Alternative Spiritualities Club Moves Beyond Monotheistic Traditions Little-Known Club Educates and Meditates
By Sam Pape '08
Editor
The Alternative Spirituality Club, or ASC,is a relatively new club on campus that celebrates underrepresented or unacknowledged religious traditions among the student body. The club was conceived in 2000, when several students felt the need to create a group that fostered conversation and exploration of the many religions lacking in representation on the Choate campus, focusing on a more diverse group of beliefs not encompassed by the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist students groups already in existence. The club then fell into a period of inactivity before being reinstated by Lis Hulin, who graduated in 2006.
About ten core members of ASC meet on a weekly basis, with Mr. Easton, who acts as the club’s faculty adviser. The incumbent club president is Charlotte McCurdy ’08 and the co-president is Aryeh Stein-Azen ’09. McCurdy described the club’s role on campus as “focused on the education and celebration of underrepresented spiritual beliefs.”
Trying to Diversify
Currently, the club’s religious focus has been on naturalistic traditions, manifested through neo-pagan celebrations, which, according to McCurdy, are carried out through earth-based ceremonies. Since the club’s inception, most of its traditions have been of Anglo-Saxon descent, as Easton joked, “It seemed a little artificial and disrespectful when we tried to celebrate non-European traditions because we’re a bunch of white kids celebrating traditions we have no connection to.” That said, the club’s leadership still intends to broaden the club’s religious spectrum to include Eastern traditions. “I want to work more with other groups on campus, like the Lotus Club, to incorporate more religions into the mix. We’re trying to bring Buddhist monks to campus to assemble a sand mandala, an intricate sand painting, which they work nonstop to complete. Once the monks finish, they would systematically destroy the painting on campus to illustrate the transient nature of life.” Such an event would provide the club’s active members, as well as students across the campus, with insight into a religious tradition that many students are unaware of.
Exploring the Unknown
The club’s meetings are varied in their usual activities. McCurdy described them as an “amalgamation of things: sometimes we meditate, sometimes members will research and present on unknown religious or spiritual perspective, and sometimes we just hang out.” Previous traditions presented at meetings included Rastafarian rituals and the Shinto religion, which Mr. Easton described as a “sort of Eastern neo-paganism.” These meetings have served to educate the club’s members about the practices and beliefs of a plethora of traditions that are not obscure, but may have limited recognition on the Choate campus. McCurdy described her appreciation for the club, saying that “Many people come to Choate and question their beliefs and develop new ones, and this is a club that definitely enables people to really question themselves.”
Mixed Welcoming
For the most part, the club and its members have felt welcomed on campus. Reverend Marc Trister, Head of Campus Ministry, said, “We [the campus ministry] recognize that in the world we live in, there are all forms of spirituality and that those alternative forms of spirituality are equally important in people’s lives as the traditional faiths like Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The Spears endowment gives the same recognition to the group as it does to any other religious group on campus.” Despite the community’s seemingly accepting attitude, not all students have been as accepting. Explains McCurdy, “The club has a very negative image on campus, probably because of the things people associate with paganism. The irony in this belief is that no current members would describe themselves as remotely neo-pagan, and many pagan rituals are emulated or have equivalents in their mainstream counterparts.” Easton reiterated McCurdy’s sentiments, saying that “We went around at the beginning of the year and stated our religious beliefs, and most of the kids expressed a fairly strong Christian affiliation. Pagan and Wiccan rituals are also closely related to Christian traditions, like Halloween, which the Christian holiday All Saints Day is derived from.”
Intellectualism Compromised
Most surprising is the lack of respect that some students demonstrate for ideas that they label as deviant. Drew Yeager ’08 expressed his perplexity, saying that “It’s almost shocking how the kids in the group are labeled within the community…Choate is such an open environment, and intellectual curiosity is paramount. I’m surprised that students aren’t more interested in these traditions, and it’s sad to see people write others off as being a certain way without having any knowledge about the student’s beliefs or practices.” Easton perfectly summarized the general attitude towards the club on campus with the comment that “there is still a stigma associated with anything that lacks a Western stamp…there always needs to be a scapegoat, and people are always looking to feel superior to something.” Although the term paganism actually refers to all religions outside the monotheistic triad of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, many use the term “pagan” as a pejorative in reference to the darker aspects of paganism, which includes the Halloween celebration.
Hopes for the Future
Although the club has had a mixed reception, it does offer a haven for students who do not practice monotheistic religions to address their beliefs. ASC recently held its Beltane celebration, which, according to Easton, is an Irish seasonal festival that marks the beginning of summer, or the “Fires of Bel.” McCurdy described the gathering as “A tradition that the club abstracted into something modern while retaining its spiritual context.” To welcome spring, the club members wrote messages regarding the past and the future and burned them, the spiritual release of smoke symbolic of the process of nature.
Although the club’s membership is small, McCurdy hopes to incorporate other traditions with the hope of making the club more appealing to students who don’t identify with the current neo-pagan practices. In addition, McCurdy said that “We’re a group of people taking the time to step outside of the everyday Choate grind, to eat food, see fire, and to celebrate nature, which we seem to do so infrequently in American culture.” For her, the attraction of the club lies in “the people and the chance to take a deep breath. So many people on campus think about what motivates them, be it parents, grades, college, everything that drives people to fight hard, but people rarely take the time to find an internal motivation, which is much more fulfilling.”
