RESTORING THE TEMPLES

Temples in Dion Fortune's Novels

FOR LACK OF A TEMPLE…

My mind has been turning quite a lot this last few months to the way in which the Western Esoteric Traditions have survived and come down to us, especially in respect to where people gather and practice their tradition together, in default of places of their own. This may not seem a very important aspect of survival, but it is nonetheless an essential feature at the heart of gathering together with people of your own spiritual affiliation.

We look around at the established traditions and we see that most of them have places to gather in abundance: mosques, churches, synagogues, temples.  We look to the sacred places where we may visit as tourists: the stone circles and great gathering places of our ancestors and we look around us now: no, there are no temples where we can gather if we follow the esoteric traditions.

It is a notable feature of the magical and spiritual revivals of the last century (and long before) that few of us have had access to a temple where very many people can meet together, apart from the outside world of nature.  While it may be good to sit out in nature and meditate, or venture out into the unfrequented wilds to do a ritual with a few people, mostly the weather is not compliant in Britain, or there are too many people about. As a lone Wiccan friend once related to me back in the 1970s, while trying to do his rites in the middle of a wood, ‘The policeman who wheeled his bike home that night through the woods was very surprised to find me stark naked in the grove. When asked me what I was doing, and I told him, ‘practising my religion, officer.’ He then advised me to either do it more privately, or else put more clothes on next time!’