(Adapted from an excerpt from Understanding Chaos Magic)
Modern chaos magic is often connected with the magical methods of Austin Osman
Spare, yet Austin Spare died twenty years before the advent of this area of magic.
His methods served as inspiration to the first chaos magicians of the 1970's,
although other elements were essential to the formulation of the new discipline,
many of which were never known by Spare.
Austin Osman Spare's art and magic were very closely intertwined in his life.
Spare came from humble roots, yet when the young Spare showed an unusual aptitude
for drawing, the family managed to find the funds to send him to art school. At
the age of 13, he left school to serve an apprenticeship in a stained-glass works,
but continued his education at Art College in Lambeth (South London) in the evenings.
During this time he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art and began serious
artistic study.
Spare very quickly gained popularity in the art world. He exhibited his first
picture in 1904, at the age of 17, in the Royal Academy. Then in 1905 he published
his first book, Earth Inferno. It was primarily meant to be a book of drawings,
but included commentaries that showed some of his insight into the workings of
the human mind and his spiritual leanings.
Spare's drawings, often depicting human figures in grotesque postures or semi-human
spirit forms, were uniquely expressive as were his writings on magic and art.
Spare continually tells us that we have the ability to think for ourselves. A
seemingly simple statement, yet a concept that is very difficult for a large
percentage of our conformist society to truly grasp. In the last three decades
since his work has become well known among modern magicians, there has been a
massive increase in the numbers of people who try to imitate Spare's methods,
and yet miss the point of his primary message that we must each of us develop
our own methods of magic, or else we are but pale imitators.
The word 'chaos' first appears in connection with Spare in his first book,
Earth Inferno. The title of the first full page drawing is DESTINY, HUMANITY, and
THE CHAOS OF CREATION. The word Chaos here might be interpreted equally as
creation or disorder, and it is up to the readers of Spares works to decide which
is most appropriate to the pictures which he includes, as well as the ideas he
attempts to convey.
It is also in Earth Inferno that Spare first refers to Kia which is Spare's
symbol for the cosmic self, which uses Zos, his identification for himself as body,
mind and soul in connection with sorcery, as its field of activity. Another drawing
in Earth Inferno is titled simply, CHAOS. It faces a page which contains
quotes from Dante's Inferno, and from The Book of Revelation, as well as his own
caption;
"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."
Above the drawing itself, which depicts a man drawing aside a curtain to see a
mass of human bodies writhing together in various postures, is the entreaty;
"Oh! Come with me, the KIA and the ZOS, to witness this extravagance."
Opening the book to these two pages exposes the reader to an insight of the human
drama as only a philosopher can step aside and look upon it. Spare refers elsewhere
in the book to "Creating a CHAOS of reflection". Spare's drawings and
commentaries on youth and blindness unmasked throughout this book leave plenty
of room for reflection within and interpretation through the mind of each reader.
During the time that this book was first published, the young Spare was residing
with a novelist, the Reverend Robert Hugh Benson. One of the more unusual stories
one often hears about Spare's magical conjurings occurred while Spare was on a
walk with Benson. It was a clear Summer day, and as a joke Benson suggested that
Spare try some rainmaking. Spare, always willing to oblige, drew a sigil on a
scrap of paper and concentrated his will upon it. Within a few minutes a cloud
formed overhead and drenched them both.
There are several stories about Spare's ability to achieve instant results with
this sort of magic, most of the stories about Spare appear in Images and Oracles
of Austin Osman Spare, by Kenneth Grant who knew Spare for many of his later
years. This book was first published by Frederick Muller, Ltd, London, in 1975, and
is the primary reference for this article. It was re-released in 2003 by
Fulgar Limited.
In 1908 Spare held an art exhibition at Bruton gallery. By this time he had become
very popular among the 'smart set' in London, the art collectors and dandys of
the time. About 1910 he joined Aleister Crowley's Argentium Astrum, an occult Order
of a similar nature to the Golden Dawn.
This association did not last long. Spare had begun work on his most well known
book, The Book of Pleasure, and had his own ideas concerning the practice of magic.
This book was first published in 1913, but like most of Spare's earlier works can be
freely found on the internet (see Chaos Library).
It can also be found in reprint copies and collections of Spare's works. It is
considered his most important magical work, and includes detailed instructions
for his system of sigilisation and the well known "Death Postures".
Some of the drawings in this book are more detailed than previously published
works. The writing goes into deeper detail of Spare's philosophy as well. He has
much to say here about human hypocrisy, outward show of religion and even some
magical groups and the meanings of true personal freedom and power. It is also
in this book that Spare describes his 'neither-neither' principle and that of
'free belief'. These concepts are important keys to magic, and ones that
should be read in their original form to be properly appreciated.
In 1916, Spare joined the army and served as an official war artist during the
first World War. He was posted to Egypt which had a great effect on him. The
animal-headed gods and magical religion of Ancient Egypt could hardly fail to
appeal to the insightful nature of the artist and mystic.
In 1921 Spare published The Focus of Life, which is another book of drawings
which includes his unique and magical commentaries. The word chaos comes in again
here in relation to the normality of chaos in the natural order of things and in
self, "The more chaotic-the more complete I am." Spare speaks mostly to
himself as Zos in this book. He has become the confident philosopher and
has much to say to us, if we are able to listen. He speaks here of existence, of
sex, of ecstasy and sensation. Spare seems to continue many of the ideas from The
Book of Pleasure here, about self-love, belief and the chaos of the normal.
From 1921 to 1924 he was at the height of his artistic success, then in 1924, the
outward successes of his artistic career conflicting with the philosopher within
brought him to a turning point. Spare had become disenchanted with the trendy
artistic friends and benefactors with whom he had been so popular. He wrote another
book, titled The Anathema of Zos, in which he effectively excommunicated
himself from these people, flaunting their hypocrisies in their faces. He returned
to South London and obscurity to find the freedom to develop his philosophy, art
and magic.
During the Second World War, Spare suffered an injury when his home in London was
devastated by a bomb-blast which paralysed his right side. Naturally, this caused
him a great deal of depression as he believed for some time that he would never
draw again. However, within six months time he had recovered the use of his right
arm and began to learn to draw all over again. This incident is related in detail
in the book, Images and Oracles of Austin Osman Spare.
During this time Spare lived in a small basement apartment, caring little for
money or fame. He made his living drawing portraits of the common people in the
local pub and selling them for small amounts of money. He was offered larger sums
on occasion but refused to accept them. Although he wasn't publishing during this
time, he continued to write.
In 1947 Spare met Kenneth Grant and became more involved with other occultists of
the time. From 1948 to 1956 he began work on a definitive Grimoire of the Zos
Kia Cultus, a spiritual Order which is referred to in his various writings.
This was unfinished at the time of Spare's death in May 1956, but was synthesised
from Spare's papers by Kenneth Grant, who inherited Spare's papers, and published
in a book called Zos Speaks! by
Fulgar Limited in 2003.
After his death, Spare's published works did not entirely disappear, but became
collector's items among a few magicians in the U.K. The material began to resurface
in the early 1970's in small occult magazines and collections. Over the years since
then the books have been reprinted by various people, ranging from photocopy editions
to more expensively produced collections and on the internet.
Copyright continues to belong to Kenneth Grant until 2026, but this seems not to
be of concern to Mr. Grant, whom I know to be a lovely and generous person from
my own correspondence with him during my researches for my first book.
Those who are more interested in content than collectibility
can find the texts on links from my own Chaos Library.
Fulgar Press have produced some of the best collectable editions of Spare's work,
with the co-operation of Kenneth Grant, as well as limited edition volumes by known
and respected experts on Spare. Collectors of relevant material on Spare will also be
pleased by the re-release in 2003 of the classic book, Stealing the Fire From Heaven
written by Stephen Mace. I have a copy of the 4th edition of the Mace book
which was published in 1984 (first copyright edition), which has remained so
popular and sought after over the years that
Dagon Productions
felt it warrented another edition after all of these years. Seekers of this book
should be aware that the Mace book bears the name of the author prominently on its own cover,
and is ISBN number 0-9720266-0-6 to avoid confusion with similar titles.
That Spare was a bit
of a scallywag (as he was described to me in a private letter by one who knew him well)
would come as no surprise to anyone who has studied his life, but the relevance
of his lifestyle to his magical successes lies in the observation that his sense
of individuality was never constrained by convention. Whatever else may or may
not be true of Spare, his magic worked. Some of the most interesting stories about
Spare are contained in Images and Oracles of Austin Osman Spare.
The name Austin Osman Spare has become fairly widely known and respected among
modern serious magicians, and there is little doubt that there will always be a
market for reprints of his work. Still, his primary message throughout his writings
often is ignored in favour of the all too human need to seek mentors in the realm
of magic. Austin Spare developed his own magical methods, and encourages his readers
to do the same. He constantly reminds us that we are individuals, free spirits,
and that imitation, even of himself, is but a pale shadow of the individual
magician's potential.
Spare may have perceived the concept of chaos in magic differently than today's
modern chaos magicians, yet it was his individual approach to magic which inspired
much of the attitude behind this area of magic, and which has freed the magician
from the constraints of traditional Orders and methods which have long become
outdated in a modern society where the ideas of science and magic can work in
co-operation rather than in opposition between superstition and observable phenomena.
One can only guess what Spare would have thought of 'strange attractors' and
'the butterfly effect', but in the end it doesn't matter. Spare's message was for
the individual, to think independently. It is up to each one of us to form our
own opinions as well as to develop the methods that work for us. Still, it is
with respect that we occasionally raise a glass to Austin Spare, who unknowingly
fathered many of the ideas that we now attribute to the magic of chaos.