Dion
Fortune (1890 - 1946)
Written
and compiled by George Knowles. Article used w/Permission.
To
learn more about George Knowles visit his site at Controverscial.com
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 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 moves to London
and live 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.
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".
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.
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.
