Esoteric Succession of the Guild of the Holy Thorn
& Avalonian Druidcraft, ​from the Church of the Grail

PictureWilliam Ernest Butler
The Church of the Grail, founded by the occultist Violet M. Firth (aka Dion Fortune) (1890-1946), started out as The Guild of the Master Jesus and was later, after 1936, renamed the Church of the Grail. Dion Fortune was originally a Theosophist and an initiate of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and later founded her own esoteric order called the Society of the Inner Light (S.I.L.). The Revd William Ernest Butler, an initiate in the S.I.L., a Liberal Catholic priest, was also involved in the foundation of the Church of the Grail.
As a woman, Dion Fortune was ineligible for episcopal consecration, therefore, the church she founded was founded without apostolic succession. It might, therefore, be classified as an independent esoteric church, and the lineage which has been transmitted to us from Dion Fortune is thus an initiatic lineage rather than a line of valid apostolic succession, a magickal system encompassing the method of consecrational transference of initiatory energies.
PictureArtwork by kind permission of Sandra Brant
  • Violet Mary Firth (1890-1946) (aka Dion Fortune), foundress and Matriarch of the Church of the Grail, consecrated as a bishop of the Church of the Grail:

  • Arthur Chichester who in 1959, consecrated as a bishop of the Church of the Grail:

  • Basil Wilby (aka Gareth Knight), who consecrated as a bishop of the Church of the Grail:

  • Mark Nicholas Whitehead (aka Coleston Brown) who on August 15th, 1999 consecrated as a bishop of the Church of the Grail:

  • John Paul Aloysius Plummer, who on June 9th, 2011, exchanged episcopal consecrations with:
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  • Alistair Herrick Bate, Master of the Holy Celtic Order of the Temple
Picture
Violet Mary Firth (Dion Fortune)

O Holy Ghost, my soul inspire, Thou Flame of Fire, Descend on me.

For more about the Avalonian Tradition please see the "Road to Avalon", "Guild of the Holy Thorn" and "Avalonian Druidcraft".