Just a year ago I was setting out on a series of four public talks to mark the sixtieth anniversary of Dion Fortune's departure from the physical plane, the texts of which you can find displayed on this website and also on the Company of Avalon website along with other details of the Dion Fortune "Avalon of the Heart" seminar that we held at Glastonbury town hall. This last attracted greater interest than we expected and so regrettably some people had to be turned away, so in organising a similar event for Saturday, September 1st 2007 a larger venue has been hired, at the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms.
This is the place where Dion Fortune spoke of being much moved by a performance of Rutland Boughton and Fiona McLeod's faery epic "The Immortal Hour" back in 1920. So our theme this year will explore the understanding of the world of faery held by Dion Fortune and her fellow Avalonians ... and successors. Programme details and how to book for it can be found on the Company of Avalon website: www.companyofavalon.net
For anyone seeking a broader perspective to Dion Fortune's place in the scheme of things Mike Harris will also be laying on a weekend workshop at Hawkwood College from June 15th to 17th entitled "Dion Fortune and the Western Tradition". For details of that and how to book consult the Hawkwood College website www.hawkwoodcollege.co.uk
Whilst as a special opportunity for anyone of reasonable experience Mike has also been able to arrange a series of practical workings at a location at the foot of the Tor on the weekends of July 13th -15th, August 17th - 19th, and September 7th - 9th. Access to these will be limited in terms of numbers and suitability of those wishing to become involved. For more details consult Mike Harris on harrisavalon@btinternet.com
I have over the past ten years been dedicated to bringing out previously unobtainable works by Dion Fortune through the good offices of Thoth Publications and the end of last year saw the final one of these, and perhaps the most evocative. This was "The Arthurian Formula", a script that was brought through by Dion Fortune as far back as 1941/2 and which was elaborated by her successor Margaret Lumley Brown and which formed the staple of advanced work in the Society of the Inner Light for some twenty years. I used it as the basis of a public workshop at Hawkwood College in 1981 with quite remarkable results that have their ramifications even today.
It is a heady mix of a number of traditions that feed into the Arthurian legend, from Atlantean and Celtic Faery lore to the Troubadour Minstrelsy and the Cult of Queen Venus. I have taken the opportunity to include a guide to recent academic and esoteric scholarship and to incorporate a remarkable perspective on Queen Gwenevere and the Faery and Grail traditions by Wendy Berg. This is a foretaste of her complete manuscript "Red Tree, White Tree" which is also due from Thoth Publications. For details of this and other exciting forthcoming items, including my own overview of "The Magical Fiction of Dion Fortune" go to the Thoth website: www.thoth.co.uk
In the meantime I look forward to meeting some of you again at Glastonbury on September 1st.
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