This Europe: Online school for aspiring witches steers clear of hocus-pocus
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Your support makes all the difference.Europe's first School of Witchcraft will not teach you how to fly a broomstick or cast spells with the flick of a wand, but it does promise to turn determined students into witches.
The school, in the southern Austrian city of Klagenfurt, might sound hocus-pocus, but those looking to emulate Harry Potter will be disappointed: the curriculum is downright scientific, and eye of newt is nowhere to be seen.
Andreas Starchel, the headmaster who prefers to be known by his druid name Danaketh, said he established the school to demystify witchcraft.
"Everything that is taught and learnt at our school can be proven using natural scientific and psychological methods," he said during a training session in the woods.
"We teach everything needed to become a real witch in the historical sense, that is to have an all-encompassing knowledge of nature and a highly developed sense of intuition.
"Being a witch is not inborn. Anyone can learn to become one," he added.
Nevertheless the school has received a huge fillip from the Harry Potter books by J K Rowling and television series such as Sabrina the Teenage Witch. "We actually had kids phoning up asking whether they could ditch their school and enrol with us," Mr Starchel said.
He added: "Witchcraft has got absolutely nothing to do with the folklore image of evil witches with green faces and warts on their nose. It's about becoming a rounded person who lives in harmony with nature."
Mr Starchel stresses that his school, established in 1998 for wannabe witches and druids of 18 and older, has no ties with religious organisations or any esoteric movement. The syllabus originally lasted three years but has now been revised to suit students' busy schedules. Courses are available over the internet, because most of the students live outside Austria.
A student graduates with a venefica or veneficus (from the Latin for witch/druid) certificate after passing written exams in seven modules and submitting a final thesis.
The first module focuses on "how to find sources of energy in nature and channel it". Other modules include astronomy, astrology, botany, holistic healing and ritual magic.
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