A School of Magic/k/Witchcraft/the Occult

[XAmerican_PrinceX]

Do you believe that a school, or a university, that taught the concepts and practical uses of different forms of magic would actually work?

Do you think that the biases and arguments among the occult community would destroy it? Would it end in 'gang wars' of a sort or do you think that people would be able to put their differences aside and learn from one another?  

[Rustig]

A formal, "proper" school or university would be entirely out of the question, I think -- the field of the occult is so disparate and disorganised that I doubt any network of professional education authorities would want to touch it except in the form of religion and mythology classes, of which there's already a few.

An informal school has almost certainly already been done before, though the ones I've heard about tend be small affairs.

You're right, though -- I imagine that the various schisms in belief and thought among magick-based study would end up causing factions in not only the student body, but in the staff as well, which would spell nothing but doom for the organisation.  

[XAmerican_PrinceX]

I know that Witch School (www.witchschool.com) has been gaining popularity, but I think it almost feels like they are pushing their version of the religion only. I'm thinking more along the line of a library or a place to store knowledge instead of sludging through books and websites that always end with"...and the fairies of light will sprinkle happy dust on you..." or "...and the demon (insert obscure and/or maybe up piece of christian philosophy) with be summoned and smite your foes"

It would be nice to have things more organized.  

[xxravenohayexx]

The idea of an actual school seems doomed to fail. There is to much biased in the occult community, to many "cliques". Anyone wishing to learn has a lot of research to look forward to.  

[VixenxVid3licit]

I believe the internet it's self is the best place to connect with other occultists since we have a tendency to stay at home and read our books ;P You can get so many occult volumes for free on the internet. It's a life saver. I do better with one on one interaction than with actual 'school' but I do wish I felt more comfortable talking to people about what I believe in my personal life.

I agree that things could be better organized.  

[Nymshi]

A traditional school? Probably not. A school like setting with minds both willing and capable to learn such things? Definitely--and for that matter likely already being done in more ways than just traditional meeting and the Internet.

The differing beliefs wouldn't be a problem either as the students that one would want to select for such a school would be those who are of freer thought than this. You certainly cannot teach someone who is convinced that they already know everything, so it would make no sense to have them for students.

Still, this topic seems more focused on the aspect of a traditional school model, so I'll leave it at that.  

[Mistreena]

It would be interesting, though as everyone else has said it is likely to fail.
However, I the concept could be worked on...maybe...
I have always wanted to take a class about an Eastern religion or folklore or whatnot. The way university (or at least the arts program) is set up is that you can choose the courses you want to take. Maybe this just shows how little I really know about the occult, but is there any chance it would work by teaching different things in different classes and the students just choose what they wish to learn?
But at the same time, if one class presents fact A, while another class presents fact B, and fact A and fact B conflict, the student still doesn't know what to think. It's all so confusing.  

[Ishtar Shakti]

I think it could if metaphysics didn't get soo debunked. I think their needs to be a better collection on data and less focus on religion etc.  

[p33p33s]

►► I say yes. There already are classes. Maybe not formal schools like with buildings at least that I am aware of.

The computer is a tool ;D  

[Musubi P.]

I don't understand your quarrel. I mean such schools existed for about 200 years. The masons, golden dawn etc.

You can easily join those organizations online and move up their ranks.

Some schools just to name a few:
Dragon Rouge
The Temple of Set
OTO (there are many versions of this, I guess it's still active)
Plus I remember there was a neo reincarnation of the golden dawn somewhere.


And as far as an university goes. There are many unaccredited universities that each magick, spirituality and the like. And there's a heap of correspondence courses that give you accredited diplomas/certificates in the field (meaning that in the uk at least (or europe) you can legally practice with it ,and in the uk you're covered by insurance.

Some correspondence schools:
http://www.naturalhealthcourses.com/home.htm
http://www.bsygroup.co.uk/

And many many more. And there are many schools, seminars etc. that accept people of all ages. Pretty much all esoteric knowledge of old is now freely available you just have to know where to look.
True some of those are better than others, but the truth is that this applies to everything. The thing is that the amount of false information in this business is higher than in most other businesses.  

[Musubi P.]

Oh yeah and you can actually have an accredited higher education in chinese medicine and ayurveda from the university of middlesex (uk). It's an legitimate and respected school
http://www.mdx.ac.uk/

Plus in India normal physicians practice ayurveda.  

[Sneaker Pimps]

XAmerican_PrinceX

Do you believe that a school, or a university, that taught the concepts and practical uses of different forms of magic would actually work?

Do you think that the biases and arguments among the occult community would destroy it? Would it end in 'gang wars' of a sort or do you think that people would be able to put their differences aside and learn from one another?

Of course there would be people to judge and shun the teacher students and people who founded it but I think it wold be a great idea I would go be a student without a doubt.  

[Ask Jappleack]

XAmerican_PrinceX

Do you believe that a school, or a university, that taught the concepts and practical uses of different forms of magic would actually work?

Do you think that the biases and arguments among the occult community would destroy it? Would it end in 'gang wars' of a sort or do you think that people would be able to put their differences aside and learn from one another?

theres already an internet school such as this that teaches history and stuff and herbology and stuff but its free for certain classes other classes u can get unlimited amounts if u pay a monthly or yearly or lifetime fee *looks for link* http://www.witchschool.com/
it has soem ridiculous classes though like one about the history/mythology of unicorns XD  

[Adice_Adice]

I think there is a reason that magic has been passed down from a master to an apprentice since the dawn of magic(k). having that many different but like minded people in the same building would just be asking for trouble. It would be like harry potter on crack. and with such a large student body it would be much easier for the crack potted "I want to enslave the human race with the power of demons" kind of kids to be accepted.


I personally have trained two students so far the first tried to kill me and the second learned enough to know he didn't want to know any more. Now im a very good judge of character and even still have made some wrong choices in students. Can you imagine the difficulty of weeding out the crazes when your accepting 200-300 students a year?  

[PrometheanSet]

A Seminary of sorts could work, depending on what manner of magic you would teach.

-The College of Thelema works a little with the OTO, so that works. I get the impression that this is one of those offshoots where an OTO member is supposed to sorta start their own thing after they reach a certain grade, but I could be mistaken. This is the closest thing you'll have to a true "School of Magic" but its Thelemic Ceremonial Magic - which can't be isolated from the beliefs of Thelema. This is really an outlined preparation for entry into the OTO, and uhm... yeah, I'm not comfortable with recommending that, nor with saying what I know.

-Cherry Hill Seminary is for training Pagan Ministers, so it would be a odd for them not to teach magic of some sort.

-The CUUPS (I forget what the C and S stand for, but the middle is 'Unitarian Universalist Pagans') is a program for (gasp!) Pagans. While not a curriculum oriented school, you might learn some things there if you ask for help.

Prettymuch whatever your belief structure is, there's a group for that. The IOT for Chaos Magicians (unless you dislike snobbery) is a group where I believe people teach each other - considering how original research is a requirement for entry. This is probably a lot closer to a "school of magic" than anything else on this list, but I'm not exactly saying its the pinnacle of existence.


These aren't all of them, just some of the more visible ones. Oh, then there's the Covenant of the Goddess, but they're focused on legal work these days...

Whatever your path, there are groups out there to teach. Kinda like private schools, they do have costs to keep their doors open and keep people fed, so be aware that nothing comes for free.