John William Brodie-Innes ( March 10, 1848 – December 8, 1923 ) was a leading member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a magical order active in Great Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which practiced theurgy and spiritual development...

's Amen-Ra Temple in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

.

Born in Moray

Moray

Moray is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland.- History :...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, he was the son of Rev. John Brodie-Innes

John Brodie-Innes

The Reverend John Brodie-Innes was a close friend and correspondent of Charles Darwin.John Brodie-Innes of Milton Brodie was born in 1815, the son of Colonel John Innes of Ipstone House and Mary Leslie of Burdsbank...

 ( 1815-1894 ), a friend and confidant of Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

. A lawyer by profession, he was a member of the Sette of Odde Volumes ( a London bibliophile society ), and was its president in 1911. He wrote several novels on witchcraft and magic and is believed to have been one of Dion Fortune

Dion Fortune

Violet Mary Firth Evans , better known as Dion Fortune, was a British occultist and author. Her pseudonym was inspired by her family motto "Deo, non fortuna" , originally the ancient motto of the Barons & Earls Digby.-Early life:She was born in Bryn-y-Bia in Llandudno, Wales, and grew up in a...

's occult teachers. (Fortune was also taught by such occult practitioners as Moina Mathers

Moina Mathers

Moina Mathers, born as Mina Bergson , was an artist and occultist at the turn of the 20th century. She was the sister of French philosopher Henri Bergson, the first man of Jewish descent to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927...

 and Dr Theodore Moriarty).

Throughout the dissensions of the Golden Dawn, Brodie-Innes remained loyal to MacGregor Mathers

Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers

Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers , born Samuel Liddell Mathers, was one of the most influential figures in modern Occultism...

, and on the death of his chief in 1918 published an affectionate obituary titled "MacGregor Mathers - Some Personal Reminiscences" in the May 1919 issue of The Occult Review

The Occult Review

The Occult Review was a British illustrated monthly magazine published between 1905 and 1951 containing articles & correspondence by many notable occultists and authors of the day, including Aleister Crowley, Meredith Starr, Walter Leslie Wilmshurst, Arthur Edward Waite, Franz Hartmann, Florence...

.

Sources

• Brodie-Innes, J.W. Scottish Witchcraft Trials. London: Chis-wick 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.
• Richardson, Alan. Priestess: The Life and Magic of Dion Fortune. Wellingborough, England: Aquarian Press, 1987.