A w Klagenfurcie
Leszek Andrzej Kleczkowski
VIENNA, Oct 4 (AFP) -
Austrian fans of Harry Potter can follow in their idol's footsteps at a
real-life Hogwarts: the country's first school for wizards and witches
is open for business.
Students at the school, in Klagenfurt, southern Austria, can take a
six-semester course including learning to make potions and cast spells,
ending in a "sorcerers' diploma."
"Wizardry is very close to nature and is in no way a form of religion,"
said school director Andreas Sdarchel, who also calls himself the wizard
Dakaneth.
"The school's aim is to pass on witches' and wizards' ancestral
knowledge, which is gradually being forgotten," says the school's
website.
Amid the international surge in interest in wizardry fueled by British
author J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, the school -- set against a
mysticism-enducing Alpine backdrop -- is well set to cash in.
"In the past, witches and wizards were people recognised by society, who
used their divining powers and learning to mediate between the visible
and invisible worlds," a spokesman said.
"Etymologically, 'witch' means someone who is on the border between our
world and the beyond," it added, saying the aim of courses was "to
restore contact with nature, which has been lost by our society."
That means that Celtic and druidic learning and nature studies play a
large part in Sdarchel's teachings, while stories of the legendary Lord
Voldemort and Defence Against the Dark Arts do not.
"Our school is unusual because we do not stop at teaching the occult
and spiritualism. We don't just teach our students astrology -- we
teach them astronomy as well," Sdarchel explained.
In fact the school, which has just started its new term, has been
running for three years. "At first teaching was individual, each
sorcery-master had one pupil in his charge," said Sdarchel.
The school caters for three classes of students. This year up to 15
sorcerers' apprentices will be taught astrology, magic, history of
magic, meditation and divination.
They meet once a semester for a four-day seminar during which they put
their theoretical studies into practice: preparing potions, making
talismans and performing rituals.
Having completed a final examination and a dissertation, the student
witches and wizards receive a "veneficus certificate" to mark their
qualification.
The school is based in Carinthia, a spectacular province of lakes and
mountains in southern Austria near the Italian border, run by Austrian
far-right leader Joerg Haider.
But even the ancient art of wizardry has had to give ground to the
computer age: the course can also be studied by distance learning or
interactively on the Internet.
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