Sane Occultism

By: Dion Fortune

Narrated by: Matthew Schmitz

Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Altrusian Grace Media and narrated by Matthew Schmitz. 

Dion Fortune is acknowledged as one of the most knowledgeable and level-headed writers on esoteric matters. In Sane Occultism, she is adamant that magic and occult studies, though often dealing with unseen forces, must still be grounded in reason, and she explains how claims of psychic ability and past lives can, and should, be verified. The book covers a vast swath of topics, from meditation and psychism, through numerology and astrology, to such "black" occult practices as psychic vampirism, blood sacrifice, and other aspects of the Left-Hand Path. The need for vegetarianism, strict obedience to a master, and secrecy are also covered in detail. Sane Occultism is a refreshing, no-nonsense look at esotericism, being at the same time an excellent introduction to the subject and a book that will give even the experienced practitioner much to think about.

Dion Fortune was a British occultist, ceremonial magician, novelist, and author. She was a co-founder of the Fraternity of the Inner Light, an occult organization that promoted philosophies which she claimed had been taught to her by spiritual entities known as the Ascended Masters.

©2023 Matthew Schmitz (P)2023 Matthew Schmitz

Interesting thoughts ruined by racism, homophobia

I read this book because it's referenced by Donald Michael Craig in "Modern Magick" (which is excellent) but was deeply disappointed to find such flagrant homophobia and racism therein. While apologists might defend her as a product of her time (she died in 1946), there were plenty of people in the first half of the 20th century who were smart enough to recognize hateful nonsense as exactly that, so she does not get a pass.

"Sane Occultism" starts strong, asserting that we owe the occult sciences the same rigorous skepticism we expect from empirical sciences even if the nature of the evidence used is of a different sort. Her emphasis on correspondence as a way to test new ideas is inspired. I also appreciate her insistence that all of this must be explored from a context grounded in modern psychology.

Unfortunately, the book then completely derails and devolves into what I could only interpret as thinly-veiled Christian mysticism and not-so-thinly-veiled white supremacy. Her insistence on Christ and the gospels as a singular, overriding standard is utterly baffling in an occult context, especially today. Her further insistence that an aspirant into the occult is essentially trapped in the physiology of their race is not merely ridiculous in its racist assumptions, but ignores cultural context entirely. She overtly references an ayian ideal while trying to claim ancient Egyptian culture for the anglo-saxons and western occultists, seeming to forget that Egypt is in Africa.

I found it ironic how she goes well out of her way to emphasize how "there is no room for authority on occultism" and then essentially spends the rest of the book describing her own flavor of narrow occult orthodoxy that seems to include both homophobia and white supremacist thinking. I don't think she means to be hateful as much as I think she was simply too anchored in an early 20th century colonial view of the world and its people. This was the first of her work that I've encountered and sadly these things were present enough in this book that I must view her and her entire body of work with a strong skepticism that will likely keep me from reading any of her other work any time soon. A mind so infected by such poisoned foundational ideas as white supremacy is unfit to instruct me or anyone else hoping to explore the great mysteries.