The Avalonians

In the early years of the 20th century, Glastonbury began to be as identified with Avalon as it had been in the High Middle Ages. This quiet corner of  Somerset has always been what the Celts sometimes term a "thin" place, where inner plane forces seem to bubble up and flow without hindrance into the physical world. This factor, coupled with Glastonbury's extraordinary history, drew many luminaries of the native spiritual resurgence taking place in the British Isles and Ireland at this time. You can read about some of them below. To meet the other characters who played their part on this small but influential stage, see The Avalonians by Patrick Benham (Gothic Image publications).
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DION  FORTUNE

DION  FORTUNE  was the pen name (adapted from the magical motto Deo non Fortuna) of Violet Mary Firth (later Evans). She was esoterically trained by a Doctor Moriarty before taking further training in the temples of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Her departure from the Golden Dawn was attended with not a little mutual acrimony between her and the then head of the Golden Dawn, Moina Mathers. However, one of her Golden Dawn teachers, Maiya Tranchell Hayes, helped Dion Fortune set up her own Order, returning to assist her in later years. This Order, which started life in 1926 at Chalice Orchard, Glastonbury, went on to become the Society of the Inner Light, which still thrives today, now headquartered in London.

HUT USED BY DION FORTUNE AT CHALICE ORCHARD SITE circa 1926

 

The Western Mystery Tradition owes a tremendous debt to Dion Fortune, who by her tireless efforts built so many bridges with her writing, lecturing and not least by her magic, until her early death in 1946.  She opened many doors that had hitherto been closed both to the occult community and to the general public.

( Recommended reading: "Dion Fortune and the Inner Light" by Gareth Knight. and "Priestess" by Alan Richardson, both published By Thoth Publications, Loughborough, Leics.)

Every September The Company of Avalon holds a Dion Fortune Seminar in Glastonbury, which features leading exponents and writers from the Western Mystery Tradition. 

CLICK  HERE  FOR  DETAILS

 

FREDRICK  

BLIGH  BOND


 BOND  was a Bristol architect who in May 1908 was granted a license to start excavations at Glastonbury Abbey on behalf of the Somerset Archaeological Society. Ten years passed before that society and the Church of England (who had by then come into possession of the Abbey) became aware that Bond had undertaken the startlingly successful excavations through psychic direction.

 The revelation came in 1918 with Bond's book The Gate of Remembrance. Bond described  communications through his mediumistic friend Captain Bartlett, with a number of long dead monks from the early Abbey. The monks called themselves the Company of Avalon. Though Bond was forbidden by the Church of England to continue digging at Glastonbury Abbey, he remained in the town for some years and latterly met and did some psychic work with Dion Fortune.

They followed up the Company of Avalon contacts, which Dion Fortune later elaborated. Bond eventually left England and settled in America where he became a priest. He finally returned to Britain spending the last five years of his life in North Wales. His work on psychism, spirituality and Qabalah are not well known but nonetheless impressive. He is credited with designing the famous vesica piscis cover of Glastonbury's Chalice Well in 1919. 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WILLIAM  SHARP


SHARP was born in 1855 in Southwest Scotland. He was a prolific writer and constant traveler,  but suffered from ill health throughout his short life. In his early thirties he met a younger woman with whom he had a passionate affair. This was the catalyst which released his feminine, psychic and mystical side. He started to write in a totally different style and under a woman’s name - Fiona Macleod.

Fiona’s writings immediately caught the attention of William Butler Yeats. Yeats could see that the author had a deep and intense understanding of the ancient Celtic Mysteries. Yeats and others were forming a Celtic magical order and they enlisted the help of Fiona/William Sharp. Sharp met with MacGregor Mathers several times and may have been initiated into the original Order of The Golden Dawn. He was, however, much more of a mystic than a magician and he became drawn to the Avalonian tradition through Dr Goodchild, another celebrated Avalonian who found the Chalice Well bowl in Italy. Sharp subsequently made a series of visits to Glastonbury. He died at the age of fifty while visiting friends in Sicily. By combining his deep knowledge of the old Celtic sacred ways with the upwelling Avalonian tradition, he has been a profound influence on seekers of the Mysteries to this day.

 

 

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© Mike Harris/Company of Avalon, 2007