note: see article below pictures to learn more about Wicca

Down a short gravel drive leading to the back of a dilapidated building, standing around a fire on a dark, rainy night less than one week before Halloween — pointy hats, black cats, pumpkins and all — the witches are out in Hoopeston, Ill.

Except for their costumes, however, these aren't the caricatured, cackling, broom-riding witches of horror movies. In fact, these witches hold day jobs as business people, booksellers, jewelry designers and travel agents. And it's not a cauldron they're standing over: It's a grill filled with hot dogs for an old-fashioned autumn barbecue.

This group of about 50 witches represents a portion of the Correllian denomination of Wicca, which gathered in Hoopeston, Ill., last Saturday for the 10th annual Witches Ball. The event is an early celebration of Samhain (Sow-en), commonly known among the "non-magickal" as Halloween. The attendees were all associated with Witch School, the growing online school for Wiccans created in part by the Chicago-based company Telepathic Media.

While many Wiccans enjoy Halloween fun by embracing stereotypes, such as trick-or-treating or carving pumpkins, the Samhain celebration is actually one of the most spiritual aspects of the religion. This week, many Wiccans will take part in more traditional ceremonies involving tarot-card reading and channeling and contacting with spirits.

"There are so many spirits and this place has just been filled," said Ruthann Amarteifio during the ball. Amarteifio is the Paramount High Priestess of North America for the Correllian sect of the religion. "On Samhain in my temple, people think about the losses they've had and keep going around talking about it until they're worn out. Then you start talking about the things you've gained so the New Year can begin with a high note."

Wiccans celebrate eight festivals like Samhain throughout the year. Samhain is also seen as a time for ancestral spirits to travel between worlds.

"This is when the veil between the worlds is the thinnest, so we do a lot of work honoring our ancestors," Amarteifio said.

Toward the end of a day filled with Wicca workshops, pumpkin carving for children, barbecue food and dancing, the guests took part in a spiritual ritual in anticipation of Samhain.

"We cast a circle to keep energy raised inside. Then we begin calling the quarters, inviting the elements to join us," Amarteifio said. "Then we evoke the god and goddess and talk about Samhain and maybe do a little bit of channeling (and) a chant."

Magickal Sckool

Witch School teaches Wiccan traditions through online courses that, after two years, have reached nearly 70,000 students, said the school's dean of students, a man known only as Davron.

Some Wiccans, such as Davron, choose to go by their magickal names, either because it keeps them more spiritually in tune or for fear of religious discrimination.

"What Witch School does sort of makes it the Phoenix University of the Wiccans," Davron said. "It gives access to people who couldn't make it by virtue of location."

Lisa Tuit, the school's director of Internet operations, said Witch School accepted students who were at least 13 years old and offers more than 40 courses in subjects such as aroma therapy, feline magick and becoming clergy in the Correllian tradition.

With the move of several Witch School supporters to Hoopeston to run The Broom Closet, a used book store, and the success of the Witches Ball, Hubbard could soon succeed in his vision of developing the headquarters of the world's Wiccan community in Hoopeston, a city of 6,000 people that is located just 60 miles northeast of Champaign-Urbana.

Toil and Trouble

Despite their popularity online, the Wiccans found their biggest critics in Hoopeston.

Tuit said the school began looking in downstate Illinois because the costs were lower than they would be in Chicago. Thus earlier this year, they made a $1,000 down payment on the old Hoopeston town hall. But when Tuit joined Hubbard on a July 1 trip to Hoopeston for a city council meeting, they were met with a 400-signature petition disapproving the school.

"We told one reporter and then the TV news found out, and pretty much by nightfall we were facing a lynch mob of 100 people," Tuit said.

Tuit said Hoopeston Mayor Chalmers Flint announced at the meeting that, as a man of Christian faith, he opposed the group's move to Hoopeston, but as a city official, had no say in the decision. But when word reached residents on June 21 that the Wiccan group had obtained a building contract, they gathered together in protest to form prayer circles on the building's steps.

The group decided to leave Hoopeston, forfeiting their down payment.

"People say we bring a spiritual darkness to town," Tuit said. "At that point, things were really looking hostile."

In August, the police chief asked the group to speak to the neighborhood watch to tell the people of Hoopeston what Wicca was really about.

"The neighborhood watch people were so gracious and people were sending us e-mails of support, reconsidering," Amarteifio said. "A few of them said they were just too afraid to stand up for us at that first meeting."

Telepathic Media decided to try a move back to town in smaller form — a used book store. The Broom Closet opened on Sept. 1.

"The woman who owns the building knew who we were but never once asked about our religion," Tuit said.

Mayor Flint said he was initially surprised by the group's decision to move into town, but has since seen the town's opposition subside.

"I suppose their casting a spell would be no more than us making a prayer," Flint said. "We hear 'spell' and think 'evil,' and hear 'prayer' and think 'good,' but it's all in the connotation."

Since The Broom Closet opened, Tuit said Wiccans have been "coming out of every closet in town."

"We've gotten a lot of good feedback. We did pretty well in the first month, so we're pretty pleased," Tuit said.

The Witches Ball became not only an early Samhain celebration, but also a chance to celebrate the group's newfound acceptance in Hoopeston. The Main Street Inn, a town tavern, even sent an intricately carved pumpkin in a show of support for the ball.

Nonetheless, Hubbard said this year's ball was just a small start. The organization's events in Chicago usually draw a crowd of close to 300 people.

"A lot of people question what I'm doing now, on both sides. The building is run down and this is such a small community that they don't see why or how in the long run we'll succeed," he said. "I'm a radical (to other Wiccans) because I believe we're mainstream people. A lot of leaders believe we're an alternative lifestyle so we should live in alternative communities."

Hubbard hopes that establishing a headquarters would provide what has been an elusive element in his vision for the organization.

"We have a lot of people who are unsettled," Hubbard said. "We're not a real community yet in that micro sense. We need to have a centered base to continue to be a community."

What is Wicca

With course offerings ranging from Divination with the Faery Oracle to Introduction to Wands or Herbology, the Hoopeston, Ill.-based Witch School seems at first glance similar to the American version of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in J.K. Rowling’s books.

Although there are many similarities between the two, Correllian High Priestess of North America Ruthann Amarteifio said the stereotypes associated with witchcraft books and movies such as Harry Potter have nothing to with the Wiccan religion taught through her organization’s Web site, www.witchschool.com.

“Think about it and use your common sense,” Amarteifio said about the common stereotypes against Wiccans. “People who know me know I don’t eat meat, so I’m not out there stealing cows for sacrifice.”

Hogwarts: Headmaster Albus Dumbledore has run Hogwarts for years, teaching the art of witchcraft.

Witch School: Witch School was founded in part by Ed Hubbard, CEO of the Chicago-based company Telepathic Media. The dean of students is Davron, the single-named witch who’s been with the school from its beginning. This school teaches the Correllian sect of the Wiccan religion.

Hogwarts: Harry attends the school with about 300 classmates, split up into four different houses.

Witch School: According to Davron, there are around 65,000 students enrolled in the school. Lisa Tuit, Hubbard’s partner and director of Internet operations, said there were close to 30,000 people enrolled in the First Degree Correllian Wicca course.

Hogwarts: Females involved in the magical world are known as “witches,” whereas males are called “wizards.” People who aren’t part of the magical world are called “muggles.”

Witch School: Wiccans call both males and females “witches,” but Amarteifio said a male Wiccan should never be referred to as a “warlock,” which actually means “oath-breaker.” Some witches call non-Wiccans “mundanes,” but Amarteifio said she personally prefers not to use words with such discriminatory connotations.

Hogwarts: To get to the school, students board the Hogwarts Express at Platform Nine and Three Quarters in Kings Cross Station in England. Although Hogwarts’ location is only known to its students and alumni, it is common knowledge that it’s somewhere near Hogsmeade.

Witch School: Although the online-based school has no official headquarters, its owners have started basing their operations out of Hoopeston, Ill. The Broom Closet, a used books store located at 112 W. Main St. in Hoopeston, has become its unofficial base.

Hogwarts: The school is haunted by the spirits of ghosts such as Nearly Headless Nick and Moaning Myrtle.

Witch School: Wiccans believe in spirits, calling them anything from ghosts to angels to spirit guides. “We know we’re not the only ones in this building right now,” Amarteifio said. “Strange and interesting things are going on around us.”

Hogwarts: Students use wands to cast spells in class and brooms to play the sport Quidditch.

Witch School: Amarteifio said witches sometimes use wands, brooms and cauldrons as tools to help enhance their spiritual focus. “Brooms we symbolically use to sweep out negativity and that kind of thing,” she said.

Hogwarts: Witches and wizards cast spells for tasks such as transfiguration, getting back at classmates from rivaling houses and defeating evil forces.

Witch School: “Yes, we cast spells, but not for that kind of thing, like love spells,” Amarteifio said. “It’s for our own transformation to get to a higher (spiritual) level. We sometimes do healing spells, but only with another person’s permission, because otherwise that would be taking away free will.”

Hogwarts: To aid in their magic, Potter’s friend Hermione has a cat named Crookshanks, while Harry and his best friend Ron have owls.

Witch School: The school offers a course in The Witches Companion — The Familiar. “Most (witches) have pets, and sometimes people call them ‘familiars,’” Amarteifio said. “Some do magick with animals. Again, it has to do with energy, enhancing what you have.”