Remembered with Love: Celebrating the Lives of Morag Cameron and Eugenie Kelly-Riggle

(Mo and Eugenie in July 2025 at Stirling University Arboretum)

On 31 March, 2026, the SOL community lost one of its brightest, most loved Lights when Rev. Morag Cameron passed suddenly and unexpectedly into the next life. Her husband Paul Back and her daughter Laurie Cameron Back were in the hospital when she died.

In December 2025, Eugenie Kelly-Riggle, a founding member of Lodge of the White Dove, and longstanding member of Lodge Bride also passed away.  She was another very bright and special Light.  Morag and Eugenie were dear friends and Mo’s husband Paul suggested we use the photo above for this remembrance, so this write-up will focus on them both, one after the other.

Morag Cameron

Morag — or Mo, as most folks knew her — was kind, generous and deeply aware spiritually.  She instinctively knew how to bring people together and lead in a firm but gentle way, bringing out the best in everyone. A very good friend said that she was “a force of nature, once she got going,” which was surely true.  She will be deeply missed by all.

Her involvement with the SOL began in 1988 when she started the original correspondence course by W.E. Butler.  Her supervisor was Suzie Sharpe, who remembers Morag, her first student, clearly.  “She went into all the topics in depth and with a lot of intensity,” Suzie recalls. “Her first diaries were remarkable and I knew from the start she was someone very special.”

 Mo attended the large SOL conferences in London in 1990, 1992 and 1993 where she met Companions who remained close friends for the rest of her life: Charles Burns, Heather Goodhand, Jolyon Hallel and others.

In 1993, she was invited to become a member of Lodge Morning Star in Northumberland with Chris Jackson as Magus.  She worked with that Lodge until she started a small but active magical group of her own much closer to home in Galashiels. That group eventually became Lodge Bride.

I remember Morag telling me that she wasn’t sure who the patron of her Lodge would be until she saw a painting of St Bride at her first Ritual Magic workshop in Savio House, Bollington in September 1993.

Image of St Bride by Judith Page

 

The painting (“Brigid/St Bride” by Judith Page) really made an impression on her and she established a close and faithful contact with Bride that all who knew her recognised

Mo also told me, on more than one occasion, that the root concept of Lodge Bride was taking Light – the Flame of Bride’s Hearth — into places where it was needed, and she was absolutely faithful to that in all of the Lodge’s workings over the past 30+ years.

In February 1999, Caer Aengus, the Outer Court of Lodge Bride was opened with a working to invoke Aengus Og, son of the Dagda, brother of Brigid, and the Irish/Scottish god of Love and inspiration.  Mo once described this group as “a bunch of folk willing to run around in the woods and do daft things.” It certainly was that, but much, much more.  Generally held outdoors in various locations across the Scottish Borders and the northern England, it was open to a wider group of participants and met only four times per year at the Cross Quarters after a Lodge Bride ritual the night before. It was less formal than Lodge Bride, but was a very Green Ray group, tapping into the power of the land and Nature. It also gave members a chance to share their own skills and knowledge by leading specific meetings in a relaxed ritualistic setting.

Along similar lines, the late 1990s also saw Morag organise semi-annual magical get-togethers at Barrowburn, a remote hamlet in very rural Northumberland. She sometimes referred to these meetings as “Faery Camp,” and the work there also linked to the Earth Mysteries, Celtic traditions and the Faery realms, a consistent theme through much of her magical life.  These meetings continued into the 2020s.

In 2001-2002, Heather Goodhand wrote to Dolores to tell her of all the good works that Morag was doing in Scotland, and that perhaps she might consider braving “the wild hordes north of Hadrian’s wall” and visit Lodge Bride.  Not long afterwards, Dolores got in touch with Morag and, in June 2002, she came over the border to present the Ritual Magic 3 workshop in Galashiels.  She then came back in August 2003 to lead a weekend working with “Hidden Paths on the Tree of Life.”  That pattern of an annual workshop in Scotland continued until 2018, with Morag and Heather often creating a large ritual for the final day.  Ritual topics were wide-ranging, including the very memorable “Awakening the Sacred Kings” done in Templewood circle at Kilmartin, Argyllshire in 2004, and “The Honouring” ritual done on the Isle of Iona in 2007. Mo and Heather also collaborated on rituals for the annual Gathering of the Lights for SOL members around the world.

Of course, from very early on, Morag was tagged for the SOL Supervisor’s Course and subsequently saw many students through the Butler course, as well as the newer course written by Dolores.  She led Ritual Magic workshops herself in Edinburgh, served as a Senior Supervisor, and for several years, gathered reports on what all SOL Lodges were working on for review by the SOL Director of Studies and management team.

Dolores raised Lodge Bride to the Second Degree in 2004, which brought in new members and expanded the workings.  In 2005, when the second Scottish SOL Lodge – Lodge of the White Dove – was formed by Heather Goodhand, Morag also (and always) was a faithful member. Her contributions to exploring Iona-based mysteries and journeys with Odhran (and Columba) were invaluable.

In addition to all her SOL work, Morag trained with the One Spirit Interfaith Foundation and was ordained a Minister in London on 2 August 2008.  After that, she regularly did weddings, handfastings, funerals, blessing ceremonies and other rituals for a wider public.

At Imbolc in 2014, Mo and four other companions travelled to Kildare in Ireland and brought back a light from the Sacred Flame, re-lit in 1992 by the Brigidine Sisters. This flame was carefully taken to each subsequent meeting of Lodge Bride and has been kept burning in Galashiels ever since.

At one point, Morag wrote to members of Lodge Bride: “Being Flamekeepers means that we as a group embody in physicality the Undying Flame, and just sharing this archetypal identity together in itself is our principal service.”

She, herself, was a remarkable Flamekeeper and teacher.  It was an honour to know her and serve with her along the Path. May she shine in Beauty and Grace in the next world, and know how much she is loved and cherished by those of us still here.

A blessing for Mo and her journey, included by her in the 2021 Lodge Bride Samhuin working:

A wavelet for thy mind

A wavelet for thy body

A wavelet for thy soul

Nine waves for thy graciousness.

And of course: Above and in the column still shines the Six-rayed Star.

David Riggle,

Member, Lodge Bride;

Magus, Lodge of the White Dove

(Special thanks for contributions from Paul Back, Jolyon Hallel, Heather Goodhand, Ananta Visser & Suzie Sharpe)

 

EUGENIE MARJORIE KELLY-RIGGLE

 

Eugenie was a very special woman and deeply loved.  She led a full life and is greatly missed by her four children, her stepson, her four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, as well as her husband of 37 years and others who knew her.

A founding member of SOL Lodge of the White Dove, and a long-standing member of Lodge Bride, Eugenie was born on 3 April 1950 on the Blue Mountain in St. Thomas, Jamaica. She passed away peacefully in Strathcarron Hospice, Denny, Scotland on 23 December 2025 after a short illness. Her daughter Jenine and husband David were with her when she died.

Her life story is an interesting one that produced a unique and remarkable individual. She was raised by her maternal great-grandmother who was a traditional healer-midwife descended from the Maroons. Her father was a Mason and her paternal grandmother was a healer/preacher. Eugenie started studying astrology for personal development in the 1970’s and that stayed with her throughout her life.  In the 1980’s, a spiritual awakening led her to the works of Dion Fortune, Ernest Butler and the Rosicrucian Order AMORC.  Her journey then took her to the Isle of Iona in Scotland in 1985, and on to the USA in 1987 where she married David Scott Riggle at Columcille, near the Appalachian Trail in Eastern Pennsylvania.

A long-standing Tibetan contact prompted her to take the Three Refuges at Samye Ling, Eskdalemuir, Scotland in 2006. That same year, she was asked to speak about Honouring the Ancestors at the SOL Gathering of the Lights in Bollington, England.

In addition, she trained to become a practitioner of Radionics, a complementary healing modality she was drawn to early on in her journey.  Eugenie first undertook Radionic studies in America in the 1990s, later becoming a Licentiate Radionic Practitioner, with the Radionic Association (RA) UK in 2007, and a fully qualified and active Member in 2008. She dedicated herself to Radionic, Counselling, Ancestral and Astrological studies and practices, helping others to find clarity, balance and well-being through her intuitive, subtle and holistic approaches. She was deeply respected by her Radionic colleagues and students, who all benefitted from her tutorials on Astrology, Soul Purpose, the Rays and other topics. Her tutorial on the Rays was recorded by the RA and is shared with students yearly. Her legacy of love and devotion will live on in the many lives she touched and the healing work she shared with so many.  She was a cherished and much-loved wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, friend and Companion and will be dearly missed by all.  At heart, she was a compassionate healer and truth seeker, with an open, curious and wise mind, and a love for the ageless wisdom and mysteries.

 

 

Some words from Chris Jackson in memory of Morag

 

In loving memory of my dear friend Mo

A very sad day for me when I heard about Mo’s passing. She is now in The Light with Tim Keen, Charles Burns, my wife Linda, David Fox and Brian O’Neil, frequent visitor to LMS. Bless them all. All members or in Brian’s case regular attendees of Morning Star Lodge. Brian as ARC Lodge supervisor.

I was asked by my dearly missed Dolores to arrange to meet Mo, who was my student at the time, as she wanted to join the Lodge. So myself and 2 members of LMS arranged to meet her in Corbridge, Hadrian’s wall country.

We three were standing in the car park wondering how to recognise her. No worries. As soon as the three of us saw her the attraction was there. We all ”hit it off’ straight away and Mo joined the Lodge.

Mo was a wonderful Officer in the West and,  me being Magus, she give me a lot of energy from her Quarter. Like Mo we also had an Outer Court back in the day and Mo was always up for giving a talk which was very well received every time. Mo also attended a few of the Gathering of the Lights (GOL) weekends and contributed there too.

Mo eventually started her own Lodge Bride which, though sad for me, was in some way expected and  encouraged by Dolores and it thrived  under her care. I visited a fair few times myself so can appreciate the work Mo put into it.

Where Waters Meet was a magical place Mo introduced me to – linked to The Merlin. Full moon too when we visited the place.

Mo, Paul and their daughter Laurie, their very young daughter spent times with myself and my late wife Linda , going on holidays together and one of my best recollections was when we drove off to Carnac, just me and Mo together. Magical experience.

The funniest thing was when we holidayed in Kilmartin Valley to visit the monuments there and it was actually chucking it down so Mo and husband Paul fount some wild plants a bit like rhubarb and we used the huge leaves to cover our heads. What other visitors thought??

On my birthday Mo actually had Paul make the 4 Holy Living Creatures for me as a present. I still have and treasure them.

Mo and Paul were into making wine and on one visit I tried their banana and fig wine. Well, I was absolutely plastered after several glasses and we were due to go to climb the Eildons next day. I couldn’t get half way up before conking out.

I love and miss you Mo and God Willing will see you soon.

In Love and Light always your dear friend

Chris

Posted in Messages From Steven, News

The Funeral Service of Dolores Ashcroft Nowicki

Dear Friends,

Dolores’ funeral is being held on Monday, 9th February at 11.30 am GMT.

Dolores’ family invite you to join them online in celebrating Dolores’ life if you wish.

The event is being livestreamed, and the link and codes are as follows:

https://watch.obitus.com

Username: wuqi6418

Pin: 762068

There is a limit of 250 people who can view on Monday morning.

The service will last for half an hour and is being taken by a local funeral celebrant.

The service will still be available to view for a couple of weeks after the event if you are unable to log in to the live service.

I was hoping to attend and represent SOL, and I was invited to the service. However, I am still recovering from a shoulder dislocation and fractured ribs and cannot travel at this time.

With blessings and love,

Steven.

Posted in Messages From Dolores, Messages From Steven, News

Honouring the Life and Work of Dolores Ashcroft Nowicki

The Servants of the Light School marks with deep respect and gratitude the passing of Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, who served as Director of Studies from October 31st 1976, until her retirement on June 11th 2018.

Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki passed peacefully in the early hours of the morning on January 8th.

Born on June 11th 1929, on the Island of Jersey, she was raised within a family tradition of psychic and esoteric awareness, which shaped her early sensitivity to inner worlds and spiritual discipline.

Her formal involvement in the Western Mystery Tradition began in the 1960s through her work with the Society of the Inner Light, founded by Dion Fortune. There she met W. E. Butler and Gareth Knight, and later contributed to the development of the Helios Course on Practical Qabalah, which evolved into the Servants of the Light School.

On October 31st 1976, following W. E. Butler’s retirement, Dolores was appointed Director of Studies of the Servants of the Light. For more than four decades, she acted as guardian, teacher, and interpreter of the School’s work, overseeing its teachings in Hermetic Qabalah, ritual practice, inner plane contact, and spiritual development.

Under her guidance, the School grew into an internationally respected centre for disciplined esoteric training, grounded in ethical responsibility and experiential depth. She retired as Director of Studies in 2018 but continued to teach and to write.

A prolific author, lecturer, and mentor, Dolores combined intellectual clarity, imagination, warmth, and humour, consistently encouraging students to cultivate discernment, integrity, and inner authority. She held the inner thread of the tradition with steadiness and care, insisting that magical work must serve consciousness and balance rather than personal ambition.

Dolores touched the lives of thousands of students with her unique magic and teaching, and we celebrate her life at this sad time.

The Servants of the Light honours Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki for her lifelong dedication to the Work and gives thanks for the enduring legacy she leaves within the school and beyond.

Dolores is loved and remembered by many.

We extend our deepest condolences to Dolores’ family at this time of grief. Her family have requested privacy and quiet at this time, so they will not be responding to messages.

May Dolores journey onward in Light and go forth shining!

Posted in Messages From Dolores, Messages From Steven, News

Servants of the Light Midwinter Retreat Course Now Open: Hermitage of the Green Chapel

Step into the Hermitage of the Green Chapel


A new guided journey into the heart of the Gawain and the Green Knight myth.

As winter gathers and the year turns, join our Director of Studies, Dr Steven Critchley, for a richly woven online course exploring the mysteries of the Green Chapel, the testing of the soul, and the rebirth of the heroic self. Through storytelling, symbolism, meditation, and practical esoteric work, you’ll discover how Gawain’s path mirrors our own inner trials—and how renewal is forged in the quiet places of the spirit.

If you feel the call of the holly, the stillness of the deep wood, or the whisper of the Green Knight himself… this Yuletide, this is your invitation.

Consider enrolling now and begin the journey. Click on the image below to go to the course sales page.

This SOL course is open to anyone you do not need to be enrolled on any of our other courses to enrol.

The Course is only available from December until February 2nd (Candlemas) 2026.

The Course is compatible with all ongoing SOL Courses.

Posted in Messages From Steven, News

SOL Community Hub ☉ ☿ ☽ Connection, Resilience, Resources, Magical Creativity

 

Greetings on this Imboc Eve!

I have created a new online space for SOL members and students:

SOL Teaching Sigil.jpg

SOL Community Hub ☉ ☿ ☽ Connection, Resilience, Resources, Magical Creativity

This online hub includes a free course designed to strengthen resilience and adaptability during times of difficulty, pressure, or change.

Whether you undertake the course is entirely up to you, but I offer it as a resource.

I have established this space as a point of community within our school.

By signing up and joining us in this space, you will receive emails inviting you to House of the Net events that occur occasionally at New Moon.

In the hub, you will receive messages about online talks given by guest teachers from both within and outside the school.

SOL Lodges will also be invited to host sessions.

It is a place where we will occasionally share archival material.

Workshops and live events will be announced here as well.

If you are an SOL Student who is studying any of our courses or who has completed any of our courses, please get in touch either with admin or your supervisor and we can set you up with a link to the Hub.

Blessings of the rising Light,

Steven.

Director of Studies, SOL.

Posted in Messages From Steven, News

In Loving Memory of Fran Keegan

 

 

The Servants of the Light School sends our deepest condolences to Steve, Fran’s son, and all the family and friends of Fran Keegan, who passed into the Spirit World early this morning.

Fran Keegan was a senior supervisor in our school and worked very closely with Dolores Ashcroft Nowicki and other SOL leaders and students for many years.

In our school alone, she helped hundreds of people in lasting ways.

Many in the SOL love Fran and have great memories of times spent with her.

It was my pleasure to meet Fran and spend time with her and Dolores in Atlanta, GA, in 2014. Her presence, wisdom and sense of humour blessed many people as she shared generously from her rich experience of life.

May your spirit go forth in peace, love and shining bright Fran!

We love you.

Steven.

Director of Studies, SOL.

 

Posted in News

New SOL Practical Course on the Mystical Qabalah is Available for Study

The New SOL Practical Course on the Mystical Qabalah is now open for registration.

The course is designed for new students that want to study with our school.

The course is taught online by Dr. Steven Critchley our Director of Studies.

Click on our sigil below to visit the course registration page:

Posted in Event Announcement, Messages From Steven, News

New SOL Online Course for Graduates Available Now

A new course for SOL Graduates is available now called Medicine for the Soul, Working with the Etheric Eidolon of the Tree of Life.

Anyone who has completed W.E. Butler’s Practical Course on the Mystical Qabalah or Dolores Ashcroft Nowicki’s Pilgrim, Seeker, Priest, Course can study it.

A New SOL Practical Course Practical Course on the Mystical Qabalah will be available from the Vernal Equinox this year, designed for new students.

All courses are guided and presented by Dr Steven Critchley, Director of Studies, SOL.

See our courses page on this website for further details.

Posted in News

Honouring A Special Teacher:

After 24 years of supervising SOL students, Heather Goodhand retires (at 80 years of age)

Heather Goodhand has been an exemplary SOL member, supervisor and Lodge Magus for many years, and in that time, she has helped around 75 students to study with the SOL, and many of Heather’s students have completed courses.

In the past five years, since I became Director of Studies in 2018, Heather has continued to work with students in the school, helping them to complete courses, and she has been a great support whilst we have been in a state of transition and revising our courses before we re-open to new students.

On behalf of the SOL, I would like to thank Heather for her hard work in the school and for being such a vital part of our community. I know that although Heather has retired from supervising she continues to work in the egregore of our school prayerfully and with wisdom.

Thank you Heather, and bright blessings to you in the next phase of your work,

Steven.

Dr Steven Critchley

Director of Studies, SOL.

Words from The Magus of SOL Lodge of the White Dove (Founded by Heather Goodhand and Friends)

Occasionally, we have the good fortune to cross paths with a person who encourages us to learn and grow in ways we had not anticipated.  Upon joining the SOL School in 2001, Dolores wrote a very welcoming letter to me with the following key sentence: “…I have placed you with Heather Goodhand as your tutor, she is very knowledgeable and helpful.”

That sounded promising, but new spiritual beginnings are sometimes akin to knocking on an unknown door in the rain, a bit unsure if this is the right house and wondering if you got the directions right? In this case, there was no need for concern.  When Heather opened the tutorial door to my studies, it felt like being invited into a book-lined room smelling faintly of frankincense and being told to make myself at home by the fire. 

Of course, that didn’t mean one would not be held to task as needed.  In her first hand-written letter to me (we made good use of the Postal Service then!) she said: “… I hope that you enjoy working on the [Butler] course and that it will open up many avenues for you to explore.  …However, it is important to follow it correctly. You be surprised to find that a lot students think that they know better!”

So, no messing around then! Heather was true to her word and kept me on track with deep understanding, pointed questions, extra reading suggestions and patience.  Being a slow learner, it took me 9 years to complete the course, but in that time Heather also became a companion as well as a supervisor.  She encouraged me to attend SOL workshops, and introduced my wife, Eugenie, and I to Morag Cameron, Magus of the first Scottish Lodge, Lodge Bride and Caer Aengus its outer court.  In 2004, when Heather was asked by Dolores to found a second Scottish Lodge, she invited us and others to help bring Lodge of the White Dove into being.  Both Lodge Bride and Lodge of the White Dove are still meeting today. 

Prompted by her always curious mind, Heather has also written a number of books on the Tarot, Initiation, the Qabalah and related subjects.  As noted in the guest Foreword for The Tower of the Three Grails, A Journey of Initiation, “…She’s got an innate ability to see and draw out the latent talents in people by encouraging and challenging her students and others who come within her sphere, and these traits are reflected in her writings.”

As for being a volunteer SOL Supervisor since 1999, Heather has directly helped a great number of students  along the paths of the Butler course, the New Course and the Second Degree course.  It used to surprise me how often a new SOL acquaintance would say, “Heather was my supervisor.”

For this work over 24 years (in this lifetime), her companions, friends and the entire SOL community express a sincere and heartfelt Thank You to a remarkable woman, a way-shower to so many, a true daughter of the Opener of the Ways. 

With Love,  David Riggle.

Addendum: 

Several of Heather’s books are still available for purchase through Datura Press.  These include In the Footsteps of the Fool, The 13th Knight, The Tower of the Tree Grails and Journey Through the Sacred Flame.

Posted in News

Salon of the Western Mysteries Presentation, on Iamblichus and Theurgy with Steven Critchley.

Sunday 13th August

Iamblichus of Chalcis (c. 245 – c.325 CE) was a Neoplatonic philosopher who was also an initiate of Egyptian temple and mystery school teachings of the Graeco-Roman world in the third-fourth centuries of the Common Era. 
 
Theurgy literally means “God-work” or Divine-work and Iamblichus teachings about harmonising and working with Divine presence and power in pagan priestly mysteries had a huge impact on the western understanding of mysticism and magic. 
 
In the salon talk and discussion we will be exploring aspects of Iamblichus’ teachings on theurgy that have influenced modern magical ideas and associated ritual or ceremonial practices. We will also consider theurgy in the wider context of Neoplatonism and Orphic mystery school teachings, referring to other philosophers, priests and mages such as Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Porphyry and Proclus and key texts used by the Neoplatonists such as the Chaldean Oracles. 
 
Iamblichus presented beautiful and powerful teachings about the soul and mystical prayer which will be considered in some depth.
 
Steven will discuss Theurgy in terms of practical personal experience as well as in ancient philosophical or religious contexts. 

All Salons are Hosted by RJ Stewart & Anastacia
with Featured Guest Presenters


Price for Salon: $39.00 via PayPal to rjspeak@rjstewart.org  

Checks may be mailed (in advance) to RJ Stewart, PO Box 239 Berkeley Springs, WV 25411. No refunds on any Salon(s) pre-payment.

To Register: email directly via webpage of The Salon of the Western Mysteries.


Registration Deadline is the Friday before the Sunday Salon.

All GoToMeeting links are sent out by 5pm the Saturday before each Sunday Salon to registered and prepaid attendees.

Posted in Messages From Steven, News