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

FELLOWSHIP OF ISIS

A Goddess-venerating fellowship founded in Ireland on the date of the Vernal Equinox in 1976 by the late Lawrence Durdin-Robertson, his wife Pamela and sister, Olivia Durdin-Robertson, and now ranking as a worldwide organization that claims a membership of more than twelve thousand distributed through more than sixty countries, it is among the largest of Goddess-venerating fellowships.

The Foundation Centre, with its Temple of Isis, is at Clonegal Castle in Ireland and the Fellowship is open to both men and women. It initiates both sexes as priests and priestesses. All members have equal privileges, there is no exclusivity or hierarchy, no vows, and members are permitted to resign and rejoin at will and may practise other religious beliefs. It denies the ritual of Sacrifice, even in symbolic form, and lays stress on being multi-faith and multi-cultural.

The network of the Fellowship consists of affiliated centres or Iseums, each dedicated to an individual Goddess, or Goddess and god, although all Goddesses bear the magical name I.S.I.S. and each god is Osiris.

The Fellowship strives for love, beauty and abundance while encouraging its members to develop Psychic abilities and a compassion for all living things. Education plays a significant part in the work of the Fellowship through Lyceums of the College of Isis which carry out both the liturgy and the training of would be priests and priestesses. The College also offers correspondence courses.

Its Magi Degrees (33 in total) are designed to reflect the growth charted by each individual member.

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