Rosaleen Norton

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Rosaleen Norton (2 October 1917 – 5 December 1979) was an Australian artist, occultist, and witch. "Roie" Norton was born in Dunedin, New Zealand but moved with her family to Sydney, Australia in June, 1925. From an early age she felt a close connection with the occult, beginning to experiment with self hypnosis in 1940.

By 1951 she had become locally well–known. Roie flourished in the atmosphere of inner Sydney around Kings Cross, the bohemian, centre of Sydney, where her murals adorned cafés such as the Kashmir and Apollyon. Galleries briskly traded in her popular and provocative works.

In early August of 1951 the police raided an exhibition of her work and seized four of her pictures. She was taken to court with the Crown prosecution alleging that such works could 'deprave and corrupt the morals of those who saw them', and the police alleged that they were inspired by works of mediaeval demonology. The charges against her were dismissed and 4 pounds 4 shillings costs were awarded against the police department.

In 1952 a beautifully produced leather bound, limited edition book of her paintings with poems from her close friend and colleague, Gavin Greenlees, was published by Walter Glover. Walter was subsequently found guilty of publishing an obscene publication, certain pages had to be blacked out, and the book was made subject to a Customs ban. Newspapers trumpeted that it was the "most blatant example of obscenity yet published in Australia." Copies of the book sent to New York were confiscated and burnt by the U.S. Customs Department.

Due to her notoriety, she soon became a favourite with the tabloid press which began referring to her as the "Witch of Kings Cross." Dark stories of witchcraft, "black masses," sexual magical rites, and satanism began to regularly appear in Australian newspapers and magazines, and "Roie Norton" soon became a household name.

The famous composer and conductor, Sir Eugène Goossens, was the ABC director of music, conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and head of the NSW State Conservatorium of Music. He was also a close friend and associate of Roie and Gavin. In 1957, he was stopped at Sydney airport at Mascot and accused of importing "prohibited imports," including "pornographic photos" and ceremonial masks and other paraphernalia for use in their rituals. Due to the public scandal, Goosens lost his jobs and was forced to return to England, where he died in 1962.

Also in 1957, Walter Glover was declared bankrupt and the copyrights to the artwork which had been assigned to him were taken over by the Official Receiver in Bankruptcy. The copyrights to Roie's artworks were finally returned to him in 1981. Fortunately, he managed to republish the book without difficulties in the more liberal atmosphere of 1982.

In 1984, Walter Glover followed this up with a limited edition called the Supplement to the Art of Rosaleen Norton, a collection of tastefully mounted colour photographs of 48 more of her works. So, in spite of the censors and the prudishness of the Australian public in the 1940s to the 1970s, Norton's unusual artworks are now available to the public, uncensored.

Throughout the 1960s Roie was rumoured to head an active coven of witches and warlocks in Kings Cross, and was regularly featured in the popular press. Friends who knew her at this period remember her with fondness, and invariably refer to how kind and gentle she really was, quite the opposite of the demon so beloved of the Press.

In 1974, the Rt. Rev. Marcus Loane, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, set up a Commission of Inquiry into occult practices. This was, reportedly, only the second such enquiry held in a Protestant country since the Middle Ages. The Commission reported, amongst other sensational claims, that occultism and Satanism were the "most sinister" of modern "crazes" and that, "occultism may provide pornography with a religious base to work from." They even recommended that legislation be passed to prohibit ouija boards, tarot cards, and the like. This report spurred the popular press to ever more dramatic headlines but, in the years after the initial furore died down, Roie continued to live a quieter, more private life.

She died in 1979 from colon cancer at the Roman Catholic Sacred Hearts Hospice for the Dying, in Sydney, still worshipping Pan; a pagan until her death. Shortly before she died she is reported as saying: "I came into the world bravely; I'll go out bravely."

[edit] References

The Art of Rosaleen Norton with poems by Gavin Greenlees. Walter Glover, Sydney. 1952. 2nd edition: Walter Glover, Bondi Beach. 1982. ISBN 0-9593077-0-2.
Supplement to: The Art of Rosaleen Norton (1982 Edition) with poems by Gavin Greenlees. Walter Glover, Bondi Beach, N.S.W. 1984. ISBN 0-9593077-1-0.
Pan's Daughter: The Strange World of Rosaleen Norton. Nevill Drury. Collins Australia. 1988. ISBN 073220008.