Sarah MacDougall, The Circle Way practitioner and Governance Council member, offers quotes from her doctoral dissertation entitled: “Calling on Spirit: An Interpretive Ethnography of PeerSpirit circles as Transformative Process” (2005). The circle practice previously known as PeerSpirit circle is now The Circle Way, and comes from the work and writing of Ann Linnea and Christina Baldwin.

Quotes from Circle Participants

During the course of my doctoral research I interviewed many circle participants. I find these first-hand quotes from people of differing genders, ethnicities, ages, and racial identities both heartwarming and informative. I hope you gain insight and enjoy reading them.

“For me circling is a verb. It’s a verb, an action, a doing together in a particular way. Trust is about Spirit being in the middle and the trust that we are each committed to that work. It’s full of a special kind of magic. Circle gives me the freedom to set aside the petty things of life and remember that we are all infinite and we are all eternal.”

“Part of the magic of circle is the way it connects people to one another at the same time it reveals one to oneself. I think spirituality is about connecting to that which is larger than the self. Circles for me have the capacity for people to experience in many, many ways their oneness with other beings and also experience their deep selves as part of that.”

“Circle helps humans remember not only self as a whole, but the entire human race as a whole – interconnected with all of creation. The old world order that is destroying everything at a rapid rate is crumbling. The new world order which is circle and which we’re all a part of is part of the healing – to be a new tribe in which all the colors and all the people become that sense of oneness.”

“The circle brings that structure of grace, that structure in which we are saying we are equally valued and equally share.”

“What we really do in the context of circle is that we’re remembering-- but remembering on several levels. Remembering this very ancient thing we used to do. Remembering ourselves by putting our bodies back together. We live in a culture that’s taken women and made them into a breast here, a leg there, an eyelash here – so it’s like putting the pieces back together – making us whole. The last thing – maybe the most important is to re-member. Pull the members of the tribe back together. Here we are. We come from different places, but we’ve had the unifying tribal memory of being around the fire and sitting in circle with Spirit – and calling it Spirit. It works because it is so old and we remember.”

“I was in a multicultural circle and really came to understand that for many people not of Color pause is critical, whereas people of Color, I mean we can be talking all over each other and I’m hearing exactly what you’re saying, can comment on what they’re saying and still come back to this piece – don’t miss a beat – But for the most part Europeans don’t do it that way and that would be just chaotic and confusing, just awful for them. So we have to set some ways that we can all be in circle together. And so it means a lot of tolerance because I have to learn to pause and wait to give you time and hopefully you can respect that there’s some times I bubble out of that. Give me credit for the 85% of the time I didn’t bubble (laughs) because I been wantin’ to bubble all 100% of it! So it’s those kinds of learnings that I think having the circle structure helps with as we move into this diverse family in circle together.”

“The aspect of circle philosophy that has moved me deeply is coming into a period of silence, a period of reflection, so that we can drop our baggage. We can become real.”

“Even if you haven’t said something, you gain from it [being in circle]. The silence of it -- the presence is just as important as expressing yourself.”

“Can we “string the bead” as the grandmothers have been calling it? Pass around the talking piece. There’s something very magical about when you touch the [talking piece]. Perhaps you weren’t going to say anything but when it comes to you something is ignited and you may be moved to speak.”

“The talking object -- where no one else is speaking -- we are in a place of deep listening and deep attention. It’s [circle] the only place that I have been where all voices can be heard.”