The Gareth Knight Group
The Western Magical Tradition has its roots in many ancient mythologies and in the esoteric teachings of world religions. But it was Dion Fortune (1890 – 1946) who almost single-handedly laid down the foundations of the Western Mysteries as we know them today. Her biographer Gareth Knight was trained in her magical fraternity, the Society of the Inner Light. He founded his own magical fraternity, the Gareth Knight Group, in April 1973 at Hawkwood College in Stroud, Gloucestershire. The group was renamed the Avalon Group between 1999 and 2018, but is now once again known by its original name. The group was led for many years by Wendy Berg and is now led by Rebsie Fairholm, who is Gareth Knight's daughter and has worked alongside him for many years.
Rebsie has many years' experience of practical magical work, with a particular interest in the British Mysteries including the sacred landscape, Faery tradition, Grail legends and Anglo-Saxon magic. Wendy Berg is the author of Red Tree, White Tree: Faeries and Humans in Partnership (Skylight Press, 2010), Gwenevere and the Round Table (Skylight Press, 2012) and co-author with Mike Harris of Polarity Magic: the Secret History of Western Religion (Llewellyn Publications, 2003).
The Aims of the Gareth Knight Group
The Gareth Knight Group (or GK Group for short) is a fully contacted working group, one of the Greater Mystery Temples which serve the folk soul of Britain. In other words, we work with a group of Inner Plane Adepti or ‘contacts,’ and are guided by them in aspects of the Great Work of building bridges between the spiritual worlds and material creation.
Dion Fortune described magic as “the art of causing changes in consciousness according to will.” The ability to extend your conscious awareness from the physical world about you and into the Inner planes of creation that lie beyond it is the basis of all magical work, and is achieved primarily through regular meditation.
In addition to individual meditation and study, much of our work focuses on the use of magical ritual. Initially, taking part in magical ritual is a means of experiencing some of the forms, powers and beings of the Inner planes while in a state of heightened consciousness. The student’s progress is accelerated through participation in ritual, and by experiencing its patterns, dynamics, forms and traditions. For those of a more advanced stage of ability, ritual can be used as a means of assisting in the process of impressing upon the collective unconscious the perfect patterns which are in accordance with Divine Will.
The aim of all true magical work is to Know Yourself. This means not only learning about your personality and its strengths and weaknesses in your current lifetime, but accessing your Individuality, the essential ‘You’ that gradually manifests throughout all your earthly incarnations – and eventually to the essence of your own unique Divine Spark.
The concept of the Planetary Being – sometimes known as Gaia, or Erda – is of central importance to our work. We believe that by raising our own knowledge and awareness of the spiritual realities, and by putting this knowledge and awareness into practice in our daily lives, we can become active participants in the progression and evolution of the Earth and of all those who inhabit it.
