Spells, Prayers, & Magic Studio

Conjure, invoke, charm, and create with the raw magic of poetic language.

‘Magic is a realistic art, not an idealistic one, although it is a game for optimists. The one thing magic requires is a belief that things could get better. Not every promise is fulfilled, not every power is realized. Life is not fair … some have a head start towards success that others lack even within the realms of metaphysics … others do not… Magic levels the playing field. Magic encourages creativity and inventiveness.’ – Judika Illes, The Element Encyclopaedia of 5000 Spells’

In this course we will focus on the transformational power of language inherent in prayers, spells, and of course, poems. We will consider how closely connected these methods of arranging just the right words are, in order to affect change. We will listen in to patterns in language and deploy them to evoke and invoke, and through our work discover that magic is at the beating heart of language. Words call up images and sensations – abracadabra; they summon storms and act as balms.

Now to the etymology of that often-vexed word magic which has come to mean many things to many people. The English words magic and magician are born from the Latin term magus, through the Greek magos which is from the Old Persian magus – a learned and priestly class such as the Magi – the Three Wise Men depicted in The Bible. Historians and anthropologists have distinguished between practitioners who engage in high magic, and those who engage in low magic. High magic describes the ritual practices associated with invocation of one or more deities through the medium of prayer and often complex ceremony. Low magic is associated with human beings, folklore, and with simpler rituals such as spells. We will conjure with both forms in our time together and will delve into their similarities and differences, and the human need for both.

Connecting with magic is something about having agency, then. Methods such as gathering our own power; calling on the magical energies of the natural world to work with us; supplicating a spirit or god to act on our behalf or to set us on the right spiritual path. Or maybe just hearing our own voice spoken into the silence is catalyst enough for change.

To help us in our thinking and explorations we will be looking at poems and other writing by Hildegarde von Bingen, Kathleen Jamie, Clare Askew, Ursula K. Le Guin, Annie Finch, Stephen Dobyns, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Camille Ralphs, Christopher Smart, Pam Grossman, and Ronald Hutton, among others. By the end of the course everyone will have magicked up at least three poems from scratch.

Studios are 4-week intensive courses. Reading material will be distributed before the course begins. There are no live chats so they are suitable for both UK & International students.

Concessions & Accessibility

To apply for a concession rate, please send relevant documentation showing your eligibility for one of our concessions to [email protected]. Conditions of eligibility are detailed here. If you have any questions or wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, please email [email protected].

What to Expect

Please check the left hand side of this page for information on how this course works in practice, under the heading ‘Course Style‘. If you’re unsure as to what any of the terms there mean, or if this course is a good fit for you, please visit our What to Expect page which includes some further information on how our courses function.

Image credit: @jeztimms

About Helen Ivory View Profile

Helen Ivory is a poet and visual artist who makes shadowboxes and collage. She was awarded a Cholmondeley Award by the Society of Authors in 2024. She edits the webzine Ink Sweat and Tears and has led workshops in a largely adult education setting for around twenty-five years. She teaches for the National Centre for Writing Academy and Arvon. A poem from her surrealist chapbook Maps of the Abandoned City (SurVision 2019) is one of the Poems on the Underground. She has work translated into Polish, Ukrainian, Croatian, Spanish, and Greek as part of the Versopolis European poetry platform. Her Wunderkammer: New and Selected Poems appeared from MadHat in the US in 2023. Constructing a Witch (October 2024), her sixth collection with Bloodaxe Books, is a PBS Winter Recommendation and explores the monstering and scapegoating of women, the fear of ageing femininity, cultural representations of the witch as an outsider, female power and disempowerment, the menopause, and how the female body has been used and misunderstood for centuries. In Summer 2025 Constructing a Witch was translated into Greek by Nikolas Koutsodontis and published in Greece by Thraka.

"The Poetry School has become like my secret elixir that I take a spoonful of when I need some nourishment and inspiration."

- Spring 2025 Survey Response