Mystical Seven (Wesleyan)

This article is about the Wesleyan University society, for the University of Missouri secret society, see Mystical Seven

The Mystical Seven is a society founded in 1837 at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut that currently is in existence as two separate groups. In public, members are called Mystics.

Early History

The Mystical Seven society was founded in 1837, just six years after the founding of Wesleyan University. It was Wesleyan's first society, founded a half year before Eclectic, (May of 1838). Of the seven founding members, senior Hamilton Brewer was recognized as primus inter pares behind the establishment of the society. The members met each week at their meeting space in the furnished attic of Wesleyan's North College. The society began Wesleyan's first student publication, The Classic, in 1840.

The Mystical Seven is always referred to as a society, but it is one of the early college fraternities. Through the 1840's and 1850's it was a peer organization with Wesleyan's Eclectic Society, Psi Upsilon, Alpha Delta Phi and Chi Psi. However, instead of Greek references, it chose Hebraic. It also drew on sources from higher degree Freemasonry than most college fraternities.

The Mystical Seven was the first college fraternal organization to admit women, and initiated several during the 1840's. Later a law was enacted in the society that allowed the wife of a member to become initiated at that member's discretion.

Mystical Seven expanded to several other universities. The chapters of the society were recognized as "temples", with the "Temple of the Wand" being the parent chapter at Wesleyan. In 1841, the first temple was founded outside of Wesleyan, when Mystical Seven was established at Emory University. One of the members there was the president of the university, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, the humorist author of Georgia Scenes. Longstreet's future son-in-law, Henry Branham, had brought the society to Georgia, and Longstreet, his two daughters, and two sons in law, were all eventually were Mystics.

Historical accounts conflict as to whether or not the Temple of the Wand recognized the legitimacy of any of the other temples founded throughout southern universities. Most were established by one another, with Emory being the only one that may have had a direct tie back to the Wesleyan temple.

• Temple of the Wand - Wesleyan University - 1837
• Temple of the Sword - Emory University - 1841-1862
• Temple of the Wreath (first) - Transylvania University - 1843-1846
• Temple of the Wreath - Centenary College - 1845
• Temple of the Skull - University of Georgia - 1846-1861
• Temple of the Scroll & Pen - Gennessee College - 1858-1871
• Temple of the Star - University of Mississippi - 1859-1878
• Temple of the Hands and Torch - University of Virginia - 1867-1890
• Temple of the Serpent - Cumberland University - 1868-1876
• Temple of the Star and of the South - University of North Carolina - 1890 (founded by Temple of the Hands and Torch)
• Temple of the Sword and Shield - Davidson College - 1890 (founded by Temple of the Hands and Torch)

The Transylvania Temple was killed by the Mexican War. The Wesleyan, Emory, Centenary, and Georgia Temples did not survive the Civil War. The Genessee Temple did not survive the closing of the college. The Mississippi Temple did not survive campus politics.

The Mississippi Temple did create the Virginia Temple, but did not pass to it the traditions of the society.

Mystic Seven Society, Phi Theta Alpha

In the early 1880's, the Virginia Temple was virtually alone. In 1885, it reconstituted itself as Phi Theta Alpha, and began creating chapters at North Carolina and Davidson. The fraternity had lost almost all the traditions of the older society. It also had a publication, The Mystic Messenger, published articles questioning why the society even had such a distinctive, non-greek letter name. This three chapter organization immediately merged with Beta Theta Pi in 1890.

Subsequent history at Wesleyan

The Mystical Seven society died at Wesleyan in 1865, (it had not been meeting as a society since 1858, and went dormant during the Civil War). In 1867, a petitioning group for a DKE chapter claimed initiation into the Mystical Seven for the purposes of securing a DKE charter, which was successful.

Later, in 1868, the DKE members formed a new society called Owl & Wand, which was to be a senior society and use the premises of the old Mystical Seven, (the attic of North College). As a senior society, it took as members individuals who were already members of four-year college fraternities, and was considered an 'honorary'. In 1890, the Owl & Wand group, without any knowledge of the workings of the Mystical Seven or an intent to restore them, claimed to be the older society. The senior society died off in the 1960s. In 1970-71, some Mystical Seven alumni re-started the society, and at a time when historically single-sex student groups were pressured to become coed, the new Mystical Seven embraced this change, which helped it to survive a decade that was detrimental to many other student societies and fraternities. The society as it was rebuilt in the 1970s has continued on successfully to the present day.

During the 1980s, a group of students also decided to re-establish the original society. Much work was employed in reconstructing the practices of the original society including the addition of much written material from several sources. The two Mystical Seven groups clashed during 1990 in a dispute over which group was legitimate. Today, the two groups continue to co-exist with little interaction with one another.

The meeting place of the senior society Mystical Seven on Wyllys Avenue, known as the Mystic Templum, was gutted by fire in 1995. The building remained boarded up until it was razed in the summer of 2007. The mysterious seven-sided building with seven-shashed windows and a seven pannelled door, was originally dedicated in 1912. Plans are currently progressing for the possible construction of a new building for the old Mystical Seven.