Dion Fortune

1:A religion without a goddess is halfway to atheism. ~ Dion Fortune,

2:Magick is the art of causing changes in consciousness to occur in accordance with the will.
~ Dion Fortune,

3:What you contemplate, you touch. What you enter into in imagination, you make yourself one with.
~ Dion Fortune,

4:...unless men work at occultism as they work for the prizes of their professions they will not achieve.
~ Dion Fortune,

5:...spirituality alone will not take a man far in the Mysteries; he must have intellectual powers as well.
~ Dion Fortune,

6:Psychotherapy may begin with the primitive, but it must end with the divine, for both are integral factors in the human mind. ~ Dion Fortune,

7:True nature of the gods is that of magical images shaped out of the astral plane by mankind's thought and influenced by the mind
~ Dion Fortune,

8:A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and if one of the team cannot handle the forces, everybody is going to suffer. A ritual lodge is no place for the well-meaning ineffectual.
~ Dion Fortune,

9:It is said that man is the only being that has a fourfold nature exactly corresponding in its levels to the cosmos. The angels lack the lower planes, and the animals lack the higher planes.
~ Dion Fortune, The Mystical Qabalah,

10:In the occult teachings you have been given certain images, under which you are instructed to think of certain things. These images are not descriptive but symbolic, and are designed to train the mind, not inform it.
~ Dion Fortune,

11:When we speak of the Path we mean much more than a course of study. The Path is a way of life and on it the whole being must co-operate if the heights are to be won.
~ Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate,

12:What we are you cannot realise and it is a waste of time to try and do so but you can imagine (italics mine) us on the astral plane and we can contact you through your imagination, and though your mental picture is not real or actual, the results of it are real and actual.
~ Dion Fortune, The Cosmic Doctrine,

13:There are two Paths to the Innermost: the Way of the Mystic, which is the way of devotion and meditation, a solitary and subjective path; and the way of the occultist, which is the way of the intellect, of concentration, and of trained will; upon this path the co-operation of fellow workers is required, firstly for the exchange of knowledge, and secondly because ritual magic plays an important part in this work, and for this the assistance of several is needed in most of the greater operations. The mystic derives his knowledge through the direct communion of his higher self with the Higher Powers; to him the wisdom of the occultist is foolishness, for his mind does not work in that way; but, on the other hand, to a more intellectual and extrovert type, the method of the mystic is impossible until long training has enabled him to transcend the planes of form. We must therefore recognize these two distinct types among those who seek the Way of Initiation, and remember that there is a path for each. ~ Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate,

* WISDOM TROVE *

* NEWFULLDB 2.4M *

1:Huysmans' ‘Lá-Bas, ~ Dion Fortune,

2:Occultism has no Pope. ~ Dion Fortune,

3:Complacency serves the old gods. ~ Dion Fortune,

4:The body is the vehicle of the mind. ~ Dion Fortune,

5:Phantasms of the Living,” by Gurney and Podmore. ~ Dion Fortune,

6:A religion without a goddess is halfway to atheism. ~ Dion Fortune,

7:Magic is the art of changing consciousness at will. ~ Dion Fortune,

8:A religion without a goddess is halfway to atheism. ~ Dion Fortune,

9:Do you believe in an invisible reality behind appearances? ~ Dion Fortune,

10:The Scorpion connects with the Serpent through the Dragon. ~ Dion Fortune,

11:In sympathetic magic one imitated a thing and so got into touch with it. ~ Dion Fortune,

12:...the neurotic is very often psychic, and the psychic is very often neurotic. ~ Dion Fortune,

13:After all, the human machine is an internal combustion engine running on spirit. ~ Dion Fortune,

14:The descent into matter must be complete before the ascent to spirit can commence. ~ Dion Fortune,

15:All gods are one God, and all goddesses are one Goddess, and there is one Initiator. ~ Dion Fortune,

16:What mathematics are to matter and force, occult science is to life and consciousness, ~ Dion Fortune,

17:What mathematics are to matter and force, occult science is to life and consciousness. ~ Dion Fortune,

18:Superstition has been defined as the use of a form whose significance has been forgotten. ~ Dion Fortune,

19:Symbols are to the mind what tools are to the hand--an extended application of its powers. ~ Dion Fortune,

20:In brief, the Tree of Life is a compendium of science, psychology, philosophy and theology. ~ Dion Fortune,

21:Magick is the art of causing changes in consciousness to occur in accordance with the will. ~ Dion Fortune,

22:Magick is the art of causing changes in consciousness to occur in accordance with the will.
~ Dion Fortune,

23:What you contemplate, you touch. What you enter into in imagination, you make yourself one with. ~ Dion Fortune,

24:What you contemplate, you touch. What you enter into in imagination, you make yourself one with.
~ Dion Fortune,

25:...unless men work at occultism as they work for the prizes of their professions they will not achieve. ~ Dion Fortune,

26:...spirituality alone will not take a man far in the Mysteries; he must have intellectual powers as well. ~ Dion Fortune,

27:...unless men work at occultism as they work for the prizes of their professions they will not achieve.
~ Dion Fortune,

28:There is something very intimate and personal about one's books. They reveal so much of one's private soul. ~ Dion Fortune,

29:...spirituality alone will not take a man far in the Mysteries; he must have intellectual powers as well.
~ Dion Fortune,

30:It is one of the strictest conditions of initiation that occult knowledge may never be sold or used for gain. ~ Dion Fortune,

31:You want to wake the Old Gods, don't you?” “Yes.” “Well then, go where the Old Gods are accustomed to be worshipped. ~ Dion Fortune,

32:Some say these people were Phoenicians, but that is incorrect; they were older than the Phoenicians being Atlanteans, ~ Dion Fortune,

33:We take spiritual initiation when we become conscious of the Divine within us, and thereby contact the Divine without us. ~ Dion Fortune,

34:Psychotherapy may begin with the primitive, but it must end with the divine, for both are integral factors in the human mind. ~ Dion Fortune,

35:Psychotherapy may begin with the primitive, but it must end with the divine, for both are integral factors in the human mind. ~ Dion Fortune,

36:The spirit of religious persecution is not the special failing of any particular faith, but springs eternal in the human breast. ~ Dion Fortune,

37:True nature of the gods is that of magical images shaped out of the astral plane by mankind's thought and influenced by the mind
~ Dion Fortune,

38:The occultist does not try to dominate Nature, but to bring himself into harmony with these great Cosmic Forces, and work with them. ~ Dion Fortune,

39:The true nature of the gods is that of magical images shaped out of the astral plane by mankind's thought, and influenced by the mind. ~ Dion Fortune,

40:In varying degrees and and upon different levels all gods and goddesses represent aspects of One God Which is both 'male' and 'female'. ~ Dion Fortune,

41:One cannot blame an organization that picks up an occasional black sheep, one only takes exception if it retains an accumulation of them. ~ Dion Fortune,

42:There is a life behind the personality that uses personalities as masks. There are times when life puts off the mask and deep answers unto deep. ~ Dion Fortune,

43:The automatic mind of the patient, the lowest level of subconsciousness which controls the etheric double, is manipulated and is the vehicle of the healing. ~ Dion Fortune,

44:I well remember it being said to me by an occultist of great experience that two things are necessary for safety in occultism, right motives and right associates. ~ Dion Fortune,

45:Well, you remember what Iamblichos said about the way they built up the god-forms in their imagination so as to get the invisible powers to manifest through them? ~ Dion Fortune,

46:When we speak of the Path we mean much more than a course of study. The Path is a way of life and on it the whole being must co-operate if the heights are to be won. ~ Dion Fortune,

47:I can best compare my life to a vitaminless diet--plenty of nutritive bulk, but the little something that meant health was lacking. I suppose my trouble was really spiritual scurvy. ~ Dion Fortune,

48:A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and if one of the team cannot handle the forces, everybody is going to suffer. A ritual lodge is no place for the well-meaning ineffectual. ~ Dion Fortune,

49:A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and if one of the team cannot handle the forces, everybody is going to suffer. A ritual lodge is no place for the well-meaning ineffectual.
~ Dion Fortune,

50:In his imagination he performed the ‘composition of place’ reconstructing the scene from what he could remember of the classics, so laboriously and unprofitably rammed into his head at Harrow. ~ Dion Fortune,

51:We live in the midst of invisible forces whose effects alone we perceive. We move among invisible forms whose actions we very often do not perceive at all, though we may be profoundly affected by them. ~ Dion Fortune,

52:Now vampirism is contagious; the person who is vampirised, being depleted of vitality, is a psychic vacuum, himself absorbing form anyone he comes across in order to refill his depleted resources of vitality. ~ Dion Fortune,

53:It is said that man is the only being that has a fourfold nature exactly corresponding in its levels to the cosmos. The angels lack the lower planes, and the animals lack the higher planes.
~ Dion Fortune, The Mystical Qabalah,

54:Esoteric science premises the existence of the Great Unmanifest, which may be conceived as a sea of limitless but latent force which underlies all things and whence all things derive their substance and draw their life. ~ Dion Fortune,

55:In the occult teachings you have been given certain images, under which you are instructed to think of certain things. These images are not descriptive but symbolic, and are designed to train the mind, not inform it.
~ Dion Fortune,

56:The average man may be capable of benefiting by initiation, or he may not; it also depends upon his capacity; but each individual should have the opportunity of advancing to the highest development of which he is capable. ~ Dion Fortune,

57:It has been well and truly said that in the exoteric church the ceremony is performed by one person for the benefit of the congregation; but in the Lodge the ceremony is performed by the congregation for the benefit of one person. ~ Dion Fortune,

58:We all know that, when caught off our guard, there comes a dark temptation from the depths of our lower selves, something atavistic stirs, and we think thoughts, or even do deeds, of which we would never have believed ourselves capable. ~ Dion Fortune,

59:When we speak of the Path we mean much more than a course of study. The Path is a way of life and on it the whole being must co-operate if the heights are to be won.
~ Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate,

60:The initiate, however, uses a symbol-system differently; he uses it as an algebra by means of which he will read the secrets of unknown potencies; in other words, he uses the symbol as a means of guiding thought out into the Unseen and Incomprehensible. ~ Dion Fortune,

61:After that I went home and Sally put what was left of me to bed; next day, being a Christian family, we saluted the happy morn with the Hell and Hades of a row because I wouldn't get up and go to early service, my sister being quite determined that even if I didn't get up. I shouldn't sleep. ~ Dion Fortune,

62:What we are you cannot realise and it is a waste of time to try and do so but you can imagine (italics mine) us on the astral plane and we can contact you through your imagination, and though your mental picture is not real or actual, the results of it are real and actual.
~ Dion Fortune, The Cosmic Doctrine,

63:If, on the other hand, our prompting are awards a withdrawal on to the Mystical Path, let us ask ourselves honestly whether we are following that Path because the call of God in our hearts is so strong, or because
we have found life so difficult that we want to escape for ever from its problems. ~ Dion Fortune,

64:There is no essential difference between sticking pins into a wax image of an enemy and burning candles in front of a wax image of the Virgin. You may think that both these practices are gross superstition, but you can hardly think that one is real and potent and deny reality and potency to the other. ~ Dion Fortune,

65:The driving forces of the universe, the framework upon which it is built up in all its parts, belong to another phase of manifestation than our physical plane, having other dimensions than the three to which we are habituated, and perceived by other modes of consciousness than those to which we are accustomed. ~ Dion Fortune,

66:The true secret of natural goodness lies in the recognition of the contending rights of the Pairs of Opposites; there is no such antimony as between Good and Evil, but only balance between two extremes, each of which is evil when carried to excess, both of which give rise to evil if insufficient for equipoise. ~ Dion Fortune,

67:The highest development was in the Egyptian and Cabalistic systems, and it was blended with Christian thought in the schools of the Neo-Platonists and the Gnostics...Its studies were only kept alive during the Dark Ages among the Jews who were the chief exponents of its Cabalistic aspect...and it is still alive today. ~ Dion Fortune,

68:I saw the sea-gods come, moving with an irresistible momentum, not rising into the air as the riders rose, but deep in their own element, unhasting, unresting; for the power of the sea is in the weight of the waters and not in the wind-blown crests. These Great Ones rose with the tide, and like the tide, nothing might withstand them. ~ Dion Fortune,

69:No enunciation of the Truth will ever be complete, no method of training will ever be suitable for all temperaments, no one can do more than mark out the little plot of infinity which he intends to cultivate, and thrust in the spade, trusting that the soil may eventually be fruitful and free from weeds so far as the bounds he has set himself extend. ~ Dion Fortune,

70:The old bookseller had learnt at the seminary that when it comes to conceiving transcendent things, minds vary enormously in their capacity, and the trained mind is a very different matter to the untrained; and the mind that is conditioned by music and incense and dim lights has very different capacities to the mind that goes at the job in cold blood. ~ Dion Fortune,

71:No enunciation of the Truth will ever be complete, no method of training will ever be suitable for all temperaments, no one can do more than mark out the little plot of infinity which he intends to cultivate, and thrust in the spade, trusting that the soil may eventually be fruitful and free from weeds so far as the bounds he has set himself extend.... ~ Dion Fortune,

72:A friend of mine urged me to see my pain as an opportunity. And since the same psychic that contacted Dion Fortune had told me that I was a "teacher" - she didn't mean at Columbia, she meant in the spiritual sense - I decided my affliction was the universe telling me that it was time to stop writing fiction and become the spiritual guru I was clearly meant to be. ~ Heidi Julavits,

73:The Door Without a Key is the Door of Dreams; it is the door by which the sensitive escape into insanity when life is too hard for them, and artists use it as a window in a watch-tower. Psychologists call it a psychological mechanism; magicians call it magic, and the man in the street calls it illusion or charlatanry according to taste. It does not matter to me what it is called, for it is effectual. ~ Dion Fortune,

74:Those without the gate frequently question the wisdom and right of the occultist to guard his knowledge by the imposition of oaths of secrecy. We are so accustomed to see the scientist give his beneficent discoveries freely to all mankind that we feel that humanity is wronged and defrauded if any knowledge be kept secret by its discoverers and not at once made available for all who desire to share in it. ~ Dion Fortune,

75:...a trained occultist, especially if of high grade, has an exceedingly magnetic personality, and this is apt to prove disturbing to those who are unaccustomed to high- tension psychic forces. For whereas the person who is ripe for development will unfold the higher consciousness rapidly in the atmosphere of a high-grade initiate, the person who is not ready may find these influences profoundly disturbing. ~ Dion Fortune,

76: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. ~ Dion Fortune,

77:He had a sudden twinge of conscience concerning his responsibilities at the seaside villa, but dismissed it as quixotic. What he was doing was harming no one, and the blessing and peace of it all was so great a boon. He had tried cutting it off drastically once, and the result had been an explosion of emotion he had no mind to precipitate again. What earthly need was there to give up his dream-woman who harmed nobody and helped him so tremendously? ~ Dion Fortune,

78:propose to get hold of a suitable house, one of those big, left-over country mansions with lots of huge rooms, that are white elephants to everybody, and fit up the different rooms as temples to the different gods of the old pantheons. Make a really artistic job of it, you know. Have some first-class frescoes done, and all the rest of it; and I'm inclined to think that if we make the temple ready, the god will indwell it, and we shall begin to learn something about him—or her. ~ Dion Fortune,

79:The critic of the Adepts would form a truer opinion of their attitude if he did not look upon them as guardians of a treasure, grudgingly doling it out to applicants whose rights it was impossible to ignore or defy, but rather as trainers of racehorses, patiently trying beast after beast in the hope that one may ultimately be found that will win the Grand National. The Adept who accepts an unsuitable pupil is guilty of cruelty just as much as the rider who sends a horse at a fence it cannot take. ~ Dion Fortune,

80:Those without the gate frequently question the wisdom and right of the occultist to guard his knowledge by the imposition of oaths of secrecy. We are so accustomed to see the scientist give his beneficent discoveries freely to all mankind that we feel that humanity is wronged and defrauded if any knowledge be kept secret by its discoverers and not at once made available for all who desire to share in it.
The knowledge is reserved in order that humanity may be protected from its abuse at the hands of the unscrupulous. ~ Dion Fortune,

81:The difference between magic and meditation methods is the difference between drugs and diet—medicines will do swiftly what diet can only effect slowly, and in critical cases there is no time to wait for the slow processes of dietetics, so it must be either medicines or nothing. Nevertheless, drugs are no substitute for right diet and wholesome regime, and although magic enables a speedy and potent result to be attained, is is only by means of right understanding and right ethics that the position which has been won can be held. ~ Dion Fortune,

82:To say that a thing is imaginary is not to dispose of it in the realm of mind, for the imagination, or the image making faculty, is a very important part of our mental functioning. An image formed by the imagination is a reality from the point of view of psychology; it is quite true that it has no physical existence, but are we going to limit reality to that which is material? We shall be far out of our reckoning if we do, for mental images are potent things, and although they do not actually exist on the physical plane, they influence it far more than most people suspect. ~ Dion Fortune,

83:The man who is an initiate of one of the great Mystery Schools never fears to let his pupils outdistance him, because he knows that it stands him in good stead with his superiors if he is constantly sending up to them aspirants who 'make good.' He therefore never tries to hold back a promising pupil, because he has no need to fear that pupil, if allowed to penetrate into the Mysteries, would spy out the nakedness of the land; he will rather bring back a report of its exceeding richness, and thereby confirm the statements of his teacher and spur his fellow pupils to yet greater eagerness. ~ Dion Fortune,

84:A school of esotericism usually arises in connection with some special realization of the Truth, which it sometimes stresses beyond its due proportion to life as a whole, but there will never be found any teaching which has the power to hold together a body of earnest seekers which has not a spark of the divine fire at its heart; therefore respect should be given to all how seek in sincerity, however far from the goal they may appear to be, and all who are engaged in the great Quest should rather try to see the vision which a brother has glimpsed than the special errors to which he has fallen victim. ~ Dion Fortune,

85:If we intend to take our occult studies seriously and make of them anything more than desultory light reading, we must choose our system and carry it out faithfully until we arrive, if not at its ultimate goal, at any rate at definite practical results and a permanent enhancement of consciousness. After this has been achieved we may, not without advantage, experiment with the methods that have been developed upon other Paths, and build up an eclectic technique and philosophy therefrom; but the student who sets out to be an eclectic before he has made himself an expert will never be anything more than a dabbler. ~ Dion Fortune,

86:It's quite simple and natural if you think it out. The old pagan Britons were in the habit of having fairs when they assembled at their holy centres for the big sun festivals. The fairs went on just the same, whether they were pagan or Christian, and the missionary centres grew up where the crowds came together. When the king was converted, they just changed the Sun for the Son. The common people never knew the difference. They went for the fun of the fair and took part in the ceremonies to bring good luck and make the fields fertile. How were they to know the difference between Good Friday and the spring ploughing festival? There was a human sacrifice on both occasions. ~ Dion Fortune,

87:Never trust the occultist who tells you that he is the head of a tradition, because if he were, in the first place, he would not tell the fact to the uninitiated, and in the second place he would in all probability be living in great seclusion and inaccessible to all but his immediate subordinates. If a man is a great artist he does not need to inform us of the fact; we shall know him by his pictures that are hung in the galleries of the nation, and we shall, moreover, find that he guards himself from casual acquaintances because of the inroads on his time to which his fame renders him liable. The more eminent a person, the harder he is to approach, not out of any spirit of pride and exclusiveness, but because so many people want to see him that discrimination has to be used in admitting them. ~ Dion Fortune,

88:We went down, down, down, faster and faster, and just as we were going to crash I felt something. I can’t say I saw anything, but I got the feel of a pair of eyes. Can you realize what I mean? And when I came round from my three days’ down-and-out I was in love.” “What do you dream about?” asked Taverner. “All sorts of things; nothing especially nightmary.” “Do you notice any kind of family likeness in your dreams?” “Now you come to mention it, I do. They all take place in brilliant sunshine. They aren’t exactly Oriental, but that way inclined.” Taverner laid before him a book of Egyptian travel illustrated in water-colours. “Anything like that?” he inquired. “My hat!” exclaimed the man. “That’s the very thing.” He gazed eagerly at the pictures, and then suddenly thrust the book away from him. “I can’t look ~ Dion Fortune,

89:The commonest form of psychic attack is that which proceeds from the ignorant or malignant mind of our fellow human beings. We say ignorant as well as malignant, for all attacks are not deliberately motived; the injury may be as
accidental as that inflicted by a skidding car. This must always be borne in mind, and we should not impute malice or wickedness as a matter of course when we feel we are being victimised. Our persecutor may himself be a victim. We should not accuse a man of malice if we had linked hands with him and he had stepped on a live rail. Nevertheless, we should receive at his hands a severe shock. So it may be with many an occult attack. The person from whom it emanates may not have originated it. Therefore we should never respond to attack by attack, thus bringing ourselves down to the moral level of our attackers, but rely upon more humane methods, which are, in reality, equally effectual and far less dangerous to handle. ~ Dion Fortune,

90:12. Each symbol, moreover, admits of interpretation upon the different planes, and through its astrological associations can be related to the gods of any pantheon, thus opening up vast new fields of implication in which the mind ranges endlessly, symbol leading on to symbol in an unbroken chain of associations; symbol confirming symbol as the many-branching threads gather themselves together into a synthetic glyph once more, and each symbol capable of interpretation in terms of whatever plane the mind may be functioning upon. 13. This mighty, all-embracing glyph of the soul of man and of the universe, by virtue of its logical association of symbols, evokes images in the mind; but these images are not randomly evolved, but follow along well-defined association-tracks in the Universal Mind. The symbol of the Tree is to the Universal Mind what the dream is to the individual ego; it is a glyph synthesized from subconsciousness to represent the hidden forces. ~ Dion Fortune,

91:We may also conceive of the evolution of humanity as a vast army, toiling slowly along its line of march in a great column; and, scouting far ahead of the main body, solitary outriders, swift-mounted, light-armed and without baggage, exploring the way for the rest; spiritual guerrillas, whom Paul referred to as those born out of due season. From time to time we shall see some swift-footed soul draw ahead of the great army of mankind and push on alone into the wilderness. For a period his path is solitary, but presently he catches up with the far-flung line of the scouts, and if able to give the password that proves him to be of their body, is given his place in the ranks of that adventurous company, a boundary-rider of evolution, alone on patrol, yet not out of touch with his comrades, for there are signaling-points along the line, and at certain seasons all gather in to the council. ~ Dion Fortune,

92:There are two Paths to the Innermost: the Way of the Mystic, which is the way of devotion and meditation, a solitary and subjective path; and the way of the occultist, which is the way of the intellect, of concentration, and of trained will; upon this path the co-operation of fellow workers is required, firstly for the exchange of knowledge, and secondly because ritual magic plays an important part in this work, and for this the assistance of several is needed in most of the greater operations. The mystic derives his knowledge through the direct communion of his higher self with the Higher Powers; to him the wisdom of the occultist is foolishness, for his mind does not work in that way; but, on the other hand, to a more intellectual and extrovert type, the method of the mystic is impossible until long training has enabled him to transcend the planes of form. We must therefore recognize these two distinct types among those who seek the Way of Initiation, and remember that there is a path for each. ~ Dion Fortune,

93:There are two Paths to the Innermost: the Way of the Mystic, which is the way of devotion and meditation, a solitary and subjective path; and the way of the occultist, which is the way of the intellect, of concentration, and of trained will; upon this path the co-operation of fellow workers is required, firstly for the exchange of knowledge, and secondly because ritual magic plays an important part in this work, and for this the assistance of several is needed in most of the greater operations. The mystic derives his knowledge through the direct communion of his higher self with the Higher Powers; to him the wisdom of the occultist is foolishness, for his mind does not work in that way; but, on the other hand, to a more intellectual and extrovert type, the method of the mystic is impossible until long training has enabled him to transcend the planes of form. We must therefore recognize these two distinct types among those who seek the Way of Initiation, and remember that there is a path for each. ~ Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate,

*** WISDOM TROVE ***

*** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***

WORDNET

* WISDOM TROVE *

* NEWFULLDB 2.4M *