NEW research claims to have revealed the designs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh were infused with secret occult symbols and references to mystic religions.
Mackintosh, one of the most revered artists in Scottish history, was intimate with a number of different spiritual beliefs and made sure his designs, art and architecture contained secret emblems, signs, and allusions.
It is thought that he was inspired by the esoteric beliefs of his wife, Margaret Macdonald, and tutored in arcane knowledge by Fra Newbery, the director of the Glasgow School of Art, and included mystic symbols in his work so that some of their "magic" was present in his designs.
Dai Vaughan, an artist and designer who produced the decorative panels for the Mackintosh-designed House for an Art Lover in Glasgow, has revealed his conclusions after years of research.
The designer, who has written a paper on his research for the latest journal of the CR Mackintosh Society, said the artist was profoundly influenced by the mysticism that gained popularity at the beginning of the last century and found adherents among his friends and colleagues.
Mr Vaughan said understanding the occult resonance of many of the symbols that recur often in Mackintosh's work - the symbols of the tree and the rose, for example - shed new light on his work.
"I have been discovering a lot of symbols in his work. There is an awful lot there but I think people don't want to know about it, especially the Mackintosh fans who get very uneasy about it. I have no doubt that Mackintosh deliberately used this symbolism. He wanted to create a kind of sympathetic magic within his work," Mr Vaughan said.
For example, he has spotted in one of Mackintosh's works, The Wassail, the shape of a scarab, a beetle held by the Egyptians to be a mystic sign of renewal, while in a mural from the Buchanan Street Tea Room, he finds a "tree of life" based on eastern spiritual diagrams that feature "chakras", or wheels of energy.
Mr Vaughan writes: "My belief is that here we can see illustrated the chakras as wheels of vital energy situated along the spinal column. They are driving a flow of physiological and spiritual energy from the base of the spine upwards to open the thousand petalled lotus at the crown of the head."
He adds: "It is embarrassing for some people, these beliefs are not taken seriously these days. But he put these signs in deliberately; his friends and peers recognised them.
"Often his wife gets a bad press because she was into (these ideas) - but clearly he was too."
At the turn of the 20th century, many in the art world were fascinated with eastern religions, the occult, and "secret societies" such as the Theosophical Society, the Golden Dawn and spiritualism.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was deeply interested in the spirit world, and Mackintosh' wife was known for her mystical beliefs and faerie-influenced art.
They were also both influenced by the Belgian mystical writer Maurice Maeterlinck and Max Muller, a spiritualist who gave lectures in Glasgow.
Mackintosh himself often quoted from WR Lethaby's esoteric text, Architecture, Mysticism and Myth, which propounded a system of cosmic symbolism: using trees, squares and circles as some kind of elemental building system.
The Mackintoshes also had a close friendship with Anna and Patrick Geddes. The Geddeses, who were at the forefront of the "Celtic Revival" in Scotland, also had connections with the theosophy movement.
Mr Vaughan - whose company also makes reproduction Mackintosh furniture - is hoping to present his years of research into the artist's beliefs in a book. Last night Anne Ellis, a member of the CRM Society and the former curator of Hill House, the home Mackintosh designed in Helensburgh, said: "I certainly find Dai's research very interesting. There are certainly signs and symbols there, but we cannot say what they meant to Mackintosh, he did not write much down.
"He wasn't a good proselytiser and although these signs were symbolic, what they meant to him will always remain a mystery. These details are very interesting for the general public to know, but they meant so much in context and now that context has been removed.
"I doubt we shall ever know what they meant to Mackintosh."
Symbols of mystery
The rose sacred to Venus, the rose was also a symbol of the Egyptian goddess Isis. To the mystical Rosicrucian society, the rose was the symbol of nature itself.
The scarab the Egyptian sign of renewal and regeneration.
Tree of life again an Egyptian symbol of life, and present throughout Mackintosh's work, often entwined with roses.
The eye connected to Horus, the ancient Egyptian god of the sky. A weeping eye also often appears in his wife, Margaret Macdonald's paintings.
The square and the circle shapes frequent in Mackintosh's work, which he studied in a book that he often quoted from, Architecture: Mysticism and Myth, by WR Lethaby.
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Elliphantastic ago
Its the Charles Rennie Mackintosh font.
r3dtr1x ago
Thank you. From http://www.bilderberg.org/sacrific.htm#mackintosh
Was Mackintosh inspired by the occult?
Mysticism infuses works, claims artist
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/13-5-19103-0-33-27.html
PHIL MILLER - Glasgow Herald - 13May03
NEW research claims to have revealed the designs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh were infused with secret occult symbols and references to mystic religions.
Mackintosh, one of the most revered artists in Scottish history, was intimate with a number of different spiritual beliefs and made sure his designs, art and architecture contained secret emblems, signs, and allusions.
It is thought that he was inspired by the esoteric beliefs of his wife, Margaret Macdonald, and tutored in arcane knowledge by Fra Newbery, the director of the Glasgow School of Art, and included mystic symbols in his work so that some of their "magic" was present in his designs.
Dai Vaughan, an artist and designer who produced the decorative panels for the Mackintosh-designed House for an Art Lover in Glasgow, has revealed his conclusions after years of research.
The designer, who has written a paper on his research for the latest journal of the CR Mackintosh Society, said the artist was profoundly influenced by the mysticism that gained popularity at the beginning of the last century and found adherents among his friends and colleagues.
Mr Vaughan said understanding the occult resonance of many of the symbols that recur often in Mackintosh's work - the symbols of the tree and the rose, for example - shed new light on his work.
"I have been discovering a lot of symbols in his work. There is an awful lot there but I think people don't want to know about it, especially the Mackintosh fans who get very uneasy about it. I have no doubt that Mackintosh deliberately used this symbolism. He wanted to create a kind of sympathetic magic within his work," Mr Vaughan said.
For example, he has spotted in one of Mackintosh's works, The Wassail, the shape of a scarab, a beetle held by the Egyptians to be a mystic sign of renewal, while in a mural from the Buchanan Street Tea Room, he finds a "tree of life" based on eastern spiritual diagrams that feature "chakras", or wheels of energy.
Mr Vaughan writes: "My belief is that here we can see illustrated the chakras as wheels of vital energy situated along the spinal column. They are driving a flow of physiological and spiritual energy from the base of the spine upwards to open the thousand petalled lotus at the crown of the head."
He adds: "It is embarrassing for some people, these beliefs are not taken seriously these days. But he put these signs in deliberately; his friends and peers recognised them.
"Often his wife gets a bad press because she was into (these ideas) - but clearly he was too."
At the turn of the 20th century, many in the art world were fascinated with eastern religions, the occult, and "secret societies" such as the Theosophical Society, the Golden Dawn and spiritualism.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was deeply interested in the spirit world, and Mackintosh' wife was known for her mystical beliefs and faerie-influenced art.
They were also both influenced by the Belgian mystical writer Maurice Maeterlinck and Max Muller, a spiritualist who gave lectures in Glasgow.
Mackintosh himself often quoted from WR Lethaby's esoteric text, Architecture, Mysticism and Myth, which propounded a system of cosmic symbolism: using trees, squares and circles as some kind of elemental building system.
The Mackintoshes also had a close friendship with Anna and Patrick Geddes. The Geddeses, who were at the forefront of the "Celtic Revival" in Scotland, also had connections with the theosophy movement.
Mr Vaughan - whose company also makes reproduction Mackintosh furniture - is hoping to present his years of research into the artist's beliefs in a book. Last night Anne Ellis, a member of the CRM Society and the former curator of Hill House, the home Mackintosh designed in Helensburgh, said: "I certainly find Dai's research very interesting. There are certainly signs and symbols there, but we cannot say what they meant to Mackintosh, he did not write much down.
"He wasn't a good proselytiser and although these signs were symbolic, what they meant to him will always remain a mystery. These details are very interesting for the general public to know, but they meant so much in context and now that context has been removed.
"I doubt we shall ever know what they meant to Mackintosh."
Symbols of mystery
The rose sacred to Venus, the rose was also a symbol of the Egyptian goddess Isis. To the mystical Rosicrucian society, the rose was the symbol of nature itself. The scarab the Egyptian sign of renewal and regeneration. Tree of life again an Egyptian symbol of life, and present throughout Mackintosh's work, often entwined with roses. The eye connected to Horus, the ancient Egyptian god of the sky. A weeping eye also often appears in his wife, Margaret Macdonald's paintings. The square and the circle shapes frequent in Mackintosh's work, which he studied in a book that he often quoted from, Architecture: Mysticism and Myth, by WR Lethaby.