Witch School being auctioned off


The wheel turns

Last night I got news from regular reader Juliaki and from this Jason Pitzl-Waters entry at The Wild Hunt Blog that Witchschool.com was for sale at eBay. My LiveJournal Friends page turned up the Lupa post that Jason was talking about. She's been nice enough to post the auction FAQ from eBay at her LiveJournal.

Oh my. Pagan politics and fallout.

I was raised Baptist and I saw more than a few political battles. Later I became Methodist and I spent a short while studying to be a minister. While the Methodists have their problems, one of the strengths is that the financial parts of the local church are split from the administrative parts and the ministerial parts. Basically the Admin Council can set goals, but needs the Trustees to approve spending. And the clergy isn't in charge of either.

That kind of decentralization appeals to me on multiple levels.

One of the reasons why I stopped being a Christian was because I believe in local action by local groups. As a rule of thumb, if you accept out-of-town money you also accept out-of-town control. And frankly, if a group can't support itself out of it's own resources, then that probably shows that they shouldn't be a group.

As you can probably tell by now, I have a real problem with what I call the "Pagan Pope thing." That is where a bunch of Pagans (sometimes Big Name, sometimes not) get together and decide that it would be a Really Good Idea If The Pagan Community Spoke With One Voice, Or At Least With One Group Of Voices.

neo's rule of thumb #21 - Beware Anyone Who Speaks Or Types In Capital Letters. And yes, that includes me.

I've no issues with them speaking for themselves, but I have plenty of issues with them presuming to speak for me without so much as a "If you don't mind..."

Online schools in general are shaky. If you are going to have a teacher, you should have face to face time with that teacher. It helps if your teacher knows their subject AND knows how to teach. It helps even more if the teacher is positively passionate about it.

Do I think Witch School is worth saving? If I were approaching it as an outside investor, not really. Aside from the mixing problems with administration, finances, and clergy that I mentioned before, it's too limited a market. There aren't enough people willing to take the classes to make it a going concern. Too many of it's students stop before completing even the first degree. What students it does have seem to be strapped for cash. And a significant number of reputable Pagans look down at witchschool.com.

Add the issues of contract liability, and I don't think it can make money. Certainly not while trying to maintain a physical campus.

Do I think that any modern Pagan religion can make money?

Why should it?

Posted: Thu - April 12, 2007 at 04:56 AM
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