Glossary - exWitch Australia (formerly 'Born Again Pagan')

BRODIE-INNES, John William (1848-1923)

An Edinburgh lawyer who became a prominent occultist and student of witchcraft at around the turn of the century.

He was first Initiated into Freemasonry and developed a strong interest in Theosophy, becoming elected as President of the Scottish Lodge of the Theosophical Society.

In 1891 he was Initiated into the occult Hermetic Order od the Golden Dawn, rising to the position of chief of the Amen-Ra Temple until he was ejected by S. L. MacGregor-Mathers.

In May 1902, however, after Mathers himself had been removed from office, Brodie-Innes was elected as one of a triumvirate, heading the Order on an annual tenure, the other leaders being Percy Bullock and R W Felkin.

In May 1903 he attempted to force through a change in the constitution which would effectively give him sole autocratic power to govern Golden Dawn for life. The ploy was foiled largely through the efforts of a fellow member, Arthur Waite, and it set the seal for the demise of the Order later in the same year.

Brodie-Innes was succeeded by a fellow Edinburgh occultist, William Peck.

For some time Brodie-Innes adopted a conciliatory approach towards the various splinters of Golden Dawn. He became a member of Stella Matutina but also joined and became chief of the Isis-Urania Temple of Alpha Et Omega London, a move which brought inevitable charges of duplicity against him. In 1910 he made a short-lived attempt to revitalise the Amen-Ra Temple in Edinburgh.

PLEASE NOTE:
One of the major problems with 'defining' Paganism and/or its beliefs and practices is that it is an 'organic' movement, in that it is undergoing constant change and re-evaluation from within, and as such any 'one-size-fits-all' approach to understanding Paganism will be found wanting.

Due to the very 'organic' nature of Paganism, and the many differing Paths and Traditions within it, in many cases no one definition may be universally accepted by all Pagans. Therefore, where such cases of possible conflicting and/or contradictory meanings of certain terms occur I have endevoured to give not only the generally accepted meaning, but also any major 'variations' in belief and/or practice.

Christians who believe this difference in meaning of certain key terms, beliefs and practices to be unique to Paganism need to remember that such conflicts also arise within the Body of Christ - the Church. Take for instance the differing practices amongst Christians concerning Baptism and the different attitudes towards women in the clergy.

- Jean-Luc