments, herbal tinctures & elixirs, herbal smoke blends, ritual oils, powders, incense, crystal products, ritual bath products, fragrances, and bath and body products. We also offer select consultations, divination, and energy work.
https://www.belladonnasbotanicals.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@JenniferVatza
Dr. Alexander Cummins
Dr Alexander Cummins is a contemporary cunning-man and historian of magic, whose magical specialties include: geomancy, folk necromancy, and the grimoires of early modern Europe. His published works include Nazarth: Pillars of Gladness (Hadean Press, 2022), An Excellent Booke of the Arte of Magicke (Scarlet Imprint, 2020) with Phil Legard, A Book of the Magi (Revelore Press, 2018), and diverse articles on various aspects of cunning-craft for both academic and occult publishers. His works, writings, classes, and services can be found at www.alexandercummins.com
Nicholas Pearson-Walsh
Nicholas Pearson has been a practitioner of occult and esoteric arts for three decades. His interest in myth and magic grew out of his love for rocks and minerals, and today he is best known as one of the leading voices in crystal healing. Also acclaimed for his work in the fields of flower essence therapy and traditional Reiki, Nicholas seeks to bridge science and spirituality with grounded, practical techniques for healing and magic. The author of eight books, including Stones of the Goddess, Crystal Basics, and Flower Essences from the Witch’s Garden, Nicholas lives in Orlando, Florida.
Nicolette Miele
Nicolette Miele is a pagan witch, author, herbalist, and rune worker. She has studied and practiced witchcraft for over twenty years. Her debut book Runes for the Green Witch launches in early 2024. She is the owner and crafter of Handfuls of Dust Apothecary. Nicolette lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her son, two dogs, and two cats.
Cristina Pandolfo (Astrum Lucifera)
Cristina is a solopreneur, creatrix of the esoteric herbal apothecary In Lumine Lunae and founder of the Dianic spiritual organization Templum Dianae. She has been initiated in the Dianic Tradition and officially ordained Dianic Clergy (Priestess) by the Temple of Diana (Los Angeles, CA).
Cristina is also author, ritual perfumer, esoteric herbalist trained in herbal medicine, certified Plant Spirit Healing practitioner behind Lumen Viridia, member of the British Flower Essence Producers (BAFEP) and landscape architect specialized in healing gardens and therapeutic landscape.
She has been teaching classes and workshops about occult-craft, esoteric herbalism and female spirituality in Italy and abroad since 2010.
Kamden S. Cornell
Kamden S. Cornell is a non-binary, queer author living in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Tewa land. They teach classes on witchcraft, occultism, herbalism, wortcunning, foraging, and invasive species wildcrafting in their region. They have written two self-published works: Ars Granorum: The Six Seed Arts of Witchcraft and On Needles and Pins: A Witches’ Book of Poppetry and Figure Magic. They are a member of the Covenant of Hekate and are a columnist for the Covenant’s newsletter, Noumenia News, as well as a blogger for their website. They currently work as an apothecarist in Albuquerque Old Town and own a small, witchcraft-oriented business called Heart & Vine Apothecary that focuses on herbal remedies, ritual goods, and education.
Vex Blóðstjarna
Vex Blòðstjarna is a self-taught occultist and hermit for over twenty years, focusing his work on living and dead animal spirits, as well as the Northern mysteries. His practice ties animism from his surroundings and from familial roots of Scandinavian hunting rituals. Vex is a Mead Brewer, distiller, wild crafter and the primitive theurge and skin carver of Fera Aruspex. Vex is an artist of the bones, skins, roots and flowers of the animal and plant spirits that he venerates, as well as a crafter of Neolithic stone tools. Vex likes fire, exploring the forests and enjoying the company of his four-legged companions.
Allie O’Kane
Allie is a seasoned Astrologer, Numerologist, as well as herbalist who specializes in understanding a persons energetic blueprint and guiding them into a better understanding of how to support their bodies with the implementation of holistic practices and herbs. Allie believes that everything is energy and has spent years of practicing and understanding these imprinted energies in order to better serve her clients as well as herself. In addition, Allie is also a Kundalini Yoga instructor as well as a practicing witch. She bases her entire life around energetic practices and holistic healing and hopes to guide others to do the same.
Austin Fuller
Austin Fuller is a Folk Witch living in the pine Flats of west-Central Florida, amongst the sea, swamp, and forest. A perfumer, conjuror, diviner, and artist, Austin traffics with spirits at the crossroads, intersecting witchcraft and art. They are the sole operator of BanxBramble on Instagram and banexbramble.com and a cohost on Southern Bramble: A Podcast of Crooked Ways.
Magi Rivera
Starting her journey in astrology about 9 years ago, Magi found herself connecting the stars and the earth. On the quest of purpose and passion, Magi become an herbalist and intuitive. Working with plant medicine lead to her recollection of ancestral and universal wisdom. In embracing the eclectic nature of her Puerto Rican ancestry, she found weaving a web of seemingly distant creations applicable. It has led her to taking a unique approach to spiritual work. She strongly believes in the experience that spirit is always speaking to us and through everything. Including our own shadows, daimons and grievances. Naturally, the poison path became illuminated on the path of medicine making. As Paracelsus once said, “Sola dosis facit venenum”, “the dosage makes the poison”. Integrative healing is a huge part of her herbalism and personal practice. Thus, inspiring an anthropological approach to spirituality and medicine. Now Magi uses her online platforms Priestess of Moonlight and Moon Priestess Apothecary to share the eclectic nature of healing, shamanism and the medicine path. Here, she spreads her wisdom and ideas on plant medicine, occultism, energy work, divination and their anthropological correspondences.
Follow @priestessofmoonlight
Jamie Waggoner
Jamie (she/her) is a pagan priestess, philosopher, author, and teacher with 25+ years of study and practice. Her work centers around eclectic theurgic and folk magic, mythology, oracular traditions, trance arts, and liminal rites. She is the author of Hades: Myth, Magic, and Modern Devotion (Llewellyn, coming February 2024). Read more about Jamie's upcoming projects, classes, and events on her website: www.jamie waggoner.com.
Laurie Bianciotto
Walker of the Poison Path, Laurie studies all kinds of poisons but most specifically poisonous plants. She is author of "La voie du Poison", which is the first book on the topic written in French.
Laurie am also a magnetist, medium, and multi support artist. This path led me to become a Torchbearer in the CoH, to explore and guide others into the mysteries of Hekate as Pharmakeia.
Laurie grows poisonous plants and practices her magic in France. @les.energies
Debora Greer
My name is Debora Greer. Together with the Spirit Pombagira Gypsy of the Road, I created the Moon Garden: A place for spiritual studies, community, herbal allies and magical studies overall. I’m a practitioner of Makumba, which is a Brazilian spiritual belief system, born out of the forced cultural collision of the enslaved African Bantus (who were taken to Brazil during the slave trade between 1540 – 1860), Native Brazilian cultures, and European witchcraft. The “European” magic that influences my family came from the Romani people who came to Brazil from Portugal; I belong to the fourth generation in this system. I do also have Spirit friends who come from different traditions that have greatly enriched my life.
Ig: @moon7garden
Micah Abraxas Nilsson
Micah Abraxas Nilsson started studying herbs in her teenage years, and is the co-creator of Al-Kemi, a company making Spagyric and Alchemical extracts of herbs and minerals for healing, meditation, spiritual and magickal practice.
She has lectured at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland and Bastyr University in Seattle, as well as at many conferences on entheogens, herbalism, and magic. With her partner Paul, she is the co-founder of the School of Spagyric and Alchemical Arts, which she taught at for 10 years.
In her 32 years in this work, her focus has been in connecting directly and deeply with the plant beings, communing with them as both a healing and spiritual path. Weaving together the scientific and initiatic in her teachings, she helps others connect with the green spirit of nature, which surrounds and flows through us all.
Micah's work with Al-Kemi can be found at:
Albert Björn
Albert Björn lives in downtown Reykjavík, Iceland and works closely with the spirits of this magical landscape. His magical practice spans 15 years with an extensive background in Icelandic folk magic and Sussex cunning craft. Albert teaches classes, designs magical runestaves and speaks out against racism and neo-nazism. He recently released his first book Icelandic Plant Magic: Folk Herbalism of the North published by Crossed Crow Books.
Follow Albert on Instagram @sussex_pellar
Learn more at linktr.ee/albertbjorn94
Rissa Miller
It's rare to find Rissa without tea. No matter where she is or what she's doing, a mug of green tea is her constant companion. Tea is one part of her love of plants. She holds a deep reverence for plants and the answers they offer, whether as tasseographs in a teacup, smoke in the air, a healing salve for the skin, a plant on the windowsill, or nourishment for the body.
She's also a published author and poetess, and has had several plays produced in the mid-Atlantic area. Find her leading ghost tours or giving history talks at her job with Maryland History Tours, or learn about her work as a food editor at Vegan Journal. In her career, she’s worked for five publications and studied writing at New York University/Tisch School of the Arts and photojournalism at Western Kentucky University. Rissa currently studies clinical herbalism (online) at Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine and Herbal Academy, concurrently.
@teaandsmoke_byrissa on Instagram!
Intuituve Readings | Tea & Smoke (teaandsmoke.com)
Eimi Ostara Moon, poison path witch and cultivator of baneful herbs.
Eimi OstaraMoon
Eimi OstaraMoon, the witch and bee steward behind Poison and Bee, started her journey on the Poison Path with a handful of Datura inoxia seeds, and a dream of having her own Poison Garden on her farm in rural Texas. With the help of her honey bees, the garden has since grown to include baneful allies such as different datura varieties, henbane, deadly nightshade and mandrake, as well as various magical, medicinal and culinary herbs. As a practitioner of alchemical herbalism, plant spirit medicine and natural beekeeping, Eimi focuses her work with poisonous plants and honey bees by understanding their nature and needs, and developing a harmonious symbiotic relationship between plants, insects and humans. “Poison as medicine”, both physically and spiritually, is the guiding principle that Eimi follows on the Poison Path.
Follow Eimi on Instagram @poisonplantwitchery
Kris Gurky
Kris grew up foraging the New England woods for mushrooms and herbs with her grandmother. She is a natural intuitive, herbalist, and magickal practitioner with both Lithuanian and Celtic roots. Kris enjoys sharing knowledge of the old ways by leading witches herbal walks in Salem for the past decade, as well as teaching herbalism, intuitive tarot, and intuitive development workshops worldwide. She is the resident herbalist at Maison Vampyre in Salem, Mass., founded Dark Moon & Co. in 2010, and is the creator of the Witch City Tarot and Divination Gathering. Kris earned an M.B.A. at Boston University, an M.S. in Herbal Medicine at the American College of Healthcare Sciences in Portland, Oregon, and completed an herbalism apprenticeship at the Boston School of Herbal Studies.
Founder of Faemana Herbal Magick and SOTEIRA music project.
Vrylak Faemana
Animist herbalist, hekatian, Green Witch, Occultist, Marialionza Spiritism practitioner, oracle reader, coca leaves and tobbaco reader, naturalista, perfumera, musician and artist. Eternal student of the Green Wise and the ancient art of Spagyrics. I'm researcher with a curious heart, always looking for understand the secrets of nature, studying plants and communicating with their Genii in order to learn about them, and share this wisdom with the world. My practice finds its roots in shamanism, walking the path of entheogenic allies, witchcraft, Latin American curanderismo and marialionza spiritism practices.
Social media: https://linktr.ee/Vfaemanna
P.D. Newman, author and historian.
P.D. Newman
P.D. Newman specializes in the historical and current use of entheogenic compounds in magical and initiatory settings. He is the author of the groundbreaking works, Alchemically Stoned: The Psychedelic Secret of Freemasonry, Angels in Vermilion: The Philosophers' Stone from Dee to DMT, and the forthcoming title, Homer and the Heart of Theurgy: Foreshadowings of a Ritual Tradition. A member of both the Masonic Fraternity and the Society of Rosicrucians, Newman has been immersed in the study and practice of Hermetism, alchemy, and theurgy for over two decades.
Coby Michael, owner of The Poisoner’s Apothecary
Coby Michael
is an occult herbalist and magical practitioner specializing in poisonous plants, ethnobotanicals and witches’ herbs. He has been a magical practitioner for over 20 years and has delved into areas such as American folk magic, traditional witchcraft, alchemy, astrology and the grimoire tradition.
Coby is an author, artist and teacher who recently celebrated the publication of his first book, The Poison Path Herbal: Baneful Herbs, Ritual Entheogens and Medicinal Nightshades, published by Inner Traditions/Bear & Company. Coby is a researcher and writer at heart. He attended Arizona State University where he majored in religious studies with a focus on European witchcraft and American folk magic. Coby contributes articles to The House of Twigs, Patheos Pagan, and the Pagan Archives at Valdosta University. He has written many articles of poisonous plants, entheogens and their applications in modern witchcraft.
He runs The Poisoner’s Apothecary, an online educational resource consisting of articles, classes and subscribed content for people interested in pursuing the Poison Path. The Poisoner’s Apothecary supplies over 150 different products featuring custom herbal formulas for entheogenic ritual and magic. Coby has been studying and practicing herbalism for over ten years with a special focus on poisonous plants. He applies this knowledge to his flying ointments, ritual oils and smoking blends.
The Poisoner's Apothecary (thepoisonersapothecary.com)
learn.thehouseoftwigs.com
patheos.com/blogs/poisonersapothecary
Instagram: @poisonersapothecary
The vision for this virtual event is to be focused on education and networking, as opposed to a virtual vendor market. We want this to be more about sharing information and sharing your unique work in a way that is educational, which will in turn drive sales. Instead of doing a virtual market, the event will be set up as a series of live presentations, classes & discussion panels.