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Psychic Self-Defence (Dion Fortune) · 34 of 129

5. Vampirism-c

Taverner, but the actual facts are such that they were unsuitable for a work supposedly designed to amuse. At that time I was doing the tutorials in abnormal psychology at the clinic I have spoken of, and supervising the work of the other students; one of them took counsel with me concerning a case that had come to her in private practice, the case of a youth in the late ‘teens, one of those degenerate but intellectual and socially presentable types that not infrequently crop up in old families whose blood is too blue to be wholesome. This lad was taken as boarder in a flat which the student shared with another woman, and they soon began to be troubled with curious phenomena. About the same time every evening the dogs in a neighbouring mews began a furious outcry of barking and howling, and a few moments later the French window leading on to the verandah would open. It did not matter how often they got the locksmith to it, nor how they barricaded it, open it would come at the appointed time, and a cold draught sweep through the flat. This phenomenon took place one evening when the adept, Z., was present, and he declared that an unpleasant invisible entity had entered. They lowered the lights, and were able to see a dull glow in the corner he indicated, and when they put their hands into this glow, felt a tingling sensation such as is experienced when the hands are put into electrically-charged water. Then began a mighty spook-hunt up and down the flat, and the presence was finally cornered and dispatched in the bathroom. I have staged the incident somewhat more picturesquely in my story, but the essential facts are the same. The result of the dispatching of this entity was a marked improvement in the condition of the boy patient, and the elicitation of the following story. The boy, whom we will call D., was in the habit of going to sit with a cousin who had been invalided home from France suffering from alleged shell-shock. This young man was another scion of a worn-out stock, and it transpired that he had been caught red-handed in that unpleasant per version called necrophilia. According to the story elicited from the parents of D., this vice was not uncommon on certain sections of the Front, as were also attacks on wounded men. The authorities were taking drastic steps to put it down. Owing to family influence the cousin of D. was able to escape incarceration in a military prison, and was placed in the care of his family as a mental case, and they put him in the charge of a male nurse. It was while the male nurse was off duty that the unfortunate young D. was misguidedly employed to sit with him. It also came out that the relations between D. and his cousin were of a vicious nature, and on one occasion he bit the boy on the neck, just under the ear, actually drawing blood. D. had always been under the impression that some “ghost” attacked him during his crises, but had not dared to say so for fear of being thought mad. What may have been the exact percentages of neurotic taint, vice, and psychic attack, it is difficult to say, nor is it easy to decide which was the predisposing cause that opened the door to all the trouble, but one thing stood out clearly to all beholders, that with the dispatch of the psychic visitant, not only did D.’s condition clear up immediately, but after a short, sharp upheaval the cousin also recovered. The method of dispatch used by the adept, Z., was to pin the entity inside a magic circle, so that it could not get away, and then absorb it into himself through compassion. As he completed the operation, he fell over backwards unconscious.
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Themes
Astral Lightcosmology

The universal fluid or medium of occult philosophy — Lévi's Great Magical Agent — that transmits will, thought, and magical influence between minds and matter, and preserves the impress of all forms and actions as a book of consciences; cognate with akasha and the anima mundi. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (a doctrine of hidden affinity) in being a substantival medium that can be charged, directed, and abused.

The passage describes a 'dull glow' and a 'tingling sensation such as is experienced when the hands are put into electrically-charged water,' consistent with Fortune's concept of the Astral Light as a medium for psychic phenomena.

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Exorcismpraxis

A ritual intended to drive out an unwanted possessing or afflicting spirit from a person or place, restoring it to its unafflicted state. Distinct from spirit_conjuration (the operator summons and binds a spirit that was not already present, rather than expelling one) and from possession (the affliction this ritual answers, not the ritual itself).

The adept Z. performs a ritual to 'pin the entity inside a magic circle' and 'dispatch' it, which is a clear description of an exorcism or spirit expulsion ritual.

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Hauntingcosmology

The interference of a discarnate human soul, or the lingering condition of a particular place, with the living — Dion Fortune's distinction between a soul in distress that clings out of ignorance and ties itself to a person or locality, versus deliberate malice. Distinct from animism (indwelling nature-spirits inherent to a place by nature, not a specific dead individual's soul) and from psychopomp_journey and ancestor_veneration (guiding the dead onward, or the living's ongoing ritual obligation to the honoured dead) in naming the pathological case: a soul that has NOT been guided onward and instead interferes, whether with a person or a place.

The core narrative involves an 'unpleasant invisible entity' causing disturbances (opening windows, cold draughts) in a specific flat, which Fortune distinguishes as a discarnate presence interfering with the living.

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Magical Willpraxis

The doctrine that human volition, cultivated by discipline and emancipated from passion and servitude, is the primary instrument of magical operation — will confirmed by persistent acts acquires causal power over self, others, and nature; distinct from faith and from mere desire.

The adept's ability to 'absorb it into himself through compassion' and dispatch the entity demonstrates the application of trained will and magical technique to alter reality.

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Psychic Attackpraxis

The doctrine and practice of one person deliberately inflicting harm on another through trained will, mind-power, or occult technique alone, without physical contact — producing exhaustion, illness, breakdown, or death in the victim; recognised cross-culturally as witchcraft, hexing, or the evil eye, and treated in Western esotericism as a genuine occult hazard requiring diagnosis and defence rather than dismissed as superstition. Distinct from magical_will (the general doctrine that trained volition has causal power, of which this is one malevolent application) and from spirit_conjuration (which subordinates an already-existing summoned spirit, rather than directing the operator's own power at a person).

The text discusses the difficulty of deciding between 'neurotic taint, vice, and psychic attack,' explicitly naming the concept as a potential cause of the boy's condition.

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Psychic Vampirismanthropology

The condition, often unconscious on the vampire's part, in which one person chronically drains the vital force of another in close relationship, leaving the victim persistently exhausted or ill while the vampire is sustained. Distinct from psychic_attack in mechanism (a parasitic, often unintentional energy-transfer within an ongoing relationship, rather than a deliberate willed assault) and in being a chronic condition rather than a discrete event.

The passage is explicitly from a section titled 'Vampirism-c' and describes a cousin who bit the boy on the neck drawing blood, draining his vitality through a parasitic relationship.

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Shared concept: Astral Light — The universal fluid or medium of occult philosophy — Lévi's Great Magical Agent — that transmits will, thought, and magical influence between minds and matter, and preserves the impress of all forms and actions as a book of consciences; cognate with akasha and the anima mundi. (derived)