Witch School.
Jul. 6th, 2006 12:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badstarOn my various pagan wanderings, there have been two traditions that I have examined and had the opportunity to study with folks in that tradition- but rejected. The first was Stregheria, Italian Witchcraft. The second was Corellian Wicca.
I don't know when it was taken down, but the Correlians used to have a tradition listing at http://www.witchvox.com stating, among other things, that they emphasised education and learning, with spells and magic being less of a focus. That was what interested me about them. And then they started their witch school- It's been in the news lately, but it's been aorund for a while. They either bought or were going to buy a building a while back, but the residents of the particular location were particularly hostile, so it remained an online venture for a while...Way back, shortly after it first started online, I checked out the school website. I decided not to do it because even if the classes were free, I had no money to buy books or anything like that.
...now they've bought another building and are opening a school. Some pagans think that this is a really great thing, and it's going to make pagan religions more mainstream, or more respected...I can't find reason to agree
Ten Reasons Why I'm Not Woo-Woo for WitchSchool
by Juliaki
Recently, WitchSchool has received a lot of media coverage as they officially open their business headquarters to the masses. Many people have asked me if I am happy for this, and are surprised when I say I am not. Here are ten reasons why I do not agree with WitchSchool.
1. I am not Harry Potter. Many of the press releases for WitchSchool equate it to Hogwarts. My spiritual path is based on reality, not on fantasy. I do not study potions or fly on a broomstick, so I do not want to be equated with fictional characters that do.
2. No quality control for members or clergy. WitchSchool prides itself on its willingness to train anyone to become a member of their clergy. This means that you have the good, the bad, and the ugly representing your faith. I believe this is a path of service to the divine where not everyone is called to become "insta-clergy" by merely passing multiple-choice tests.
3. "A school funded by eBay and dollar stores." The main source of income for WitchSchool comes through eBay auctions and "Mini Spells"--candles with words to say while the candle is lit. This kind of gimmicky tourist-trap witchcraft runs contrary to the beauty of the spiritual aspects that my path seeks to embrace.
4. I do not want to change your way of life. When WitchSchool purchased an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere (Hoopeston, IL, pop. 6,000) for their headquarters/compound, they received a lot of protests from the town folk. Since WitchSchool moved in, they have opened numerous businesses on Main Street and have even expressed hopes of turning Hoopeston into a "Pagan tourist destination." I believe in being neighborly to those around me, and as I do not want individuals to change my way of life, I believe in "live and let live". A Pagan tourist trap runs contrary to that belief.
5. This is witchcraft, not Amway. Recent press releases have suggested the need for recruitment drives--a desire to have 10,000 teachers of WitchSchool by 2008. My spiritual path does not condone proselytization or any form of recruitment techniques.
6. No "pay-for-pray" clergy. Although WitchSchool offers a few sampler courses for free, a majority of their training requires up-front membership payment to achieve spiritual training. My spiritual path does not condone conferring status based on credit card validation.
7. My spiritual path is not "off-the-rack." To achieve a priest/ess status in WitchSchool, an individual simply has to pass multiple-choice exams and fill out a few slips of paperwork. Although the training does say that you can "tack on" any other religion or spiritual path into your practices, a majority of the Correllian "members" that I have met offer a limited cookie-cutter form of knowledge, catering to the lowest common denominator. My spiritual path embraces the uniqueness that each individual brings in service to the divine and the idea that you should work to be the best you can be, not just a clone of everyone else.
8. Would you trust a driver with a mail-order license? Just as driving a car is a skill that needs hands-on training and instruction, so it is true of many Pagan spiritual paths. Hands-on skills and interpersonal experiences are key to the focus of this spiritual path. These are skills that cannot be taught merely by reading directions on a computer screen.
9. I embrace merits, not merit badges. One of the easiest ways to differentiate a Correllian/WitchSchool individual from any other tradition is by their costumes covered with numerous "merit badge" symbols. My spiritual path does not require external validation by symbols of rank.
10. Ed Hubbard. With the publication of the Witch Wars Defense Manual and many press releases that suggest an apocalyptic viewpoint of a "Christian theocratic" future, Ed Hubbard (CEO of WitchSchool) promotes a face of intolerance toward Christianity and a desire to prepare for a war--even as other individuals work towards interfaith dialogue and understanding. In many ways, Hubbard exemplifies the extremist views that he claims to be fighting against.
This essay is PUBLIC DOMAIN and may be reprinted in its entirety without written permission by the author.
Reading this essay, and a discussion on one of the ADF lists has prompted me to go and look at the website again.
Here's what I turned up:
1. They can't decide how to spell "magic". Pages with multiple occurences of the word show it spelled both "magic" and "magick". can't even mis/spell consistently?? A bit of a red flag.
examples found all over this page
2. Their FAQ: you can't read more than one line from any of the answers (type a "%" to bring up all questions/answers)
3. Want to teach a course? There's not much to it really, Here's the page asking for teachers. Note how there's nothing mentioned about teachers' credentials. They talk about reviewing material for grammer, spelling atc...but not for content ("Any suggested changes of a substantive nature will be sent to you for review and will not be put up on the site without your approval." *might* refer to content...but it is followed with another statement about spelling that leads me to believe that it's strictly a language refernce.)
4. They call themselves "Correllian Nativist Wicca" but have a look herefirst they say that "Correllian Nativism" was established in 1897, which would predate Wicca by about 70 years. Then it goes on to say that it's debateable as to whether it's actually Wicca or not, but that's just "a matter of semantics anyway". According to the page, it started as "Nativism" until 1992, when they changed it to "Correllian Nativism". There NO explaination as to when or where Wicca comes into the picture. Googling the terms "Nativism High Correll" (without the quotes) returns 61 results- some of them not related. The results contain only information that is parotted from the link above. There is also this claim:
Lady Orpheis’ Nativism was a highly political and deeply synchretic form of Pagan universalism, which stressed the need for the world’s Native (Pagan) religions to unite in the face of colonial Christianity.
If they were so political, then why when I google "orpheis nativism" do I find only two pages of results- one of which the search engine says is duplicate information, and again all repeating the same information on the Correllian website- several of them word for word?
(This has nothing to do with the school...but has given me a headache looking over the website: They have their own special calendar. If you read the history page- linked above- you'll notice that they keep giving dates like this: September 4, 1479 Pisces (1879 AD). Why not just say "CE" instead of "AD" if you have such a problem with that designation? But here's a link to information about the calender: http://www.correllian.com/correllcal.htm)
I don't know when it was taken down, but the Correlians used to have a tradition listing at http://www.witchvox.com stating, among other things, that they emphasised education and learning, with spells and magic being less of a focus. That was what interested me about them. And then they started their witch school- It's been in the news lately, but it's been aorund for a while. They either bought or were going to buy a building a while back, but the residents of the particular location were particularly hostile, so it remained an online venture for a while...Way back, shortly after it first started online, I checked out the school website. I decided not to do it because even if the classes were free, I had no money to buy books or anything like that.
...now they've bought another building and are opening a school. Some pagans think that this is a really great thing, and it's going to make pagan religions more mainstream, or more respected...I can't find reason to agree
Ten Reasons Why I'm Not Woo-Woo for WitchSchool
by Juliaki
Recently, WitchSchool has received a lot of media coverage as they officially open their business headquarters to the masses. Many people have asked me if I am happy for this, and are surprised when I say I am not. Here are ten reasons why I do not agree with WitchSchool.
1. I am not Harry Potter. Many of the press releases for WitchSchool equate it to Hogwarts. My spiritual path is based on reality, not on fantasy. I do not study potions or fly on a broomstick, so I do not want to be equated with fictional characters that do.
2. No quality control for members or clergy. WitchSchool prides itself on its willingness to train anyone to become a member of their clergy. This means that you have the good, the bad, and the ugly representing your faith. I believe this is a path of service to the divine where not everyone is called to become "insta-clergy" by merely passing multiple-choice tests.
3. "A school funded by eBay and dollar stores." The main source of income for WitchSchool comes through eBay auctions and "Mini Spells"--candles with words to say while the candle is lit. This kind of gimmicky tourist-trap witchcraft runs contrary to the beauty of the spiritual aspects that my path seeks to embrace.
4. I do not want to change your way of life. When WitchSchool purchased an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere (Hoopeston, IL, pop. 6,000) for their headquarters/compound, they received a lot of protests from the town folk. Since WitchSchool moved in, they have opened numerous businesses on Main Street and have even expressed hopes of turning Hoopeston into a "Pagan tourist destination." I believe in being neighborly to those around me, and as I do not want individuals to change my way of life, I believe in "live and let live". A Pagan tourist trap runs contrary to that belief.
5. This is witchcraft, not Amway. Recent press releases have suggested the need for recruitment drives--a desire to have 10,000 teachers of WitchSchool by 2008. My spiritual path does not condone proselytization or any form of recruitment techniques.
6. No "pay-for-pray" clergy. Although WitchSchool offers a few sampler courses for free, a majority of their training requires up-front membership payment to achieve spiritual training. My spiritual path does not condone conferring status based on credit card validation.
7. My spiritual path is not "off-the-rack." To achieve a priest/ess status in WitchSchool, an individual simply has to pass multiple-choice exams and fill out a few slips of paperwork. Although the training does say that you can "tack on" any other religion or spiritual path into your practices, a majority of the Correllian "members" that I have met offer a limited cookie-cutter form of knowledge, catering to the lowest common denominator. My spiritual path embraces the uniqueness that each individual brings in service to the divine and the idea that you should work to be the best you can be, not just a clone of everyone else.
8. Would you trust a driver with a mail-order license? Just as driving a car is a skill that needs hands-on training and instruction, so it is true of many Pagan spiritual paths. Hands-on skills and interpersonal experiences are key to the focus of this spiritual path. These are skills that cannot be taught merely by reading directions on a computer screen.
9. I embrace merits, not merit badges. One of the easiest ways to differentiate a Correllian/WitchSchool individual from any other tradition is by their costumes covered with numerous "merit badge" symbols. My spiritual path does not require external validation by symbols of rank.
10. Ed Hubbard. With the publication of the Witch Wars Defense Manual and many press releases that suggest an apocalyptic viewpoint of a "Christian theocratic" future, Ed Hubbard (CEO of WitchSchool) promotes a face of intolerance toward Christianity and a desire to prepare for a war--even as other individuals work towards interfaith dialogue and understanding. In many ways, Hubbard exemplifies the extremist views that he claims to be fighting against.
This essay is PUBLIC DOMAIN and may be reprinted in its entirety without written permission by the author.
Reading this essay, and a discussion on one of the ADF lists has prompted me to go and look at the website again.
Here's what I turned up:
1. They can't decide how to spell "magic". Pages with multiple occurences of the word show it spelled both "magic" and "magick". can't even mis/spell consistently?? A bit of a red flag.
examples found all over this page
2. Their FAQ: you can't read more than one line from any of the answers (type a "%" to bring up all questions/answers)
3. Want to teach a course? There's not much to it really, Here's the page asking for teachers. Note how there's nothing mentioned about teachers' credentials. They talk about reviewing material for grammer, spelling atc...but not for content ("Any suggested changes of a substantive nature will be sent to you for review and will not be put up on the site without your approval." *might* refer to content...but it is followed with another statement about spelling that leads me to believe that it's strictly a language refernce.)
4. They call themselves "Correllian Nativist Wicca" but have a look herefirst they say that "Correllian Nativism" was established in 1897, which would predate Wicca by about 70 years. Then it goes on to say that it's debateable as to whether it's actually Wicca or not, but that's just "a matter of semantics anyway". According to the page, it started as "Nativism" until 1992, when they changed it to "Correllian Nativism". There NO explaination as to when or where Wicca comes into the picture. Googling the terms "Nativism High Correll" (without the quotes) returns 61 results- some of them not related. The results contain only information that is parotted from the link above. There is also this claim:
Lady Orpheis’ Nativism was a highly political and deeply synchretic form of Pagan universalism, which stressed the need for the world’s Native (Pagan) religions to unite in the face of colonial Christianity.
If they were so political, then why when I google "orpheis nativism" do I find only two pages of results- one of which the search engine says is duplicate information, and again all repeating the same information on the Correllian website- several of them word for word?
(This has nothing to do with the school...but has given me a headache looking over the website: They have their own special calendar. If you read the history page- linked above- you'll notice that they keep giving dates like this: September 4, 1479 Pisces (1879 AD). Why not just say "CE" instead of "AD" if you have such a problem with that designation? But here's a link to information about the calender: http://www.correllian.com/correllcal.htm)
