The Artful Thorn: Rosaleen Norton

Rosaleen Norton or the infamous “Witch of Kings Cross” a title bestowed by the popular press was a witch and artist affectionately called “Roie” by her friends; rather unique for her time. The youngest of three daughters, Rosaleen a native of New Zeland was born into a staunch Anglican family who later emigrated to Australia in 1925. Unconventional from the get go Norton would come to oppose authority figures as well as her peers resulting in her spending a bulk of her childhood to herself; keeping a variety of unusual pets such as spiders, cats, lizards, and toads. Norton’s early years began at Church of England Girl’s School, however, would not progress very far and eventually suffer expulsion for creating a series of “disturbing” images of demons, vampires, and the like. In 1953 Norton wrote a series of autobiographical pieces for the Austrialian Post on herself attempting to articulate her philosophy, witchcraft, and life:

To begin with I am what a psychologist of my acquaintance defines as a ‘Psychic Invert’. Which means a person whose basic psychology naturally functions on opposite lines to those considered normal.

In 1934 at the age of sixteen she would become a professional writer publishing a series of horror stories for Smith’s Weekly, yet Norton’s controversial illustrations would lead to her dismissal. She would take on a variety of menial jobs as a mean of supporting herself among them: waitress, kitchen maid, and toy designer. All the while educating herself on topics of esotericism, demonology, and comparative religion. In the 1950s she sought work again as an illustrator for Pertinent a publication edited by poet Leon Batt, who became an admirer or Norton’s body of work. Traveling cross-country from Sydney to Melbourne and back again Norton took up with Gavin Greenless in Sydney’s Kings Cross a well known red light district, whose inhabitants ranged from artists to writers and poets.

Rosaleen's style of witchcraft was one of her own making known as "The Goat Fold", which included among other things sex magic as described in the works of Crowley, pantheism, and veneration of Pan. According to Nevill Drury, "Norton's esoteric beliefs, cosmology, and visionary art are closely intertwined." Inspired by dark aspect of things and emphasizing that darkness in her work; compared with other contemporaries such as Austin Osman Spare and Norman Lindsay. However, Norton's work has a life of its own. The image left, Fohat is one of Norton's most controversial images in her corpus of work. A horned entity holding aloft a swirling swastika-like sun wheel with a crowned serpent phallus. Norton in describing this piece says that, "The goat is the symbol of energy and creativity: the serpent of elemental force and eternity." In terms of occult symbolism the goat headed figure known as Baphomet represents not the Devil but the aspirant who has achieved union with the contrary forces of the universe. Interestingly enough the word "Fohat" is Tibetan in origin; in The Theosophical Movement (1964) it is described as, "[A] term for the energic or motion aspect of the Supreme Spirit."

The the very core Norton's work is surreal, yet her incredible talent to render the physical form rather realistically. We the audience are divorced from this "realism" by the fantastical settings with other than totally human forms. In the case of Fohat (as her other work) is exudes this otherwordliness that is dark. Logically it would seem that we are worlds apart from Norton's magical realm. Yet in the expression of the goat god...his eyes that seem to say we are no so distant.