The lessons in this class are designed to give you a broad understanding of witchcraft in the United States and to a lesser extent in Canada and Northern Europe.  The class is geared toward you finding your own path, and most of the materials are non-denominational.

Because modern neo-Paganism, especially Wicca, has refined the magic and spells of witchcraft to such a great extent, you’ll see Wiccan influences here and there.   This is also entirely appropriate as it is being taught by a traditional Wiccan and I’ll be teaching what I know.  I have practiced witchcraft since 1986, during which time period I took a six-year sojourn into the lands of ceremonial magic, and a two-year bout with Gnostic Christianity.

We have Wiccans to thank for dragging the spells from those dusty old grimoires kicking and screaming out of the Middle Ages, testing them, tossing out the ‘bat wings’ and ‘cat blood’, and making cohesive, understandable, and successful workings by combining them with traditional folk practices and modern science.  Due to this foundational work, there will be many elements discussed in these lessons that are derived from Wicca such as casting a circle or creating sacred space before doing magic.

For the past 20-30 years, the internet has helped witches connect to each other.  This has helped us to refine witchcraft even further through sharing spells, recipes, and experiences.

When a practice is specifically Wiccan, such as an invocation or prayer to a deity, we’ll make it very clear that you don’t have to use the words provided that include deities, and we’ll provide alternative wording and instructions on how to compose your own.

If you had to put a label on this class, it would be Universal Omnistic Syncretic Witchcraft.  But that’s a lot of big words.  Still, it is easier than to say that this class is non-denominational spirituality but not “religious”, acknowledges that all paths have some truth but no path has all the truth and that we will utilize (but not culturally appropriate) concepts and techniques from a variety of sources while keeping a healthy respect for modern scientific evidence.