Ancient Wisdom/Modern Wellness

Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek, founder of The Wellness Foundry

The Wellness Foundry is both a physical space and online platform for Psychic, Tarot and Aura readings alongside it's many other spiritual offerings. Using his background in fashion, Fiongal has designed and created a beautiful and slick, modern lifestyle brand which has made alternative spirituality accessible and appealing to a new audience.

"Having a reading is nourishment to the soul and it’s important to do it regularly. A really good habit to get into as a Tarot reader is just to pull a card and say ‘okay, what are the lessons that I need to look out for today?’
The big misconception about Tarot is that it tells you what to do but it's more like having a life coach in your pocket- it will just be a guide. When I’m reading for a client I will often say we'll look at option A and option B, and look at the positives and minuses to each."

"I like to consider myself fluent in Tarot and spirit talk, but like anything, sometimes things do get lost in translation because I'm turning energy into language. The future isn't fixed, it's always dependent on what we’re deciding at the moment and how that plays out and you can ultimately change what I'm delivering in a reading."

Rasheeqa Ahmad and Izzy Vandergert-Wilson, herbalists at Hedge Herbs

Community medical herbalist Rasheeqa and one of her growing partners Izzy are part of a wider network of local growers in London who together grow, gather, make and share plant medicine to promote ecosystem healthcare.
Often using bereft public and private gardens, they grow medicinal plants which are harvested and provided to their local community. With an emphasis on education about the holistic benefits of plants, they run workshops using the harvested plants to turn into natural skincare products and healing remedies and encourage volunteers to help maintain the gardens.

"When we use foods and herbs in a way which supports the body coming back into balance, it promotes healthy body functions and helps prevent illness. Our bodies have evolved to ingest and metabolise plants. They are designed to break them down and retain nutrients and therapeutic compounds from them, which is why often there are fewer side effects from herbal medicine. It's not a new idea, and is part of everyday life in other cultures, but somehow we have become disconnected from it."

"For me there's a bigger role in what we do than just being herbalists. It's about trying to answer other questions about how we can connect with the earth around us and keep the land healthy too. Our project teaches people about food growing, and herbal medicine but also about learning good land practices. My hope is that organically as more people engage with these processes, these skills will pass down through generations creating wider networks and a stronger body of knowledge."

Tree Carr, mystic and Death Doula

Whilst offering support to her clients in many areas of mysticism- including witchcraft led retreats, one to one dream work and Psychedelic Integration Therapy sessions- Tree also walks alongside people at their most vulnerable in her role as a Death Doula.

"The death doula role is very person-centred and is about holding a space for a persons psychological and practical needs whilst traversing the realms and moving towards death.
There can be a struggle when facing one's own death, including the dark night of the soul and grief and ego death- losing a sense of identity- but also there's a lot of paperwork too so sometimes the role carries on to help the family members or even, because I'm ordained, conducting funerals if requested"

"There can be a lot of drama around death so the work is to navigate all of that and to understand the complexities of the family unit and the psychology of grief. Sometimes it can get very intense with clients, and you have to have conversations about boundaries. Even though a person is dying it doesn't mean that all of a sudden they are some angelic being. You could be guiding someone with a borderline personality disorder or someone who is very manipulative.
I have a lot of practices that I do to make sure that I'm not absorbing too much and I'm able to pull a little back when I need to or step out when I need to step out."

"I'm totally fine with the thought of my own death, when you reflect on how impermanent life is, it really makes you live better and seize the day."

Jemma Foster, founder of Mama Xanadu and Wild Alchemy Lab

An obsession with nature and the cosmos from a young age evolved into Mama Xanadu- a floating restaurant and botanical studio which consolidates studies in plant and vibrational therapeutics into sensory gastronomic journeys using ancient and modern mythologies.
Wild Alchemy Lab is the publishing arm of Jemma's work, which explores nature, science and esoterica through the medium of art, film and printed media.

"There is an increased cultural awareness and acceptance of wildcrafting, herbalism and plant medicines, particularly in the psychedlic arena. In a fractured time where anxiety, depression and teenage suicide is high, many young people are finding support and guidance in these areas, like connecting to nature by working in ritual with the natural cycles of the moon, or the planetary transits in their astrological chart.
If this trend continues, future generations will be born into a cultural environment that supports intuitive feeling, emotional intelligence, and offers a deeper understanding of the subtle mechanisms of the universe, our wider place within it and an integrated and regenerative relationship to nature that fosters community, conscious living and accountability, vital for our survival as a species."

"It is through the lens of the past that we might look to our future. A time when our intuition and connection to nature and the cosmos, our ecological and cosmic symbiosis, was still strong. It is with these forces that we must co-create. Without rehabilitating and regenerating this connection, there is no future, at least not one that I wish to be a part of."