One of my many hats (the pointiest one) gets worn in my role as Vice Chancellor of Arcanorium College, an online teaching forum which started way back in the mists of time, September 2006.

I spent the first few years as a student and benefited enormously from the lessons and the regular contact with others, which was very convenient for me, as geography made it difficult to meet up with people. I studied runes with Ian Read, ventured upon various philosophical musings with Lionel Snell, learnt of Huna and shamanic magicks with Isis, got a few Vodou tips from Andrieh Vitimus, and realised the treasures one can extract from chaotic patterns on Pete’s Apophenia course. These, along with learning about tantra with Lola Babalon, and Julian’s journeys into Witchcraft, are just a few highlights amongst many others.

Chaos Magick is about more than a flippant interest in a topic for a few weeks, and many of these short term courses have led me to far deeper experiential and theoretical explorations. The cyber connections have turned into real life flesh and blood people, some of whom I now regard as close friends.

We use the instruments at hand in any age to allow us to touch currents old and new alike, and while nothing can replace genuine facetime with a teacher, online writings do give us a chance to connect in some sense.

Recently Arcanorium College had a software update, and we took the opportunity to redesign the website too. The new layout has proved popular with staff and students alike, and there are some handy new tools and features to play with, as well as the different aesthetic.

On the public front page you can now find descriptions of the departments and staff, peruse articles, and much more, if you would like to get an idea of the kind of topics we deal with. There is also a facebook page which gives details of courses as they start.

Interweb magick

More than 500 students, and over 40,000 posts since its inception, Arcanorium looks in good shape. Online video conferencing lessons and workshops have started to feature, as well as courses which use traditional hand typed diaries…

It is hard to know where any of this will eventually take us; looking into my crystal ball, I’d say wherever we wish it to.

NW