The Problem of Purity.

London: Rider & Co.,, [1928]. How to tackle the insistent sex-urge First edition, first impression, in the scarce jacket. This is Fortune's most expansive text on sex-magic and "offers a version of a kundalini meditation designed to transform libidinous energy into positive thought" (van Raalte, p. 49). Violet Mary Firth (1890-1946), known as Dion Fortune, is recognized as one of the most important British occult leaders of the 20th century. Fortune's pragmatic and commonplace style wove occult practice into the warp and weft of the life of ordinary readers, making the arcane accessible. She studied psychotherapy at the University of London before the outbreak of the First World War and often combines ritual magic with psychoanalysis. This is particularly clear here, where she "advocates techniques for sublimating (rather than repressing) the sexual instinct" (van Raalte, p. 83). Although she may not have identified it as such, much of her writing contains a feminist angle. This is evident in her 1930 work Psychic Self-Defence, which acts as a how-to guide to avoid attacks from the astral plane, and was designed to help women entering the occult realm. In addition to her practical works, Fortune wrote mystical works of fiction interlaced in a deliberately didactic manner with her occult theories. This gave them what she described as an initiatory quality in order to draw people into her beliefs. Her occult society, the Fraternity of the Inner Light, was founded in 1924 and provided training in occult rituals. During the Second World War the society launched a "Magical Battle of Britain", during which members concentrated their mental energies to attack the "cloud" of Nazism over Germany. Octavo. Original brown cloth, spine and front cover lettered in black, double-ruled frame to front cover in black. With dust jacket. Minor bumps to spine ends, offsetting to free endpapers; jacket unclipped, spine lightly browned, tiny chips to head of spine and flap folds, a couple of nicks: a fine copy in near-fine jacket. Georgia van Raalte, "Literary Initiation in the Occult Novels of Dion Fortune", doctoral diss., 2022.