Practices
Home Circle
Also Known As Development Circle
Esoteric Practices
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Origin from 1848
The home circle, or development circle, is Spiritualism's school: a small group meeting regularly, traditionally in a darkened parlour with prayer and hymns, to sit for the spirits and to develop the mediumship of its members under the guidance of an experienced sitter. Nineteenth-century Spiritualism spread through such domestic circles, which gave women in particular a religious authority rare in their era, and the developing circle remains the way Spiritualist churches train mediums today. It is the practice half of the seance complex: the seance is the rite, the circle is the discipline that produces its mediums.
Facts
Origins
Origin Period1848 is the year of the Fox sisters' rappings, the founding event of the Spiritualism whose domestic circles its own text says spread through the nineteenth century; its own text calls the home circle the practice half of the seance complex. Held ByTraditionally led by an experienced sitter within a small group meeting regularly in a darkened parlour with prayer and hymns, a domestic setting that gave nineteenth-century women in particular a religious authority rare for their era. 1 Place of OriginModern Spiritualism traces to the Fox sisters' rappings at Hydesville, New York in 1848, and the domestic sitting circle reproduces that original home setting. Attestation
Earliest AttestationSourced to the subject's own accountThe event Spiritualist history treats as the tradition's own beginning took place on the night of March 31, 1848, in Hydesville, New York: eleven year old Kate Fox and fourteen year old Margaretta Fox reported rapping sounds, addressed as Mr. Splitfoot, answered through a code of raps for yes and no. A Quaker couple, Amy and Isaac Post, publicised the case among sympathetic circles who became Spiritualism's early core. Decades later, in 1888, the sisters signed a confession stating they had produced the sounds themselves by cracking their own joints. 2 Status
Status Within the TraditionNineteenth century Spiritualism spread through home circles, which gave women in particular a religious authority rare in their era. 1 Status TodaySourced to the subject's own accountLiving tradition, practised today 3 Practice
Who Performs ItHouseholders, those living in the world 1 Solitary or CommunalPerformed by a gathered group 1Tradition: Spiritualism Social Form DetailA small, stable group meeting regularly in a private home, distinct from larger public platform mediumship demonstrations 1Tradition: Spiritualism Attributions
TraditionSpiritualism, a small gathering held in a private home to attempt communication with the spirits of the dead, the movement's original setting before public demonstrations developed. 1 Scholarship and Forensics
Scholarly NoteSourced to the subject's own accountNineteenth century American Spiritualists practised across several settings at once: private homes for the domestic seance, lecture halls for trance lectures, state and national conventions, and summer camps that drew thousands of attendees. The home circle was the private, domestic pole of that wider landscape, distinct from the larger public platform demonstrations. 3 Learn More
Where Mediums Were Made
The home circle, also called the development circle, was and remains Spiritualism's primary school for mediumship: a small, stable group of sitters, traditionally meeting in a private home on a regular weekly or fortnightly schedule rather than as a one time event, opening with prayer and hymns before settling into quiet sitting intended to allow the more sensitive members of the group to develop their mediumistic ability gradually, under the informal guidance of a more experienced Spiritualist rather than through any single formal course of instruction. This domestic, small group setting distinguished the home circle from the larger, more theatrical public demonstrations of physical mediumship that drew Spiritualism its widest public attention in the movement's nineteenth century heyday, and Spiritualist teaching has generally held that the calm, patient, unhurried atmosphere of the regular home circle is the proper and safest environment in which mediumship should first develop, in contrast to the pressure of a public sitting or a paid consultation.
Historically the home circle functioned as the entry point through which an enormous proportion of ordinary nineteenth and twentieth century Spiritualists, rather than a small professional class of mediums alone, engaged with the movement's central practices directly, since sitting in a home circle required no special training or credential to begin, only a willing small group and regular commitment.
A Living Practice in Spiritualist Churches Today
Registered Spiritualist churches in Britain, the United States and elsewhere continue to run home circles and development circles today as an ordinary, ongoing part of congregational life, generally organised in stages, with beginner circles open to newcomers wishing to explore their own possible mediumistic sensitivity and more advanced circles for those already recognised as developing genuine ability, a structured progression maintained by organisations such as the Spiritualists' National Union in Britain and comparable bodies elsewhere. The circle's format has remained recognisably stable since the nineteenth century even as the wider Spiritualist movement's public profile has receded from its Victorian and Edwardian peak, reflecting the practice's essentially private, low key character, which never depended on the large public audiences that physical mediumship demonstrations required to sustain their prominence.
Historians of Spiritualism treat the home circle as the movement's most durable institutional practice precisely because of this modesty of scale, a small group meeting quietly and repeatedly having proven, across more than a century and a half, considerably more resilient than the large scale platform mediumship and public seance culture that drew far more contemporary press attention but which also bore the brunt of the movement's most damaging fraud exposures.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Related To
The circle is where mediumship is developed
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