Applied Magic, Dion Fortune, and tricks I learned from occult books

Welcome back to the third blog. I’ve returned from vacation and am looking forward to the post holiday January/February grind. Luckily, I find work fulfilling and I’m looking forward to getting back into the groove of things. Life is good for me when I'm humming forward at a steady pace.

More than a year ago, I made a 4.5 hour audio recording and turned it into a video. I found a pdf of an old book online and decided to record myself reading it out loud. The book was Applied Magic by Dion Fortune. I uploaded the video on my YouTube channel and, somehow, a lot of people watched it (45k, as of this writing). Here’s the link, if interested: https://youtu.be/KxElpHJzUhU 

More people subbed to my channel through this video than any other (1.03K subs as of 1/10/23). I’ve checked, people have spent hundreds of hours listening to this video.

I was skeptical before I read it. I expected bullshit written by some hippie chick, wasting my time with some nonsense explaining her poor thinking in great detail. Though this was only slightly the case, I instead mostly found a surprising amount of usefulness and depth in the short book. The original publication was in 1962 by Aquarian Press, sixteen years after Fortune’s death. When you read her Theosophy Wiki, you’ll see why:

I went on to find a rich history within the framework of the beliefs of the author, filled with mystery and mysticism. I want to know what secret societies think they are doing when they practice “ceremonial magic” or why people would meet in secret wearing robes, etc. I want to know about strange beliefs and what motivates people. If one of them was willing to write a book about it, I wanted to know. I found out a lot, and it’s sent me down an interesting rabbit hole involving the occult, old religions, and secret societies.

Naturally, I had to ask, who was this person, Dion Fortune? Her name at birth was Violet Mary Firth and she was a British occultist, medium, and author who lived from 1890-1946. According to Gareth Knight in his book Dion Fortune and the Inner Light: “Fortune's paternal grandfather John Firth had devised a family motto, "Deo, non Fortuna" ("God, not Luck")...she would later make use of it in creating her pseudonym.” She believed she channeled her ideas from higher planes of existence. Throughout her life, she claimed to be a Christian first and foremost, rejecting the label of “pagan”, though her work has influenced modern day Neo-Pagan and Wiccan beliefs. She was a ceremonial magician, and was a member of at least one magical secret society: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

According to Ronald Hutton in his book The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (1999): “She believed that this erotic attraction between men and women could be harnessed for use in magic. She urged her followers to be naked under their robes when carrying out magical rituals, for this would increase the creative sexual tension between the men and women present.”

I used to read all sorts of crazy stuff when I was younger. During ages 12-16, I read a lot from Ripley’s Believe It or Not books. I’ve always been obsessed with strange and weird phenomena. Like the Bermuda Triangle, for example. There are many mysterious accounts of planes and boats going missing in the Atlantic waters between Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. I remember watching strange accounts of people on television. I’d flip between National Geographic, Discovery Channel, or Animal Planet over and over again. One guy in a plane said he went through a wormhole in the clouds over the Triangle. And of course, there have been many UFO sightings. Back then and still now, I’m fascinated by these stories. I always find myself wanting to know all the details, to decide for myself if I can find flaws in their stories, etc. I want to discover for myself if it’s complete bullshit or not. And I like hearing people’s stories. I remain skeptical, but I’ll listen in. I listen to everything, and believe nothing without further proof. An opportunity for critical thinking, a skill which has helped me.

I’ve always been interested in self-proclaimed mystics. What is there not to love about learning about people who either believed they could do supernatural feats themselves, or had followers who believed in such things. If this lady had some strange beliefs, I want to know what she’s really up to. I want to know why anybody believes in real crazy shit.

Applied Magic is the author’s account of hidden forces that drive humans and how they can be accessed. She covers her belief there are other planes of existence beyond the physical. It’s a short book. Short enough with sufficient depth for the diligent to read between the lines into what the author is trying to say.

The inherent claim in Applied Magic encourages contemplation on the nature of practical applications of secret and mysterious. The content within the book is a mixture of explanations of beliefs within secret societies, claims of lost ancient knowledge, and using psychology (particularly crowd/mob psychology) to affect change on the “physical” plane of existence. She mentions non-human entities on other planes of existence that can be harnessed through something she refers to as “the group mind”. The group mind is a practice of three or more people becoming in sync with one another’s thoughts. Focused attention, along with the aid of symbols or sigils, is where the power is held. There is a term “Cabala” mentioned throughout, something I did not know anything about, but have researched since then. Though certainly it would benefit from more insight, my understanding is that Kabbalah (as it is more commonly spelled) refers to an esoteric series of teaching with roots in Jewish mysticism. One note is its use of circles to bind power within. I’m reminded of ritual use of circles drawn on the ground and used to summon powerful entities, alluded to in the many forms of media, such as the first story in Neil Gaiman’s comic book series The Sandman. This is where the well known image of a group gathered around a circle in dark robes comes from in pop culture.

There’s a short chapter on Black Magic where she differentiates it from White Magic, explaining it is used with vengeful intent to do harm to another. She explains it can be hard to define where white magic can venture into territory of gray magic. There is use of sex or blood magic, and a sentence about how some involve invocation of pagan gods. This line is interesting because it points to the fact she believes in other lesser gods in addition to her belief in the Judeo-Christian God.

Perhaps magic can consist of practical use of knowledge we can find out about ourselves. Observe yourself, learn, then use the knowledge practically. Practical use of how the human mind works. Watch and learn something about yourself, and then go use it on other people, with empathy and sincere kindness. Each of us has a truly powerful tool with the mind, and it certainly seems like it can be under our control. Psychic in the way Jung used the term, in an integral fashion that Ken Wilber talks about. Using the knowledge of psychology, or of personal dynamics, knowing how my own brain and extrovert soul does and how it reacts. Watch it and adapt yourself, change yourself with your knowledge. Many examples, but one is knowing common biases, like common biases during bargaining that have been outlined in Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

Growing up, I understood the term “magic” as a term that referred to the illusions done by stage acts like Penn and Teller. Could I connect that to what the book was referring to? When Penn and Teller take a crowd to the edge of their seats, fully focused, and then pull off a dramatic trick, followed by applause as the audience is astounded. That is a real form of magic, especially if the mechanics of the trick are only known to Penn and Teller. The trick is in the mind, and the drama of the moment allows the mind to be more powerful than reality. The mind can understand reality, mold it, shape it, or ignore aspects of reality. One mind can convince a group of other minds to ignore certain aspects of reality, or to work together to alter the laws of the physical realm. The irrational is the master and the rational is the emissary in service to his master. Conceptually, the irrational wields greater power than the rational. Personally, I’m working on embracing the irrational in efforts to integrate it with my natural tendency for left brain dominant thinking, and in there reveals my bias.

My understanding of the model of the origin of a thought is this: a thought originates in the right hemisphere of the brain. It’s from the unknown and changes into a known, and sets the thought in a context, but without words or images yet. The thought flows leftward to the left hemisphere of the brain. Here the thought is sharpened, and attention is narrowed as the left hemisphere finds words and colors and images. It makes the thought into a bit sized piece and sends the thought back over to the right hemisphere where the thought is fitted within a contextual understanding of the entire situation. Thus all thoughts originate from the right side of the brain, i.e. the irrational. If human interaction or culture disrupts this line of thinking, it disrupts the natural order of things. An emphasis on left hemisphere dominant thinking, like performing complex surgery on exactly the wrong leg, is exactly what has gotten Western culture into its current existential crisis. The logical conclusion to Western left brain dominant thinking is our current example of high existential risk due to many world powers pointing nuclear armaments towards each other in an effort to provide peace among nations. We must get back to a better game theoretic to progress the human race in the long term. These are not my ideas. This theory is the main theme of the second part of Iaian McGilchrist’s 2009 book The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. My addition to the theory is to tie it with the recent work done by Daniel Schmachtenberger on existential risk models.

Common forms of communication are practical applications of this psycholtechnology (yes, that’s a word). Language along with non verbal cues provide a greater depth of conversation. Writing and books communicate information across time. We still have Plato’s Republic, you can learn from it and stack it on all the rest of the greatest books of all time. I learned from books how effortless effective communication can actually be. Transferring important ideas is a valuable skill. As it turns out, it’s not a hard skill to learn. Anyone can start just by observing the way a question is asked. One is more likely to receive a satisfying answer if asked with helpful context. Getting to the heart of the matter is an important step towards open and honest communication. In pursuit of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, it is best practice to express real intent to others. Proper communication feels like telepathy. With practice, it’s easy to picture helpful images or attach nonverbal communication to send helpful context.

The next cool part is learning how to use other people’s brains to solve your problem when you can’t see a clear solution. (And you can train your brain to choose the right problems to solve). It’s really important to emphasize here, only do this in service to others, don’t be an unethical piece of shit. If you don't know what that means, it means be like someone you look up to. If you don’t have anyone to look up to, read my stuff and be like me. I practice non violence as a value, and this extends from physical to mental, emotional, and spiritual advances. Or figure it out yourself, just be good and do good.

Good communication involves asking the right question to the right person. You can listen closely and interpret what they are saying. Don’t go by just the words of others. Words contain a lot of information, but focusing on them clouds the full picture of what the other person is meaning to say. Instead, read their emotions and go by them. And have self awareness if you are good at reading others emotions or not. Practice the skill. Teach yourself to listen. Pay close attention. Read layers within context. Always give the benefit of the doubt. Interpret what they are saying in the most positive light. Or at the very least, interpret it in a way that’s helpful towards you. Accept help from other people because people helping you is a good thing. It’s a good thing because you are a good person. And if you aren’t a good person, or you aren’t sure if you are a person, at least have the decency to cultivate a presence of good people around you to set you straight, especially if you’re a fuckhead. Be nice to people, don’t use them. Let them do their own thing. Some people must feel in control, other people like being along for the ride. All these things are in my current life practice, but talk to me in two 2 years when I'll be completely different. That’s part of why I’m writing this blog to: a) discover what I think b) document and revisit bad ideas later so I can drop them or change them.

It's rumored Dion Fortune wrote books from beyond the grave, dictated to a medium by the name of Margaret Lumley Brown, who took over the Society of the Inner Light after Fortune died. It has been said that Margaret Brown was a psychic and crystal-gazer with experience in supernatural phenomena. Brown was said to be able to see visions and divine the future when she gazed through her crystal ball. So it goes, the seer is granted clairvoyance; visions submitted into their thoughts. This is the origin of the stereotype of the Romani or Gypsy woman who offers to read your fortune, for a price.

A final strange detail, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was interested in her work. He was the author of the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories. Life is long for the curious, and it’s interesting a man like that investigated claims of the supernatural. If you are like me, you are curious and you want to know what’s going on, kind of like a detective. And like Sherlock Holmes, we ought to be open-minded, striving to be aware of all possibilities, while believing nothing without sufficient proof.

-Michael Kuhlman

January 10, 2023