Sue Terry: Who I am, what I do…

I’m a teacher, writer, researcher, conference speaker, tutor and lecturer. I have an MA, I’m qualified to teach in universities and I run Owl House Seminars, offering educational courses in literature and the weird, online and in-person, and I aim to make learning accessible to everyone. I’m currently completing my PhD in feminist occult literary modernism at the University of Surrey and I am a published author in English Studies, a leading academic journal. I produce, host and co-host conferences and events and I welcome invitations to speak at yours. Meeting people to talk about weird stuff is one of my most favourite things. I’m thrilled to have several lectures at venues around the UK already in my diary for 2025. I’m writing a book on fantasy author Alan Garner and I have several other projects in the pipeline.

The Owl House will re-open its doors for live and online seminars in Spring 2025 and new stock will be arriving in the New Year to my online shop Owl House Books, where I sell esoterica, occult curios and secondhand books from my own collection. Helping you to help yourself on your esoteric academic journey! Watch out for updates and send me your ‘wants’ lists anytime - I may have just what you’re looking for….

Look out for my 2025 programme of fun and fascinating seminars - all welcome! If you want to explore your interests in myth, magic, alternative spiritualities and you’re looking for something ‘a bit more’ than a zoom talk, at Owl House Seminars you’ll discover a content-rich, focused programme that offers active learning and a chance to discuss subjects not usually available outside a university (and often not inside a university either!), with like-minded people in a welcoming environment that is open to all.

Literature and the Weird themes include:

The Domestic Occult

An introduction to Western Esotericism

Popular occult fiction and folk horror

Myth, the paranormal and the sacred

Urban high strangeness

The twentieth-century occult revival and the creative imagination

Children’s weird fiction

In my courses you can expect discussions of ghosts, the Grail, mysterious landscapes, Jazz Age witches, spiritualism and archaeology, UFOs, magicians, ley hunters and priestesses, paranormal and esoteric currents in modern/ist literature, occultism and women’s empowerment, earth magic and the British counterculture. We’ll explore hidden themes in mainstream novels and rediscover overlooked authors of the weird.  Questions, comments and laughter are encouraged! My courses run throughout the year, evenings, afternoons and weekends, online and in-person. I appreciate your investment of time and finance in my courses and I aim always to add value and resources in return.

Also I offer specialist classes, tutorials and private consultations in the history and practice of the esoteric arts of Tarot and Numerology. I’ve been running those classes for many years and they’re always a lot of fun.

Some of my previous lectures and talks:

Co-Host and Presenter at the annual Florence Farr and the Magical Imagination Conferences in London (2023, 2024, 2025)

Co-Host and Presenter at University of Surrey’s Golden Dawn Archive Study Day at Museum of Freemasonry, London (October 2023)

Folklore, Customs and Divination: Traditions of the Turning Year ( January 2023)

The Domestic Occult, or, Every Woman’s Luck (Magickal Women Conference, London, and Centre for Folklore, Myth and Magic, Todmorden, 2022)

Earth Magic and Wandering Objects in Alan Garner’s Cheshire Dreamtime ( Stars, Stones, Stories :Alan Garner Research group talk, online September 2022)

From Colonial India to Trans-Plutonic Dimensions in Space: Just How Far Can a Lady Archaeologist Travel? (Dr Margaret Murray Symposium, November 2021)

Introduction to Mary Butts, Feminist Occult Modernist (University of Amsterdam, July 2021)

Sometimes a Witch and Sometimes a Bitch: Mary Butts’s Modernist Visions of Magic (MWC , June 2021 )

more talks here

Header photo credit: Caroline Wise 15/10/22. Sue Terry lecturing at Magickal Women Conference, London

I’m based in Manchester and London, online anywhere in the world.