‘Anger is a part of healing’: a witchcraft retreat in the Irish woods is attracting US women to speak to the dead (opens in new tab)

In an age of spiritual isolation, witches are forming covens that defy the oppressive natures of man and churchOn the floor of a sun-drenched room in a 200-year-old Irish estate, a group of 15 witches gather to commune with the spirits. Everyone has someone they want to talk to – dead ancestors, forest fairies, the witches who came before them – and the room has the same expectant charge as the first day of school. Some of the witches wear long black capes and bandanas. Some wear Columbia fle...