Dion Fortune's Rites of Isis and of Pan

For anyone who has read Dion Fortune's novels, the beginning of this book is a brief introduction to The Rites Of Isis and of Pan. Thereafter come The Rite Of Pan, more introduction, then The Rite Of Isis. I proclaim both rites beautiful. And blessing of blessings, 5 writings and 1 trance address by Dion Fortune are given. I am absolutely pleased with the privilege of reading this book.

Besides the fact that it actually brings the texts of the rituals in full, which good enough, the text is excellent and highly informative, the book is beautifully designed and some of the appendices are real jewels to be treasured by those who love the work of D.F.; May her work endure: this book is a clear contribution to that goal. Thank you Mr. Knight.

This book presents Dion Fortune's "Rites of Isis and Pan," fragments of which also appear in several of Fortune's novels. It also includes several essays by Fortune and others explaining how and why she used snippets of these rituals in her fiction writing. These essays make it clear that Fortune thought that her novels were "pulling back the veils" just a bit, exposing the workings of 'the Inner Temple' to her readers in furtherance of 'the Great Work.' These essays were incredibly interesting, revealing a greater Qabalistic scheme in the series of novels which Fortune planned to write, and were worth reading for this insight alone.Unfortunately, the Rites themselves have suffered over time; written in the slavishly rigid meter and clunky syllable-for-syllable rhyme scheme that was so popular in a lot of mediocre poetry from the Edwardian era, several long passages from these ceremonies can't help but seem stiff and hopelessly dated to the modern reader. That's a real shame, because these Rites are genuinely beautiful when they begin to reach their climax, and because the general outline and staging of these Rites hold the promise of great majesty and beauty. It seems that the stiff and dated language used in places throughout these ceremonies could be cleaned up, just a bit, with an extremely light touch, allowing these Rites to be performed with much greater effect.Also, students of the Golden Dawn tradition should be aware that these Rites contain evocation only; as written, the presence of Isis and Pan is to be felt as an astral presence during their performance. However, it would be a simple matter to slightly modify these Rites to allow for Pan and Isis' forms to be assumed by an adept in a temple setting.As I mentioned before, these Rites hold the promise of great majesty and beauty. It's easy to see how one could consciously make contact with the divine by performing or viewing them. However, in my opinion, these Rites would also require a bit of tinkering before they could performed to the maximum ritual effect.

Happy with the purchase; came in good time; good quality book

An excellent book. There is something here for fans of Dion Fortune's occult fiction; something for anyone keen to write their own rituals; and something for ceremonial magicians involved in group work.On the first count, Gareth Knight and Dion Fortune discuss the content of the novels, excepting `The Demon Lover', explaining why they are structured as they are, what Dion Fortune's aim was in writing them, and positioning them within a wider context - for D.F. intended there to be ten novels in all. On the second count, clear indications are set forth concerning the basic factors upon which any ritual needs to be founded. On the third, the last three appendicies contain many clues, and are at times more explicit, on the subject of polarity.The full rites of Pan and of Isis are printed here, rites that were performed publicly in their day. Parts are to be found in the novels but so far as I know the whole texts have never been published before. Also included is Dion Fortune's insightful article `Ceremonial Magic Unveiled'. It is a slim book, running to less than 140 pages, but packed with useful information, tacit instruction and experience-based opinion.

This is a fine book that gives the ceremonies that Dion Fortune wrote and used herself. many others have used these ceremonies.

Just as . Love it.

An interesting book as are all written by Dion Fortune. Worth reading it.