Glossary - exWitch Australia (formerly 'Born Again Pagan')

FOX, Selena (1949- )

Selena Fox

American Wiccan High Priestess renowned for her leadership role in the Wiccan/Neo-Pagan community and for founding Circle Sanctuary (also known simply as The Circle), a legally recognized Wiccan church with a worldwide Neo-Pagan ministry.

Born October 20, 1949, in Arlington, Virginia, Fox was raised in a fundamentalist Southern Baptist family. As a child, she began having mystical experiences, out-of-body travel and Psychic visions.

Upon reaching her teens, she pursued her interest in dreams, the Psychic and Para-Psychology and learned how to give Psychic readings with Tarot cards. She left the Southern Baptist church while in high school, citing a number of reasons, including the church's disapproval of dancing and its refusal to allow women to become pastors.

Fox attended the College of William and Mary in Virginia, graduating cum laude in 1971 with a bachelor of science degree in psychology. At the age of 21 she led her first Neo-Pagan ritual as president of Eta Sigma Phi, the classics honour society. She led the society in a re-enactment of a Dionysian rite of spring, which took place outdoors in the center of campus.

After college, she worked on an archaeological dig in nearby Hampton, Virginia, where she met a woman who was an Hereditary Witch. Realizing her own spiritual orientation had much in common with her friend's Craft, Fox embraced the Wiccan religion and later became initiated as a High Priestess in several Traditions.

Following the archaeological work, Fox spent several years in various jobs, including work as a photographer and as publications editor for a large corporation.

In October 1974 Fox conceived the name, logo and central spiritual focus for Circle. Fox, along with her partner, Jim Alan, and a group of friends, formed the beginnings of Circle with periodic meetings at the Fox-Alan home in Sun Prairie, near Madison, Wisconsin. In 1978 Fox decided to devote herself full time to the Wiccan ministry.

The same year, the Circle Sanctuary was incorporated as a Wiccan church.

In 1979 Fox and Alan were evicted from their Sun Prairie farmhouse by a prejudiced landlord. After several moves to other farmhouses in the Madison area, they settled on land near Barneveld and Mt Horeb, Wisconsin. The site, owned by Circle Sanctuary, is a nature preserve, organic herb farm and church headquarters.

Fox and Alan ended their common-law relationship in 1984, and Alan eventually left the Circle Sanctuary to devote himself to a writing career. In 1986 Fox married Dennis Carpenter, a Wiccan priest and former school psychologist. Fox and Carpenter work together to coordinate Circle Sanctuary's diverse activities and responsibilities.

Fox usually prefers to be called a Wiccan priestess rather than a Witch, because she feels it more accurately describes what she does. She travels extensively throughout North America, giving lectures, workshops and seminars on Paganism, spiritual growth and psychology to all kinds of audiences in colleges and universities, learning centers, conferences, churches and Neo-Pagan gatherings. She does nature therapy, Psychic healing, Tarot readings, dream work, guided creative Visualizations and other types of spiritual HEALING services. She is a leading spokesperson on Wicca and Paganism to the media.

She also has been involved in local and international networking efforts and from time to time speaks in Christian and other mainstream religion churches. She has participated in many ecumenical efforts to foster world peace.

Fox has been one of the leading religious freedom activists in the Neo-Pagan movement. She has worked successfully on cases involving the right of Wiccans and Neo-Pagans to worship; allowing Wiccan priestesses to minister as clergy in prisons; securing paid Neo-Pagan holidays for a Canadian employee; and helping Native American Indians protect sacred burial grounds in Kentucky.

In 1985 Fox was a leader in the effort to defeat the Helms Amendment in Congress, which sought to strip Wiccan Churches of their tax-exempt status.

Fox founded "Wiccan Shamanism", an ecumenical blend of the Wiccan religion, Shamanic practices from tribal societies around the world and humanistic psychology.

see also: WICCAN SHAMANISM

PLEASE NOTE:
One of the major problems with 'defining' Paganism and/or its beliefs and practices is that it is an 'organic' movement, in that it is undergoing constant change and re-evaluation from within, and as such any 'one-size-fits-all' approach to understanding Paganism will be found wanting.

Due to the very 'organic' nature of Paganism, and the many differing Paths and Traditions within it, in many cases no one definition may be universally accepted by all Pagans. Therefore, where such cases of possible conflicting and/or contradictory meanings of certain terms occur I have endevoured to give not only the generally accepted meaning, but also any major 'variations' in belief and/or practice.

Christians who believe this difference in meaning of certain key terms, beliefs and practices to be unique to Paganism need to remember that such conflicts also arise within the Body of Christ - the Church. Take for instance the differing practices amongst Christians concerning Baptism and the different attitudes towards women in the clergy.

- Jean-Luc

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