For those who walk the crooked paths of traditional craft, the call to explore, learn, and return to foundational practices never truly fades. At Blackthorne, it is my (Calahn de le Luna) honour to share teachers whose work is shaped not only by study, but by lived experience, devotion, and the deep intelligence of land and lineage.
Lee Morgan is one such teacher. His journey through ancestry, imagination, scholarship, and survival has shaped a distinctive approach to the craft, one rooted in relationship, continuity, and the living threads of history.
From his earliest experiences and ancestral connections, Lee’s path has been shaped by a deep sense of place and by the bridges he walks between past and present, land and spirit.
Roots and Ancestry
Lee is beset by an unusual mission. According to his mitochondrial DNA his mother’s family have lived in the West Country of England since the Neolithic period. Despite this long settled ancestry, Lee’s mother brought their line to Australia. His dual-citizenship and moving back and forth between these two great lands has torn open a newer, deeper appreciation for place, continuity and ancestry.
Folklore, Magic, and the Liminal
Folklore and magic have obsessed him all his life, leading him eventually to post-graduate research in an occult-related topic. Always in a liminal space between things, Lee gets excited when things start talking to one another. Whether they be niche-minded people, like those initiated into Traditional Witchcraft, and those outside of it. He loves to hear when straight-identified people weep over a same sex love story.
When it comes to the world of the imagination, as David Mitchell put it:
“All boundaries are conventions, waiting to be transcended.”
Feathers in His Hat
There are a lot of different feathers in Lee’s hat, from having redeveloped Folk Doctoring, based on research and spirit-led experience, to academic experiences, and writing Folk Horror and what can only be called folk eroticism. Lee is interested in finding new pathways through things. His work in teaching from Traditional Witchcraft, as a way of thinking and living, rather than teaching his own tradition of witchcraft, is also a revolutionary act. He lives on a communal homestead on Kunanyi/Mt Wellington, where he creates sanctuary for other weirdos, raises books, people, and ideas from the grave. He has had novels and non-fiction published by Collective Ink Books, Three Hands Press, Witches Almanac, Rebel Satori and Crossed Crow Books.
Career Highlights
From his point of view, some of the highlights of his career have involved speaking about his work at Watkins Books in London, which helped to bridge the gap between his location in Lutruwita/ Tasmania, and his intense love for the land of his ancestors. Receiving an Australian Post-Graduate award where he got paid to research on his favourite topic, and participating in The People’s Library artwork in Tasmania where his novel was part of an installation. Lee now finds himself having been chosen for a residency to treat clients through Folk Doctoring. At the same time, he is brewing a new thesis idea, interested as always in breaking down the walls between books published for witches and the language of the academy.
Survival, Community, and Creation
Having survived an enormous tumour, where surgeons warned his intellect might be impacted, which led to a whole string of operations where his head was cut into, Lee is currently busy filling the fresh room the tumour left in his skull with new brains. His time is taken up trying to become a modern Renaissance man, working on the property, chainsawing wood, and writing a kind of Folk Horror that cross-pollinates in hybrid, monstrous ways with other art forms. He is greatly blessed with an incredible support network, especially in his immediate coven brothers and sisters who stood by him and upheld him during his worst and darkest moments. He will die with and beside these people. And also with the presence of a kelpie rescue dog named Clementine, who doesn’t perform any of the working dog jobs one might have hoped for, but is loved despite this fact.
Teaching the Craft
These lived experiences of land, lineage, scholarship, survival, and spirit shape every aspect of Lee’s teaching. In Flight, Fetch & Familiars, he offers more than a course: it is an invitation to step into the foundations of traditional craft as a living practice, one that is felt, relational, and woven into everyday life. Students are guided into a deeper relationship with the hearth, the fetch, familiars, and the serpentine currents of the craft, exploring not just techniques, but the imagination and ancestral wisdom that bring the work alive.
If you are called to study with Lee, you can learn more about Flight, Fetch & Familiars here.
And if you are a teacher, practitioner, or guide whose work is rooted in lived practice and deep tradition, know that at Blackthorne, we are always listening for new voices. We continue to seek those who feel called to teach, share, and walk alongside our students. If that call speaks to you, we would love to hear from you.
