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Dion Fortune

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Dion Fortune

Dion Fortune - Violet Mary Firth Evans (1890 - 1946), (D.O.B December 6 1890) born Violet Mary Firth, was a British magician and author who was born at Bryn-y-Bia in Llandudno, Wales[1]. Her pseudonym was inspired by her family motto "Deo, non fortuna".

Early life

She reported visions of Atlantis at age four[2] and the developing of psychic abilities during her twentieth year[3]. She attended courses in Psychology and Psychoanalysis at the University of London [4], and became a lay psychotherapist at the Medico-Psychological Clinic in Brunswick Square[5].

Early Magical Career

Her first magical mentor was the Irish occultist and Freemason Theodore Moriarty[6]. In 1919 she was initiated into the London Temple of the "Alpha and Omega" [7], a lodge of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, before transferring to the "Stella Matutina" Lodge of The Golden Dawn[8], then run by Moina Mathers, widow of Samuel Liddell MacGregor-Mathers.

Writing

She wrote 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. Her most influential fictional books are The Sea Priestess and Moon Magic which influenced Wiccans, most notably, Doreen Valiente[9].

Of her non-fictional works on magical subjects, the best remembered of her books are The Cosmic Doctrine, meant as a summation of her basic teachings on mysticism; and The Mystical Qabalah, an introduction to Hermetic Qabalah. Though some of her writings may seem dated to contemporary readers, they have the virtue of lucidity, and the avoidance of the deliberate obscurity that characterised many of her forerunners and contempories.

Later Magical Career

File:Dion Fortune Later Years.gif
Dion Fortune in later years

In 1928 Fortune founded "The Community of the Inner Light" [10], which was the forerunner of "The Fraternity of the Inner Light", which was in turn the forerunner of "The Society of the Inner Light", an outer court of the Golden Dawn. This society was to be the focus of her work for the rest of her life. Her magnum opus, The Mystical Qabalah was first published in England in 1935, just eleven years before her untimely death from Leukemia.

Dion Fortune met and corresponded with Aleister Crowley, whom she acknowledged in the introduction of The Mystical Qabalah[11].

Dion Fortune was famed for participating in the ‘Magical Battle of Britain’[12], which was a plan by British magicians 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. Her Society of the Inner Light continues to function.

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." --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"

References

  1. ^ Richardson, Alan; "The Magical Life of Dion Fortune", Aquarian Press, 1987, ISBN 1-85538-051-X, p 26.
  2. ^ Knight, Gareth; "Dion Fortune and the Inner Light", Toth Publications, 2000, ISBN 1-870450-45-0, pp 14-15.
  3. ^ Chapman, Janine; "Quest for Dion Fortune", Samuel Weiser, 1993, ISBN 0-87728-775-9, p 3-5.
  4. ^ Chapman, Janine; "Quest for Dion Fortune", Samuel Weiser, 1993, ISBN 0-87728-775-9, p 5.
  5. ^ Knight, Gareth; "Dion Fortune and the Inner Light", Toth 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.
  6. ^ 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", Toth Publications, 2000, ISBN 1-870450-45-0, ch.5.
  7. ^ 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", Toth Publications, 2000, ISBN 1-870450-45-0, ch.7.
  8. ^ Richardson, Alan; "The Magical Life of Dion Fortune", Aquarian Press, 1991, p114. ISBN 1-85538-051-X
  9. ^ Clifton, Chas, s., http://www.sacred-texts.com/bos/bos474.htm
  10. ^ Knight, Gareth; "Dion Fortune and the Inner Light", Toth Publications, 2000, ISBN 1-870450-45-0, pp 138-139.
  11. ^ Chapman, Janine; "Quest for Dion Fortune", Samuel Weiser, 1993, ISBN 0-87728-775-9, pp 149-156.
  12. ^ 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.

See also

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