Dion Fortune - The Secrets Of Dr. Taverner

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Dion Fortune - The Secrets Of Dr. Taverner (Aquarian 1989: originally Noel Douglas, 1926: A Son Of The Night was not included in the 1926 edition.)

Preface
Dion Fortune - Introduction

Blood-Lust
The Return Of The Ritual
The Man Who Sought
The Soul That Would Not Be Born
The Scented Poppies
The Death Hound
A Daughter Of Pan
The Subletting Of The Mansion
Recalled
The Sea Lure
The Power House
A Son Of The Night

From the back cover blurb:

Based on real characters, this collection of tales portrays Dion Fortune's occult teacher as Dr. Taverner and Fortune herself as his assistant Rhodes. Dr. Taverner is a high calibre magician who uses his skills to help those so-called insane ... Vampires, astral projection, karma, demonic possession - all are dealt with in this thoroughly compelling collection.

'Dion Fortune' was the pen-name of Violet Firth (1890-1946), a figurehead of the Order Of The Golden Dawn, and Taverner is reputedly based on Aleister Crowley's sparring partner, MacGregor Mathers. Firth became friendly with her literary agent, Christine Campbell Thomson, who would also take a deep interest in the Occult world and included Fortune's The Flute Of Seven Stops in the final Not At Night volume, Nightmare By Daylight (1936)

Includes (tasty taster):

"Then the German we all saw was - ?"
"Was merely a corpse who was insufficiently dead."

Blood Lust: A young man, Donald Craigie, possessed by the spirit of a dead German soldier, attacks sheep, chickens and - in one particularly gory scene (for 1926) - all but bites through his girlfriends jugular.

"The more you see of human nature, the less you feel inclined to condemn it for you realise how hard it has struggled. No-one does wrong because he likes it, but because it is the lesser of two evils" muses Dr. Taverner, and later suggests the trenches had bred an outbreak of vampirism. It's a terrific opener to the collection - and Fortune writes in her short introduction that the story is "literally true"!

The Death Hound: This time the patient, Billy Martin, is a young man with a heart condition who believes himself pursued by a ferocious phantom hound: the presence is so substantial that it is all he can do to resist running from it - which, he knows, could prove fatal in his poor condition. The beast persecutes him almost relentlessly: his only hours of grace are late on Fridays - and that's the night the Black Lodge hold their meetings!

Taverner correctly deduces that Martin has made an enemy of a Black Lodge member as "this is a clear case of mental assassination" and, when it transpires that Martin has a rival for the affections of pretty Miss Hallom, the Doctor is able to rattle off the diabolist's details immediately: "Anthony Mortimer .... Grand Master of the Lodge of Set the Destroyer. Knocks, two, three, two, password 'Jackal'.

When Billy is almost killed fleeing from the death hound across the moor, Taverner decides it's time the creature was returned to it's master.

The Return Of The Ritual: A long lost ritual has fallen into the hands of a hapless occult novice and Taverner faces a race against time versus the dreaded Chelsea Black Lodge to retrieve it. Peter Roberts, the modern day incarnation of the man who originally stole the parchment, must now atone for his previous self's crime. Much insight into the murky practices of thought transference, auto-suggestion, etc., but the story pretty much fizzles out. Possibly a more fulfilling read for students of the occult than seekers of lurid horror thrills.

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The Man Who Sought: Arnold Black, racing driver and pilot, suffers a bang on the head in a flying prang. Post accident, he is compelled to drive at suicidal speed, in search of a girl he has never met but is hopelessly, passionately in love with. Meanwhile, 23-year-old Elaine Tyndall is besotted by a handsome apparition who nightly visits her bedroom.

Taverner correctly surmises that young Black is pining for the Egyptian Princess he loved and died for in an earlier life as a soldier of fortune. Elaine is her present day incarnation. True love conveniently conquers all.

A Daughter Of Pan: "Most men would say you have mated a couple of lunatics whose delusions happened to match" deadpans Rhodes at close of previous story as Arnold and Elaine are wed. It seems Taverner is in the habit of playing matchmaker to lost causes.

A new patient is admitted to Hindhead, Dr. Taverner's private nursing home. Between them, eighteen year old Diana's mother and governess have "disciplined" all individuality from the girl until there is nothing left but a soulless shell. "I should think it would have been a case for the S.P.C.C. if they had been poor people," astutely observes Dr. Rhodes - and this from a man who despises "defectives." Taverner leaves Diana to do her own thing, which, it transpires is dressing up in a pixie costume and running like a wild creature through the fir woods where, much to the betterment of her mental wellbeing, 'The Lordly Ones' - nature Gods and fairy folk - accept her into the fold.

Mr. Tennant is one of Taverner's long-term patients. According to Rhodes, "He could not have been called mad in the ordinary sense of the word, but was one of those curious cases of tedium vita, the desire for life had failed him." Diana's wild ways revive a spark in this moribund soul. For the first time Tennant confides a love of music. He proves an absolute fiend with a violin to the point where Diana is compelled to dance like a creature possessed.

Much to the fury of both their families, Tennant and Diana are married. No sooner is the ceremony concluded than they set out with their donkey to begin a new nomadic life in the wild, blissfully free from the bondage of civilisation. Another troublesome case successfully concluded by our occult busybody!

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The Scented Poppies: Old aged moneybags Benjamin Burminster has been obliged to renew his will four times in less than two years on account of each successive principal beneficiary committing suicide. Burminster's eldest remaining nephew, Tim Polson, is now in the hot seat. His brother Gregory, greatly concerned that Tim will go the way of his predecessors, wisely consults Dr. Taverner.

Taverner wants to know all about the three remaining candidates should Tim take his own life. Gregory Polson offers that Henry is an Engineer, and Bob, a "good-natured scatterbrain" is the secretary of a golf club. Lastly, Irving, a Bohemian artist, keeps dubious company and studies occult lore.

"He is not straight, sir. I have never caught him out, but I should never trust him. Then he is in with a set I don't like the look of; they play about with hashish and cocaine and each others' wives. They are not wholesome. I prefer Bob's wild-cat company promoters to Irving's long-haired soul-mates."

It gets worse. Not only is Irving "a bit of an old maid," but certain of his interests are "more usual in a woman than a man."

I'm no master of advanced magical and psychical theory, but I reckon it might pay to keep a close watch on this fellow's movements.

For the macabre-minded among us, this story is more satisfying than previous pair simply because he who is wilfully destroying blood relatives is a properly nasty piece of work, not some poor "defective." Decent resolution, too, as Taverner, who cannot abide those who betray the craft, has no qualms in turning the wretch's evil against him.