About the Founding of OGS

In 1993, a registered student organization called Pagan Wheel was formed at Central Michigan University. It later became known as Infinite Circle and the group lasted about five years. Although it officially disbanded in early 1998, its listing remained among registered student organizations at CMU attracting several young pagans to the university. Unfortunately, these students were met with no such group, left to their own devices for religious and spiritual support.

In late 1999, Andrew Dunn and Tiffany Davidson, began discussing the need for an alternative spirituality group on campus. They wished to dispel the negativity and the ignorance that surrounded belief systems such as Wicca and Witchcraft. Between the two of them, Andrew with his bright ideas and pagan activism, Tiffany with her experience as the State Representative of Witches Against Religious Discrimination (W.A.R.D.) and her own pagan activism, they developed the structure for what would become the next alternative religion group at CMU. They brought this structure to several of their friends, some of whom had been members of the previous groups. All agreed to meet on a Thursday night to further plan this group.

Andrew and Tiffany developed simple posters to hang across campus, drawing the curious and the hopeful alike to the first Thursday night meeting. Roughly ten people showed up to that first meeting deciding upon the name and the focus of the group. It was that first Thursday night that Andrew Dunn, Tiffany Davidson, and their friends formed Open Grove Society, a group that would come to stand for the freedom, education, and support of all spiritual students and community members including practitioners of alternative spiritualities.

Over the years, Open Grove Society has become increasingly active in both the university and mid-Michigan communities. They have taken part in several religious forums, given talks in the residence halls, ran several psychic fairs and Masquerade Balls, and are now planning an event known as the Body and Soul Festival that is slated for November of 2008. Their networking system consists of a website, MySpace page, LiveJournal page, a forum, a Ning Community, and a Facebook page, as well as a listing on The Witches’ Voice, a known and trusted source of pagan networking, information, and news on the Internet.

Open Grove Society is still committed to its original causes and growing stronger with each year of its existence. Our family and alumni stretch across the world from the United States to Canada and even into Europe.

A special thanks to Tiffany Jan Davidson for writing this up for the website.