Dion Fortune: Difference between revisions

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She mentions in the book ''Psychic Self Defence'' that her experience with Dr. Hamilton and its aftermath led to her interest in psychology. <ref>Need cite & pg #</ref>  Before the advent of World War I she studied psychology at the University of London, in particular the works of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.<ref>https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/french-literature-biographies/dion-fortune</ref> She found Jung’s theories regarding archetypes and the collective unconscious highly significant.
She mentions in the book ''Psychic Self Defence'' that her experience with Dr. Hamilton and its aftermath led to her interest in psychology. <ref>Need cite & pg #</ref>  Before the advent of World War I she studied psychology at the University of London, in particular the works of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.<ref>https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/french-literature-biographies/dion-fortune</ref> She found Jung’s theories regarding archetypes and the collective unconscious highly significant.
During the War she worked as a lay counselor in a psychotherapy clinic that was probably associated with the London School of Medicine for Women.<ref>Richardson, Alan (1991). The Magical Life of Dion Fortune, Priestess of the 20th Century. London: Aquarian Press (division of HarperCollins), pp 52–53</ref> She found --- as have countless others --- that occultism and psychology, particularly Carl Jung’s approach, were highly compatible. According to Gareth Knight, she once stated that “she began by trying to explain occultism in terms of psychology but ended by having to explain psychology in terms of occultism. …[S]he strove to … persuade occultists and psychologists to abandon their mutual suspicion and enter some meaningful dialogue.”<ref>Knight, p. 66</ref>


== Theosophical Connections ==
== Theosophical Connections ==

Revision as of 22:36, 29 December 2021

THIS ARTICLE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
THIS ARTICLE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Dion Fortune was a prominent British Occultist and author who founded the Society of the Inner Light.


Early Years

The magician, occultist, and prolific author known as Dion Fortune was born Violet Mary Firth on 6 December 1890, in the town of Llandudno, county Caernarvonshire, Wales. The Firth family in a previous generation were well-to-do steel manufacturers whose wealth derived largely from weaponry and the business of war.[1] Dion’s paternal grandfather, John Firth, devised the family motto: Deo, non Fortuna, or “God, not Luck,” which apparently summed up his viewpoint on the vagaries of life and which was, obviously, the source of her nom de plume. In 1890 her parents were operating a spa, the Craigside Hydrotherapeutic Establishment, which had heated pools and a medical practitioner on staff. [2] By the time she was a young teen her mother had become a registered Christian Science healer,[3] which would have introduced Violet to ideas about health and wellness that were quite out of the mainstream.

Like many highly sensitive children, Violet Firth was aware of much more than the world visible to the adults around her. As an adult herself, she reported having had visions as a four-year-old, which – as an adult -- she believed to be past-life memories of Atlantis.[4]

Not much else is known about her childhood. Although well known in her day, she valued her privacy and never sought the limelight or encouraged personal questions. We do know she wrote two books of poetry as a teenager, both of which were likely published (in the early 1900s) by her family. The first was titled Violets; the second, More Violets.

It is not easy to find reliable sources for many of the reported events in Violet Firth’s young life. This is acknowledged in the Notes section of this article, and attempts to track down trustworthy references are ongoing.

When she was about 20, her parents enrolled her at a horticultural college for women, where she joined the staff after her student days were concluded. The “Warden” of the place was a woman medical doctor – highly unusual at the time. While Dr. Hamilton was obviously a strong and independent woman, she seems to have had what today we would call “issues.” Violet and other students and staff reported her to be both powerful and very, very controlling. While one of Violet’s biographers voices quite some approval of Dr. Hamilton – apparently the college was in crisis when she was hired, and she improved its fortunes[5] – other authors are not so sympathetic.[6] It has been suggested that the woman may have been a hypnotist; she was certainly capable of emotional abuse, and Violet suffered a nervous breakdown after a prolonged attempt to leave the woman’s employ. This was not the last time Violet would feel psychically attacked by other people. Her book Psychic Self Defence (originally published in 1930), on how to protect oneself from the negative energy of others, came out of these experiences.

She mentions in the book Psychic Self Defence that her experience with Dr. Hamilton and its aftermath led to her interest in psychology. [7] Before the advent of World War I she studied psychology at the University of London, in particular the works of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.[8] She found Jung’s theories regarding archetypes and the collective unconscious highly significant.

During the War she worked as a lay counselor in a psychotherapy clinic that was probably associated with the London School of Medicine for Women.[9] She found --- as have countless others --- that occultism and psychology, particularly Carl Jung’s approach, were highly compatible. According to Gareth Knight, she once stated that “she began by trying to explain occultism in terms of psychology but ended by having to explain psychology in terms of occultism. …[S]he strove to … persuade occultists and psychologists to abandon their mutual suspicion and enter some meaningful dialogue.”[10]

Theosophical Connections

Miss Firth became a member-at-large of the Theosophical Society on January 12, 1924 in London.[11]

Occult work in WWII

Writings

Fiction

Non-fiction

The Union Index of Theosophical Periodicals lists over 80 articles by or about Dion Fortune. She wrote dozens of articles for The Occult Review.

Society of the Inner Light

Later years

Notes

  1. Richardson, Alan (1991): The Magical Life of Dion Fortune, Priestess of the 20th Century. Hammersmith, London: Aquarian Press (division of HarperCollins)
  2. Knight, Gareth (2000). Dion Fortune and the Inner Light. Loughborough: Thoth Publications, p. 14
  3. ibid., p.17
  4. Richardson, pp 31-32; & Knight, pp 14-15
  5. Knight, pp 21-23
  6. Richardson, pp 50 ff
  7. Need cite & pg #
  8. https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/french-literature-biographies/dion-fortune
  9. Richardson, Alan (1991). The Magical Life of Dion Fortune, Priestess of the 20th Century. London: Aquarian Press (division of HarperCollins), pp 52–53
  10. Knight, p. 66
  11. Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 10, entry 109399 (website file: 10B/17).