Talk:Society of the Inner Light

Comment

You know what. I never start from scratch, but in this case, I have to. I'm removing the article to the talk page and starting it over. Zos 07:04, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Awaiting Sources

• In 1928 Dion Fortune founded "The Community of the Inner Light", which was the forerunner of "The Fraternity of the Inner Light", which was in turn the forerunner of "The Society of the Inner Light", an outer court of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This society was to be the focus of her work for the rest of her life. Her magnum opus, The Mystical Qabalah was first published in England in 1935, just eleven years before her untimely death from Leukemia. Her Society of the Inner Light continues to function.

Any of this can be added back in once citation are found. Zos 07:04, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

I have added these references and inserted this info. I have removed the date stated as when Fortune "requested that the Fraternity of the Inner Light be formally recognised as being affiliated with the Alpha et Omega," as this date is earlier than the founding date of the society. Can someone please check this reference as I don't have the reference cited?

Morgan Leigh 03:21, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

I have various problems with this now. First, my source says 1922, so its needed for when this took place. Second, the "Community" of the Inner Light was an outer court of the Golden Dawn? Which Golden Dawn? This is very broad since when she was initiated into the Golden Dawn, it was through the Alpha et Omega. Looks like I'll have to buy these books in order to see which orders were which with Fortune. But I'm putting the date back in, so you might want to move your statement down, so it fits in chronologically. Zos 17:45, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

Nevermind, I did it for you. Zos 17:47, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

There is some disagreement as to when the Community of the Inner Light was started, though after having done a bit more research on this today, I think I shall put the date as 1922, as everyone except Gareth Knight gives this date. I think Knight's dating is due to a quite muddled way of laying things out in his book.

There is general agreement in the sources that Fortune was a member of the Hermes temple of the Stella Matutina. I refer you to the chart on p180 of Colquhoun's book (Sword of Wisdom), p114 of Richardson's book (the Magical Life of DF), p43 of Fielding and Collin's book (The Story of DF) and pages 49, 56, 189, 204, and 254 of Knight's book (DF and the IL). The chart on p133 of Colquhoun's book (Sword of Wisdom) is a very clear rendering of the descent of the orders. I can scan this chart and add it if you don't have access to it. Though I must say that I know Colquhoun to have made errors, e.g. she says Fortune was an orphan, so I cannot vouch for the veracity of her work.

I'd like to propose that we put the following paragraph in (to replace the existing one) in both this article and the Fraternity of the Inner Light article.

"In 1922, after a falling out with Moina MacGregor Mathers and with Moina's consent, Dion Fortune left the Alpha and Omega and formed the Fraternity of the Inner Light as an offshoot of the Alpha et Omega . This brought new members to the Alpha et Omega. Fortune's group was later renamed "The Fraternity of the Inner Light", and was, later still, renamed "The Society of the Inner Light".

I am not sure exactly what is meant by the "This brought new members to the A&O" bit. Perhaps you can give me a bit of context as to what King is saying here as I don't have this book. Also I have added the King reference to the first line of the paragraph as I presume it is referring to this split with Moina. Can you please ocnfirm this?

I would also like to suggest that we merge the Fraternity of the Inner Light and the The_Society_of_Inner_Light articles as they both refer to the same thing.

Morgan Leigh 03:44, 9 July 2006 (UTC) (also posted to Talk:Dion Fortune and Talk:The_Society_of_Inner_Light.

I added a reference section so we know which is which.

The first sentence is a bit off. It implys that after the break from Alpha et Omega, the Fraternity of IL was formed and bringing in members. I cant really say it was an offshoot either, just an appended body, referring members over to the A+O.

• King says:

"Fortune felt that the Order (A+O) needed new blood, that is was manned 'mainly by widows and grey-beareded ancients' and she came to the conclusion that this end could best be achieved by organising a public or semi-public society to act as an outer court of the to the Golden Dawn system (or the current structure within the A+O), a sort of Theosophical society which would arrange public meetings, organise lectures, issue a magazine, etc." - page143

So right now we are looking at the beginning of the FotIL, with that long ass sentence. As for the rest, King simply states on the same page, that she went to Moina Mathers and asked, Moina agreed, and new members came in because of this. So basically, she referred members to the A+O through FotIL. King then gives the FotIL its own section in the book, which is where the other statements are coming from.

As for the merge, I think the most recent Society/Fraternity of Fortune should be the main article, so long as there is an established link between them all. So article now on wikipedia should be merged with this one, and the other, so we can work on it there. Zos 05:27, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

I have added the suggested paragraph so we can play around with it. I know what you mean about the first sentence, but the 'after' referes to after her falling out with Moina. We should put in something to indicate that Fortune's group had been meeting for some time prior to the actual break, and I will work on that. I am still confused about the bringing in new members to the A&O bit. I think some members of Fortune's group were members of the A&O before the split and some weren't. So the SOTIL's formation would have caused some members to leave the A&O in favour of Fortune's group. On the other hand, seeing that the SOTIL was an A&O group, at the start anyway, this might technically mean that the A&O aquired those members of Fortune's group who were not previously A&O members. I'm going to do more research on this. I agree that it is clear that Fortune had lost faith in the A&O, and she was probably right to have done so IMHO. Many sources contain the 'widows and grey-beareded ancients' quote. I think we should put in more about why the split happened, though there are at least three stories as to why it happened i.e. the "Esoteric Philosophy of Love and Marriage' one, the 'The Cosmic Doctrine' one and the 'signs in her aura' one. We may just have to mention them all.

Morgan Leigh 06:40, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, the new members part only means that since the FotIL was an appended body, it brought in members, with Fortune acting as the medium. She or the group as a whole, would have referred members of the FotIL to the A+O if they were interested. But I know very little about the FotIL after the break off, since King's book only deals with aspects of such that deals with the Golden Dawn, after the break off, its ceased to be an appended body. And as for the SotIL, I'm not entirely sure it was called that while being afilliated with A+O. Theres a book I'm concidering on Amazon that deals with all of Fortunes orders/fraternities etc. Zos 17:52, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

The Society of Inner Light deleted

FYI, I deleted The Society of Inner Light as an uncontested {{prod}}. If someone would like a copy for merging, let me know. —Wknight94 (talk) 14:48, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

I was going to link to it as she mentions it in the Forward of 'The Mystical Qabalah'. A Fraternity is for Fraters (males) unlike a Society which is for both sexes, which Fortune's Order most certainly was. Bethsheba Ashe (talk) 16:27, 1 June 2023 (UTC)