Dion Fortune

(1890-1946)

Born Violet Mary Firth in Wales, this pioneering Anglo-Welsh occultist/author took the magical motto "Deo Non Fortuna" (God not Fortune) upon joining the the Stella Matutina, the successor organization of the original Golden Dawn, in 1919. Her mother was a Christian Scientist; thus Fortune was early exposed to metaphysical concepts. She also had a mystical bent as a child, experiencing visions of a past life as a temple priestess in Atlantis. As a teenager she was briefly involved with the Theosophical Society in London. Following a psychological crisis she began to develop an interest in psychology and psychoanalysis through the works of Freud and Jung, but felt that their approach left out an important spiritual element. (Her book Psychic Self-Defence, from 1930, is something of a magical autobiography and brings out these ideas.)

Fortune's experience with the Golden Dawn was brief and late; it was through the London-based Alpha et Omega Lodge of the Stella Matutina, which was administered by Moina Mathers after her husband's death in 1918. Only a few years after her initiation, however, Fortune felt compelled to create her own group, the Fraternity of the Inner Light.

Much of Fortune's inspiration was drawn from her experiences at the ancient English holy sites located in and around Glastonbury. This town, founded in Roman times, figured large in legends of King Arthur and Camelot; its high "tor" (mound/hillock) was reputed to have been the site of mythical Avalon, and the town itself was believed to possess nexus-points or voteces (including a ruined medieval cathredal) by which one psychically attuned could access other planes of existence. Fortune indeed felt that she had contacted the spirit of Merlin himself. (These experiences are discussed in her book, Glastonbury: Avalon of the Heart.) Glastonbury is also reputed to have been the location of the first Christian church in England, built by none other than Joseph of Aramathea following his escape from Palestine after the Crucifixion of Christ. Some even said that Jesus himself came to England at Glastonbury. Fortune and her former G.D. associates purchased a small hut which they set up at the base of the Tor and thus created the first meeting-place of the Fraternity of the Inner Light. Eventually, the group moved its base to London where Fortune set up a functioning magical lodge which performed initiations and benefitted from Fortune's trance-channelling abilities and guidance. (The group still exists today as the Society of the Inner Light, and appears to teach a fairly genteel, non-threatening brand of Christian mysticism.)

It is Fortune's novels, rather than her non-fictional works, which have had the most influence on modern Neo-Pagans. Her novels The Goat-Foot God and The Sea-Priestess, about Pan and Isis respectively, have inspired many practing pagans and wiccans, an ironic situation considering that Fortune's main emphasis in her life was on Christian esotericism and ceremonial magic.

Fortune died of leukemia at the age of 56.

http://home.earthlink.net/~xristos/GoldenDawn/biowaite.htm