On March 27, William & Mary students attended a talk given by renowned Wiccan Priestess Selena Fox, university class of 1971.
From her unique perspective of a Wiccan practitioner and the co-executive director of the Circle Sanctuary in Barneveld, Wisconsin, Fox’s talk focused primarily on issues like environmental protection and religious discrimination.
Theatre professor Elizabeth Wiley has been heavily influenced by Fox in her life and extended Fox to speak at William & Mary’s COLL 300 lecture.
“When Selena was a student at William and Mary, she was already planting the seeds that would then come into bloom her life,” Wiley said. “She was one of the founders of the first Earth Day in 1970. She is also among the founders of the first women’s equality groups on campus, so it was no surprise that in 1974 that she founded Circle Sanctuary, a nature spirituality church and preserve.”
Wiley has seen Fox in many roles, including as the officiant in her daughter’s coming-of-age ceremony.
Following along with the COLL 300 curriculum’s theme of ceremony for the spring 2019 semester, Fox answered panel questions from students about how ceremony has touched her life.
“Ceremony in my life began on this very campus,” Fox said. “… Every yuletide there is the campus yule log ceremony. In the summer of 1970, I had the opportunity with others to be part of this long-standing tradition and ceremony at the college.”
As a Wiccan priestess, Fox is required to be the officiant of many ceremonies, but ceremony has not always occupied such a meaningful role in her life. For Fox, ceremony is inspired by ancient and classical cultures, some of which she studied as a student at the university.
“I also created my very first public ceremony at the [college] … Through my long-time interest in the classics,” Fox said. “I was president of Beta Sigma Phi as well as founder and president of the Classics Club. It is important to experience the classics through ceremony, not just reading or discussing it over tea …With the full cooperation and participation of all the faculty … we created and enacted a Rite of Spring.”
Reflecting on her time at the university, Fox credits the inequities faced by women during her time in Williamsburg for inspiring her drive towards justice and equality.
“In the fall of 1967, as a freshman on campus I got a copy of the ‘William and Mary Woman’ and I was told I had to read it, memorize it, and be tested on it,” Fox said. “I read the book and I started to wonder if men had a similar book. I later found out they did not. We had all sorts of interesting rules.”
Looking through the books, which can still be found in Special Collections at the Earl Gregg Swem Library, Fox realized there were many discriminatory rules aimed at restricting the freedom of women on campus.
“You couldn’t go walking in the woods without signed parental permission,” Fox said. “You couldn’t wear slacks. I lived on Chastity Row: Jefferson, Chandler, Barrett, Landrum. We would get locked up at 11 at night and periodically there would be fire drills. For fire safety? No, but to make sure we were there.”
Eventually, Fox grew exasperated with what she saw as patronizing behavior.
“This experience pretty much radicalized me, I would say,” Fox said. “Only 25 percent of the campus was women and you had to be an A student to even get in here, but they were treating us like we were little kids and controlling us. What is wrong with this picture?”
Fox decided to organize an administration-approved burning of the rulebooks in protest. Though not many women were brave enough yet to stand up to administration, many men expressed their solidarity by joining in the book burning.
“After contemplating and reflecting, I thought we needed to do something,” Fox said. “Now, I love books. I would never think of harming a book, much less burning a book. But I thought this might be a bright way of expressing our concern. In fact, there was a great burning of ‘William and Mary Woman’ rulebooks.”
Though Fox hasn’t always identified as a Wiccan, she has always seen herself as a nature practitioner — even when she was a Southern Baptist.
“I started my nature spirituality journey as a Southern Baptist and indeed, and though I honor many beliefs… I would go out and commune with nature as a young child and saw no dissonance with that and my Southern Baptist practices,” Fox said. “In my Bible study, as I learned about Jesus having what I call his ‘40-day vision quest,’ I saw that same piece as being part of Christianity.”
As a practitioner of nature, Fox sees it as important to have ceremonies which celebrate the order of nature. Consequently, she greets the day ceremonially no matter the weather condition.
“One ceremony that I do personally every day is what I call ‘greet the day’ ceremony,” Fox said. “It happens in three places: when I awake I reflect on my dreams, and then I make my way to my home shrine and I do a focus and a prayer, and then I’m out the front door regardless of the weather … and I literally greet the day.”
As an activist for nature-based religions, Fox has pioneered the way for practitioners to be recognized by governments on federal and local levels.
“I have worked with the U.S. Department of Defense and the Department of Veteran Affairs,” Fox said. “I have been an adviser to a lot of state organization and government agencies. I have helped revise the section on the Wiccan religion in the 1980s with the Pentagon for the army chaplain’s handbook.”
Recognizing that sometimes people’s prejudices can only be swept aside with the threat of legal action, Fox gives credit to the legal teams — and the college — that have helped her push past discrimination that prevents recognition for pagans.
Ultimately, Fox knows that anti-pagan discrimination has deep roots, especially in Christian-European influenced cultures which conflate nature practice with Satanic worship.
In relation to religious pluralism, Fox urged audience members to look introspectively and examine their beliefs in relations to that of others and realize that everyone has more in common than they have differences.
“I do think that it’s important for people no matter what the belief system is to really look deep into the religious, the spiritual or philosophical tradition,” Fox said. “Chances are that you’re going to find some common ground with love.”
Along with finding religious common ground, Fox wants people to show compassion to others — especially in this current political climate.
“We are in contentious times right now, but I’m truly hoping that good manners will re-emerge and prevail, honesty will prevail and that compassion and consideration will also become a thing,” Fox said.
