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Dion Fortune (1890 - 1946)

Written and compiled by George Knowles.   

Behind the shadows of Gerald B. Gardner, lurks Dion Fortune.  Unappreciated during her own time she was perhaps his lesser-known equal, working quietly behind the scenes she developed her own tradition and was unconcerned with the need for publicity. Dion was a respected psychiatrist, occultist and author who approached magick and hermetic concepts from the perspectives of Jung and Freud. She was a prolific occult writer of novels and non-fiction books, an adept in ceremonial magick and a pioneer psychiatrist on religious thought in occultism.

Dion was the daughter of a solicitor and born “Violet Mary Firth” on the 6th January 1890 in Bryn-y-Bia, Llandudno, Wales. She showed mediumistic abilities at an early age and was reputed to have had visions and dreams of “Atlantis” as early as four years old. Later she claimed to have been a priestess there in a past life. She was a bright and intelligent child who wrote her first book at the age of 13, a book of poems entitled Violets in 1904.  

Her family were fair to do Christian Scientists with a family motto that reads: “Deo, non Fortuna”, meaning “By God, not by chance”. In 1906 after the death of her grandfather, the family moved to London and lived on they’re inheritance. There she joined the local Theosophical Society and in 1908 had another poem published called Angels. In 1910 she started work at St Georges Secretarial Collage, while continuing her studies in psychology. She worked as an assistant to the collage principal, a strong minded and domineering woman with a violent temper.

Dion Fortune circa 1911

After a number of clashes with the woman, Dion decided to leave. Reporting her intentions to leave, the woman subjected her to a diatribe of incompetence and lack of self-confidence, that she later suffered a near mental breakdown. She later attributed this to the principal, believing she had used “psychic attacks” to try and control her, a technique allegedly learned on visits to India.

As a result of these attacks and during the following three years it took to recover, Dion delved deeper into Psychology, focussing her studies on the theories of Freud and Jung. In 1913 she took up a position as a lay-psychoanalyst at the Medico-Psychological Clinic in London. There she concluded that neither Freud nor Jung adequately addressed the subtleties and complexities of the mind. There was something they had missed, and she felt the answers might lie in occultism. 

Through the war years 1914-1918 Dion joined the “Women’s Land Army”, during which time she maintained her links with the “Theosophical Society”. Towards the end of the war she met with and worked with the head of the society “Theodore Moriarty”, an occultist and freemason. Moriarty encouraged her interest in the occult, and in 1919 after the war, she was initiated into the “Alpha and Omega Lodge of Stella Matutina”, an outer order of the hermetic “Order of the Golden Dawn” situated in London.

She studied under “J.W.Brodie-Innes” but came under conflict with “Moina Mathers” the wife of S.L. MacGregor-Mathers, one of the original founders of the Golden Dawn. Feeling symptoms of “psychic attack” similar to her past experience, she later quit and formed her own order “the Fraternity of the Inner Light”. Initially the order was part of the Golden Dawn, but based on esoteric Christianity. It later separated and distanced itself, removing all connections with witchcraft.

After the death of her friend and mentor Theodore Moriarty in 1923, Dion took over the Theosophical Society and renamed it the “Christian Mystic Lodge”. In 1924 she bought a property in Glastonbury called the Chalice Orchard. This she would use as a retreat from the pressures of work and living in the city. While visiting at Glastonbury, Dion became deeply interested in Arthurian legends and the magical-mystical folklore centred on the area. She later formed a pilgrim centre there known as the “Chalice Orchard Club”, which she dedicated to the “Mysteries of Isis”.

In 1937 she met and married a medical doctor “Thomas Penry Evans”. Due to his own occult interests, different from Dion’s, he became known as Merlin or Merle by many of her followers. They worked together magically as Priest and Priestess of her order, the “Fraternity of the Inner Light”, but argued constantly over their differences. In 1939 Evans left her for another lover and they divorced. Dion continued to head the order renaming it the “Society of the Inner Light”.

Dion Fortune with her husband

Later that same year she leased a property in West London known as “The Belfry”, and turned it into a temple for her followers. Like Glastonbury it was dedicated to the “Mysteries of Isis”. During the rest of her lifetime and indeed since she passed away, her societies continue to grow and attract new followers. Just after the Second World War, Dion contracted Leukaemia and in 1946 on the 8th January, she departed this world for the next.

Dion Fortune (her pen name) was a prolific writer. She derived her pen name from her family motto, “Deo, non Fortuna”, meaning “By God, not by chance” which she shortened to Dion Fortune. She writes of her many personal experiences as a practising occultist and psychiatrist, and pours out her knowledge of the occult in both fiction and non-fiction books, some of which have now reached classical status.Three of her non-fiction books were written using another pseudonym - V M Steele, which included:  The Scarred Wrists (1935), Hunters Of Humans (1936) and Beloved Of Ishmael (1937).

Today the “Society of the Inner Light” is still practising and still based in London, but they maintain that Dion was not a witch, and was not involved in any coven? They stress that the present day society is not connected with witchcraft in any way. A sad tribute to a writer whose books did so much to influence, and continues to influence the thoughts of many practitioners in the Wicca/Witchcraft movement.

Select Bibliography:

Violets (1904)
More Violets (1906)
Machinery Of The Mind (1922)
The Esoteric Philosophy Of Love And Marriage (1924)
Psychology Of The Servant Problem (1925)
The Soya Bean (1925)
The Secrets Of Dr Taverner (1926)
The Demon Lover (1927)

The Problem Of Purity (1928)
Sane Occultism (1929)
The Cosmic Doctrine (1930)
The Esoteric Orders And Their Work (1930)
Mystical Meditations On The Collects (1930)
Psychic Self Defence (1930)
The Training And Work Of An Initiate (1930)
Spritualism In The Light Of Occult Science (1931)
Through The Gates Of Death (1932)
Avalon Of The Heart (1934)
Practical Occultism In Daily Life (1935)
The Scarred Wrists (as V M Steele in 1935)
The Winged Bull (1935)
Hunters Of Humans (as V M Steele in 1936)
The Goat Foot God (1936)
The Mystical Qabalah (1936)

Beloved Of Ishmael (as V M Steele in 1937)
The Sea Priestess (1938)

Moon Magic (published posthumously in 1956)

Aspects Of Occultism (published posthumously in 1962)
Applied Magic (published posthumously in 1962)

Sources  

Books

 Encyclopedia of Witches & Witchcraft  - By Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Psychic Self-Defence  - By Dion Fortune

Websites

www.avalonia.co.uk/magickal/vip/index.htm

www.themystica.com/themystica.html

www.spiraltree.demon.co.uk/index.htm

www.mystical-www.co.uk 

First published on the 24th November 2004, 15:09:40 © George Knowles

This article is now showing with permission at

Http://groups.msn.com/SacredCircleofWitches and

  Http://groups.msn.com/SacredCirclesCoven.I.

 Lady Dark Fortress the owner of these sites also has a monthly newsletter with archived back issues, the current one can be seen at:

http://ladydarkfortress.bravepages.com/SacredCircleofWitchesYuleNewsletter.html 

Well worth a visit :-)

Best wishes and Blessed Be

Gods and Goddesses (Greek Mythology) /  Esbats & Full Moons /  Links to Personal Friends & Resources /  Wicca/Witchcraft Resources /  What's a spell? /  Circle Casting and Sacred Space /  Pentagram - Pentacle /  Marks of a Witch /  The Witches Power /  The Witches Hat /  An esoteric guide to visiting London /  Satanism /  Pow-wow /  The Unitarian Universalist Association /  Numerology:  Part 1  /  Part 2  /  Part 3 /  A history of the Malleus Maleficarum:  includes:  Pope Innocent VIII  /  The papal Bull  /   The Malleus Maleficarum  /  An extract from the Malleus Maleficarum  /  The letter of approbation  /  Johann Nider’s Formicarius  /  Jacob Sprenger  /  Heinrich Kramer  /  Stefano Infessura  /  Montague Summers  /  The Waldenses  /  The Albigenses  /  The Hussites /  The Sun Dance /  Shielding (Occult and Psychic Protection) /  The History of Thanksgiving /

Articles and Stories about Witchcraft:

Murder by Witchcraft /  The Fairy Witch of Clonmel /  A Battleship, U-boat, and a Witch /  The Troll-Tear (A story for Children) /  Goody Hawkins - The Wise Goodwife /  The Story of Jack-O-Lantern /  The Murder of the Hammersmith Ghost /  Josephine Gray (The Infamous Black Widow) /  The Two Brothers - Light and Dark

Abramelin the Mage /  Agrippa /  Aidan A. Kelly /  Albertus Magnus “Albert the Great” /  Aleister Crowley “The Great Beast” /  Alex Sanders "the King of the Witches” /  Alison Harlow /  Amber K /  Anna Franklin /  Anodea Judith /  Anton Szandor LaVey  / Arnold Crowther /  Arthur Edward Waite /  Austin Osman Spare /  Biddy Early /  Bridget Cleary /  Carl Llewellyn Weschcke /  Cecil Hugh Williamson /  Charles Godfrey Leland /  Charles Walton /  Christina Oakley Harrington /  Damh the Bard (Dave Smith) /   Dion Fortune /  Dolores Aschroft-Nowicki /  Dorothy Morrison /  Doreen Valiente /  Edward Fitch /  Eleanor Ray Bone “Matriarch of British Witchcraft” /  Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelly /  Dr. Leo Louis Martello /  Eliphas Levi /  Ernest Thompson Seton /  Ernest Westlake and the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry /  Fiona Horne /  Friedrich von Spee /  Francis Barrett /  Gerald B. Gardner /  Gavin and Yvonne Frost and the School and Church of Wicca /  Gwydion Pendderwen /  Hans Holzer /  Helen Duncan /  Herman Slater "Horrible Herman" /  Israel Regardie /  James "Cunning" Murrell /  Janet Farrar & Gavin Bone /  Jessie Wicker Bell “Lady Sheba” / John Belham-Payne /  John George Hohman /  John Gerard / John Gordon Hargrave (the White Fox) /  John Michael Greer /  John Score /  Johannes Junius the Burgomaster of Bamberg /  Karl von Eckartshausen /  Laurie Cabot "the Official Witch of Salem" /  Lewis Spence /  Margaret Alice Murray /  Margot Adler /  Marie Laveau the " Voodoo Queen of New Orleans" /  Marion Weinstein /  Matthew Hopkins “The Witch-Finder General” /  Max Ehrmann and the Desiderata /  Monique Wilson the “Queen of the Witches” /  Montague Summers /  Nicholas Culpeper /  Nicholas Remy /  M. R. Sellers /  Mrs. Grieve "A Modern Herbal" /  Oberon and Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart /  Old Dorothy Clutterbuck /  Old George Pickingill /   Paddy Slade /  Pamela Colman-Smith /  Paracelsus /  Patricia Crowther /  Patricia Monaghan /  Patricia “Trish” Telesco /  Philip Emmons Isaac Bonewits /  Philip Heselton /  Raymond Buckland /  Reginald Scot /  Robert Cochrane /  Robert ‘von Ranke’ Graves and "The White Goddess" /  Rudolf Steiner /  Rosaleen Norton “The Witch of Kings Cross” /  Ross Nichols and The Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids /  Sabrina - The Ink Witch /  Scott Cunningham /  Selena Fox /  Silver Ravenwolf /  Sir Francis Dashwood /  Sir James George Frazer /  S.L. MacGregor Mathers and the “Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn” /  Starhawk /  Stewart Farrar /  Sybil Leek /  Ted Andrews /  The Mather Family - includes: Richard Mather, Increase Mather, Cotton Mather /  Thomas Ady /  Vera Chapman /  Victor Henry Anderson /  Vivianne Crowley /  Walter Brown Gibson /  William Butler Yeats /  Zsuzsanna Budapest

Many of the above biographies are brief and far from complete.  If you know about any of these individuals and can help with aditional information, please cantact me privately at my email address below.  Many thanks for reading  :-)

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