Psychic Self-Defence is Dion Fortune's 1930 manual on recognising, diagnosing, and countering what she calls psychic attack — deliberate or incidental harm transmitted through occult means. Fortune draws on case studies from her own practice within the Western mystery tradition: thought-form attack, vampirism, hauntings, elemental assault, and the particular hazards of ceremonial magic gone wrong. She describes each type of assault in concrete terms, then moves to techniques for diagnosis, shielding, banishing, and restoring the energetic field.
The book is structured in four parts: an opening taxonomy of attack types, a section on differential diagnosis (distinguishing objective psychic assault from ordinary psychiatric disturbance), an analysis of motive, and a final set of practical defences. Fortune's voice is unusually direct for an occult writer of the period — she insists throughout that the practitioner must understand psychology as well as magic, and that most apparent psychic attacks have mundane explanations. The book has been in continuous print since its first edition and is standard reading within the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn lineage, modern Wicca, and the Society of the Inner Light.
The commonest form of psychic attack is that which proceeds from the ignorant or malignant mind of our fellow human beings.
Part I, Chapter II — "Analysis of the Nature of Psychic Attack"
First lines
I am of the opinion that psychic attacks are far commoner than is generally realised, even by occultists themselves. Certainly the general public has no conception at all of the sorts of things that are done by people who have a knowledge of the powers of the human mind and set to work to exploit them.
Contents
Part I — Types of Psychic Attack
I. Signs of Psychic Attack
II. Analysis of the Nature of Psychic Attack
III. A Case of Modern Witchcraft
IV. Projection of the Etheric Body
V. Vampirism
VI. Hauntings
VII. The Pathology of Non-Human Contacts
VIII. The Risks Incidental to Ceremonial Magic
Part II — Differential Diagnosis
IX. Distinction Between Objective Psychic Attack and Subjective Psychic Disturbance
X. Non-Occult Dangers of the Black Lodge
XI. The Psychic Element in Mental Disturbance
Part III — The Diagnosis of a Psychic Attack
XII. Methods Employed in Making a Psychic Attack
XIII. The Motives of Psychic Attack I
XIV. The Motives of Psychic Attack II
Part IV — Methods of Defence Against Psychic Attack
XV. Physical Aspect of Psychic Attack and Defence
XVI. Diagnosis of the Nature of an Attack
XVII. Methods of Defence I
XVIII. Methods of Defence II
XIX. Methods of Defence III
XX. Methods of Defence IV
Reception
Standard reference inside the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn lineage and the broader Western mystery tradition; recommended in modern Wiccan, ceremonial-magic, and Inner Light Fraternity curricula since publication. Outside the tradition, the book is treated as unfalsifiable — its case studies presuppose the reality of the energetic frame they describe and offer no test by which a sceptic could distinguish psychic attack from ordinary psychiatric or interpersonal causes. Fortune's prose is unusually clear for an occult writer of her generation, which has helped the book stay in print continuously.
Frequently asked
What is Psychic Self-Defence about?
It is Dion Fortune's 1930 manual on recognising and countering psychic attack within the Western mystery tradition. Drawing on her own case studies, Fortune describes types of occult assault — thought-form attack, vampirism, hauntings, and the hazards of ceremonial magic — then provides practical techniques for diagnosis and protection.
Who was Dion Fortune?
Dion Fortune was the pen name of Violet Mary Firth (1890–1946), a British occultist, ceremonial magician, and writer. She co-founded the Fraternity of the Inner Light and is regarded as a central figure in twentieth-century Western esotericism. She trained initially in the Theosophical Society before developing her own system.
Is Psychic Self-Defence still relevant today?
It remains in continuous print and is assigned reading in ceremonial-magic, Wiccan, and Inner Light curricula. Outside those traditions it is more commonly read as a historical document of interwar British occultism — an account of how modern psychology and occult practice were negotiating their shared territory in the 1930s.