Sangreal Sodality

The Sangreal Sodality is a magical fraternal order created by British occultist and author William G. Gray in 1980. Its chapters, branches, and membership have spread to Latin America, North America, Eastern Europe, Europe, South Africa and the United States.

"Sangreal" is taken to refer to the "best aspects of human nature". The term sodality refers to a fraternity, especially a lay movement in the Roman Catholic Church.

Purpose of the Sodality

Its purpose is to foster union of the divine with the human through service to both. This service aims at developing what is best in humanity--the "Sangreal." As Marcia L. Pickands, Warden of the Sangreal Sodality, explains: "Whether we define "Sangreal" as "Royal Blood (Sang-real)" or "Holy Grail (San-greal)" it refers to the very best aspects of human nature. What would those aspects be? Simply our desire to do what is right, honorable and good in our relationships with ourselves, our fellow humans, Nature and Divinity."

Sodality members share a single central ritual--"The Rite of Light" (also called the Sangreal Sacrament), which was constructed to help form participants into the sort of people who would sacrifice the worst in themselves to serve the best in themselves and humanity in accordance with the myth of sacred kingship and the mythology of the quest for the Holy Grail.

This is understood to be a task that requires contact and assistance from other beings who are interested and willing to help humans achieve this quest; and the shared rite is understood by Sodality members to be a central vehicle for achieving that goal.

While current members have and continue to make contributions in areas of divination, psychic development, magic, and Tarot, their focus is not on magic for merely the achievement of practical ends. Rather, as Dr. Michael Dummett explains in the History of the Occult Tarot referring to William Gray's Sangreal Tarot:

"William Gray displays the usual disdain of the occultist for mere fortune-telling. The primary purpose of the Tarot, he tells us, is not for fortune-telling, but for deepening, sensitizing, refining ordinary consciousness so we can reach a range beyond average awareness."

Thus as Dummet explains, "In 1988 Gray published the Sangreal Tarot, a contribution to the doctrine of the Sodality and not, as might be guessed from the title, a description of some newly designed Tarot pack."

Indeed, the focus of all workings done by members may be summarized as:

1. Practice of the Rite of Light/Sangreal Sacrament on a regular basis.

2. Mediation between deity and humankind for the purpose of serving evolution lightward.

3. Willing sacrifice of ones lower nature for the expression of ones higher nature in order to live fully in service to both God and our fellow humans.

History of the Sodality

In 1976 William G. Gray published the Rite of Light along with a call for the those who were moved to do so to begin temples of the Western Esoteric Tradition.

In November of 1980, William G. Gray, on a visit to Jacobus Swart in Johannesburg, South Africa, had a vision that resulted in the clarification of what William Gray has referred to as the "Sangreal Concept". During that visit Jacobus, his wife Gloria and the secretary of their group became the first initiated members of the Sangreal Sodalty and their temple that William Gray had personally helped them set up became it's first temple.

In June of 1982 Antonio Delfino in Brazil founded the first Sangreal Temple in South America. This temple was known as Colegio Capitular Pitagoras.

Both Antonio Delfino and Jacobus Swart were attracted to Gray's vision of the Sangreal Sodality through reading the Rite of Light. Jacobus Swart was especially helpful to Gray in the formulation of the Sangreal concept at the Sodality's inception and he was later named Gray's heir, one of two spiritual successors.

Organization

In 1990 when retiring from active service within the Sangreal Sodality, William G. Gray reportedly asked one of his two spiritual successors, Marcia L. Pickands, to take responsibility for the development of the Sodality and its curriculum for the 21st Century. This interpretation is hotly contested by Jacobus Swart, who was William Gray's heir as well as successor.

All Sodality chapters, branches, and Temples are to be autonomous and self-administrated. There are many solitary practitioners. There is no shared dogma or single unchangeable curriculum. Individual chapters, branches, and Temples can and do establish their own structures and curriculum; or they may opt for the assistance, guidance, curriculum, and direction of Ms. Pickands and the Sangreal Sodality International, Inc., a not for profit religious organization incorporated in New York State.

The Sangreal Sodality strives to be a movement as much as or more than an organization. While sharing one common rite, and its surrounding symbolism, different Temples, chapters, and branches have vastly different spiritual practices and organizational structures. Some branches could be described as Christian, others Kabbalistic; others draw on particular ancient traditions, paganism, etc. What they hold in common is the Sangreal Sacrament or Rite of Light and the legacy of William G. Gray's writings and teaching.

Marcia L. Pickands claims that in 1990 when retiring from active service within the Sangreal Sodality, William G. Gray asked her as one of his two spiritual successors,to take responsibility for the development of the Sodality and its curriculum for the 21st Century. Jacobus Swart, his heir and other successor, strongly contests this claim, maintaining that there is no one warden that was set to guide the Sangreal as a whole.

All Sodality chapters, branches, and Temples are autonomous. There are many solitary practitioners. There is no shared dogma or single unchangeable curriculum. Individual chapters, branches, and Temples can and do establish their own structures and curriculum; or they may opt for the assistance, guidance, curriculum, and direction of Ms. Pickands and the Sangreal Sodality International, Inc., a not for profit religious organization incorporated in New York State.

The Sangreal Sodality strives to be a movement as much as or more than an organization. While sharing one common rite, and its surrounding symbolism, different Temples, chapters, and branches have vastly different religious practices and organizational structures. Some branches could be described as Christian, others Kabbalistic; others draw on particular ancient traditions, paganism, etc. What they hold in common is the Sangreal Sacrament or Rite of Light and the legacy of William G. Gray's writings and teaching.

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