The Goat-Foot God

by Dion Fortune

The Goat-Foot GodI revolves around a wealthy widower, Hugh Patson, who teams up with an esoteric bookseller to seek out the ancient Greek god Pan. They achieve this with the aid of a poverty-stricken artist, Mona Wilton, who becomes close to Patson as the novel progresses.

An original novel in which the 15th and 20th centuries meet with uncanny results, due to the invocation of Pan. This work is of special interest to students of magic and the Western Mystery Tradition.

Genres: Fiction, Occult, Magic, Fantasy, Literature, Spirituality, Witchcraft

392 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1936

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Corto · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't even know where to begin with this one...

...there are several different ways of reading this novel...

If you take it at face value, it's a fantasy novel, with heavy elements of the occult.
It starts with a character (Hugh Paston) who is cuckolded by his wife after her unfortunate death in a car accident... with a man revealed to be her longtime lover. Her lover, it turns out, introduced our (very wealthy) protagonist's wife to him so that he could unknowingly support their relationship.

Knocked off his center of gravity, our hero plunges into a deep and intense mid-life crisis. Throwing off the shackles of the home he and his wife had shared together, Paston takes up with a mysterious old man who had once turned his back on a priesthood, and now runs a cozy second-hand book shop in an artistic, but disreputable part of town (for Paston's set).

Desperate to fill the hole in his life, he seeks out information on the dark side of the occult. Inspired by French Decadent novels that were popular in the day (mid-1930's) "The Damned" and "Against Nature" by Joris-Karl Huysmans, he sets out to furnish a home in an aesthetic style sure to be conducive to his aspirations.

At the bookseller's recommendation he hires a young (female) designer to help him achieve his aims and off we go...

Soon, Paston is ensconced in an old abbey he purchases with the intent to make it a home. It holds a terrible secret, and he begins communing with the presence of a dead heretic monk.

Thus, begins the conflict of the novel.

This novel is very rich in literary allusion (the French Decadents, Erasmus, fantasy novels that would've been contemporary) and in psychology. Dion Fortune interweaves Freudian analysis - and through her characters - her opinions on the limitations of the field of psychoanalysis.

Class tensions, the effects of wealth, sexual repression, and undeveloped manhood, are also a heavy facets of this book. The protagonist's burgeoning feelings for a woman who is not in his social class, and the sexual mores and propriety of his time are a massive obstacle for all the main characters. For the modern reader, these issues play out in a frustratingly prolonged manner. (I'm sure at the time it was written, it would've been perfectly acceptable to the target audience.)

The plot and the way the characters coalesce is a bit pat and predictable - but - for what it is, that's ok. I deeply enjoyed Fortune's descriptions of her England - a warm, and cozy place, with pastoral characters. It seems as though Fortune was pining for a simpler time, and simpler people, but again, that didn't bother me.

Today's readers might find this too dated unless they take the social status quo of the time into consideration. As The Feminine Mystique was 27 years away, there are aspects of this book that are admirable. The female protagonist, Mona, struggles constantly for a life on her own terms - yet unfortunately, is somewhat (but not totally completely) a manic pixie dream girl. Even though Dion Fortune may have been a proto-feminist of sorts (without wanting to rock the boat too much), this novel wouldn't pass the Bechdel test. I sense that while Fortune in real life was *wildly* unconventional and eccentric, the emphasis is on solving the male protagonist's problems. Mona, though very well developed and her needs explicitly stated, does sort of settle into second place.

Now, for the elephant in the review. As noted earlier, Dion Fortune was an occultist with a capital "O". Her beliefs are very strong in this novel, and as she stated elsewhere, her novels were meant to buttress and provide practical examples for her other writings on magic. As someone who is very comfortable with his personal belief system, I'm not going to delve into those - so I'll say that you don't need to be conversant with her occult writings to follow along. There's only one scene where it gets a bit thick, but it's short.

As an anglophile, I liked the themes of the eccentric rich fighting ennui, and the pastoral quality of the scenes that take place in the former abbey and surrounding town. It was nice to live in that world for a bit. I enjoyed the ruminations on religion, philosophy and psychology. I'm a pseudo-fan of the English Folk Horror genre - which is what I was chasing when I found this book - and it was pleasing to experience some of those themes (paganism in mid-20th century England) without the "horror" aspect of an outsider being sacrificed for a dark purpose.

One more thing...there are some politically incorrect comments, phrases and terms in here...not out of place with Dion Fortune's time and place, but definitely cringe inducing and thoroughly objectionable in this day and age.

This was an interesting novel. I will definitely be reading some of her other fiction.

EDIT, 4 years later: I’ve tried reading several of her other novels, but never made it through one of them. This one still holds up for me, and occasionally I dip back in for “comfort food” reading.

[Katharine Kerr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this book when I was a 20-something. I thought it was thin and corny. I just re-read it as a 60-something, and gosh, it's improved a whole lot. Couldn't be me, could it, who has learned something in the interim? :-) As a novel it does have a few small flaws that a good editor would have caught and fixed. One big problem is Fortune's casual use of the N-word to describe some cultural trends, like jazz, she disliked, and her typical 1930s British classist views as well. They made me wince, but I read on.

However, the core of the novel -- the occult ideas and her proto-feminist views -- are well worth the read despite the flaws. The plot revolves around a profound change in the character of the male protagonist, a change he works hard to bring to fruition. I cheered him on and felt great sympathy for the female protagonist as well.

[K.J. Charles]

Enjoyably strange occult novel focusing on psychology and past lives (Dion Fortune's favourite and indeed only plot). There's a lively heroine and the hero develops well, plus a really fun set-up, but tbh very little is done with it and plotlines just disappear.

There is also a thing where the hero says a LOT that he won't "be able to control myself" (sexually). In fairness this is in re being possessed by a diabolical 15th century monk, rather than just because he has an erection, but it's still not something I wanted to read maybe 15 iterations of. *side eyes author*

An interesting period piece with some great lines.

HOWEVER. This edition (Weiser) is garbage. It's been incredibly badly optically converted by scan, it's full of junk and errors to the point of unreadability, clearly nobody ever bothered to check the file, and the publisher has the absolute gall to charge nearly TWELVE QUID for this mess, which would be overpriced at 99p given the state of it. The combination of greed and laziness is remarkable even for a publisher. Disgraceful.

[Mystic Wyngarden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I kept thinking that Hugh reminded me of Mr. Toad in Wind in the Willows, running about in his motor car with his leather coat and cap. Then I saw today that a usually omitted chapter of Wind and the Willows is the talk of England. And...guess what...it's about Pan. Hugh and Mr. Toad have more in common than liking to drive fast! Still going on this book. It's a treat!

[d Kate dooley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this one a second time -- would read it again. A book that begins in a bookstore on a dark night in the rain -- magic from the start.

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wealthy idler's wife dies in a car crash; it is revealed that she had been carrying on an extra-marital liaison throughout their marriage. Ineffectual and directionless outside of his hobbies (car racing, big game hunting, that sort of thing), the recent widower stumbles into a dingy second-hand bookshop where a chance encounter with occult intimations in a detective novel leads him into a journey into esoteric traditions that winds up being a journey into the hidden recesses of his own soul. I liked a lot of things about this novel; Fortune has a wealth of esoteric lore that she works seamlessly into her plot, there are several well-turned, witty and resonant examples of the bon mot, the whole thing is written in this Britain-between-the-wars prose that is a personal weakness of mine. She also has the beginnings of a compelling plot with great potential for both horrific and transcendental moments and compelling characters...but, a little over 2/3 of the way through it seems that the building conflict and tension in the story is, not deflated so much as sublimated. The rest of the book seems bogged down in exposition and introspection, save for one scene that is meant to be climactic but comes across as oddly muted. More successful as an occultist's novel than an occult novel.

[Rebecca Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

This occult fiction by Dion Fortune isn't quite as good as some of her others (The Sea Priestess, Moon Magic, The Demon Lover). Like many of her novels, it is about a male protagonist undergoing spiritual transformation, this time via the Greek God Pan. A lot of exposition and set up for a climax that was a bit too brief.

[E A · Rating 3 out of 5]

enjoyed this more than the three stars suggest. just couldnt be more cos of the dodgy ideas about race, class, disability, gender etc, and cos there was a lot of moments where they’re sittin around talkin about doing stuff without actually doing anything. the ‘romance’ is a bit of a snooze. and where is pan?
still was an enjoyable read, interesting ideas on religion, spirituality and psychology.

[Padma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this novel more than my 3 stars likely suggests. After all, Dion Fortune first published "The Goat-Foot God" in 1936, twelve years before the highly influential, if controversial, "The White Goddess" by Robert Graves. I had previously read Fortune's "The Sea Priestess" (1938) and "Moon Magic" (1956), so was already familiar with her work and remember liking it very much. Dion Fortune was among the earliest advocates of what is now widely known as Neo-Paganism, and in this respect "The Goat-Foot God" does not disappoint. It might even be argued that she was decades ahead of her time in admitting that Christianity may well have done more harm than good in its influence on Western thought, and that our rejection of pre-Christian, Pagan thought meant abandoning certain premises that were, in fact, healthy and spiritually sound. Full-disclosure: I am a "Neo-Pagan" myself, something I've known since early childhood before I even knew of the term.

Why, then, 3 stars, and not 4 or 5? Well, I try to reserve 5 stars to what, in my mind, are literary classics, worthy of being remembered by virtue of their artistry and humanity. My 4-star selections are generally works that I also value highly, but well, there is only one Shakespeare, and if Shakespeare deserves 5 stars, does Andrew Lloyd Webber really deserve more than 4? One play, maybe (Jesus Christ Superstar). I regard 3 stars as books that I may have enjoyed, even (mostly) thoroughly, as I did this one, but also works in which I discern significant flaws or may regard as cultural curiosities rather than profound contributions.

"The Goat-Foot God" deserves 3 stars, despite its place at the vanguard of contemporary Pagan thought. And there are two reasons. One, there is a casual racism that may have been common in 1930s England, a liberal sprinkling of the word "nigger," that simply can't sit well with an early 21st century reader. This is especially tricky as it's not used in the American sense—i.e., it's not used with hatred and there is no conscious violence insinuated in its uttering. I rather suspect that it was simply part of English culture at the time, the almost-unconscious assumption of superiority that the English brought to bear on anyone not-English, especially those who are visually different. It's not used maliciously, but rather descriptively: at one point, a piece of furniture is described as "nigger-brown," because, after all, what else might one call it? Even so, my repulsion was visceral: Black Lives Matter is, in the 2020's, a political movement, because Black lives, as we all know, never have mattered much in the non-Black community. We are, today, faced with the spoils of that arrogance, as "white privilege" is no longer an assumption of merit but an acknowledgment of a pretense that not only prevents Black Americans from achieving a steady grip on power and accomplishment but often turns deadly, as our police coddle snowflake white supremacists bearing semi-automatic rifles while killing unarmed Black men pulled over for mere traffic violations.

There is, too, a stodginess in Fortune's writing, and likely a Freudian slip as the supporting actor, Mona's "uncle," Jelkes, a purveyor of rare books, scoffs at "the modern novel." Modern, at least stylistically, "The Goat-Foot God" is not, at least if one means by "modern" the novels of H.D., James Joyce, Virginia Woolf or D.H. Lawrence. Yet, admirably, it in some ways strives toward those ends—but psychologically, not stylistically. Our protagonist, Hugh Paston, who has suffered the loss of his wife to an auto accident while on a tryst with her lover, breaks through the Old Gods in an act of self-salvation, having lived a privileged, old-money, nondescript and milquetoast existence. Jelkes exposes him to occult thinking and opens Hugh's eyes to his own internal potentials through Gods and Goddesses more vital, more red-blooded, than the life-denying deity offered up by the Christians. Jelkes, of course, cannot accomplish Hugh Paston's salvation by himself. Paston is not homosexual, and cannot be healed without the involvement of a strong woman, who appears in the person of Jelkes' niece, Mona, a "modern" woman not particularly attached to traditional womanly roles: she is a woman of deep passions and intellect, as opposed to comfortable practicalities. Ultimately, with Jelkes' assistance, Mona and Hugh succeed in invoking the very God of Vitality, Pan Himself, by which Hugh is not only healed but completed, Mona herself becoming equally divine by allowing herself to be consumed by the Eleusinian Goddess. Freud and Jung are both discussed as Hugh Paston sheds the non-man he's always been on the path to divine invigoration. Mona, unlike Hugh, has always felt an infinity to the Old Gods, and despite her protestations to the uninteresting Hugh, welcomes the chance to finally explore the Pagan part of herself while also midwifing Paston's transformation into Pan himself. Significantly to the story, there is a Hugh Paston past-life reawakened, the rebel Catholic priest, Ambrosius, who was walled-up alive by the Church several hundred years ago for turning to the Gods of ancient Greece.

I applaud Fortune's efforts to expose the underbelly of repressive Christianity, its danger to the human soul or psyche, and her efforts as well to reawaken the Pagan sensibilities that were, after all, the beating heart of European culture for tens of thousands of years, as well as her optimism that the works of pioneers like Freud and Jung would give a solid footing to a larger cultural reawakening that has, in fact, born some fruit. I recently read an article (on a Christian website) reacting (if negatively) to reports that in the USA, Neo-Pagan (used broadly) religious identification now exceeds those considering themselves Presbyterians. So her projections have been at least somewhat prescient—though there's no doubt that we Pagans still have a long way to go before we finally recover.

I also find it culturally intriguing that Fortune's speculations led her toward the Greeks and not the native Celts of the British Isles who, after all, provided the impetus behind the progression of Wicca, likely the most well-known form of European Neo-Paganism practiced today. This is likely due to the continuing influence of Classical thinking on European education. Yet, I was drawn to it more than I would have been had it focused on the Celtic pantheon. Like Mona, and to a lesser extent, Hugh, the "radiance" of Pagan Greece has accompanied me throughout my life. I remember replacing "God" with "Zeus" when reciting the Pledge of Allegiance as a child, and giving secret offerings to Athena as a teenager. Now an old man at 61, I regret having not paid more attention to Aphrodite. But Pan I've always been fond of—He is, after all, the very pulse of Nature—and when I do pray, those prayers always begin with "Goddess."

[Giuseppe Capici · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing book if you value the actual purpose for which it was written: as an introduction to some concepts of the fraternity of inner light, these concepts are initially hinted at and eventually directly enunciated by the characters. They are somewhat simple concepts and nothing you couldn’t think of yourself, but the way the book “demonstrates” them with the story is good.

Otherwise a competent book. I liked the beginning of the novel for the way it sets the scene and the chapters right before the end because they wrap up all the concepts hinted at during the book.

Some of the ideas i liked the most were the concept of “Pan Within” and the concept of autosuggestion as a tool, regardless of the spiritual value.

As a pagan myself the depictions of interactions with the gods were mostly realistic and well depicted, but so i would expect from a spiritualist like Fortune. On the other hand Ambrosius was definitely exaggerated.

This book also convinced me to pick up “Las-Bas” as my next read, since it was actually translated in english (jelkes was wrong on this), but i also intend on reading it in French later on. For the few chapters i’ve read so far, the plots looks similar in their initial direction, which might be a sign Fortune was inspired by the book to some extent.

[Brady Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

So there's a lot of novels that are purportedly about the occult but they aren't really about the occult. They are about this fantasy sort of magic.
There is a real way in which people believe they are practicing magic in the real world, and this book is based on those practices. Dion Fortune was a prominent occultist in her time and she believed that magic was the work of changing consciousness through will.
That's what this book is really about. It's about a man who is filled with inhibitions and who manages to find the way through to unify his whole self. He pulls his repressed self out and merges it with his conscious self and he becomes a different person.
The character of Mona in the story is intriguing and will be great food for thought for critics in this modern era. She doesn't fit the present molds.
I found it immensely compelling, though I wish there had been a bit more of the ritualistic side and why did Fortune deny us a proper black mass when she all but promised it up front. Nevertheless. Worthwile. 100%.
Not for rationalists though.

[Lucien Pastures · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having lost his philandering wife to a car crash, a young, wealthy man finds refuge in an old book store during a storm, whose owner accepts him kindly and provides him with books. The young man gets an idea from Huysman's works (A rebours & La-bas) in combination with the Jesuit training method to construct a temple for Pan in order to evoke him. After visualizing a Grecian landscape and therein placing himself, the initiation begins. He also activates a part of his psyche containing the remnants of a past life.

[Ella · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’d probably give this three stars if the basic copy editing wasn’t so unforgivably bad. Even getting it from the library felt like a ripoff. Likewise, there’s a lot of casual racism, which is to be expected from the period, but it’s still extremely jarring even by 30s britlit standards. I’ve heard some of Fortune’s other stuff is better, so I may attempt to track that down, because the silly early 20th century occultism does, in fact, entertain me. But one of the greats of 20th century Pan-based lit this certainly ain’t.

[Colubrina Laticauda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Per ora il miglior libro di Dion Fortune che ho letto. Scritto bene, moderno e scorrevole, con un filo di ironia e personaggi simpatici, primo fra tutto il libraio Jelkes, trasandato e un po' dispotico.
C'è una storia d'amore che non invade il libro e le idee della Fortune sulle divinità. Pan qui è protagonista, sia come forza psicologica che energetica.
Piacevolissimo anche se non ci si interessa di occultismo.

[Adonay Quetzal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing, so glad I put the time in, took my time with it so I could really let everything Fortune was trying to convey sink in. While the writing style definitely can come across very old fashioned and stuffy (it was written in 1936 afterall), the characterization, the way they interact, and something about the poetry in the way Fortune writes pulls you in like no other. If you can get yourself a copy, do it. You wont be disappointed

[Lee Wainwright · Rating 5 out of 5]

A boring, cuckolded toff decides to 'invoke the primordial forces of life', more specifically 'the Great God Pan', who 'wasn't called upon in these materialistic days', now that Modernism had finally killed off the Christian god but also the capacity for spiritual awareness. Here was a man attempting to cast off the repression of the age, and the novel is still relevant now that we need esotericism perhaps more than ever in the face of the electronic god.

[Edvige Ciccarelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ha una trama avvincente nella quale si muovono personaggi ben delineati, difficili da non amare, ma ciò che sorprende maggiormente di questo romanzo, così intriso di occulto e di mistero, è la sua incredibile modernità, sia del tema che dello stile. Quasi impossibile credere che sia stato scritto poco meno di un secolo fa.

[Adriane · Rating 3 out of 5]

My rating for this book may be the result of unfulfilled expectation. There were some things that I enjoyed in this novel. However, I feel that it could have been better paced. I struggled to read the last 100 pages or so.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like any book, this is a product of it's time and it's author. That said, it was an interesting read of how an average man, in his search for self-realization, might come to embrace the pre-Biblical god Pan.

[Nina.fernweh · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Sicuramente non lo definirei scorrevole (nonostante mi abbia tenuta incollata alle pagine), ma il messaggio tra le righe è arrivato forte e chiaro. Ho un debole per queste cose, e lo stile di Fortune non mi è mai dispiaciuto.

[Tasneem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. I am so glad I read this. There's a reason why it's a classic.

[Tyson Niblett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pan barely makes an appearance! Not one of Fortune's best.

[Mawgojzeta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well-written book. Interesting story: Hugh makes a traumatic discovery about his wife after she dies. In his grief he wanders into a lower class neighborhood and befriends a book dealer. This begins a journey that is part psychological, part theological, and part spiritual.

This a smooth and comfortable to read. But do not mistake what I say to mean it is an easy read. Virtually all of the discussions throughout the book are clearly those of well-educated people.

I liked the characters and could easily visualize them as I read the book. I closed the book for the last time feeling quite fulfilled by both the characters and their actions.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the story enjoyable, but the prose contained many idiomatic British phrases that I found confusing as much as distancing from the emotional context of each scene. The prose style reminded me of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers.

The male protagonist's spiritual journey was central to the story, and the female character was more peripheral and less developed. Though I identified less with the characters, I found the import of the book to be meaningful. The close of the novel gives way to introspection about what it means to have an alter ego, and how it can be healthy.

[Selene · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the beginning I loved this book. However, about half way through it became tedious and boring, I had to gloss over some pages as there seemed too much about psychoanalysis, almost as if she was trying to talk the reader into understanding the brain of Paganism. Anyhow, some parts were really enjoyable and interesting to read, mainly at the start of the story, so it got 3 stars from me.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a silly British-flavoured, magick-tinged love story where nothing really significant happens. There is an excellent description of strong tea and a very good bit about rich English guys not recognizing signs of malnutrition in their girlfriends. A nice (but goofy) read for a modern-day witch or Pagan. I read this when I was homeless and it helped take my mind off my bad situation.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very instructional read

A great insightful read and one every Pagan should read and own. I own both the Kindle and a 1st edition....