ZOS KIA CULTUS, ART as PURE MAGICK
And COMPLETE ChAOS
The Cult of the Divine Artist has been a popular concept in recent esoteric literature. Andrew Chumbley of the Cultus Sabbati has poetically furthered the premises of Austin Osman Spare and his ilk, in expressing the importance of the Arts as a magickal menstruum, and Kenneth Grant has acknowledged that strange luminary of the art world Salvador Dali as ‘one of the greatest magicians of this century’, exalting his ‘paranoiac-critical method’ of transmitting subconscious strata through imagic automata.
One of the founding tenets of The Order of ChAOS many years ago (as expressed @ http://www.crossroads.wild.net.au/order.htm) was a re-emphasis on an artistic apprehension of ‘ChAOS magick’. The work of Peter Carrol (and his Illuminates of ThanatEros ) has been effective in spreading and popularizing the chaos meme, however his adoption of the mainstream modern paradigm of scientific materialism (while useful for conveyance of information to the layperson caught in this western headset) seems in stark contradistinction to the work of the very artist who inspired (to little acknowledgement on his part) so much of Carrol’s work -Austin Osman Spare. AOS’s work emphasises the importance of art as the very fundament of magic, and the precursor of science which does naught but verify, validate and coagulate art’s majestic visions, and often stultifies them in the process. Somehow Carrol’s intellectual rationalizations of magick seem to rob it of its mystery, converting the mystical into stale math.
We aim to acknowledge and re-turn ChAOS to it’s Spare roots, thus the capitals in our Order’s title, for ChAOS is the Chariot (the letter Ch or Cheth in the Hebrew alphabet) of AOS. As supreme Fool/Magus 23’ of the Order of ChAOS I ride this Chariot, drawn by the double sphinxes (traditional imagery for that trump) who together form the Aeonic Avatar HruMachis, into the heart of the sun and the brain of the moon, and revelling in the inverse alchemy thereof. Taking the magickal name of ‘Kia vel Eros’ I merge with my magickal mentor and we beCome Complete ChAOS, steering the ZosKia Cultus on into the next convolution of this New Aeon...
For the Kia is represented by the Eye (symbol of the letter Ayin or O) and like Odin on the World Tree my inverted vision emit ni sdrowkcab skool to meet the Hand (symbol of the letter Yod or I) of Zos that feeds me. So Yod meets Ayin: IO! Mine Angel is summoned...
‘The more Chaotic I am, the more complete I am’ -AOS
‘!soZKia level tanahTEros! ‘ -ChAOS
Just why are the Arts so potent as a magickal menstruum? Chumbley, Spare and others have waxed eloquent upon the topic, and while I Grant them this efflorescent poetica is an Art in itself, I would now like to cut to the core of the matter (not to discredit symbolism and esoterica, but rather to divulge the very essence of its potency):
In contemporary magickal practise the concept of ‘Lust of Result’ is very prevalent. Almost every modern manual of sorcery will indulge in the idea and obvious various means of bypassing, subverting, sidestepping and generally avoiding this conscious desire for ritual results which is said to prevent their realization. Some of these methods and techniques are indeed useful and effective when the mage has a specific agenda or intent and indeed, a particular result consciously desired. Spare’s methods of personalized sigilia (developed since by Carroll, Frater UD, Jan Fries and others) for example seem to work under certain conditions.
However all such techniques are about taking conscious desires back to a subconscious level so that the deep mind may execute them without interference from the psychic censors of the more rational conscious mind. Far better I believe, and also easier, simpler, more direct, to express the subconscious directly through artistic automatism -and thereby not even bring them to the attention of the conscious mind in the first place!
In this way Art (or perhaps I should say ‘the Arts’ for I mean by the term not just visual but all manner of creative expression from musickal jamming to digital video editing to ritual theatre) is the most pure form of Magick.
I
am not suggesting that more conscious magick is not
valid or even sometimes necessary (for I oft find it to be so), merely that Art
is more direct, though also more elusive and mysterious (who knows what
subconscious horrors or delights may manifest through its ambiguous portals ?). It is the ‘pure Will, unassauged
of purpose and free from Lust of Result... in every way perfect’ which
I have no intention to de-emphasize physical activity. Some arts such as dance and theatre may involve a lot of body movement anyway, but the writer and visual artist crafting with quill or keyboard and mouse should be aware of the necessity to mobilise (with yoga or other physical exercise) and earth the inspiration in the body as well as the page, for a fit vessel allows the trance of inspiration to heighten and endure longer.
More conscious magickal techniques and formulas may be useful in ‘setting the stage’ and opening the channels, inducing the trance of gnosis but once this springboard has been arranged, we have naught but to plunge into the murky yet fecund depths of the subconscious, which can only be transmitted to the surface through immediate creative expression. Ritual itself, if containing this spontaneous element, may become an art in itself.
True Art (which is what I am referring to here, ie.that of a unique and inspired nature, no mere mimickry of pop icons or faded masters which even if perfected is but craft) is Pure Magick, and through and from it artists and their audients may embrace their inherent divinity.
Picture: IO!
-Hand and Eye, Zos and Kia, Yod (I) and Ayin (O) meet.
Mine angel is summoned: IO!
Drawn
in 2002 in
Media:
-pen, paper, hand, eye
(The final illustration and poem in the print MagiZain are not included in this online version)