Fellowship of Isis History Archive - Interview with Olivia Robertson at Isis Oasis
Olivia Robertson in the Main Temple at Isis Oasis after ordaining Max Dashu. Photo by Letecia Layson.
Olivia asked for a gathering of FOI members, including members of the Circle of Isis Advisory Board and Muses Symposium, during the FOI Convocation at Isis Oasis. This series of meetings took place in the Nesu House on the grounds of Isis Oasis.
We sang, danced, recited prayers and poetry. We answered various questions Lady Olivia asked of us concerning our spiritual work and the Fellowship of Isis. She in turn shared her own spiritual insights, life experiences and views on the work of FOI members generally. This included her preferences in procedure within the Fellowship of Isis. We present a transcription of questions and her comments below.
Left: Linda Iles, Catherine Wright and Anniitra Ravenmoon during signing of the Muses Symposium Charter at the Nesu House, Isis Oasis
How do you most often receive communion with Deity?
I make a request before going to sleep. I do astral travel in my sleep and psychic rescue. I generally receive psychic contact through visions that occur within a semi-waking state, as through a dream. It hardly ever comes in any other way. I know when it’s a true vision, because it comes like a flash of light running through my body, and it lasts for a few seconds. Journeys into the Otherworld don’t need to last long, the message comes across through psychic impression. Loads of information can be sent in a second or two. Time flows differently there.
I knew of one young girl in Ireland who had visions of the Virgin Mary. Her visions stopped when she got a bit older. She used to bend over when the light entered her body, it was a true sign. That’s how it happens, due to the sheer spiritual force of the experience.
This is how I saw the goddess Dana. She was there, inside a flash of brilliant light, with long waving, golden hair, and a robe of turquoise blue. She was sun and sky, river and golden field all at once. Dana was all about love of nature and attunement to subtle forces that manifest through it and in other spheres.
You have mentioned in the past that moving to Ireland as a child greatly influenced your later spiritual work. Do you believe this was due to something intrinsically connected with energy currents of the land, a kind of ‘Dana Consciousness’ which acts as a catalyst?
The people we began to meet after moving to Ireland greatly impressed my brother and I as children. These experiences changed us. The Druid Clan of Dana came about because of Mr. Daniel Fox. He had the most extraordinary gift of being fully clairvoyant. He was living on an ancient holy site, which was pre-Druid and remote. He would describe his visions in great detail. He saw just as much as AE and other mystics of the day. He could see the people who had been there in ancient times, he could describe what they did, how they looked. When I met him he was old, regal and well mannered. His visions were actually of things that were pre-Druidic and deeply tied to the land around him.
My family knew W. B. Yeats and George Russell, who used the pen name AE. All of these men actually saw visions - what was portrayed in myth was a living reality for them, it came through - it was real, it was psychic, it was true.
We were meeting people in Ireland who actually saw the Virgin Mary, the old Gods and Goddesses, Fairies and Angels. Why was this so? The Irish people loved their land, they lived simply and truly, they were a bit more near the earth, more closely attuned. ‘Mother Nature’ is named so for a reason. We must return to the Goddess, the Great Mother, and care for the earth and all earth’s children. We have to look after and honor our Mother. Earth holds the inner essence of all the other elements.
These people were in touch with the forces of nature. The Druids were mystics. They didn’t fear the dark. They knew that the darker months of the year are the spiritual months. The earth sleeps, the forces of nature have turned inward, so we attune and travel inward because we need the light of the sun. We become transformed, and like the Children of Lyr, turn into swans and fly to the land of everlasting summer. That’s why the autumn equinox corresponds to the Inner Sun on our Star diagram. It marks a balance of light and dark, but just afterwards, the light begins to decrease. Winter is the introspective, spiritual time of year, it’s a natural cycle, renewal in the darkness. Mr. Fox, AE and Yeats transformed into swans of the psychic realm, for they knew how to turn inward and fly.
Left: Ron Cwetna (in back) Ashena Vann, Arisa Victor and Sabotia Kennedy at the signing of the Muses Symposium chater, Nesu House, Isis Oasis.
You’ve shared a great deal about crop circles, fractals and your love of the stars. How did you first become interested in all of this?
My father loved science. He was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Besides his love of the stars, he taught me physics and things like the Fibonacci sequence, the importance of the Golden Mean. He loved music, and played Beethoven and works by all the great classical composers. I get my love of fractals, classical music and the stars from him. He was aware of properties of music, the effects of vibration of notes upon the psyche. He was a Freemason and shared esoteric Masonic principles with my brother and I. My father worked as an architect, he was a member of the planning committee in Dublin. He was very interested in proportion, the golden mean, the properties and hidden meaning of numbers. He taught us about many subjects that would influence our later work.
Our departed friend Barbara Westlake was so brilliant. I admired her work tremendously in that area. She knew that sacred geometry is linked to the forces of life. She understood the metaphysical significance of fractals and crop circles. When I first saw crop circles they provided confirmation. They are similar to designs seen in my visions of Dana. The edges of her blue robe were decorated with a gold border that had the most fantastic designs. Crop circles are encoded messages, they are psychic symbols impressed upon the robe of Dana.
You have mentioned being a fan of the various Star Trek series that were shown on television. Then you spoke about your psychic encounter with UFOs. Do you believe we will one day travel the stars with UFO beings as a physical reality?
In 1946 I saw a lady who came from something like a type of shuttle to another vessel that was very large, which could be seen far up in the sky. Her smaller ship ascended to the large ship. The larger one looked just as described by the American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh. He was a reputable scientist, he discovered Pluto. It was a brave thing for him to do. In 1949 he published a drawing of what he had seen in the newspapers. When I saw his drawing I knew he had a genuine sighting, because it was exactly as the long ship I had seen.
I don’t believe we will physically travel with UFO beings, I’ll tell you why. I believe that UFO people are not physical as we know it. What they communicate to us is brought through by telepathy. They come here for a moment and then go somewhere else. They live outside of our time and place, but are capable of visiting for brief periods. We will not find physical proof of their existence, but even so, they are real. But we can attune to them psychically.
I love Star Trek because of the possibilities it opens up - a reality to travel amongst the stars, it gives us hope. We need to reach out to the stars in a spiritual sense, attune to the celestial. When we do that, we open up to a positive force that can heal our world.
Why form something like the Muses Symposium?
Throughout the past several years, a structure has been set in place. It began by creation of the ArchPriesthood Union and decentralization. We have websites on the world wide web, we have Advisory Boards in place, the Druid Clan of Dana has formed their world wide Nemeton, the Noble Order of Tara has their Round Table. This Rainbow Network of the Fellowship of Isis connects a good portion of our membership through e-mail and websites.
But there are FOI members, particularly in Africa, who do not have access to computers. I do not use computers, I don’t like them. My brother Lawrence, my sister-in-law Pamela and I founded the FOI through snail mail. We have the world wide web but we mustn’t forget the art of writing letters, or the power of the word written on paper. A letter may travel more slowly than ‘electronic‘ mail, but it can have a powerful effect.
Opening up a channel of communication builds attunement. Even a ‘hard copy’ as you put it, can do that. There is psychic resonance in the written word. That’s why the liturgy works, and letter writing can work just as well. We are forming a bridge.
Do you plan to form other chapters of the Muses Symposium?
There will be. I’ve previously spoken with other members on my trip about setting up chapters - Deena in Chicago and Estara in Los Angeles. Together the chapters will form a world wide network.
What do you most like to see within the FOI?
I most like to see and encourage working together - a genuine sharing. We are all one big family of the Goddess. Every member is valued, the work of each one contributes to the whole. Everyone makes a unique contribution, whatever they offer to the FOI community should be respected, because it comes through inspiration of the Divine Mother. We shouldn’t try to take away. The Goddess never subtracts, she adds. I’m no one special, I’m just the co-founder. Every true member is my successor, the iseums, lyceums, priories and groves will carry on, each in their own individual way.
How does this relate to the work of the ArchPriesthood Union? Are they not your successors in the most publicly visible sense?
Members of the ArchPriesthood Union are on the same level as anyone else. The FOI lives on through the work of AU members in exactly the same manner as that of other FOI members. The only difference is in type of work. What AU members do is provide a contact, a link for the FOI community, they guide, they advise. No title is ever meant to designate hierarchy. We don’t have any of that in the Fellowship of Isis. Titles within the Fellowship of Isis involve work voluntarily taken on. The Archpriesthood Union plays a crucial role in the decentralization of the Fellowship of Isis. It is vital that the FOI reflect outward into the world.
One thing - I must comment on this - it’s important. I prefer any vacancies that may arise within the ArchPriesthood Union be filled by consensus of AU members in that particular geographic area. New policies must be carried out by consensus of AU members. This is my preference as FOI co-founder, as it was when originally announced in Isian News and by separate notices - all delivered by snail mail!
During the FOI Convocation at Isis Oasis, 2007, Lady Olivia drew up the following statement which reads:
The Global Network of the Fellowship of Isis ArchPriesthood Union operates by Consensus of Members creating policies. New Appointments posted by Geographic Area, as preferred by: Olivia Robertson, Co-founder, F.O.I., the 8th day of October, 2007.
All statements above, both written and verbal, were shared by FOI co-founder Olivia Robertson with members of the Muses Symposium and Circle of Isis Advisory Board.
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All photos on this page courtesy of Letecia Layson. Used by permission, photos are copyrighted, all rights reserved.