Sane Occultism, Article Review Example

Sane Occultism is a book written by Dion Fortune in the 20^th century.  Fortune is known as one of the knowledgeable and levels headed British writers on esoteric matters. She was born on December 1890; she died at the age of 55 from leukemia in Middlesex London. She was a prolific writer of the acolyte and supernatural matters. Infarct she was very influential in the modern revival of magical arts. One of the main themes that are common in most of the fortune writing is the issue of occultism secrecy. This paper reviews some of the fortune’s articles, in the book sane occultisms.

The book “Sane Occultism” is based on writer’s knowledge and experience with magic and occultism. The writer of the book clearly expresses her opinions about occultism. In her life, Fortune had an opportunity to learn firsthand about occultism.  She learnt many benefits and dangers of the magic and painful lesson and developed practical, safe guard. At some point, Fortune was a member of secret society, before she was expelled for alleged of breach of secrecy. In her book “sane occultism”, fortune is adamant that although the studies of magic and occultism deal with the unseen forces, they must still be grounded in reasons. She, in fact, attempts to explain how claims of psych and past lives could be verified. The book covers a wide range of topics including mediation and psychics, black occult practices as the blood sacrifice and psychic vampirism. In addition, fortune talks about details of the need for secrecy, obedient to a master and vegetarianism.

In topics such as secrecy in occult societies and group karma in occult societies, the author describes the life in what she calls sane occultism and shed light on many controversial subjects. For instance, she provides her views on secrecy in occultism. She introduces the fact that the science of occult has always been hidden. Fortune believes that it is wrong that the reason for secrecy has not been questioned yet.  She is of the opinion that, just like other scientists reveals their discoveries to the world; the occult scientists should reveal the knowledge for the benefit of humans. She goes ahead and explains how the science of occultism is similar to the common knowledge. For instance, she writes, “the formula used in occultism is like that of mathematics, in that they are an expeditious way of achieving certain known ends that have been explored in the past.”  Fortune strongly believes that the knowledge of occultism should be readily available to those people who qualify.

However, it is worth noting that she insists that the knowledge of occultism should only be available to those who qualify and not just everyone. According to her, this is similar to other professionals. She expresses her fear that the knowledge can be misused if it falls into wrong hand. In addition, just like other knowledge that professionals guard for safety, the occultism knowledge should be protected only for safety. The author gives her view from her own experience, for instance, she writes that occultism is neither inherently good nor inherently bad. She believes that it can be used for good or ill reasons depending on the ethics and consciousness of the occultist.  The fortunate thing as Fortune believes the fact that abilities that are more potent emerge through proper training and qualification and can hardly be used selfishly of for ill purpose.  She, however, express her view that without training there are many inherent dangers in occult practice.

It is conclusive that the book “sane occultism” is a well written and an interesting survey in the occult society. It portrays the author as a knowledgeable writer on matters of esoteric.  The book offers important information that help the reader understand the topic of occultism.