Dr Clare Lesley Hughes is a Hedgewitch with vocational interests in plant medicine, natural magic & female spirituality. She runs her own business, Herbal Hegemone, which specialises in herbal and spiritual therapies, and she also writes a witch-related blog. During her first PhD in biological sciences, she began to acknowledge her interest in spirituality. In the ensuing decades, she has explored concepts of Paganism such as the Sacred Feminine, Norse and Celtic spiritualities and Magical Herbalism. She recently began her second PhD at York St John University, researching intersections in witchcraft, magic and herbalism in British women.
Supervised by Sharon Jagger, Clare’s PhD will investigate whether the modern female British herbalist values the concepts of animism, magic, and witchcraft in her practice and how comfortably this “magical herbalism” coexists alongside the narratives of dualistic and scientific “medical herbalism”. Additional discourses will be on culturally appropriated magical practices, integration with existing faith models, and any sociological impacts from historic spiritual traumas.
