Christian Friedrich Brunner

Class – Krampus, Witches and the Wild Hunt

Sunday, February 28 at 10:30 am in The Esoteric Alcove

Bio for Christian Friedrich Brunner

Christian Brunner is an Austrian-born folklorist, author, and educator whose work brings the haunted winter traditions of the Alps into vivid, contemporary practice. Raised in small-town Austria, he grew up in a landscape where the dark season was not a metaphor but a presence—where Krampus roamed the streets, Perchten masks hung in farmhouses like sleeping spirits, and the Wild Hunt was spoken of with the same matter-of-factness as the weather. These early encounters with the uncanny shaped a lifelong dedication to understanding how Alpine people navigated fear, darkness, and the unseen.

Brunner is the author of Alpine Witchery and co-author of Krampus, Witches, and the Wild Hunt: Alpine Traditions for the Dark Half of the Year, works that have positioned him as a leading interpreter of Central European folk magic and winter ritual. His research draws from trial records, oral histories, and material culture to illuminate how ordinary people used magic, masks, and midwinter rites to confront forces both external and internal. He specializes in the “Dunkle Tage”—the dark days between Krampusnacht and January 6—when the Alps become a liminal world filled with roaming spirits, ancestral processions, and creatures that embody the tension between chaos and renewal.

As a teacher and ritual leader, Brunner has guided multidenominational and pagan groups for more than a decade, helping participants engage with folklore not as distant history but as a living, transformative practice. His workshops blend scholarship with experiential work, inviting attendees to explore the psychological and magical dimensions of winter darkness: the shadow-self, the masked self, and the parts of the psyche that Alpine tradition insists must be acknowledged rather than denied.

At HexCon, Brunner brings his deep cultural knowledge and ritual experience to a workshop that explores the creatures, spirits, and mythic forces that populate the Alpine winter. From the terrifying mercy of Krampus to the wild, cleansing chaos of the Perchten and the spectral procession of the Wild Hunt, he reveals how these beings served as mirrors for communal fears, personal shadows, and the cyclical necessity of darkness. His teaching emphasizes that winter’s creatures are not simply monsters—they are guides, thresholds, and catalysts for inner transformation.

Now based in Arlington, Massachusetts, Brunner continues to write, lecture, and teach on Alpine witchcraft, European folk magic, and the ritual technologies of the dark season. His work resonates with practitioners seeking authenticity, depth, and a grounded understanding of how ancient winter traditions can illuminate the modern path.

Visit Christian Friedrich Brunner online at christianbrunner.com