Acid Folk Art

ETHOS

Any philosophy, thesis, or style degenerates pro rata to the number who embrace it. Thou art the way. I would ask of thee thy suppressed self, is it nor the new thing desired? The search is to be known only to the seeker, it is not to be taught but only to be learned.

• The deepest secret is always hidden even though it be displayed openly to the public or cried from rooftops.

• All poetry deals more or less in the common form, this common coin, this circulating fluid of idea and image and phrase, and that it is the very ethos, nay, the very essence, of the poet to make the common as if it were not common.

• Leaving aside all unreal dreams, consider this world as insincere disbelief enmeshed in an elaborate network of religious, metaphysical or philosophical ideas and which attracts not so much admirers as devotees.

Whosoever follows me becomes his own enemy; for in that day my exigency shall be his ruin. Go labour! Fulfil the disgust of becoming yourself, of discovering your beliefs, and thus acquire virtue.

From ‘Ethos – The Magical Writings of Austin Osman Spare’ by Austin Osman Spare