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124-717: Dion Fortune (born Violet Mary Firth , 6 December 1890 – 6 or 8 January 1946) was a British occultist , ceremonial magician , novelist and author. She was a co-founder of the Fraternity of the Inner Light , an occult organisation that promoted philosophies which she claimed had been taught to her by spiritual entities known as the Ascended Masters . A prolific writer, she produced a large number of articles and books on her occult ideas and also authored seven novels, several of which expound occult themes. Fortune

248-712: A Christian Qabalist , and as "a devout mystical Christian", albeit "a very unorthodox one". She expressed the opinion that "in any school of Western mysticism the author and finisher of our faith must be Christ Jesus, the Great Initiator of the West", and treated "the Master Jesus" as her personal spiritual guide. She believed that the teachings passed down from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn served

372-694: A Russian émigré living in the United States who founded the religion of Theosophy . The article was published in the American Spiritualist magazine, Spiritual Scientist . Various twentieth-century writers on the subject used the term occultism in different ways. Some writers, such as the German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno in his "Theses Against Occultism", employed the term as a broad synonym for irrationality . In his 1950 book L'occultisme , Robert Amadou  [ fr ] used

496-717: A classic of the Western Tradition". The work constituted a theoretical discussion based in the Golden Dawn system of correspondences to the Qabalic Tree of Life which she had obtained through her membership of the Alpha et Omega group. However, it was also rooted in her own personal experiences and visions; while meditating, she believed that she had visited the various Sephiroth of the Qabalic tree. In 1935 she published her second occult novel, The Winged Bull —which

620-644: A degree and kind I had never met before, and had not the slightest doubt but that I was on the trail of the genuine tradition, despite its inadequate exposition." – Dion Fortune. After the United Kingdom entered the First World War , Fortune joined the Women's Land Army . She was initially stationed on a farm near to Bishop's Stortford on the borders between Essex and Hertfordshire , before later being relocated to an experimental base for

744-461: A disenchanted world or, alternatively, by people in general to make sense of esotericism from the perspective of a disenchanted secular world". Hanegraaff noted that this etic usage of the term would be independent of emic usages of the term employed by occultists and other esotericists themselves. In this definition, occultism covers many esoteric currents that have developed from the mid-nineteenth century onward, including Spiritualism, Theosophy,

868-521: A greater extent than he had planned. He was present throughout a program of trance mediumship in which Fortune claimed to be channelling the messages of a "Master of Medicine". Beginning in August 1927, the channelled messages focused around issues of alternative medicine and diagnostics and were later assembled as The Principles of Esoteric Medicine , which was privately circulated among Fortune's senior students. Some members of Fortune's group believed that

992-624: A group called the Guild of the Master Jesus, which held regular church services on Sundays at their Queensborough Terrace base from 1928 until 1939; in 1936 this group renamed itself the Church of the Graal. Fortune directed many seekers who lacked the self-discipline for ceremonial magical activity to the Guild, whose members were known by one senior Community member as the "teeny-weenies". When Jiddu Krishnamurti abandoned Theosophy, causing problems for

1116-528: A heroine – a priestess and initiatrix who is magically experienced and assertive – who meets a man and saves him from himself. In her later novels this entails the duos reconstructing or revitalising a ritual space and working magical rituals to channel cosmic forces and bring them into balance. "As a writer, Fortune's gifts are generally more practical than philosophical. Above all she was a deft synthesizer of ideas, and her continued influence derives largely from her ability to bring difficult esoteric concepts into

1240-560: A lucid and readily accessible prose." – Historian Claire Fanger. In her discussion of Fortune's work, Sonja Sadovsky stated that the "unique element" of Fortune's fiction was "the recurring plotline of esoteric romance told from the priestess's viewpoint", suggesting that her female characters provided a template from which female readers could build upon in their own spiritual practice. Sadovsky further suggested that there were two types of priestess who appeared in Fortune's novels,

1364-1139: A means of disseminating her teachings to a wider audience. Each was related to one of the Sephirah on the Qabalic Tree of Life: The Winged Bull was associated with Tiphareth , The Goat-Foot God with Malkuth , and The Sea Priestess with Yesod . Fortune's first novel was The Demon Lover , which tells the story of Veronica Mainwaring, a young virgin woman who becomes the secretary to a malevolent magician, Justin Lucas, who seeks to exploit her latent mediumistic powers for his own purposes. Although she falls in love with him, she eventually escapes his entrapments through her devotion to Christianity. Her next work, The Winged Bull , focuses on Ursula Brangwyn, who had been harmed by her involvement in an unscrupulous occult group but meets with Ted Murchison, whom she subsequently marries. The characters in The Winged Bull are based upon real people in Fortune's life; Murchison

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1488-495: A new study course for aspiring members. As part of her plans for the post-war period, Fortune began mooting the idea of bringing together all of Europe's occultists to pool their knowledge. She also began discussing the possibility of uniting occult groups with the Spiritualist movement, writing articles that were more favourable towards Spiritualist mediums than she had previously been and meeting with Charles Richard Cammell ,

1612-649: A novelist in the first division, at least a promotion challenger from the second. As it was, in her last two novels, The Sea Priestess and Moon Magic , she achieved greatness within the genre. Quite simply these are the finest novels on magic ever written. Really, looking around at the competition, they are the only novels on magic ever written." – Fortune's biographer Alan Richardson. Fortune completed seven novels during her lifetime. Four were occult and fantasy themed: The Demon Lover , The Winged Bull , The Goat-Foot God , and The Sea Priestess . The literary scholar Susan Johnson Graf categorises these alongside

1736-517: A practitioner to ascend into the 'Greater Mysteries'. The membership that they attracted was largely female, with 21 women to only 5 men being members in this period. All members, whether male or female, were initially referred to as "Brother", although this system later gave way to the term "Server Brother". At Midwinter 1928, they ritually established the Fraternity of the Inner Light—a sector of

1860-512: A protégé later completed it, claiming to have done so through channeling Blavatsky's disembodied spirit, and it was published posthumously. Fortune corresponded with a number of prominent occultists in this period. One of these was Israel Regardie , whose book The Tree of Life was regarded by Fortune as "quite the best book on magic" that she had read. Regardie later publicly criticised her for misrepresenting his works in her reviews of them; she had claimed that his works bolstered her beliefs about

1984-539: A psychotherapy clinic. During the First World War she joined the Women's Land Army and established a company selling soy milk products. She became interested in esotericism through the teachings of the Theosophical Society , before joining an occult lodge led by Theodore Moriarty and then the Alpha et Omega occult organisation. She came to believe that she was being contacted by two Ascended Masters,

2108-406: A staff member at the college from January to April 1913. She later claimed that at the college she was the victim of mental manipulation from her employer, the college warden Lillias Hamilton , resulting in a mental breakdown that made her abandon the institution and return to her parental home. To recover from her experience at Studley, Fortune began studying psychotherapy . Her initial interest

2232-512: A substantivized adjective as "the occult", a term that has been particularly widely used among journalists and sociologists . This term was popularised by the publication of Colin Wilson 's 1971 book The Occult . This term has been used as an "intellectual waste-basket" into which a wide array of beliefs and practices have been placed because they do not fit readily into the categories of religion or science. According to Hanegraaff, "the occult"

2356-424: A three degree system, through which the initiate could progress as they gained a better knowledge and understanding of the group, its teachings, and its rituals. Progress through these degrees could be fairly rapid, with the only requirement being that an individual remain in one degree for at least three months before entering the next. Training in these three degrees was referred to as the 'Lesser Mysteries', allowing

2480-491: A veranda and series of chalets. At Whitsun 1926, Fortune and several other members of her group were on Glastonbury Tor when they underwent a spiritual experience that produced a feeling of ecstasy among them. They later came to believe that this experience was a result of a messenger from the Elemental Kingdoms, and it greatly influenced their developing beliefs. Fortune's activities—including her leadership of

2604-459: Is a category into which gets placed a range of beliefs from "spirits or fairies to parapsychological experiments, from UFO-abductions to Oriental mysticism, from vampire legends to channelling, and so on". The neologism occulture used within the industrial music scene of the late twentieth century was probably coined by one of its central figures, the musician and occultist Genesis P-Orridge . The scholar of religion Christopher Partridge used

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2728-471: Is based on her husband, for example, and she modeled Brangwyn after herself. The character of Hugo Astley has been interpreted as a "barely veiled fictional portrait" of Aleister Crowley. Richardson felt that The Winged Bull was "in many ways the worst of her books". The scholar Andrew Radford suggested that the novel reflected a "zeal in promoting a socially responsible occultism rooted in orthodox gender roles" and demonstrated her growing concern that occultism

2852-477: Is thus often used to categorise such esoteric traditions as Qabalah , Spiritualism , Theosophy , Anthroposophy , Wicca , the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn , New Age , and the left-hand path and right-hand path . Use of the term as a nominalized adjective ('the occult') has developed especially since the late twentieth century. In that same period, occult and culture were combined to form

2976-589: The Alpha et Omega , an occult group that had developed from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn . Here, her primary teacher was Maiya Curtis-Webb , a longstanding friend of the Firth family. Fortune later claimed that in the period after the First World War, the Order had been "manned mainly by widows and grey-bearded ancients". She was not enamoured with the ceremonial magic system that had been developed by

3100-765: The German Empire , Austria-Hungary , and the Kingdom of Italy . Unlike older forms of esotericism, occultism does not necessarily reject "scientific progress or modernity". Lévi had stressed the need to solve the conflict between science and religion, something that he believed could be achieved by turning to what he thought was the ancient wisdom found in magic. The French scholar of Western esotericism Antoine Faivre noted that rather than outright accepting "the triumph of scientism", occultists sought "an alternative solution", trying to integrate "scientific progress or modernity" with "a global vision that will serve to make

3224-552: The Middle Ages , for example, magnetism was considered an occult quality. Aether is another such element. Newton 's contemporaries severely criticized his theory that gravity was effected through "action at a distance", as occult. In the English-speaking world, notable figures in the development of occultism included Helena Blavatsky and other figures associated with her Theosophical Society, senior figures in

3348-589: The Second World War in September 1939 saw some of the Fraternity's members enlist in the armed forces, putting a stop to many of the group's activities. From October 1939 through to October 1942, Fortune organised group meditations every Sunday with the intent of focusing Fraternity members towards the cause of peace. In February 1940, she undertook a visualisation in which she imagined angelic forces patrolling Britain's coast, believing that in doing so she

3472-581: The Society for the Study of Orthopsychics , she gave a series of lectures that were later published in 1922 as The Machinery of the Mind . While working at the clinic, she developed her interest in esotericism by attending lunchtime lectures organised by the Theosophical Society and reading some of the organisation's literature. With her interest in occultism increasing, Fortune became increasingly dissatisfied with

3596-475: The neologism occulture . The occult (from the Latin word occultus ; lit. 'clandestine', 'hidden', 'secret') is "knowledge of the hidden". In common usage, occult refers to "knowledge of the paranormal ", as opposed to "knowledge of the measurable ", usually referred to as science. The terms esoteric and arcane can also be used to describe the occult, in addition to their meanings unrelated to

3720-626: The "Earth Mother" and the "Moon Mistress". According to Sadovsky, the "Earth Mother" was represented by the character of Mona Wilkins in The Goat-Foot God and that of Molly Coke in The Sea Priestess . She suggested that these characters derived their power from the masculine/feminine polarity and the creative power of sex, and that they also required a male priest in order to initiate them into their spiritual mysteries and to reach their full potential. The second type of priestess,

3844-483: The "Master of Medicine" was actually Paracelsus , although a later channelled message claimed that this Master's earthly identity had been Ignaz Semmelweis . In 1927 Fortune published her first occult novel, The Demon Lover , which received a brief but positive review in The Times Literary Supplement . The following year she published The Problem of Purity , her final book to appear under

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3968-586: The "Moon Mistress", appeared as Vivien/Lilith le Fay Morgan in The Sea Priestess and then becomes more dominant in Moon Magic . According to Sadovsky, this is a celibate figure who concentrates her creative powers on training priestesses and dealing with occult matters. Fortune identified her beliefs as being part of what she termed "the Western Mystery Tradition". She adhered to a form of esoteric Christianity, and has been described as

4092-518: The "traditional esotericism" which accepted the premise of an "enchanted" world. According to the British historian of Western esotericism Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke , occultist groups typically seek "proofs and demonstrations by recourse to scientific tests or terminology". In his work about Lévi, the German historian of religion Julian Strube has argued that the occultist wish for a "synthesis" of religion, science, and philosophy directly resulted from

4216-470: The Apostle and Augustine of Hippo . In her next novel, The Goat-Foot God , Fortune had fully embraced the idea of a modern Paganism reviving the belief systems of pre-Christian Europe, referring to this as "Vitamin P" and declaring that it was needed to heal the modern world. Around this time she began promoting the claim that "All the gods are one god, and all the goddesses are one goddess". However, during

4340-629: The Aquarian Age". These communications were received between April 1941 and February 1942, and together became known as "the Arthurian Formula"; they provided the basis of much of the Fraternity's 'Greater Mystery' work following the war. The claims produced in these channelled meditations presented the Arthurian myths as racial memories that had been passed down from Atlantis , having been brought to Britain by Atlantean settlers after

4464-661: The Ascended Masters, also arguing that the spirits of the dead should not be contacted without good reason, a view that generated controversy among the occult milieu. In 1934, she assembled a number of her Inner Light articles on Glastonbury as Avalon of the Heart , while further Inner Light articles were assembled as Practical Occultism in Daily Life , a book aimed at a general reader. A number of Fortune's articles from The Occult Review were also collected to produce

4588-464: The Chalice Orchard, they established a guest house and a social centre which was open in the summer, and where lectures were also carried out. In October 1927 they began production of a magazine, The Inner Light , with the initial print-run of 500 selling out in a fortnight. The magazine gained a wide readership, with many subscribers located outside of Britain. Within the group they formulated

4712-477: The Community of the Inner Light, a group later renamed the Fraternity of the Inner Light. With Loveday she established bases in both Glastonbury and Bayswater , London, began issuing a magazine, gave public lectures, and promoted the growth of their society. During the Second World War she organised a project of meditations and visualisations designed to protect Britain. She began planning for what she believed

4836-695: The Food Production Department. There she carried out experiments in the production of soy milk , subsequently founding the Letchworth-based Garden City Pure Food Company to sell her products and publishing The Soya Bean: An Appeal to Humanitarians in 1925. It was while working at the base that she underwent a spiritual experience and subsequently further immersed herself in Theosophical literature. After doing so, she became preoccupied by

4960-521: The Fraternity, with Loveday being appointed Magus of the Lodge in her place. During the 1930s, Fortune's emphasis moved away from mediumship and towards ritual, while at the same time other Fraternity members embraced mediumship in order to channel the messages of the Masters. In late 1931, Fortune began mooting the idea of the construction of a permanent base, or Sanctuary, at the Chalice Orchard, and despite

5084-653: The German-speaking races someone must do for those who use a Latin-root language and the Anglo-Saxon tongue." She did not agree with allowing spiritual and magical techniques to transmit between different cultures, believing that to do so caused damage; she for instance cautioned against allowing Western esoteric teachings to be practised in India because "the Hindu dies readily from shock". Equally she strongly opposed

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5208-544: The Golden Dawn, however it did provide her with the grounding in the study of the Hermetic Qabalah which would exert a great influence over her esoteric world-view. It was also through her involvement in the group that she embraced her family's "Deo, non Fortuna" as her personal magical motto. In January and March 1921 Fortune and Curtis-Webb embarked on a series of experiments in trance mediumship. This culminated in an act of trance mediumship that Fortune conducted in

5332-454: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn like William Wynn Westcott and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers , as well as other individuals such as Paschal Beverly Randolph , Emma Hardinge Britten , Arthur Edward Waite , and – in the early twentieth century – Aleister Crowley , Dion Fortune , and Israel Regardie . By the end of the nineteenth century, occultist ideas had also spread into other parts of Europe, such as

5456-568: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the New Age. Employing this etic understanding of "occultism", Hanegraaff argued that its development could begin to be seen in the work of the Swedish esotericist Emanuel Swedenborg and in the Mesmerist movement of the eighteenth century, although added that occultism only emerged in "fully-developed form" as Spiritualism, a movement that developed in

5580-725: The Master Rakoczi and the Master Jesus, and underwent trance mediumship to channel the Masters' messages. In 1922 Fortune and Charles Loveday claimed that during one of these ceremonies they were contacted by Masters who provided them with a text, The Cosmic Doctrine . Although she became the president of the Christian Mystic Lodge of the Theosophical Society, she believed the society to be uninterested in Christianity, and split from it to form

5704-436: The Masters communicated through the medium's subconscious mind; they contrasted this with "automatic mediumship", which they believed involved the medium becoming completely dissociated from their own body. It was in this manner that Fortune and Loveday claimed that they received a text, The Cosmic Doctrine , which was dictated to them in segments by the Masters between July 1923 and February 1925. These communications discussed

5828-599: The Masters, although Regardie insisted that he was sceptical about the existence of such entities. Fortune also corresponded with Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn , the Dutch esotericist who founded Eranos in Switzerland. She also renewed her interest in Jungian psychology, which was then growing in influence among the esoteric milieu, and was influenced by her reading of Friedrich Nietzsche 's The Birth of Tragedy . The outbreak of

5952-781: The Second World War her writings became more pronouncedly Christian once again. Fortune believed in the existence of an underlying commonality between the teachings of Western esoteric orders and Asian religious traditions. Nevertheless, she believed that particular spiritual traditions were allotted to specific racial groups, stating that "the Great White Lodge gives to each race the religion suited to its needs". Writing in The Occult Review , Fortune stated: "Do not let it be forgotten that our traditions are racial. What that great initiate Rudolf Steiner did for

6076-750: The Somerset town of Glastonbury with her mother and Frederick Bligh Bond . She claimed that in doing so, she had contacted spirit-entities known as "the Watchers of Avalon" who informed her that Glastonbury had once been the site of an ancient druidic college. Bond subsequently commissioned Fortune to write an article, "Psychology and Occultism", which was published in the transactions of the College of Psychic Science in 1922. In September 1922, Fortune returned to Glastonbury to visit her friend Charles Loveday . Along with an anonymous woman known only as "E. P.",

6200-587: The Theosophical movement, Fortune endorsed the 'Back to Blavatsky' faction, attacking Leadbeater in print by accusing him of being a practitioner of black magic . She then involved herself with Bomanji Wadia and his United Lodge of Theosophists , through which she claimed to have contacted the Himalayan Masters. She nevertheless was cautious about these Himalayan adepts, relating that although she felt that they were "not evil", she thought them "alien and unsympathetic" and "hostile to my race". Unhappy with

6324-494: The United States during the mid-nineteenth century. Marco Pasi suggested that the use of Hanegraaff's definition might cause confusion by presenting a group of nineteenth-century esotericists who called themselves "occultists" as just one part of a broader category of esotericists whom scholars would call "occultists". Following these discussions, Julian Strube argued that Lévi and other contemporary authors who would now be regarded as esotericists developed their ideas not against

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6448-720: The adoption of Asian religious techniques into Western esotericism, distancing herself from occultists who did so. In her words, she must "recommend to the white races the traditional Western system, which is admirably adapted to their psychic constitution". She nevertheless perceived value in Westerners studying Asian disciplines like Yoga on a theoretical level, so long as they eschewed any attempt to put these teachings into practice. The religious studies scholar Gordan Djurdjevic highlighted that 21st century readers would likely deem there to be "a strong cultural essentialism and even racial prejudice in her writings", but that ideas regarding

6572-578: The age of 55. Her body was transferred to Glastonbury, where it was buried in a funeral overseen by the Reverend L. S. Lewis, vicar of St. John's Church . When Loveday died shortly after, he was buried close to her. She bequeathed most of her money to her Society. During Fortune's lifetime, some of the Fraternity members had expressed concerns with regard to the organisation becoming a personality cult revolving around her, and so following her death they did not encourage an interest in her biography. Members of

6696-580: The area around Liverpool Street in the east of the city, although Knight gives a different account, stating that they lived first in Bedford Park and then Kensington , both in the west of the city. From January 1911 to December 1912 Fortune studied at Studley Agricultural College in Warwickshire , a horticultural institution which advertised itself as being ideal for girls with psychological problems. Her proficiency with poultry led her to become

6820-468: The background of an esoteric tradition in the first place. Rather, Lévi's notion of occultism emerged in the context of highly influential radical socialist movements and widespread progressive, so-called neo-Catholic ideas. This further complicates Hanegraaff's characteristics of occultism, since, throughout the nineteenth century, they apply to these reformist movements rather than to a supposed group of esotericists. The term occult has also been used as

6944-571: The book Sane Occultism . Over four years, Fortune also published a number of articles in Inner Light that discussed the Hermetic Qabalah. These articles were then assembled as the book The Mystical Qabalah , which is widely perceived as a milestone in her esoteric career. While lambasting most of Fortune's works as "rather vulgar pot-boiling journalism", the writer Francis X. King characterised The Mystical Qabalah as "undoubtedly

7068-711: The building after a week. In August 1940, the group had to suspend publication of Inner Light as a result of paper shortages in Britain. After the United States entered the conflict in December 1941, Fortune began assembling plans for the post-war period, believing it would mark the dawning of the Age of Aquarius . In the spring of 1942 the Fraternity recommenced the Guild's Sunday services, and in March 1943 Fortune announced

7192-432: The cataclysm that destroyed their island. It also set forward a threefold system of training: that of Arthur and his Round Table Fellowship , that of Merlin and the Faery Woman , and that of Guinevere and the Forces of Love. In late 1945, Fortune fell ill, and was unable to give her scheduled address to the Fraternity on that year's winter solstice . She died at Middlesex Hospital of leukaemia in January 1946, at

7316-408: The character Dr. Taverner, who appeared in a number of short stories first published in 1922, later assembled in a collected volume as The Secrets of Dr. Taverner in 1926. Like Moriarty, Dr. Taverner was portrayed as carrying out exorcisms to protect humans from the attacks of etheric vampires . In tandem with her studies under Moriarty, in 1919 Fortune had been initiated into the London Temple of

7440-489: The close relationship between "culture, race, and religion" were "a part of everyday discourse" in Britain during her lifetime. Occultist The term occult sciences was used in 16th-century Europe to refer to astrology , alchemy , and natural magic . The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France , among figures such as Antoine Court de Gébelin . It came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi and Papus , and in 1875

7564-472: The concept of promoting Indian religious beliefs in Britain, she left the group. Subsequently, she claimed that Wadia had begun to psychically attack her. In April 1927, Fortune married Tom Penry Evans—a Welsh medical doctor from a working-class background—at Paddington Registry Office , before the couple embarked on a honeymoon in Glastonbury. Their marriage was initially happy, although Evans may have been perturbed at having to immerse himself in occultism to

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7688-440: The concept of science. From that point on, use of "occult science(s)" implied a conscious polemic against mainstream science. Nevertheless, the philosopher and card game historian Michael Dummett , whose analysis of the historical evidence suggested that fortune-telling and occult interpretations using cards were unknown before the 18th century, said that the term occult science was not misplaced because "people who believe in

7812-401: The context of contemporary socialism and progressive Catholicism . Similar to spiritualism, but in declared opposition to it, the emergence of occultism should thus be seen within the context of radical social reform, which was often concerned with establishing new forms of "scientific religion" while at the same time propagating the revival of an ancient tradition of "true religion". Indeed,

7936-404: The context of theoretical frameworks that relied heavily on a belief in occult qualities, virtues or forces." Although there are areas of overlap between these different occult sciences, they are separate and in some cases practitioners of one would reject the others as being illegitimate. During the Age of Enlightenment , occultism increasingly came to be seen as intrinsically incompatible with

8060-441: The early modern Lutheran thinker Jakob Bohme , and seeking to integrate ideas from Bohmian theosophy and occultism. It has been noted, however, that this distancing from the Theosophical Society should be understood in the light of polemical identity formations among esotericists towards the end of the nineteenth century. In the mid-1990s, a new definition of "occultism" was put forth by Wouter Hanegraaff. According to Hanegraaff,

8184-401: The economic obstacles of the Great Depression was able to raise sufficient funds. The group experienced a growth in the numbers attending its lectures, subscribing to its correspondence course, and using their private library; conversely, their Sunday services were not very popular, with a move from the morning to the evening seeing no effect. One significant individual who joined the Fraternity

8308-444: The editor of Light —the magazine of the College of Psychic Studies —who then published a favourable article about her. By at least 1942, Fortune corresponded with the prominent occultist and ceremonial magician Aleister Crowley , praising him as "a genuine adept" despite the many differences between their respective occult philosophies. She later visited him at his home in Hastings , with Crowley's assistant Kenneth Grant noting that

8432-483: The effectiveness of psychotherapy. "The Order [of the Golden Dawn] suffered severely during the First World War, and Mathers himself died in Paris from influenza during the epidemic. When I came in touch with his organisation, it was manned mainly by widows and grey-bearded ancients, and did not appear to be a very promising field of occult endeavour. But I had considerable experience of practical occultism before I made its acquaintance, and I immediately recognised power of

8556-651: The emergence of both modern esotericism and socialism in July Monarchy France have been inherently intertwined. Another feature of occultists is that – unlike earlier esotericists – they often openly distanced themselves from Christianity, in some cases (like that of Crowley) even adopting explicitly anti-Christian stances. This reflected how pervasive the influence of secularisation had been on all areas of European society. In rejecting Christianity, these occultists sometimes turned towards pre-Christian belief systems and embraced forms of Modern Paganism , while others instead took influence from

8680-644: The existence of seven planes of the universe, and were very similar to the ideas promoted in Moriarty's writings, in particular his Aphorism of Creation and Cosmic Principles . The cosmology present in this book was also similar to that presented in Theosophy . In the following years, Fortune distributed this material among her senior students, before publishing an edited version of The Cosmic Doctrine in 1949. In August 1923 Moriarty died, and Fortune—who had never been particularly popular among his followers—tried to convince them that she should be their new leader. A few accepted her offer, but many others instead accepted

8804-414: The finest occult novel ever written". The Sea Priestess is about Wilfred Maxwell, a man living with his mother and sister who learns to commune with the Moon after an asthma attack. He meets with Le Fay Morgan, a spiritual adept, and together they enter an obsessive (on Wilfred's part) but platonic relationship while establishing a temple to the sea gods. Fortune's novels all follow the same basic theme:

8928-545: The first such collection was published as Mystical Meditations upon the Collects , in which Fortune emphasised her Christian commitments. In 1931 a number of her Inner Light articles on Spiritualism appeared as Spiritualism in the Light of Occult Science . In this book Fortune expressed reservations about Spiritualism. She drew a distinction between normal Spiritualist mediums and 'cosmic mediums' such as herself who contacted

9052-434: The group concerned with the 'Lesser Mysteries' that they could present to their membership—with Fortune, Evans, and Loveday as its principal officers. At the vernal equinox of 1930, Fortune declared that—with the 'Lesser Mysteries' and three degree system now properly established—she wanted to turn away from public work and focus on personal spiritual development. At the vernal equinox of 1931, Fortune stepped down as leader of

9176-477: The group's "Adeptus", while five acolytes also joined. Loveday—who had inherited a number of properties from his father—sold some of them to fund the group's acquisitions. That year, they purchased a house on Queensborough Terrace in Bayswater , Central London to use as a temple and headquarters, renting out some of the rooms to tenants to finance their operation. While the top floors were used as living quarters,

9300-690: The idea of the ' Ascended Masters ' or 'Secret Chiefs', claiming to have had visions of two such entities, the Master Jesus and the Master Rakoczi. Her first magical mentor was the Irish occultist and Freemason Theodore Moriarty . She had befriended him while still involved in psychotherapy, believing that he could help one of her patients, a young man who had been fighting on the Western Front and claimed to be plagued by unexplained physical phenomena. Moriarty performed an exorcism , claiming that

9424-422: The idea that "she must really have loved writing for writing's sake". An eighth novel, Moon Magic , was left unfinished but completed by her protégé and published posthumously. Fortune saw her occult novels as an important part of her Fraternity work, initiating readers into the realms of occultism by speaking to their subconscious, even when their conscious mind rejects occult teachings. She thus perceived them as

9548-502: The influence of her husband, Seymour, and D. H. Lawrence 's The Rainbow , of which she was a fan. By The Winged Bull , she was declaring that pre-Christian gods were just as valid as facets of the divine as the Christian God, and around this time she began to adopt an increasingly critical attitude to Christianity, stating that it had been greatly degraded since its origins and distorted by "those two crusty old bachelors", Paul

9672-418: The leadership of Stafford-Allen. Meanwhile, Fortune's parents relocated to the garden city of Letchworth , Hertfordshire in 1922, and it was here that Fortune carried out what she deemed to be additional communications with the Masters through trance mediumship between 1923 and 1925. On 20 August 1924, Fortune, Loveday, and others established themselves as a formal occult group. Fortune appointed herself as

9796-548: The mid-19th century and their descendants. Occultism is thus often used to categorise such esoteric traditions as Spiritualism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and New Age. A different division was used by the Traditionalist author René Guénon , who used esotericism to describe what he believed was the Traditionalist, inner teaching at the heart of most religions, while occultism

9920-399: The middle floor contained the temple space, and the lower floors held an office and private library. The group soon grew; it admitted four initiates in 1925, six in 1926, and ten in 1927. In November 1926, a second degree was established into which these initiates could progress. In 1924, the group also obtained an old orchard at the foot of Glastonbury Tor , there erecting a hut and eventually

10044-424: The name of "Violet Firth". In 1928 she published a textbook on her esoteric beliefs, The Esoteric Orders and their Work , which she followed with a companion work in 1930, The Training and Work of an Initiate . In 1930 this was followed by Psychic Self-Defense , which contained many autobiographical elements and which was probably her most commercially popular book. According to the historian Claire Fanger, this book

10168-562: The need for a Christian perspective within the Theosophical movement, emphasising the centrality and importance of the 'Master Jesus' in her various articles. She publicly criticised another Theosophical group, the Liberal Catholic Church founded by J. I. Wedgwood and Charles Webster Leadbeater , alleging that it was not concerned with the Master Jesus and was instead preoccupied with the Master Maitreya . One of

10292-470: The new group and a series of articles that she wrote for The Occult Review —raised concerns for Alpha et Omega leader Moina Mathers . After Fortune suggested that her own organisation could serve as a feeder group to Mathers's Alpha et Omega, Mathers expelled her from the order, claiming that this was necessitated by Fortune having the wrong signs in her aura . Fortune later claimed that she subsequently came under psychic attack from Mathers, during which she

10416-749: The nineteenth century and their twentieth-century derivations. In a descriptive sense, it has been used to describe forms of esotericism which developed in nineteenth-century France, especially in the Neo-Martinist environment. According to the historian of esotericism Antoine Faivre , it is with the esotericist Éliphas Lévi that "the occultist current properly so-called" first appears. Other prominent French esotericists involved in developing occultism included Papus , Stanislas de Guaita , Joséphin Péladan , Georges-Albert Puyou de Pouvourville , and Jean Bricaud . The idea of occult sciences developed in

10540-519: The older term occult , much as the term esotericism derives from the older term esoteric . However, the historian of esotericism Wouter Hanegraaff stated that it was important to distinguish between the meanings of the term occult and occultism . Occultism is not a homogenous movement and is widely diverse. Over the course of its history, the term occultism has been used in various different ways. However, in contemporary uses, occultism commonly refers to forms of esotericism that developed in

10664-466: The pair carried out acts of trance mediumship, claiming that in doing so they entered into psychic contact with the Ascended Masters; Fortune later identified these as Socrates , Thomas Erskine , and a young military officer named David Carstairs who had died at the Battle of Ypres . Fortune and Loveday characterised their method of communication as "inspirational mediumship", believing that in this process

10788-461: The pair got along well. In August 1940, Fortune embarked on a further project of trance mediumship, this time with her Alpha et Omega mentor, Curtis-Webb (now renamed Maiya Tranchall-Hayes), in the hope of contacting the same Masters who they believed had aided the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. In doing so, they believed that they were channelling messages from an entity known as "the Shemesh of

10912-418: The perspective of cybernetics and information technologies. Philosopher Eugene Thacker discusses Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa 's Three Books of Occult Philosophy in his book In The Dust Of This Planet , where he shows how the horror genre utilizes occult themes to reveal hidden realities. Vision (religion) A vision is something seen in a dream , trance , or religious ecstasy , especially

11036-469: The possibility of unveiling the future or of exercising supernormal powers do so because the efficacy of the methods they employ coheres with some systematic conception which they hold of the way the universe functions...however flimsy its empirical basis." In his 1871 book Primitive Culture , the anthropologist Edward Tylor used the term "occult science" as a synonym for magic . Occult qualities are properties that have no known rational explanation; in

11160-521: The prominent figures in the Church, Bishop Piggott, accused her of attributing false claims to him in The Occult Review . Amid these arguments with other sectors of the Theosophical movement, she resigned from the Theosophical Society in October. Her Christian Mystic Lodge abandoned its affiliation with the Society and renamed itself the Community of the Inner Light. Within this Community was established

11284-458: The purpose of recovering "sacred mysteries" or gnosis that had been overlooked by mainstream Christianity. Accordingly, she had no allegiance to any established Christian churches and was often critical of mainstream clergy. Moreover, she rejected a number of traditional Christian doctrines, such as that surrounding Heaven and Hell . However she is also rightly described as a student of Hermetic Qabalah . Indeed Knight recognises that her work

11408-417: The recent socialist teachings of Charles Fourier . The French esotericist Éliphas Lévi then used the term in his influential book on ritual magic , Dogme et rituel de la haute magie , first published in 1856. Lévi was familiar with that work and might have borrowed the term from there. In any case, Lévi also claimed to be a representative of an older tradition of occult science or occult philosophy. It

11532-663: The religion, while fellow biographer Alan Richardson expresses doubt that there was sufficient evidence as to the seriousness with which Fortune herself regarded it. Little is known about Fortune's time in Wales, in part because throughout her life she was deliberately elusive when providing biographical details about herself. In later life she reported that from the age of four she had experienced visions of Atlantis , something which she believed were past life memories . The Firths were still in Llandudno in 1900, although by 1904 Fortune

11656-470: The religions of Asia, such as Hinduism and Buddhism . In various cases, certain occultists did both. Another characteristic of these occultists was the emphasis that they placed on "the spiritual realization of the individual", an idea that would strongly influence the twentieth-century New Age and Human Potential Movement . This spiritual realization was encouraged both through traditional Western 'occult sciences' like alchemy and ceremonial magic , but by

11780-436: The religious or philosophical belief systems on which such practices are based. This division was initially adopted by the early academic scholar of esotericism, Antoine Faivre, although he later abandoned it; it has been rejected by most scholars who study esotericism. By the 21st century the term was commonly employed – including by academic scholars of esotericism – to refer to a range of esoteric currents that developed in

11904-455: The sixteenth century. The term usually encompassed three practices – astrology, alchemy, and natural magic – although sometimes various forms of divination were also included rather than being subsumed under natural magic. These were grouped together because, according to the Dutch scholar of hermeticism Wouter Hanegraaff , "each one of them engaged in a systematic investigation of nature and natural processes, in

12028-442: The society have alleged that her successor destroyed most of her diaries, correspondences, and photographs. However, a number of her books would be published posthumously, among them The Cosmic Doctrine , which appeared in 1949, and her novel Moon Magic , published in 1956. "Had Dion devoted her formidable powers and considerable talents to writing pure and simple, she could have been a great novelist by orthodox standards; or if not

12152-411: The start of the twentieth century had also begun to include practices drawn from non-Western contexts, such as yoga . Although occultism is distinguished from earlier forms of esotericism, many occultists have also been involved in older esoteric currents. For instance, occultists like François-Charles Barlet  [ fr ] and Rudolf Steiner were also theosophers , adhering to the ideas of

12276-563: The supernatural. The term occult sciences was used in the 16th century to refer to astrology , alchemy , and natural magic . The earliest known usage of the term occultism is in the French language, as l'occultisme . In this form it appears in A. de Lestrange's article that was published in Dictionnaire des mots nouveaux ("Dictionary of new words") by Jean-Baptiste Richard de Radonvilliers  [ fr ] in 1842. However, it

12400-461: The term occultism can be used not only for the nineteenth-century groups which openly self-described using that term but can also be used in reference to "the type of esotericism that they represent". Seeking to define occultism so that the term would be suitable "as an etic category" for scholars, Hanegraaff devised the following definition: "a category in the study of religions, which comprises "all attempts by esotericists to come to terms with

12524-427: The term as a synonym for esotericism, an approach that the later scholar of esotericism Marco Pasi suggested left the term superfluous. Unlike Amadou, other writers saw occultism and esotericism as different, albeit related, phenomena. In the 1970s, the sociologist Edward A. Tiryakian distinguished between occultism, which he used in reference to practices, techniques, and procedures, and esotericism, which he defined as

12648-672: The term in an academic sense, stating that occulture was "the new spiritual environment in the West; the reservoir feeding new spiritual springs; the soil in which new spiritualities are growing". Recently scholars have offered perspectives on the occult as intertwined with media and technology. Examples include the work of film and media theorist Jeffrey Sconce and religious studies scholar John Durham Peters , both of whom suggest that occult movements historically utilize media and apparatuses as tools to reveal hidden aspects of reality or laws of nature. Erik Davis in his book Techgnosis gives an overview of occultism both ancient and modern from

12772-401: The vacuousness of materialism more apparent". The Dutch scholar of hermeticism Wouter Hanegraaff remarked that occultism was "essentially an attempt to adapt esotericism" to the " disenchanted world ", a post-Enlightenment society in which growing scientific discovery had eradicated the "dimension of irreducible mystery" previously present. In doing so, he noted, occultism distanced itself from

12896-439: The work of H. Rider Haggard , Algernon Blackwood , Charles Williams , and Arthur Machen . The other three were romantic thrillers published under the pseudonym of "V. M. Steele": The Scarred Wrists , Hunters of Humans , and Beloved of Ishmael . Writing thrillers was one of few activities Fortune took part in unconnected to her magical work, and was something she did not publicise. Knight believed these three novels testified to

13020-594: The young man was the victim of the soul of a deceased East European soldier which had latched onto him as a parasite. Fortune became an acolyte of Moriarty's Masonic-influenced lodge, which was based in Hammersmith , and joined his community of followers living at Gwen Stafford-Allen's home in Bishop's Stortford. Moriarty spent much time talking about the lost city of Atlantis , a topic that would also come to be embraced by Fortune. Fortune later fictionalised Moriarty as

13144-647: Was Christine Campbell Thomson , who had been Fortune's literary agent since 1926. Fortune subsequently aided Thomson in separating from her abusive husband, after which she grew close to another Fraternity member, Colonel C. R. F. Seymour, in 1937. Although Seymour became a senior member of the Fraternity, relations between him and Fortune were strained, and during the Second World War he left London and settled in Liverpool , terminating his involvement with Fortune's Bayswater temple. By 1933, tensions in Fortune's marriage were tearing it apart. There were rumours that Evans

13268-405: Was "part anecdotal evidence, part do-it-yourself exorcism manual, part autobiography, and some part no doubt fiction." Fortune and her group focused on 'Outer Court' work, which entailed engaging in publicity to boost membership. They held regular lectures at their Bayswater premises, with Fortune herself lecturing there twice a week for much of 1928. At their Glastonbury property, which they called

13392-561: Was Hermetic in nature, "Whether she realised it or not, for this was before Frances Yates had made the roots of the Hermetic tradition more accessible..." There is no evidence that Fortune considered herself to be a Pagan. However, by the late 1930s, Fortune had developed some interest in the religion of ancient Egypt, but treated it as a preparation for the higher truth of Christianity. In the 1930s her attitude began to change as she became more favourable to pre-Christian religion, likely under

13516-456: Was a coming post-war Age of Aquarius , although she died of leukemia shortly after the war's end. Fortune is recognised as one of the most significant occultists and ceremonial magicians of the early 20th century. The Fraternity she founded survived her and in later decades spawned a variety of related groups based upon her teachings. Her novels in particular proved an influence on later occult and modern Pagan groups such as Wicca . Fortune

13640-489: Was again reviewed in The Times Literary Review —and in 1936 her third, The Goat-Foot God . In 1938 Fortune wrote a fourth occult novel, The Sea Priestess , which was eventually self-published through the Fraternity after being declined by Williams and Norgate , who had published the previous two. Her final novel, Moon Magic , was apparently left unfinished prior to the outbreak of the Second World War;

13764-763: Was born Violet Mary Firth on 6 December 1890 at her family home on Bryn-y-Bia Road in Llandudno , North Wales. Her background was upper middle-class ; the Firths were a wealthy English family who had gained their money through the steel industry in Sheffield , Yorkshire , where they had specialised in the production of guns. Fortune's paternal grandfather John Firth had devised a family motto, "Deo, non Fortuna" ("God, not Luck"), to mark out their nouveau riche status; she would later make use of it in creating her pseudonym. One of John's sons – and Fortune's uncle –

13888-526: Was born in Llandudno , Caernarfonshire , North Wales, to a wealthy upper middle-class English family, although little is known of her early life. By her teenage years she was living in England's West Country , where she wrote two books of poetry. After time spent at a horticultural college she began studying psychology and psychoanalysis at the University of London before working as a counsellor in

14012-528: Was confronted and assaulted by both real and etheric cats. Later claiming that she was acting under instruction from the Ascended Masters, Fortune and Loveday joined the Christian Mystic Lodge of the Theosophical Society , which was run by Daisy M. Grove. Fortune soon became its president, and under her leadership the group's membership expanded and the readership of its published Transactions also grew. Throughout this period, she foregrounded

14136-611: Was from his usage of the term occultisme that it gained wider usage; according to Faivre, Lévi was "the principal exponent of esotericism in Europe and the United States" at that time. The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France, where it came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi and Papus , The earliest use of the term occultism in the English language appears to be in "A Few Questions to 'Hiraf'", an 1875 article by Helena Blavatsky ,

14260-506: Was having extra-marital affairs with other women, while Fortune confided in female members of the Fraternity that she had married him for magical reasons rather than because she loved him. Evans eventually asked for a divorce in order to marry another woman; Fortune was appalled, but did not contest it. Fortune had begun renting The Belfry, a converted Presbyterian chapel in West Halkin Street, where she then took up residence. It

14384-525: Was helping to make these forces a reality. She urged Fraternity members to repeat a mantra every time the German Luftwaffe began bombing Britain, through which she hoped to call upon "Invisible Helpers" from the "Inner Planes" to aid the people affected. The Fraternity's London headquarters were damaged during the Blitz , although roofing repairs were made and the group were able to move back into

14508-481: Was here, during the latter 1930s, that she produced a number of rituals, among them the Rite of Isis and the Rite of Pan. As these and other aspects of her work testify, during the latter half of the decade Fortune had moved in what Richardson described as "an increasingly pagan orientation". Fortune published many articles in Inner Light magazine, a number of which were collected together and published in books. In 1930,

14632-692: Was in the work of Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler , though she later moved on to that of Carl Jung . She studied psychology and psychoanalysis under John Flügel at the University of London , before gaining employment at a psychology clinic in London's Brunswick Square , which was likely run under the jurisdiction of the London School of Medicine for Women . Working as a counsellor from 1914 until 1916, she found that most of those she dealt with were coming to terms with sexual urges that were considered taboo in British society. Through her affiliation with

14756-480: Was increasingly being associated with what she regarded as an immoral cosmopolitan elite synonymous with Crowley and his activities. The Goat-Foot God revolves around a wealthy widower, Hugh Patson, who teams up with an esoteric bookseller to seek out the ancient Greek god Pan . They achieve this with the aid of a poverty-stricken artist, Mona Wilton, who becomes close to Patson as the novel progresses. Richardson described The Goat-Foot God as "a masterpiece ...

14880-445: Was introduced into the English language by the esotericist Helena Blavatsky . Throughout the 20th century, the term 'occult' was used idiosyncratically by a range of different authors. By the 21st century the term 'occultism' was commonly employed –including by academic scholars in the field of Western esotericism studies – to refer to a range of esoteric currents that developed in the mid-19th century and their descendants. Occultism

15004-564: Was living in Somerset , south-west England. That year, she authored a book of poetry, titled Violets , which was likely published by her family. It was reviewed in the May 1905 volume of The Girls' Room , in which it was accompanied by the only known photograph of Fortune as a girl. In 1906, her second book of poetry, More Violets , was published. After John Firth's death, Arthur moved with his family to London. According to Richardson they lived in

15128-590: Was not related, at this point, to the notion of Ésotérisme chrétien , as has been claimed by Hanegraaff, but to describe a political "system of occulticity" that was directed against priests and aristocrats. In 1853, the Freemasonic author Jean-Marie Ragon had already used occultisme in his popular work Maçonnerie occulte , relating it to earlier practices that, since the Renaissance , had been termed "occult sciences" or "occult philosophy", but also to

15252-611: Was the historian Charles Harding Firth , while her father, Arthur, had run a Sheffield law firm prior to establishing a hydropathic establishment in Limpley Stoke , Wiltshire . In August 1886 Arthur Firth married Sarah Jane Smith, before they relocated to Llandudno where Arthur established the new Craigside Hydrotherapeutic Establishment. Sarah was keenly interested in Christian Science , and Gareth Knight notes that both of Firth's parents were active practitioners of

15376-427: Was used pejoratively to describe new religions and movements that he disapproved of, such as Spiritualism, Theosophy, and various secret societies . Guénon's use of this terminology was adopted by later writers like Serge Hutin and Luc Benoist . As noted by Hanegraaff, Guénon's use of these terms are rooted in his Traditionalist beliefs and "cannot be accepted as scholarly valid". The term occultism derives from

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