Recently, there has been renewed interest in the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century occultist movement in Britain. In the history of occultism this period is called the Magical Revival, when newly formed societies such as the Brotherhood of the Silver Star, t he Golden Dawn and the Theosophical Society arose focusing on exploring the magic and occult ideas of the Western tradition, as well as renewing and developing them. During this period several artists and writers became inspired by occultism. One such person was Austin Osman Spare who, in addition to his artistic reputation, created a system of magic upon which his creative work is based. In order to accurately understand Spare's artistic reputation, we have to be acquainted with the form of magic which he practised and the occult sources of his artistic inspiration and creativity. This paper on the magical system of S pare's sigils highlights just one example of the esoteric writing systems which form the basis of my doctoral thesis. In order to establish the context for this paper more clearly, I will briefly explain the background of my research. The main aim of my thesis is to define the term ‘asemic
, referring to a private style of writing which cannot be expressed verbally,ii within the
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context of literary theory by providing effective e xamples within the tradition. Spare's sigils are a private form of writing which fits into this concept. The second part of this paper focuses o n the background of Spare's occult beliefs, and t ouches on his relationship with Aleister Crowley. The third part of the paper deals with Spare's Zos Kia Cultus on whose key symbols the magical system of his sigils is based. The fourth part of the paper examines how Spare used sigils in occult rituals. Finally, I will briefly discuss Roy Harris' theory o f semiology which argues the importance of examining writing as an individual form of expression. 2. The Background of Spare's occult be liefs Spare's magical system is based on te chniques and rituals that are peculiar to initiates of t he Left Hand Path, an approach following magical and religious traditions where it is c ommon to use sexual energies to gain spiritual objectives. Originally, the term was used to categorise certain schools and rituals of Hinduism and Buddhism, such as the Hindu yogic techniques of the C'han school of Chinese Buddhism and the rituals of Tantric Buddhism. Later, the t erm was subsumed into the figures of t he Western esoteric tradition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Magical Revival; including occultists like Spare and Aleister Crowley (1875 –1947), –1947), also a Brit, who became famous through the several pop stars influenced by him, namely The Beatles and David Bowie. In fact, Crowley, rather t han Spare, is arguably the best known figure practising the rituals of the Left Hand Path. Moreover, it is Crowley who had the greater impact on the modern revival of magic and witchcraft in the Western World. However, Crowley was influenced by Spare's w ritings and admired his work so much that he adopted Spare's sigils in his system of ceremonial magic. This is often overlooked when Crowley's importance in the domain of sexual magic is underlined. In the liter ature on sexuality in the occult arts, C rowley is seen as the first person who linked Tantrism with the Western esoteric tradition and conjoined W estern and Eastern magical techniques in his rituals.iii But in fact, Spare was doing this at the same time as Crowley.
Kenneth Grant, who knew both occultists, compared the sorcery and the magic that Spare and Crowley practised. Even though Crowley called Spare his ‘black brother’, their methods differed from each other in many ways. Kenneth claims that Spare was more inspired by the history of sorcery, whereas Crowley was inspired by the history of magic. The key problem with this claim is that Spare also used t he methods of magical rituals, and sigils are a good example of that. The next comparison is, in any case, key if we want to better understand the differences between the two occultists. For Spare, as for Aleister Crowley, sex is the fulcrum of sorcery and magic, and the key to both their systems. But whereas for Spare sorce ry is a means of realizing pleasure, o f transforming age into youth, ugliness into beauty, nature into art; for Crowley, magic is a means of acquiring and radiating power, transforming weakness into strength, ignorance into knowledge. The most essential influence for Spare's work comes from a colonial woman named Paterson, whom Spare met for the first time when still a child. Paterson was a fortune-teller who claimed she was a descendant from a line of Salem witches. Grant states that Paterson can be seen as a role model for Spare. She was a person who “could change at will into a creature of extraordinary seductiveness.”v This claim is significant when we explore the sigils, whose main aim was to be charged with the will of the creator and to make the creator's deepest desires true. 3. The Essential Symbols of Zos Kia Cultus Two of the main symbols of Spare’s cult were the Zos and the Kia, whose meanings were analysed superbly by Grant. It is important to note that while their meaning has a theore tical level, they are still part of a cult whose rituals are, typically for sexual magic, concrete. A s Grant explains, The cult of the Zos and the Kia involves the polarized interplay of sexual energy – positive and negative currents – symbolized anthropomorphically by the hand and the eye. These organs are the me ans whereby the sorcerer invokes primal energies latent in t he subconsciousness. It can be suggested that Spare rejected formal writing systems because he wanted to create a private, and personal, form of writing to invoke primal energies latent in the subconsciousness. The analysis of the main symbols of this cult indicates that this object ive is not just part of the system of his sigils but a fundamental of his entire cult. Spare gave to these two main symbols several names which added to their me aning. The symbol of Zos is the hand which he also named All Sensing Touch. By contrast, the symbol of Kia is the eye also named All Seeing Vision. He explains that these e lements are the magical instruments needed to connect to one’s primal desire or innate obsession. In his system, Zos is fused to gether with its opposing energy, Kia, which renders them deities of the flesh.vii The sigils are one way to actualize this aim. In order to completely understand these ke y symbols of the cult, the next definition is important. 'Zos' he defined as “The body considered as a whole”, by which he included body, mind, and soul; it was the alembic of his sorcery.
His other key symbol, the Kia, re presents the Atmospheric 'I', THE Cosmic Self, which uses Zos as its field of activity. Such are the concrete, abstract and universal meanings of the main symbols of Spare's Zos Kia Cultus. In summary, these symbols can be seen as t he feminine and masculine part of sexual energy where the Zos represents a masculine force and the Kia a feminine force.
