Selena Fox
Written and compiled by George Knowles
Selena
Fox is a Wiccan High Priestess, a Psychotherapist, Author and a Lecturer on
Paganism, Wicca and other comtemporary Religions.
She is the founder and co-director of Circle Sanctuary, a
Wiccan Church and Nature Preserve set
in 200 acres of land near
Mount Horeb, Wisconsin.
She is also a founding member of the Pagan Spirit Gathering (PSG)
one of the oldest neo-pagan festivals in the United States held annually at
Litha (Midsummer).
Selena
was born on the 20th October 1949 in Arlington, Virginia, and raised
in a fundamentalist Southern Baptist family.
She claims to be descended
from ancestors in England, Switzerland, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Germany and
other parts of Europe, some dating back to the 17th and 18th
centuries. She is also part Native
American, descended from the Cherokee people.
As
a child Selena grew up appreciating nature, often playing alone in the woods
near her home. In time she was able to identify many of the plants and
creatures she found, and developed a deep respect for all aspects of nature.
By the time she had reached her early teens, she had begun to explore
psychic phenomena and parapsychology. She
also learned to read the Tarot cards.
While
in ninth grade at high school, she was introduced to the study of ancient Greek
and Roman religions, and comparing it to
her own Baptist upbringing, saw at once the patriarchal nature of the Christian
Church, their bias against female
clergy and their prejudice toward other
religions. Soon after, she stopped
attending the Baptist Church,
preferring instead to concentrate on her own spirituality outdoors where she could be at one with nature.
After leaving
high school Selena attended the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg,
Virginia, majoring in Psychology while at the same time maintaining her interest
in Classics. She was also involved in student politics by organising
Civil Rights rallies and attending peace vigils.
In 1970 she helped organize celebrations for the first Earth Day
parade. This was held at
the Spring Equinox
on the 21st March
1970 and is now an annual International event.
During
summer vacations from College, Selena did temporary work in the office of the
Army’s Chief of Staff at the Pentagon. She
considered working at the Pentagon her own contribution to serving the country,
more so as many of her ancestors and family members had served in government
roles before her. In conflict with
her social reform work, Selena claims not to be anti-government, but believes
that only by working from within the governments can needed reforms be made.
While majoring
in Psychology, Selena continued her interest in Classical studies and was made President
of Eta Sigma Phi the college Classics honours Society.
She was also made President of the non-academic Classics Club, which was
open to anyone regardless of academic achievement.
In her last year at college she staged a re-enactment of the ancient
Greek and Roman Rite of Spring ritual, which was held outdoors in the
centre of the college campus.
Selena
graduated from William & Mary in
1971 with a BSc. (cum laude) degree in Psychology.
She then moved on to Rutgers
University in New Jersey to begin post-graduate training, a part of which
included work on an archaeological dig in Hampton, Virginia.
It was here that Selena met a practising hereditary Witch called Marianne,
who introduced her to the practice of Witchcraft as a religion, a practice that
closely resembled her own nature-based spirituality.
In
1972 after leaving graduate
school, Selena moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where she worked initially as a photographer and later as a
publications editor for a large corporation.
She also took initiation
into a number of Wiccan traditions, quickly rising to become a High Priestess.
Early in 1974 while attending a local psychic fair in Madison, she met
her first husband Jim Alan, a trance medium and musician.
They were handfasted eight months later, and shortly after that founded their
own Coven called Circle Wicca. The
coven initially met at their home in Madison, and performed their first public
ritual there at Yule.
In
the following year 1975, Selena and Jim Alan moved onto a rented farm in Sun
Prairie, Wisconsin, from where they began to expand and develop Circle Wicca.
They started by hosting a weekly radio program sponsored
by a local community radio station, and a year later in 1976 recorded their
first music cassette of Pagan
Ritual music called Circle Magick Music.
This was one of the earliest Neo-Pagan music albums recorded, and is
still available today. They
also played together at the Gnosticon 6 Festival in St. Paul, Minnesota,
a major festival sponsored by Carl
Weschcke, owner of Llewellyn Publications.
In
1978 Selena suceeded in having Circle Wicca incorporated
as an official non-profit Wiccan
Church in the State of Wisconsin, after which Circle Wicca became known as the Church
of Circle Wicca. They also
changed the coven’s structure from being a simple “coven” lead by a High
Priestess and Priest, to that of a regular Church run as a corporate
organisation with a Board of Directors and Ordained Ministers.
They next
set-up and published Circle Network News (now called Circle Magazine),
which is, and continues to be, their main networking facility providing
support and research resources to Pagans all around the world.
Initially this was published as a newspaper, and then for the Spring
issue of 1998 it was changed into a magazine format.
It changed again for the Autumn issue of 1999 when it was renamed Circle
Magazine. Today it is a glossy 72-page magazine published quarterly,
and one of the leading Neo-Pagan publications in the United States.
That same year
in 1978, building on the success of their local radio program, they produced and
directed a weekly television show, the Magic Circle Show, which was
broadcast on Cable 4 (now
called WYOU) in Madison.
Each of its hour-long programs featured a variety of topics, such as:
holistic health, spiritual healing, parapsychology, divination and
Wicca/Pagan spirituality, interspersed with interviews and music.
In
1979, an article featured in Time Magazine reported a handfasting
ceremony performed by Selena and Jim Alan
at the Pan Pagan Festival held in Demotte, Indiana. This article, published on Monday
06th Aug 1979, did much
to raise the profile of
Wicca/Witchraft and Paganism across the USA.
Soon after, Selena began to appear
in various other national and international news media, including T.V.
shows like: The
Today Show, Donahue, Sightings,
Sally Jesse Raphael and Larry King Live, on radio networks such
as: NPR, BBC, ABC, CBC, and in numerous magazines
and newspapers such as: Time
and The Wall Street
Journal.
In
1980, the Church of Circle Wicca finally received federal recognition as a
Church from the US Government, but just as things were coming together, they
were evicted from their rented Sun Prairie farm by a prejudiced landlord.
Forced to move, they first rented a home near Ashton, Wisconsin, and then
moved again to another rented farm near Black Earth, Wisconsin. Undaunted
by these forced moves, and clearly in need of their own permanent place to
expand the Church, they begin promoting fund raising events with the aim of
purchasing suitable land of their own.
Selena
started by running training programs for various groups and traditions,
followed by workshops and spirituality courses, and then providing counselling
services and intensive training for ministers.
They also started monthly rituals at the farm and sponsoring festivals
and events in nearby Madison. This
led to the first annual Litha
(Midsummer) gathering, which in the following year 1981 became known as the Pagan
Spirit Gathering (PSG). Today
the PSG continues as one of the largest annual Neo-Pagan gatherings in the USA.
By 1983
supported by donations from the Pagan community and various other fund rising
events, Selena had enough funds to purchase a 200 hundred-acre piece of land
near Mt. Horeb in Wisconsin. They
called the land Circle Sanctuary, to which the Church of Circle Wicca was
re-named as its legal trading name. Circle
Sanctuary was the first land purchase project in the United States to be bought
solely for use as a Pagan Spiritual Retreat and Nature Preserve.
At Yule that same year on top of what is called Ritual Mound, a permanent
Stone Circle was erected complete with an the altar stone and fire ring.
Not everyone
was happy with the land purchase however. Just
a year later in 1984, local residents in the area started a smear campaign in
efforts to stop them using the land as a Pagan Sanctuary.
Local officials and the county zoning administrator were sent in to
investigate their activities, but could find no breaches of the law or any moral
or ethical religious reasons to shut them down.
After a four-year legal battle, and with the aid of the American Civil
Liberties Union, in 1988 they finally won Church-zoning rights for all 200 acres
of the land, thus Circle Sanctuary became the first Church associated with
Paganism and Witchcraft to own a Nature preserve in the United States.
Circle
Sanctuary however, is not freely
open to use by the Pagan community, which was and still is a point of contention
for many. As the funds needed to
buy the land was raised mainly through voluntary donations, many believe that it
should be open for use by the community without
restriction. Fundraising appeals
made through Circle Network News routinely stated or implied that the land, once
purchased, would be used as a permanent site for the Pagan Spirit Gathering
(PSG), however, the PSG has never been held there. Similarly, those who gave donations and provided labor for
the project, have also been turned away. The
land is privately owned and access to it is strictly controlled.
Only Circle Sanctuary
staff and their working volunteers may enter the site on a regular basis, while
others can only enter by prior appointment or to attend on-site festivals,
rituals or classes…and so it remains today.
Ten years after
they handfasted in a common-law marriage, Selena and Jim Alan parted company in
1984, after which Jim Alan left Circle Sanctuary to devote himself to a
full-time writing career. Two years
later in June 1986 during the Pagan Spirit Gathering (PSG) held at Eagle
Cave Campground near Blue River, Wisconsin, Selena married her present husband
Dennis Carpenter, a Wiccan High Priest and former school psychologist.
Margot Adler officiated at their handfasting, which was held in a large
cave on the site used for community rituals.
Today they work together as co-directors of Circle Sanctuary, with Selena
as Director of Spiritual activities and Dennis as Director
of Research and editor
of Circle Magazine.
During their
fight to secure church-zoning rights for Circle Sanctuary, in 1985 Selena
founded the Lady Liberty League (LLL).
This is a support group led by Circle Sanctuary and dedicated
to religious freedom worldwide. The
LLL with the aid of Circles networking capabilities, provides information
and support to anyone working with religious freedom issues, an example of which
is the ongoing battle with the US Military to allow families of soldiers killed
in the line of duty to place symbols (pentacles, pentagrams, etc.) of their
religious beliefs on their memorial markers. Together with the American Civil Liberties Union, Circle
Sanctuary and the LLL were also active in defeating proposed anti-Witchcraft
legislation from passing through the US Senate. Known as the Helms Amendment, this was a bill designed to
take away federal Church status from all Wiccan Churches in the USA.
As a long
respected public speaker on Paganism and other forms of contemporary religion
and spirituality, in 1988 together with Margot Adler, Selena was a delegate at
the World Council of Churches Women’s International Interfaith Conference in
Toronto, Canada, the first time that Paganism and Goddess Spirituality had been
represented on an international stage. Since
then Selena has regularly attended other international conferences including the
Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago (1993), in Cape Town, South
Africa (1999) and again in Barcelona, Spain (2004).
She is also a member of the 250 strong Assembly of Religious and
Spiritual Leaders associated with that Parliament.
In 1995, Circle
Sanctuary dedicated space on its land to be used as a National Pagan cemetery.
Circle Cemetery is one of the first conservation “Green” cemeteries
to be established in North America. The
Cemetery is located in an area on top a ridge where cremated remains are
scattered and Green funerals conducted. In
2005, they also began legal proceeding to permit actual body burials, in
anticipation of which they have expanded the size of the cemetery to 20 acres.
Also in 1995 Selena finally completed her
Master’s degree in Psychology, for which her thesis has
been published in a book called: “When
Goddess is God: Pagans, Recovery
and Alcoholics Anonymous”. As
a Spiritual Counsellor in private practice, Selena also works as a staff
Psychotherapist at the Wellspring mental health outpatient clinic in Madison,
Wisconsin, and is a member of the American Psychological Association, the
American Counselling Association, the Association for Transpersonal Psychology, and
the American Academy of Religion.
When not
attending International conventions and conferences, Selena continues to travel
throughout the Unites States giving lectures and workshops on Paganism,
inter-traditional Spirituality and Psychology.
Between times she and her husband Dennis Carpenter live on their own land
adjacent to Circle Sanctuary.
Sources:
http://www.mhtc.net/~selena/
http://www.circlesanctuary.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selena_Fox
http://religion.info/english/interviews/article_186.shtml
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,948768-1,00.html
http://www.paganleadership.org/teachers/
http://www.circlesanctuary.org/cemetery
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Selena-Fox
Best
wishes and Blessed Be
