Sinead Spearing

These women were never witches. They were the last practitioners of an ancient healing tradition — and their erasure was deliberate.

A ninth-century remedy from Bald’s Leechbook instructs the healer to place a live raven’s eyes on the neck to cure swelling in the human eye. Behind this unsettling prescription lies a symbolic medical tradition rooted in folklore, sympathetic healing, and a worldview where body and spirit were never separate.

My Grandad was a war veteran, a photographer, and an engineer. He made things work when others gave up. And when the system failed me — when I was taken from an abusive foster home that should never have existed — he was the one who came.