Dion Fortune, like Prometheus, brought down 'fire' from heaven and set the scene for a new Renascence. This highly competent mage of the Golden Dawn wore the lunar crescent upon her brow and initiated into modern life a very rare secret that has been long lost and forgotten: the clandestine art of calibrating the Self with great Cosmic Forces and working with them. Her evocative teachings unfold the mystical journey of a dreamlike delirium in No Man’s Land where invocation follows revelation and revelation awaits solemn and visionary direction.
Stellar Wheel
sagittarius
Dion Fortune
01Hover over these to get the full astrological reference
BY SANJA KLJAIĆ
10 minute read
10 minute read
Sky High Powers of Illumination
Lady Fortune is certainly making her energies felt through the fabric of our collective space-time tapestry. This, of course, is only to be expected since she is the archetype of the Archer that has been allocated the task of coming to the aid of mother Gaia, firmly launching her arrow towards the numinal and ardently assisting in the spiritual evolution of humanity.
With Dion, we enter into the sphere of Sagittarius, the house of Jupiter. Undeniably, there is an endearing fascination that surrounds the cosmic intelligence of Sagittarius. A celestial horse and man bound in one symbolic configuration is a guardian of nomads, a motley crew of bohemians, unrestrained philosophers, and mystic gatherers who feel an unseen bond of friendship between all of humanity. Sagittarius’s mutable fire interprets the wonders of the day and aims to understand the matrix of the universe and the world in which humanity lives.
Like the centaur who represents this sign, Sagittarius is a cosmic Siddha, the light holder and the light shower, priestess mover, and shaman shaker 1. This voodoo child 2 innately possesses heavenly knowledge for divination and guards the portal of the 9th house - the house of journeys into the pseudo-promised lands where ancient knowledge resides.
Sagittarius is a daughter of Jupiter she is half and half; half-human, half-beast with a 'human' mother and a 'spirit' father. The dynamic warm energy of Jupiter allows her to grow and prosper within any area of her life, particularly in the area where she creates. Creates what? Herself, as maiden, mother, initiator, protector, and sorceress.
“Palms facing stretched out and parallel; andbetween those out held palms, my very life was being drawn in.”
Jupiter’s colours are those of orange ray: creative, warm, and vital. The orange ray is located in the etheric field of the sacral chakra. Jupiter hooks to the spirit, picks up the light, and pulls it down toward the earth plane. The sphere of Jupiter, allegorically speaking, dips our creation in the holy water and passes it to Saturn, Pan, the ‘Goat Foot God’ of reaping. As Jupiter and Saturn link frequencies, the spirit finds tune with the chosen direction in their embrace. “The human machine is an internal combustion engine running on spirit.”
This celestial Sagittarius 3 predicted the Age of Aquarius twenty years before the hippie movement, believing it would come following the end of the war. The revelation of the aeon is that the old gods are coming back, and we are finding them in our own hearts; only if we look into our own hearts we shall see how true this is.
This celestial Sagittarius 3 predicted the Age of Aquarius twenty years before the hippie movement, believing it would come following the end of the war. The revelation of the aeon is that the old gods are coming back, and we are finding them in our own hearts; only if we look into our own hearts we shall see how true this is.
“The great sun, moving in the heavenly houses, has left the House of the Fishes for the House of the Water-bearer. In the coming age shall humanity be holy, and in the perfection of the human shall we find the humane. Take up the manhood into Godhead, and bring down the Godhead into manhood, and this shall be the day of God with us; for God is made manifest in Nature, and Nature is the self-expression of God.”
By no means did our Sagittarius lady 4 5 6 live in the broom closet with a wide-brimmed hat, nor did she live high in the mountains, deep within a cave, far away from society. She was, in fact a witty, modern metropolitan woman strolling about London abundantly self-assured of her magical capabilities and in touch with a greater circle of people. As it happens, Lady Dion travelled the path of Druidry, the Wizards, magic, myth, and mystery, spending years trying to demystify the unknown and reveal the truth behind divine obscurities, the truth that was reserved exclusively for the education of priests and of kings 78.
The astonishing appeal of Dion is that she championed the magic of the old pagan Celtic Britons who adhered to the recovery of the feminine side of God, the ultimate thread upon which all human life depends on, the joint thread between mother and child.
“Let us show forth in a rite the dynamic nature of the goddess that the minds of men may be as fertile as their fields…
Through the lyrical symbolism hidden in her fiction, Dion metaphorically raises the veil of secrecy. She narrates - spiritedly enough - her views on reincarnation, rituals, trance, subconsciousness, shadow nature, and sisterhood. The characters in her novels endure much-needed healing and salvation 9.
Endearingly, Dion draws from her own experience and talks directly to the reader, setting a strong emphasis that each sex heals by taking the best characteristics of the other: the masculine is healed by becoming compassionate, and the feminine is healed by becoming proactive and brave. Through her writing, she shines prayers and healings to these embodiments 10 11 12 raising her arms like the horns of Hathor, she sings to the boundless sea. And as the voice went on, the images she created arose before her eyes.
From an early age, this noble Sagittarian cherub was cognisant of her mediumistic abilities 13, immersing herself in Theosophy, the Qabalah, the Golden Dawn, Spiritualism, Gnostic Christianity, reincarnation, and the teachings of the lost continent of Atlantis, all to understand Astro-etheric psychological conditions and workings of God made manifest in nature 14.
Dion was born in 1890 with the name Violet Mary Firth to Arthur, who was a solicitor, and to Christina who was a registered Christian Science healer. She later adopted the name Dion Fortune from her family’s motto, “Deo non-Fortuna,” translating as “God not fate.” Little Dion lead a withdrawn life of reading and daydreaming and took comfort in the company of horses and ponies. Extended contact with adults rather than with children sharpened the edge of her self-confidence.
At the age of 13, she authored a book of poetry titled Violets, which was published by the family. In her early twenties, she had practiced as a psychotherapist at the clinic in London until concluding that there was more to the human mind 15 than the new psychology was prepared to admit:
“We find that there are certain powers in our minds, not in the least rare or supernatural, for we are using them every day, which, if developed and consciously directed, will produce the most remarkable results”.
She was very aware of the latest developments in analytical psychology and preferred Jung’s work to Freud’s, particularly Jung’s examination of the collective unconscious archetypes. After reading Annie Besant’s The Ancient Wisdom 16 she experienced a vivid vision where she seemed to be taken up to the high Himalayas to meet two great spiritual beings who set her upon her subsequent life as an esoteric teacher. As fate would have it, she joins various sacred fraternities, those guarded by oaths and guided by mythical drama rituals that have the power to stir the unconscious.
As she relied purely on her own genius - her tendency to be a free thinker 1718 would often get her in trouble with various leaders of the lodge. Dissatisfied with numerous groups and their old patriarchal mode of operating, Dion farewelled the outdated men with white beards and the old female myths of self-sacrifice and embarked upon a busy period of establishing her own Society of the Inner Light 19.
This mystic society was born in Glastonbury, the heart chakra of the planet Earth, where the legends of the Arthurian mythologies are said to have existed. It is interesting to observe that Dion’s work extensively reflects her
interest in the mystery of high history: the legends of Guinevere, King Arthur, and the Knights of the Round Table. Dion firmly believed that tapping into the roots of the nation’s Arthurian consciousness will lead the individual and the collective to the “moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles.”
The legend has it that at Glastonbury Tor Merlin advised King Arthur to construct the Round Table, take constellations from the Heaven and bring them down to earth, arranging them in a circle of twelve of his knights, representatives of the twelve signs of the zodiac
“and the corresponding stars fell within their boundaries”.
Her love of Glastonbury is encapsulated in almost every one of her
novels. Even
today, the specter of Excalibur and the Grail hovers over this ancient entry into
the Celtic underworld. Stories with such fascinations exist on many levels of consciousness, and like stars, they are there to be pondered.
Dion certainly was a figure of fundamental importance in the Western magical tradition; she lived a life in her higher self 20 and sought to know and understand deeply, not merely for the sake of knowing, but to apply that knowledge to the relief of human suffering21. She advocated that each living soul has its roots in the Unmanifest and draws thusly its life, and by going back to the Unmanifest, we find the fullness of life.
We cannot fail to be struck by the fact that we have given a concrete physical form to the Divine Mind and so have individually taken up the work of evolution that is being carried on from incarnation to incarnation. Naturally, this knowledge Dion observed:
“what is acquired in other lives is never lost; capacity remains although memory disappears; that which has been learnt is stored in the sub-conscious mind and goes to the formation of character”.
This verifies what has already been conveyed that we are not learning anew but remembering and recalling to consciousness that which is lying dormant in our subconscious mind. For this reason, it is important to question what lies behind your world since nothing is fortuitous, accidental, or incidental.
This indeed is what Dion urges us to do, she strongly encourages us not to limit or in any way prevent the evolutionary quantum leap of our mind, for what today is considered commonplace was once believed to be supernatural, and the supernatural of today might yet be moved to what is considered legitimate science.
Literary Source:
Fortune, D., 2003 The Sea Priestess, Weiser Books: Boston, US.
Fortune, D., 2000 The Training & Work of an Initiate, Weiser Books: Boston, US
Harrison, H., 1991 Crown of Stars: The Grail in the Troubadour World, Arkives: San Francisco, US.
Knight, G., 2000 Dion Fortune and The Inner Light, Thoth Publication: UK.
Leitch, Y., 2014 Signs & Secrets of the Glastonbury Zodiac, Avalonian Aeon: UK
Maltwood, K., 1987 A Guide to Glastonbury’s Temple of the Stars, Lutterworth Press: UK.
Sumner, A., 2019 The Occult Novels of Dion Fortune, UK
Fortune, D., 2003 The Sea Priestess, Weiser Books: Boston, US.
Fortune, D., 2000 The Training & Work of an Initiate, Weiser Books: Boston, US
Harrison, H., 1991 Crown of Stars: The Grail in the Troubadour World, Arkives: San Francisco, US.
Knight, G., 2000 Dion Fortune and The Inner Light, Thoth Publication: UK.
Leitch, Y., 2014 Signs & Secrets of the Glastonbury Zodiac, Avalonian Aeon: UK
Maltwood, K., 1987 A Guide to Glastonbury’s Temple of the Stars, Lutterworth Press: UK.
Sumner, A., 2019 The Occult Novels of Dion Fortune, UK
Image References
1. W. H. Margetson's illustration for Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by James Knowles, 1914.
2. Chiromantic drawings of both hands, with ornamental ground 1292
3. Les livres de divination Nicolaïdes Jean gallica.bnf.fr
4. W. H. Margetson's illustration for Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by James Knowles, 1914.
1
When Sagittarius cupid enters your life, it shoots you with an arrow of fire that enables you to reach for your true potential.
2
As you stand before the portal of the 9th house and engage in the symbiotic process of self, may the energy of Hendrix's Voodoo Child make a profound connection with you.
3
Possessed an almost superhuman power of endurance (Jupiter in trine with Neptune). She was a born healer who had poetic abilities; highly sensitive to the world of dreams and to the psyches of others (Neptune in sextile with Chiron). She continuously observed and examined her own psyche in order to be able to see compassionately into the minds of others (Pluto in sextile with Chiron).
4
Sun in Sagittarius in the 3rd house, indicates that Dion came forth to experience herself as a was a prolific writer, a teacher, and a medium, an individual who embarks on the quest for freedom from all mental restriction.
5
Ascendant and Moon/Libra, North Node, Pluto and Neptune/Gemini and Jupiter/Aquarius form a Grand Trine in Air powering her genius and marking her with good success in the endeavours related to this area of life.
6
Sagittarius ruler - Jupiter in Aquarius in the 4th house indicates the fearless depth to her spiritual exploration. Aquarius often contains a link to other realms and planes, or to other solar systems.
7
Dion was strongly associated with her past lives (South Lunar Node conjunct Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Part of Fortune in the 3rd house). She counted numerous lives as a priestess of Atlantis and Avalon (Part of Fortune).
8
In one of her books, she traces her soul lineage to Atlantis where she finds herself practicing magic science (Mercury) of the hidden arts. Her novels channel the revival of potent feminine energy (Venus) subliminally revelling eternal truths she absorbed from the Great Mother, thus moving in the direction of her North Node (in Gemini/9th house) to teach those who are thirsty.
9
Dion shined the most when she shined the light for others (Chiron in Leo). She did this by bringing spiritual awe back into the consciousness of modern people. Her destiny was to be a healer of old wounds (Chiron in the 10th house).
10
The key to all her magical work is embedded in her Moon Ascendant conjunction. Moon in Libra in the 12th house indicates that Dion, in her work, placed a strong emphasis on the equilibrium of the mind.
11
The archetype of Libra has the
power to equilibrate one’s mental structure, she steps forward, and in plain
language illuminates that which is often obfuscated and left to confusion.
Libra creates a steady balance between feminine flow and masculine force which must
be obtained first and foremost if one was to understand the incredible vast complexity of the universe.
12
The Moon was the major theme in her work ‘The Moon Magic’. The goddess of the Moon “showed her the way”. For this reason, she wanted to show the way to others and open them to Lunar consciousness. The subconscious mind was once again to be honoured in balance with the conscious mind (Moon/12th house trine North Node/9th house).
13
Uranus in Libra/1st house gave Dion strong intuition, optimism, and an original mind. She wasn’t afraid to delve into the unknown. She was a courageous risk-taker with eclectic and revolutionary beliefs; a way-shower who channelled her Higher Self with ease.
14
The balance of right and left brain was central to Dion’s teaching and writing. She was identified (first house) with Uranus in Libra, expressing a careful balance of intellect and magical methods. Urge for freedom and experimentation and interest in the occult realm of thought (Moon semi-sextile with Uranus). Urge for freedom and experimentation and interest in the occult realm of thought (Moon semi-sextile with Uranus).
15
in Gemini/8th house, the most potent of the occult houses), then moved towards theosophy and mediumship (Pluto in Gemini /9th house), connecting to the other side and taping into a language that goes beyond reality.
16
Besant’s work talks about ascensions through dimensions (states of consciousness) and how we exist within them:
3rd dimension is a physically conscious realm where we feel separation from the whole moving through our limited time on earth, satisfying only our five senses;
4th dimension is an etheric realm of the subconscious mind also known as the “higher mind”, the real you the “soul” you. This is where all your Akashic records and past lives are stored;
5th dimension is the realm of the superconscious mind - a stairway to heart heaven - “where all are one and one is all,” - the kingdom of psychedelic Nirvana where Cosmic Christ Buddha resides “seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all else shall be added unto you” Matthew 6:33.
3rd dimension is a physically conscious realm where we feel separation from the whole moving through our limited time on earth, satisfying only our five senses;
4th dimension is an etheric realm of the subconscious mind also known as the “higher mind”, the real you the “soul” you. This is where all your Akashic records and past lives are stored;
5th dimension is the realm of the superconscious mind - a stairway to heart heaven - “where all are one and one is all,” - the kingdom of psychedelic Nirvana where Cosmic Christ Buddha resides “seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all else shall be added unto you” Matthew 6:33.
17
As a psychoanalyst and trance medium, she was a thinker
and a listener, who was fearless in her investigation of both roads. She was
the voice of her generation (North Node is holding hands with Pluto and
Neptune).
18
Mercury in Sagittarius located in its own house
of communication. Mercury trine Lilith indicates that the evolution of the
soul and the growth of mankind in the spiritual sense is at the heart of Fortune’s
works. The enigmatic archetype of Lilith draws all women. Lilith in the chart
triggers and liberates the primal natural repository of the emotions, she works
the Alchemy and invokes the subconscious telepathy. The alchemy of Mercury
(words) looks towards the realm of Lilith (intuition, dreams) and connects to
universal life energy from where everything flows.
19
At 36, Dion married a Welsh doctor, Penry Evans. Her 7th house of partners is in Aries, ruled by Mars in Aquarius, the sign of the scientist and humanitarian. Mr. Penry Evans did not see Dion as she saw herself, and Fortune shed no tears at their parting.
20
From early childhood, Dion had a sense of some work which she is to do (Jupiter in trine with Pluto), she had a sense of being in contact with something higher than herself which used her as an instrument for the services. She possessed an almost superhuman power of endurance (Jupiter in trine with Neptune) ascribe her strength to a source outside herself.
21
Sun and North Node squared by Saturn. This indicates that Dion had to prove herself to the generation that easily rejected the concept of spiritual magic. Saturn in Virgo - practical methods and applications of magic. She invited others to explore the practical use of magic. Her success was achieved by tapping into the repressed power of the earth’s energy and by proving her methodologies.