On Desire & its Realization using hints from Austin Osman Spare’s Book of Pleasure (TM)
‘Unless desire is subconscious, it is not fulfilled, no, not in this life.’
— Austin Osman Spare (p.37 Book of Pleasure — Different Religions & Doctrines as Means to Pleasure, Freedom & Power)
Some preliminary considerations have to be taken into account before we go on to analyze Spare’s suggestion.
The first of these considerations is that Austin Osman Spare, while rather well known and respected as a Magician, has most certainly been under-recognized for his artistic contributions throughout and even after his lifetime. This is unusual because Spare was once widely considered to be artistically gifted (and still is considered as such among certain connoiseur circles) and it is undeniable that his artwork is both beautiful as well as technically flawless. His automatic drawings are particularly excellent in this regard which is somewhat surprising to say the least, considering the methodology through which they were produced.
The fact that he spent most of his life in relative isolation & obscurity is not really an explanation, as this is a lifestyle that is shared by many an artist, including such who are highly successful, especially post mortem. Famous examples include Egon Schiele or Vincent Van Gogh. It is also unlikely that Spare’s obscurity is down to the fact that he was an Occultist which may explain why some parts of society & art dealers & collectors who come from a religious background might have purposely avoided him. There are and have long been artists with a decidedly occult and even Satanic background, who despite or because of this, achieve their success. One well known example would be Hermann Nitsch, who is famous for using blood as a replacement-medium for paint and whose Satanic leanings have helped him to gain enough media attention to become somewhat of an artistic celebrity in Europe.
As I’ve briefly alluded to in the introductory paragraph, Austin Osman Spare’s career as a Magician, during his life as well as post-mortem, seems to be the other side of the coin. It is often posited that one of the main reasons why Spare, unlike some of his equally or lesser talented contemporaries has not been able to enjoy widespread recognition as an artist, is that he alienated the art scene of his day. Having said that, this is equally true for the occult scene. While Spare — much as in his artistic career — briefly enjoyed famous/infamous connections in the occult scene (a well known example being Aleister Crowley) he managed to alienate himself from this crowd to the point that AC referred to him as a ‘black brother on the left hand path’. (Source: http://www.austinspare.co.uk/)
Despite his disagreements with Crowley and many other occultists of his day, Spare managed to be remembered as one of the foremost Magickians of his era. Contemporary Chaos Magick as defined by Peter J. Carroll et al. in the 1970s was heavily influenced by Spare’s approach. Famous graphic novelist Alan Moore often refers to Austin Osman Spare as one of his great inspirations & there is no doubt that Spare’s ‘Sigil Method’ is among the most common and widespread Magickal techniques utilized by occultists from all kinds of spiritual backgrounds around the world today.
While Kenneth Grant is the human link that probably contributed the most to Spare’s legacy as a Magician, there is not much that Grant has contributed which would explain why Spare’s method and legacy has had such a dramatic impact on Magick & Occulture compared to Spare’s commercial artistic success. It is not as though Grant was that famous or influential, nor did Grant convince people to adopt Spare’s system or techniques. It appears that Spare’s method dug its way through time in a more natural, memetic (See “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins) kind of manner that did not need as much of a push as one might expect from something this successful. Contrary to this, his artistic legacy — while increasingly recognized — does not seem to be taking off as well as his magickal one, despite people more famous and influential than Kenneth Grant drawing attention to it (Examples including Alan Moore, Grant Morrison et al.).
The curious comparison between Spare’s legacy as an artist vs. Spare’s legacy as a Magickian may lend credence to or at least shed some light on his Book of Pleasure quote shared at the beginning of this article, or alternatively may explain Spare’s views on Belief as a formative function of individual & collective reality. Here it is once more: “Unless desire is subconscious, it is not fulfilled, no, not in this life.”
It is difficult to assess whether Spare viewed himself as more of an Artist or as more of a Magickian or perhaps as a synthesis of the two, but one thing should seem pretty clear even to outsiders. Spare seemingly did not subordinate his Magick to his Art, but he did “subordinate” his Art to his Magick, in the sense that he considered Art to be a form of Magick and a useful tool through which Magick and magickal effects could be produced. This is evident from many examples ranging from Automatic Drawings to Sigils & as well as his Zos Kia philosophy which was expressed both artistically, magickally as well as in written philosophical formats.
The attentive reader may already glean what I am getting at and why I placed Spare’s quote on Desire and the Subconscious at the beginning of this article. Using Spare’s own interpretation of the mechanics of Reality I am suggesting that Spare may well have wanted to become a successful and recognized commercial Artist, while he naturally was a Magickian who did Magick regardless of whether he wanted to or not. It was simply who he was, he didn’t have much of a choice.
While this perspective & interpretation is decidedly Crowlean / Thelema or Telos yet also Book of Pleasure focused (both Thelema & Zos Kia do not appear to be entirely independent of one another) it would help us explain Spare’s own extreme Magickal success — indirectly using one of Spare’s own magickal explanations (see quote on subconscious Desire) — compared to his comparatively mediocre success as a commercial Artist, despite being very talented and connected in both areas.
He most certainly never truly made his Desire to become a successful commercial Artist fully subconscious even though at some point he seemed to reject the plan & isolate himself from his Capitalist surroundings. 7 years before his Death he met and befriended Kenneth Grant who did manage to publish Spare’s works & probably did help to gain some of the long awaited commercial success, both as a Magickian and as an Artist.
There is also an alternative explanation based on another one of Spare’s personal beliefs, namely that Belief acts as a function of Reality through which Reality is formed. If this notion is in fact superior to his concept of Desire having to be sublimated in order to become realized, then it would suggest that Spare’s life and in particular the fact that his sublimated desires seemed to “manifest” far more effectively than those he failed to make entirely subconscious, likely was the result of his Belief that this is how Reality works (i.e. that Reality emanates from Belief or is at least formed by it)
While I am not suggesting that Spare’s insights on the Subconscious & its relation to the fulfillment of Desire as well as notions on Belief are correct, I believe this article should shed some light on the philosophy and theory that helped to form such contemporary magickal currents as Chaos Magick. It should also help readers to draw conclusions which they can utilize for personal magickal or psychological experiments. Here follow some suggestions.
Experiments derived from Spare’s insights:
The interested reader may find it useful to analyze his unconscious / subconscious desires, in the sense that he should attempt to sense what things he seems to naturally be drawn to and what things he seems to naturally tend to avoid.
He should then further analyze to what extent his more sublimated desires have “manifested” compared to such desires which may be strong but may be held consciously rather than subconsciously. This duality is relatively easy to distinguish because only conscious desires would be immediately apparent to the reader doing such an analysis whereas the unconscious ones would need to be looked for even though their manifestations may already be more apparent outwardly while the conscious one’s still mostly exist within himself subjectively.
The reader should also take time to analyze different periods of his life based on the beliefs he held during those periods, carefully evaluating the effects such beliefs have had on influencing his life’s path during such times.
Last but not least once this has been accomplished one can make plans to experiment both with adopting new forms of belief that would suit one’s aims better than current beliefs as well as to try and sublimate current desires one is consciously trying to manifest, i.e. to try and make these subconscious. To give an example: If the reader is pursuing monetary success, he could try to pursue things that lead to monetary success (such as producing goods or services or networking) and make doing such things his main priority while relegationg financial success to the back of his mind.
