Edward Arthur Wilson, better known as Brother XII, (July 25, 1878–November 7, 1934?) was a notorious English mystic who founded a spiritual community in the Pacific Northwest near Canada's Nanaimo region in the late 1920s.
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Born in Birmingham, England, Wilson attracted a devoted following of wealthy, socially prominent followers. As Brother XII, he established an organization called the "Aquarian Foundation" in 1927, which owed its origins to the teachings of the Theosophical Society. Wilson encouraged the society's members to build homes at the colony headquarters in Cedar, BC. With the goal of being a self-sufficient community separate from the outside world, the Foundation acquired additional property on nearby Valdes and De Courcy Islands through the donations of a wealthy socialite named Mary Connally from Asheville, North Carolina. Other followers gave donations, in sizes large and small, [and on both sides of the Atlantic], to support Wilson's work as both a spiritual teacher and a political activist.
Claiming to be the reincarnation of the Egyptian god Osiris, Wilson took command of the colony and its funds, becoming increasingly dictatorial and paranoid, fortifying his island kingdom, accumulating a fortune in gold, and acting unilaterally without the consent of the original Foundation Governors. His mistress Mabel Skottowe, née Rowbotham (under the name "Madame Z") worked the members unceasingly, the tasks given being considered tests of their fitness to advance spiritually. As conditions at the colony deteriorated, the disciples eventually revolted. One man, who had been imprisoned in a cellar on the northern end of Valdes Island, managed to find a rowboat and row to Nanaimo to report the circumstances to the British Columbia Provincial Police. In a rage, Wilson destroyed the colony, smashing its buildings and farm equipment and scuttling his flagship, the yacht Lady Royal.
Wilson and Skottowe escaped in their private tugboat Kheunaten, and failed to appear in court to answer the charges brought by their former disciples. Wilson is alleged to have died in Neuchâtel, Switzerland in 1934, but may have faked his own death. He remains one of the most mysterious occult figures of the last century.