Mystical Seven (Wesleyan) - Subsequent History at Wesleyan

Subsequent History At Wesleyan

The Mystical Seven society became dormant at Wesleyan in 1861; it had not been meeting as a society since 1858. In 1867, a petitioning group for a Delta Kappa Epsilon 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 restarted 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, (and again in 2001), 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 seven-sided building, with seven-sashed windows and a seven-paneled door, had originally been dedicated in 1912.