About Us

The Western Magical Tradition has its roots in many ancient mythologies and in the esoteric teachings of world religions. But it was Dion Fortune (1890 – 1946) who almost single-handedly laid down the foundations of the Western Mysteries as we know them today.

 

Her biographer Gareth Knight was trained in her magical fraternity, the Society of the Inner Light. He founded his own magical fraternity, the Gareth Knight Group, in April 1973 at Hawkwood College in Stroud, Gloucestershire. The group was renamed the Avalon Group in 1999 before reverting to its original name in 2018. The group is currently led by Rebsie Fairholm, who worked alongside Gareth Knight for many years and has been running the group since 2013. Prior to that it was run by Wendy Berg.

 

Rebsie has many years' experience of practical magical work, with a particular focus on the British Mysteries. Her interests include the sacred landscape, Faery tradition, Grail legends, music, alchemy and Anglo-Saxon magic.

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The Gareth Knight Group (or GK Group for short) is a fully contacted working group, one of the Greater Mystery Temples which serve the folk soul of Britain. In other words, we work with a group of Inner Plane Adepti or ‘contacts,’ and are guided by them in aspects of the Great Work of building bridges between the spiritual worlds and material creation.

 

Dion Fortune described magic as “the art of causing changes in consciousness according to will.” The ability to extend your conscious awareness from the physical world about you and into the Inner planes of creation that lie beyond it is the basis of all magical work, and is achieved primarily through regular meditation.

 

In addition to individual meditation and study, most of our work focuses on the use of magical ritual. Taking part in magical ritual is a means of experiencing some of the forms, powers and beings of the Inner planes while in a state of heightened consciousness. Each student’s progress is accelerated through participation in ritual, and by experiencing its patterns, dynamics, forms and traditions. For those of a more advanced stage of ability, ritual can be used as a means of assisting in the process of impressing upon the collective unconscious the perfect patterns which are in accordance with Divine Will.

 

The aim of all true magical work is to Know Yourself. This means not only learning about your personality and its strengths and weaknesses in your current lifetime, but accessing your Individuality, the essential ‘You’ that gradually manifests throughout all your earthly incarnations – and eventually to the essence of your own unique Divine Spark.

 

The concept of the Planetary Being – sometimes known as Gaia, or Erda – is of central importance to our work. We believe that by raising our own knowledge and awareness of the spiritual realities, and by putting this knowledge and awareness into practice in our daily lives, we can become active participants in the progression and evolution of the Earth and of all those who inhabit it.