![]() In the 1840s, Mystics began a campaign to spread the society to other colleges. Mystics referred to Wesleyan as the land of “Willburia” after President Willbur Fisk, who approved the original constitution (but to whom no secret rituals were revealed). Nearly everything involved the number seven: the year of founding, number of original founders, seal, songs, colors, and ritual poetry. Hamilton Brewer (Class of 1838), known to Mystics as “The Sacred Brewer” for his primary role in founding the society, and his fellow founders invented a complex, arcane set of practices and rituals, including pseudonyms, a special calendar, a vocabulary, and their own code of parliamentary procedure. At the time, student extracurricular life was dominated by two rival literary societies, Philorhetorian and Peithologian. Founded in June 1837, by seven students, Mystical Seven predates Wesleyan’s Greek letter fraternities. Wesleyan’s best known and most active secret society, Mystical Seven, is one of the university’s oldest student organizations. All of my sources have been published or are otherwise readily available in the University Archives. Nevertheless, there are some mysteries that are open to public scrutiny. If I were privy to anything secret, I wouldn’t be able to (or want to) reveal it. ![]() But for the rest of us, Wesleyan’s secret societies offer a tantalizing peek at hidden rituals of the past, some of which survive today.īefore you read any further, rest assured that this column reveals no secret information. Of course, some of you?and only you know who you are!?have no need to wonder, because you’re the keepers of the secrets. You may even have turned to wondering about secret societies at Wesleyan, and how they compare to, say, Yale’s Skull and Bones. ![]() Whether your tastes run to bestsellers such as The Da Vinci Code and The Rule of Four or you prefer the New York Times’ coverage of the Presidential inauguration, you probably have been reading recently about secret societies. ![]()
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