This year we’re remembering the passing of Rosaleen Norton, 35 years ago in 1979. The infamous Australian occultist and artist lived the bohemian life of an artist in the red light district of Kings Cross, Sydney. Norton lived openly as a witch and created then-shocking paintings that found her demonized in the tabloids and targeted for harassment and censorship by the powers that be. However, it seems that Norton’s only real sin was being a strong-willed independent woman born decades ahead of her time.

Here’s the Wiki…

Rosaleen Miriam “Roie” Norton (2 October 1917 – 5 December 1979), who used the craft name of Thorn, was an Australian artist and occultist, in the latter capacity adhering to a form of pantheistic / Neopagan Witchcraft which was devoted to the god Pan. She lived much of her later life in the bohemian area of Kings Cross, Sydney, leading her to be termed the “Witch of Kings Cross” in some of the tabloids,[1] and from where she led her own coven of Witches.

Her paintings, which have been compared to those of British occult artist Austin Osman Spare, often depicted images of supernatural entities such as pagan gods and demons, sometimes involved in sexual acts. These caused particular controversy in Australia during the 1940s and 50s, when the country “was both socially and politically conservative” with Christianity as the dominant faith and at a time when the government “promoted a harsh stance on censorship.” For this reason the authorities dealt with her work harshly, with the police removing some of her work from exhibitions, confiscating books that contained her images, and attempting to prosecute her for public obscenity on a number of occasions.

According to her later biographer, Nevill Drury, “Norton’s esoteric beliefs, cosmology and visionary art are all closely intertwined – and reflect her unique approach to the magical universe.” She was inspired by “the ‘night’ side of magic”, emphasising darkness and studying the Qliphoth, alongside forms of sex magic which she had learned from the writings of English occultist Aleister Crowley.

Check out this intense slide show featuring snaps of Norton and her diabolical art…

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Austin Osman Spare was many people including both an enfant terrible in the London art world at the beginning of the 20th century, and one of the pioneering forerunners of contemporary occultism. Wiki has the basics…

Visionary artist and mystic Austin Osman Spare, who was briefly a member of Aleister Crowley’s A∴A∴ but later broke with them to work independently,[5] is largely the source of chaos magical theory and practice. Specifically, Spare developed the use of sigils and the use of gnosis to empower these. Most basic sigil work recapitulates Spare’s technique, including the construction of a phrase detailing the magical intent, the elimination of duplicate letters, and the artistic recombination of the remaining letters to form the sigil. Although Spare died before chaos magic emerged, many consider him to be the father of chaos magic because of his repudiation of traditional magical systems in favor of a technique based on gnosis.

Following Spare’s death, magicians continued to experiment outside of traditional magical orders. In addition to Spare’s work, this experimentation was the result of many factors, including the counterculture of the 1960s and early 1970s, the wide publication of information on magic by magicians such as Aleister Crowley and Israel Regardie, the influence of Discordianism and Robert Anton Wilson, and the popularizing of magic by Wicca.

This article from Leader Magazine appears at the AOS site:

Austin Osman Spare, a policeman’s son, once looked like being a fashionable painter. But Mr. Spare decided to paint in London’s Elephant and Castle, choosing as models the ordinary people of Lambeth. He rarely charged more than £5 each for them, but they became collectors’ pieces.

Leader Magazine, January 3, 1948

Spare was destitute, but also a cat lover. One can barely utter the words “starving artist” without stumbling into a long discourse on Spare, and the phalanx of felines that shared his misery and his company attests to the fact that even the most solitary sorcerer needs a cat — or a dozen.

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The Book of Pleasure (Self Love): The Psychology of Ecstasy may be the cornerstone of Austin Osman Spare’s written output as the book includes his first mentions of his groundbreaking ideas regarding sigil work and invocations.

Originally published in 1913, facsimile editions of this book have been released as recently as 2005. I still love the feel of paper and boards between my fingers, but, if you like to sample before you swallow check out this online version of the text that I found at the Hermetic site. Here’s a taste:

Some praise the idea of Faith. To believe that they are Gods (or anything else) would make them such-proving by all they do, to be full of its non-belief. Better is it to admit incapacity or insignificance, than reinforce it by faith; since the superficial “protects” but does not change the vital. Therefore reject the former for the latter. Their formula is deception and they are deceived, the negation of their purpose. Faith is denial, or the metaphor Idiotcy, hence it always fails. To make their bondage more secure Governments force religion down the throats of their slaves, and it always suceeds; those who escape it are but few, therefore their honour is the greater. When faith perishes, the “Self” shall come into its own. Others less foolish, obscure the memory that God is a conception of themselves, and as much subject to law. Then, this ambition of faith, is it so very desirable? Myself, I have not yet seen a man who is not God already.

Austin Osman Spare is considered to be the father of Chaos Magick. Find out more about the development of Chaos Magick and Spare’s place in its pantheon by listening to this illuminating reading of Liber Null by Peter J. Carroll at Joe Nolan’s Insomnia.

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A controversial magician and writer, Kenneth Grant left his mark on the landscape of modern occultism. Grant’s book The Magical Revival plays a seminal role in the interpretation of H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos – casting the fantastic tales as spiritual revelations and not just creepy monster epics. Grant also takes credit for bringing the occultist/artist Austin Osman Spare and his work to a wider audience through Grant’s publication of books like: Zos Speaks! Encounters with Austin Osman Spare, Fulgur Limited, 1998; Images and Oracles of Austin Osman Spare, Fulgur Limited, 2003; Borough Satyr, The Life and Art of Austin Osman Spare, Fulgur Limited, 2005.

The Magical Revival is the first book in Grant’s Typhonian Trilogy and it was published way back in 1972. Even then he was documenting Spare and his work:

When barely twenty years of age he began writing The Book of Pleasure, in which he used art and sex to explore the subconscious mind. The Book of Pleasure reeks of diabolism to such an extent that Mario Praz in The Romantic Agony (Oxford, 1933) refers to Spare as an English “satanic occultist,” and he places him in the same category as Aleister Crowley.

Read more about Spare, Crowley and Lovecraft by downloading the full text of The Magical Revival here.

Happened across the new The Invisibles Omnibus edition on Amazon today. Hope to get my hands on that for a review on the podcast soon. I read the series in TPB form years ago, following all the details with the excellent Anarchy For The Masses: The Disinformation Guide to the Invisibles. I was reminded of what a great series this is and how it does such a great job of incorporating chaos magick philosophy into a sexy, action-filled, truly unique comics universe.

Chaos magick finds its roots in the sigil work of artist/magician Austin Osman Spare and in the early 80′s it was author Peter J. Carroll who wrote one of the seminal volumes laying out the philosophy behind this new understanding of how to make stuff happen.

Here is a short intro to chaos magick from Carroll’s indispensible Liber Null. This is a great place for newbies to start. The rest of you may be tempted to start reading Carroll or Phil Hine or The Invisibles all over again.

If you are interested in more, get Liber Null in .pdf form here.

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