The Occult Novels of Dion Fortune - Literary Initiations

This monograph explores the work of Dion Fortune, one of the most prolific British occult authors of the interwar period, and her claim that her books had an initiatory quality. She held that reading her books and meditating on their contents could produce a lasting change in consciousness, which in turn could lead to lasting changes in an individual's life. This book aims to rehabilitate a figure largely forgotten by both the fields of Literature and of Esotericism and proposes a framework for analysing initiatory fiction and the experience of fictional initiation. The study presents a new avenue for research and theoretical perspective on literary texts from the Occult Revival, as well as on famed modernist texts and more contemporary occult fiction.

List of contents

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: The Novels of Dion Fortune,.- Chapter 3: 'Only Fools and Slovens do Otherwise:' Negotiating an Egalitarian Initiation in The Winged Bull.- Chapter 4: 'The Power of Day-Dream': Cultural Regeneration and 'Composition of Place' in The Goat-Foot God.- Chapter 5: 'The Ass that Carries the Ark': Initiation through Imagination in The Sea Priestess.- Chapter 6: The Adept and the Anima: Demonic Femininity, Descent and Initiation in Dion Fortune's Moon Magic.- Chapter 7: Conclusion.

About the author

Georgia van Raalte holds a PhD in Literature from the University of Surrey, UK. Her academic research explores initiation, esotericism, and occult literature. She is also an esoteric theologian and a pagan priestess. She has published academic texts alongside books of esoteric theology, ritual, and poetry. Her academic research, artistic practice and theological work are all concerned with initiation: with mystical, literary, and artistic provocations of transcendence, and the personal, social and cultural transformations that are catalysed thereby.

Product details

• Authors: Georgia van Raalte
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 02.03.2025
• EAN: 9783031740572
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3174057-2
• No. of pages: 245
• Dimensions: 148 mm x 17 mm x 210 mm
• Weight: 425 g
• Illustrations: VIII, 245 p.
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Wicca, Initiation, Europa, New Age, Literatur: Geschichte und Kritik, Pan, sin, Witchcraft, Eden, occult, Dion Fortune, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Philosophische Traditionen und Denkschulen, Esotericism, European Literature, Twentieth-Century Literature, Early Modern Philosophy, Sea Priestess, Goddess Isis, Fisher King, Kataphatic Technique, Spiritual Sexuality, Paganism, Matriarchy, Kabbalistic Initiation