The home circle, also called the development circle, was and remains Spiritualism's primary school for mediumship: a small, stable group of sitters, traditionally meeting in a private home on a regular weekly or fortnightly schedule rather than as a one time event, opening with prayer and hymns before settling into quiet sitting intended to allow the more sensitive members of the group to develop their mediumistic ability gradually, under the informal guidance of a more experienced Spiritualist rather than through any single formal course of instruction. This domestic, small group setting distinguished the home circle from the larger, more theatrical public demonstrations of physical mediumship that drew Spiritualism its widest public attention in the movement's nineteenth century heyday, and Spiritualist teaching has generally held that the calm, patient, unhurried atmosphere of the regular home circle is the proper and safest environment in which mediumship should first develop, in contrast to the pressure of a public sitting or a paid consultation.
Historically the home circle functioned as the entry point through which an enormous proportion of ordinary nineteenth and twentieth century Spiritualists, rather than a small professional class of mediums alone, engaged with the movement's central practices directly, since sitting in a home circle required no special training or credential to begin, only a willing small group and regular commitment.