The Magic of Malkuth

"Apprenticed to Magic: The Path to Magical Attainment" is a short book by W E Butler, a British esotericist who worked with Dion Fortune and Gareth Knight. The book was originally published in 1962. Fortune's system combined Theosophy with the Golden Dawn. A working knowledge of the Hermetic Qabalah might help in understanding Butler, but most of the book is pretty straightforward. It's written in the form of letters to a neophyte on the magical path. 

Casual readers might be disappointed, since Butler never *really* reveals how to do magic, attain siddhi powers, get rich quick, or whatever it is people think magic does. Indeed, the book is frankly boring at times. I couldn't bring myself to read literally every word of it. 

Hmmm... 

Some kind of magical resistance? 😮

So what *does* Butler reveal, then, in this teaser trailer? There is a very obvious (and very British) tendency to moderation. The material world is not evil, but one of many divine manifestations. Constant astral travel is discouraged. We are supposed to live most of our life in *this* world. Experimenting with the kundalini is explicitly prohibited. Active proselytization is strongly discouraged. The occultist should keep his or her activities secret. Dabbling in politics is another no-no. 

Even the divine forces are experienced in an "earthly" manner, something magicians better remember, or else their false egos will swell with pride and all kinds of mischief follow. Or as Butler puts it: all magic is carried out in "Yesod of Malkuth" in the "World of Assiah", which means you are simply using the rainbow aura of the etheric aspect of the physical world. "This should prevent you from assuming that you are far advanced". 

I think I could live with such non-advancement. 

Most of the book describes various meditation and visualization techniques. Butler believed in something akin to chakras. One goal of the training is to create a Body of Light and transfer your consciousness into it. The Body of Light is objectively real and can "travel" through the astral realms while the physical body is asleep. 

One chapter criticizes the Protestant aversion against ritual and vestments. Obviously, an esoteric group influenced by Anglo-Catholicism (?) and the Golden Dawn would have a more positive view of such things. Indeed, ritual seems to be an important part of the work of a magical lodge. On one point, Butler does confirm our deep seated stereotypes about secret fraternities. Yes, they really do wear cowls that hide their faces! 

The number of potential readers for "Apprenticed to Magic" must be pretty small, but something tells me W E Butler didn't really mind... 

The secrets of Dion Fortune

Lord Erskine, one of the people "channeled" by Dion Fortune

“Dion Fortune and the Inner Light” is a book by Gareth Knight about Dion Fortune (Violet Mary Firth), the British occultist. She was born in 1890 and passed away (or perhaps passed on!) in 1946. Knight never met Fortune, but he has been a member of the occult group she founded, the Fraternity (or Society) of the Inner Light. Gareth Knight is of course also a pseudonym, the author´s real name being Basil Wilby. The biography is very “esoteric”, and contains long excerpts from spirit-messages supposedly channeled by Dion Fortune at various points in her life. It says very little about the “pagan” aspects of Fortune´s activity (which has been an influence on Wicca), but rather concentrates on her mediumship and the more Hermetic or Theosophical angles. Since Knight is a disciple of sorts of Fortune, the book is mostly positive towards its subject-matter.

Dion Fortune was born in Wales, but her ethnicity was English. She fancied herself (perhaps wrongly) to have Norse or “Viking” ancestry. Fortune´s parents joined Christian Science, and some of their friends belonged to a quasi-occult group centered on Glastonbury, the “keepers of the Grail”. Another close friend of the family was a leading member of the Alpha et Omega, an offshoot of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. With a background like this, it´s perhaps not so strange that Fortune became an occultist and ceremonial magician! As a teenager, Fortune had been subject to a psychic attack (i.e. black magic) from the female principal of the boarding school she was attending. Or so she believed. Much later, she would write an entire book titled “Psychic Self-Defence”. After finishing school, Fortune studied psychoanalysis and was a practitioner for a number of years.

Fortune´s first occult teacher was an Irishman named Theodore Moriarty, who supposedly had supernatural powers. At one point, he had cornered a demon in a bathroom, forced it into a magical circle and then absorbed it into his own aura, thereby destroying it. Fortune was apparently present when this happened. Moriarty later became the model for the character Dr Taverner in one of Fortune´s novels. The similarities between Moriarty´s brand of occultism and Fortune´s later activities are striking. The Irish master was inspired by Theosophy but gave it a more “Western” slant, just as Fortune herself would do. He was a Freemason and Co-Mason. Ritualism and Masonry did play a role in Fortune´s later work, as well.

In 1919, Fortune was initiated into Alpha et Omega. Strictly speaking, it wasn´t until now that she became “Dion Fortune”, her pseudonym being based on her magical name as an Alpha et Omega member, Deo Non Fortuna. While working the Golden Dawn system of ritual magic, Fortune also created what was de facto an independent circle around herself. This eventually led the Alpha et Omega leader, Moina MacGregor Mathers (who was actually Henri Bergson´s sister), to expel her from the order, claiming that Fortune had revealed secret teachings, especially about marriage and sexuality. Fortune claimed that Moina had tried to attack her in the spirit-world! In 1930, Fortune joined another Golden Dawn fragment, Stella Matutina, but this group would also expel her due to her friendly contacts with Israel Regardie, who revealed all of the Golden Dawn´s secret “knowledge papers” in a well-known book. There was also a curious Theosophical interlude between the two Golden Dawn episodes, during which Fortune and her little band of brothers and sisters carried out a kind of esoteric entryism in the Theosophical Society, taking over its Christian Mystic Lodge. Fortune argued forcefully against Annie Besant´s and C W Leadbeater´s attempts to promote Jiddu Krishnamurti as the new Christ and World Teacher. Only Master Jesus manifests the Christ principle. 

It´s obvious from Gareth Knight´s book that Dion Fortune was a trance-medium and that mediumistic communications played an important role in her group, the Community (or Fraternity…or Society…) of the Inner Light. She would regularly channel three sprit-beings, all three of which were said to have lived on Earth as humans: the otherwise unknown David Carstairs (supposedly a soldier killed during World War I), Lord Thomas Erskine (a late 18^th century British lawyer and politician who had defended radicals and reformers in court), and Socrates. Fortune´s book “The Cosmic Doctrine” was to a large extent dictated by Socrates. Why on earth the famous Greek philosopher would dictate a work freely based on Madame Blavatsky´s “The Secret Doctrine” is of course an interesting question, and even Gareth Knight admits that this is perhaps very hard to believe. Fortune was in general more positive towards Spiritualism than Blavatsky, and later in life tried to unite occultists and Spiritualists into one stream, in anticipation of the Age of Aquarius.

Dion Fortune also had a more mystical side. I haven´t read “The Mystical Qabalah”, often regarded as Fortune´s  most important work by other occultists, but it´s perfectly obvious that the qabalah wasn´t a dry intellectual interest for the author. While meditating on the Tree of Life and its various “paths”, Fortune would have dramatic visionary experiences during which she became totally immersed in an alternate reality. At one point, she encountered a powerful angelic being. At another, she merged with a huge luminous sphere seen as the Divine itself. Other aspects of her activities included public ritual worship of Isis and Pan, Masonic lore, magic concerning sex and polarity, occult novels, speculations about Atlantis, worship and prayer to Master Jesus, and a strong emphasis on the sacredness of Glastonbury. Fortune believed that the pagan Druids had converted peacefully to Christianity at Glastonbury, thereby making it the “heart center” of Britain. Naturally, this was connected to an interest in King Arthur and other characters from his legend, Dion Fortune sometimes being compared to Morgan Le Fey. Note that the author of this book has an Arthurian pseudonym.

The impression of Violet Mary Firth I got from “Dion Fortune and the Inner Light” is mostly a positive one. Despite her worldview being “out there” from a secular perspective (I mean, my acquaintances don´t claim to channel British lords or executed Greek philosophers), she nevertheless comes across as relatively rational and balanced. Perhaps the eclectic nature of her occult interests saved her from becoming too rigid, dogmatic and authoritarian? Her conflicts with other people in the occult milieu strike me as the usual “dynamic upstart vs. old guard” kind of thing. Fortune wanted to reveal as many occult secrets as possible to the interested public, and she often attacked various abuses in the milieu. Her opposition to Leadbeater seems to have been part of this. A curious detail mentioned by Knight is that three members of the Fraternity claimed to channel Dion Fortune herself after her death. Clearly, she had made an impression…

This may not be the most accessible book around, but if you are *really* into Western esotericism, ritual magic or secret societies, I suppose it could be of some interest.

I chose magic

“I Called it Magic” is the autobiography of Gareth Knight (Basil Wilby), an accomplished British esotericist. Knight joined Dion Fortune's Society of the Inner Light in 1953. Fortune had already passed away (or passed on!), the society being led by Margaret Lumley Brown, known to insiders as the Pythoness. When the Society changed direction during the 1960's, Knight resigned, not to return until 1998, when he became a de facto magus emeritus, working to return the SIL to its Fortunite roots. In the interim, Knight had his own group, which seems to have changed directions (or evolved) several times.

What struck me when reading Knight's book is the author's broad range of interests. I suppose you could call him eclectic! He has worked with Wiccan-type trance mediums, the Hermetic Qabalah, the maverick Christian clergyman Tony Duncan, and the colorful and cantankerous William G Gray. Some rituals are oriented to the starry realms above, others seek to penetrate the bowels of the Earth below. Both Christian, Hermetic and outright pagan elements are present in the thought and practice of this man and his associates. So far, Knight has experienced visions of Melchizedek, Jesus and Isis (among others).

Yet, there does seem to be a silver cord tying it all together. First, the already mentioned ritual aspect, coupled with powerful visualizations, often using the Tree of Life of the Qabalah as a template. Second, the positive view towards Christian symbolism and influence. Further, the use of trance mediums to channel information from discarnate entities of various kinds. Finally, the strongly “British” flavor of the group and its symbolism. On all these points, I assume Knight's (and Fortune's) activities owe a lot to the Golden Dawn tradition of “Christian” Hermetic ritual magic. The Brit-centered aspect may be annoying to those of more Eastern or universalistic bents, but personally, I found it rather reassuring. And I'm not British! It gives Knight's group (which is really a modern phenomenon) a homely, native and traditional feel. Arthurian legends and symbols have always played an important part in Knight's activities, indeed, the very name “Gareth Knight” is Arthurian. Like many other British occultists, Knight seems to have a fascination with the House of Stuart, but also with John Dee, Drake and Raleigh. He keeps politics to a minimum in the book, but I get the impression that he somehow wants to reconcile the Catholic Stuarts and the Protestant Elizabethans on the inner planes in order to heal the British nation. Ecological concerns also entered the group at one point, never to leave it.

Some parts of the book may strike the general non-magical reader as somewhat bizarre, for instance SIL's initiation ritual into the Greater Mysteries, which include the visualization of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus, with the person being initiated in the role of Jesus! I wonder where this ritual comes from? Carl Gustav Jung experienced a similar ritual in a dream, although the Swiss psychoanalyst became Mithras crucified instead. (Dion Fortune studied Jung.) Readers with delicate skeptical sensibilities might also be rubbed the wrong way by the author's insistence that John Dee was invisibly present at one of his rituals, or that a medium he employed was possessed by the spirit of a Neolithic girl who had been sacrificed… And yes, I'm being self-ironic, since I would have considered this material barking mad myself just ten years ago or thereabouts.

The book gives rare glimpses into the inner workings of the SIL. Margaret Lumley Brown and her channeled messages played a central, if somewhat secret, role in the society. Some members lived secluded, quasi-monastic lives on SIL property. Most members were never initiated into the Greater Mysteries, preferring to remain at lower levels of the initiatory hierarchy. Some members were West African students resident in London. During the 1960's, the society was rocked by something close to a revolution: Lumley Brown was de facto overthrown and sidelined, Dion Fortune's library of rare occult literature sold off (ironically with the Fortune loyalist Knight as sales agent!) and most magical work suspended. Instead, SIL's members were supposed to concentrate on their earthly lives in the world. Knight resigned, but continued to propagandize Fortune's system through the magazine “New Dimensions” and a number of books. Knight also reveals that many occult activities in Britain (including his own) were financed by a US millionaire, Carr Collins. Interestingly, Knight says absolutely nothing about Findhorn, William Irwin Thompson or David Spangler – not that he must, but I assumed the esoteric milieu in England was sufficiently small for these people to have met somewhere, especially given Knight's pro-Gaian orientation.

A large portion of “I Called it Magic” deals with the minutiae of writing and publishing occult books and magazines, so much in fact that I was tempted to headline this review “I Called it Publish or Perish”. That aside, many of Gareth Knight's books *are* interesting. The most useful one is probably “The Magical World of the Inklings”, which comes with a positive blurb from none other than Owen Barfield himself, who was mightily impressed by it. Another favorite of mine is “Experience of the Inner Worlds”, written under the influence of Tony Duncan. Knight has also written biographies of Dion Fortune (in her earthly incarnation) and Margaret Lumley Brown. I haven't read them (yet). As a publisher, Knight has also launched several other authors on their careers, often with money from the eccentric millionaire Collins.

At the end of the book, Knight wonders whether it was all worth it, and admits that he still doesn't really know. Personally, I think it was worth it – especially since Knight, if he hadn't become a magus, might have ended up working long shifts in a chemical laboratory, or becoming a mediocre jazz musician!

I know you're reading this, Gareth. Just one question: What is your star sign? You never say…

C S Lewis meets the Qabalah

Gareth Knight (real name Basil Wilby) is a British Christian esotericist. He is mostly associated with the Society of the Inner Light, founded by Dion Fortune. Knight has also headed an esoteric group of his own, today called the Avalon Group. He cites esoterically-inclined Anglican clergyman Anthony Duncan as one of his foremost influences. “Experience of the Inner Worlds” was originally published in 1975, during a period when Knight wasn't a member of the Society of the Inner Light, which may explain why the book contains some friendly criticism of Dion Fortune's path. Judging by the book, Knight has found a “hidden master” in C.S. Lewis. Indeed, some of his arguments are taken almost verbatim from Lewis' writings. I wasn't surprised to learn that Knight has written an entire book on the magical worldview of the Inklings, with the obligatory preface by Owen Barfield…

“Experience of the Inner Worlds” is a very interesting book, and many of its conclusions are similar to my own private theological speculations. However, the book is also very uneven. While some chapters can probably be read by beginners, others are more complex and difficult to understand. Perhaps inevitably, these are the chapters dealing with the Qabalah!

Knight is something as surprising as a genuinely Christian esotericist. By “genuine” I mean that he accepts several core Christian doctrines which are usually reinterpreted by other esoteric “Christians”. Thus, Knight accepts what the ecumenical Church councils have decreed concerning the Trinity, the Incarnation, the atonement and the resurrection. He argues at length against “monism” and pantheism. The author's take on panentheism is less clear, but many of his statements sound closer to classical theism. To Knight, God is a loving personal creator who isn't identical to his creation. God has free will and could have decided not to create. Matter isn't evil in itself, humans have experienced some kind of fall (although it's unclear exactly how), the Bible is inspired and Jesus really was God come in the flesh. Knight even uses a version of Lewis' Trilemma to prove his point. The author is less supportive of apocalyptical and millenarian speculations. He accepts reincarnation, this being his most glaring “heresy” compared to traditional-exoteric Christianity. When discussing the sources of Christian esotericism, Knight mentions Ficino and Pico, and he also has a high regard for the Picatrix. He never mentions Boehme, which is interesting. The main repositories of Christian esoteric knowledge, however, are Dante's “Divina Commedia” and the Arthurian legends.

Gareth Knight's take on modern Western occultism is mostly a critical one. He regards Theosophy as the main source of the mischief. Its impersonal view of the divine, obsession with weird cosmological and cosmogonical speculations, and promotion of Krishnamurti as an ersatz Christ figure are all up for criticism. Insofar as Dion Fortune accepted Theosophical doctrines, she is also criticized. Knight believes that most occult “revelations” doesn't come from God, but from something he dubs the Inner Creation, which is roughly identical to the etheric and the astral in other systems. The Inner Creation is the home of countless of spirit-beings, not all of whom are enlightened. Some of them are willfully blind and refuse to evolve towards the divine realm, preferring instead to preach a loveless monist message to human channels and mediums. Genuine angels are part of the divine realm, manifest God's love and affirm the Incarnation. As for magic, its main purpose is to attune the soul to God, although Knight doesn't deny that magic can also be a technique to tap various energies emanating from the Inner Creation.

Concerning mystical experience, the author believes that yoga and similar techniques don't lead to God, but rather to the “basic ground base of universal consciousness”, but this isn't God. He quotes Ruysbroek at length, arguing that the 14th century Flemish mystic was right when criticizing a purely impersonal mysticism during which the mystic completely empties his consciousness and thereby finds “rest”. Ruysbroek's criticism is applicable to Buddhism, Advaita and Neo-Advaita. Various trances and ecstasies aren't proper mysticism either – this would apply to those seeking the kundalini. Proper mystical experience (which Knight controversially compares with sexual union) entails that the soul forgets itself in loving communion with a personal God.

Despite his criticism of other traditions, Knight nevertheless strikes an irenic pose. Taking a cue from Lewis again, he argues that ancient paganism was a preparatio evangelica. Jesus was the allegorical pagan mystery god actually appearing in history. Platonism and Neo-Platonism contain many important truths. Knight approvingly quotes R C Zaehner, who argued that the dividing line between theism and pantheism goes within most religions rather than between them. Just as pantheists can be found in Christianity and Islam, theists can be found within Hinduism. Knight seems to regard such theism as a reflection of the Christian truth. Even heresies such as Gnosticism or Montanism can play a positive role, provided the Church learns to see them as potential correctives to shortcomings of the orthodox, rather than as existential threats to be wiped out. This “Inclusivist” attitude is also similar to that of C.S. Lewis. Knight admits that even Blavatsky's “The Secret Doctrine” can be interesting to study, provided that the seeker doesn't get stuck there!

As already noted, “Experience of the Inner Worlds” also contain sections on magic, Kabbalistic symbols and various meditative exercises. Being the more intellectual type, I preferred the more “theoretical” chapters on theology, but I don't doubt that at least “White” magicians can find something of interest here. In the end I give this book four stars out of five.

An inkling of magic

How much did Jack know?
Credit: Genvessel

Gareth Knight is a Christian esotericist of long standing. He is currently associated with the Society of Inner Light, associated with Dion Fortune. “The Magical World of the Inklings” is Knight's study of C S Lewis, J R R Tolkien, Charles Williams and Owen Barfield. The book is uneven, but then, it *is* difficult to write an elaborate analysis of these four giants of literature and spirituality.

For obvious reasons, Knight concentrates on the esoteric dimensions of the “Oxford Christians” (as they are sometimes called). The esoteric influence is most obvious in Barfield, a lifelong Anthroposophist and admirer of Rudolf Steiner, with Williams as the runner up, due to his involvement in A E Waite's offshoot of the Golden Dawn. However, Knight argues that even the fairly orthodox Christians Lewis and Tolkien were at the very least influenced by esotericism. Since both “esotericism” and “Christianity” are fairly broad terms, this isn't really surprising, but it may be dismaying for those who try to claim Lewis and Tolkien for some kind of main-stream evangelical Christianity.

The most interesting chapter deals with Lewis. Knight argues that Lewis' writings (except the popular apologetic works) are so imbued with occultism, that somebody with a detailed knowledge of the Western mystery tradition might well assume that Lewis was an initiate attempting to drape his esoteric message in Christian language! While Knight doesn't doubt Lewis' Anglican Christianity, he nevertheless argues that the Hermetic and pagan traits found in Lewis' works aren't simply literary devices (although, of course, they are that as well). He believes that Lewis was drawn to esotericism, perhaps at a subconscious level, while nevertheless also being deeply suspicious about many of its concrete manifestations. Lewis studied occultism in his pre-Christian days, conferred with Barfield (whose Anthroposophy can be seen as an esoteric form of Christianity) and was fascinated by the personality and ideas of Charles Williams (who never left the Golden Dawn very far behind). At the same time, Lewis for some time also believed that a friend of his was driven mad by dabbling in occultism, and he certainly didn't dabble in it himself. Knight's ultimate conclusion is that Lewis did believe in a Hermetic or Neo-Platonist worldview, where the cosmos is filled with countless of spiritual sub-creators, but he didn't believe that Christians should be too interested in them, instead directing their worship and obedience to the true God and his Son.

Once you accept this, many “esoteric” traits in Lewis' output are easily spotted. Venus plays a central role in his space trilogy as the unspoiled sister world of Earth. Each planet is ruled by an angel or planetary spirit, called Oyarsa. Ransom travels to Venus in a coffin, an implement often used in initiatory rituals into esoteric orders. Ransom's secret society in “That Hideous Strength” use white magic to counter the black magic of NICE. They awaken Merlin (a “Christian” magician) and make the planetary spirits appear one by one (compare astrology, etc). In "The Chronicles of Narnia", Prince Caspian and his explorers meet a magician who turns out to be a solar or stellar Logos, who even reincarnates. Caspian's ship sails through a dangerous "astral" sea, which Knight likens to the Abyss on the Qabalistic Tree of Life. Less easily spotted are themes perhaps inspired by Barfield, as when the consciousness of a person makes the same phenomenon appear as either threatening or benign, depending on spiritual perspective (Ransom and the insect at Venus). Knight's most startling claim is that the initial encounter between Merlin and Ransom in “That Hideous Strength”, when the Celtic magician asks the space traveler a number of extremely cryptic questions, isn't a sheer product of Lewis' imagination. Quite the contrary, he is describing an authentic secret ritual known only to a few British occultists, presumably from one of the Golden Dawn groups! I haven't seen this potentially sensational claim anywhere else.

Less sensationally, Knight believes that the method of the Inklings was “magical”. They all believed in the power of creative imagination, and saw it not as mere fancy, but as a technique to access a higher spiritual reality. Theoretically, this was elaborated upon by Barfield in his comments on Coleridge. Practically, this was the method Lewis and Tolkien used when they were writing their fiction. They entered into a kind of meditative state, in which ideas and pictures would freely enter their minds, as if propelled by an outside force. I found this interesting, since it explains Tolkien's claim that he wrote “Lord of the Rings” under divine inspiration and that the story was in some sense “true” – claims which seem almost literally insane unless put in context. No matter what you think Jack and Tolkien “really” saw during their magical spells, it's also interesting that so much pagan-esoteric material emerged from their subconscious (or the Overmind). Jung might have been impressed…

I haven't read literally all of “The Magical World of the Inklings”. The book tends to get tedious at times, as Knight obsessively mines every possible esoteric nugget even in lesser known or posthumously published stories of the four writers. As already mentioned, Barfield (who only wrote a few fiction stories) can be seen as the unofficial theoretician of the group, while Williams' literary output was truly “esoteric” and hardly even comprehensible to his friends, Lewis and Tolkien being the great popularizers (perhaps despite themselves) of the Western inner tradition. But yes, Knight is interesting and he does make a lot of intuitive sense. Somehow, both the space trilogy and “Lord of the Rings” become more comprehensible and even logical, if the esoteric angle is taken into account (alongside all the others!).