Our Story

WITCH SCHOOL OPENING

OUR STORY

High Priestess began with a simple observation. There was nowhere serious for witches to learn the craft.

There were books, of course, and YouTube videos, and an endless scroll of social media accounts selling crystals and aesthetic. There were teachers working in isolation, often brilliant, often invisible. There were live events held in back rooms and community halls, run on a shoestring by people who deserved better. What there wasn't was a proper home. A well resourced, professionally run platform where serious practitioners could teach, where serious students could learn, and where the depth of the tradition could be honoured without being watered down for the mainstream.

That's what High Priestess was built to be.

where we came from

High Priestess Founder, Leela Cosgrove

In 2021, Leela Cosgrove acquired a small Australian witchcraft business called Antipodean Witch and set about rebuilding it. She rebranded the company to High Priestess, retired the original subscription model, and began constructing something far more ambitious. A third generation psychic and practising witch since 1995, Leela had spent three decades reading professionally for clients including Hollywood celebrities, billionaires, and rock stars, while also building a career as an entrepreneur and business consultant. She could see what the business could become. Not a box of crystals and curios, but a serious education and events company with the resources, the reach, and the credibility to do justice to the craft.

Over the next few years, the business transformed. The High Priestess online magazine launched and grew into one of the most read witchcraft publications in the southern hemisphere. Online courses were developed, taught by working practitioners rather than recycled influencers. And in 2023, the first Witch School event took place. Two days of live teaching in Melbourne, drawing experienced witches from across Australia to share what they knew with students who'd been waiting years for a space like it.

where we are now

Witch School is now an annual fixture, with both a live Melbourne edition and an online edition that reaches students globally. The High Priestess magazine continues to publish weekly. The course catalogue is expanding, with new offerings developed alongside teachers who are paid fairly for their work and supported by a platform built to handle the marketing, the technology, and the audience on their behalf.

Across Witch School, the Witch Market, and our courses, more than 8,200 people have attended a High Priestess event or taken one of our courses. Dozens of teachers have appeared on our stages and in our online classrooms. The work has grown well beyond any one person, and that's exactly how it should be.

what we're building

The next chapter is witch.school. A dedicated global platform for witchcraft education, bringing together the live events, the online courses, and a publishing arm designed to bring new witch voices into the world. The mission is the same as it's always been. Take witchcraft seriously, treat witches with respect, and build the kind of institutional home for the craft that other spiritual traditions have taken for granted for centuries.

We're building something we hope will outlast us. A platform that gives serious practitioners a place to teach, serious students a place to learn, and the wider witchcraft tradition the kind of well resourced infrastructure it has always deserved.

If that's the kind of project you want to be part of, as a student, a teacher, a reader, or a fellow traveller, you're in the right place.

HIGH PRIESTESS COMPANY

WITCH School