Social Victorians/People/Brodie-Innes

Also Known As

John Brodie-Innes

• John William Brodie-Innes
• John W. Brodie-Innes
• Golden Dawn motto: Sub Spe — "Under hope" (Howe 296)
• VIAF: 52074993

Frances Brodie-Innes

• Frances A. Brodie-Innes
• F. A. Brodie-Innes
• Mrs. Frances Brodie-Innes
• Golden Dawn motto: Sub Hoc Signo Vinces (S.H.S.V.) — "Under this sign you shall conquer" (Alastor; Küntz 180)

Demographics

• Nationality: him, Scots
• Occupation: A "well known" Edinburgh lawyer (Howe 98; 70, n. 2).

Residences

• Residence: Edinburgh

Family

• John William Brodie-Innes (10 March 1848 – 8 December 1923)
• Frances A. Brodie-Innes ()

Relations

• Father, Rev. John Brodie-Innes (1815–1894), friend of Charles Darwin

Acquaintances, Friends and Enemies

Acquaintances

• John Brodie-Innes worked with Florence Farr, who seems to have taken his regard seriously
• Maud Gonne, who knew John Brodie-Innes's "witch stories"
• John Brodie-Innes knew Gabrielle Borthwick?

Friends

• Wynn Westcott
• Loyal to MacGregor Mathers in 1896 in the conflict about Annie Horniman
• On the side of W. B. Yeats and Annie Horniman, mostly, in the 1901 dispute
• John Brodie-Innes founded Stella Matutina with Robert Felkin and Percy Bullock in 1903
• Working closely with MacGregor Mathers in 1913
• John Brodie-Innes was in some (Scottish?) political movement with Mathers (Howe 126).
• Dion Fortune
• Bram Stoker, close friend

Enemies

• Isabelle de Steiger

Organizations

• The Golden Dawn, the Isis-Urania Temple, both Outer Order and Inner Order (Küntz 180)
• Amen-Ra Temple, Edinburgh — was Praemonstrator there
• Alpha et Omega

Timeline

1880 January 1, someone named J. Brodie-Innes wrote to the Times about barometric readings on 28 December 1879, when the Tay Bridge collapsed (Brodie-Innes, J. "To the Editor of the Times." [London] Times, 1 January 1880, p. 11, col. 4 [of 6]).

1890 August, John Brodie-Innes was initiated into the Golden Dawn (Gilbert 86 145).

1893 February, Frances Brodie-Innes was initiated into the Golden Dawn (Küntz 180).

1893 April 6, John Brodie-Innes was initiated into the Inner Order (Gilbert 86 145).

1894 December 6, Frances Brodie-Innes was initiated into the Inner Order of the Golden Dawn (Küntz 180).

Sometime in 1897, John Brodie-Innes founded a subgroup; Gilbert says that he was "sending details" to Wynn Westcott during 1896 (Gilbert 86 38).

1897 May 1, MacGregor Mathers had demoted Brodie-Innes to Praemonstrator of the Amen-Ra Temple by this time (Howe 190).

1897 December 21 or 22, circa, the Brodie-Inneses refused to sign Frederick Gardner's petition in support of Annie Horniman (Howe 144). They did not want to "challenge" the "superiors" (Howe 142).

1901 January, John Brodie-Innes was Imperator of the Amen-Ra Temple again (Harper 80 33).

1901 January 17, Florence Farr wrote to John Brodie-Innes, who was in the country (as opposed to being in the city) where she couldn't speak with him, to justify the Sphere Group:

• "On Jan 27th 1896 I received a long letter from DDCF. [MacGregor Mathers] in reply to a letter of mine sending a charged drawing of the Egyptian and asking him if I were not grossly deceived by her claiming to be equal in rank to an 8-3 of our Order at the same time giving me numbers which I afterwards calculated to be correct for that grade. I still possess his letter approving altogether of my working with her, and saying it was necessary to make offerings & then all would be well - &c &c. I soon found there was a considerable prejudice against Egyptian Symbolism amongst the members of the Order and I began to hold my tongue after having recommended the various clearly marked groups of thinkers (such as Indian, Christian and so on) to work steadily and regularly by themselves each under some more advanced person. To you and to those who were not antipathetic I spoke more freely. When the splits in the Order itself became more and more pronounced my work with 3 others having become extremely interesting we resolved to carry out a plan suggested by an Egyptian for the holding together of a strong nucleus on purely Order lines."" (Harper 74 221)
• One of the prejudiced ones was Frederick Gardner? In the 23 November 1896 "Care 'Daffodil'" letter, Horniman says, "What a time of it you must give S.S.D.D. [Farr]. She wants me to study Egyptian too, but I find one new language enough at a time and am hard at work at Italian" (Harper 74 225).
• One of the "3 others" was Robert Felkin, I think. Another was "Volo"? (Florence Kennedy)
• "All went well until September 1900 when I found everything I proposed was objected to. After a few weeks I discovered that my group which had been working quietly for 3 years was being violently attacked." (Harper 74 222) First she was "attacked" because of a conflict over rooms to meet in, so Farr agreed to a policy requiring groups to reserve meeting rooms.
• "I was then accused of keeping valuable information to myself. You will understand I think that with the anti-Egyptian Feeling about I shall still refuse to discuss Egyptian formulae with anyone not specially in sympathy with the ancient Egyptians." (Harper 74 223)

1901, John Brodie-Innes was with W. B. Yeats and Annie Horniman, mostly, in the 1901 dispute (see Harper 74 66 et seq).

1903, end of, Robert Felkin founded this branch of the Golden Dawn along with Percy Bullock and John Brodie-Innes (Harper 74 124). Those members of the Golden Dawn who kept the "magical ethos" of the Order "followed Dr Felkin ..., renamed their branch of the Order the Stella Matutina and set up the Amoun Temple" (Gilbert 86 41).

1910, John Brodie-Innes left the Stella Matutina "to refound Amen-Ra" (Gilbert 86 41).

1911, John Brodie-Innes was president of the Sette of Odde Volumes, which he had been a member of.

1913 August, by this time John Brodie-Innes was "Deputy Archon Basileus" under MacGregor Mathers (Harper 74 126).

Questions and Notes

1. Florence Farr wrote to Brodie-Innes about the groups in the Golden Dawn (Harper 74 27). When?
2. John Brodie-Innes headed a committee to revise the Golden Dawn constitution and "Bye-Laws" (Harper 74 93). He was Cancellarius of the new Order. He was staying in London?
3. John Brodie-Innes was in some (Scottish?) political movement with Mathers (Howe 126).
4. Isabelle de Steiger thought Brodie-Innes showed "a desire to rule over others and to show forth his knowledge and play the Initiate here among admiring neophytes!!" (Howe 190).

Bibliography

• Gilbert 1986
• Harper 1974
• Howe 1998
• Howe
• Küntz

John Brodie-Innes's Writings

• Brodie-Innes, J. "To the Editor of the Times." [London] Times, 1 January 1880, p. 11, col. 4 [of 6] (accessed August 2013).
• Brodie-Innes, J. W. "MacGregor Mathers — Some Personal Reminisciences." http://www.esotericgoldendawn.com/tradition_macgregorreminiscences.htm. Rpt. from The Occult Review, Vol. 29, No. 5 (May 1919), pp. 284-286 (accessed August 2013).
• Brodie-Innes, J. W. Scottish Witchcraft Trials. London: Chiswick 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.
• Maud Gonne said Brodie-Innes's "witch stories were exciting" (Howe 142).