Dion Fortune

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Violet Mary Firth Evans, born Violet Mary Firth (December 6, 1890[1] - 1946) and better known as Dion Fortune, was a British occultist and author.[2] Her pseudonym was inspired by her family motto "Deo, non fortuna" (Latin for "God, not fate")[3].

Contents

[edit] Early life

She was born at Bryn-y-Bia in Llandudno, Wales, and grew up in a household where Christian Science was rigorously practiced.[4] She reported visions of Atlantis at age four[5] and the developing of psychic abilities during her twentieth year,[6] at which time she suffered a nervous breakdown; after her recovery she found herself drawn to the occult.[4] She joined the Theosophical Society[4] and attended courses in psychology and psychoanalysis at the University of London,[7] and became a lay psychotherapist at the Medico-Psychological Clinic in Brunswick Square.[8]

Her first magical mentor was the Irish occultist and Freemason Theodore Moriarty.[9] In 1919 she was initiated into the London Temple of the Alpha et Omega[10] before transferring to the Stella Matutina order.[11]

[edit] Writing

From 1919[4] she began writing a number of novels and short stories that explored various aspects of magic and mysticism, including The Demon Lover, The Winged Bull, The Goat-Foot God, and The Secrets of Dr. Taverner. This latter is a collection of short stories based on her experiences with Theodore Moriarty. Two of her novels, The Sea Priestess and Moon Magic, became influential within the religion of Witchcraft, especially upon Doreen Valiente.[12]

Of her non-fictional works on magical subjects, the best remembered of her books are; The Cosmic Doctrine,[13] meant to be a summation of her basic teachings on mysticism, The Mystical Qabalah,[14] an introduction to Hermetic Qabalah, and Psychic Self Defence[15] a manual on how to protect one's self from psychic attacks. Though some of her writings may seem dated to contemporary readers, they have the virtue of lucidity,[16] and the avoidance of the deliberate obscurity that characterised many of her forerunners and contemporaries.[17]

[edit] Later magical career

Fortune fell out with Moina Mathers, head of the Alpha et Omega, and claimed she was coming under magical attack.[4][18] In 1922, with Moina's consent, Dion Fortune left the Alpha et Omega and with her husband, Penry Evans,[4] formed the Fraternity of the Inner Light as an offshoot of the Alpha et Omega.[19][20] This brought new members to the Alpha et Omega.[21] Fortune's group was later renamed "The Fraternity of the Inner Light", and was, later still, renamed "The Society of the Inner Light". This society was to be the focus of her work for the rest of her life. Her masterpiece,[22][23][24] The Mystical Qabalah was first published in England in 1935, and is regarded by many occultists as one of the best textbooks on magic ever written.[4] She died in 1946 from Leukemia.

Dion Fortune met and corresponded with Aleister Crowley, whom she acknowledged in the introduction of The Mystical Qabalah.[25]

Dion Fortune claims to have participated in the "Magical Battle of Britain"[26], which was an attempt by British occultists to magically aid the war effort and which aimed to forestall the impending German invasion during the darkest days of World War II. The effort involved in this endeavour is said to have contributed to her death shortly after the war ended.[27] Her Society of the Inner Light continues to function, and has also given rise to another order, the Servants of the Light, headed by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki. [4]

[edit] Quotes

  • "The true nature of the gods is that of magical images shaped out of the astral plane by mankind's thought, and influenced by the mind." -- Dion Fortune, The Mystical Qabalah
  • "To say that a thing is imaginary is not to dispose of it in the realm of mind, for the imagination, or the image making faculty, is a very important part of our mental functioning. An image formed by the imagination is a reality from the point of view of psychology; it is quite true that it has no physical existence, but are we going to limit reality to that which is material? We shall be far out of our reckoning if we do, for mental images are potent things, and although they do not actually exist on the physical plane, they influence it far more than most people suspect." --Dion Fortune, Spiritualism and Occultism
  • "Psychotherapy may begin with the primitive, but it must end with the divine, for both are integral factors in the human mind." -- Violet M. Firth (Dion Fortune), The Machinery of the Mind.
  • "Symbols are to the mind what tools are to the hand--an extended application of its powers." --Dion Fortune, The Mystical Qabalah
  • "The spirit of religious persecution is not the special failing of any particular faith, but springs eternal in the human breast." --Dion Fortune, quoted in British esotericist and Fortune biographer Gareth Knight's Experience of the Inner Worlds
  • "The driving forces of the universe, the framework upon which it is built up in all its parts, belong to another phase of manifestation than our physical plane, having other dimensions than the three to which we are habituated, and perceived by other modes of consciousness than those to which we are accustomed."--Dion Fortune, Psychic Self-Defense
  • "We live in the midst of invisible forces whose effects alone we perceive. We move among invisible forms whose actions we very often do not perceive at all, though we may be profoundly affected by them." --Dion Fortune, Psychic Self-Defense

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ithell Colquhoun gives Fortune's birth year as 1891 in "Sword of Wisdom", Neville Spearman, London, 1975, p. 217. However Colquhoun makes a number of obvious errors in the aforementioned book and so her veracity as a reliable source is questionable. For example she states that Fortune was an orphan and this is clearly not the case.
  2. ^ Richardson, Alan; "The Magical Life of Dion Fortune", Aquarian Press, 1987, ISBN 1-85538-051-X, p 26.
  3. ^ Knight, Gareth; "Dion Fortune and the Inner Light", Thoth, 1993, ISBN 1-874505-45-0, p 2.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Drury, Nevill (1992). Dictionary of Mysticism and the Esoteric Traditions. Bridport, Dorset: Prism Unity. ISBN 1-85327-075-X. 
  5. ^ Knight, Gareth; "Dion Fortune and the Inner Light", Thoth Publications, 2000, ISBN 1-870450-45-0, pp 14-15.
  6. ^ Chapman, Janine; "Quest for Dion Fortune", Samuel Weiser, 1993, ISBN 0-87728-775-9, p 3-5.
  7. ^ Chapman, Janine; "Quest for Dion Fortune", Samuel Weiser, 1993, ISBN 0-87728-775-9, p 5.
  8. ^ Knight, Gareth; "Dion Fortune and the Inner Light", Thoth Publications, 2000, ISBN 1-870450-45-0, p29 and Richardson, Alan "the Magical Life of Dion Fortune", p 54. N.B. Janine Chapman however in her book ("Quest for Dion Fortune" p 6) says that Fortune worked at the Tavistock clinic.
  9. ^ Richardson, Alan; "The Magical Life of Dion Fortune", Aquarian Press, 1991, ch.4. ISBN 1-85538-051-X and Knight, Gareth; "Dion Fortune and the Inner Light", Thoth Publications, 2000, ISBN 1-870450-45-0, ch.5.
  10. ^ Richardson, Alan; "The Magical Life of Dion Fortune", Aquarian Press, 1991, p111. ISBN 1-85538-051-X and Knight, Gareth; "Dion Fortune and the Inner Light", Thoth Publications, 2000, ISBN 1-870450-45-0, ch.7.
  11. ^ Richardson, Alan; "The Magical Life of Dion Fortune", Aquarian Press, 1991, p114. ISBN 1-85538-051-X
  12. ^ Clifton, Chas, s., http://www.sacred-texts.com/bos/bos474.htm
  13. ^ Richardson, Alan, The Magical Life of Dion Fortune, Aquarian Press, 1991, p63, ISBN 1-85538-051-X and Fielding, Charles and Collins, Carr; The Story of Dion Fortune, Thoth Books, 1998, ISBN 1-870450-33-7, p151.
  14. ^ Fielding, Charles and Collins, Carr; The Story of Dion Fortune, Thoth Books, 1998, ISBN 1-870450-33-7, p151 and Richardson, Alan, The Magical Life of Dion Fortune, Aquarian Press, 1991, p137, ISBN 1-85538-051-X
  15. ^ Charles and Collins, Carr; The Story of Dion Fortune, Thoth Books, 1998, ISBN 1-870450-33-7, p150,
  16. ^ Charles and Collins, Carr; The Story of Dion Fortune, Thoth Books, 1998, ISBN 1-870450-33-7,p150.
  17. ^ Fortune, Dion; "The Mystical Qabalah", Aquarian Press, 1987, ISBN 0-85030-335-4, p 1. and Fielding, Charles and Collins, Carr; The Story of Dion Fortune, Thoth Books, 1998, ISBN 1-870450-33-7, p152.
  18. ^ King, 1989, page 144
  19. ^ Richardson, Alan, The Magical Life of Dion Fortune, Aquarian Press, 1991, ISBN 1-85538-051-X, p117,
  20. ^ Knight, Gareth; "Dion Fortune and the Inner Light", Thoth Publications, 2000, ISBN 1-870450-45-0, pp 138-139.
  21. ^ King, 1989, page 143
  22. ^ Richardson, Alan, The Magical Life of Dion Fortune, Aquarian Press, 1991, ISBN 1-85538-051-X, p137
  23. ^ Clifton, Chas, s., http://www.sacred-texts.com/bos/bos474.htm
  24. ^ Regardie, Israel, (ed), 777 and other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley, intro. (not paginated).
  25. ^ Chapman, Janine; "Quest for Dion Fortune", Samuel Weiser, 1993, ISBN 0-87728-775-9, pp 149-156.
  26. ^ Fortune, Dion; The Magical Battle of Britain", Sun Chalice Books, 1993, ISBN 1-928754-21-X and Fielding, Charles and Collins, Carr; The Story of Dion Fortune, Thoth Books, 1998, ISBN 1-870450-33-7, p106-109 and Knight, Gareth; "Dion Fortune and the Inner Light", Thoth Publications, 2000, ISBN 1-870450-45-0, ch.32.
  27. ^ Richardson, Alan, The Magical Life of Dion Fortune, Aquarian Press, 1991, pp227 - 245, ISBN 1-85538-051-X.

[edit] External links

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