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Ο δαιμονικός εραστής

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Πολύ στενά τα όρια ανάμεσα στο δαιμονικό και το θείο για τον Λούκας. Τυφλωμένος από την άκρατη δίψα του για δύναμη και εξουσία, παραμερίζει αξίες και ιδανικά, προκειμένου να αποκτήσει τα ανώτερα μυστικά της απόκρυφης γνώσης. Στο δαιμονικό του παιχνίδι εμπλέκει την πανέμορφη και αγνή Βερόνικα και υφαίνει το δολοπλόκο ιστό του γύρω από αυτήν, δίχως ποτέ να φανταστεί ότι το θύμα γίνεται θύτης του. Η τιτάνια σύγκρουση ξεσπά, καθώς τα αντίθετα αντιμάχονται μέσα του και όταν επέρχεται η λύτρωση, τότε πλέον είναι ανάλογη μιας ψυχής που βάδιζε πάντοτε πάνω στην κόψη του ξυραφιού.

255 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1927

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About the author

Dion Fortune

75books438followers
Violet Mary Firth Evans (better known as Dion Fortune), was a British occultist and author. Her pseudonym was inspired by her family motto "Deo, non fortuna" (Latin for "by God, not fate").

From 1919 she began writing a number of novels and short stories that explored various aspects of magic and mysticism, including The Demon Lover, The Winged Bull, The Goat-Foot God, and The Secrets of Dr. Taverner. This latter is a collection of short stories based on her experiences with Theodore Moriarty. Two of her novels, The Sea Priestess and Moon Magic, became influential within the religion of Wicca, especially upon Doreen Valiente.

Of her non-fiction works on magical subjects, the best remembered of her books are; The Cosmic Doctrine, meant to be a summation of her basic teachings on mysticism; The Mystical Qabalah, an introduction to Hermetic Qabalah; and Psychic Self Defence, a manual on how to protect oneself from psychic attacks. Though some of her writings may seem dated to contemporary readers, they have the virtue of lucidity and avoid the deliberate obscurity that characterised many of her forerunners and contemporaries.

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5 stars
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59 (24%)
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
Profile Image for K.J. Charles.
Author64 books11.2k followers
Read
December 8, 2020
Occult novel with a profoundly weird romance. The premise is that they're twinned souls but due to past life shenanigans it's all gone horribly wrong, leaving him with no heart and her with no brains. So he's basically a callous shit and she's useless, and he's using her to try to spy on an occult lodge but he falls in love and I'm not going to spoil the plot because it's rare for me to read a book and have NO IDEA what's going to happen, but here we are.

It's all extremely WTF. As occult thrillers of the interwar period go, it's cracking good fun (if this is your idea of fun) and it's certainly a fascinating look into some world views.




Profile Image for Nickolas B..
362 reviews90 followers
May 10, 2016
Αρκετά περίεργο βιβλίο... Συνάντησα ένα από τα πιο ιδιαίτερα ζευγάρια στην παγκόσμια λογοτεχνία... Βερόνικα και Λούκας!
Η σχέση αυτού του ζευγαριού ειναι κάτι παραπάνω απο μια ερωτική σχέση... Περνάει μέσα από μαγικές ατραπούς, από προηγούμενες ζωές και από συμπαντικές διαστάσεις... Τι είναι όμως πραγματικά αυτό που την κάνει τόσο ιδιαίτερη;;;
Η συγγραφέα παράλληλα με την ερωτική ιστορία προσπαθεί να βάλει τον αναγνώστη στον κόσμο του μυστικισμού και της μαγείας με έναν πολυ γοητευτικό τρόπο γραφής...
Στο κάτω κάτω ποιος θα μπορούσε να το κάνει καλύτερα αυτό πέρα απο την τελευταία μεγάλη μάγισσα της Αγγλίας;;;
Profile Image for T.D. Whittle.
Author3 books209 followers
July 18, 2018
I am on a Dion Fortune binge. I discovered her through the books of , an author whose books I read voraciously because I love his mix of the quotidian with the elusively terrifying.

Dion Fortune was a ceremonial magician and an Adept in Western mysticism. She genuinely believed all of the things she wrote about in her novels, or so I have read. Her biographer, Gareth Knight, says that she exaggerated some elements for effect, whilst downplaying others assuming they would seem unbelievable to readers who had no experience of the otherworldly. Her novels describe and explain not only her theology but also the magic rituals that can be undertaken in order to harness the powers of the universe and bring about change in oneself and the world at large.

Fortune was no black-magician though. All of her esoteric practices were intended to help bring peace and further the spiritual evolution of humankind. Perhaps her biggest claim in that direction is that she and her priests believed themselves to have magicked the Nazis away from Britain during World War II and bewitched Germany towards peace. They were adherents of what is called the Right-Hand Path, the path of light.

Having said that about those with good intentions, this book (with its truly terrible cover and stupid title) is about a man named Lucas who takes a wrong turn during his soul's evolution, wanders away from the Light and pursues the Left-Hand Path of darkness, whereby he commits himself to Evil in all its manifestations. The female protagonist is a naive, tender-hearted, and not terribly bright young woman named Veronica, whom Lucas draws into his orbit.

First published in 1927, The Demon Lover was Fortune's first novel, and it's less polished than her later books. It is not well-paced, bogging down in some parts, and the characters are rather flat; yet it did hold my attention, mainly because I kept wondering what the spiritual leaders of the fraternity would do next and how they would morally justify their choices. This quote explains, for me, the crux of the problem:
Let it be realized, in judging the action of these men, that they had a grave trust to fulfil in safeguarding the knowledge placed in their keeping, and that no one values human life more cheaply than the occultist, for he holds the belief in eternal life as a fact of his own personal experience, not as a theory, based, at best, upon the evidence of sacred writings. Some one had learnt their secrets, and that person, must, at all costs, be effectually silenced, only thus could their trust be held to have been fulfilled.
I don't trust anyone who values life, any life, cheaply. That goes against my nature and my own spiritual beliefs, and the obvious fact of that statement appears again and again throughout the novel. It reminds me of the Inquisition, in which priests were willing to sacrifice the body in order to save the soul (or so they believed). Whatever high moral ground one claims to stand on while making such proclamations, it's clearly and plainly evil to me.

I won't give away the whole story-line, but I will say in no uncertain terms that (as in Fortune's other books) the supposed good guys have highly questionable ethics and I found myself arguing with them throughout the book. I would not trust my soul, or even my bank account, to such as these.

I am still giving The Demon Lover three stars, though, because I genuinely enjoy Fortune's way with words and her stories, overall, as genre fiction. Where the novels fall short for me is that they are meant to be taken seriously as spiritual texts. It is not that I am utterly opposed to Fortune's beliefs and practices, even though my own spiritual leanings differ significantly; but the assumed righteousness of her occult leaders using whomever they will to whatever ends they deem necessary, in a cold and ruthless manner, sickens me.

A warning: the plot gets really seriously absurd and quite gruesome in the final few chapters. (It is maybe not gruesome by today's standards, but I am a lightweight in that regard.)

If you want to read more of my thoughts on Fortune, please refer to my more extensive review of her book The Sea Priestess . I just received in the post, and will review that once I've read it.
Profile Image for Lila.
6 reviews
January 2, 2013
Dion Fortune writes very well, and, being very well-versed in occultism as well as psychology, created characters and story that are sound on both levels. If you're looking lots of action, this is not the book for you, as it's quite old-fashioned in tone. Fortune's novels all tend to focus on the importance of psychologically healthy relationships between men and women (he views were quite advanced for the era in which she originally wrote, the 1940s), using her occult knowledge both as a background, and as an example of how the right balance can be attained. I love these novels, and have read them all several times. Fortune's descriptions are often quite lovely and atmospheric, and if you have an interest in occult subjects, you'll enjoy The Demon Lover and others of her books.
Profile Image for Katharine Kerr.
Author86 books1,597 followers
December 16, 2013
If you're interested in Dion Fortune's occult ideas, and how they developed over her career, this book is a 5 star must-read. If you're looking for an entertaining novel, it's a 1 star bore. Like many first novels, it's poorly structured and populated by Figures who Demonstrate the Author's Ideas, not by living characters. Hence my 3 star compromise rating.

Fortune published this novel in 1927 at an early stage of her development. It's quite interesting to compare it to the later SEA PRIESTESS and MOON MAGIC.
Profile Image for Steve Cran.
936 reviews96 followers
April 15, 2014
The story opens up in the midst of a séance where in a psychic member of a Fraternity is placed under a hypnotic trance in order to help the group obtain secret occult knowledge. The secretary is the one leading the experiment. J. Lucas has been an outer court secretary for some time and he wants to climb in and take power by becoming a member of the inner court. Many in his fraternity do not trust him.

In his frustration Luca hires a young woman named Veronica from a pool of would be secretaries looking for work. She has psychic abilities. Within no time Lucas is forcing her to astral travel and obtain occult secrets from the lodge. All too soon this is discovered. Lucas’s plans for domination come to an end and he and Veronica are on the run from this Fraternity and their vaunted death ray .

Through there struggles and exploration both discover that they knew each other from previous lives and were lovers who parted ways. She went with the Christians and he with the Pagans and the mystery schools. In the middle of the book Lucas is found dead. His death a mystery with no explainable cause. Veronica inherits all his property and soon falls under suspicion. Of course this is not the end of Lucas and young Veronica’s trouble are just beginning.

A dog goes on a rampage killing a potential suitor for Veronica, Children in a small village are sick and dying and pretty soon Veronica is the center of all suspicion. Lucas’s spirit reappears gathering life force from Veronica in order to materialize. Children are the easiest targets for this spiritual vampire.

In the end there is a confrontation between the order, Lucas and Veronica. What is Veronica’s ultimate fait.

Dion Fortune is the founder of the “Society of Inner Light� she has written many novel and non fiction works about occult concepts. Reading this one will learn a thing or too about the occult world. If one is especially perceptive they will pick the influences of Helena Blavatsky and her Theosophical references to the hidden ones and Atlantis. When I read this book I come across so many concepts that I have read in so many Wicca book and Ceremonial Magick books. Of course Dion Fortune is coming from the source and the rest are just copy cats.
Profile Image for Mrs. Woodhouse.
6 reviews
October 14, 2015
"When young Veronica Mainwaring is hired by Justin Lucas as his secretary, she has no idea that she will soon find herself being used as his own personal trance medium. With an invisible collar keeping her bound to Lucas, her every attempt at escape is foiled by a yank on an unseen chain. Veronica soon finds herself trapped in Lucas' quest for power and knowledge beyond the earthly plane as a story of past lives, hidden evils, and a twisted love affair come to life in this occult thriller."

The above is a simple plot summary from the Weiser Books 2010 reprint. This book was originally published in 1927 and it reads like an old-school potboiler thriller. It's a fun, informative read on occultism, complete with a different take on vampires, as opposed to Hollywood's version. The author was an authority on the Western Esoteric Tradition, and her expertise is on full display here. However, I would not recommend this book as someone's first read of this author, as "The Demon Lover" has dated badly. The cliche of the young, passive, innocent young woman in the clutches of a greedy, selfish, and evil man was a tired trope back in the day, and modern readers might find it impossible to get beyond it. But if you are interested in the occult, and enjoy lurid thrillers with surprising plot twists, "The Demon Lover" could be right up your alley.
Profile Image for Devann.
2,460 reviews183 followers
June 5, 2021
This was at the same time both very interesting and also incredibly hard to focus on. I like the premise but I think the author gets too bogged down in her real life occult experience and wants to use the characters to explain things like rituals and her own personal beliefs rather than develop them as actual people who you believe are trying to move through the world with their actions. Would still recommend it to people who are interested in classics by female authors or classic horror/occult books though.
Profile Image for Gwyndyllyn.
75 reviews38 followers
October 17, 2007
Dion Fortune's fiction is always solid in its occult lore. Although her characters (especially the somewhat helpless but pure female character) are dated...it is a great book and has a lot of depth to it.
Profile Image for Nicole Diamond.
1,156 reviews14 followers
December 21, 2016
If it has one star I liked it a lot
If it has two stars I liked it a lot and would recommend it
If it has three stars I really really liked it a lot
If it has four stars I insist you read it
If it has five stars it was life changing
Profile Image for Aaron Meyer.
Author8 books53 followers
January 11, 2014
Like much of her other fiction it is a decent demonstration of her ideas in a fictional form.
Profile Image for Eugene Kernes.
561 reviews36 followers
September 19, 2021
Overview:
Lucas is a secretary who is seen as a forthcoming leader by many, but his behavior appears dangerously reckless by the few in positions of power. What he wants is the knowledge in possession of the seniors in the group, so that it could be used. For that Lucas seeks a secretary. Veronica wants to be employed rather than face the emptiness of a London summer. Among many, Lucas easily selects Veronica without giving it deeper thought as to why the choice was so easy. Veronica begins to learn of her role, but cannot alter her course as Lucas uses some sort of power on her. For in this occult story, knowledge is power. The question is what they are willing to sacrifice to obtain that knowledge? What will be scarified for love? A philosophical tale in which the caricatures of good and evil do not fit, as what matters is the interaction between those who take different paths.

There are many philosophical themes in this book that relate to respecting different sources of knowledge and perspectives. The differences between the theoretic and the practical. Raising the question of who should have knowledge, determine who obtains the knowledge, who should wield knowledge, and how should knowledge be used. All this to highlight the need for various qualities to interact rather than be segregated. As emotions are needed to properly utilize the knowledge. While emotions alone cannot accomplish what knowledge understands.

Problems?
The book is a complex mixture of mystery, fantasy, and romance. Keeps the reader in suspense as to what comes next, as the results of events are unexpected. The problem is that the writing is not always very easy to read. Containing some poor transitions between the various events, which prevents flow.
1 review
January 2, 2025
I really enjoyed the originality of this tale. It was enough to keep me hooked despite the story wanting a bit in terms of character depth and feeling - what I usually look for in a story. It does have the air of an Ayn Rand novel, if Rand were an occultist concerned with the soul's evolution rather than a philosopher concerned with society's evolution. In short, it was a bit pedantic, with Fortune shaping the story in order to teach the reader how her belief system works. This is something I always find a bit irksome because these lessons can come through in well crafted writing without the author being so heavy-handed about it. If that page space were spent on the characters' emotional lives then the story would warm up a bit and draw the reader in all the more. That said, it still kept me engaged and overall was a very enjoyable read.
Profile Image for Roberto.
52 reviews1 follower
January 14, 2024
Occasionalmente ridondante, a tratti criptico per chi non sia avviato ai misteri, prettamente convenzionale. Presenta tuttavia qualche spunto di modernità, specie nella parte iniziale, tale da sembrare di composizione ben più recente.
Mi ha colpito, tuttavia, che proprio un autore donna abbia scritto di abuso praticamente condonandolo per presupposte ragioni profonde e mistiche: forse lo sto leggendo troppo con gli occhi di un lettore del XXI secolo, e forse lo sto privando della componente occulto-settaria, ma è palese la tossicità della relazione descritta.
Profile Image for Mike Kanner.
287 reviews
August 7, 2023
The first thing any reader needs to remember is that this was written almost 100 years ago, and there have been changes in acceptable literary styles. Second, this is a very early form of the genre (i.e., vampire stories) and so what appear to be tropes and cliches were established by this novel.

Having said that, it is an okay read, although because of the comments above often dragged and at least one major plot point was lost in the narrative.
Profile Image for Jai.
29 reviews2 followers
February 19, 2018
Fairly unusual story about a man who is devoted to the dark ways of magic. He meets a woman who hasn't a good sense of her self and uses her, through psychic means, to pierce walls that are set up to protect, for good reason, very high sacred rituals. His selfish actions could prove to be the downfall of this woman, who he realizes he loves but it may be too late...
4 reviews
July 24, 2020
Authentic occult wisdom concealed as a well written parable.

For all with the eyes to see, Dion Fortune's fiction contains the keys to the Temple not made by human hands. In this work the author continues the ancient tradition and literary form of the parable. Recommended for all who "seek to know in order to serve" .
Profile Image for Adonay Quetzal.
142 reviews15 followers
February 28, 2019
Absolutely stunning! I loved every minute of this novel. It was a horror novel, a romance tale, a feminist occult treatise, and above all else was gripping and fun. Fortune has become one of my favorite novelists and look forward to reading another one of her novels.
Profile Image for Robin Burton.
576 reviews14 followers
November 11, 2024
2.5 stars.

I thought an occult thriller by Dion Fortune would be fun to read. Interesting concept and subject matter aside, I found this a chore to read. Nothing was particularly gripping about the story or characters in my opinion.
Profile Image for Matt Kelland.
Author4 books6 followers
January 29, 2022
Re-read this for the first time in 30+ years. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I did back then. It's a cheesy old-school magical warfare romp, complete with mystical fraternities, vampires, occult attacks, spirit walking, reincarnation, time travel, mystical Rays, and trips to other planes, with a dash of Dion Fortune commenting on the church, Western civilization, and anything else that takes her fancy. It's enjoyable enough, but very, very dated, and I just kept thinking of Fortune as Madame Arcati all the time.
Profile Image for Shadow.
25 reviews1 follower
April 23, 2019
An interesting fictional supernatural love story by Dion Fortune. It presents the impulse of nature (could be interpreted as nature per se referring to the natural world or to the human nature of the self depending how the concept is looked upon) to put back in track even the must darker and lonely wolf type of human being, by compelling it thru love to join back with the current of humanity, very touching work in its own way.
Profile Image for Chris Ostrowski.
17 reviews3 followers
January 22, 2014
So many lines are blurred here. Slave and Master and who really controls whom. Is it better to do the right thing even if it's wrong? Wonderful book.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews

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