Kia (occult)

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Kia is the supreme mystical concept in the early philosophical writings of English Austin Osman Spare. It is first briefly mentioned in his illustrated work Earth Inferno (1905), and was defined in The Book of Pleasure (1913).

[edit] Definition

Philosophical or magical doctrines usually incorporate either real or Actual conceptions for representing any metaphysical state. But the quality of Kia is referred by Spare as "not potential or manifest (except as it's instant possibility)" [1] or "the virgin quantum-by its exuberance we have gained existence." [2]

There are many references to other qualities of Kia in Spare's works (especially The Book of Pleasure), but himself prefers not to define it all as "The less said of it (Kia) the less obscure is it." [3]

The real difficulty in asserting a definition for Spare's ideas pertains to his immense distaste for any "doctrine" in general[4] which makes it very hard to build up any reference from sources outside his own writings. Meanwhile, there seems some similarities to Gnostic philosophies of Being and non-Being, which Spare had seized upon before he was out of his teens, at a period when he claimed disingenuously that the works of Homer, Dante and Omar Khayyam comprised his only literary education[5].

Peter Carroll has put Kia as "The unity which appears to the mind to exert the twin functions of will and perception is called Kia by magicians. Sometimes it is called the spirit, or soul, or life force, instead."[6]

[edit] Etymology

Austin Osman Spare introduced Kia for the first time at his first book Earth Inferno in 1905. It seems that this word has no apparent root in English. But the word rendered in Persian (کیا) means: King[7], Frontier guard[8], Four elements[9], Pure[10] .

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Spare, Austin Osman, Book of Pleasure, chap. "Definitions", I-H-O Books, 2005
  2. ^ Spare, Austin Osman, Book of Pleasure, chap. "The Consumer of Religion", I-H-O Books, 2005
  3. ^ Spare, Austin Osman, Book of Pleasure, chap. "Definitions", I-H-O Books, 2005
  4. ^ Spare, Austin Osman, The Book of Pleasure; chap. "Be ye mystic", I-H-O Books, 2005
  5. ^ Semple, W. Gavin, ZOS-KIA, Fulgur Limited, 1995, page 7
  6. ^ Carrol, Peter James, Liber Null, page 26
  7. ^ Nafisi, Ali Akbar, Farhang Nafisi, Khayyam, Tehran, 1964
  8. ^ Asadi, Faras, Loghate Faras Asadi, Eghbal, page 12
  9. ^ Nafisi, Ali Akbar, Farhang Nafisi, Khayyam, Tehran, 1964
  10. ^ Mo'in, Mohammad, Borhan Ghate' , Ibn Sina, Tehran, 1963