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Episode 118: Female Occultist pt. 5
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Welcome back Witches! In this episode, we delve into the intriguing lives of Tituba, the enslaved woman at the heart of the Salem witch trials, and Dion Fortune, a pioneering British occultist and author. So get in losers, we're exploring the mystical realms of history and magic in Female Occultist pt. 5!
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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio- The Witch
References:
- Life Story: Tituba. Women & The American Story. New York Historical Society. https://wams.nyhistory.org/early-encounters/english-colonies/tituba/
- Erin Blakemore. (2023). The Mysterious Enslaved Woman who Sparked Salem’s Witch Hunt. History.Com. https://www.history.com/news/salem-witch-trials-first-accused-woman-slave
- Russell Yost (2019). William Griggs and the Salem Witch Trials. The History Junkie. https://thehistoryjunkie.com/william-griggs/
- Rebecca Beatrice Brooks. (2015). Abigail Williams: The Mysterious Afflicted Girl. History of Massachusetts Blog. https://historyofmassachusetts.org/abigail-williams-salem/
- Evan Wetzel (n.d.). The Crucible- A Dramaturgy Notebook. https://journeys.dartmouth.edu/thecrucible/critical-analysis/
- The Society of the Inner Light. Dion Fortune. https://www.innerlight.org.uk/events
- Coulombe, Charles. Heretic of the week: Dion Fortune. (2020). Catholic Herald. https://catholicherald.co.uk/heretic-of-the-week-dion-fortune/
- Dion Fortune. (2026). Encyclopedi.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/french-literature-biographies/dion-fortune
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Witchcraft and Occult Practices
00:00:00
Speaker
Do you feel drawn to learn more about witchcraft and the occult, but feel lost in where to start? Then welcome to Get In Loser We're Doing Witchcraft, a podcast all about what it means to be a witch and where to get started on your journey. Join us as we navigate through various witchy topics and share what we've learned about the craft. So get in witches for part five of our female occultist series, learning all about Dion Fortune and Tituba.
Exciting Reads and a Book Club Announcement
00:00:35
Speaker
So, I stayed up way too late reading this damn book last night. It's so good. It's a really good. for like I bought it on a whim because of the cover and it was on sale. Yeah. Literally, it is beautifully written. It is so good.
00:01:07
Speaker
um and it has in i mean We're going to talk about this on our book club episode and for you know all of our listeners, if you have no clue what we're talking about, our what would it be? July read or July read? No, June. bre no June read comes out July 1. Yes, I think that's what we always get confused because we do that a lot. We're like our June. No, what book are we on? i have no clue yeah What month is it in June comes out on the first of the next month. Yeah. So I know this episode is going to release after
00:01:43
Speaker
Um, our book club for June is over, but all of those, if you are not a supercast member and you would like to hear us talk about the amazing books that we read, and join our supercast because all of the videos where we talk about them are all
Creating a Personal Grimoire
00:01:58
Speaker
there. And this month's book is so good. Yes, it is. It's so good. I am so like, I think I have three hours left and I'm just like, I don't even want to put it down. I have like, I don't know. I probably have like 40% left. Like I know I'm over halfway done, but it's just so good. It's so good. And like I've been ever since we read Hilary Burton Morgan's book, Grammar Girl, I've been wanting to like get this
00:02:33
Speaker
you know, take my fucking binder that I have that I've made this grimoire and instead just get this beautiful like bound leather thing, yeah everything, keep track of everything and put recipes and little notes that can be passed down to my girls and stuff. And I'm just like, I cannot wait to start this. Like this, having something like this to pass on through generations that doesn't just include spells, but it includes like, Just gardening tips or recipes or simple solutions for like if you're sick or something like that Like I my god. I want to do it so bad. I love it I love that they just they have this book that they passed down like from woman to woman in the family So ah I love it.
Adventures in Book Shopping
00:03:20
Speaker
Yeah, I love this book so much
00:03:22
Speaker
it is It is so good. The way it's written and just like the way the author talks about just the characters and what they're doing and what they smell like and just, oh my God, it's so good. It is. We needed a good read too because we've had some not so great picks. Speaking of books today, somebody posted in the spouses page a picture. I hate when people do this, but I had to go to the BX anyway. They had posted a picture of um this like at the books that were at the BX, and I'm like, well, I have to go to the BX at lunch anyway, because I was buying all of them. Your BX has books? Yes, which is crazy because the BX and England had no books, and so when we got here, I was like, oh my God, there's books? What the fuck?
00:04:14
Speaker
so Yeah, I had to go to the BX in the commentary anyway to buy things for the event that I'm hosting on Friday. And while I was there, I'm like, let me just go ahead and look. And I was able to get Laura Olympus volume one. Oh, yay. I'm so excited. And I can't wait to read to bring it with me on the plane, I think. Um, I read them all in one sitting, like, like every time I get a new volume, I'm like, start to finish. Okay. I don't know how many volumes they had there, but they had multiple ones. And I was like, just stop yourself. You don't need them all right this second. And you could probably get them cheaper at Target when you get back to the States. Oh, maybe. Or Barnes and Noble. Yeah.
00:05:00
Speaker
ah Barnes and Noble has exclusive editions. That's usually where I order mine from. They have different covers and stuff. That's cool. Yeah. I loved the cover of the one I got. So I was just like, wow, this is beautiful. That artwork is so pretty in these. is like just like It's like everyone has its own color palette. So i I want to say the first one is like pinks and blues and purples and the art is so pretty. yeah Or you'll have sections that are like greens and golds and oh, I love it. Yeah, I'm really, really excited about it. um So I had to do like a separate transactional, obviously, because I'm like, well, this will be a stuff, you know, for my event, I'm going to get reimbursed for it. This is mine. This is my thing. But yeah, moving on from books, let's get through this episode.
Who Was Tituba, the First American Witch?
00:05:51
Speaker
I'm going to be talking about
00:05:53
Speaker
I love, okay, I love these episodes so much. series I love it. I love learning about female cultists. I just, I love ah all of it. So we are talking about Dion Fortune and Tituba. um And sorry if you heard that noise in the background, kids are home and they're just going to be kids, I guess. I don't know what the hell that was. Probably good to put a disclaimer too that my neighbor got turkeys and so the rooster is pissed off and he's been yelling all day about these damn turkeys. Oh my God. Yeah. so I thought it was a kid. Yeah. It's not a turkey. No, it's a rooster. It's a rooster. It's a chin about the turkeys. Yeah, he's not making his normal like cock-a-doodle-do noises. He's like screaming and yelling and stomping around the yard. I never thought I would hear the day a rooster was screaming, but literally he's screaming and he sounds like a child. He's quieted down. I think maybe he's taking a nap. but yeah Hopefully. If you scream, I can't help. If you hear some random sounds in the background, it sounds like kids are screaming. Don't worry, kids are fine. It's a rooster. well
00:07:02
Speaker
But yeah, so I guess I'll kick it off and just start with Tituba. But before I do, like, I'm gonna be covering Tituba, obviously, like I said that like three times now. But I wanna give a little disclaimer here because there's a lot of assumed history and fantastical legends surrounding the Salem witch trials. And as we mentioned in last week's episode, and again in different episodes sprinkled throughout the last three seasons, the actual truth of the witch trials is devastating hysteria that saw innocent people being accused of terrible things. And the lore surrounding Tituba makes her out to be an evil witch who practiced voodoo, which was completely misunderstood during this time, much like it is today. However, with that being said,
00:07:46
Speaker
I'm covering Tituba in our cultist episode, not because she was a witch or practiced magic necessarily, but because she is so often referred to as one of the first witches
Tituba's Role in the Salem Witch Trials
00:07:56
Speaker
in American history. Much of what we know about Tituba is literally just based on the testimony she gave during the Salem witch trials. Outside of that, all we really have are myths and legends that are most likely very fabricated and completely untrue. What we do know is Tichuba was an enslaved native woman who lived in Salem Village, Massachusetts in the late 1600s. And we know that Tichuba was a woman of color and was likely of indigenous Central American descent. But again, we don't know for certain. But during this time, slavery in the colonies was on the rise and the West Indies was the most important center for the slave trade during this time. so
00:08:36
Speaker
It kind of makes sense that she would be from that area of the world. We don't know much about her early life, where she was from, or how she came to be enslaved. But what we do know is that in 1692, Tituba lived and worked in the home of Reverend Samuel Perez, who was the minister of Salem. And some sources say that Reverend Perez bought Tituba and Barbados, where she was enslaved as a child and that she was brought to Massachusetts in 1680 when she was a teenager. And it was also said that at some point she married another enslaved man named John Indian and that the two had a daughter named Violet. But both of these things are highly speculated. No one actually knows for sure. um So this could all just be made up. But while living and working in the Paris home, it was Tituba's job to help Samuel's wife and daughters keep their home running.
00:09:25
Speaker
and so Obviously, as I mentioned, she's associated with the Salem witch trials and she's listed as like you know oftentimes the first witch in American history. and In 1692, Samuel's daughter, Betty, and his niece, Abigail, came down with a mysterious illness. The girls had reportedly been playing a divination game where they drop an egg white into a glass of water and supposedly the girls were doing this to divine who they would marry and to show them the shapes of their future lives. And while playing this game, the girls supposedly saw a coffin in one of the glasses and they began barking like dogs
00:10:04
Speaker
babbling and crying hysterically because of that.
Confessions and Chaos in Salem
00:10:08
Speaker
So when you know they couldn't really figure out what the fuck was going on, they brought in a doctor. This doctor's name was Dr. William Griggs, and he treated them. And of course, at the time, the immediate suspicion was that someone was performing witchcraft to punish the minister and his family. And he said that there was, quote, no doubt that they were under an evil eye, which is fucking bullshit because I'm pretty sure. So when I was researching Tijubai, I didn't want to get too, too, too deep in the woods with all of the shit. But I remember like we read like it was it's pretty much highly speculated that these kids ate some fucking hallucinogenic mushrooms or something. And yeah that's what happened.
00:10:48
Speaker
But there was also a lot of like, this was a time where there wasn't a lot of entertainment. Right. So being able to, you know, have everybody looking at you and having something exciting. A lot of times it was probably just also made up and asked. Yeah. And so a church member then told Tichuba, you know, once the doctor came and was like, oh, it must be the devil. um A church member told Tituba to make a cake, to reveal the identity of the person who is tormenting the girls, which honestly feels like a fucking trap to me, because why why would you do that? So anyway, she trusted this person. She made the cake using the girl's urine um and rye meal. And then she fed the cake to the dog. Although some sources say that she fed the cake to the girls, which is disgusting. and
00:11:43
Speaker
although you' toopa Right, exactly. like I'm sorry, but I'm going to claim you're a witch too. No, I'm just trying. You tried to feed me that shit. Disgusting. Get this witch graft out of here. but yeah so Yeah. Although Tichiba was just trying to help the girls, the girls after possibly ingesting the cake or knowing that the she fed the dog the cake accused Tichiba of witchcraft. And I mean, it's just... I'm just saying, I wouldn't necessarily say that if someone fed me a urine cake, I would accuse them of witchcraft or working with the devil, but there would be some fucking consequences. I'm just saying that. Tichumbo was interrogated by Samuel Parris and his advisors. When she was accused of being a witch, she denied being a witch and she denied doing anything that would harm the girls.
00:12:35
Speaker
Betty and Abigail, though, were too young to be witnesses in the case, which I call bullshit on because they're the ones who started this shit in the first place. But they're too young to be witnesses? But also where this I call bullshit on this is, you know, we've covered a lot of this in like the history of witchcraft. And they had like young children testifying against parents, against aunts and uncles. So and like young, young children. young like These girls were like a little bit older. Yeah. So that's bullshit. it's Complete bullshit. And
00:13:10
Speaker
I was reading that it's theorized that Samuel Paris knew the girls were lying, so he made up the excuse that they were too young to testify and instead of actually like wanting to get to the truth. So, Tituba was not arrested at first, but Samuel punished her anyway. and Tituba claimed that Samuel beat her for weeks until she confessed to witchcraft. But by this point, the damage was done. And by February 25th, 1692, so like a month later, two more young women, Anne Putnam and Betty Hubbard were accusing Tituba of using magic to hurt them. These women also pointed the finger at Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne, stating that they were working with Tituba and using magic and because Betty Hubbard was
00:13:55
Speaker
of age to be a witness in court, she was able to formally accuse the women who were subsequently arrested on February 29th. It's important to note Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne are the perfect examples for this, but during this time in the colonies as well as throughout Europe, people who were often accused of witchcraft were not people of color. They were people who lived on the outskirts of society and those who were marginalized and looked down on already. Sarah Goode was a beggar who was looked down on by the members of Salem for her lack of financial stability, and Sarah Osborne was involved with a dispute with her dead father's estate, and she had a bad reputation because she had had an affair with an indentured servant. So these three women, Tichuba, Sarah Goode, and Sarah Osborne, were questioned by magistrates while chained in the Salem meeting house, surrounded by fellow community members and their accusers.
00:14:49
Speaker
Both Sarah Osborn and Sarah Good denied the accusations against them, but Sarah Good did at some point during this whole debacle claim that she thought Sarah Osborn might be a witch. um And I'm reading my notes here and I'm cracking up because I'm put, which that is stank coochie behavior.
00:15:11
Speaker
I'm joking, of course, um because these women were terrified and for good reason. like I can't even imagine sitting in chains in a room with everyone I know screaming at me that I am a witch and hurling untrue and outlandish accusations at me. like I think most of us would do anything that we could try to think of doing to get out of that situation without any regard for what the consequences might be. But Tituba even stated that she saw Sarah Osborn and Sarah Good use magic to hurt the girls and that they had help from a man from Boston to perform their magic and that they had demons in the form of animal companions who helped them to hurt others. She then confessed that Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne bullied her into becoming a witch to hurt Ann Putnam and Betty Herbert.
00:15:59
Speaker
and Additionally, because she just couldn't stop there, she ended up reporting that she signed the devil's book with blood and that the devil showed her Sarah Goode and Sarah Osborne signatures in the book. She said that the book had nine signatures in it, meaning that there were more witches in the community. Tituba went on to claim that she had flown on sticks with other witches in the community, and she said that the witches had meetings in Reverend Samuel Parris' house, but they did magic to keep him from finding out. Tejoba's account convinced the community that there was a pandemic of witches within the Salem community, and she couldn't have known how the lies she told and the stories she crafted after weeks of beatings by Samuel Parris would have led to the Salem witch trials, but unfortunately that's exactly what happened.
00:16:44
Speaker
She really took it on a wild ride though. She really did. She's like, not only that, but also I saw her. She signed her name. It reminds me of that. I saw the whole book. I saw the whole thing. So anyway. The Magistrates believed that Tituba was telling the truth because her story didn't change no matter how many times she was questioned. But you know after a confession, many more people in Salem began seeing witches and spirits and their stories all matched up with what Tituba had confessed to, which and no shocker there because most of the community was in the Salem meeting house when she told her outlandish story.
Tituba's Survival and Unknown Fate
00:17:28
Speaker
like Yeah, she already like did the groundwork and all they had to do was be like, oh, I don't like this person, which
00:17:35
Speaker
Hey, did you know that I think she signed the book? Yeah, literally, yeah. So it just, it turned into a fucking frenzy. And because of the amount of people coming out with the crazy ass stories like Tichibas, the magistrates just accepted all of the stories as the fact and further proof that Tichiba was telling the truth. So because Tichiba had confessed to being a witch, she was no longer considered an immediate threat to the community. and she was not executed. I was reading that actually no witch who confessed to practicing witchcraft was actually executed during the Salem witch trials, but she was eventually moved to her prison in Boston to make room for all the newly accused witches in Salem, but she was brought back regularly to testify in the trials of those who were accused of witchcraft.
00:18:22
Speaker
Because she was considered a star witness in like everyone's fucking case, she was able to outlive the hysteria of the witch trials. But even after the hysteria ended, no one from Salem bailed her out of jail. So she just stayed in the Boston prison for like a good year. And when she was eventually brought to trial for witchcraft in Bay of 1693, the hysteria was completely over and ignoramus was written on the back of her charges, which at that time meant that the court found no truth to the charges and they recommended her case be dismissed.
00:18:57
Speaker
But even still with no accusations of any crime and with her case being dismissed, they didn't let her out of prison. She just sat there until somebody bailed her out. Yeah. She just stayed. And then also, like isn't it wild that you know after the hysteria comes down, they look at her case and they're like, ignoramus. and But then they're like, but we used it to murder all these people. Right. Yeah. yeah Yes. but you know like no one would bail her out and I guess like I don't know I'm assuming there was like fees associated with the case I don't know but
00:19:33
Speaker
Because Samuel Parris, who you know he owned her, which is fucked up, but you know yeah this was the time, he refused to pay any of the fees necessary for Tituba to get out of prison. So she was sold to another English settler who agreed to cover her court fees. And after this point, there really isn't anything else known about her life. There's no telling what happened after this. Nobody knows. Which is crazy. I remember I would have gone into hiding. I would have been like, that was too much excitement for one lifetime. So change my name. It is Tammy now. That's what I would do. So after the hysteria, though, that was the Salem witch trials.
00:20:17
Speaker
restitution and exoneration were provided for the families of almost all of the victims who were falsely accused, imprisoned, and executed.
Reflecting on the Salem Witch Trials
00:20:25
Speaker
However, Tituba was not. Throughout time, she has remained a symbol for the horrors and the injustices that occurred and has largely been blamed for the start of the witch trials. When in all actuality, if you think about it, Dr. William Griggs is the true catalyst for this hysteria. Like, and Reverend Paris or whatever his name is, like, he basically beat her until she which we know like during this time that's essentially what happened to anyone that was accused they were tortured until they confessed under duress. Yeah i mean like really shit die it was the men that was the problem here and just briefly on this little fucking jackass because i wanna spend too much time on william gregs but.
00:21:06
Speaker
I feel like it's important to note here. He was given the responsibility to diagnose whether or not the accused were possessed by the devil and how much of a witch the afflicted were. He was also most likely the one to have investigated women's breasts to see if they had the witch's tit. Outside of this though, not much is known about his life. He was never looked down upon for diagnosing witchcraft whenever they found out that none of this shit was actually true and that it was just some outlandish fucking claims. yeah like He was just allowed to live the rest of his life. like Nothing happened. Well, as we know too, you know today we've made like strides in medicine and we know like there's all these different things that people can be diagnosed with, whether it's like autism or ADHD or you know like Down syndrome or anything anything like that. Like epilepsy or something. Epilepsy, yeah, because that was a big one too. They would be like,
00:22:03
Speaker
someone who would have an epileptic epileptic seizure and they'd be like, oh, they're possessed by the devil. Oh, they're under a witch's spell. And it's like they didn't understand all these things that we understand today. And so when someone showed signs of some kind of disease, illness, sickness, whatever it is, they would automatically say that it was like devil possession or demon possession or you know witchcraft or whether it be that they were a witch or that they were being like, attacked by a witch. So there's that meme that goes around and it always makes me laugh where it's like, it says something about like,
00:22:39
Speaker
medicine in the 1800s or something like that. And it's like, or you have ghosts in your blood, take some cocaine. Yeah. But like, essentially, that's, that's how it was. Yeah. And then, you know, and there's, like I mentioned, you know, with Tichiba, could she have practiced, you know, voodoo? Sure, probably. Who knows? Like, it just depends. We don't know much about her early life. We don't know what her culture was really. We don't know how she was raised. We don't know what sort of practices she brought with her to Massachusetts, but we know it wasn't devil worship. Right. So, I mean, what we do know about her, I mean, this is a really weird, I feel like, occultist episode when it comes to just this half of it, when we're talking about Tichuba, because it's not, like, usually what we talk about, but, right you know, with her, I mean, i she still is
00:23:31
Speaker
according to American history and the way we look at it, a big part of when it comes to witchcraft and when it comes to just our history in general, somebody that we should learn about and revere in many aspects. I mean, I hate that she felt like in order to get out of this situation, her only option was to lie and make up an outlandish story. But, you know, I mean, what else could she do? Exactly. And she didn't know what the consequences was going to be like, who would have fucking known that shit? Yeah, I mean, they say hindsight's always 2020. There's no way that like, telling one story or outlandish story that she told, yeah like knowing that that would have the outcome that it did.
00:24:12
Speaker
Yes.
The Life and Influence of Dion Fortune
00:24:13
Speaker
And I know that like we are always, not we as in me and you, but just like our culture and our society in general is just like, well, I would never do that from that situation. Well, if you were like beaten for weeks, probably starved, and you know people have said worse under duress, like we see these these um true crime podcasts and we see these true crime documentaries all the time where you know it when you're under extreme duress and you're being tortured, essentially, and being questioned and questioned for hours and hours on end with no break, you will confess to anything. yeah so yeah But that is a bit about Tichba. Now we're going to talk about Dion Fortune.
00:24:56
Speaker
ah She was an occultist, a medium, and a pretty significant author in the occult world during her time. She was born on December 6th in 1890 as Violet Mary Firth in North Wales. She was born to a wealthy English steel manufacturer clan. I put that in quotes because apparently her family was a clan. oh I was like, okay. Like Scottish? i yeah I don't know. They just referred to them as a clan. and I was like, oh, maybe that's just how this person writes. and Then the next thing that I went to you to like do some research on her, they also called them a clan, so I don't know.
00:25:35
Speaker
Also, I don't know if you heard the rooster, but he just... I did. He just woke up. He's like, I'm mad again. But their family motto was Dio Non Fortuna, which translates to God Not Fortune. And the motto was coined by her grandfather, Her mother was known to be a registered Christian science healer, and her father was a solicitor, and the family followed the Christian science religion, which I was gonna look this up and I completely forgot. I don't think I've ever heard of the Christian science religion, so I'm not really sure what the basis of it is. But, I mean, we know her mother was like a healer for them, so I don't know if it's like actually rooted in science or not, but thought I would be interested to look that up, and I just forgot.
00:26:19
Speaker
At the age of four, Dion was said to have visions of lost Atlantis, and she also believed that she had been a temple priestess in her former life. In 1906, she joined the Theosophical Society of Madame Helena Blavatsky, who we've talked about before. of Yeah, she actually has ties to a lot of the female well male and female occultists that we've talked about before. so when her family moved to London. and But she rejected the Theosophists' reliance on Eastern thought due to Indian revolt against British rule. Dionne, at this point, she's still violent. She attended an agricultural college in 1913 where she had a nervous breakdown that was said to have been brought on by the psychic attacks of a woman that she had worked with.
00:27:01
Speaker
And this led her to become interested in Freudian and then Jungian psychotherapy, where she also started exploring various occult groups that were in London at the time studying theosophy. She's said to have ultimately rejected both Freud and Jung due to both being unable to comprehend the full range of the human mind's capabilities. In 1918, she became a therapist after working as a psychoanalyst in the Medico Psychological Clinic in London. And this is where she met Dr. Theodore Moriarty, who we've also talked about in a previous occult episode. He had ties to Moina Mathers.
00:27:37
Speaker
She quickly became interested in the esoteric theory and practice as a result of her own psycho-spiritual experiences and the overlap that existed between psychology and the occult. This led her to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1919, where she studied occultism under Moriarty and became a member of the Alpha A Omega Lodge that we've discussed in episode 69 when we covered Moina Mathers. So in the 1920s, She transferred to Stella Macciutina Lodge of the Golden Dawn, and that's the one that was ran by Miss Moyna Mathers herself. And Dion developed mediumship capabilities and contributed to the occult and psychological interest of the time. In the late 1920s, Dion was said to have a powerful vision about the need to adopt the Christian dynamic, leading her to join the Christian Mystic Lodge of the Theosophical Society. Though it was noted that she did so somewhat reluctantly,
00:28:31
Speaker
She eventually became the president of this particular lodge, but her presidency quickly gained her a strong disapproval by the senior figures within the theosophical society and the Golden Dawn due to her beliefs and strong magical psychological bias. This disapproval led her to found the community of the inner light in Glastonbury, and then soon she expanded her headquarters to London. And choosing Glastonbury for her like society's space came from her interest in Arthurian legends and its ties to this area.
00:29:05
Speaker
So throughout her teachings, Dion went back and forth in emphasis between Christianity and paganism sided with the occult, and the society members still go back and forth on it like to this day. So the Society of the Inner Light, this was founded in 1924 with the help of an entity who was known to Dion as the Inner Plane Master. and its focus was on teaching what she referred to as Western mystery tradition. Dion purchased an unused army barrack that they built into a lodge, naming it the Chalice Orchard Club. So according to the society's website, the master was a spiritual being who, having experienced and learned the lesson of life on Earth, had no further need physically to incarnate and who was undertaken to help humanity progress by giving spiritual insights to those who are attuned to receive them.
00:29:57
Speaker
The general aim of this is to balance the earthing of spiritual principles under the general headings of the power, love, and wisdom. It's a lot of words. Yeah. yeah there So i I used their website for some stuff because I was like, oh, what is the Society of Inner Light? There's not a lot about it. But their website is very, like the the wording is a lot of run on sentences and it's very odd. like the way that they word things is weird. So I was like, I don't really know. But also some like people think that this divine being was Jesus. So there's a whole thing about that too. Okay. Yeah, I was like, interesting. The society of the inner lights prime purpose is to maintain and expand the bridge that exists between outer life in the world and spiritual forces upon the inner planes.
00:30:49
Speaker
The Glastonbury Society was said to have been a charged spiritual center with Christian spiritual roots set upon the abbey, legendary roots centered upon its Arthurian and Grail legends, the elemental roots centered upon the tor and its surrounding hills. Shortly after founding the society, Dion attracted a group of followers and over the years produced teachings on a wide range of metaphysical subjects that included masculine and feminine relationships, the esoteric orders and their work, the training and work of the initiate, the Arthurian legends, principles of esoteric healing, and more.
Legacy of Dion Fortune and the Society of Inner Light
00:31:26
Speaker
And then the three basic elements of the society, like this is what they consider the whole human being to consist of as these three basic elements. So the first is the incarnated or the incarnationary personality.
00:31:41
Speaker
And this is like what they call like quote unquote the normal like human personality that we develop from birth that's formed and influenced by a variety of factors like hereditary, environmental, cultural, educational, etc. The second is the evolutionary or the evolutionary personality. This one is also known as the soul, individuality, or higher self, and it encompasses the essence of experience of previous lives. Its influence could be the positive demonstration of unique abilities at like one or many levels, and its downside is thought to be the need for lessons in life yet to be learned. And then the third part is the divine spark or spirit.
00:32:25
Speaker
The spark or spirit is thought to emanate both the incarnationary and evolutionary personalities, which should be its servants. It's thought that direct awareness of this state might not be achieved immediately, and the reality of its existence may seem like imperceptible, even though our very existence depends on it. Its full expression is thought to bring sanctity or genius, and it's considered like a somewhat rare condition, apparently. So moving on, in 1927, Dion married Dr. Thomas Henry Evans. And during this time period, Dion wrote 10 pieces on the occult alongside two fictional works. Between the 1930s and 1940s, Dion continued to publish her writings. Most of them from this time period can be found in The Inner Light magazine.
00:33:17
Speaker
She published eight works, one of which was a textbook entitled The Mystical Kabbalah. I think, I'm trying to remember, The Mystical Kabbalah I think you can actually buy from the society's website, but none of her other works are available for purchase from them, which I thought was kind of weird. That is weird. Yeah. ah Dion moved away from Christianity during this period of her life, and many attributed this to the influence of her husband and his focus on Pan, as well as the influence of her magical partner, Charles Seymour, who was convinced that 20th century Christianity was spiritually bankrupt.
00:33:54
Speaker
i mean i know i was like Her last published work was in 1939, and it's speculated that she stopped writing at this time to to getting divorced, the outbreak of World War II, and the dissolution of her partnership with Seymour. Though some speculate that it was because she turned in a new direction and had sought the help of Alistair Crowley in her efforts. Yeah, she's literally connected to everyone. yeah In 1940-46, we know like at this time World War II broke out, and this left Dion in difficult circumstances due to bombings surrounding her headquarters, but this didn't stop her. She and her followers mounted a psychic defense of Britain against Great Britain's enemies in a project that was eventually published as the Magical Battle of Britain.
00:34:47
Speaker
which I think we've talked about before too. We have. I love that topic so much. I was like, this is amazing. I feel like we already talked about it. During this time, she was able to keep the inner light going with a series of weekly letters that eventually had to be moved to monthly letters due to paper rationing. and there was like a stop on magazine and book publications at this time too. Her works from this time period were collected and edited by Gareth Knight, who is another occultist, and he published them later essentially. Knight also took her Arthurian traditional teaching and published his one work called The Secret Tradition of Arthurian Legend. Dion died on January 8, 1946 from leukemia
00:35:30
Speaker
and During her lifetime, she contributed 29 pieces of writing to it occult studies, all of which can be purchased through the publisher Red Wheel or Wiser. The Society of Inner Light is also still operational, and they're offering memberships and study courses to those within London
Closing and Connections
00:35:46
Speaker
Footprint. It's said to attract a steady stream of dedicated people into their membership and ranks. Admission to the society is open to both men and women, but you must successfully pass a study course that takes approximately one year to complete. And its focus is on the tree of life of the Kabbalah. Wow. That's the unfortunate. Yeah.
00:36:06
Speaker
That is super interesting. yeah and She literally was tied to everybody that we've covered before. Every time I was like doing a little bit of research, I'd be like, we've talked about this person, we've talked about this person, we've talked about this person. Just the fact that not only she's super connected, her traditions and everything live on like, you know, I just I feel like a lot of the especially female occultist that we talked about so far in the series like either they kind of didn't get the acclaim that they needed or deserved or like a men took credit for it or maybe just like
00:36:48
Speaker
their work is lost, or it's really obscure in the fact that she still has a frickin' found this fucking society. It's still glowing. And it's still teaching the same things. Yeah. And she contributed so much. And also, I feel like we forget sometimes just how difficult that time period must be outside of just normal living your life, being a pagan in this time period, but then also like going through all these fucking wars and pandemics and shit. Early 1900s through 1950 must have been a terrible time to live in. Yeah. yeah so It's wild. but like and It's like you said too, like a lot of times, especially the women in the occult, like
00:37:36
Speaker
either a man took credit or they didn't get anything during their lifetime. Like we talked about with Pamela Coleman Smith, how yeah she during her lifetime she lived a poor life. yeah She you know was very lowly paid for any of her contributions. yeah And now like she this tarot deck that most people listening to this podcast probably use, She like did the artwork for yeah, and it's and she like and it's now like her name is on it when before her name wasn't even on it They had the publisher's name before hers like it was this whole ordeal and now like now that she's been dead now She's famous now. She's getting this like a claim essentially. So yeah, and you have people I've noticed this and it's kind of like it's a little bit off topic, but not really I'm gonna say anyway
00:38:28
Speaker
But I had a conversation with a friend about this recently. I've noticed a lot of people recently just because, you know, it's cool to like read tarot now and it's cool to like be a part of the occult and it's cool to manifest and like all this stuff. I keep seeing people walk around with tarot tattoos on like, but it's her artwork. And I'm like, yeah oh, who is on your body? Like, yeah. Yeah. She has a pretty cool artwork. She does. Yeah. And ah you know I'm just like, man, I just... And it's people that I know that they don't know anything about Tarot and they're just like, oh, I saw this artwork. But that's how like widespread it is now. And her artwork is being seen and and everything. And I love that. But also it's like, I hate being that person. I feel like such a hipster being like, but
00:39:18
Speaker
I liked her first. You know what I mean? But honestly. Yeah. Do you even know what tarot is? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm like. And this one who calls it tarot. And I'm like, it's not that. It's not a carrot. Yeah. I'm going to practice my carrot. Yeah. Please stop. So. Dump. But I love this. This was a great episode. Yeah. Yeah. They always are. I love these episodes so much. But that's it. I did. Ta-ta for now.
00:39:59
Speaker
That's it for this episode of Get In Loser We're Doing Witchcraft. You can find our source material for this episode linked in the show notes. If you love this episode, we would be forever thankful if you leave us a five-star review on wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you really love the show and want more Get In Loser content, check out our Supercast link provided in the show notes or search the Supercast website for Get In Loser We're Doing Witchcraft. There you can purchase a membership to our podcast to maintain exclusives, including episodes early, shoutouts on the show, access to or asking anything from our monthly newsletter, a promo code for merchandise, and more. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at GiddinWitches, or email us at we'redoingwitchcraft at gmail.com. Join us next week for a deep dive on Leo's because it's Leo's same time. Until then, blessed be with you.