Where can I learn about Paganism/Wicca/Witchcraft?
I get this question a lot! With so much conflicting information out there, and so many places to look, it can seem very overwhelming to the beginner. So I thought I’d post about where I have learned much of what I know, in case this is the resource you’ve been searching for like it was for me! As someone who’s broke I have no real extra money to spend on resources, and one of the coolest things I’ve ever found is a free online school called The Magickal Circle School. I really like Magickal Circle because they have so many classes, on Wicca, general Paganism, and beyond. Some of the things I really like about it are that they encourage you to go out and learn from as many resources as you can find, so you’re not just learning /their/ way of doing things, you’re getting perspectives from them and various internet sources and other Pagans all the time, so you come to your own conclusions at the end of the day about what and how you believe things should be. They never try to force you to believe just like they do. Even though they expect you to find resources and stuff, they put all the general ideas of what you’re studying in order for you which makes going out onto the internet and trying to research things MUCH more organized, so that you get less misinformation, and get the information in the right order and get your basics down good before you move on to more advanced knowledge. The school has also compiled its own “Resource Library”, which is only accessible to students and has definitions and information on just about any Pagan subject you could want to know about and serves as a good starting point for getting accurate information and knowing better what you’re looking for when you’re researching. I will say, they take it very seriously. If you’re not interested in doing the work, don’t sign up. They ask everyone submit something at least every 30 days, and if you don’t your account can be swept from the system. If you need a leave of absence, they are willing to work with people. Making it through the orientation class feels a bit daunting at times, there is a lot you have to go through to get a full understanding of what they expect and how to navigate the site, and you have to wait for things to be graded and sometimes that takes a few days, the teachers are real people who are running the site for free, so sometimes a bit of patience is needed. If you get through the orientation though, it opens up a whole world of information! I definitely feel it’s worth the time. Some classes can’t be accessed until other prerequisite classes are completed, but there is a good amount that can be started right after orientation. If you’re looking to get into Wicca, Basic Wicca is a three part class they offer that should cover what you’re looking for! You can also delve into other more niche classes, like “Creating A Book of Shadows” or “Correspondences of Spellcrafting” for example, even classes like “Norse Goddesses” or . They really offer a wide variety of things, and I hope you will check it out and that it can assist you in your spiritual journey! It’s themagickalcircle.net, or just google Magickal Circle School and it’ll pop up right away. The school is currently going through a lot of reworking, including rewriting classes, and it actually has changed leadership in recent years. Anyone who has enrolled here before may remember Colleen, and she has left the school and they’re doing a lot of work to restructure parts of the site, tidy up the resource library, and get classes rewritten and back up! There is plenty there that is available right now though, even amidst the reworks. I mention this in case some of you are familiar with how it was before and didn’t like it, they have changed some things since then and it’s worth giving another look if you’re trying to delve deeper into anything related to Paganism!