quote:

---

(Appelscha) Dutch witches were guaranteed a financial treat when the Leeuwarden District Court reaffirmed their legal right to write off the costs of schooling, including in witchcraft, against their tax bills. Those costs run to thousands of dollars.

On Sept. 23, the court found that a witch can declare schooling costs if it increases the likelihood of employment and personal income.

Rongen, a mother of two grown children, runs a school for witches called the "Witches Homestead," in the northern Friesland province of the Netherlands.

She has trained more than 160 disciples over the past four decades in "a religion that is older than Christianity," she said.

Courses are held 13 weekends a year closest to a full moon when outdoor rituals are practiced and potions boiled. Participants learn healing with herbs and stones, divination and fortune-telling with crystal balls and hieroglyphs, and how to make potions.

The cost is $206 US per weekend, including reading material, lodgings and the tools needed for witchcraft. The full course of 13 weekends runs $2,678 and is open to women and men over 18.

[...]

Legislator Pieter Omtzigt was astounded to hear the country was funding witchcraft and asked for clarification.

He got an answer to his question last week in a letter from Junior Finance Minister Joop Wijn, saying that "Under the circumstances, the cost of a course to become a witch qualifies as school fees."

---

[ 31 October 2005: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

quote:

---

Originally posted by HeywoodFloyd:
If I started one I'd call it "That".

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by RealityBites:

???

---

Which Witch school does your daughter go to?

That one.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nanuq:

I wonder how much training you need to start a witch school here in Canada? It sounds like a lucrative business.

---

quote:

---

The most prevalent Wiccan sect in Canada is, if memory serves, the Wiccan Church of Canada. It would take a minimum of three years' training (probably more) to run such classes. As a Gardnerian traditon, though, the Wiccan Church of Canada is unlikely to support such an endeavor. Craft Law specifically prohibits charging money for religious training or initiations and the Gardnerian traditions are among the strictest when it comes to Craft Law. The description in the article makes it appear that this disreputable practice is what is going on in the Netherlands. While material costs (books, usually) are sometimes charged, US$ 206 a month is ridiculously high.

That said, the interaction between religions and the state is governed predominately by provincial, rather than federal, law in Canada. If religious schools are funded by the provincial or federal governments in Canada, then a Wiccan school should be treated no differently from any other cult. If seminaries recieve government monies, then the Wiccan equivalent ought to also.

Before anyone goes running off to found a 'witch school' they should be warned that there are thousands of qualified teachers who are quite accustomed to providing a religious education for free. I should imagine that the competition would be difficult to overcome and that such an endeavor would be unlikely to be lucrative.

---

[ 02 November 2005: Message edited by: Papal Bull ]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nanuq:
I wonder how much training you need to start a witch school here in Canada? It sounds like a lucrative business.

---