Note: It is presumed that readers of this essay will have some previous
knowledge of the history of A. 0. Spare. With that in mind, I will begin with a
sparse outline of this history for the sake of context.
Austin Osman Spare was
a well-known artist and
magician of great talent.
He was born the son of a London policeman on the last day of 1886,
and by the age of 19 had made a name for himself as an artist in the West End
of London.
His first published work, ‘Earth
Inferno’, was hailed as a collection of unusual graphic drawings. However, even in
this early work, his commentaries showed a deep spiritual interest and a viewpoint of his
fellow man that was uncommon to the average artist or collector.
There are several
comments in Earth Inferno
depicting an attitude toward mainstream
society
that
comes from a perspective outside
of this main stream.
One such reads: “The
perpetual youth of man arises, Draws aside
the curtain-faith (a token of humanity’s
LIMITED knowledge), and exposes the
inferno of THE NORMAL.”
The Book Of Pleasure, published in
1913, is considered his most important
magical work. Spare’s art and magic were
always intertwined, depicting varied aspects
of himself. His published works were
illustrated by his unique drawing style,
whether they were meant as
books on magic or as art
collections.
In the mid 1920’s, Spare
had become disillusioned
with the values of the day,
especially among the self-absorbed smart set with
whom his artistic successes
had him dealing. In 1927 he
published The Anathema
of Zos: A Sermon to the
Hypocrites. With this work
Spare left his life of success
behind. In his own words: “I
turned my back on fame and continued
unmolested my quests into the unknown
realms, my natural stoicism supporting me
in times of want.”
The work contains only one drawing, a
self-portrait in profile with a hand raised in
the traditional gesture of excommunication.
The text shows his disillusion with the
values and attitudes of the people to whom
it is addressed. After the publication of this
work, he was shunned by former friends and
fellow artists. There were a few more art
exhibitions, but he did not publish any
more books. He spent the remainder of his
life living in obscurity, his companions
being the lower class residents of the
London pavements, including the
prostitutes and other seedy characters that
he used for models in those days. He
occupied a run down basement apartment,
making his living by selling his drawings for
trifling sums of money in the local pub.
One may wonder why a man with the
natural resource of Spare’s obvious talent, as
well as his past reputation as an artist, would
‘settle’ for such a life style when he may
have been able to re-establish his artistic
fame and fortune over time. Spare spent
these years concentrating more on his
magical philosophy and observing a
different part of society than that from
which he had turned away.
Spare was not blind to the faults of the
lower classes either, but money did not hold
much importance for him. He drew the
people that he happened to see, and traded
his talent for the price of a meal or a drink
quite often. He squandered what little
money he had on drink and women, finding
value in pleasures rather
than material things.
Even Spare’s closest
friends can only speculate
as to his motivations. To
understand why a man would
choose to live less well than
he might, it is necessary to see
the situation from his point of
view. This, I think, requires the
experience of living in a variety of
circumstances and observing the effect
of these circumstances on the people
within the societies they create. It is the
purpose of this essay to try to explain
this point of view, by
someone who has had a
similar variety of inter-societal experiences.
As already stated,
Spare began life in
working class
circumstances. He was
the middle of five children
and money was scarce for the
family. Art school was a hardship for
the family, and it is likely that Spare was
able to appreciate the sacrifices that his
family would have to have made to provide
tuition and materials. With his artistic
successes, Spare was drawn into a different
part of society. Art patrons of the day were
probably as varied as they are today, with
the exception that the financial resources
required to partake of this sort of diversion
in those days were further removed from the
middle classes than what is required today.
This was before the days that a middle-class
wage earner could produce a major credit
card to invest in a promising work of art. In
those days, an art collector was likely to be
described as “rich and spoiled”, at least by
those less fortunate.
In 1927, with the publication of
‘Anathema Of Zos’, a lot of built up
frustration was released. The fair weather
friendships and false smiles which are all too
common among the privileged classes left
less than a favorable impression on Spare. It
is plain to see in all of his writings that
Spare had an uncanny ability to see through
to the real motivations of people. He was
not fooled by the glamour and games of
these people. He may have enjoyed the
fame and recognition for a time, but in the
long run was unable to stomach the lies and
false promises.
Among the layabouts, the prostitutes
and the other ‘downtrodden’, Spare
found a sector of the population who did
not follow the robotic life style into
which the
‘system’ shuffles
the average
citizen. These
were people who
could get up in the
morning and have no
idea what they were
going to do today, certainly
not what they did yesterday. Each day holds
a new adventure for these people of the
streets. They can be found in any major city,
any period of time. I am not referring to the
homeless of today or the mentally ill people
who have become recently publicized in the
media. I am referring to people who, with
the independence of their own spirit,
choose not to ‘take their place’ in society.
They choose to live in lesser financial
circumstances than they might because in
exchange they have freedom. There are no
bills to pay beyond the rent, if that. They
live by various means. Some trade some
talent such as street performers; some sell
some part of themselves, such as prostitutes;
some simply beg on the streets. This can be
more profitable than most people realize.
Life on the streets, surviving from one
moment to the next, provides the right
impetus for what Ray Sherwin in his book
‘Theatre Of Magick’ refers to as “living on
the edge”. This phrase has been used by
many, but how many people who use it have
ever truly experienced it? Sherwin uses
situations of physical danger as examples in
his book, but all that is required for the
emotional state that we are discussing is a
certain awareness that most people only
experience in these times of danger. People
of the streets live in this emotional state
most of the time. Some of them are living
slightly outside of the law, others are simply
aware of the vulnerability that they face
every day. Few of them would change their
circumstances.
In The Book Of Pleasure, Spare tells us
not to indulge in idle mummery and
imitation, “You are alive!” He is referring to
ritual, but he may just as well be talking
about how the average person lives his or
her life. We do what is expected, and
despite some small rebellious behaviour on
occasion we imitate what we are taught is
the norm. Not so the street people. Spare
said, “If you want the truth, ask a cockney!”
In this sector of society, Spare found the
obscurity necessary to spend his time within
his own mystical state, without the
distractions of material acquisition or any
reason to please society. Spare had his art
and his spells to sell. He would not accept
large amounts for either, to the confusion of
many. He remained in simple circumstances
for the remainder of his life. If he sometimes
longed for the comforts of prosperity as he
became older, still, he took no action to
change his life. Thirty years is a long time.
He was not idle; he left papers behind on
his magical philosophies, and many
drawings. He died in May of 1956, several
months before I was born, but I am inclined
to believe that he died a satisfied man.
References:
The Collected Works Of Austin Osman Spare
compiled and edited by Christopher Bray (includes
Earth Inferno, The Book Of Pleasure, Automatic Drawing,
Focus Of Life and Anathema Of Zos)
Images And Oracles Of Austin Osman Spare by
Kenneth Grant
Theatre Of Magick by Ray Sherwin
Excess Spare compiled by TOPY (a collection of
articles by various authors by or about A. 0. Spare)