Founding Mothers

The legend says that when Libussa decided to create the school, she looked in all four directions. From each direction, a great witch arrived to help her teach and shape young minds.

From the West Mother Shipton arrived, the famous soothsayer and prophetess, who could see into the past, the present, and the future and who guided Libussa during her quest.

From the South she got Aradia di Toscano, the teacher and leader of the Italian witches, who helped Libussa build the school and the community around it.

From the East, Vasilisa arrived, the legendary enchantress, who offered the aid of herself and her wooden doll to help Libussa overcome all difficulties.

And finally from the North, Libussa brought the unbreakable and stout-hearted Märet Jonsdotter, one of the victims of the Swedish witch trials, to help her shape the students’ spirits.

And so the Czocha Hecatic Academy of Witchcraft was born.

The Five Houses

Libussa

Founder: Libuše, Czech witch, founder of the school.
Element: spirit (aether)
Colour: purple
Direction: center
Symbolic plant: white rose
Values: creativity, change, innovation
Motto: Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay. (Simone de Beauvoir)

House Libussa is the home of those who value creativity and innovation. Progressive young minds that are not afraid of change tend to thrive in this house. Members of House Libussa excel mostly in new and exciting fields of study. History might be boring for them, but they know that real change can only happen after truly understanding the past .

Vasilisa

Founder: Vasilisa the Beautiful (Василиса Прекрасная), Slavic witch, accompanied by her enchanted wooden doll
Element: earth
Colour: green
Direction: east
Symbolic plant: birch tree
Values: guidance, spirituality, trust
Motto: Liberation does not come from outside. (Gloria Steinem)

House Vasilisa is the home of all those who value spirituality and trust above anything else. Members of this house believe that knowledge and experience will lead you nowhere if your heart is empty and in order to achieve your goal you should accept the guidance of others. Vasilisa students tend to excel in Mind Magic and other fields that require focus, peace, and meditation.

Aradia

Founder: Aradia di Toscana, the traveller, the leader of Italian witches, originally from Africa
Element: water
Colour: silver
Direction: south
Symbolic plant: rowan
Values: leadership, sisterhood, unity
Motto: Virtue can only flourish among equals. (Mary Wollstonecraft)

Members of house Aradia are born leaders. However, they understand that true leadership can only flourish among equals. Unified and dedicated to building, developing, and protecting community in all its forms, those who are the members of house Aradia fully accept this difficult but rewarding path. They are also prone to exploration and love to discover distant lands as their founder once did.

Jonsdotter

Founder: Märet Jonsdotter, Swedish witch, one of the victims of the witch trials
Element: fire
Colour: red
Direction: north
Symbolic plant: oak
Values: courage, perseverance, strength
Motto: This above all, to refuse to be a victim. (Margaret Atwood)

Members of House Jonsdotter refuse to give up. They value courage and perseverance and they hate injustice more than anything else. This house is usually the home of very active students who are not afraid of challenges and battles that they might encounter in life. They despise weakness, but are also aware that strength can come in various forms, not just physical prowess or skill in combat.

Shipton

Founder: Mother Shipton, blind soothsayer from Great Britain
Element: air
Colour: teal
Direction: west
Symbolic plant: chamomile 
Values: foresight, wisdom, experience
Motto: History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. (Maya Angelou)

House Shipton members value wisdom and experience above everything else. However they do not lock themselves in ancient history, as they firmly believe that past, present, and future are woven together. Only by accepting all three of them can real wisdom be achieved. Students especially gifted in divination art find themselves especially at home in this house.

Not sure where you belong?

Take the house quiz to find out!

Paths

In Hecatic Academy of Witchcraft students can choose one of five paths. Each path has two primary subjects.

  • Medica – this path teaches students how to heal the body and the mind using potions, rituals, spells, magical objects, and plants. Students will learn how to heal wounds and sickness and how to cure the the results of malevolent magic. The primary subject are herbology and alchemy.
  • Materia – this path deals with “matter,” its fixations and alterations, and the rules that are applied to it. Students will learn about the foundations of the material world and how they can manipulate matter in safe and effective way. The primary subjects are elemental magic and transformative magic.
  • Varietas – this path teaches the similarities and differences between humans and other creatures while combining the heritage of Dianic hunting magic and the idea that all creatures are, deep down, the same. The primary subjects are beastology and fae studies.
  • Universitas – this path deals with cosmos and universal laws of this world. It is less practical than other paths, but its teachings are the foundation of many other fields of study, including divination and chronomancy. The primary subjects are lunar magic and tempus magic.
  • Humanitas – this path deals with the mind and body of human beings. The difference between this and Medica path is that Humanitas students learn not how to heal, but how to manipulate the body and the mind. It is the most difficult path and students need to prove themselves worthy before they are allowed to study it. The primary subjects are mind magic and blood magic.

Subjects

There are 13 different subjects that are taught at the Hecatic Academy of Witchcraft.

  • Herbology – Study of plants and their magical effects. Students learn how to grow magical flora, how to take care of it, and how to use it for potions and rituals.
  • Alchemy – Study of magical elixirs and draughts. Students will learn how to brew potions and how to use them effectively.
  • Elemental Magic – Study of the five elements (fire, water, earth, air, spirit or aether). Students will learn how the elements are connected, how they affect humans, and how they can be used in magic.
  • Transformative Magic – Study of the magic of change. Students will learn how to transform objects into other objects, how to animate insensate objects, and how to transform living beings, including themselves.
  • Beastology –  Study of magical animals and creatures. Heavily inspired by Dianic magic of the hunt, but also focused on recognizing similarities and differences between humans and other species.
  • Fae Studies – Study of fae, their magic, and rules that witchards must obey when dealing with them. Students will learn all the do’s and don’ts of dealing with fae.
  • Lunar Magic – Study of the magic of the moon and its impact on humans and their magic. Students will learn how to draw on the power of the moon and how lunar phases affect magic.
  • Tempus Magic – Study of magic of the seasons, time, and change. Students will learn how to use time in their magic, why some moments of the year are better for performing certain rituals, and how to safely manipulate time.
  • Mind Magic – Study of magical manipulations of the mind, its risks, and gains. Students will learn how to affect the minds of others and what dangers it entails.
  • Blood Magic – The studies of manipulations and alterations of the human body. Very dangerous and potentially fatal magical field. Taught under strict supervision.
  • Wand Magic – As female magic is traditionally wandless and uses mostly potions, meditation, rituals, and runes, this subject has been introduced recently as an attempt to show the students a different type of magic. Students will learn how to create their own wands, how to channel the magic through it, and what type of magic it proves to be most useful for.
  • Divination – Study of prophecies and  soothsaying. Student will learn different ways of foretelling the future and the moral implications of sharing the prophecy with the world or keeping it to yourself. Difficult and potentially soul-consuming subject.
  • Technomancy – The newest subject in the curriculum, technomancy replaced the previous subject of Enchantment. It is a study of combining magic and mundane technology, born quite recently due to rapid industrialization and the progress of mundane science.