Charging Money To Teach Witchcraft

I’ve seen teachers of witchcraft who don’t charge anything. I’ve seen teachers who accept payment, but don’t require it. I’ve seen teachers who have an anonymous tip jar by the door. And I’ve seen teachers who require regular payments on time or they kick you out. I know good people who use all these systems. I’ve heard about bad people who use all these systems. Which one is right for you?

First off, British Traditional Witches – Kingstone, Alexandrian, Silver Crescent, Gardnerian (hey, that’s me!) – are forbidden from accepting money for teaching. There’s no “official” reason given for this, but it definitely has some benefits. We know that no one has bought their way into the tradition, everyone gets in through their own hard work. We also know that everyone is there of their own free will – not because they are dependent on the money. Many BTW covens encourage their coveners to contribute food, candles, incense, and even toilet paper, to help out the teachers with the expenses of running a coven.

Non-BTW witches have more options. Time is valuable. Food is expensive. Money from teaching can help out a struggling family quite a bit. And you can get some of the same benefits of not charging. If you use the anonymous tip jar, for example, you don’t know who’s paying what, so you don’t treat anyone differently.

Some teachers go whole hog, making teaching witchcraft a full-time profession. Thorn Coyle is perhaps the most famous of these. She runs several groups all over the world, in addition to publishing her sacred material in books, CDs, and DVDs.

What’s important is that you are comfortable with the system you choose. My coven is like family to me, and when I search my heart for the answer, I find that it’s really unclear who is teaching who. Some of us have knowledge of Gardnerian tradition, and are actively passing it down, but on a day-to-day basis, the work of knowing yourself, opening your soul and finding all the tangled, dark swampy bits, and all the blindingly radiant powerful bits, we do that together, and we learn more about ourselves by learning more about each other. So, we don’t charge money, not because we are forbidden from charging, but because in the end, it’s unclear who should be giving and who should be taking.