Austin Osman Spare
Austin Osman Spare | |
|---|---|
 Austin Osman Spare | |
| Born | 30 December 1886 Snow Hill, near Smithfield Market London |
| Died | 15 May 1956 (aged 69) London |
| Occupation | artist, painter and magician |
Austin Osman Spare (December 30, 1886 - May 15, 1956) was an English artist and magician.
Biography
Spare was the son of Philip Newton Spare, a London policeman and Eliza Ann Adelaide Osman. As a child, he showed an affinity for art, and he briefly attended evening classes at Lambeth Art School. At the age of 13, he left school to become an apprentice to a stained glass maker, Powell's of Whitefriars Street. During his teen years, his fascination for the occult grew apace, heavily influencing the work he produced. In May 1904 one of his drawings was exhibited at the annual Royal Academy exhibition in London, generating a storm of publicity for the young artist.[1]
In October 1907 Spare exhibited his drawings at the Bruton Gallery in London. Critics likened his work to that of Aubrey Beardsley, but Spare's images were full of grotesque, sexualized human figures and magical symbols. These elements appealed to avant-garde London intellectuals, and brought him to the attention of Aleister Crowley. He became a Probationer of Crowley's order A.'.A.'. (Argenteum Astrum) in July 1909, but was not initiated as a member, although he contributed four small drawings to Crowley's publication The Equinox. Crowley later characterized Spare as a "Black Brother", meaning that he did not approve of the goals of Spare's magical philosophy. His magical motto was Yihoveaum.[2]
His iconoclasm, distaste for the props and symbolism of ceremonial magic and his aversion to moralism as well as his innovative use of sigilization served to distinguish his personal style of magic which his associate Kenneth Grant called Zos Kia Cultus. Grant in 1972 introduced that "Spare's intense interest in more obscure aspect of sorcery" was the result of his friendship with a woman named Mrs. Paterson who "claimed descent from a line of Salem witches."[3] He also spoke of and drew portraits of a spirit guide named Black Eagle who often appeared in the form of an Amerindian man[4].
In 4 Sep 1911 he married to Eily Gertrude Shaw. In 1917, during World War I, Spare was conscripted into the British army, serving as a medical orderly of the Royal Army Medical Corps in London hospitals. He did not see active service, and was commissioned as an official War Artist in 1919. He visited the battlefields of France to record the work of the Royal Army Medical Corps. Several of his works presently hang in the Imperial War Museum.
Although regarded as an artist of considerable talent and good prospects, Spare lived a rather secluded life from the mid 1920s onwards, falling out of step with changing trends and influences in the broader art scene. He sold his unique work for low prices at irregular exhibitions held in his home studio and in South London pubs. Spare expressed contempt at the idea of selling his works at higher prices - an option he could easily have had available to him. He worked very quickly and often finished drawings in minutes.[5]
Among his books, Spare adopts the name Aàos when referring to himself.
Philosophy
Regarding Spare's magical system, Kiaism, his terminology is unique and could not be traced back in other traditions. The introduction of original concepts like "Kia", "Ikkah", "Sikah" are happened for the first time in Spare's first book Earth Inferno and remain conceptually consistent until Focus of Life.
Beside important influence of Kiaism on occultism in general, it represents no specific way for personal development and/or any sets of instructions. But alludes the person to devise his personal system of philosophy or magic.
The supreme state in Kiaism, Kia, is sketched: "The absolute freedom which being free is mighty enough to be "reality" and free at any time: therefore is not potential or manifest (except as it's instant possibility) by ideas of freedom or "means," but by the Ego being free to receive it, by being free of ideas about it and by not believing."[6]
However that Spare continually insists in various places that Kia is undefinable and any definition makes it more obscure.
Kiaism regards Belief and Desire as the great duality. In this system, Ego is a part of Self belonging to one Being while Self encircles the whole Being. Each "human" Being wills the desire. This desire imagines a new belief and belief by means of conceptualizing new concepts forms the Ego. Spare names these conceptions, "the ramifications of belief" which form different personalities for corresponding Ego. But the mentioned will is a partial one. The Will (emphasized by capitalizing) lies in the realm of Self - pertaining to Kia.[7]
Self-Love
Self-Love is a mental state, mood or condition caused by the emotion of laughter becoming the principle that allows the Ego appreciation or universal association in permitting inclusion before conception.[8] So it is no narcissistic self-reflection of the glamours of the ego, rather, it is the void at the core of an identity which is freely able to move into any desired set of social relations, without becoming trapped or identified entirely within them. As the core of the sense of self is Self-love, rather than any label which encapsulates any particular set of behavior, beliefs and life-patterns, one attains a state of great freedom of movement and expression, without the need for self-definition.[9]
Sacred Alphabet
Sacred Alphabet or Alphabet of Desire are simplified forms of sigils that could be composed for expressing a desire. The philosophical background to "Aphabet of Desire" are extensively explained in The Book of Pleasure.
The first Sigillic formula to appear in Spare's published works can be seen in his second volume A Book of Satyrs.[10]
He also designed and used a pack of cards which he called the Arena of Anon, each card bearing a magical emblem which was a variation of one of the letters of the Alphabet of Desire.[11]
Influence on chaos magic
Spare's especial method of sigil magic has played an important role on development of chaos magic. However that due to complex nature of his philosophy it is probable that its influence continues in more deeper aspects. As Peter J. Carroll recites:
I do not collect books, anything worth reading I pass to friends, the rest, I destroy. The only exception being Austin Spare; I keep the collected works as I feel I have yet to fully understand them.[12]
Bibliography
- Privately printed by Spare during his life time
- Earth Inferno 1905
- A Book of Satyrs 1907 (reissued by John Lane 1909)
- The Book of Pleasure 1913
- The Focus of Life 1921 (issued by The Morland Press)
- Anathema of Zos 1927
- Books illustrated by Spare
- Behind The Veil issued by David Nutt, 1906
- Songs From The Classics published by David Nutt, 1907
- The Shadow of the Ragged Stone published by Elkin Matthews 1909
- The Equinox published by Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Ltd. 1909
- On the Oxford Circuit published by Smith, Elder & Co. 1909
- The Starlit Mire published by John Lane 1911
- Eight Poems published by Form at The Morland Press Ltd. 1916
- Twelve Poems published by The Morland Press Ltd. 1916
- The Gold Tree published by Martin Secker 1917
- The Youth and the Sage privately printed, 1927
- Magazines edited by Spare
- Form - A Quarterly Of The Arts 1916-1922
- Golden Hind 1922-1924
The majority of the books listed above are available as modern reprints. For a more complete listing see Clive Harper's Revised Notes Towards A Bibliography of Austin Osman Spare.
Significant titles published since Spare's death include Poems and Masks, A Book of Automatic Drawings, The Collected Works of Austin Osman Spare, Axiomata & The Witches' Sabbath, From The Inferno To Zos (3 Vol. Set), The Book of Ugly Ecstasy, and Zos Speaks.
Quotations
"At no time in my life have I been a person to hold myself polluted by the touch, habits or approach of any creature other than those who were human shape."
- Austin Osman Spare, c.1945
References
- ^ Barker, Phil (March 2001). "Stroke of Genius". Fortean Times (144). Retrieved 2007-05-11.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Magical Diaries of Aleister Crowley, page 237
- ^ Grant, Kenneth, Magical Revival, pp 180-181
- ^ Grant, Kenneth, Outer Gateways, pp 180-181
- ^ Pinkerton, Mark (March 2001). "From Atavism to Zos: Spare's Philopsophy and Magic". Fortean Times (144). Retrieved 2007-05-11.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Austin Osman Spare, The Book of Pleasure
- ^ Sepand, Collected Writings of Austin Osman Spare - Farsi Translation, Translator's Forward, page 4
- ^ Spare, Austin Osman, The Book of Pleasure
- ^ Hine, Phil, Condensed Chaos, New Falcon, 1995, pp 127-128, ISBN 1-56184-117-X
- ^ Semple, W. Gavin, ZOS-KIA, 1995, Fulgur Limited
- ^ Grant, Kenneth; Magical Revival, Austin Osman Spare and the Zos Kia Cultus
- ^ Peter J. Carroll Interview, Abrasax Magazine, Vol.5, No.2.