Brother XII
{{Short description|British mystic (1878–1934)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Edward Wilson
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Edward Arthur Wilson
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1878|07|26}}
| birth_place = Birmingham, England, U.K.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1934|11|07|1878|07|25|df=yes}}
| death_place = Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| nationality =
| other_names = Brother XII
| years_active = 1927-1934
| known_for = Founder and leader of the Cult of Brother XII
| partner = Mabel Skottowe
}}
Edward Arthur Wilson (25 July 1878 – 7 November 1934), better known as Brother XII, was an English mystic who, in the late 1920s, founded a spiritual community located just south of the city of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, off the west coast of British Columbia, Canada.
Early life
Wilson was born in Birmingham, England, into a religious family. He later claimed that during his childhood he was visited by angels.{{cite book |author=John Marlowe |title=Canadian Mysteries of the Unexplained: Investigations Into the Fantastic, the Bizarre and the Disturbing |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oMEAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT113 |date=6 August 2009 |publisher=Arcturus Publishing |isbn=978-1-84858-134-0 |page=113}}
Career
Wilson travelled the world as a mariner, first visiting Canada in 1905. He studied world religions, preparing himself, by his own account, for a destiny that was revealed to him in a vision in the South of France in the autumn of 1924. He soon attracted a devoted following, including a group of wealthy and socially prominent individuals.{{cite book |author=Stephen Ruttan |title=Vancouver Island Scoundrels, Eccentrics and Originals: Tales from the Library Vault |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-4WWAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA63 |date=1 April 2014 |publisher=Touchwood Editions |isbn=978-1-77151-073-8 |pages=63–65}}
Having taken the name Brother XII, he established the Aquarian Foundation in 1927.{{cite book |title=British Columbia Library Quarterly |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TZggAQAAIAAJ |volume=29-30 |year=1965 |page=67}} The group's beliefs were based largely upon the teachings of the Theosophical Society.{{cite book |author1=Toby Widdicombe |author2=James M. Morris |author3=Andrea Kross |title=Historical Dictionary of Utopianism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LQolDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA52 |date=21 June 2017 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |isbn=978-1-5381-0217-6 |page=52}} He published two booklets, The Three Truths and Foundation Letters and Teachings, which explained his ideas and encouraged readers to donate money to his cause and to build homes in the colony, Cedar-by-the-Sea, which he was setting up near Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.{{cite news | newspaper=Nanaimo Daily News | date=February 14, 1987 | page=3 | last=MacMillan | first=Neil | title=Wardill recalls Brother XII | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/nanaimo-daily-news-broxii-nanaimo/130053706/}} With the goal of creating a self-sufficient community independent of the outside world, the Foundation acquired additional property on nearby Valdes and De Courcy Islands, largely through the donations of a wealthy socialite named Mary Connally from Asheville, North Carolina. Other followers gave donations, large and small, to support Brother XII's work as a spiritual teacher, as well as his political activity in support of a Democratic Senator from Alabama, James Thomas Heflin, who ultimately supported Herbert Hoover but was for a while a third-party candidate in the 1928 presidential election in the United States.
An insurrection developed within the ranks of the colony when Brother XII's critics charged that he had claimed to be the reincarnation of the Egyptian god Osiris, though he replied that he had been speaking figuratively, that Osiris and Isis were male and female principles in Nature. Still, Brother XII's misuse of Foundation funds and his extramarital affair with a woman who he claimed was his soul-mate led to the breakup of the colony. The Aquarian Foundation was legally dissolved in 1929, though he continued his work with the followers who had remained loyal to him during the crisis, as well as a number of new recruits.{{cite book |author=Patrick Watson |title=The Canadians: Biographies of a Nation hlœni18|url=https://archive.org/details/canadiansbiograp0000wats_q4k7 |url-access=registration |year=2003 |publisher=McArthur |isbn=978-1-55278-390-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/canadiansbiograp0000wats_q4k7/page/572 572]}}
As time passed, Brother XII became increasingly dictatorial and paranoid, fortifying his island kingdom and reportedly accumulating a fortune in gold.{{cite book |author=Howard Macdonald Stewart |title=Views of the Salish Sea: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Change around the Strait of Georgia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xv01DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT424 |date=30 September 2017 |publisher=Harbour Publishing Company Limited |isbn=978-1-55017-804-3 |page=424}} His mistress, Mabel Skottowe, née Rowbotham (under the name "Madame Z"), worked the members without respite, the tasks given being considered tests of their fitness to advance spiritually. One man who had been imprisoned in a cellar on the northern end of Valdes Island managed to row to Nanaimo to report the circumstances to the British Columbia Provincial Police, who investigated, but took no further action. Eventually, as conditions deteriorated, Brother XII's core group of disciples revolted and filed legal actions against him to recover the money they had contributed to his work.Harrison, Victor Birch (1968). The Brother XII Affair (Speech). Nanaimo Historical Society Meeting. Nanaimo, B.C. Retrieved from [https://viurrspace.ca/handle/10613/232 VIUSpace].{{cite book |author=Jean Barman |title=The West Beyond the West: A History of British Columbia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OWspDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA331 |date=22 June 2017 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4875-1673-4 |page=331}} In a violent reaction, he destroyed the colony, smashing its buildings and farm equipment, and scuttling his flagship, the sailboat Lady Royal.
Wilson and Skottowe then escaped in their private tugboat, the Kheunaten, rather than appear in court to answer the charges brought by their former disciples.{{cite book |author=Shanon Sinn |title=The Haunting of Vancouver Island |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=udgwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT119 |date=10 October 2017 |publisher=TouchWood Editions |isbn=978-1-77151-244-2 |page=119}} By 1932 they had fled to Europe, and were reported to have taken a large amount of gold with them.{{cite book |author=Donald Luxton |title=Building the West: The Early Architects of British Columbia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h_82AQAAIAAJ |year=2003 |publisher=Talonbooks |isbn=978-0-88922-474-2 |page=291}} Wilson is reported to have died in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on 7 November 1934,{{cite book |title=Essays on Canadian Writing |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SwMaAAAAIAAJ |year=1984 |publisher=York University |page=131}} though he may have fabricated his death.{{cite web|url=https://globalnews.ca/news/5264892/brother-xii-gold/|title='He could look into your soul': The bizarre mystery behind a B.C. cult leader and his missing gold|first1=Paul|last1=Johnson|first2=Jon|last2=Azpiri|publisher=Global News|date=May 12, 2019|access-date=2022-07-23}} He may have subsequently met his lawyer in San Francisco, whose son has provided an eyewitness account of the meeting.
Further reading
- {{Citation |last=Oliphant |first=John |title=Brother XII: The Strange Odyssey of a 20th-century Prophet and His Quest for a New World |publisher=Twelfth House Press |year=2006 |isbn=0-9780972-0-3}}
- {{cite encyclopedia |last=Oliphant |first=John |title=Brother Twelve |encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/brother-twelve/ |access-date=12 September 2007}}
- {{cite web |first=Jennifer |last=Moss |title=Searching for Brother XII: The story of Nanaimo's infamous cult leader |url=http://www.cbc.ca/radio/docproject/encore-searching-for-brother-xii-the-story-of-nanaimo-s-infamous-cult-leader-1.3389041 |work=CBC Radio |format=Audio |date=29 August 2016 |access-date=1 May 2017}}
- {{cite web |first=Jennifer |last=Moss |title=The Dream of Brother XII |url=http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-dream-of-brother-xii-1.3500955 |work=CBC Radio |format=Audio |date=22 March 2016 |access-date=1 May 2017 }}
- {{Citation |last1=Lillard |first1=Charles |last2=MacIsaac |first2=Ron |last3=Clark |first3=Don |title=The Devil of Decourcey Island: The Brother XII |place=Victoria |publisher=Porcepic Books |year=1989 |isbn=0-88878-286-1}}
- {{Citation |last=Oliphant |first=John |title=Brother Twelve: The Incredible Story of Canada's False Prophet |publisher=McClelland & Stewart |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-7710-6848-5}}
- {{Citation |last=Symons |first=Philip |title=Brother XII's Letter |place=Victoria |publisher=Ruddy Duck Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-9734928-0-4 }}
- {{Citation |last=Luke |first=Pearl |title=Madame Zee (novel) |publisher=Harper Perennial Canada |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-00-639173-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/madamezee0000luke }}
- {{Citation |last=Wilson |first=Herbert Emmerson |title=Canada's False Prophet: The Notorious Brother Twelve |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=1967}}
References
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External links
- {{cite news |author=Historica Canada |title=The Canadians: Brother Twelve |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5MG6xUQlCQ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/U5MG6xUQlCQ |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|work=YouTube |date=13 March 2015 |access-date=22 March 2018}}{{cbignore}}
- John Oliphant, “WILSON, EDWARD ARTHUR (Brother XII; The Brother, XII; Brother Twelve; Amiel de Valdes),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 16, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 23, 2022, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/wilson_edward_arthur_16E.html.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brother 12}}
Category:Canadian Theosophists
Category:English occult writers
Category:History of British Columbia
Category:People from Birmingham, West Midlands