Possessed of Alchemystic Powers

In 1949 Ithell Colquhoun—artist, writer, and occultist—produced a manifesto, titled “The Mantic Stain,” in which she called on her readers to follow French Surrealism’s practice of “pure psychic automatism.” It was, Breton wrote, “the real working of thought. Dictation of thought, without any control exercised by reason, and beyond any preoccupation, aesthetic or moral.” “Mantic” was a characteristically esoteric flourish on Colquhoun’s part; it’s derived from the ancient Greek for “prophet” or “seer,” as in the arts of divination (by card reading—cartomancy; by dream interpretation—oneiromancy), and alludes to Manto, the daughter of Tiresias, the seer who experienced existence as both male and female. It also pays homage to the praying mantis, an erotic symbol beloved of the Surrealists.Oracular methods such as automatism and tarot cards would lead Colquhoun down many paths in her search for knowledge, while the duality of the androgyne fascinated her in her art and writing. Mantic staining, including automatic processes like blotting and doodling, was a way anyone could access hidden orders of existence and liberate the inner self and its creative energies: To a beginner the fact...