Dion Fortune encoded much practical magical lore within her novels, leaving it up to the reader to work out how to make use of it. Behind the novels were two major rituals, the Rite of Isis and the Rite of Pan, which Dion Fortune occasionally performed in public in the 1930s as part of her drive to open up occultism beyond the closed walls of esoteric fraternities. Now for the first time, these important magical workings have been released from her society’s archive in their complete and original form.
Edited and explained by Gareth Knight, this book contains the full text of the original Rite of Isis and Rite of Pan which formed the basis for Dion Fortune’s Moon Magic, The Goat-Foot God, and The Sea Priestess. Further archive material elucidates the practical magical principles found in The Winged Bull. The book is supplemented by several articles written by Dion Fortune in the 1930s which shed further light on the practical content of her novels, including the essay Ceremonial Magic Unveiled, a review of the work of Israel Regardie in which she gives her views on the controversies within the Golden Dawn and describes her own falling out with Moina MacGregor Mathers.
“The clearest, simplest – and best – analysis and explanation of what magic is and how it works that I have ever come across. Gareth Knight shows that DF’s novels are initiatory and were intended to be so. He supplements his exposition with DF’s own commentaries on her work and reveals the secret methods she employed in her art to link the reader’s imagination to spiritual and cosmic realities in order to activate the powers of the soul.” — The Warden, Society of the Inner Light
- ISBN: 978-1-908011-77-0
- 140 pages
- cover photography by Rebsie Fairholm
- page size 229mm x 152mm
- black and white text
- published 30th November 2013