Home
The Brother, XII, B.C. Magus: A Quest for The Brother, XII (Porcepic Books $12.95)
Edward Arthur Wilson, alias The Brother, XII, was easily the most enigmatic and possibly the most frightening religious presence B.C. has ever known. Born in Birmingham, England in 1878, The Brother, XII (not Brother Twelve or even Brother XII) was a former sea captain who came to B.C. to establish an occult society and utopian community called The Aquarian Foundation in 1927. The Aquarian Foundation was originally based at Cedar-by-the-Sea outside Nanaimo, then on De Courcy and Valdes Islands in a new settlement called The City of Refuge. As the twelfth master in a brotherhood that guided the evolution of the human race, The Brother, XII promised to shelter his disciples from Armageddon. With over 2,000 members at its peak, the Foundation flourished, attracting numerous wealthy supporters, until its leader was accused of misusing funds. The Brother, XII and his reputedly sadistic mistress known as "Madame Z"; attempted to turn followers into slaves, while also attempting to murder their enemies with black magic. When the courts ordered The Brother, XII to reimburse his followers, he reputedly escaped with a fortune. He may or may not have died in Neuchatel, Switzerland.
Charles Lillard, Seattle-based Don Clark and Vancouver Island lawyer Ron MacIsaac have now collaborated on The Brother, XII, B.C. Magus: A Quest for The Brother, XII (Porcepic Books $12.95) in an attempt to reach beyond the apocryphal legends that have shrouded The Brother, XII in mystery. "I first heard of The Brother, XII in the summer of 1968,"; says Lillard, "while working on the east coast of Vancouver Island. The man telling me the stories thought he'd seen The Brother, XII as late as 1940...";
Since Englishman Christmas Humphreys first wrote about The Brother, XII in the 1920s most writers have embellished the lurid reputation of Edward Arthur Wilson as an authoritarian and exploiting charlatan. Typically Herbert Emmerson Wilson's sensationalized biography, Canada's False Prophet, The Notorious Brother Twelve (Simon & Schuster, 1967) led Pierre Berton to comment in Mysterious Canada (M&S): "California and British Columbia are hotbeds of off-beat religions... Of these, there are none so kooky, none so bizarre, none so preposterous - none so downright evil - as the Aquarian Foundation, set up in 1927 on Vancouver Island by the man who called himself The Brother, XII."; Jack Hodgins' first novel, The Invention of the World, set in and around Nanaimo, presented a comic reflection of The Brother, XII character. "Part One of our book,"; says Lillard, retells the versions of the story as created by writers such as B.A. McKelvie, Berton, Howard O'Hagan and Jack Hodgins,"; says Lillard, "plus about a dozen or more unremembered hacks who got hold of a good story. Part Two examines the evidence. The story that emerges is far stranger and more important than all the kooky fiction thus far written about a saintly and religious man.";
[BCBW 1989]
Charles Lillard, Seattle-based Don Clark and Vancouver Island lawyer Ron MacIsaac have now collaborated on The Brother, XII, B.C. Magus: A Quest for The Brother, XII (Porcepic Books $12.95) in an attempt to reach beyond the apocryphal legends that have shrouded The Brother, XII in mystery. "I first heard of The Brother, XII in the summer of 1968,"; says Lillard, "while working on the east coast of Vancouver Island. The man telling me the stories thought he'd seen The Brother, XII as late as 1940...";
Since Englishman Christmas Humphreys first wrote about The Brother, XII in the 1920s most writers have embellished the lurid reputation of Edward Arthur Wilson as an authoritarian and exploiting charlatan. Typically Herbert Emmerson Wilson's sensationalized biography, Canada's False Prophet, The Notorious Brother Twelve (Simon & Schuster, 1967) led Pierre Berton to comment in Mysterious Canada (M&S): "California and British Columbia are hotbeds of off-beat religions... Of these, there are none so kooky, none so bizarre, none so preposterous - none so downright evil - as the Aquarian Foundation, set up in 1927 on Vancouver Island by the man who called himself The Brother, XII."; Jack Hodgins' first novel, The Invention of the World, set in and around Nanaimo, presented a comic reflection of The Brother, XII character. "Part One of our book,"; says Lillard, retells the versions of the story as created by writers such as B.A. McKelvie, Berton, Howard O'Hagan and Jack Hodgins,"; says Lillard, "plus about a dozen or more unremembered hacks who got hold of a good story. Part Two examines the evidence. The story that emerges is far stranger and more important than all the kooky fiction thus far written about a saintly and religious man.";
[BCBW 1989]
Submitted on September 6, 2003 in By David.
