Four Winds Tower

Fan Club
Name:	Four Winds Tower
Dates:
Founder(s):
Leadership:
Country based in:
Focus:	Darkover
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Icon for Four Winds Tower, by Pyracantha (1987)

Not only were my friends esotericists, they were also science fiction and fantasy fans. They participated in Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Darkover" fandom, which flourished during the 80s. Local Darkover fan groups were organized into "Towers," a reference to the towers in Darkover where the psi-magic users gathered to do group workings. The Tower I and my friends belonged to was called the "Tower of the Four Winds." This was not just a Bradley fan group but an esoteric/occult study group as well. Marion Z. Bradley was a longtime esotericist, so she served as an example and sometimes guru for these groups.

...

My friends commissioned me to do a logo for our Four Winds Tower, and I came up with this. The Four Winds swirl around an archetypal lighthouse tower. Each wind was represented in a different color, the three primary colors red, blue, and yellow, and the secondary color green. These were the standardized four directions and colors of late 19th century and 20th century Western esotericism.

...

This was more than 20 years ago. Darkover fandom has faded away, and our Tower has vanished, and the Grateful Dead without Jerry Garcia are a dim, aging echo of the original. I have not seen my old friends in many, many years. The past evaporates like aromatic smoke.