Kia (magic)

Within the magical system of Austin Osman Spare, ''Kia'' is a mystical concept – a sort of universal consciousness or unity, similar to the Tao. Baker, Phil. ''Austin Osman Spare'' The concept has been adopted by numerous other occultists, such as Kenneth Grant, and has been particularly influential on the chaos magic movement. Carroll, Peter J. ''Liber Null & Psychonaut''

Concept

The first reference to "Kia" appears on a painting exhibited by Spare in 1904, when he was just 17 years old. Baker, Phil. ''Austin Osman Spare'' Spare conceived of Kia as a sort of universal mind, of which individual human consciousnesses are aspects. Spare, Austin Osman. ''The Book of Pleasure'' Baker, Phil. ''Austin Osman Spare'' Spare further elaborated on the concept in ''The Book of Pleasure'' (1913), introducing it with the words:

Of name it has no name, to designate. I call it Kia I dare not claim it as myself. The Kia which can be expressed by conceivable ideas, is not the eternal Kia, which burns up all belief but is the archetype of "self," the slavery of mortality. Spare, Austin Osman. ''The Book of Pleasure''

Spare's words here bear marked resemblance to the ''Tao Te Ching'', which states "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; The name that can be named is not the eternal name." Lao Tzu. ''Tao Te Ching'' – and like the Tao, or the Hindu Brahman, or the Sunyata of Buddhism, Spare's conception of Kia combined pure transcendent consciousness with a voidness inherent in all things. Baker, Phil. ''Austin Osman Spare''

The writer and occultist Kenneth Grant, who had known Spare in the 1950s, Baker, Phil. ''Austin Osman Spare'' promoted Spare's ideas after his death, referring to his system as "Zos Kia Cultus". Grant, Kenneth. ''Cults of the Shadow'' Grant emphasises the similarities between Kia and certain concepts from Eastern philosophy, comparing it to the Yab-Yum of Tantra, and describing reality as the dream of Kia. Grant, Kenneth. ''Hidden Lore: The Carfax Monograms'' However, Grant also states that Kia differs from the Buddhist concept of voidness, in that it is realised through the body, rather than the mind, stating: "The Kia is present everywhere, but the immediacy of its realisation is sought through the flesh, as in Zen it is apprehended through the mind. The object is the same in both methods, but the means appear to vary." Grant, Kenneth. ''Hidden Lore: The Carfax Monograms''

Grant also departs from Spare in conceptualising Kia as inherently ''feminine'', equating it with both the Wiccan Goddess Grant, Kenneth. ''Hidden Lore: The Carfax Monograms'' and Aleister Crowley's Babalon Grant, Kenneth. ''The Magical Revival'' – the basic idea being that Kia is a sort of all-encompassing void that is impregnated by the will of the magician, and that gives birth to magical results. Grant, Kenneth. ''The Magical Revival''

One of the founders of chaos magic, Peter J. Carroll, elaborated a system heavily influenced by Spare in his early writings, particularly ''Liber Null'' (1978). Carroll, Peter J. ''Liber Null & Psychonaut'' However, somewhat confusingly, Carroll uses the term "Kia" to refer to the consciousness of the individual: "the elusive 'I' which confers self-awareness". Carroll, Peter J. ''Liber Null & Psychonaut'' The more general universal force, of which Kia is an aspect, Carroll termed "Chaos".

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... Kia is capable of occult power because it is a fragment of the great life force of the universe... The "thing" responsible for the origin and continued action of events is called ''Chaos'' by magicians... Chaos... is the force which has caused life to evolve itself out of dust, and is currently most concentratedly manifest in the human life force, or Kia, where it is the source of consciousness... To the extent that the Kia can become one with Chaos it can extend its will and perception into the universe to accomplish magic. Carroll, Peter J. ''Liber Null & Psychonaut''

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{{Chaos magic series

Chaos magic
Religious philosophical concepts
Nonduality