Meet the 2026 Salem Witch Fest Presenters

Jeremy Bechelli

Jeremy Bechelli received his Ph.D. in Pathology from the University of Texas Medical Branch and his M.S. in Microbiology from the University of Rochester. He is currently an Associate Professor of Biology specializing in infectious diseases. Alongside his academic work, Jeremy is a long-time student of European folk magic, specializing in occult herbalism, folk medicine, and the traditional witch-lore and practices of the British Isles. He is also an experienced rootworker within the within the Porterfield-Lucero conjure lineage. Jeremy is the owner of Phytognosis, a business devoted to plant-based spirituality, offering incense, oils, botanicals, and other materia magica rooted in traditional practice.

Susan Redington Bobby

Susan Redington Bobby, founder of Professor of Words, LLC, is a scholar/practitioner, a freelance editor, and a mentor. As a Professor Emerita of English, her expertise spans fairy tales, goddess archetypes, magical realism, creative writing, and film studies. She is the author of Beyond His Dark Materials: Innocence and Experience in the Fiction of Philip Pullman, the editor of Fairy Tales Reimagined: Essays on New Retellings, and the co-editor of The Artemis Archetype in Popular Culture: Essays on Fiction, Film, and Television. In addition to serving as the Series Editor of Tales from Fiddler’s Green, she is currently completing the book Guillermo del Toro’s Archetypes: Reflections, Divination, and Shadow Work (forthcoming 2026). She has taught online classes for Ritualcraft School since 2023 and is currently studying the Bardic course of OBOD. She maintains Mellie’s Grove, a certified NWF backyard wildlife habitat that provides sanctuary to a rescued cat family and local wildlife.

Alexa Branco

Alexa Branco is an award-winning artist, Earth witch, and the owner of The Bruja’s Tomb. A true Virgo, Alexa is deeply passionate about learning and sharing knowledge. Guided by her Latinx heritage, her eclectic practice honors the sacred balance of life and death, working intimately with both Mother Earth and Santa Muerte. Alexa’s mission is to guide others toward truth and transformation through fun, interactive teaching and accessible magick. Her work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and Refinery29, and she is an Emmy and Peabody Award winner.

Frankie Castanea

Frankie Castanea, also known as Chaotic Witch Aunt, is a practicing folk witch, animist, Italian American folk practitioner, and spirit worker. They have been on a journey of reconnection to culture and ancestral practices for almost four years now, but have been a practicing witch for almost a decade. Frankie is driven by their ancestors in almost all things they do, sharing their ways of reconnection and reconstruction via Instagram, Youtube, Patreon and their blog, Chaotic Folk Magic, through their website. They have and continue to be a student of their ancestors, Lisa Fazio, Mary Beth Bonfiglio, and Loo Ledesma, holding many lineages with love, respect, and honor. Frankie runs a small online shop of ancestral and folk magic guided wares, believes in the power of the color red, and reads tarot, Italian playing cards, and offers professional spell consultations in Colorado. They are the author of "Spells for Change" (2021), which was translated into three languages, and "Ancestral Magic" (2025).

Emmy C-G

Emmy C-G is a queer Puerto Rican Witch, a trauma-informed Tarot Reader, Channeler, and Astrologer, a ritualist, a classicist, a Death Doula, and a storyteller who adores making others feel simultaneously comforted and confronted. Earth Traditions, a Pagan organization, certified her as a death worker in 2015. She is a devotee of Persephone, Hades, Hekate, Hermes, and Helios. She chalks up her connection to these deities as a major contributor to her ability to hold individuals and communities through the life, death, and rebirth cycles that allow them to enter into their most authentic lives boldly.

Angelica Cresci

Angelica Cresci is an occultist and professional astrologer living in Salem, MA. She is devoted to Hades and works extensively with the Chthonic realms. Angelica has been practicing astrology professionally for 5 years and specializes in ancient Babylonian and Hellenistic astrology and Astro-magick. You can usually find her cooking up offerings for the Gods and ancestors, or sitting in front of her vanity weaving glamour spells. Find her on instagram at @angelicascresci

Dr Alexander Cummins

Dr Alexander Cummins is a contemporary cunning-man and historian of magic. His magical specialities are the dead (folk necromancy), divination (geomancy) and the grimoires. He has published on topics ranging from early modern astrology and amulet therapies to traditional European folk magic and handbooks of spirit conjuration. He is a frequent speaker on the international circuit, and co-hosts the podcast Radio Free Golgotha. Dr Cummins’ work, classes, and services can be found at www.alexandercummins.com

Harriet Cummins

Harriet Cummins is a UK based witch and conjure woman. She is the legacy student of Dr Phoebe Hildegard Finch and in the conjure lineage of the enigmatic Professor Charles Porterfield. She brings a background of European and English cunning craft to her study of traditions and roots of American Hoodoo. She currently offers cartomancy and readings along side bespoke pieces of root work, for people of all walks of life regardless of gender, in an open space for all. She has a friendly, compassionate and respectful approach with and infectious passion for root work.

Nick Dickinson

Nick Dickinson (he/she/they/fae) is Headmistress of Circe Academy of witchcraft through The Cauldron Black in Salem MA, is a professional witch and witchcraft educator with over 40 years of experience working with clients and students in both public and private settings. Ordained and initiated in a variety of Mahayana Buddhist Tantric yoga traditions and a teacher of thousands of yoga teachers and psychics, his classes and workshops are deeply influenced by the intersection of classical yoga theory and modern witchcraft practice. Operating through a multidimensional animist lens with a focus on Greek folklore, Nick’s content welcomes all traditions at all levels and can be approached in a purely secular way.

Dr. James Dotson

J.W. Dotson MD is a psychiatrist and an independent scholar fascinated by cultural and anthropological olfaction studies, ethnobotany and medical astrology. James is an ongoing teacher of esoteric fragrance topics as part of The Scent and Society series at the Institute for Art and Olfaction and also for the Experimental Scent Summit (2020 & 2025). He is a recurring speaker for The Salem Witchcraft and Folklore Festival and has presented for Morbid Anatomy and Viridis Genii. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of the UCLA Archive of Healing.

Amanda Edmiston

A professional storyteller with a background in herbal medicine, Amanda learnt from her mother, but also grew up learning about plants, place, art and stories, as her English Romani Grandmother was a plant person and her Grandfather a sculptor who told stories as he worked. Amanda has been working internationally as Botanica Fabula for over 16 years weaving words and connecting people with memories, that blend folklore, legend, social history and the way we work with plants.

Dr. Finch

Dr. Finch is a traditionally trained conjurer, card reader, and writer. Originally brought to earth after a series of baleful magical experiments, she currently resides in Denton, Texas as the live-in apprentice of Professor Charles Porterfield. A lifelong herbalist, her work with plants is the loamy heart of her craft, anchoring the arcane in the physical.

Baba Lou Florez

Baba Lou Florez (Awo Ifadunsin) is a diviner, metaphysical reader, and Orisha priest whose work blends devotional practice with cultural scholarship, artistry, and healing justice. Interdisciplinary by nature, he bridges herbalism, ecology, divination, psychology, religious studies, gender and sexuality studies, mixed media art, and spiritual perfumery to create experiences that awaken Spirit and deepen relationship with self, community, and the sacred. He cofounded and serves as Executive Director of Water Has No Enemy (WHNE), a nonprofit advancing healing justice through Indigenous, Yorùbá, and African diasporic perspectives. Initiated into Orisha priesthood in 2007–2008, he received Itefá in Ilé Ifẹ̀, Nigeria (2016), and was elevated as Co Presiding Priest of Ilé Orí Ògbè Ègún (2021). He is the author of The Modern Art of Brujería and served as a creative consultant for Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” Grammys performance.

Emily Gonzales

Emily Gonzales is a visionary artist whose specialty is portraiture work. She created her own tarot deck by hand drawing a portrait along with other symbols of significance for each card. She threads connections from the past to present by way of graphite and mixed media. Breathing life into those who came before us. Her work pays homage to her Mexican & Indigenous heritage. Emily is a student of Loretta Ledesma and of the Porterfield/Lucero conjure lineage.

Meredith Graves

Meredith Graves is a multidisciplinary artist, musician and public scholar based in Brooklyn, NY. She has been a passionate student and practitioner of magic since 1999 – and an avid knitter since the age of six. Her professional resume includes time spent as the host of MTV News and later, Outreach Director at Kickstarter, where she founded multi-million-dollar fundraising programs specifically designed for occultural artists. This will be her third year presenting at Salem, and her first as a proud legacy student of Professor Charles Porterfield.

Stephanie Hardie

Stephanie Hardie, MSc/NBCHWC is a clinical herbalist, medicine maker, and multi-modality animist practitioner rooted in the rhythms of the earth and the stories of the plants. Her work blends traditional herbal knowledge, somatic presence, esoteric principles, and spiritual connection, offering clients and students a way to walk in deeper relationship with self & the green world. With a deep adoration and reverence for the natural world, she weaves a rich tapestry of folklore, poetic plant spirit gnosis, and the wisdom of the hedgewitch path into teachings that honor both the seen and unseen. When not speaking, teaching, or crafting devotional offerings for her business Gate & Garden, Stephanie finds solace in stewarding & tending her vibrant suburban homestead in coastal Massachusetts.

Jesse Hathaway Diaz

Jesse Hathaway Diaz is a folklorist, artist, performer and independent scholar with a Masters in Performance Studies from NYU. With initiations in several forms of witchcraft from Europe and the Americas, he is also a lifelong student of Mexican curanderismo, an
initiated priest of Obatalá in the Lucumí Orisha tradition, and a Tatá Quimbanda. He co-hosts an occult themed podcast called ‘Radio Free Golgotha’, and co-edits the ‘Folk Necromancy in Transmission’ imprint through Revelore Press. For the better part of two decades, he has been involved with Theatre Group Dzieci, a New York based experimental theatre ensemble which explores theatre and ritual as a way, blending service with self-exploration and performance. Dividing his time
between the Bronx and a farm in the Hudson Valley, his artistic and written work navigate the world-as-magic through exploring orality and transmission, decolonialism, ritual theory and praxis, herbalism and healing modalities through private study, apprenticeship, and community involvement

Emily Íviðja

Emily Íviðja (they/them) is a völva, trollswoman, and a multi-media artist. Growing up on a small farm in New Hampshire, Emily has spent their entire life interacting with the spirit realm. Their practice is deeply rooted in the animist beliefs of the Norse tradition, and informed by their relationships to the spirits of land and place. They are a devotee of Angrboða, the Wolf Mother, and they work closely with the trollwomen of Jarnviðr, also called the Ironwood. Their practice is woven from ancestral teachings, primordial darkness, and a love for the cyclical nature of our world, with a priority on community-focused work and service. Day-to-day, Emily can be found in their studio creating ritually-crafted artwork from ethically sourced animal remains for their business ULVWITCH. They can be found on Instagram at @ulv.witch.

Peter Josephson

Peter Josephson has practiced qigong and other energy work for over 20 years/, including 5 years spent living in Beijing as a closed-door disciple of the Internal Chinese Martial Arts. He is a necromancer, and practitioner of planetary grimoire magic, cartomancy, and a variety of other occult disciplines. Additionally, he is a Tata Ndenge in a lineage of Quimbanda Angola. He currently lives in Brooklyn.

Kadmus

Kadmus is a professor of philosophy, a writer, teacher, practicing occultists and dedicated pagan. He has taught classes for every year of both the Salem Witchcraft and Folklore Festival and the Astro Magia astrological magic conference. His new book, “Learning from Legendary Practitioners: A Necromantic Journey into History, Myth, and the Practice of Magic” is published by Hadean Press and a book of short occult themed mystery stories “The Elucidations of Drake”, written under the pen name of Bill Koch, is published by Sul Books. His previous book “True to the Earth: Pagan Politica Theology” is also available from Sul Books in a second edition.

Loretta Lucero

The Death Witch, Loo, founder of The Mile High Conjure Gala, a Santa Muerte Devotee, co-owner at The Cauldron Black in Salem, and at Noctavia Obscure in Denver & practitioner of Conjure has a deep relationship with the spirit world, ancestors, a lover of plants & seeker of justice. She approaches the work from the Conjure tradition and a close open relationship with the dead. Loretta walks her spiritual path comfortably with less freely talked about workings. Maker of traditional oils, powders, waters & other fine provisions. She is a legacy student of Conjure Man Professor Charles Porterfield. She has learned from and sits at the table with some of the most sought after teachers and elders in Conjure.

Loretta’s goals in the work are community building & participation, reclamation of the magic that runs through all our veins.

Jules McArthur

Jules McArthur has devoted their life to the study and practice of ancient magic. A tarot reader, witch, and a professional Classicist, they combine a rich understanding of the ancient world with their lifelong experiences of working magic. They have a Master’s degree in Classics from the University of Cambridge, specialising in the Greek Magical Papyri and have taught extensively on the topic, including sold out classes at Treadwell’s Bookshop and appearances on popular podcasts such as Seeking Witchcraft. Their work can be found at www.twinserpentstarot.co.uk.

Sterling Moon

Sterling Moon (she/her) is a fulltime, heels-on-the-ground, seer and spiritist (more commonly referred to as “psychic medium”), folk magician, animal communicator, published author, podcaster, and an educator on the mystical and strange. She has been working with clients and teaching professionally since 2013. She is the author of many self-published works as well as Talking to Spirits: A Modern Medium’s Practical Advice for Spirit Communication 2023) and Llewellyn’s Little Book of Spirit Communication (2025), both published by Llewelyn Books. Sterling also spent almost 20 years as a professional advocate for victims and survivors of crime in Wyoming, Minnesota, and Colorado, which will forever remind her of the importance of serving her communities.

Katarina Pejović

Katarina Pejović is a PhD candidate at the Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto. Her SSHRC-funded research examines the legends and grimoires of the sorcerer saint Cyprian of Antioch, with a special focus on his presence in Eastern Orthodox traditions in the Balkans and Mediterranean. In addition to her work on St. Cyprian, she writes on various topics including grimoire history, folk Christianity, Western occultism, and traditions of divination, witchcraft, and magic in Eastern Europe. Her lifelong passion for the unique folklore, sorcery, and spirits of the Balkans forms the roots of both her academic studies and personal praxis; watered by ancestral veneration, enflamed by Quimbanda and dragon-fire, and nourished with an endless curiosity of mystery.

Professor Charles Porterfield

Professor Charles Porterfield (he/him) is an old-fashioned, no-nonsense, Old Testament reader and rootworker. He writes, teaches, and lectures on hoodoo and conjure to help preserve and pass on the roots of the work as well as consults, prescribes, and divines work for those in need. He currently lives in Denton, Texas with his wife, legacy student, two cats, and a dead dog.

Sasha Ravitch

Sasha Ravitch consults, presents internationally, teaches, and writes fiction, theory, and creative non-fiction about the (posthumanist and otherwise) gothic imagination, monster theory, and witch-flesh. After devoting six years to establishing a field of deep space Stellar Witchcraft, she’s shifted her focus to academic writing and research. With several forthcoming nonfiction manuscripts, she’s published by Strange Horizons, Cosmic Horror Monthly, ergot., Bloodletter Magazine, and more. She attended Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity’s Writer’s Residency, is EIC for antilogos press, and is completing her Masters in Writing degree at Sarah Lawrence College, where she’s genre editor for the MFA’s literary journal, Lumina. Her current scholarship traces her self-termed "eschatological gothic" via St. Kilda, Berlin, NYC, and London post-punk and no-wave scene, reading creative subcultural figureheads and fashion as literary text.

Stevie Riffle

Stevie Riffle is a practicing folk witch located in Cleveland, OH with roots in Appalachia. They're a certified death/mourning doula and are the Owner of Moonstoned Apothecary where they sell their art along with spiritual supplies. They are also the creator of Whimsigoth Night Market, which is a monthly witchcraft-themed flea market for local artists & curators in Cleveland. Stevie loves to focus their spiritual practice on reconnecting with the Appalachian folk traditions that their ancestors held so dear. Becoming certified as a death doula was an important step in this reconnection, as their great grandmother was a well-known doula and healer in her region of West Virginia. Stevie considers their practice to be eclectic; incorporating old folk traditions with modern methods to get the results they are looking for. They've been studying witchcraft & the occult for over 10 years now, and have been reconnecting to their ancestral roots in Appalachia for the last 4. They're a huge advocate for social justice, using their platform with WNM to raise funds for local causes each month at the market. They are also a Hekate devotee, and just began the process of writing their first book!

Emiliano Russo

Emiliano Russo is a cultural anthropologist and a PhD candidate at Sapienza University of Rome, where he is deepening his research on Contemporary Witchcraft. He is an Initiated of the Temple of Ara and is currently undergoing priesthood training. He is the creator of L’Almanacco delle Streghe, a reference point on instagram, for many Italian Witches and Pagans. He writes for WITCHES Magazine, exploring Italian folklore and magical traditions. He has several publications in Italy, while abroad he has been published in the anthologies The Gorgon’s Guide to Magical Resistance and Serpents of Circe: A Manual to Magical Resilience, edited by Laura Tempest Zakroff. He has developed three trainings for magical and personal growth: Stregoneria Liminale, Luna Obscura, and Santa Sangre. He gives lectures, courses, open circles, and leads celebrations throughout Italy.

Lavender Mendez Ruvalcaba

Lavender Mendez Ruvalcaba (they/she), is a writer, bruja, occultist, psychic medium, & Santa Muerte devotee. Lavender centers her spiritual work around personal & collective transformation & ancestral healing, with an approach focusing on love, creation, & liberation through an underworldly & decolonial lens. They use their magic as a form of resistance, facilitating healing & guidance through transformation. Lavender is currently finishing her undergraduate studies in the Study of Religion & Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. They reside on the unceded, ancestral lands of the Squamish, Musqueam, & Tsleil-waututh peoples, so-called Vancouver Canada. She is a mixed-Indigenous "mestiza" & the daughter of Mexican immigrants hailing from what is now colonially known as Saltillo, Puebla, & Mexico City.

Mahigan Saint-Pierre

Mahigan Saint-Pierre (they/them) is a French-Canadian folk practitioner with a deep focus on the intersection of magical herbalism, necromancy, and the celestial realm. Haunted by spirits since birth, and raised by a family deeply entrenched in folk-magical practices, Mahigan never questioned the desire to pursue spirit-relationship and sorcery as a means of navigating the world. For over six years, they have offered their services as a full-time witch-for-hire and purveyor of handmade magical goods through their online shop, Kitchen Toad. Mahigan draws on their seven years of experience in Geomancy, and over fifteen years of sorcery to provide their community with divination and spellwork regarding all things, from love, career, and finance, to discovering and deepening their own magical practice. Based on their training in classical herbalism and deep knowledge of folklore, they craft and sell various oils, balms, tinctures, candles, powders, and ritual tools catering to the witch and the wicked. They occasionally dip their fingers into the realm of pottery to produce various vessels crafted for ritual use.

Vincent V. Saint-Roch

Vincent V. Saint-Roch is a spirit worker, diviner, poet, necromancer, and planetary sorcerer. He is the author of three books, the host of the Witchhassle podcast, the host of Wizards Workshop on WIOX FM, and formerly the host of Into the Dark (late of Radio Free Brooklyn).

Kim Schwenk

Kim Schwenk, is an occult scholar, rare book librarian, and an antiquarian bookseller with Lux Mentis, Booksellers. She has a subject specialization in North American, Latin American, and European witchcraft history, early printed occult texts, demonaltry, and cunning folk magic using plants and objects. She is an herbalist with Of Oak and Ash Apothecary, studying bioregional flora of the Pennsylvania Dutch and their magical uses.

BJ Swain

BJ Swain is the author of Living Spirits: A Guide to Magic in a World of Spirits, Luminarium: A Grimoire of Cunning Conjuration, Familiar Unto Me: Witches Sorcerers and Their Spirit Companions. He was a contributing editor for Heaven and Hell 2018: The Grimoire Issue, and has had essays published in the devotional anthology for Persephone, Queen of the Sacred Way, and the short story collection, Tales of the Darkening Year. He runs the website, The Unveiled Sky, and the blog Glory of the Stars, and hosted the podcast, In the Company of Stars. He has been practicing magic for over 30 years.

Lynn Ann Till

Lynn is a Folk-Futurist Herbalist, generational Bajalica (bajanje healer) in Serbian-Romani/Vlach lineage and an Olorisha initiated to Yemoja. She is known for her compassionate, liberation based and trauma-informed tea leaf readings and spiritual healing work. Lynn is a mother of four who is devoted to serving community via plants, she has a background in both birth and death work and has been a practicing herbalist and spiritual worker in the Denver area for over 20 years. Lynn’s business Baba Ružas Garden was named in honor of her Stara Baba (great-grandmother) who introduced her to their ancestral traditions and continues to inspire her spiritual path.

Dr. Randall Ulyate

Randall Victoria Ulyate is a writer, artist, and mythology professor with a special affinity for the magic and mystery of mythology and our relationship with death. She holds a doctorate in Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology and hosts The Mything Link, a mythology and folklore podcast. With degrees and training in archaeology, anthropology, literature, and religious studies, Randall is passionate about using an interdisciplinary lens to explore the common threads woven throughout the mythology of different cultures and unpacking those stories to decolonize our understanding of the modern world and ourselves.

Jezmina Von Thiele

Jezmina Von Thiele (they/she) is a writer, performer, and spiritual practitioner whose work draws from their mixed Sinti-Romani heritage and trauma-informed trainings. Their award-winning poetry, fiction, and nonfiction has appeared in anthologies and literary journals. Jezmina speaks at events and leads workshops and rituals on divination, spiritual wellness, and creative practice across the country, and offers tarot, palm, and tea leaf readings, as well as creative and spiritual consultation for practitioners, creators, and brands. They are the co-author of Secrets of Romani Fortune Telling and the co-host of the podcasts Romanistan and Immaterial World. Visit jezminavonthiele.com

Brandon Weston

Brandon Weston is a folklorist and writer living in the Arkansas Ozarks. He is the author of Ozark Folk Magic: Plants, Prayers, and Healing, the Ozark Mountain Spell Book, and Granny Thornapple’s Book of Charms. He is the owner of Ozark Healing Traditions, a collective of articles, lectures, and workshops focusing on traditions of medicine and magic from the Ozark Mountain region. He comes from a long line of Ozark hillfolk and works hard to keep these traditions alive for generations to come.

Mimi Young

Mimi Young is a Taiwanese Canadian animist diviner, spirit medium, consulting sorceress, and occult educator. As founder of Ceremonie, she works at the intersection of animism and Daoist wisdom in a syncretic practice that welcomes depth over trend and reciprocity over extraction. She offers courses in practical witchcraft and divination (including the I Ching), alongside a coven community, private readings, and a ritualware product line. Mimi is a returning presenter to the Salem Witchcraft Festival, and has collaborated with brands including Tokyo Smoke, goop, Almost 30, and Spirit House Collective. Her approach is welcoming, precise, and responsible, so witches can work with supplies they trust and techniques that hold.