Logomachy Seven: Strange Forms of the Self, Ineffable Experience, and Language

by A. O. Spare

“Thrice did I slip backwards into strange forms of myself, and thrice did my Soul save me.”

Logomachy Six: Time, Space, Desire and Belief

This is installment six of an ongoing engagement with Austin Osman Spare's  enigmatic book the Logomachy of Zos. These explorations select quotations from the Logomachy, and often other texts by Spare, and either offer them alone for my readers to consider and hopefully share interpretations of, or hazard some thoughts on the topic of my own. Please feel free to join in. The Logomachy of Zos can be easily found online, or you can just use the texts I have provided as a starting point.

by A. O. Spare

“Any fact or fiction has no difficulty in finding relatables as supporting evidence because everything has a 'point of connection' and a period of reality when instantly and simultaneous to time and place. Our difficulty is to re-evoke 'as now': so we accept semblance of (i.e. make-belief, religion or faith) as substitute of real belief (which needs no other reality than its own): what you cannot conceive as yourself is yourself (as another reality).”

Logomachy Five: The Mocking Ape and Smiling God

This is part five of an ongoing interpretation of A. O. Spare's Logomachy of Zos. If you are just joining us, check out the earlier explorations as well. The full text of the Logomachy of Zos can be found here.

By A. O. Spare

'As if' and Ecstacy, Logomachy Four

This continues an ongoing investigation of A. O. Spare's Logomachy of Zos. A copy of the work can be found at the Hermetic Library here. Check it out. In general I have been selecting epigrams which seem particularly important or interesting. In many cases I select ones that build on insights considered previously. 

by A. O. Spare

Who are Zos and Kia in the work of A. O. Spare? Logomachy Three

by A. O. Spare

Logomachy Two

(Ongoing fragments from a previous attempt to interpret Austin Osmar Spare's Logomachy of Zos.)

by Austin Osman Spare

Logomachy One

by Austin Osman Spare

 (Below are the beginnings of a study of Spare's Logomachy of Zos I worked on rather a while ago. I will be revisiting it here from time to time and extending the study of the book itself as well.)