Conference

Margaret has been active in the Gareth Knight Group since 2010. As an esotericist and a professional engineer she views magic and science as sibling fields, part of one spectrum.

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She has a particular interest in work involving magical places. Her talk will explore what it is that makes a place magical. Drawing on sites in England, Scotland and Wales it will explore some of the factors that might influence the inner power of those magical places, the nature of that power, and how it might be perceived.

Rebsie Fairholm first joined the Gareth Knight Group in 1995 and has been running it since 2013. She is a graphic designer and publisher and founded Skylight Press, in the spirit of Helios Book Service. She has a wide range of esoteric interests including Anglo-Saxon magic, Grail mythology, Greek and Minoan magic, megalithic sites and plant oversouls. 

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The folk songs of the British Isles contain fragments of esoteric lore and magical ritual. Rebsie will explore how to find magical songs and how to use them. Within the faery tradition, Tam Lin and Thomas the Rhymer work together as two arcs of an initiatory spiral. Gems of alchemical and Grail lore can be worked with in an ancient ballad called Down In Yon Forest.

Robert (RJ Stewart) first met with Gareth Knight in 1971-72, when he mediated a somewhat thorny reunion between Gareth and occultist W.G.Gray, that resulted in the publication of Gray’s Rollright Ritual and other books. RJ and Gareth maintained a long term friendship and correspondence over more than 40 years. Gareth encouraged the publication of RJ’s third published book The UnderWorld Initiation in 1985, which had previously been circulated privately in manuscript. Over the years RJ was encouraged by Gareth to take part in classes held at Hawkwood College, Stroud, and to present some of his visionary meditations there.

For the Conference RJ will tell the story of the Gray-Knight reunion, and then the story of The Arch of Heaven, a prayer, meditation, and ritual that he discussed at length with Gareth, and that was used in private by a network of esotericists in Britain from its first publication in 1985, and the subsequent book form of 2013 which is now used worldwide. RJ will facilitate a short group working, for everyone present, of the Arch of Heaven as a spoken, shared, visionary meditation, in tribute to Gareth Knight.

Here is a sentence from the Foreword that Gareth wrote for RJ’s series of three Qabalistic books, The Sphere of Art: R.J. Stewart has been personally known to me for many years and although our paths have been different, sometimes as of water to fire, in the light of experience they appear to have been as complimentary as the serpents that ascend the staff of the caduceus of Hermes. (Gareth Knight, 2008)

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Robert John (R.J.) Stewart was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father came from a Gaelic speaking family originally from the Western Highlands. His mother was from a Welsh speaking family originally from the Gower Peninsula in South Wales, with a tradition of singing and playing the Welsh triple-harp. He is known today as a composer, author and teacher, with 40 books in publication, translated into many languages worldwide. In 1996 R.J. was admitted to the USA as "resident alien of extraordinary ability", a category awarded only to immigrants of outstanding achievement in the arts or sciences. He now lives in the mountains in West Virginia and in Glastonbury. R.J. has developed, and teaches with his partner Anastacia Nutt, an international program, Inner Temple Traditions /Inner Convocation, exploring original techniques for spiritual growth and transformation within the Western Esoteric Tradition.

All members of the audience are invited to take part in a meditational working, based on a ritual used in the Gareth Knight Group.