The Society
of
The Inner Light
Works & Aims
Works & Aims
The Society of the Inner Light’s prime purpose is to maintain and expand the bridge that exists between outer life in the world and spiritual forces upon the inner planes.
It was founded in 1924 by Dion Fortune – Violet Mary Firth – at the instance of an inner plane Master. That is to say by a spiritual being who, having experienced and learned the lessons of life on Earth, has no further need physically to incarnate and has undertaken to help humanity progress by giving spiritual insights to those who are attuned to receive them. The general aim of this is the balanced earthing of spiritual principles under the general headings of Power, Love and Wisdom.
Dion Fortune’s career began as a student of psychology, but she developed an interest in esoteric theory and practice as a result of psycho-spiritual experiences through the development of her natural psychic gifts, which made her more readily aware of the worlds of causation behind physical appearances, normally beyond physical perception.
Her major inner plane contacts were first made at Glastonbury, a charged spiritual centre with Christian spiritual roots centered upon the Abbey, legendary roots centered upon its Arthurian and Grail legends, and Elemental roots centered upon the Tor and surrounding hills.
One result of her experience and research was a number of books. An early important one, ‘dictated’ from inner plane sources, is The Cosmic Doctrine, which describes in symbolic terms the divine creative process, from its cosmic inception to its expression in human and universal evolution. Another is The Mystical Qabalah, an exposition of the Qabalistic Tree of Life, which clearly explains the pattern of spiritual and psychic forces which play through the universe and which form the make-up of every human being.
She soon attracted a group of followers and over the years produced teaching on a wide range of metaphysical subjects, including masculine and feminine relationships, the esoteric orders and their work, the training and work of an initiate, the Arthurian legends, principles of esoteric healing, and much else besides. The Society continues to attract a steady stream of dedicated men and women, most of whom have acquired a degree of practical realisation of the worlds behind appearances through their natural or trained psychic abilities and/or intuitive powers.
Three Basic Elements
In keeping with Qabalistic teaching, the Society considers that the whole human being consists of three basic elements:
01 The Incarnated Personality
The Incarnationary Personality which is the normal human personality that we develop from birth and which is formed and influenced by a variety of factors, hereditary, environmental, cultural, educational and so on.
02 The Evolutionary Personality
The Evolutionary Personality (sometimes also known as the Soul, Individuality, or Higher Self) which encompasses the essence of experience of previous lives. Its influence may well be the positive demonstration of unique abilities at one or many levels, the downside of which may be the need for lessons in life yet to be learned.
03 The Divine Spark or Spirit
The Divine Spark or Spirit which emanates both the Incarnationary and Evolutionary Personalities, which should be its servants. Needless to say, direct awareness of this state may not be achieved immediately and the reality of its existence may seem imperceptible, even though our very existence depends upon it. Its full expression would be likely to produce sanctity or genius, and at the present stage of the world is a somewhat rare condition.
Admission
Admission is open to both men and women who have successfully passed a Study Course, by correspondence, which usually takes a year to complete. It is designed to give an adequate knowledge of the Tree of Life of the Qabalah and involves a meditation discipline and the submission of regular written work at fortnightly intervals, followed by a short interview.
Preference is given to U.K. residents who have to some degree demonstrated that they have established a life for themselves in the outer world. Exceptions outside this can be made at the discretion of the Director of Studies. The Society should in no way be regarded as a refuge for the distressed from life’s battles or a lonely hearts club. Applicants should usually be not less than twenty-five, though there can be exceptions.
The religious standpoint of the teaching of the Society is Christian, although with no particular denominational bias. In no way do we encourage sectarianism, fanaticism or bigotry. What we look for most of all is sincerity and dedication, and a desire to seek and give a life of service to the betterment of the human condition and enlightened stewardship of the environment.
Those with a hidden agenda who believe that the practice of ‘magic’ will help them with their mundane life, personal desires, fears or ambitions, should look elsewhere. The Society is not for them and admission, if achieved, would only disappoint them. After admission, training continues through Three Degrees of the so-called ‘Lesser Mysteries’ which are broadly based upon traditional Masonic symbolism. These are designed to develop and strengthen character, to give experience of ceremonial working, and to develop the visionary powers of the mind as a means towards attaining higher consciousness. The work of each Degree is unlikely to be achieved in less than a year. Academic course work continues along with a meditation discipline and regular practical group working which takes place once a month.
Those who successfully pass through this process, which tends to bring about the tests of character that are expressed in the circumstances of daily life, may elect to move on to the ‘Greater Mysteries’, which are concerned with developing consciousness at the level of the Evolutionary Personality and ultimately the Spirit. This is the level of the adept as a natural progression from that of the Lesser Mystery Initiate. Here specialised work may be undertaken under the direction of the inner plane hierarchy.
Training
The Society supports commonly understood basic Christian ethics and morality. Membership admits to the contacts of the Western Esoteric Tradition. The Group has no branches nor authorised representatives and expresses no opinion on other groups. We train in the use of the Qabalah and the Tree of Life based on The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune. Also the inspirational Cosmic Doctrine as a means of student self-education; this material being abstruse and speculative rather than dogmatic. It outlines the principle governing the Inner Plane Adepti or ‘Masters’.
In addition a fair general background knowledge is needed which must include some familiarity with mythology and psychology as well as religious literature as a prelude to specialisation. Life experience is equally essential. This Group aims at practical working, but acceptance for training to this end depends not only on passing the Study Course, but the suitability of candidates in a wider field.
The current evolutionary phase is especially concerned with the mind and its development, control and application in all walks of life. The ability to think clearly, unaffected by emotion, must be added to the capacity to feel deeply.
The initial task is the training of character through constructive application of regenerative principles; each individual preparing for new life by sustained work on him/herself. This work is not merely limited to self-improvement, although that in any case helps develop the national and racial group of which we form a part. To improve a part necessarily improves the whole. We seek to work with the Group Mind of our race and national community, and to do so each must be imbued with the cultural heritage of every Briton, or be part of the Western Heritage.
Therefore we expect our members to be familiar with the British and European myths and legends, our fairy tales and our nursery rhymes, for these are the ancient expressions of the visions and desires of the people of the Western Heritage. The core and essence of the Mysteries is Regeneration, the Great Work which “God undertakes in the soul of Man” and described as the dynamic process of God revealing Himself; and through each one of us. This work is necessarily demanding, requires dedication and is a way of life which means living ordinary, everyday life ‘with intention’.
As indicated above, every member works on himself, but the individual effort is talismanic, the little leaven that leaveneth the whole – and the power of the leaven is greatly increased when a group of dedicated individuals work together for the same end. And so the individual works on himself, but not for himself alone; recognising himself as a Spirit of the Human Evolutionary Swarm or Life-wave, and the work done on himself is work for the Swarm. Thus the aspirant works on himself, indeed, but in the service of God, man and all that lives.
Another objective of the Group’s work is to help lay the foundation for the Aquarian Age and create the conditions needed for its successful birth. The Group is concerned with the work of the Mysteries. This aims at producing quality and can best be described as character training. An occult operation begins at the causative level, relatively hidden or occult to produce results on the physical plane – Malkuth on the Qabalistic Tree of Life.
Ritual and ‘inner plane’ contacts open the door to extended experience; not as a end in itself but its application in the service of that regenerative path that creates a better, wiser and more honest individual.
Responsibility
Opportunities are given, and Initiation into the Mysteries is a ‘quickening process’ , but the individual has to walk every step of the way himself and take full responsibility for himself and his life. ‘Initiation’ is not into this Group but through this Group into the Mysteries.
Suitability includes such ‘inner kingdom’ factors as character, attitude, sustained dedication and application; realising one is constantly self-training; a capacity to learn and apply to the life the training and conditioning. Commitment must be wholehearted yet not fanatical; a lukewarm attitude only hinders, does not help.
The sincere effort of any individual of a particular ‘type’ helps redeem that type collectively. The effort of individual members build the collective work of the whole Group, thus assisting the redemption of Humanity collectively.
Those who come seeking ‘Occultism’ are apt to consider character training (which means they have to do the work themselves) as no training.
Let us make clear conditions necessary to be manifested in the life of the Individual. They are geared to the needs of the work, what is essential for its purposes and goals to be achieved always based on the foundations of the Group and its work; its fundamental orientation and reason for existence, which involves the fundamental orientation of every member.
These characteristics must be recognisable and demonstrable in everyday life, for there is a big gap between knowing about, or even agreeing with, a principle or condition and its practice.
Putting into practice may take a long time, but a great part of a member’s contribution to the work is to be competently and safely effected with harmonious fulfilment and freedom from pathological imbalances. Basically the conditions are:
1. Order in all aspects of one’s life, including subjective aspects; but in particular tidiness, punctuality, cleanliness and more for order is the essential prerequisite for perfect form. (THE ETHIC OF MALKUTH IS ORDER.)
2. Considerate and courteous behaviour.
3. Good citizenship – fulfilling the responsibilities of citizenship and being a good neighbour.
4. Self-discipline, honesty and the willingness to take responsibility for oneself and one’s way of life; the willingness to accept admonition; and the determination to change where necessary.
5. Fulfilment of responsibilities to which one is committed, as bringing up a family in suitable and harmonious conditions and providing for these; running a business or playing one’s part as an employee and member of a work-force.
6. The capacity to commit oneself to a way of life.
7. Solvency. To support/maintain oneself and one’s dependants.
8. Receptivity to recommended teaching and testing it through experimental application.
9. Willingness to learn and apply. (Many do not really seek to learn, but to criticise. Some only disagree lacking the willingness to let go of preconceived ideas and learn. Without willingness to apply the experience, sound judgement is often flawed.)
10. Willingness to think things through; that is, to consider the implications and possible results of one’s behaviour or of an intended action.
The Three Rays
The Three Paths before you are separate in method and discipline, yet one in their ultimate synthesis. They are the three faces of the Pyramid of Spirit and according to how you view this Pyramid, it will appear either as the Mystic, the Hermetic or the Path of the Green Ray. When you have climbed to the apex, you will see the three are in fact one.
The Green Ray
On the Green Ray, man seeks God in Nature and worships Him there, saying, ‘How can I know That which transcends knowledge? Nonetheless, I can feel life urge within me, and that life is of God. Therefore I will worship God where He may be found – in the life-urge within my veins, in the inebriation of the subliminal self.’ Thus energised, the god within rises up and knows the Very God after his own manner.
Then shall God show Himself to men in His glorious works. For the god within, being lifted up and exalted to ecstasy with a divine inebriation, perceives the God Without in hill and herb and elemental force, for thus God manifests and works upon the Plane of Nature.
Achieving that Divine Ectasy is the method and discipline of the Way of the Green Ray. And it is an inebriation of the soul, not of the flesh. An inebriation of colour, sound and motion that lift the senses out of the flesh into a wider vision, for Dionysius is a Messiah as well as the Christ, and the soul can transcend the mind by sublimating the senses as well as by renouncing, and some find God on this Path as truly as by the Way of the Cross.
But this Path also has its dangers, for it tends to turn in upon itself and issue whence it came. It may become a fixed state and not a Path, and the soul lingering there may be overtaken by night. There the Subconscious Self may worship the Old Gods and possibly escape from the synthesis which is man and become lost in a limbo of forgotten things to wander in obscurity.
So how shall a man choose wisely neither to over-reach himself in pride and rashness beyond his strength, nor fall below the stature of his manhood and become as a beast that perishes? And why should these pitfalls exist for our unwary feet when we seek to draw the Highest? Know all souls are not of equal age; some have advanced quickly while others have lagged; and some have come here through other evolutions. Would you close the door against those whose needs are other than yours?
The paths to God are many. Your need may be one thing and your desire another, say the Masters.
The Purple Ray
If your way is devotional, you will incline to the Mystic Path. If that of will and wisdom, that is the Hermetic Path. If your way is that of the love of beauty and its expression, you will incline to the Green Ray. But remember, what seems to you a Path is in very truth a Pyramid.
Consider the nature of these three Paths. On the Mystic Path the Ego casts aside everything that separates it from God. It seeks to know even as it is known; and the mind cannot know God. It even casts away the mind to enter into the Divine Union. All that is not God to it is dross; and it purges and re-purges the soul until nothing remaineth but pure spirit.
This is a steep and narrow way, though swift and sure. The danger lies in the fact you may enter it before you are ready for this ‘cleansing’ process. No one can dismiss any of God’s gifts until they have absorbed their essence. Do not try to escape life’s problems by this route in renouncing what you can neither confront nor overcome.
Therefore, do not consider pursuing this Path prematurely, for you will lose more time by its steepness than gain by the direct assault. Don’t be misled by spiritual ambition, nor by the spirit of emulation. These have drawn many astray.
None may come to this Path until almost at the end of their evolution in matter. Until the lessons of matter are learned, they may not abandon matter.
The Hermetic Path
God in His wisdom has ordained a Middle Way that those who seek Him may find Him. The mystic exalts his consciousness from the level of Concrete Spirit to unite himself with That which transcends consciousness, while the pantheist exalts his consciousness from the level of the emotions so he too may likewise unite. These are our elder and younger brethren.
But what of a man of this day, given the mind as his instrument? By exalting his mind shall he not so find his God? This is the Path ordained for this epoch, and to such an end are the Mysteries designed.
Tread then the Middle Way, avoiding exaltation upon the one hand and atavism upon the other (there are few for whom these are Ways of Initiation). In humility and humanity achieve the goal of your epoch, as God’s law has ordained for you. Use the mind God gave you to reach up and realise the things of the spirit upon the one hand, and reach down and control the things of the senses on the other. Thus you shall stand equilibrated between them, as the Initiated Adept.
Considerations & Requirements
Considerations
At root every man is a Spirit manifesting in earth conditions, in Malkuth, in Qabalistic terms, and it is necessary to practise the recognition of the true Being, the Spirit, without a body, for this will help one become aware not only of one’s own Presence but also of the Presence of one’s fellow men.
This way one cannot only learn compassion through realisation of the gap yet existing between the Spirit and its manifestation, but also learn of the God-conditioned consciousness which is innate in everyone however deeply overlaid with misconceptions, stupidities, and egotistical outlook mostly due to erroneous conditioning.
Recognition of one’s true Identity is not egotism. Egotism separates and isolates. Identity relates and unifies.
As yet, however, Man is not complete and is therefore unbalanced and not fully developed, for certain aspects of his nature are not able to unfold until there is sufficient purity, stability and efficient functioning in those aspects of which he is aware.
All need to be much more alert and honest, especially about themselves, the sort of life they lead and their environment. One should discover or decide the kind of life one wishes to commit oneself to and having made such a commitment, carry it out efficiently and so live a worthwhile life.
Alertness includes recognition of conditions we have outgrown – for we often err if we unnecessarily continue in them. So anyone seeking Initiation must examine himself and his life from all aspects in order that, understanding his present-time condition, he may assess his situation and decide wisely what is the next step for him in real terms.
In examining himself and his conditions he must seek to discover his heart’s desire, his deepest yearnings, and to what path he can commit himself that will lead to them. The Initiate is one who aspires to pay the price for condensed evolution since the treading of the Path is the particular form of service to which he is drawn.
To the would-be initiate such an examination may bring the realisation that there are many things he has to adjust or develop before he can take that further step. In this case the decision should be to get down to these things during the present lifetime, fulfil his responsibilities therein and thus aid his growth – he will be happy then through being on the right path.
Further Requirements
The individual goal is the flowering of the Spirit in earth and the experiencing of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, yielding a happy and fulfilled, creative, individual.
It calls for the recognition that until Man is rightly related to Divinity as well as to all that lives, the Kingdom of Heaven cannot manifest on earth, and that it is Man’s purpose and responsibility aided by all other living consciousnesses comprising the Kingdom of God to bring this about. It is an honest life of service, lived according to fundamental principles. There is a blessing on all who serve.
The necessary commitment for treading the Path is to Spirit and the experiences resulting from it will not be static as to life or as to associations. Like everything in life, the Path is concerned with relationship, so let us seek to increase our understanding of the relationship between religion and the Mysteries.
To be a member in this Group, one must have experience and some reality on the fundamentals of religion, no further growth being possible until this is achieved. (One can also seek the Path as a result of suffering and confusion and unhappiness and failure to handle life in a satisfactory way. Intuitively there is recognition of the Path and the desire to give service, and one becomes a seeker. In due course what was mostly in the subconscious is brought into consciousness, and a decision is made.)
The Mysteries are concerned with the Lords of Civilisation and the cultures which cleanse men from barbarism, and through intuition guide the apprehension of truths beyond the visible. The Mysteries include the Humanities, being concerned with human nature as well as divine nature. All life is concerned with evolution, and the evolving man seeks the substance of life which is the essential nature, underlying phenomena, and this pertains to divine creativity. It involves the ‘unmanifest’ becoming ‘manifest’. The Word made flesh is an example of this.
Students of the Western Tradition are fortunate in having not only the literature of the Western culture through myth, legend, pagan religions and Christianity, but also the Qabalah and the Tree of Life to use to deepen the contacts and understanding of all matters concerning wholeness and evolution of the soul and all life.
The seeker of the Path seeks wholeness and hungers after those things by which we truly live, but he is also concerned with condensed evolution as this is his commitment. He cooperates with that great work which God undertakes in the soul of man – to wit, regeneration – to invest life with a new and spiritual nature, to breathe new and more vigorous and extended meaning into life, to bring into being a renewed state of existence. {Click Here for Next Page}
An old tradition was that nobody should be accepted for Initiation until he had fulfilled all the duties of citizenship which included solvency, the bringing up and launching into the world of children, and contribution to civic life. Basically the principles underlying this tradition still operate.
Therefore, if married couples or a single partner apply for membership of this Group, commitments and responsibilities have to be made clear. Some of the questions on the Questionnaire are designed to elicit this information.
There is the Path of the Hearth Fire, which is a path of service essential to the race and those committed thereto are free to follow the Path of Initiation only if the functions of the Path of the Hearth Fire are fulfilled, since a genuine Mystery Group inevitably requires time and energy to be dedicated by its members to its work and purposes. It should be realised, however, that those who serve through the Path of the Hearth Fire are indeed giving service.
There may be those who have other responsibilities to which they are committed before they seek membership. These, too, cannot be abrogated, and all such matters have to be carefully considered and taken into account.
In the process of growing up one needs all-round experience and sufficient assimilation of experience to be mature enough to be in a condition to decide one’s choice of a path in life and the purpose of the life of that choice. It is only when one is really individualised and has attained a considerable degree of knowledge of himself that he can make such a choice.
The individual may not always like The Way, which can be painful as well as joyous and expansive, and which calls for sacrifice and humility as well as self-responsibility, discipline, efficiency and achievement, but progress in living such a life is inevitable.
