Dion Fortune is recognised as one of the most influential figures in
twentieth century occultism and her books on various aspects of the
occult tradition are now enjoying a much deserved reappraisal. Her works
of fiction are highly acclaimed both as vehicles for presenting complex
magical and psychical theory and as remarkably powerful pieces
of genre literature.
Gareth Knight, her biographer and a life long student of her work, here
gives an overview of all her occult fiction, including her early work,
The Secrets of Dr Taverner
, a series of short stories based upon the
approach of her early teacher Dr Theodore Moriarty to methods of
esoteric healing, and
The Demon Lover
, a blood and thunder thriller of
black magic and vampirism that developed in the writing into a story of
initiation and redemption through love.
In her later novels, Dion Fortune began deliberately to use fiction as
a means of practical teaching. While she had presented the theory of
occultism in her great work
The Mystical Qabalah
, it was through her
works of fiction that she sought to provide manuals for putting it into
practice, at a time when much of this material was considered highly
secret and to be revealed to initiates only.
Gareth Knight gives a clear guide on how and where to look for this
practical instruction in these later books, which comprise
The Goat-foot God
, an evocation of Earth Mysteries and the Rite of Pan;
The Winged Bull
with its polar Mysteries of Sun and Earth;
The Sea Priestess
, celebrating the Mysteries of the Moon; and the
posthumously published
Moon Magic
that takes them to a higher arc with
the setting up of a temple dedicated to Isis.
Many aspects of occultism receive practical attention in her pages,
including place memories, karmic elements from past incarnations,
animal magnetism, ley lines, sacred centres, techniques of ritual, and
above all the working out of right relationships between the sexes
in polar interchange