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The Early History of Silver Circle by Doug O'Neal, reformatted by Jeff D'Angelo I. Why formed Silver Circle was founded in February, 1994 by Juniper Evergreen and Dave Matta to provide a meeting place for Penn State students who follow Pagan spiritual paths. Previous to that, despite the many religious groups and organizations on this campus, there were no resources specifically for Pagan students. II. Starting up Six people attended the first announced meeting of Silver Circle, on Feb. 23, 1994, in Warnock Commons in North Halls. For the rest of the Spring semester, meeting weekly, the group grew by word-of-mouth, and by the end of April Silver Circle counted approximately 20 members. An early task of the organization was to write a set of bylaws; in those bylaws the members of Silver Circle defined goals for themselves and their organization. Goals included, in addition to being a meeting place for Pagans at Penn State and in the State College community, educating ourselves and others about the various forms of modern and traditional Paganism; providing support for Pagans who are victims of intolerance or misunderstanding; and to provide a safe environment in which members could express their Pagan spiritual views and beliefs. The bylaws also set a structure for meetings: business followed by a pre-set social topic of interest to the group. Finally, they defined several appointed positions (corresponding secretary, librarian, sergeant at arms) and committees (social, public relations) within the organization. Those are in addition to the elected positions, two co-presidents and a secretary and a treasurer. III. Early disagreements It wasn't all wine and roses in the early days of Silver Circle. The club experienced at least three significant sources of disagreement, as follows. In the early months of Silver Circle there was much debate among the members whether we wanted to incorporate as a "special interest" or a "religious" group; those are two of the official categories for Penn State student organizations. The advantage of incorporating as a religious group were, as various members saw them: Political statement on the validity of paganism; Ability to reserve meeting rooms in the campus chapel; and More clout for achieving one of our goals, that of pagan students being able to reschedule exams or work that conflicts with a holiday they celebrate. Feared disadvantages were: Exclusion of people who want to join the group but who aren't practicing pagans at the time (either "just interested" or just learning); One tradition -- that of current leaders or strongest personalities -- could come to dominate group practices and philosophies; and Necessity to receive approval for religious group status from possibly unfriendly director of campus chapel. This debate was for all practical purposes resolved by our second major disagreement, surrounding the 1994 Midsummer celebration. First, let's go back three months to the first holiday after the group formed, the spring equinox. For that occasion, two members hosted semi-private circles at their homes, and invited the group. Those rituals worked out very well, each circle had 7-8 people. But for Beltane, it was the end of our first semester as a group, so we figured we should have a huge blowout schebang ritual/party to celebrate. We did -- and that worked, despite the legendary stampeding cows. We began to think that such a thing should be the normal model for our holiday celebrations. For midsummer we tried to write an eclectic ritual that would incorporate everyone's beliefs, and that's where the trouble started. Briefly, some members were upset over things we planned to do, others were upset about their beliefs not being represented, and a few major overreactions and rumors later everyone was angry at everyone else, and the group nearly fell apart right there. From this experience we decided that since we represent so many different belief systems we shouldn't sponsor rituals in the name of Silver Circle. We returned to the model whereby members can host their own and invite others, with the understanding that the host has the final say on how it'll be run. That method has worked well ever since. And since it seemed odd to be a "religious" organization in which the members can't agree on what they believe, and which doesn't sponsor religious observances, we decided to apply for official status as a "special interest group", emphasizing our social and educational goals. A third early disagreement involved the idea to make it a requirement of membership that a member follow a group "code of ethics". But not everyone could ever agree on what our ethics were, so the idea was eventually dropped. After these early growing pains, the group has become quite harmonious in its main social purpose. IV. The first summer Meetings during the summer, for the ten or so members present in town, were held at the famous "Pagan Party Palace" once a week. In addition to socializing, the members present during the summer prepared for the fall, when we would apply for official status as a student group and, perhaps even more importantly, reveal ourselves through advertisements and public events to the larger Penn State community. V. Becoming official Thus at the beginning of the Fall, 1994 semester, Silver Circle wrote a constitution to conform with the standards set by the Undergraduate Student Government (USG). Apparently someone in USG works for the Department of Redundancy Department, given the many repetitions in the model constitution that when we eliminated from ours caused them to return it to us for revisions. That aside, a student organization constitution is basically a fill-in-the- blank document in which the only choices a group can make have to do with election quorums and similar boring issues. But co-presidents Hillary Bergen and Doug O'Neal submitted the constitution and other essential documents; we were then informed that our hearing before the USG Supreme Court would occur on October 2! So the officers, supported by about ten other members, appeared before that august body to answer the key questions about our proposed organization, such as "What is paganism?" and "Does this have anything to do with Satanism?". At one point one of the justices asked, "Is this your entire group?" referring to the several members seated in chairs along the rear wall of the room. No, we informed them -- just half. Two nervous weeks later Hillary got the official letter confirming that Silver Circle had been granted status as a Penn State student organization. We had a hot tub party to celebrate, albeit a couple months later. VI. Public outreach One goal of Silver Circle is to inform the public about who Pagans are and what we believe, dispelling myths where necessary. Co-founders Dave and Betta, who worked as resident assistants in the dorms, had sponsored programs called "Witching Hours" for this purpose, in which students in a given residence hall could come and hear Real Live Witches/Pagans talk about themselves and their practices. Silver Circle decided to change the name of these events to the less sensational but more representative "Children of other Gods". The first of these events put on by Silver Circle occurred in November 1994, but due to poor advertising drew a small crowd. The second occurred the following February, to an audience of about 100 RA's. In addition, for Yule 1994 and Imbolc 1995, Silver Circle reserved windows on the ground-floor, lawn-facing side of the HUB, and painted our holiday greetings for all passersby to see. VII. The first year -- perspectives I (Doug O'Neal) am overjoyed at how well Silver Circle has done during its first year of existence. It's immediately obvious, from the level of interest and enthusiasm of the approximately twenty active members of Silver Circle, that such a group, a gathering place for Pagan students, is needed at Penn State. The dedication of the members in making this a viable and strong organization has paid off in all the fun we've had and the things we've accomplished. For me, having grown up somewhere between atheist and agnostic, this is the first time in my life I have socialized based on common spirituality -- a new and valuable experience that has led me to understand the importance of spirituality for anyone. From our humble beginnings, we've succeeded in making the dream of the group's founders, of a Penn State Pagan student group, come wonderfully true.
Last updated for Spring 2003, on Wednesday, 18-Aug-2004 19:41:00 EDT |
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