Sane Occultism. Fortune, Dion.

First edition, first impression, of Fortune's first non-fiction book, one of her most uncommon titles. The work is a collection of articles written initially for the Occult Review in which Fortune "provides some basis for an ethical system of occultism. she exposes vice, malpractice, and far more important perhaps, sheer stupidity, in the occult movement" (Fielding & Collins, p. 148). Violet Mary Firth (1890-1946), known as Dion Fortune, was one of the most important British occultists of the 20th century and is subject of increasing scholarly interest. In her writings Fortune deftly pulls together the various strands of inter-war occultism, including many that may seem oppositional, such as the combination of ritual magic and psychoanalysis (she studied psychotherapy at the University of London before the outbreak of the First World War). She had a pragmatic and commonplace style, weaving occult practice into the warp and weft of the life of ordinary readers, making the arcane everyday. This is reflected in this collection where the essays include titles such as "Is Occultism Worth While?", "The Use and Abuse of Astrology", "Secrecy in Occult Fraternities", and "Occultism and Vegetarianism". Many of her works are written from a feminist perspective, her 1930 work Psychic Self-Defence acting as a how-to guide to avoid attacks from the astral plane especially designed to help women entering the occult realm. Her occult society, the Fraternity of the Inner Light, was founded in 1924 and provided training in occult rituals. The society was used by Fortune during the Second World War to launch what has been described as the "Magical Battle of Britain". During the war Fortune would write to her members via newsletter, and send detailed instructions on where to concentrate their mental energies to launch an attack on the "cloud" of Nazism over Germany. This resulted in members of the society across the country joining in a community each week, meditating at the same time on a better world to create a shared psychic force. Alongside her pragmatic studies into the practice of the occult, Fortune wrote several mystical works of fiction, such as The Goat-Foot God (1936), which relates a quest to find Pan in the modern world, all of which were richly interlaced, in an almost didactic manner, with her occult theories. Charles Fielding & Carr Collins, The Story of Dion Fortune, 1998. Octavo. Original green cloth, spine lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. Bookseller's ticket to rear pastedown. Occasional red pencil underlinings to text. Minor rubbing to extremities, sporadic foxing; toning to jacket, nicks to edges, closed tear at foot of spine fold, neat tape repair to verso: a near-fine copy in a very good jacket.