‘The eyes of a woman, not a fiend’: Satanism, Sexuality, and Regeneration in The Goat-Foot God
摘要
Though perhaps the least popular of her novels, in many ways The Goat-Foot God ought to be considered Fortune’s novelistic masterpiece, skilfully weaving her complex responses to contemporary discourses on evil, aesthetics, and sexuality into a deeply compelling narrative. It was published in 1936 by Rider and Co., the small but influential esoteric publisher led by Ralph Shirley, whose other titles included the Rider-Waite Tarot deck (created by Pamela Colman Smith in 1909) and books by Éliphas Lévi and A.E. Waite. In this chapter I will explore the way that, in The Goat-Foot God, Fortune reinterprets popular visions of Decadence and Satanism as pagan impulses towards the god Pan. A symbol of sexual liberation and cosmic return, Fortune reveals Pan as the hidden truth behind Satan, and Satanic impulses as desire for erotic-magical power. In Fortune’s vision these desires can be utilised for both personal and social rejuvenation. Fortune believed that initiating a regenerated, spiritually integrated, magical approach to sex among the British people would restore, physically, socially, and spiritually, the British race. In The Goat-Foot God Fortune aimed to give her readers a glimpse into this magical vision of sexuality, which she saw as the hidden truth behind things such as Satanism, succubi, and the Black Mass.