Customer Reviews

Dion Fortune And The Inner Light

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Finally, a biography that does justice to Dion Fortune! This well-written and insightful book kept me up into the wee hours. Besides a full account of Dion Fortune's life (written with the cooperation of her Society of the Inner Light, and the use of its archives), there are rare photographs, and numerous excerpts from spiritual communications received by her. In addition to the outer history, Gareth Knight seamlessly weaves in a deep understanding of the inner dynamics of DF's life, and the life of the Society she founded. This is a book not to be missed!

This is a significant book about Dion Fortune and Knight has the advantage of being in possession of many documents that were originally available only to members of the Servants of the Inner Light.

For anyone wishing to know more about the woman who was Dion Fortune this is required reading.

Having enjoyed Dion Fortune's novels and other occult works, I eagerly anticipated this supposed definitive biography.However, as a biography it has its shortcomings.It tells us very little about Dion as a person. It does not bring her or her associates alive, as a good biography should.It says nothing about her personal relationship with her husband Dr Thomas Evans or their split up.It may be argued that her occult work was more important than her personal life, but we expect in a biography more personal details than are given here.The biography by Alan Richardson, though opinionated, is more interesting to read and gives a more extensive discussion of her novels.It is interesting to find out that when she was born Dion was thought to be dead.This happened also to pioneer mystic Anna Kingsford, an influence on Dion through McGregor Mathers and the Golden Dawn.The book gives for the first time a reliable estimate of Dion's birth time: 55 minutes past midnight(6 Dec.1890, Llandudno).Some may find the inner workings of her occult group as given interesting, but apparently the Society of the Inner Light as it exists today has moved on from the fuddy duddy stuff. We still wait for a real biography of Dion.

I think I have read most books on Dion Fortune, but this one is definitely my favorite. It is an engaging, well-informed, and well-writen account of this fascinating woman's life and work. Gareth Knight was granted access to the archives of the Society of the Inner Light, and the material from these archives offers a fascinating insight into the workings of the group in Dion Fortune's days. Despite being very involved with Fortune's work (he was trained in the Inner Light during the 50's and 60's), Knight manages to stay fairly objective and factual, more so than Fortune's previous biographers. I absolutely couldn't put this book down. I consider it to be the definitive DF biography, and I don't expect it will ever be bettered.