Uncovering the ‘Lost Land’ of Brother XII and the Aquarian Foundation

Symbolic objects of social movements are material items, including artifacts and places, that members see as physical expressions of their worldviews through physicality and symbolic quality combined. For Brother XII and the Aquarian Foundation, a 1920s conspiratorial movement based in British Columbia, their monthly magazine, The Chalice, was one such symbolic object.

Brother XII moved the Foundation to BC on channeled instruction from the ethereal Masters of Wisdom, who had tasked him with restoring the Egyptian Mysteries and transitioning humanity into the Age of Aquarius. In 1926 Brother XII said that a “magazine will be issued,” which would “be the channel on the physical plane” through which the Masters’ teachings would be shared. The Chalice began publication in 1927.

As an archaeologist researching how the Aquarian Foundation built their landscapes to both reflect and reinforce their worldviews, this image demonstrates how I use the Foundation’s symbolic objects, like The Chalice, to uncover deeper meanings of their landscapes. The Center Building, for example, which still stands today, was not just a building – it was a piece of the Masters’ spiritual plane “put down into physical expression”. The building was also a symbolic object, a place whose location and occupants were chosen intentionally to invoke multiple meanings and symbols, such as those found in the pages of The Chalice.