RJStewart.org - Meetings with Ronald Heaver

This expanded article on Ronald Heaver was first published in Avalon Magazine, Glastonbury, Britain, Spring 2006. An earlier (shorter) version was first published on this website in 2005, and this appears as a preface to the Inner Temple Traditions InnerConvocation meditations which can be found at http://www.rjstewart.org/inner-temples-5a.html.

More information on A R Heaver and associated spiritual teachings can be found in The Sphere of Art by R J Stewart, published 2008. Available from bookstores or online at www.rjstewart.net.

Opening Note: Some of this story and associated teachings have been shared with students at workshops and classes from 1989 to the present year, while many of the spiritual themes are found in my books and recordings. This is the first magazine article to be published on my meetings with Ronald Heaver.

The meetings described in this article happened in the mid to late 1970’s. By this time, many of the outward activities of Ronald Heaver’s life, as described in the excellent article by Paul Fletcher (Avalon, issue 30, Summer 2005) had gradually faded, and Heaver was making ready for his conscious death, which he knew would occur on the 10th of February 1980, his 80th birthday.

Before recounting my meetings with Ronald Heaver, I would like to share some brief insights regarding the teaching methods and general consciousness of the older generation of mentors in Britain. I am referring to those who, like Ronald Heaver, had come through both the 1st and/or 2nd World Wars. Few of them are left now. Many people today do not understand how different their methods were from those familiar to us in the last 20 years of spiritual, pagan, and New Age revival. There is, as a result, romanticizing, even fantasizing, about some of the founders of our spiritual and magical revival, and especially that powerful branch that relates so strongly to Glastonbury and the Sacred Mysteries.

Later in this article I describe some of the remarkable un-teaching methods that I experienced from sitting with Ronald Heaver…in some ways he taught nothing, in other ways he taught everything, all at once, like a massive instantaneous download, that had to be decrypted and digested. Some of the inner spiritual material I received from him is still unfolding in me today, thirty years later. Indeed, I now understand that Ronald Heaver, and the spiritual lineage that he embodied, set certain tasks for me that I am still fulfilling. Some of this work appears in my books, often in unlikely guise. It was Ronald Heaver, for example, that planted the seeds that led my writing of The UnderWorld Initiation in the late 1970’s. But most significantly, it was he who brought me into the work that later on became my Inner Temple Traditions InnerConvocation classes and groups, which are now found in many parts of the USA, Canada, Britain, and Europe.

The spiritual teaching methods of the wartime generation

Some of the methods of that older wartime generation of spiritual mentors may seem strange to us, but were essential to them in their day. This background, both individual and cultural, is helpful to our understanding of Ronald Heaver’s life and work, as he was of that generation, though in many ways he rose above it, despite a most difficult and dramatic life.

Firstly, many of these older generation teachers, mentors, and mystics of the British inner tradition, be they known or unknown, would teach different, even contradictory things, to different students. Therefore, students learning individually from one teacher, would each receive variations or even contradictions of the core teachings. This method was widespread, and was not as frivolous as we might think. Another method, which was well known, though supposedly secret, was to give an initiation or a confirmation of spiritual power, then tell the recipient that only he or she had received it. Years later, the recipients (plural) would find others who had had the same experience! There are typically certainly key secret phrases and dramatic unique subtle sensations, so no one (but no one) can fake receiving such spiritual empowerments.

There was also an emphasis on strict authority, which sits uncomfortably with us today. However, when we think of the genuine masters, mentors, and teachers, associated with Glastonbury and the British Mysteries, from occultists and mystics such Dion Fortune through to luminaries such as Tudor Pole and Ronald Heaver, their authority was deep and clean. They all had an undeniable presence. By comparison, anyone who demands or enforces respect (before they dole out “teachings”) is not worthy of it, and has no true authority.

So what purpose did all this secrecy, bifurcation of teachings, and authority, serve? We might think that it came from the secretive mentality of 19th century occultism, developed in a repressed culture, and (of course) from the overall concern about religious persecution that has haunted mystics, pagans, and magicians throughout the Christian era. But there is more to it than this, and I propose, without going into detailed historical proof in this short article, that the same methods had been in use for many centuries, long predating the Christian era. We know, for example, that the Ancient Mysteries of the pagan classical world kept their lines of authority secret, and that initiates remained anonymous. This is but one fragment of the historical foundation of the secrecy that permeated 19th and early 20th century occultism and magic. One day someone will write a book on it, but it will not be me.

There are other reasons why such methods arose, and deeper enlightenment on such secrecy was given to me by W G Gray, another mentor of that same generation, who appears again later in this article. He taught that the inner traditions used a cell system for continuity…whereby only a small number of people knew one another directly, usually no more than 4 or 5, no matter how large the overall lineage or stream might be. And no one knew everyone. This method, he affirmed, had been widely used in the secret magical groups and orders in Europe and Russia. This, he said, was to ensure survival. But there is more to this cell system than an underground continuity, for it has resonance with the planetary life itself.

Esoteric transmission modeled on the world of nature

Nowadays we might see these methods of transmission not so much as political, but as something akin to organic growth… a consciousness, a spiritual flower or tree, if you wish, that extends many roots and branches, and then puts forth many seeds. The seeds do not know of one another, when the wind blows them, but they all partake, genetically of the same tree. In this case, the genetics are spiritual, rather than biological. Even if the original plant dies or is cut down, it continues through its offspring. This same protean growth through multiple strands, extends through all planetary life, down to the cellular level. This significant connection advises us that the older generation teachers were concerned more with long-term continuity, than with short term authority, organization, grades, or hierarchies; such petty things were, and still are, for the juveniles.

I have no doubt that the influence of Ronald Heaver has been protean and organic in this manner, and that is precisely why there is no organization or outer hierarchy associated with him. Nor should there ever be, for that would be a grave backward step. Such an organization would be the opposite of all his deep intentions. Furthermore, his life was clearly a dramatic and inevitable movement away from organization and groups in his early years and middle life, towards a deeper spiritual mediation (mediation, not meditation) in his mature and most powerful years. This gradual separation from organized groups is described in detail by Paul Fletcher in his biographical article (Avalon, issue 30, Summer 2005).

Finally, we need to remind ourselves that such mentors and exemplars as Ronald Heaver, Tudor Pole, George Trevelyan, and many more, had been through either one or two terrible wars, which had left indelible marks upon their individual psyches, often upon their bodies (as was the case with Ronald Heaver), and on the entire generations of which they were a part. We can only truly understand the exterior of their lives, personalities, and teachings in that context. The inner aspects, of course, are timeless.

Meeting Ronald Heaver in the 1970’s.

In the mid-1970’s there were many utopian schemes surfacing in Britain, with people wishing to buy properties and turn them into spiritual centres, influenced by the success of the Findhorn community in Scotland.

I was invited to join one such quest in 1974, proposed by New Age motivator Michael Riddell, who started a number of inspirational projects at that time. A group, mainly from Bath, began to look at properties that were for sale. These included a Victorian castle owned by the Wills (cigarette) family, St Catherine’s Court outside Bath, now owned by actress Jane Seymour and her husband, and several others. This questing would make a fine spiritual allegory and anecdote in itself, but we cannot explore it here!

As a result of my minor involvement in this project, I had some pivotal and powerful meetings with Ronald Heaver at Castle House in Keinton Mandeville, near Glastonbury. My visits were witnessed by various friends and associates, including artist and musician Marko Galley, Rollo Maughling, and, of course, Michael Riddell. I later compared some of my experiences with others who had visited Heaver during the same period of the 1970’s, including philosopher and author David Spangler, and Dorothy Maclean, one of the original founders of Findhorn, both being my friends and for a while, near neighbours.

The avowed intention of those visits to Keinton Mandeville was for the group to buy the Castle pub, a large property with gardens, that was conveniently close to Castle House, where Ronald Heaver had lived for some years. But for me, something entirely different came about.

Description of Ronald Heaver in the 1970’s

Ronald Heaver was an invalid, who had been stricken, as I was told, with paralysis many years before. Injuries to the spine and neck, by the way, form an important aspect of the inner teachings of the Grail Mystery, though most people shy away from this. Heaver’s spinal injuries, as I was told, were first incurred as a pilot, defending Britain, then later re-occurred progressively in resonance with forces of change that brought Britain into the modern age. Like the Sacred Kings, he bore the burden for the people.

As a result he was a massive figure, who had been bed-ridden for some years when I met him. Prior to his becoming an invalid he had been a vigorous international traveler, an ace pilot, and had some remarkable spiritual experiences in several countries. He was on the fringe of the British “upper classes”, though not extremely wealthy or privileged. Heaver was of that generation of spiritual masters (now seemingly all departed from this world) who had a powerful sense of social grace and honourable class superiority, having been born in 1900 into a culture that we can barely imagine today.

In another historical world, of the past, he would have been a king or a high priest, and, indeed, he was both Priest and King, in the spiritual world of the present. He naturally commanded respect, and he expected his visitors to have both education and good manners. He was not patient with blunders or ignorance, though I must add that he was never short-tempered with me, despite his long years of severe physical disability and associated pain. Such vagaries of the emotions seemed unnecessary to him…”unnecessary” was a word which he used often. He once exorcised someone by simply saying “You can stop all that, now”. And the possession stopped.

My first visit and a surprising greeting!

On my first visit, in 1974, at age 25, I was nervous as I entered Ronald Heaver’s bedroom where he held audience, meeting from his bed with many people who visited, usually one at a time. I do not remember talking about the property scheme, which was the original intention. As I sat down, he looked at me, looked deep into me, looked right through me, for I was transparent to him, and suddenly starting talking about the Order of Melchizadek, as if it was a conversation that we had been sharing for years, old master to young neophyte. He had an uncanny ability to see into people and say something to awaken them. His first words to me were not “hello young man” or “pleased to meet you” but “Now, about this Order of Melchizadek, you cannot join unless you are already a member, for it exists out of time yet reaches into time into this world… and you must reach out in return… when you reach your hand upwards, another hand will grip yours and pull you up…”

In the 1980’s I incorporated the spiritual process, the inner power, of this startling introductory statement from Ronald Heaver, into my empowered visions of The King in the Tree, which are taught to all my Inner Temples InnerConvocation groups. When Ronald Heaver said these words to me, he was not merely talking, but opening out the power itself, and sensing, probing, how I responded to it. Of course, I did not understand this so clearly at that time, but I could feel the spiritual resonance in the room as he spoke, and, being young and immature, I found such authority and focus somewhat disconcerting. It reminded me, amusingly now (but uncomfortably then!), of being in front of the headmaster at school, but in some higher spiritual octave.

So after a brief and baffling audience, in which Heaver talked about the Order of Melchizadek as if I had always known about it, and simply needed to be reminded, pulled up straight, stood to attention, discouraged from shilly-shallying, and strictly focused on the job in hand, I was dismissed, politely but firmly. Nothing else was discussed at this time. I went home with my mind reeling, and my soul vibrant.

My second visit, and reactions from W G Gray

On a later visit, Ronald Heaver (we called him Mr Heaver, of course, and never Ronald) candidly and quite casually revealed that his interest in the “spiritual centre” project was solely to provide ongoing support for his lady companion, Polly, as he knew that she would outlive him by some years. He regarded the project itself as unimportant, or, at least, as something that we would have to do ourselves, with minimal involvement from him. At this time I was not aware of his early attempts to buy the Chalice Well property in Glastonbury, but in retrospect, I can see that he had let go of founding a spiritual center, and was focusing only on deep inner spiritual mediation. Please note, dear reader, this is spiritual Mediation, not meditation. At the time of my first meetings, he only had six years to live, and he knew this. By this phase of his life, he was mediating direct spiritual power, in a way that required few words and little outer form.

Several years after Heaver’s death, Gareth Knight and I met Polly, Ronald Heaver’s companion, at a gathering in Glastonbury Town Hall. She talked to us briefly about her recent hip surgery, her continued life after Heaver’s death, and about a dispute over his writings and papers. I never saw her again after that day.

One of my other teachers in the early 1970’s was William G Gray, an eccentric and somewhat controversial figure, author, Qabalist, and ritual magician. His books were, and still are, influential in the development of new Hermetic Qabalah, ritual magic, and ancestral magic at ancient sites. One of Gray’s books, The Rollright Ritual, published in the early 1970’s was far ahead of its time, and influenced many wiccans and pagans. But it was in another context altogether that I discovered that W G Gray had also met with Ronald Heaver. This context was, of course, the Order of Melchizadek.

W G Gray had received teachings and initiation into the inner Order in the 1920’s from his own mentor, in a sacromagical lineage that traced back through France into Russia in the 18th and 19th century and earlier. In the early 1970’s I, in turn, received this initiation from W G Gray.

Ronald Heaver was the only person that I ever heard Bill Gray speak of with deep respect. Bill was known to be offensive and scathing about many people, often for the slightest of reasons, or for no reason at all other than sheer cussedness, but never toward Ronald Heaver. Bill Gray was afraid of no one, and would not hesitate to be confrontational on matters that made me, a liberal 20-something year old, cringe with political correctness. It was, after all, the style of those older generation war-time occultists, who had all been military types. Today most people find this attitude offensive and questionable (just as I did, back then). But it did not detract from their spiritual power, insights, and commitment.

On several occasions Bill called Ronald Heaver “one of the Old Ones” and referred to him as a “Senior Officer”…seemingly in the army sense, but really in terms of the Inner Order. Gray was surprised that I visited Heaver; he saw it as a spiritual encounter that confirmed something …though he was often secretive when it came to such matters, like all the older generation occultists. Bill and his wife Roberta, Bobby, (who was an astrologer in the days when all calculations were done by hand, not on computer), had visited the sanctuary at Castle House some years before. They said that, for them, “that tiny room felt like a vast Cathedral”.

My third visit and an initiatory experience

On my third visit, I entered the audience room, and, without any social chit-chat, Ronald Heaver immediately told me to go out of another door on the opposite side of the room, and on into the Sanctuary to meditate. This was a small building in the garden, very plain, with an eternal light burning over an otherwise empty altar . He gave me no clue what to do, or what to expect. I was told to stay for at least 15 minutes in complete silence, then report back to him. This was not an invitation, it was an order.

The method of teaching that Ronald Heaver used was not verbal or textual training, such as we often expect today, but directly transmitted experience with no preliminaries that might get in the way. This is an ancient method of spiritual teaching. You are induced into the experience first, then you are tested on your experience by the master, and only then, if you are up to it, will you be “taught” anything in the way of details. The teaching is merely a verbal confirmation and expansion of your direct experience. Little or nothing is written down. As a result of Heaver’s powerful influence, I have tried to follow this method in my workshops, which contain material that is not found in my published work, and which cannot be communicated in print alone.

When I returned to the room, he questioned me about what I had sensed, felt, seen, and learned during my time alone in the Sanctuary. He was strict in this, and brooked no nonsense, fantasy, or uncertainty. I replied that I had a surprising vision of the Virgin holding a sheaf of wheat: he said, with little interest, as if I had stated something so obvious that it was hardly worth pursuing, “yes, yes, but what else?” I replied that next, after the vision of the Virgin, I had a feeling of radiant spiritual power of the Archangel Michael, but somehow attuned in a special way that I did not understand. Once again, this was taken for granted, as if it was widely known to all and rather obvious…he said, “Oh yes, yes, that is because we are on the Michael line that runs through the centre of the Earth and leads to Jerusalem…what else?” Unable to process this statement (though I understood it later) I said that towards the close of my meditation, I had found myself, for a brief moment, in a chamber or chapel of utter stillness and silence with many powerful, but dimly perceived presences watching me intently. This spirit chapel had become at one with the physical sanctuary in which I sat, and so I was in both places at once. “Aha!” he replied, for this was what Ronald Heaver had been waiting for, and he proceeded to tell me more about the Order of Melchizadek and the spiritual Elders who keep Convocation in the chapel or inner sanctuary. This teaching has stayed with me through my life, and has been influential in my own work, writing, and public and private teaching.

This was the first time that I had been obliged to both reveal and assess some of my spiritual senses in the presence of a highly evolved master. With W G Gray, teaching was conducted through rambling, often evasive, conversations, and through bombardment with long intense rituals and ceremonies that were unquestionably powerful, but bordered on tedious. Heaver did none of this. As I mentioned above, I was in my mid-20s, and my debriefing, by Ronald Heaver, of 15 minutes in the Sanctuary was an astonishing experience, which, in maybe no more than half an hour changed my life, and enabled me to trust and explore my spiritual senses further. I am still exploring them to this day.

The classic esoteric spiritual tradition that he described to me on after my visit to the Sanctuary at Castle House, has many variants worldwide, and became, in my own presentations of a perennial truth, the Chapel of the Elders, or the Sanctuary before the Void. I have taught this in many classes and experiential workshops, from 1988 to the present day. It forms an important part of my Inner Temple Traditions InnerConvocation series. You can find a guideline text for this Visionary Form at www.rjstewart.org.

Having rather swiftly and surgically confirmed my spiritual sensitivities, Ronald Heaver then suddenly jumped track (as it seemed, but maybe not) and told me the remarkable story about a talisman that he had buried in Jerusalem, and how someone had dug it up some years later, acting on mysterious inner inspiration, and brought it back to him in England. This is a famous story among British esotericists, and is part of the 20th century Glastonbury mythos. At that time I did not know what to make of it. Heaver seemed to be expecting some particular response or reaction from me, or perhaps he may have assumed that I would know the story already. In this I disappointed him, so he suddenly changed subject, talking next about duty and my allocated path in life. Certain duties were made very clear to me, at that time.

Nowadays I have better understanding of this true legend of the “traveling talisman”, for it was a dramatic re-enactment, in real life, through the mysterious movement to and fro of both humans and talisman, of that same link between Jerusalem and England that was described in the 18th century by William Blake, in his poem Jerusalem. The verses were set to music by Parry, and are now famous, probably for the wrong reasons, as a “patriotic hymn” which is certainly very far from Blake’s intention. If you practice Qabalah, as Ronald Heaver certainly did, these verses are replete with multiple levels of meaning and spiritual inspiration.

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire.
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

This same mysterious theme was also described in a much earlier text, by the medieval poet Robert de Boron, in his story concerning Joseph of Arimathea and the two Vessels of Blood and Water (Seed) that were brought to Glastonbury. These Vessels were said to be the daughter and son of Jesus, by Mary Magdalene. I received the inner teaching, regarding the two Vessels, from W G Gray , and within his generation of British mystics and occultists it was regarded as one of the Sacred Mysteries that merged paganism and esoteric Christianity through the holy location of Glastonbury. Nowadays it is bandied about as some kind of idle sensationalist fiction. Of course there is much more to it than the obvious aspects, for it is not merely a legendary history, as it contains a practical method of spiritual transformation, that has be entered into, rather than merely read about. So while such modern popular fiction is somewhat offensive to members of the esoteric traditions, it is ultimately harmless and laughable.

Ronald Heaver’s remarkable and mysterious moving talisman was, in essence, this same story, this same power, at work in the 20th century, as it was all about the link between Britain and the Holy Land, the British soul and the Christ power. It took me many years to realize that the Heaver/Talisman story was part of an enduring spiritual continuum, and not merely an account of a one-off remarkable set of events.

Ronald Heaver, Dion Fortune, and ritual magic

At one point in our conversation, I asked him if he had known Dion Fortune, who had lived in Glastonbury and was buried in the town churchyard, and he laughed. “Oh yes, she was involved in ritual magic you know…totally unnecessary”. I was pretty certain, at that time, that ritual magic was, indeed, necessary, but it was difficult to disagree with Ronald Heaver, as he knew intuitively what was passing through your mind, was always several steps and jumps ahead of you, and every statement that he made was a spiritual teaching of some sort, that pulled you up, and made you think on a new level. Ten minutes with Heaver was like ten hours of intense concentration or challenging physical exercise…except it was spiritual. Of course ritual magic is, indeed, no longer necessary once you have worked your way through its disciplines and arts, and emerged on the other side with a highly developed consciousness! That is what he was saying to me, back then in 1974, though I did not understand him at the time. It was certainly not necessary for Ronald Heaver, who transformed all by being present, rather than by doing anything. This is the difference between direct spiritual mediation, and all the many techniques practiced today. Heaver was a direct mediator, not a technician of spiritual methods.

A theory of telluric energy networks in the Earth.

On my last visit of the mid-1970’s, though not my ultimate meeting, as there was one more, he outlined in some detail a revolutionary esoteric theory of how ley lines (ever popular) were not straight lines along the surface of the land as is popularly taught, but that they pass down through the centre of the planet, then are deflected or reflected at various angles to link geomantic or telluric power sites that were thousands of miles apart on the surface. He likened this to the angular relationships in an astrological natal chart (the square, trine, sextile, and so forth). He told me that certain mountains in Tibet, in the Holy Land, and South America, had powerful angular relationships through the centre of the Earth, to one another, and , of course, to Glastonbury Tor.

Looking back on this, I think that he sensed that I was soon to be working with UnderWorld spiritual forces that radiate from the planetary heart, and his remarkable intuition had led him to talk to me about this network of connections. In 2005 I took part in a private ritual with a Peruvian shaman, in which a traditional Peruvian teaching about linking mountains together, exactly mirrored what I had learned from Ronald Heaver back in the 1970’s, albeit with a different cultural ambience. This reminded me of the strong emphasis that Heaver placed upon sacred mountains in South America, and their future role for the coming era of world transformation. In the past, he said, Tibet, but in the future, South America. This shift of power was clear, if you knew where the power-lines went as they passed through the center of the Earth.

Initiation and transmission handed on by Ronald Heaver

Not long before he died, Heaver transferred the inner power of the priesthood to me, in a simple direct transmission, without ritual (of course!). This was, essentially, a Melchizadek initiation, similar to one I had received from W G Gray in a ritual lodge context (witnessed by Norman Gibbs) a few years before, but with certain significant differences of inner contact and subtle power. It added something clear and catalyzing to the power that I had received from Gray, and this combined transmission is what I work with in the Consecration ceremonies, from time to time within my own groups.

It seems more than likely that Ronald Heaver also transmitted this power, through personal communion, to others, and I make no claim whatsoever of being his spiritual heir, or to having any special relationship with him. I am sure that I was just one (hopefully promising) young initiate that encountered him at this time. My sense, even now, is that he was a Priest of priests, more concerned with a vast overview of the spiritual evolutionary forces, than with training individuals. The training was through being in his presence, and you could take it or leave it.

Inner Temple Consecrations and their validity

It is most important to remember that this type of transmission, such as I received from both Gray and Heaver, is handed on by physical interaction and presence…it cannot be received or communicated unless you are in the presence of the master, as it is handed on while in the physical human world...it has long been known that the deep initiations are enabled by proximity, by touch, not by inner vision alone. There are also certain teachings and methods that are handed on, usually in a whisper. Without knowledge of these instructions, and without a special form of the sacred Touch not widely known, any claims to be able to initiate or consecrate are invalid. Of course, many groups and orders offer formal initiations into grades and membership, and that is an entirely different matter.

Heaver died in 1980, so anyone claiming initiation from him must be able to confirm that they met him before that date. In the 1970’s he held meetings with a number of people who are now known as spiritual teachers or innovators in various ways, and his influence was far reaching, despite his lack of public appearances. Any claims by people who did not meet him before his death must be highly questionable, and are likely to be false.

I attribute much of the inspiration for the deeper Inner Temple Traditions InnerConvocation material, not so much to W G Gray, but to the initiatory meetings and transmission that I received from Ronald Heaver back in the 1970’s, at a time when my spiritual path was being revealed to me by some remarkable teachers.

Zadok, and the death of Ronald Heaver

For some years Ronald Heaver wrote letters, essays, and pamphlets under the pen-name Zadok, the priest. You can find insights into this theme in the Salomonic tradition of Qabalah. The Hebrew word also implies the term Justified, and it was Heaver who first put me into contact with the inner spiritual order of Justified Men that I wrote about in my early book The UnderWorld Initiation (published 1985), and which I teach in the Inner Temple Traditions InnerConvocation work. The concept is an ancient one, found in many spiritual traditions in various forms, for it describes an actual collective of advanced spiritual awareness, to which we may attune in meditation and inner vision. This collective of consciousness is found both in the UnderWorld and in the OverWorld, where it is located, metaphysically, in the Chapel of the Elders or Sanctuary before the Void. I should add that the Order of Justified Men is not anything exclusively patriarchal: it is a collective term rather than a gender specific term. The old usage of “men” for a plural can mean “human” , and comes from “manu” the hand, rather than from male gender. The Inner Temples, of course, include both priestesses and priests, as does the Sanctuary before the Void

I was not present at Ronald Heaver’s death, but I was told by Rollo Maughling and several others that he died in full awareness at the local cottage hospital, having invited some friends and proteges to be present. His death was, I was told, peaceful and quiet, and he died on his 80th birthday.

So that is the story of my meetings with Ronald Heaver, meetings that exerted a powerful influence on me, and opened out certain specific inner teachings and contacts for me.

The spiritual centre? It never happened…but the idea and the resulting interactions seeded many other things into the minds and souls of those involved. That seeding is, of course, the true spiritual centre, the Temple built without hands.

(R J Stewart will be leading a workshop that includes selected teachings from Ronald Heaver at Glastonbury Town Hall, July 14/15/16. Attendance is limited. Contact Nigel Breen 01736 366 755, nigelbreen@lyonesse.eclipse.co.uk)

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May 19, 2006