Tags
Aleister Crowley, Art, Austin Osman Spare, Australian art, Dark Spirits, Dr. Nevill Drury, Magic, Occult, Pan, Rosaleen Norton, Western esoteric tradition, Western magical tradition, Witch of Kings Cross
Devil-worshipping harpy. Pagan rebel. ‘Wicked’ bohemian from Sydney’s red light district. The notorious, Pan-worshipping Witch of Kings Cross. Despite being widely portrayed in such sensationalist terms by the popular print media of the 1950s and 1960s, the Australian trance occultist and visionary artist Rosaleen Norton (1917-1979) remains largely unknown, even among contemporary devotees of Western magical traditions.
At a time when diversity was not celebrated (or tolerated) and the prevailing Australian social mentality was somewhat prudish (conservative, edging towards the puritanical), and when the appropriate place for a woman was perceived to be within the home, tending to the needs of husband and children, Rosaleen Norton flaunted accepted social conventions and instead utilised her extraordinary talent to portray the results of her visionary explorations of trance states, including:
… a wide range of supernatural beings … Norton depicted naked women wrestling with reptilian elementals or flying on the backs of winged griffins, gods who were both male and female, and demonic forms with menacing claw-tipped wings. But central to her magical cosmology was the figure of the Great God Pan, who for her was an essentially benign figure – the all-pervasive life-force of the Universe.
So says researcher and author Dr. Nevill Drury, one of Australia’s leading writers in the field of esoteric non-fiction (specialising in the Western magical tradition, shamanism and the history of New Age spirituality) and contemporary Australian art, and arguably the world’s leading scholar of the life, art and sex magic of Rosaleen Norton. Drury received his PhD from the University of Newcastle during 2008 for a dissertation on the art and magic of Rosaleen Norton and the Western esoteric tradition, some 31 years after having met Norton in her Sydney garret.
In his forthcoming Salamander and Sons title, Dark Spirits: The Magical Art of Rosaleen Norton and Austin Osman Spare, Drury elaborates upon this meeting which precipitated a deep and personal connection with Norton and her work and strongly influenced his career as a writer:
I met Rosaleen Norton in Sydney’s inner-city suburb of Kings Cross in 1977, while researching my book Inner Visions: Explorations in Magical Consciousness. At that stage Roie [Norton] had already become a recluse but a friend of mine and I tracked down a person called Danny who knew her. Danny worked in a jeweller’s shop in Kings Cross and we explained to him that we were genuinely interested in magical techniques and practices and wanted to discuss both her personal view of magic and her perceptions of the world at large. The message filtered through and we were granted an interview. Roie was living then in a dark basement flat at the end of a long corridor in an old building in Roslyn Gardens, just down from the centre of Kings Cross in the direction of Rushcutters Bay. She was somewhat frail but still extremely mentally alert, with expressive eyes and a hearty laugh. She even invited us to share an LSD trip with her, but in the gloomy recesses of her basement flat we shuddered to think of the shadowy beings we might unleash through this powerful psychedelic, and we both politely declined.
Dark Spirits is the third of Drury’s many books to step into the dark, private life and visionary work of Australia’s first and most famous witch. His previous texts on Norton include Pan’s Daughter: The Strange World of Rosaleen Norton (1988 and 1993, later republished as The Witch of Kings Cross in 2002) and Homage to Pan: The life, art and sex magic of Rosaleen Norton (2009), both of which are highly recommended.
Drury elevates Norton beyond the tawdry tales of the cheap, sensationalistic tabloids and offers insights into the life of a remarkable individual whose:
… personal beliefs were a strange mix of magic, mythology and fantasy, but derived substantially from mystical experiences which, for her, were completely real … Roie was very much an adventurer – a free spirit – and she liked to fly through the worlds opened to her by her imagination. Her art, of course, reflected this. It was her main passion, her main reason for living. She had no career ambitions other than to reflect on the forces within her essential being, and to manifest these psychic and magical energies in the only way she knew how … art was the very centre of her life, and Roie took great pride in the brief recognition she received when the English critic and landscape artist John Sackville-West described her in 1970 as one of Australia’s finest artists, alongside Norman Lindsay … she [Norton] felt that at last someone had understood her art and had responded to it positively. All too often her critics had responded only to her outer veneer – focusing on her bizarre media persona in particular – and this was not the ‘real’ Roie at all.
In Dark Spirits, the wonderful visionary universe of this artistic outsider and dweller of the social margins is considered and contextualised alongside the life and work of the British visionary artist Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956) whose major self-published works – Earth Inferno (1905), A Book of Satyrs (1907) and The Book of Pleasure (Self-Love): The Psychology of Ecstasy (1909-1913) – are increasingly acknowledged as the works of a creative genius, and their creator one of the key figures in the 20th century Western magical revival and one of its most original thinkers.
Although these two artists never met or even knew that the other existed, Drury says that Norton and Spare:
… resemble each other as innovative esoteric practitioners. Numerous comparisons can be made in relation to the two artist-magicians … The most intriguing similarity between the two artists relates to their visionary exploration of magical imagery through techniques of self-hypnosis, and there are several parallels in their personal lives and artistic careers as well. Within their respective individual contexts both Spare and Norton regarded themselves as artistic outsiders, largely alienated from the mainstream cultural trends of the day, and both spent most of their lives in squalid circumstances. Both were skilled figurative artists whose art school training contributed substantially to their graphic style, both exhibited their work extensively in popular meeting places like pubs or coffee shops in order to reach an appreciative audience, and both had a strong love for animals, especially cats. However, there are more specific parallels between Spare and Norton that suggest they should be regarded as visionary artists within the same esoteric genre. As occult practitioners, both considered themselves pantheists; both were well versed in the literature of the Western esoteric tradition, Theosophy, Eastern mysticism, and modern psychoanalysis (especially the works of Freud and Jung); both were attracted to the practice of sex magic and were familiar with the magical writings of Aleister Crowley – Spare knew Crowley personally. Both magicians explored magical grimoires like the Goetia and were fascinated by the sigils or ‘seals’ associated with elemental spirit-beings, and both were familiar with the philosophy and magical significance of the kabbalah. Both artists also developed and utilised their own, personal techniques of self-hypnosis and trance in order to produce their distinctive visionary artworks as a direct result of their magical methods. There is a clear parallel between the trance-based ‘otherworld’ consciousness explored by Norton and the Zos / Kia cosmology of Spare and this in turn draws attention to the unique contributions of the two artist-magicians operating as ‘visionary outsiders’ in the Western magical tradition.
Featuring more than 120 colour and black and white images, fully bound in black leather with gilt title and device and silk bookmark ribbon, and strictly limited to 95 copies numbered by hand, Dark Spirits is Drury’s superb tribute to Norton and Spare.
Although the limited edition of Dark Spirits was originally scheduled to manifest at the time of the Northern Summer Solstice 2012, the publication timeframe has been revised to late August 2012. As we edge closer to publication, updates regarding, and excerpts from, Dark Spirits will appear in later posts.
Great post. She created some fantastic pieces however, “The Seance” is still my favorite.
http://beinart.org/art-news/2007/07/11/rosaleen-norton-witch-of-kings-cross/
Thanks Aleister. Those interested can view Rosaleen Norton’s painting, ‘The Seance’, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Seance_by_Norton.jpg
Dear Sir/Madam
My name is called Eric Wong. For some reason I randomly searched about the word supernatural on the website of the Kings-X. I find out about MASTER ROSALEEN NORTON. I always interest in UFO, something to do with supernatural or out of body experience. I personally have experience OBE for many years.
Although I was born in Hong kong, and I am not in the generation of MASTER ROSALEEN NORTON lived. But when I visited my lady friend Leeann at Bourke st, the cross, I have a strong feeling toward that area. But the very first time I visited that area was around the late 80’s when I was still in high school or TAFE.
At the moment I am doing my study toward a career either in policing or military. If I could join the navy, and I base in Sydney, I wish to settle down at wooloomooloo, because I love those old houses up the hill between the public housing estates and the main city of the King-x, because I feel that area is spiritual.
I had talked to a gentleman from work in the past. He had been doing taxi driving all his life. He heard about the name of Rosaleen Norton when he was young, and also Les’s boy frined, Jeff heard about her.
I do not want to say this, because it sounds a bit crazy. I had a dream about half years ago in which I saw a lady in front of me. She looked like MASTER ROSALEEN NORTON.
I study martial arts and interest in meditation or anything to do with supernatural, so any experts from that field I respect them called them MASTER.
Yours Sincerely,
Eric Wong
Thanks for your lengthy note, Eric. In your dream, did the lady in front of you – the lady who looked like Rosaleen Norton – communicate with you in any way?
Having a dream about someone who resembled Rosaleen Norton is far from the craziest thing we’ve encountered.
I really seem to go along with almost everything that ended up being put into
writing in “Double Visionary: Norton and Spare The Fire Lizard”.
I am grateful for pretty much all the actual information.Regards,Colby
Thanks Colby. Some copies of Dark Spirits remain available for purchase, in case you’re interested.
“Double Visionary: Norton and Spare The Fire Lizard”
ended up being extremely engaging and informative!
In the present day universe that’s quite hard to execute.
Thanks a lot, Johnette
We appreciate your very kind assessment, Johnette.
I am very excited to finally have Dark Spirits in my hands! Having previously studied the works and magic of Spare and Norton, I am impressed by Dr. Drury’s expertise and writing, and the book is physically extremely beautiful. Snap one up now, before it is too late. This should be your first book to read on these artists, being both thorough and concise, and representing a wide range of the works of both artists. The background you will get here will stand you in good stead to further study either artist from primary sources, which in the case of Spare, can be pretty arcane otherwise. And this book approaches the work of both artists from a specifically magical perspective, which is far more useful to an occult practitioner than exhibition catalogues or other visual art oriented studies. I recommend Dark Spirits very highly.
We thank you for your strong endorsement of Dark Spirits! Given your long study of / engagement with the works and magic of both Norton and Spare, your endorsement speaks volumes for the book.
I personally needed to discuss this unique blog post, “Double Visionary: Norton and Spare | The Fire
Lizard” delphiaonline with my personal close friends on fb.
Ijust planned to pass on your terrific posting!
Thank you, Terri
Thanks for passing on details regarding Dark Spirits to your Facebook friends, Terri. Some copies remain available via http://www.salamanderandsons.com/modern-magistery/dark-spirits.html
Does anyone have any infomation (not just opinions or speculation) about Rosaleen Norton’s claim that her tradition was called the Goatfold and it came over to Australia with colonists from the rural areas of Britian ?
Have you considered directly contacting Nevill Drury about this matter, Mike? As you may already know, he is contactable via his website http://www.nevilldrury.com/