Foundation Letters and Teachings

Hardcover, 8vo. xxxii + 168 pp. Navy blue cloth with gilt titling to spine and gilt seal on front board. Printed on acid-free paper. Black and white portrait photo at front. Edition limited to 500 numbered copies. Originally published in 1927, "Foundation Letters and Teachings" is a collection of writings by Edward Arthur Wilson (1878-1934), more widely known as "Brother XII," an English occultist who founded an alternative spiritual community called the Aquarian Foundation on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in 1927. The Foundation attracted thousands of members at its height, but the group fell apart after a series of financial and sexual scandals. Brother XII subsequently established a new colony, a so-called City of Refuge on a group of islands in the Strait of Georgia, becoming the prototypical cult leader, as the settlement was alleged to have been run, in many respects, like a virtual prison camp. Brother XII and his magical companion, a sinister practitioner of ritual magic named Madame Z, asserted a dictatorial control over the lives of the members, fortified their empire against invasion, and amassed a fortune in gold. In 1932, the disciples revolted and the colony collapsed, with fleeing members recounting stories of Brother XII's bizarre behavior, including psychic attacks that he is said to have launched against his enemies. A classic "man of mystery," Wilson's death in Switzerland remains a matter of speculation. "Foundation Letters and Teachings" includes eighteen early letters by Brother XII, seven articles that lay out the fundamentals of his Teachings, and five periodical articles, four of which appeared in "The Occult Review" in 1926 and generated enormous comment and controversy. This new edition is reset and corrected, and includes a Foreword by John Oliphant, Brother XII's biographer, and the foremost authority on his life.