The Black Hat Society

I can't believe I've gone this long without writing an entire post dedicated to the witchcraft school I help run!

The Black Hat Society was created shortly after lock down (as many online groups were during that time) by a wonderful woman who goes by the screen name Sneak.  At first she was gathering people together for her tarot classes, it then morphed into a Discord for both beginner's witchcraft and tarot.  Today it hosts many different topics under the umbrella of witchcraft.

Back in October, after watching how streamlined Ana's assignments looked on Google Classroom, I decided that I would start gathering all the information I have all in one place.  I've been adding material to it frequently.  In fact just today, after cleaning through some old emails in my send box, I found one I had sent to Shadow with 33 individual fully loaded PDF's with all manner of great information.  I spent a good chunk of this afternoon adding them one by one to the Classroom.

Once a week we have classes, usually on Saturday unless something comes up.  We have created a real curriculum of the basics that every witch should know.  I make college level lecture slides to go with my workshops and classes.  It's all for free and I thoroughly enjoy it.  I'm not the only one teacher either, we take turns so that no one person is bogged down with the task, and often we teach in pairs, constructing our slides together.  It works beautifully.

It's a labor of love, and one that I believe is necessary.  There is so much misinformation online when it comes to the craft, Wicca and neo-paganism.  I'm not just talking about Christians saying we worship the devil.  I'm talking about young people who think witchcraft is a fad filled with chakras, rainbows and crystals, instead of an established spiritual practice that has had a bad reputation for centuries.  I wouldn't have dreamed of teaching at the age of 15, I had only dedicated myself at 13, what the hell did I know?  Even at 36, I am still learning, and while I feel comfortable teaching the basics, I still confer with elders who are 20 or 30 years older than me, because they really know what the heck they're doing.

I can't wait to be able to go to Witch Fest, Pagan Pride, and New Life Expo this year so I can sit in workshops, take copious notes, and then re teach that material to people that don't have access to the amazing experiences I do living so close to Manhattan. 

Doing this type of work really gives me a sense of pride.  I'm reading and writing more, having worthwhile discussions about a topic that is near and dear to my heart, and I'm beginning to think outside the box when it comes to teaching those who need further assistance, like the few students we have who can't visualize due to aphantasia. 

I really do think that we have the best Classroom out there.  Today I decided to do some snooping after someone posted a link to their empty Classroom asking everyone to contribute.  I flat out told the person that I wasn't going to bother cross checking material if they had nothing to share.  That got me using Google to search for random Classrooms, and low and behold after joining about 10 very popular ones, all with hundreds of students (the most was 742), I found that they had little to no information.  No charts, no PDF's, no books.  One person only had links to their Tumblr (which ironically I don't belong to), and when I clicked on each one, it was nothing more than a few sentences, a definition of the topic at most.  I only found one set of slides.  It was 6 slides that looked like a middle schooler had thrown together, no diagrams, photographs, nothing.  Witchcraft is such a visual practice, with sights, smells, and sounds, how do you leave that stuff out?  Beginners need to be able to see what's you're describing so they know exactly what to do.

Besides weekly classes, we also hold ritual on the Sabbats and sometimes the Esbats (new or full moon).  I am resident High Priestess, and though I am Wiccan, I usually perform them secularly so that everyone can participate.  Occasionally I call upon a specific Goddess for a particular working, but I let everyone who is taking part know that they do not personally need to ask that deity to visit their circle.

After almost a year, I wholeheartedly feel that we have a wonderful program running for everyone.  Our Discord and Google Classroom are invite only, so we can weed out the people who are not serious students.  We're making a lot of people happy, and in turn that makes everyone who helps run The Black Hat Society happy.