Her real name was Violet Mary Firth, born Dec. 6, 1890 in Wales, of English parents and died in 1946.She became a Freudian analyst, then went deeper into esoteric studies.She was a member of the Golden Dawn but did not get on with Moina Mathers(nee Bergson) and left to form her own occult group in about 1926 which came to be called The Society of the Inner Light.She was a very powerful trance medium and a woman of strong character, so it was inevitable that she would form her own group.Her occult partners were Theodore Moriarty (her major teacher),Thomas Penry Evans (her husband 1927-1939) and Charles Seymour.
She wrote many novels with occult themes, such as The Sea Priestess,
Moon Magic and The Goat Foot God.According to her biographer,
Alan Richardson, the first two mentioned are the best novels on magic ever
written.In both novels Morgan Le Fay appears, a priestess of Isis who initiates
a man on the inner planes.Dion saw herself as a modern day priestess of
Isis.She wrote The Mystical Qabalah, a major contribution to the
Western Mystery Tradition.Dion Fortune stands out as one of the leading
occultists of the 20th century.See A
Goddess Arrives: the novels of Dion Fortune and the development of Gardnerian
witchcraft by Chas S.Clifton for a well considered article on Dion
Fortune.
The Deeper Issues of Occultism by Dion Fortune
From The Occult Review,December 1925,pp.373-6.Also Ch.3 in Sane Occultism(Rider,1929).(The sound advice Dion gives in this article is well worth noting by would-be occultists.)
What is occultism?
This question we may very well ask if we intend to devote time and
trouble to its pursuit. Are we to content ourselves with tales of haunted
houses, accounts of telepathy amomg primitive peoples, and research into
the esoteric literature of the past? These things certainly have their
value; all available occult phenomena should be carefully investigated,
not only for the sake of obtaining knowledge, but also for the sake of
unmasking charlatans; and the results obtained by investigators in the
past are of the greatest value for counter-checking the results we are
obtaining at the present day.
The ancient Mysteries
But is this enough? Is our attitude towards occult science to be the
same as our attitude towards the classical languages, in which we admire
the masterpieces of antiquity but ourselves produce no living literature
in the present? We know that the Mysteries exercised a profound influence
on the ancient civilizations, and that some of the noblest men [and women]
of all races were inspired by them, and looked on them with reverence and
awe.
Are the phenomena we call "occult" merely those of the seance room on a larger scale,or, in addition to the little known laws of Nature whose operations we seek to understand, is there an energizing spiritual influence such as raised the consciousness of the initiates of old, and gave them a deeper understanding of their gods?
Hidden matters
Let us consider the phenomena which may justly be described as occult,
or hidden in their working and nature: ectoplasm; psychometry; clairvoyance
in all its forms; telepathy; the various forms of divinination, which are
far from being altogether delusive; mystic experiences; conversion; trance
and rapture; hypnotism, suggestion and auto-suggestion; the survival of
bodily death; and last but not least, certain forms of mental disease.
All these things are hidden in their nature, not amendable to ordinary
scientific methods of investigation with instruments of precision, and
legitimately form the field of investigation of occult science.
The need for lofty ideals
There is, however, another aspect to occult science as well as its
scientific side, and that is the realm of inner experience which experimentation
opens up. The gateway into the Unseen can be found by the practical application
of its principles, and those who care to fulfil the conditions and take
the risk may adventure therein. The powers that the ancient rituals invoked
still remain, and are not very far to seek for those who combine knowledge,
faith, and courage.
If, however, we desire to essay this adventure, we should remember that the ancient rituals were used as part of a religious system, and that no initiate of the ancient Mystery schools would ever have dreamed of experimenting with them to satisfy his curiosity or love of the marvellous. He approached them with reverence, after strict discipline of character and severe tests of fitness. It was when the lofty ideals fell into abeyance that black magic began.
If we want to penetrate into the deeper issues of occultism, it is not enough that we should approach it out of intellectual curiosity. This will reveal us no more than its outer form. The Occult Path is not so much a subject of study as a way of life. Unless the element of devotion and sacrifice be present, the key will not turn in the lock that opens the door of the Mysteries. Unless we approach the Sacred Science as did the initiates of old, we shall not find in it what they found.
Divine Union
It is not enough that we work for its secrets as men work for the prizes
of their profession; we must live for it as men [and women] live for a
spiritual ideal. There is only one motive that will take us safely through
the labyrinth of astral experience - the desire for light on the path of
spiritual development that ends in Divine union. This was the goal of the
Mysteries in their noblest form, and it is only by seeking the same goal
that we shall be able to enter into them in their higher aspect.
Occult science is a very potent thing, and many people are protected in their researches therein by their own ineptitude. Did they succeed in some of the operations they undertake, their natures, unpurified and undisciplined, would be shattered by the result. It is only because no power comes through that no disaster follows. If we desire to safely to investigate the Mysteries, we must first approach them under their nobler aspect, as part of a system of spiritual regeneration, and only after we have submitted to their discilpine and offered the dedication of the lower self to the purposes of the Higher, and had that dedication accepted, can we safley study the magical aspects of occultism which usually attract the unenlightened.
Our intellectual questionings can only find their resolution in spiritual illumination. Occult science, rightly understood, is the link between psychology and religion; it gives the means of a spiritual approach to science, and a scientific approach to the spiritual life. The experiences to which it admits us, rightly understood, form a stairway from rational brain-consciousness, dependent on the five physical senses, to the direct apprehensions of spiritual intuition.
Occultism can never be an end in itself.
It does but open up a wider horizon, but a horizon that ever recedes
as we approach it. We are still in the realm of appearance. It can, however,
be an invaluable means to many ends. A knowledge of its philosophy can
give a clue to the researches of the scientist, balances to ecstasies of
the mystic, and it may very well be that in the possibilities of ritual
magic we shall find an invaluable therapeutic agent for use in certain
forms of mental disease which Psycho-analysis has demonstrated have no
physiological cause, but of which it can very seldom effect a cure; it
is here that the occultist, with his knowledge of the hidden side of things,
can teach the psychologist a very great deal.
Sacred Science
Occultism is a sacred science, and should be approached with reverence.
"Strait is the gate and narrow the way" that leads to its holy places,
and "few there be that find it". The Angel with the flaming sword still
guards the gate of the Mysteries, and it is not wise to expose our souls
to that force until we have purified them, and are sure that we can give
the right password when it is demanded of us.
There comes a time in the experience of every student of the occult subjects, provided he is sufficiently interested in them, when the ideas that occupy his mind begin to affect him, and the unseen world of which he has read is slowly rising above the horizon of consciousness, and the subtle is becoming tangible.
No Man's Land
He will find himself in a veritable No Man's Land of the mind, and
he must do one of two things, and do it quickly. He must either bolt back
into his body like a rabbit down its hole, or he must press on and open
up the higher consciousness. But one thing he must not do, and that is,
linger in the land of phantasms that is the frontier between subconsciousness
and superconsciousness, for that way madness lies.
Angel of the Threshold
When he comes to the gate of higher consciousness, however, he will
be met by the Angel of the Threshold who will ask him the age-old question
that he must answer before he can pass on, and the answer to this question
is not any Shibboleth that admits to a secret society, but the very reasonable
query to be addressed to the stranger who knocks at any door, "What is
it you want?" and the answer to that question will depend, not on the knowledge,
but on the character of the applicant. If rightly answered, the way will
be made plain for his advancement; if wrongly answered, he will be left
to find his way back to the Earth plane as best he may, and that is neither
a very pleasant nor a very safe experience.
The power circuit
To study occultism is to connect up with a great power-house in the
Unseen. There may be no tangible results, because one's nature is made
of non-conducting material; or because doubt of the reality of the phenomena
investigated prevents the terminals of the psychic contact from being pushed
home in their sockets.
Knowledge and Force form the two poles of the circuit, and when these are conjoined the power flows through. A nature which contains no force can study the sacred science and no results will be brought about, and a nature which has no knowledge will be unable to utilize its force.But where there are both knowledge and force, it is only a matter of time until some illuminative idea gives a sudden glimpse of the significance of the inner life, which completes the contact, and that person, for good or ill, is in circuit with the unseen power-house.
Not child's play
Occult science, in itself, is neither good nor evil, save as it is
used, and that is why it is so necessary to approach it with clean hands,
a pure heart, and a disciplined and dedicated will.
Occultism is not child's play, and it is very far from being fool-proof.
For its pursuit strength is required, as well purity; but all who have
touched its deeper issues unite in declaring that it is no will o' the
wisp, dancing over a bottomless bog, but a true path to the Light, though
narrow as a razor's edge.