Walter Ernest Butler (1898-1978), founder of the Servants of the Light (S.O.L.) was a well known writer and occult teacher. Butler first studied with Bishop Robert King and later worked with Dion Fortune, joining her order, The Fraternity of the Inner Light.
Robert King (1869-1954) had been a member of the Liberal Catholic Church, The Theosophical Society, and several of its associated ceremonial orders.
Dion Fortune (1890-1946), on the other hand, had studied with Theodore Moriarty, whom she immortalized under the fictional name of Dr. Taverner, and with Moina Mathers, widow of MacGregor Mathers, in a daughter temple of the then schizmatic Golden Dawn.
With Dion Fortune's blessing, Mr. Butler deepened his own esoteric contacts and was eventually one of the originators of the Helios Course, a correspondence course on occult science, the majority of which he wrote. Mr. Butler, aided by Dolores and Michael and Ashcroft-Nowicki, used the correspondence course as the nidus for the outer expression of the S.O.L. inner order, the Fraternitatis Alexandrae.
In recent years, the S.O.L. has gradually re-established its physical plane presence with a variety of activities and pendant magical lodges.
Lodge Phoenix, S.O.L., is a ceremonial magical lodge meeting in Savannah, Georgia. It was inaugurated in Atlanta in 1993 under the auspices of Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, Director of Studies of the S.O.L. The lodge was formally raised in 1995, and in 1998 was consecrated at the second level. In 2017 the primary location for meeting moved from Atlanta to Savannah.
Lodge Phoenix and Polaris Fellowship have received a favorable ruling from the IRS as a Type 501 (c) (10) Organization exempt from Federal taxation.