LANGUAGES OF DESIRE

Austin Osman Spare is mostly remembered for his extraordinary artwork and techniques of 'sigilisation', embraced in particular by Chaos Magick. One of the more ambiguous of Spare's contributions to what we can conveniently call 'magick' is his "Alphabet of Desire". Compared to the development of sigilisation, this area of Spare's work has been relatively unexplored since his death. Spare's original system involved 22 glyphs which he identified as 22 corresponding "aspects of sexuality". Spare's writings on the subject are, however, by no means exhaustive and we are left only a fraction of the actual glyphs he used and a few clues as to their use.

Peter Carroll applies Spare's concepts and aspects of his technique in "Liber Null & Psychonaut" (published by Weiser), reinterpre . it as he sees fit. Carroll develops a system of what he calls "complementary dualisms" whereby certain emotional states are polarised into strict opposites. Examples include rapture/anger; attachment/loathing; joy/terror and, of course, pain/pleasure. Personally, I find such dichotomisation of abstract 'states' more of a hindrance than help in creating a 'language of experience' or whatever you may like to call it. Although the interaction of such 'states' (this term immediately deceptive as emotions are more like processes than states) is granted, emphasis is placed on the mutuality of two states at the cost of being extricated from the whole realm of human experience. For me, this is an overemphasis. Yet, the principle remains valid, if approached in the right way. But what is the right way? For me that involves identifying the complexity of relationships between emotional, psychological, physical and other processes through personal languages. Perhaps what to me is an artificial map of experience (such as Carroll's system) works perfectly for someone else. But I have difficulty seeing how isolating emotions etc into 'biunivocal'(*) units could do anything but fragment and confuse the 'user'.

[*Biunivocal being the best term I know to describe the process of two 'things' being polarised along a single line or sliding scale/spectrum, thus having reduced what was potentially many 'voices' or possibilities down to two. These two ultimately are reduced to one, having effectively only the one 'voice', being an isolated 'unit'.]

Another commentator on the subject of Spare's "Alphabet of Desire" is Frater U.D. (author of "Practical Sigil Magic" & "Secrets of the German Sex Magicians", both books to be recommended). In "Practical Sigil Magic", Frater U.D. also uses the same basic framework or ideology invested by Peter Carroll in the system. He calls it dualism. Fortunately, he emphasises the personal nature of the languages to be developed, rather than the segmentation of experience one applies to the technique.

One of the beauties of the 'Alphabet of Desire' system is the ability to create words or glyphs or representations for things inexplicable by one's known languages- in my case 99% English. So how do I create my own personal "Alphabet of Desire"? My Alphabet, or Language as I prefer it, is simply an index book with a record of every glyph I have created to express a word, image, idea, emotion, experience or whatever. Most of these glyphs were created in the context of preparing sigils, but not all of them. Some are merely glyphs created at a time my available languages and mediums of expression were inappropriate or incapable of representing what it was I wanted to express. Over time this catalogue or dictionary grows and begins to gather a code, grammer and syntax of its own, no longer held up by the crutch of the languages I could not help implanting within the glyphs (spoken, visual etc). It also creates a web, as does any language, linking the terms in an interdependant fabric of meaning. In this case, personalised meaning.

As for the use of the alphabet, sigils are the most obvious application. The use of an alphabet for sigils helps integrate disparate and sometimes contradictory desires. These need only be sigilised or merely expressed in one's own 'language of desire' to become effective. It is an interesting process to observe at the very least. The alphabet also weaves loosely a link between graphic and written language, like personal hieroglyphs. It is also interesting to look over your 'dictionary of sigils' to see which ones are being used more or less than others. What is not present? Like a diary, the record of one's own 'Language of Desire' can reveal many things one wasn't aware of at the time of construction. So the technique can be used for self-observation, self-analysis, self-(re)construction, self-expression, and a host of other applications. It is a product of imagination for use by the imagination.

-nebala 293