Dion Fortune's first magical mentor was the Irish occultist and Freemason Theodore Moriarty. She had befriended him while still involved in psychotherapy, believing that he could help one of her patients, a young man who had been fighting on the Western Front and claimed to be plagued by unexplained physical phenomena. Moriarty performed an exorcism, claiming that the young man was the victim of the soul of a deceased East European soldier which had latched onto him as a parasite. Fortune became an acolyte of Moriarty's Masonic-influenced lodge, which was based in Hammersmith, and joined his community of followers living at Gwen Stafford-Allen's home in Bishop's Stortford. Moriarty spent much time talking about the lost city of Atlantis, a topic that would also come to be embraced by Fortune. Fortune later fictionalized Moriarty as the character Dr. Taverner, who appeared in a number of short stories first published in 1922, later assembled in a collected volume as The Secrets of Dr. Taverner in 1926. Like Moriarty, Dr. Taverner was portrayed as carrying out exorcisms to protect humans from the attacks of etheric vampires.
This is an interesting and an entertaining book. Basically its with a guy (Dr. Rhodes) who works with Dr. Taverner who helps people according to his esoteric training where other more conventional methods fail in helping people. He is the witness of many of Taverner's techniques and so he is like an eye witness to the workings of the occult. Also Taverner has to battle against people who use the occult for purely personal...
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It's an interesting book. The author claims that a lot in the book came from real experiences.....spooky :)
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The Secrets of Dr. Tavernor is an easy and quick read, highly recommended for anyone interested in the occult.. Dion Fortune's adventures in the realm of early 20th century england wonderfully describe the practical side of studying the western mysteries. Its chapters follow a series of case studies, allegedly pieced together from Dion Fortune's experiences during her training with Dr. Moriarty, this book allows the reader...
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An interesting collection of short stories by Dion Fortune. Dr. Taverner, assisted by the young Dr. Rhodes, runs a nursing home in which patients suffer from a variety of "psychological" disturbances which are all psychic in nature. Very much a Sherlock Holmes bent, as Dr. Taverner, being an adept of an occult order, is able to hone in and cure these various problems using unconventional means. I found the stories to be...
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THE SECRETS OF DR. TAVERNER is perhaps the best known work of fiction authored by renown Esotericist and Psychiatrist Violet Mary Firth (a.k.a. Dion Fortune). Dr. Taverner runs a very UN-conventional nursing home. He uses the ancient, arcane knowledge that he has learned as an Initiate of an esoteric secret order in his diagnosis and treatment of mental disturbances. Modern psychiatry could learn a lot from Dr. Taverner...
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