Check out this New Book

Kate Warwick-Smith is one of our senior 2nd degree Supervisors and this is her first book.

Many congratulations to Kate Warwick-Smith on the publication of her first book pictured here and soon avaliable from Amazon.com.

Kate, who lives in California with her family has been working on this new concept of the Court Cards for a long time and although I only managed a brief look at the Mss when I was with her in September, I can tell you that it will make you sit up and take notice. Certainly it will take its place on the SOL reading list and I hope you will all find a place for it on your shelves.

Michael and I have seen many first class authors, artists, and presenters emerge from the SOL over its thirty years of existence, a fact that makes us feel very proud of them and of the School and Ernest Butlers teachings.

Message from Dolores, 28th August 2002

How many times have you been told that it is NOT the words but the INTENT that matters in ritual. Whether I use use the word within or above does not alter the power of what I am doing. You sound like a bunch of Gardenerians arguing over a triviality. I can use a different opening and closing for every day of the year.... it will STILL open and close a rite. Some peoople use one god name for all four quarters, others sue different ones, some use Egyptian others use Angelic, or Qabalistic.

IT DOES NOT MATTER.

ONLY YOUR INTENT TO OPEN AND CLOSE MATTERS.

Remember this from Shakespeare's Hamlet

"my words fly upwards my thoughts remain below, words without thoughts never to heaven go"

Invest your words, ANY words with intent and they will work. Worry about which damn word to use and your temple will remain closed !!!!

Message from Dolores, 8th August 2002

MEMO FROM DOLORES TO ALL OF YOU

I will be in the USA from the 1st of September to the 2nd of October. So I ask you to take pity on this little old lady. PLEASE DO NOT WRITE LETTERS THAT NEED ANSWERING QUICKLY, OR SEND APPLICATIONS UNTIL I GET BACK. Every time I'm away for more than a week I return to a large box of mail. As I am usually 2/3 months behind anyway you can imagine what this does to my normally sunny (?) disposition. This is the last long trip of the year and I'll be on a tight schedule. Give me 2 days to get over jet lag and I'll be up and running, well, walking anyway. For those interested this is my itinerary.

Sept 2nd arrive in Philadelphia
3rd-5th working on 2003 tours with Pat
6-8 in Laurel, Maryland. Workshop
9-10 Off in Philadelphia
13-15 in Atlanta
16th fly to Dallas
17-18. Workshops in Dallas
19 Fly to Sonoma Cal
20-22 Raise lodge Lodge Magdala & W/shop in Sonoma
23rd Fly to Seattle
24-26 Rituals with Lodge of the Lion Gate
27-29 Village workshop
30th Fly back to Philadelphia
1st October rest
2nd Fly UK on night Flight
3rd Fly to Jersey

Message from Dolores, 10th June 2002

I have just been looking at the website of the SOL Lodge Magdala working from Sonoma in California.

For those who have read The Magical use of Thoughtforms you will remember that Herbie put a programme at the back for on of my pathworkings.

Lodge Magdala's web master ( congratulations on a fantastic site..its beautiful) has reproduced it in colour and with stunning pictures.

Do visit the website and see what can be done with skill and imagination.

Dolores

Message from Dolores, 8th June 2002

Dear People out there,

Thank you for your overwhelming response to my little wail. We do not need a re-structuring of the SOL..... honest! Mike would not let the reins go out of his hot little hands he, and I, just need you to be patient when we take longer than in the past to get back to you. Apart from the office work we both lecture and that means writing lectures, pathworkings, setting out programmes and doing flyers. We love what we do, and we love those we do it for, we just have to take it slower nowadays.

We are working to get the lessons on to CD so we can just send them off to students who are on Email quicker and with less cost. But this will take a little time to set up, the "handy andies" who have taken this on also work during the day. But hopefully by the end of the year we will have things ready to go. As we get the house into shape and we stop having to step over tiles,odd pieces of wood and carpet and boxes full of "stuff" things will be better. We have two lovely people giving up a week of their time to re-decorate our living room this month. Hopefully next year the Roof and rewiring will also be done and we can breathe easy.

Mike has bought himself a laptop.... and is at the " I will not throw this @£$^££&* out of the window, I WILL learn how to use it" stage but progressing. There are now 3 computors in the house.

Chopping the SOL into little bits and stuffing it into different places is NOT the answer. We need it in ONE place and under our eyes. We have wonderful people all over the world willing to help and that is much appreciated believe me, but time and patience is needed most of all.

Don't worry about us dropping off the planet, we have no immediate plans for this,( but in case of emergencies email Hades@Redhotmail.co.underworld!!!!) THank you all again for your offers of help , your concern and your loving care of us.

Dolores and Mike.

Message from Dolores 29th May 2002

The SOL HQ is run entirely by TWO people, (Dolores and Michael) from two small rooms in our own home, (2 offices because we work in different ways and get on each others nerves if we work in the same space). There are no eager helpers to photo-copy reams of application papers/lessons etc. or type letters so all we have to do is sign them, stick stamps on 40-50 envelopes a day, or open mail, sort mail and answer the dozens of queries we get every week. Every second day we trek to the Post Office laden with post, and collect more of the same on the way back.

The main reason we have no help is...

The witchcraft Act has not been repealed in Jersey... So we can not advertise, hire staff, or make ourselves known
Help costs money, a lot of money, and because this is a non profit organization we try to keep costs to a point where anyone can afford them, we do the work ourselves.
Our offices are the size of large rabbit hutches which makes it hard to find space to put things down, so life becomes a king sized clutter
I point these things out because people often complain about delays in getting their orders, lessons, answers to letters, or applications approved. Mike and I are getting older (we are both in our seventies) and slower. We apologise for this, but can do little about it as old age was ordained by "HIM".

We have had offers of help in the past but Jersey Law means getting a place to live here is difficult even for a few weeks. Living accomodation is expensive and scarce. Besides, showing people how things are done takes up more time than it saves. All we ask is that you realise we are doing our best to cope with a great deal of work that was easy when we were in our fifties, but which is much harder now. We are by no means ready for the scrap heap, as one of our former colleagues put it, after all Ernest Butler began writing the SOL course round about our age now. We just need a little longer and a bit of patience from you.

Blessings, Dolores.

Publication May, 2002

Just to let Y'All know... Dolores' edition of WE Butler's collected Essays has just been re-published - "Practical Magic in the Western Mystery Tradition" - ISBN 1870450329, Thoth Publications, http://www.thoth.co.uk/, Email: sales@thoth.co.uk.