BY: JESSICA BEUKER
If you were the type of child who checked the mail daily, or waited patiently by the front door, only to subsequently be disappointed by the tragic realization that your Hogwarts letter might never actually arrive – join the club. But even though the probability of receiving an invitation to a magical school via snowy owl courier is extremely low, it might not be totally impossible.
Founded in March 2005 by wizard headmaster, Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, the Grey School of Wizardry has earned its credibility as the world’s only registered wizard academy and first to be recognized as an academic establishment, and 74-year-old Zell-Ravenheart has garnered a reputation as the school’s real-life Dumbledore. But according to the Daily Mail, the former teacher and counselor was teaching spells to aspiring wizards long before JK Rowling wrote about them in Harry Potter.
In the 1980s, Zell-Ravenheart created the world’s first “unicorn” after conducting minor surgery on a goat. In 1985, he organized a diving expedition in Australia and New Guinea to investigate the age-old mystery of the mermaid. Safe to say, he’s always lived a pretty magical life. Zell-Ravenheart lives in a unique home, North of San Francisco, with his wife Morning Glory, who is a witch, and a bearded dragon that lives on his shoulder.
The Grey School of Wizardry was created by the Grey Council – a team of two dozen mages and sages – who took the best lessons from teachers in the magical community, and compiled them into the Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard. The handbook is essential for apprentice-level wizardry, and serves as a textbook for all seven years of the wizard studies curriculum.
After the creation of the textbook and another, Companion for the Apprentice Wizard, the next step in the council’s vision was the actual creation of an online school for wizards.
The Grey School of Wizardry is designed for youth ages 11-18, and also accepts adults. The school has a special forum where registered students can post questions and interact with other students.
The school teaches 16 departments including alchemy, beastmastery, horse-whispering, wand-making and spell-casting. The school currently has 735 students in attendance. Courses are offered online and muggles (non-magical people) can study seven years to graduate with a journeyman degree in wizardry. Try putting that on a résumé.
In order to become a journeyman wizard, students must complete a major, and may also choose to add a minor. Students must choose their major before entering third level, when they will also choose an academic advisor to serve as a magic mentor.
Similar to Harry Potter, the students are sorted into houses. Students under the age of 18 are sorted into one of four “houses”: Sylphs, Salamanders, Undines or Gnomes, while students over the age of 18 are sorted into one of four “lodges”: Society of the Four Winds, Order of the Dancing Flames, Coterie of the Flowing Waters or Circle of the Standing Stones. Sorting is based on the element associated with the student’s sun sign, and each house and lodge has its own faculty head, as well as a student prefect.
Tuition for the Grey School is only $10.00 per month or $100.00 per year, which, next to the average cost of most schools, looks pretty good. Then again, you won’t walk away from this school with a Bachelor of Arts or a medical degree, but you could walk away with your childhood (and adult) dreams fulfilled.
“It’s a serious qualification,” says Zell-Ravenheart to The Daily Mail, adding “If you’ve ever read Harry Potter and wondered if wizards really do walk among us, perhaps behind a secret train platform, or in secret communities, I can tell you that we are absolutely real.”
