The Medium is the Messenger: An Exploration into Ethel Le Rossignol’s Visionary Art with Studies of Anna Howitt’s and Hilma af Klint’s works

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The Medium is the Messenger:

An Exploration into Ethel Le Rossignol’s Visionary Art with Studies of Anna

Howitt’s and Hilma af Klint’s works

Kathryn Branch-Channer

Department of History, European Studies and Religious Studies History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents

M.A. Thesis in Religious Studies Supervisor: Dr. Marco Pasi Second Reader: Dr. Peter Forshaw Universiteit van Amsterdam Submitted August 2019

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Table of Contents

Introduction 3

1. Spiritualism, Mediumship and Art 4

1.1. The Origins of Spiritualism 4

1.2. Women and Spiritualism in Post-World War I 6

1.3. Female Mediumship 6

1.4. Theosophy 8

1.5. Modernism 9

2. Ethel Le Rossignol in Historical Context 11

2.1. Spiritualism in England During and After World War I 11

2.2. Correspondences 11

2.3. Context 12

3. Ethel Le Rossignol: The Holy Sphere 14

3.1. A Goodly Company 14

3.2. Healing 17

3.3. Gender and Sexuality 18

3.4. Exhibition and Audience 18

4. Anna Mary Howitt: A Glorious Fruition 20

4.1. Spirit Drawing Methods 21

4.2. Symbolism 22

4.3. Anna Mary Howitt and Ethel Le Rossignol 23

5. Hilma af Klint: Freedom and Opposition 26

5.1. Theosophy and Feminist Politics 27

5.2. Hilma af Klint: Background 27

5.3. Evolution and Gender 29

5.4. Automatism 29

5.5. Exhibitions and Intentions 29

5.6. Hilma af Klint and Ethel Le Rossignol 30

Final Conclusion 32

Image Appendix 34

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Introduction

Intuition is a practice, but can it make you a master of art? The interest in this thesis comes from the number of female artists active in mediumship at the turn of the century and what motivated them to create their radical spirit art. This thesis aims to illuminate the artistic oeuvre of Ethel Le Rossignol with comparison to two more visionary female artists, Anna Mary Howitt, and Hilma af Klint. Their context, influences and recurring common themes will be analysed in the attempt to discover how their work and lives interact, and whether there lies a common space where these women share their creativity and goals.

In the last decade, the study of western esotericism has become an established field in religious studies. From the beginning, it has engaged in self-critical reflection over how scholarly research can be correctly determined. The question of how to study it is still discussed. This problem is highlighted by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, professor and chair of History of Hermetic Philosophy and related currents at the University of Amsterdam, in the article ‘Empirical method in the study of esotericism’ where he discusses the debate over reductionism and religionism and proposes that the empirical method is the most useful for academic research of esoteric studies. He states that “empirical researchers do not limit themselves to the empirical because they wish to claim it is the only reality (privately they may believe the opposite), but simply because it is the only one accessible to them for investigation” . 1

I have chosen to discuss these women and their work with this empirical method. Women artists and esotericism throughout the modern lineage of art history have been consistently excluded. This is certainly changing in the past few decades, with recent exhibitions such as Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future at the Guggenheim in New York (October 28th, 2018 - April 23rd 2019), and World Receivers: Georgiana

Houghton, Hilma af Klint and Emma Kunz at the Lenbauchhaus in Munich (November 6, 2018 - March 10,

2019). By studying their work from a historical point of view, the analysis of their work is exhibited in the most inclusive format, remaining factual and open to further discussions. The neglect of western esotericism as a part of the historical inquiry has left gaps in our knowledge, and the same goes for female artists in the art history canon. The vast amount of context given is the framework for these artists' lives, influences and for understanding their work to the fullest degree because their work may have not been treated seriously for so long. Academic articulation is important because it takes their work seriously. There is no rigid tradition of synthesis in place, therefore, I have used a comparative method to gain a productive ‘bigger picture’ view of female mediumistic artists during the turn of the century across Europe. This is a way to bring visibility to artists that heavily engaged in intensive personal research and artistic methods, consuming a lot of their lives with the purpose of their messages.

The main publications relied on for this thesis are The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the

Culture of the Modern (1989) and The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in the late Victorian England (2004) by Alex Owen, two works which highlight topics surrounding consciousness and

Spiritualism in the late 19th and early 20th century, women, power and mediumship. The Divine Feminine by Joy Dixon has provided background reading for the relationship between women and the Theosophical Society.

Ethel Le Rossignol, Anna Mary Howitt, and Hilma af Klint used their intuition, a knowledge they believed to be of something higher than this earth, and developed work against societal norms. I hope this thesis will highlight these women artists' works, context, influences, themes and their missions. 

Hanegraaff, Empirical method in the study of esotericism, page 102.

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1. Spiritualism, Mediumism and Art

This chapter lays the groundwork for investigating developments in Spiritualism and mediumship in relation to women, alongside the assumptions of secularisation and the decline of traditional religion in the early 20th century. Spiritualism, argued by Anne Braude in Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women’s Right in

Nineteenth Century America (1989), became an important movement for feminism and vice versa.

Therefore , it could be argued that it helped to shape certain aspects of female artistic and cultural life. In discussing the idea of the self inside the rational framework of modern life, we can observe the rigid boundaries that could have led creative culture to look further for spiritual or more abstract inspirations. Anne Braude suggests that by recounting the connection between women’s history and religion, we can write a more accurate account of the past. By studying its importance in artistic currents we can write a more inclusive account of art in the late 19th and early 20th century in relation to esotericism, religion and women. While Braude’s work may be outdated now, and new findings have found the link between the emergence of feminism and the suffrage movement strenuous, Radical Spirits opened a new perspective into women’s history and religion that deserves to be analysed. It is, however, worth bearing in mind that many outspoken Spiritualists were feminists but not all feminists were Spiritualists.

1.1. The Origins of Spiritualism

Spiritualism is most often defined by the central belief that individuals are capable of communication with spirits and the deceased. Spiritualism as a philosophy encompasses the idea that the spirit exists separate from matter. Most histories mark the beginning of Spiritualism as 1848 when Margaret and Kate Fox communicated with a spirit who had been murdered at their house in New York. After this, mediums began to pop up all over America. While some Spiritualists performed séances and enacted messages from beyond, from sailors to long lost Egyptian masters, others focused on the artistic side of spiritual communication through spirit photography, drawings, and automatic writing.

British professor of history and gender studies, Alex Owen published her first historical study into the role of women in the Spiritualist movement, The Darkened Room: Women Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian

England in 1989. In her later work, The Place of Enchantment (2004), she suggests transcendentalism as a

forerunner of late-Victorian ‘mysticism’ . Transcendentalism emerged from German Romanticism and was a 2 reaction against Enlightenment rationalism. The movement honoured intuitive spiritual experience over empirical affirmation and accepted mystical oneness with God and the natural world.

Spiritualism can also be linked to Swedenborgianism. Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), earned an 3 international reputation as a scientist and for his theological works which influenced those seeking alternatives to mainstream religion. He was an inspiration for the likes of William Blake (1757-1827), Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), who was a well-known Spiritualist. Many transcendentalists embraced Swedenborg’s worldview, including Margaret Fuller who was a journalist and early leader in the women’s rights movement. Swedenborg spoke to the dead and to angels, 4 whom he believed were spirits that had reached a high stage of spiritual evolution. This granted him 5 mediumship in the eyes of many Spiritualists who used him as inspiration. Camila Crosland (1812-1895) was an English writer of fiction, poetry, essays, and sketches. In her published work, Light in the Valley: My

Experiences of Spiritualism (1857), she writes, “Spiritualists may differ about the degree of pure and Divine

inspiration which was the privilege of Emanuel Swedenborg, but none are likely to deny that he was one of

Owen, The Place of Enchantment, page 118.

2

Dole, Emanuel Swedenborg: Essays for the new century edition on his life, work and impact.

3

Blanchard, Margaret Fuller: From Transcendentalism to Revolution.

4

Carroll, Spiritualism in Antebellum America. (Religion in North America), page 248.

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the most extraordinary mediums of who the world has any record” . Swedenborg also became a great 6 influence on the modern Theosophical movement which will be discussed later in this chapter.

Mesmerism was another movement that began in the late 18th century and influenced Spiritualism. 7 Mesmerism was a method of psychological and physical healing that was developed by Franz Anton Mesmer. Mesmer was an Austrian physician who believed that there was an invisible and natural forced that 8 pervaded all living things. This force could be used for different effects. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke is a British historian and author best known for scholarly books on esoteric traditions, modern occultism and the history of its intersection with inter-war Germany. In his work The Western Esoteric Tradition: A Historical

Introduction (2008), Goodrick-Clarke studies Mesmerism while examining the relationship between science

and spirituality. A chapter is dedicated to Mesmer and the influence his ideas had on Spiritualism, tracing the developments of animal magnetism from the combination of the notion of fluid and the powers of the mind in science. Many elements of Mesmerism are found in Spiritualism, and it provided a platform for Spiritualism to develop. However, Mesmerism was largely led, if not only led, by men whereas Spiritualism offered a space for women to become entered in the practice. The ‘imponderable fluid’ of Mesmerism became the medium through which spirits communicate with the living. Spiritualism, as we can see, was a movement the flowed from many different veins of esoteric movements.

Spiritualism could be considered a reaction to the crisis of faith that swept the Western world by the mid-19th century through the increasing materialism, rationalism, and positivism . New findings of 9 technology and science caused beliefs from traditional religion to be called into question. The story of genesis did not comply with Darwinism. Communication with the afterlife sufficed as definitive evidence that the soul was immortal, and this appealed to people whose faith was uncertain. It could have been especially appealing to those experiencing its’ revival during World War 1 because it opened a possibility of communicating with deceased loved ones. The contact with spirits showed empirical, physical proof of life after death and by doing so it provided ‘scientific’ evidence of its religious truths. Darwin’s On the Origin of

Species (1859) did not sway Spiritualists’ beliefs like it may have done for wavering Christians. Instead,

Spiritualists saw it as a verification of their views concerning human evolution and progress, it only confirmed that the spirit keeps on evolving after it has left the material body. The Spiritualist movement encouraged people to become spiritual investigators, to search the spiritual plane and contact spirits through rituals and séances and to explore the nature of reality. While the connection between Spiritualism and science may amuse some readers now, scientific discoveries in the 19th century complimented the Spiritualist movement. The advances that were made included electricity, the telephone, and the x-ray, all of which could symbolise an invisible dimension and confirm this dimension’s existence in the material world. If you can speak to someone who isn’t in front of you, or see something that isn’t in front of you, then speaking to a spirit was not a far off idea.

Spiritualism can be defined or discussed in different respects. In secular Spiritualism, the Spiritualist explores the supposed existence of the human personality after death and the possibility of communicating with the dead. In this sense, it did not matter so much whether or not this kind of Spiritualist believed in God because their mission was psychological. On the other hand, religious Spiritualism, which is more likely what we are dealing with in the following chapters, describes the view of people who see or hear angelic or saintly presences and do so at the margins of traditional or institutional religions or churches. In either sense, these men and women were inspired to go beyond the material or theological life that was presented to them in their current time. To do this they could join societies, groups, attend lectures, write for publications, host séances and much more.

Crosland, Light in the Valley, page 106.

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Carroll, Spiritualism in Antebellum America. (Religion in North America), page 248.

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Goodrick-Clarke, The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction, page 174.

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Lamont, Spiritualism and a Mid-Victorian Crisis of Evidence. The Historical Journal, page 897.

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1.2. Women and Spiritualism in post-World War I

Many Victorian Spiritualists were free thinkers who rejected mainstream religion altogether. The chilling certainties of positivism and the constant search for laws and behaviours left many radicals dissatisfied. Spiritualism could work as a means of reconciling science and socialism, therefore it became a utopian project for many. From séances to automatic writing, Spiritualists tried to think and act freely without constraints of definitive laws. This could be why it was so popular for women at this time. During the Victorian era came ‘the woman question’, a fascination with a woman’s place and a fear of sexualised gender ambiguity. Aubrey Beardsley’s periodicals exemplify the emerging literature that opened discussions of sexual typologies (fig. 1). Many interrelated issues grouped under the term of ‘the woman question’, these issues stemmed from the rustling feminist and reformist organisations in middle-class restlessness which sprang to life in the mid 19th century. Women at this time in England had no separate legal identity until 1882 when a married woman had her rights over a separate property. The second half of the 19th century was a period of intensely shifting attitudes and social reform, bringing broader horizons for women.

Women of the middle class, who made up a large proportion of the Spiritualist ranks, were unsatisfied with their social and political stance. Alex Owen, in The Place of Enchantment, explores the advances in women’s history during the latter half of the 19th century. Owen states that by the 1890s, as mediumship began to fade, many thousands of women had already made their way into the public domain. Many Spiritualist women, who had progressed in the ranks or had built confidence, moved into careers that were previously unavailable. Even at a young age, many women gave seminars, speeches and delivered séances in the Spiritualist sphere. They had more opportunities to become involved in periodicals, publications and feminist agendas that could give them a platform.

Many people believed that the World War 1 era would lead to a complete change in direction for women. As many male soldiers went to war, a new image of the woman was created. This image was active and hard-working, in society and the workplace. Women seized a new range of working opportunities and won political and legal rights, such as the right to vote in 1920. However, Susan Pyecroft, author of British

Working Women and the First World War, argues that women had already taken the opportunity to work

before the war. During the war, women took jobs because of vast unemployment but this did not guarantee 10 equal pay or acknowledgment. However, it was still a step in the right direction. It is a useful reminder that any generalisation of the First World War and its effects of any category of social beings, such as women or Spiritualists, are dangerous things to make.

1.3. Female Mediumship

Spiritualism marked a particular power exchange for women of the late 19th century and early 20th century. This was formed through the praise and practice of female spiritual authority. Anne Braude argues in Radical

Spirits that mediumship was closely identified with femininity. Why were women arguably more open to

contacting the deceased? Alex Owen argues in The Darkened Room that women’s involvement with Spiritualism was in one sense all about gender expectations, sexual politics and the subversion of existing power relations between men and women. 11

A séance is a ritual act where a spirit medium transmits messages from the dead to the living, usually held in a private house and inside a darkened room. When Victorian physiologists and physicists seized séances to probe them for fraudulent activities or experiments into the power of the mind, it became clear that Spiritualist claims could not be investigated with scientific empiricism tools. The investigative methods consisted of limitations and battery restrictions during séances which would most likely prove the investigators right, showing the séance to be a facade and leaving the medium silent and unable to perform activities with confidence. Many investigators were sure this was absolute proof that Spiritualism was fake.

During the war, the number of working full-time women rose by 1.3 million. See Pyecroft, British Working Women and the First

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World War, page 704.

Owen, The Darkened Room, page 3.

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Spiritualists claimed that the methods of investigating these phenomenon only succeeded in destroying it, and therefore this becomes a paradoxical situation. Even more so because Spiritualism claimed to compliment scientific naturalism and rational explanation but it could not withstand investigation. The séance was both public and private and the interaction between the two is cause for much analysis under the topic of gender and sexuality. In Gendered Haunts: The Rhetorical and Material Culture of the Late

Nineteenth-Century Spirit Cabinet by Elizabeth Lowry, she explores the spirit cabinet and the increasing

need for materialisation in the time of Spiritualism. She argues that the spirit cabinet presented women with a discursive space in which to access the public sphere and exert social influence. The séance itself could become a site of rhetoric invention where women could reimagine social constructs and bend the boundaries of class, gender, and race. During a trance the medium could assume a completely different persona, producing a wide variety of reactions for the viewers who thought this to be the spirit effects. It is here that mediums could effectively and radically challenge cultural orthodoxy and subversion of the 19th-century woman ideal. Spiritualism could create a space and provide a framework for the multi-faceted self. Sigmund Freud, who was interested in occultism and psychical research, saw the human mind as a frontier of discovery. A modern psychoanalytic theory proposed a psychical process known as ‘splitting’ which 12 resulted in the self become different distinct personalities which coexisted together. Freud maintained that this was due to conflict and thought that the ego was made up of a part that observes and that is observed. Psychoanalytic theories are complex, but this may go a little of the way to explain the fractured nature of the self and of the medium and as I will eventually discuss, the mediumistic artist.

Spiritualism was a movement that included more women in its ranks than any religious movements previous, and for this reason, many women were attracted to it during a period of gender disfunction. The Spiritualist culture held a place for women, giving them the opportunity that may have been denied elsewhere. Owen says, “It was firmly held that any individual, male or female, rich or poor could become the conduit for a dialogue with the spirits” . Women seemed to thrive in séances and these circles quickly kept women as a 13 mainstay. During séances, the medium would act as an intermediary of this world and the next. The acceptance of women as mediums, Owen says, was built on the understanding of femininity. Paradoxically, 14 this undercuts the operation of female power. In Victorian England, the Victorian Spiritualist’s gender was generally assumed to be determined by biology, affecting your mental and physical state unchangeably. In this mode of thinking, ‘feminine’ represented an implication that women were naturally predisposed to certain traits and qualities which dictated their role in the sphere of life. Among the most important, was the notion of innate female passivity, a negative attribute that has pervaded Western cultural, religious and esoteric ideas of women for centuries. This ideology of woman was especially suited to religion as it asserted that true womanhood lies in piety, and domesticity. Spiritualism changed the idea of the woman by embracing that they were pious by nature, reclaiming this notion for themselves. Anne Braude summarises, “The very qualities that rendered women incompetent when judged against norms for masculine behaviour rendered them capable of mediumship. Mediumship allowed women to discard limitations on women’s role without questioning accepted ideas about women's nature” . 15

Although there were many women involved in Spiritualism, it was likely that equal numbers of men and women spoke on the lecture circuit. However, there was a key difference. For the lectures and public séances the speakers were divided rigidly by their sex and this affected their division of labour. The men would be more likely to call the meetings, introduce guests and address audiences while the women would likely be unconscious while on stage, displaying their passive nature.Aside from the discourse of women as frail, submissive and, passive there was, on the other hand, the Victorian discourse that a woman was depraved, rampantly sexual and hysteric. Usually, these categories were projected onto the poor and the mentally ill.

Perez, On Freud’s ‘Splitting of the Ego in the Process of Defence’. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, page 220.

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The freedom of sexuality and expression brought extreme prejudice and ill-informed medical attention to suffering women. It is essential to recognise that the ‘feminine’ was intrinsically linked to class and the majority of Spiritualists tended to be white, middle to upper-class women. These women most often identified with the dominant ideal of womanhood. Spiritualist women took the renunciation of the self at face value and to its logical conclusion. This meant that it became the pride of the Spiritualist practice, and showed the symbol of powerful mediumship.

1.4. Theosophy

The Theosophical Movement began to bloom in the late 19th century. By this time, H. P. Blavatsky was practicing Spiritualism. The many tenets that made up Spiritualism, such as materialism, Protestant individualism, ideas of spiritual evolution and Mesmerism, were emphasised in Theosophy too. However, Theosophy contained a central belief that was not apparent in Spiritualism. Theosophy connected to ancient lineages and original divine authority. The movement drew upon old European traditions, Neoplatonism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Egyptian religionism, Kabbalah and Astrology, teaching a single Divine principle and that the purpose of human life is spiritual emancipation. The movement also synthesised attributes of Victorian secular discourse such as Darwinism and individualism. It played a big role in bringing South Asian religious ideas to the western world, and therefore encouraged cultural pride. It was attractive to creative minds and women because it broadened the horizons of spiritual knowledge, encompassing philosophies from the eastern hemisphere and welcoming all members of the public into its ranks as equals. Theosophy also influenced later movements such as Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy and the later ‘New Age’ movements. Historian Joy Dixon notes in her full-length study of the relationship between Theosophy and the feminist movement in England, Divine Feminine: Theosophy and Feminism in England (2001), that the reason it was so attractive was because it offered a ‘feminine’ form of spirituality and celebrated the yin and the yang, male and female in spiritual development. Annie Besant (1847-1933) became the president of 16 the Theosophical society in 1907. She was a British socialist and popular feminist lecturer, activist, and writer. Besant advocated for women’s rights, contraception and the emancipation of women as early as 1874. Joy Dixon notes in The Divine Feminine that “prominent feminists were hundreds of times more 17 likely to join the TS than were members of the general population” . As an overview of the topic of 18 Theosophy and Spiritualism, we may turn to The Ashgate Research Companion to Nineteenth-Century

Spiritualism and the Occult (2012). This collection by Tatiana Kontou and Sarah Willburn gives a broad

example of current scholarship. In the opening article ‘Recent Scholarship on Spiritualism, Science', Christine Ferguson states that future scholars may face obstacles and suggests “reconsideration of the topic’s current and historiographical and political assumptions” , reminding new research that Spiritualism may not 19 have been as wholly progressive and uniquely modern as one might assume.

Jeffrey D. Lavoie wrote The Theosophical Society: The History of a Spiritualist Movement in 2012, representing a culmination of years of research into the history of the Theosophical Society detailing it’s early relation to the modern Spiritualist movement between the years 1875-1891. He explores the idea that the Theosophical movement envisioned by Blavatsky and the cofounders of modern Theosophy, was a reformation of Spiritualism. Whether or not this aligns with how Blavatsky’s idea of what the Theosophical movement would do is up for debate. While there are similarities in the movements, Spiritualism flourished through practice and Theosophical encompassed an incomparable complexity. There are definite links and comparisons in the movements and their involvement of similar ideas of the afterlife, however, the Theosophical movement seems more than a sect of Spiritualism, and did more than build upon Spiritualist practices. Lavoie’s research makes a valuable addition to the academic work dedicated to this subject and the

Dixon, The Divine Feminine, page 6.

16

Anderson, Bridging Cross-cultural Feminisms: Annie Besant and Women’s Rights in England and India, 1874-1933. Women’s

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History Review, page 563.

Dixon, The Divine Feminine, page 6.

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Ferguson, Recent Scholarship on Spiritualism, Science, part of: The Ashgate Research Companion to Nineteenth-Century

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religious movements that grew out of this time. It can be useful in arguments that concern shaping spiritual self-definition of the late 19th and early 20th century.

1.5. Modernism

There have been many studies in recent years concerning the spiritual in art. Esotericism, Art, and

Imagination, published in 2008, is a collection of articles in the field of Western esotericism and the arts,

including drama, literature, film. This collection of works highlights the diverse topics that are complex in their intersections between religion, the artists and their creativity. Collections of works such as Hilma af

Klint: The Art of Seeing the Invisible have explored the invisible world that may have attracted many abstract

artists since the publication of earlier groundbreaking scholarship such as The Sounding Cosmos by Sixten Ringbom in 1970. The increasing attraction has also been drawn to the connection of the occult and Surrealism, which stemmed from an interest in Spiritualist practice due to their pervasive use of automatism. Other works dedicated to the subject include 3 x Abstraction: New Methods of Drawing by 20 Hilma af Klint, Emma Kunz and Agnes Martin by Catherine De Zeghar in 2005, which was the catalogue to

an exhibition. There has been an increasing amount of exhibitions dedicated to the subject of modern art and spirituality, with the foundation laid by The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Art 1880-1985, organised by the Los Angeles County Museum and the Gemeentemuseum of The Hague (The Spiritual in Art, 1986). Exhibitions have shown that opposed to what was originally thought about modernist art historian thinking, modern art and religion have a much stronger relationship. In most recent times Hilma af Klint, who concerns the final chapter of this thesis, has been shown as a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim, New York, a great feat for any artist. Emma Kunz, another female artist, and medium had an opening at the Serpentine Gallery in London early in 2019. Both these artists, alongside Georgiana Houghton were displayed at the Lenbauchaus Gallery in Munich as mentioned before, alongside a symposium dedicated to World Receivers: Georgiana Houghton,

Hilma af Klint and Emma Kunz in January 2019.

The relationship between esotericism and the modern is therefore no longer a secret. There is a range of literature and scholarship available and the awareness that alternative religion and spirituality informed many artists and their inspired practice has risen. This can undeniably alter how we view and understand the historical development of modern artistic discourses and practices, and the interpretations we can draw from some of these artworks now, collapsing previous rationalist and formalist approaches. The reason many radical artists were interested in Theosophy may have simply been that Theosophy reflected ideas in the current occult milieu of the time, rather than a significant attribute unique to the movement itself. It insisted on alternative, astral and four-dimensional reality or invisible realms in which a sacred nature of forms could exist, carrying spiritual truths.

Although there are a myriad of works now dedicated to the subject of esotericism and its relationship to art, Marco Pasi in his article, Hilma af Klint, Western Esotericism and the Problem of Modern Artistic Creativity chapter of Hilma af Klint: The Art of Seeing the Invisible, highlights that the question as to why this attraction exists has been far from answered. His article focuses on art as a result of direct inspiration or communication from spiritual entities, or as the result of a visionary or mystical experience. In this, Pasi provides an interpretative model in which we can understand the pattern of spirit communication and art: alienated agency and creative dissociation. By this, he understands that the authorship of a radical discourse is attributed to entities subjectively independent from the author’s self. This alienated agency allows artists freedom of expression precisely because they do not believe they are responsible for the creation. Creative dissociation is a detachment from everyday reality which leads to a radical change of perspective. This can become a tool for challenging existing canons and creating radical artistic works. In this sense, it could be even more attractive to women who are interested in esotericism and art, because if they exist during a time or place where their talents are more likely to be doubted, dissociation could inspire creativity and confidence.

Bauduin, The ‘Continuing Misfortune’ of Automatism in Early Surrealism, page 1.

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Mediumistic art is a psychic phenomenon in which an individual is possessed by an entity that guides the creative process. My investigation of mediumistic visual representation that was thought to have been manifested through communication with spiritual entities includes a specific focus on Ethel Le Rossignol (1874-1970) and the spirit. To discover more about this woman and the art she produced, I explore a comparative analysis of work produced by other visionary artists including Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) and Anne Mary Howitt (1824-1884). My main sources of scholarship are Janet Oppenheim’s study The Other

World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850-1914 (1985), Alex Owen’s The Place of Enchantment (2004) and Joy Dixon’s Divine Feminine: Theosophy and Feminism in England (2001). Each

study contains valuable information to help me situate Ethel Le Rossignol within the social and political context which involved a fascination with Spiritualism and psychical research alongside an examination of the relationship between this and the Theosophical movement. I believe these artists are worth studying, and in particular Miss Le Rossignol, to understand what they believed and to see it reflected in their symbolism and style.

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2. Ethel Le Rossignol in Historical Context

The fin-de-siècle encountered wild creatives, innovative writers, poets, and artists with an artistic goal that their work may transmit important spiritual messages. Their influence has become a prominent academic subject in recent decades, and even more so for the women artists involved in this period. Our British visionary and medium was named Ethel Le Rossignol (1873-1970). Miss Le Rossignol considered herself enlightened by the communication with a particular spirit referred to as J.P.F. Her visionary narrative, A

Goodly Company, which was self-published in 1933, is the main body of her exploration of mediumistic

abilities and evolution as an artist.

2.1. Spiritualism in England During and post-World War 1

‘The modern’ is a period we can refer to as the hinge between 1880-1914 when Britain emerged as an identifiable ‘modern nation’. The approach of ‘the modern era’ was heralded with an optimism marked with anxiety. Victorian Spiritualism had dwindled towards the fin-de-siècle but the period during and after the war saw a rise in Spiritualist practices pursued in an attempt to contact the fallen. Ecclesiastical control and authority diminished further in social and political spheres, hurrying the dissolution of institutional Christianity and its hold of the middle class. Spiritualism became more present in modern culture. On the other hand, it was around this time that agnosticism became articulated in intellectual culture. The 1920s experienced a revival of alternative and unconventional religiosity which was alike to the pre-war period, turning people away from what the churches had to offer. We can observe this attention to Spiritualism through literary and artistic currents earlier in the century. As discussed in Alex Owen’s article The

‘Religious Sense’ in a Post-War Secular Age, Virginia Woolf, and her contemporaries were caught up with

‘mystic religion’ . Many people searched for a spiritual life that was separate from the church they felt they 21 could not relate to anymore, some became atheist and agnostic in the quest for meaning. This state of being has been analysed frequently since Max Weber proclaimed that the fate of our times is the disenchantment of the world, however, the same sentiment may have been expressed long before. Modern writings include 22 Christopher Partridge’s study The Re-Enchantment of the West (2004), and Egil Asprem’s studies in The

Problem of Disenchantment: Scientific Naturalism and Esoteric Discourse, 1900-1939. “Modernism was a

preeminent concern with consciousness and the modern experience of the self” - this is the “truly central insight to modernity” states Owen. Asprem’s work challenges popular notions of secularisation, suggested 23 that one should be careful in assuming the world became less spiritual or interested in magic. 24

2.2. Correspondences

The main source of Ethel Le Rossignol’s biographical information is a collection of around 20 correspondences to her brother, Arthur Le Rossignol, and her aunt during World War 1. They were donated to the University of Notre Dame, USA and preserved as war memorabilia. There is scarce information about her biographical life, her circles of friends or artists, or her family. Apart from Elaine Margaret Atkinson’s Ph.D. dissertation titled The Fringes of Immortality: A Goodly Company and Artistic Collaborations in Visionary

Art, there is no other art-historical scholarship concerning Ethel Le Rossignol.

Constance Ethel Le Rossignol was born in 1873 in Argentina to a family originally from Jersey, Channel Islands. In her younger years, she lived in Kensington, London, frequently travelling to France and 25 Belgium as a nurse in the First World War. It is implied that she belonged to a middle or upper-class family

Owen, The ‘Religious Sense’ in a Post-War Secular Age, Past & Present, page 159.

21

Asprem, The Problem of Disenchantment, page 18.

22

Owen, The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern, page 115.

23

Asprem, The Problem of Disenchantment, page 12.

24

Introvigne, A Goodly Company of Spirits. Available: https://www.cesnur.org/2014/mi-lerossignol.htm Last accessed: 29th June

25

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due to her lifestyle, frequented with trips, alongside leisurely activities. Information found from blog posts 26 detailing her life from her exhibition at The Horse Hospital in 2014 states that she studied art. Her 27 correspondences tell tales of her times as a nurse, wishing for holidays and complaints of men who refused to let her drive her car. She explored France, visiting church ruins and galleries. She seemed to be an independent and intellectual woman. In figure 5, she refers to a ‘lovely’ Pieta, which has been painted over with several layers of colourful paint and seemed to resonate with her. Her interest in art is discussed again 28 when she takes a trip to Rouen and meets the head of Beaux-Arts, a sculptor, and his brother who also exhibited in the gallery. The letters discuss in depth her appreciation and impression that these artists made, “his genius brother whom he had trained then found a better artist than himself - They are devoted to teach each other and work together - quite ideal” . Furthermore, she describes a sublime feeling of exploring a 29 ruined church when it happened to a thunderstorm, relieving the idea of war for just a moment. After the 30 war it is suggested that she moved back to Jersey, through the evidence of the photograph presented by Eileen Agar in figure 8, however, this may have been her family home. She married later in life in 1930 to a man named Arthur Beresford Riley. Le Rossignol died in 1970, aged 96.31

2.3. Context

The turn of the century was an era of major transformation for humanity’s perception of the world. This marked a shift in Western society and the art world. Globalisation meant societies, religions, and cultures came into closer contact and a broader spectrum of material became more available than ever before. Scientific and technological advances raced forward. Psychological studies expanded through the works Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and Carl Jung (1875-1961).Depth psychology, as Kurt Almvqvist and Louise Belfrage discuss in the opening chapter of their collected works for Hilma af Klint: Seeing the Invisible, understands these visionary artists as being able to delve into the unconscious realm “in the form of symbolic expressions and primordial archetypes by comparing patterns of expressions cross-culturally and via comparative religion and mythology” . This type of psychological analysis indicates that what people 32 experience in dreams, creative minds may have experienced in their normal waking lives. This could be an indication of how Ethel Le Rossignol’s psychedelic imagery came to be. Altered states redirect focus and pressure from the artist themselves for them to freely experiment. Similarly, this comes at a time not so far from the Surrealist movement, where artists were influenced by Spiritualist methods of automatism and lucid dreaming. Ethel Le Rossignol’s oeuvre was created in 1920, the same period in which Surrealism began to flourish. There is evidence of Le Rossignol’s acquaintance with Eileen Agar, Surrealist artist, and Joseph Bard in the form of photographs donated to the Tate Modern (fig. 7). The image is dated ‘1930s’ which was after A Goodly Company was created. One photograph of Le Rossignol’s house (fig. 8) suggests that the intention of the meeting was for Ethel Le Rossignol’s brother, Arthur Le Rossignol, to meet Agar as an admirer. We can only conclude that, after this meeting if not before, both Le Rossignol’s were familiar with Surrealism, or at least Eileen Agar, her work and the art scene that surrounded her.

As discussed in Elaine Atkinson’s Fringes of Immortality, Ethel Le Rossignol’s work contains strong Theosophical connotations, suggesting that she would have also been familiar with the Spiritualist and Theosophical movement in Britain. The most popular periodicals on the topic of Spiritualism included The

Medium and Daybreak and The Spiritualist, however, these stopped printing before the turn of the

I assume this was information given at the exhibition.

26

Available: http://tomruffles.blogspot.com/2014/03/a-goodly-company-ethel-le-rossignol-at.html Last accessed: 25th April 2019.

27

Refer to Figure 5. A letter written during the war by Ethel Le Rossignol to her ‘Auntie Anna’ on October 24th, 1915.

28

Refer to Figure 5. A letter written during the war by Ethel Le Rossignol to her ‘Auntie Anna’ on October 24th, 1915.

29

Kurt Almqvist & Louise Belfrage. Hilma af Klint in Historical Context, page 7.

30

Available: http://tomruffles.blogspot.com/2014/03/a-goodly-company-ethel-le-rossignol-at.html Last accessed: 25th April 2019.

31

Kurt Almvqvist and Louise Belfrage, Hilma af Klint: Seeing the Invisible, page 8.

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century.3334 Eve: The Ladies Pictorial and The Sketch began running prints in the 1920s and appealed to women living through the aftermath of the war, experiencing a shift in societal gender constructs and perhaps grasping new-found freedom. The journals are playful with hints of eccentric sensuality and they sometimes included images of art created by women and Spiritualist artists.3536 Through the exhibition of women’s new artistic independence that was permeating Western culture and the influence of Spiritualism, we can observe women’s capacity of artists and their grief which continued for many years after the Great War. We can view their art as a catharsis which enabled them to heal and express the devastation that they and society felt. Women’s mediumistic images were frequently misunderstood by people who were unfamiliar or did not welcome Spiritualist or Theosophical ideas, especially concerning communication with spirits. Frederic Marvin (1847-1918), an American physician, attempted to pathologise mediumship. His views are consistent with somatic ideas of psychopathology and ideas about the vulnerability of women. The idea that 37 Spiritualism could cause mental problems is discussed frequently in his study The Pathology and Treatment

of Mediomania (1874). Despite the ongoing backlash, visionary artists participated in the exploration of

esoteric spirituality. As a result, women like Hilma af Klint, Georgiana Houghton, and Ethel Le Rossignol honourably risked ridicule and perhaps even the confinement of an asylum for the mentally unwell.

Many other artists during the beginning of the 20th century benefited from the knowledge and study of occult sources, in particular, the Theosophical movement. Kandinsky, Mondrian, and Malevich, the heralded fathers of modern and abstract art have in more recent years been analysed in relation to their esoteric influences and what this suggests about the meaning of their work. While these artists and their work were altered by these occult sources, the visionary artists I will discuss believed their work to be directly channelled from the spiritual sphere, through communication with spirits or High Masters. Jon Thompson, curator of the 2006 exhibition Inner Worlds Outside, labelled visionary art as an example of outsider art. He characterised visionary art as a product of a “quintessentially modern state of consciousness that arose as part of the spirit of fin-de-siècle”3839. Thompson advocates that the avant-garde is indistinguishable from outsider art, positing high modernism as born from a radical breaking point through the production of mediumistic art. Art created by the self-proclaimed medium artist tends to be labelled as ‘outsider’ or indicative of ‘insanity’ rather than an expression of the avant-garde and as a result, it has not been considered worthy of academic study. The creation of mediumistic art and the expression of spiritual spheres in visual culture is important to be understood for its function in the late 19th and early 20th century and as an expression of modern life.

From Pat Deveney’s Journal Database. Available: http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/medium_and_daybreak/index.html

33

Last accessed: 1st May 2019.

From Pat Deveney’s Journal Database. Available: http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/spiritualist/index.html Last accessed:

34

1st May 2019.

Atkinson, The Fringes of Immortality, page 90.

35

“Why Oh Why?” The Sketch (10 March 1920), The Society of Women Artists Exhibitors 1855-1996, Volume 3, 1996. page 396.

36

Carlos Alvarado and Nancy L Zingrone, ‘The Pathology and Treatment of Mediomania’ by Frederic Rowland, page 229.

37

38

Thompson, “The Mad, the ‘Brut’, the ‘Primitive’ and the Modern”. Inner Worlds Outside, page 11, 12, 59.

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3. Ethel Le Rossignol: The Holy Sphere

In recent years there has been a surge of attention towards female mediumistic artists of the late 19th and early 20th century. The most recent exhibition for Hilma af Klint at the Guggenheim in New York has illuminated awareness in the public of af Klint’s efforts to make the invisible visible and place her into art history. In trying to categorise Ethel Le Rossignol into an artistic movement, for example, Surrealism, Art Deco or Outsider Art, we find ourselves short of an explanation. We can, however, view her under the term of mediumistic art where we find many other women attempting to deliver what they deemed revolutionary messages. Atkinson wrote her Ph.D. dissertation The Fringes of Immortality: A Goodly Company and Artistic

Collaborations in Visionary Art 1880-1930 which explores Le Rossignol’s relationship to Theosophy. This

chapter will contextualise Miss Le Rossignol’s work in the effort to understand her depiction of sexuality and gender, as well as acknowledging the influence that Christianity, Theosophy, automatism and modern science may have had.

3.1. A Goodly Company

In her introduction to A Goodly Company, Ethel Le Rossignol states she practiced and doubted her skills in automatic until she drew a figure who has a “likeness to a friend” which “as he had been agnostic, his surprise at this was great” . She explains that she was told to learn to dream as a method of communication 40 and to spend time in the resting state before sleep so that answers could come to her. She spent years perfecting and developing this method and was encouraged by the spirit to not have any doubts in the matter. “Oh, you doubter, you are a sceptic of the first water. I am amused at your absurd ideas about spirits. We are quite as solid as you, only of a finer substance … In your soul-body you come here quite often - it is really rather beautiful to see people in their soul-bodies - they are not aware they come so often and are not conscious of doing so” . He, as she genders him, tell her, “I want you to believe so much that I am the friend 41 who used to talk and joke and laugh with you. I am not a sort of shade, but so living and happy” . Through 42 reading Ethel Le Rossignol’s correspondences with this spirit, it becomes obvious that she has lost someone close to her, potentially during the war. The artworks progress and evolve as a visionary narrative accompanied by explanations. Aesthetically, the works become more complicated and colourful as the pages go on. A Goodly Company is a playbill of drawings, paintings and writings that radiate ecstatic joy. Comparable to psychedelic art, Le Rossignol pieces together a story of spiritual evolution with the intention of reassurance of the afterlife.

A Goodly Company is separated into three parts. Paintings are ordered by their complexity and representation

of the stage of spiritual evolution they belong to. The first part describes humanity’s beginning in the material world and shows fourteen black and white pencil illustrations. Then, there are fourteen more which represent the struggle, patience and endurance of humanity as it evolves. This section includes the material realm as well as the lower and middle spheres of the spiritual realm, it is the next stage of the evolutionary process for the spirit. These pictures contain representations of Darwinian theory, and also embrace Theosophical philosophy in the idea that they symbolise the increasing progression of the soul after death in the material world. Thirdly, the final collection of images, which are now painted with gold-leaf and psychedelic colours, represent the highest realms of the spiritual spheres. In these images, souls enter the ethereal realms and gains perfect knowledge, wisdom and love through intercommunication with God. She notes during her description of Sphere of Harmony, her Figure No. 2, that “In these first pictures, “I” is the communicator mentioned in the introduction. He gradually becomes impersonal” . 43

Le Rossignol, A Goodly Company, page 2.

40

41

42

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Electronic communications, starting with the telegraph and Morse code in the first half of the 19th century, worked to dissociate communication from distance, enriching communication possibilities. New technologies made it possible for people to converse across larger distances or empty space. These scientific discoveries enabled invisible waves to become identified across invisible realms that were previously inconceivable. The fourth dimension has been a notable influence on the evolution of modern art , studied in 44 The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art 1983 by L. D. Henderson. The fourth

dimension inspired early modern artists such as František Kupka (1871-1957) and Piet Mondrian (1872-1944). It is likely that because Le Rossignol was interested in esoteric writings that she was acquainted with these theories too. Ethel Le Rossignol may have been influenced by this new technology and new science in several ways. Her work suggests interconnections between spirits dancing mathematically in an otherworldly space which seems to be undulating from a divine source in the bottom centre of the image (fig. 9). She describes “without this current animating every unity of particles, they could not remain a unity, but would resume the arrangement of the inanimate conveyance” . Her language is infused with science and 45 echoes the Theosophical teaching of mystical oneness. This speculation implies a question of influence because the advancement of science and technology is cultural and historically specific whereas Le Rossignol was being contacted by the spirit who lives outside of time and space in the spiritual sphere. However, through reading her annotations it seems she takes on the role of interpreter for her spirit and so her cultural and personal artistic influences may shine through.

Throughout Le Rossignol’s writing there is a recurrence of Christian language and themes. It is unclear whether Le Rossignol belonged to any Christian organisation as her biographical information is scarce. The opening to ‘Part 1’ of her narrative begins with a quote by F. W. Faber, theologian, and Catholic priest. However, this is also met with language used from Judaism, “Seraph”, and Buddhism, “Ohm”, as well as Neoplatonism and Platonism in the discussion of the music of the spheres. This encompassment of major religions reflects the Theosophical overtones of A Goodly Company, in which ideas from Eastern religions and philosophies are drawn upon. We can see in Figure No. 41 (fig. 9), The Unsealing of the Mysteries that she refers to the “POWER of the PHAROS” and the figures wear golden ornamental crowns. We are 46 expected as the viewer to unravel the meanings that are ingrained within the image. Elaine Atkinson informs us of this link and connects Le Rossignol to Besant’s Christian ideologies and writings. Le Rossignol 47 represents the spirits in her paintings, especially those of the higher spheres, wearing crowns made of gold, symbolising enlightenment and wisdom. This is consistent with Besant’s writings of the mythological stories about the Sun-God of ancient Egyptian faith. 48

In Le Rossignol’s The Sight of the Master (1920-1929) (fig. 10) she shows the “aspirant has now advanced to the sight of the Immanent Master” who is also referred to as the “Christ Ideal” . The symbol of Jesus 49 50 Christ is frequently referred to in her writings, the Christian faith is figurative of all humanity. Her Christ is surrounded by the Theosophical symbol of the double triangle. Here we are also met with “seven flowing colours” that “reveal a universe of ardent energy” . Seven is a persistent number throughout A Goodly 51 Company, “seven eyes” which later represents the “Unity of all minds” (fig. 11). The number seven is 52

Bohn, ‘Writing the Fourth Dimension’, Comparative Critical Studies, page 121.

44

45

46

47

48

Le Rossignol, A Goodly Company, page 51.

49

50

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mentioned in Theosophical philosophy, most likely where Le Rossignol became acquainted with the number symbolism. The seven light rays which extend from the Christ figure represent the hierarchy of the Theosophical Masters , analogous to the seven lamps of fire in the Book of Revelation and the ‘seven ways 53 of bliss’ described in Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine as well as many chapters dedicated to ‘Seven 54 Cosmic Elements - Seven Races of Mankind’ ‘The Fiery Whirlwind and the Primordial Seven’ and ‘The 55 56 Seven Creations’ . In the Theosophical emblem, six small triangles are surrounding and emanating from a 57 central space, the Seventh Principle. All six sides touch the side of the serpent - the encircling wheel of cyclic evolution.

Le Rossignol relies on the figure of Christ as a representation of holiness. In The Sight of the Master, Christ is shown positioned in the upper part of the picture with his arms extended outwards. He is surrounded by colours of the rainbow which represent the energy of the aura. These are bright and positive whereas negative personas may have auric colours that are black or brown and are not as visibly open as ones surrounded by light, like the ones we can see in many of her other paintings such as The Soul Unloving After

Death (fig. 12). This is also recurrent of Christian ideas of good and evil, sin and redemption, light and dark.

In her annotations for No. 19 in the series, she describes a soul who has been evil in the earthly sphere, which the spirit world can see clearly, and that cannot evolve any higher because of this until they repent, “spirit aura wasted and torn by sin can be restored by working good” . 58

Le Rossignol’s visionary art shows the transcendence of the soul towards unity with God alongside Christian connotations and perceptions of Christ’s life narrative. In Esoteric Christianity (1905) by Annie Besant, she discusses historical theatrical productions depicting a Sun-God. “Depictions of the Sun-God [are] 59 sometimes found sculptured within a circle of the horizon, with the head and feet touching the circle at the North and South, and the outstretched hands at East and West” . The depiction of this Christ or Sun-God 60 spirit is conceptualised in Le Rossignol’s narrative and in particular, The Sight of the Master. This image shows, “The current from the CRUX attracts the particles of energy and an inexhaustible radiance” , the 61 Master is “raised to a state of ideal realisation” .62 Annie Besant taught that when humanity can focus on the esoteric rather than the materiality, we can better understand Christ’s sacrifice. In Theosophical philosophy, the death of Christ does not exonerate humankind of their sins but instead redirects to the salvation gained through this self-sacrifice. Christ is the embodiment of sacrifice and that lies at the root of spiritual evolution. Only when we evolve towards enlightenment will we understand the true meaning of this. In focusing on Christ as a symbol of pure joy instead of the suffering, Le Rossignol shows an understanding of contemporary Theosophical ideas that differ between a Catholic Christian and a Theosophical philosophy.

53

Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, page 38.

54

See: Annie Besant’s description of the seven components that make up the physical and spiritual body The Seven Principles of Man, 1907.

Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, page contents ix.

55

Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, page contents ix.

56

Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, page xiv.

57

58

59

Besant, Esoteric Christianity, page 52.

60

61

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Rosicrucianism refers to a movement of the early 17th century, its name derived from the “Christian Rosenkreutz” or “Rose Cross” and has influenced modern Theosophy and Alchemy and many other esoteric teachings. In recent scholarship, Rosicrucianism is discussed in Arthur Versluis’ Magic and Mysticism: An

Introduction to Western Esotericism (2007), an overview from antiquity onwards on various Western

religious esoteric movements, and Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke’s The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical

Introduction (2008). More specifically it is studied in Christopher McIntosh’s The Rosicrucians: The History, Mythology, and Rituals of an Esoteric Order (1989). In the Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism

compiled by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Rosicrucianism is said to have its origin in 1614 and has roots in alchemy. In this description, Hanegraaff highlights the importance of the multiple symbolic elements of the 63 Chemical Wedding. The Chemical Wedding, to describe briefly is the marriage of Mercury and Venus

personified which in transmutation, the royal couple completes the supreme act of unification that completes the Great Work. Rosicrucianism of the 19th-century and 20th-century could rightly claim a direct connection to 17th-century counterparts. Ethel Le Rossignol’s work shows the influence of the Rosicrucian movement 64 through frequent use of The Rose. The Rose appears in numerous images of Le Rossignol’s narrative, more frequently towards the end. Looking closely at fig. 11 we can see the words ‘Alpha’ and ‘Omega’ inscribed on a colourful rose. The image contains spirits dancing, enveloped by swirling gold patterns. In the centre, the “Rose of Unity” connects to the largest spirit and their crown. The image is titled The Creative Power 65 of Spirit. In the lower left of the image, a soul in turmoil coloured in red and purples cannot ascent to the

higher spheres. Two hands line the top and right side of the image. Smaller spirits work together in harmony to move upwards in the painting and the spirit world.

3.2. Healing

For the majority of Le Rossignol’s paintings, she uses a circle as the canvas. This connotes several meanings, the first is that she regularly describes her work in ‘spheres’ and therefore the circular scenes would be a depiction of different material and spiritual spheres that represent a space outside of time.

The mandala is a Sanskrit term _{मण्डल meaning, ‘circle’. Many modern thinkers, such as Carl Gustav Jung,} have taken mandalas seriously, analysing them as maps of consciousness or projected images of the psychic condition of their author. Carl Jung (1875-1961), psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, worked with the mandala with his suffering patients. Without outside knowledge or coaching, his patients would create mandala-like images as self-devised aids to their search for individuation and integration. Through his studies, he traced mandalas back through European alchemical and religious practices as well as symbols from the ancient East. We should be careful in Jung’s synthesis of religions as it is easy to organise many things together in a readily packaged format. In art therapy, mandalas are now used to represent a mirror of oneself, bringing awareness to the creator. In bringing separate parts and designs into the mandala, a person can experience 66 wholeness, as all parts begin to work in harmony together. Le Rossignol’s visionary narrative depicts circular scenes where spirits are evermore working together in harmony to progress in their spiritual evolution. They become more geometric and symmetric, along with more vibrant psychedelic colours which may have been a healing experience for her and the spirit of a friend she once knew. In this sense, they could also be considered mandalas.

Another visionary artist who makes use of mandalas is Emma Kunz. Emma Kunz was born in Switzerland in 1892 and died in 1963. When she was 18 years old, she began to use her abilities of telepathy and 67 prophecy. Later in life, she was widely known as a healer. Kunz created large-scale pictures on graph paper

Hanegraaff, Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, page 1009.

63

Hanegraaff, Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, page 1018.

64

65

Henderson ; Rosen ; Mascaro. Empirical Study on the Healing Nature of Mandalas, page 1.

66

Emma Kunz Zentrum. Available: https://www.emma-kunz.com/en/emma-kunz/. Last accessed 12th Feb 2019.

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and described her work as follows: “Shape and form expressed as measurement, rhythm, symbol, and transformation of figure and principle” . As a visionary artist, she bequeathed to us a fascinating collection 68 of her works of art that encodes immeasurable knowledge. Each colour and shape had a precise meaning for her to understand, which seems to be true for many mediumistic artists including Ethel Le Rossignol. Her work could be described as a sacred geometry or mandalas for healing purposes. What is striking about this is the overall spiritual message of healing reassurance that these mediumistic artists both try to convey. The despair of the war and the devastation that swept the nation led many mourning people to call for their dead to be brought home where they could be buried in local cemeteries. This came to little success. In all countries that were touched by the war, there was a sense of community and help for everyone who had lost someone, many joined together to provide knowledge, consolation and commemoration. The relationship to Spiritualism is that by one of the most powerful and disturbing means, the living could see or hear the dead and therefore their dead could return to them to help them cope with loss and trauma. The study of Spiritualism and religion in this context is especially interesting because it indicates the effects of the war on religious imagination, outside the confines of the traditional and institutionalised church. In (fig. 15) Le Rossignol shows many spirits praying in harmony surrounding a face. In her description, she says that the spirits who have given their lives for their brethren advance at a greater speed in the spiritual realm because they have learned that the will of God is love for all mankind. This could relate to the wartime rhetoric.

3.3. Gender and Sexuality

Mediumship gave women a discursive space to interpret the progression of women and sexuality at the time. This exploration of passion and sexuality was a way for women of the early 20th century to interact with the subject freely and without authorship. Many of her works show man and woman in loving embrace. Le Rossignol’s Unity of Love: Man and Woman’s Form in One provides evidence that Le Rossignol adheres to the Theosophical philosophy that man and woman should live in harmony as to speed up the process of humanities evolution. In Unity of Love: Man and Woman’s Form in One we see both male and female dance-like curved movements, enacting harmonious unity while showing the physical differences. As Le Rossignol’s images progress, the stylised figures’ gender differences become less prominent, embodying both male and female attributes in androgynous figures as the spirit evolves. This is a recurrent theme in Theosophical and esoteric philosophies, it also pervades modern art through artists such as Hilma af Klint and surrealists who depict the union of the opposite as an ultimate, spiritual goal relating back to the chemical wedding. Earlier in Le Rossignol’s visual narrative, masculine and feminines figures act in the 69 material world. However in the more ethereal higher spheres, the harmonious unification is reflected in their embodiment of having both male and female qualities. Le Rossignol makes clear that the woman achieves the same goal in spiritual evolution, and in her androgynous spirits she shows a feminist side to her art. Le Rossignol’s engagement with gender reflects the social and political context of the post-World War 1 era and the fear that society faced in losing so many people in the Great War. There was an emphasis on the importance of family and conception, birth and rebirth. In many of Le Rossignol’s images, we see parents with children, with auras of rose. The symbol of the Rose is of great importance throughout the narrative, and we can assume because this colour envelops the parents, they are deemed important too. Theosophist’s plans for the ‘New Age’ included reconstructions of society, developing campaigns to improve the “quality and quantity of the nation’s birth” . Having said this, Annie Besant, who seems to have influenced Le 70 Rossignol directly, was strictly feminist and an advocate of birth control. Besant’s speeches and actions suggest she did not completely abide by pushing conception on the masses.

3.4. Exhibition and Audience

Emma Kunz Zentrum. Available: https://www.emma-kunz.com/en/emma-kunz/. Last accessed 12th Feb 2019.

68

Ryle, Reinventing the Yggdrasil: Hilma af Klint and Political Aesthetics, page 2.

69

Atkinson, Evolution and Exegesis, page 452.