John William Brodie-Innes (10 March 1848 – 8 December 1923) was a leading member of the

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ( la, Ordo Hermeticus Aurorae Aureae), more commonly the Golden Dawn (), was a secret society devoted to the study and practice of occult Hermeticism and metaphysics during the late 19th and early 20th ...

's Amen-Ra Temple in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. J.W. Brodie-Innes was born at Downe in Kent, where his Scottish born father Rev. John Brodie Innes ( 1815-1894 ) had been Vicar from 1846. His father was a friend and confidant of a neighbour at Downe,

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

. A lawyer by profession, he was a member of the Sette of Odde Volumes ( a London bibliophile society ), and was its president in 1911. He wrote several novels on witchcraft and magic. The most well-known is ''The Devil's Mistress'' (1915), a supernatural horror novel centred on the real-life accusations of witchcraft made against Isobel Gowdie. Brodie-Innes is believed to have been one of

Dion Fortune Dion Fortune (born Violet Mary Firth, 6 December 1890 – 6 January 1946) was a British occultist, ceremonial magician, novelist and author. She was a co-founder of the Fraternity of the Inner Light, an occult organisation that promoted ph ...

's occult teachers. (Fortune was also taught by such occult practitioners as

Moina Mathers Moina Mathers, born Mina Bergson (28 February 1865 – 25 July 1928), was an artist and occultist at the turn of the 20th century. She was the sister of French philosopher Henri Bergson, the first man of Jewish descent to be awarded the Nobel Pri ...

and Dr Theodore Moriarty). Throughout the dissensions of the Golden Dawn, Brodie-Innes remained loyal to

MacGregor Mathers Samuel Liddell (or Liddel) MacGregor Mathers (8 or 11 January 1854 – 5 or 20 November 1918), born Samuel Liddell Mathers, was a British occultist. He is primarily known as one of the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a cerem ...

, and on the death of his chief in 1918 published an affectionate obituary titled "MacGregor Mathers - Some Personal Reminiscences"( ) - Article reprinted from ''

The Occult Review ''The Occult Review'' was a British illustrated monthly magazine published between 1905 and 1951 containing articles and correspondence by many notable occultists and authors of the day, including Aleister Crowley, Meredith Starr, Walter Leslie ...

'', Vol. 29, No. 5 ( May 1919 ), pp. 284–286. in the May 1919 issue of ''

''.

References

Sources

*Brodie-Innes, J.W. ''Scottish Witchcraft Trials''. London: Chis-wick Press, 1891. *Gilbert, R. A., ed. ''The Sorcerer and His Apprentice: Unknown Hermetic Writings of S. L. MacGregor Mathers and J. W. Brodie-Innes''. Wellingborough, England: Aquarian Press, 1983. *Richardson, Alan. ''Priestess: The Life and Magic of Dion Fortune''. Wellingborough, England: Aquarian Press, 1987.

External links

* * * 1848 births 1923 deaths Scottish horror writers Scottish lawyers Bibliophiles {{occult-stub