A key scene in Dion Fortune's occult novel Moon Magic inspired an article about communicating via metaphysical means.
In this scene, Priestess of Isis Lilith Le Fay describes how she attracted the right person to her by sending out a call on the right wavelength.
In another significant passage in this novel. Lilith Le Fay describes how she looked for clues to the pattern and purpose of her occult work:
“...it suddenly occurred to me that there was a kind of pattern running through my slowly formulating work which I had not observed before. It is well known to those who deal with the hidden side of things that such patterns exist, they are, in fact, caused by the invisible forces with which we work, and when these have been got in hand and are being directed by a planning will, the pattern appears. I knew, therefore, that if I could discern the plan of the pattern, all would be clear. There is a central thread that runs through all these things; find that, and you have the clue.
I know how to look for this thread — one seeks that which recurs and keeps on recurring. In the present instance there was one recurring factor, and one only...”
She is talking about unseen influences, the invisible forces that are at work in our lives!
Dion Fortune wrote elsewhere about the part that the Unseen sometimes plays in certain people's lives; here, she may be referring to a hidden hand that operates behind the scenes.
I find these words very interesting. They have a much wider application. Many people would benefit from performing a similar exercise, one in which they look back and try to identify and learn from important recurring factors in their lives.
This article is not the place to cover the exercise in depth, but in summary there are three steps to take: the first step involves looking for recurring factors, both good and bad, in key aspects of someone's life; the next step entails treating these factors as clues to a master plan and indications of what should or should not be done; finally, the practitioner might consider who or what might have designed and implemented the patterns and and laid the clues.
The practices that Dion Fortune describes remind me of and indirectly provide support for cult expert Steve Hassan's three exercises in which he advises people to process the past, tell their stories one element at a time and look for good aspects that can be salvaged.
Lilith le Fay's one and only recurring factor in her occult work is a man with red hair!
In my case, the most significant recurring factor is that the universe seems to have gone out of its way to ensure that I have always had a good supply of top-quality books and other reading material.
With hindsight, I can see that books came to me via a variety of ways: 'by chance', I have always lived close to good public libraries and/or bookshops; people would give or lend me books on a plate; I would feel a strong inclination to go somewhere or check online, then I would find a particular book that I had been looking for everywhere on sale at a very good price; I would walk past a book stand or bookshop window and notice that there was a good book positioned in the best place to attract my attention.
I have mentioned some of these 'coincidences' in various articles.
This is an extract from an article about my childhood experience of public libraries:
“One of the librarians in this one told me that I could go down into the storage area and borrow whatever books I liked. I am still wondering why they gave me this privilege and whether unseen influences were at work.“
It is interesting that something similar happened to the writer Benjamin Farjeon when he was a boy.
When I was working long hours and couldn't get out much, someone with a large collection of Puffin books stepped forward and, without even being asked, offered to lend them to me. This is how I discovered writers such as Joan Aiken and Zachary Grey/Gray's creator Madeleine L'Engle.
I have identified the pattern; I have assumed that the plan is for me to produce articles in which I comment on some of the books that I was supplied with. The question of who or what is behind it all is another matter; it remains an unsolved mystery.
