Magical Fiction
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Today what passes for magical fiction is either called paranormal or fantasy (sword and sorcery). Paranormal currently means mostly badly-written vampire or time travel novels.
Thankfully, back when Crowley and Dion Fortune were writing, these subgenres didn't exist and I think it was a little easier to have fiction published which didn't fit into niches.
Dion Fortune used her novels as teaching vehicles that were meant to augment her non-fiction books. Gareth Knight says in his bio "Dion Fortune and the Inner Light", that in the non-fiction books you have the facts. In the fiction you have the experience. (paraphrase) He further says that Fortune is drawing on the subconscious mind's response to certain symbols in the receptive reader. He quotes her as saying, "Knowing this as a novelist and knowing as a psychologist the part played by daydream, I decided to put the two together and produce novels that should come as near to an inititation ceremony as possible."
I admit that it is years since I have read The Moon Child, but I would assume that Crowley had a similar intent in writing it. I'm not sure if he ever explained this so plainly though.
Anyone read these novels and have an opinion? Anyone agree or disagree that they do what Fortune or Crowley, set out to do? Persephone -
I love her novels. She does direct you to certain books like The Egyptian Mysteries by Iamblichus in The Goat-Foot God and to an extent demonstrates its use with the "godforms" in that particular novel.
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I do agree that Fortune's fictional work can effectively open the gates of inner planes consciousness (as she called it). Fortune (who, in my opinion, has a fantastic ability to transport the reader to higher states of consciousness, but almost no knack for developing characters or constructing a real story) was herself very much inspired by John Cowper Powys, who's Glastonbury Romance I highly recommend if you're looking for something along similar lines.
Gustav Meyrink has written some pretty good magical fiction. The Golem is the most prominent, though my personal favorite is The White Dominican. The Angel of the West Window provides an interesting, if skewed, perspective on John Dee. Meyrink was an actual practitioner and member of Evola's UR Group. I don't know that I would go so far as to say that he was a great adept (of course, I could be wrong), but in my opinion he does manage to strike the mark as often as not in his fictional works.
Robert Irwin has created a fantastic parody of a Thelemic magical order in Satan Wants Me. Definitely not the work of a serious magician, but I recommend it for pure entertainment value nevertheless, along with The Arabian Nightmare and his writings on Arabic literature.
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Hmmmmm I've read Moonchild and all of Meyrink's novels. The Golem is the best novel by Meyrink from a literary and structural point of view. The rest of Meyrink's novels suffer from the same defect I see in Moonchild - using the novel as a platform to cram as many occult ideas into it as possible. Whenever I read Meyrink I can always spot the 2 - 3 pages somewhere in the middle where he goes off on an occult "sermon", the core around which the rest of the narrative is wrapped. I've read Robert Irwin's Arabian Nightmares and attended one of his talks. He's great - very funny and definitely a good writer, coming more from a mystic Sufi tradition as well as being a well-respected authority on the Middle East.
One thing magick should teach us is that truth is stranger than fiction. Great literature is about exploring the totality of the human experience. If so, the Tarot as a set of universal archetypes should provide inspiration for writing endeavours. Use Appendix V or 777 and follow the Atus as mapped onto the Sephiroths and you have an basic narrative that initiates.
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@he atlas itch said
"Great literature is about exploring the totality of the human experience."
As well as (along with every other art form) creating structure for the manifestation of formless inspiration, or translation from the Neschamah to the Ruach (true occult fiction should gently guide the attention from the Ruach to the Neschamah, in my opinion).
@he atlas itch said
"If so, the Tarot as a set of universal archetypes should provide inspiration for writing endeavours. Use Appendix V or 777 and follow the Atus as mapped onto the Sephiroths and you have an basic narrative that initiates."
Interestingly enough, William Kotzwinkle, who's writings very few people, if any, would consider even vaguely occult, seems to do exactly that.
I might mention Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker, which, if you read between the lines, is packed with occult gems. Alan Moore's Voice of the Fire works along similar lines. This kind of thing seems much more like true occult fiction than the fantasy/horror/vampire novels mentioned above.
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Alan Moore's Promethea is excellent as well as League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1910. Oliver HAddo & Simon Iff are both characters & the story deals with a Moonchild being created. Very good stuff though I think Promethea is a bit heavy handed at times.
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Kenneth Grant's Gamaliel got me into a magical dream too. A magical book for me for sure!
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Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and thoughts. Some of these authors are new to me, I'll check them out. Persephone
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All the fiction by Kenneth Grant.
Also authors who have not claimed to be esoteric writers such as HP Lovecraft is a great read. -
At least 2 of Lovecraft's major influences were Golden Dawn initiates - Blackwood and Machen, and I'm investigating Lord Dunsany.
Fortune, really? Can't stand her.