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

In an age of spiritual isolation, witches are forming covens that defy the oppressive natures of man and church

On 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 bandannas. Some wear Columbia fleeces, spaghetti-strap tank tops and Adidas sneakers.

Isabella Ferrari, known as Penny the Witch, guides the women as they make divination maps, sheets of paper covered with yeses" and nos" that work like Ouija boards: the witches ask their questions and the spirits guide the crystal pendulums in their hands towards the answer. One of the women, Tara Monte, screeches as her pendulum begins circling uncontrollably. Isabella, do I stop this? Someone really wants to talk to me." Later, she will confess she believes it was her archangel Michael letting her know yes, her parents were proud of her. Yes, they still loved her.