Writers will put things into a novel that they daren’t put in sober prose, where you have to dot the I’s and cross the T’s.1
Dion Fortune (1890–1946) was one of the most significant occultists of the twentieth century and is still considered to be a major influence on the current Western Mystery Tradition. She was one of a small band of people who brought the ancient mysteries out of obscurity and arcane ritual and made them relevant to the modern day and the issues we now face. She did this by combining an understanding of psychology with the mystical practices of the Qabalah and suggesting practices and methods that can be applied to give direct experience of inner realities.
The Qabalah is a spiritual system that has been practiced secretly in Europe since at least the twelfth century, though it draws on deep roots within Judeo-Christian tradition. In particular, it draws on the myth of Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden through having eaten the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Qabalah is based around the image of the other tree in that myth, the Tree of Life. This Tree is an image and diagram that enables us to explore the inner aspects of our own nature and of the world and in that process to come into communion with a fuller, deeper life.
Dion Fortune’s way of making this tradition more available to people outside her private occult group was unusual: she wrote one of the first modern accounts of the Tree of Life and the system of the Qabalah that makes ancient mythology and the mysteries behind them come to life here and now. She also wrote a series of novels that on one level can be read as slightly unusual romance novels but on a deeper level contain key images and patterns from those mysteries that speak to our subconscious and, if consciously related to, bring us into a deeper experience of our life and being.
In the beginning of the 1998 edition of her book The Sea Priestess, Fortune says this about the novels and the Qabalah:
It is because my novels are packed with such things as these (symbolism directed to the subconscious) that I want my students to take them seriously. The ‘Mystical Qabalah’ gives the theory, but the novels give the practice. Those who read the novels without having studied the ‘Qabalah’ will get hints and a stimulus to their subconscious. Those who study the Qabalah without reading the novels will get an interesting intellectual jig-saw puzzle to play with; but those who study the ‘Mystical Qabalah’ with the help of the novels get the keys of the Temple put into their hands. As Our Lord said: “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?” 2
This is a bold claim, and those who try to follow her formula in the search for the keys have a number of obstacles to address. They need to find a way to create relationship between
• a book of mystical theory that, while well and clearly written, can at times feel dry;
• a series of stories that are concerned with twentieth-century relationships between men and women; and
• evocative and potent ancient images.
Additionally there is that cryptic hint about the involvement of the body and the descent of the Holy Ghost into the body.
This book is designed to overcome these obstacles, to explain and make clear the system of the Qabalah, to show how the stories and images fit into it, and to provide a practical workbook of exercises that will work with the body and senses so that the inner realities are directly experienced.
The key novels for this study are The Goat-Foot God, The Sea Priestess, The Winged Bull, and Moon Magic. They are Qabalistic novels: not only is Fortune using images from the ancient mysteries, but the story and images of each book are aligned with an aspect of the Tree of Life, which in turn points to a pivotal process in inner development.
A particular sequence of inner development is outlined in every novel, beginning with the first step on the path of initiation: the movement from being externally directed and lost in desires and fears of past and future to gaining a direct sense of being present in the body in the world just now. This is called entering the kingdom, or entering Malkuth, and the first book in the sequence, The Goat-Foot God, is concerned with this step.
The second step arises from this anchored and present sense of being connected to both world and body; it involves exploring the pool of subjectivity and inner life that then opens up. This asks us to explore our vitality and images of self and world by mastering the art of the embodied imagination. This is called making a foundation, or Yesod, and the book that addresses this issue is The Sea Priestess.
The third step is the movement through the pool of subjective life, past a barrier, called the veil Paroketh, that is formed by the subliminal inner dialogue between thought, emotion, and memory. This constant dialogue acts as a spinning wheel that causes us to interpret all current experience in terms of the past and seeks to stop us from penetrating more deeply into inner life. As we pass this veil, we enter into a state of balance, feel centred, and start to be able to mediate between inner and outer worlds. This sense of heart and centre is called Tiphareth by the Qabalists, and the book addressing this is The Winged Bull.
The fourth major step that is considered in this schema is the movement from the sense of balance and centre into alignment with the deeper aspects of our nature. This opens us to capacities of clarity and love that arise from the root of our being—a dynamic stillness that is both receptive and creative. This movement into mystery is called by the Qabalists Daath, the knowing of unknowing, and is the place where all the opposites of self and life find rest and renewal. The book that addresses this process is Moon Magic.
The Tree of Life, the organising principle behind the novels, is said to be both a glyph of the soul and the inner structure of the universe: in the same way, the characters in the novels teach us both about aspects of our own nature and about the world around us.
Each novel is concerned with the relationship between a man and a woman who are guided by a mentor to find their way from experiences of deprivation and frustration into a union that is fruitful and alive, though not necessarily conventional.
They all begin with the situation of a man who simultaneously represents cultural attitudes to maleness and the rational and outer aspect of our personality, who meets a woman who is both archetypal womanhood and the feminine, or anima, aspect of the soul. These two then enter a mystery drama that enables the four steps of the Tree of Life to be taken, to arrive at a consummation that resolves the situation described at the beginning of the novel.
This book is organised in such a way as to enable you to directly discover and apply the keys of the temple to your life and circumstances. Section one describes the essentials of the formula, and then each of the four books is analysed in detail and aligned with the Tree of Life. Section two identifies the major themes running through the book, and finally section three gives a series of practices and exercises that bring the keys of the temple into operation.