Dion Fortune: The Śakti of the Age

Abstract

In many respects, Violet Mary Firth, better known as Dion Fortune (1890–1946), occupies a controversial position among these case studies, for she openly and frequently distanced herself from those Western occultists who felt drawn toward Eastern spiritual traditions. Fortune was quite explicit in her contention that “[c]ultures do not spring out of nothing” (1976: 1) and that she would “recommend to the white races the traditional Western system, which is admirably adapted to their psychic constitution” (1976: 6). There are several reasons, however, which justify her inclusion in the present study. Strategically, her position serves the role of a counterpoint, a differing voice, which needs to be taken into consideration. Fortune is not alone in her insistence that spiritual orientation is tied to cultural particulars and constraints, and that one needs to remain faithful to local traditions. Despite this, she has provided some important comments on Yoga and yogic esoteric anatomy, in particular with respect to the subject of cakras and their role in occult practice.¹ In addition, she drew a correlation between Yoga and Kabbalah, arguing that the latter represents the “Yoga of the West” (1976: 1, 20). And finally, in her fiction and in her more guarded statements, as well as in the perception of some other occultists such as Kenneth Grant, she was giving voice to, and in a sense incarnating, a particular expression of feminine spiritual force that has both implicit and explicit similarity with the tantric concept of śakti.