Dreams, automatism, found objects and the discovery of the marvellous in the mundane, are all ways of pursuing the surrealist exploration of internal and external realities as two elements in a process of unification. The occult is another. Colquhoun’s own involvement with magic was a lifelong preoccupation. It was a daily reality, in her life, her dreams, as well as her art. She was initiated into a number of occult societies, but failed in her attempts to join others.
Colquhoun’s work of all periods contains magical references. Some are quite explicit whilst others are more personal and difficult to identify. At one extreme, an early painting, Marlowe’s Faust (1931), is easy to ‘read’ because it illustrates a well-known story and uses common magical paraphernalia such as the pentagram and wand. A later work, Star Painting, (1964) is less accessible but undoubtedly contains Qabalistic references. It was painted at a time when her magical interests were centred upon the O.T.O. and the Nu Isis Lodge, with their teachings regarding stellar influences upon the earth.
The main framework for Colquhoun, as it was for many 20th Century occultists, was the system of magical study known as the Qabalah (this is Colquhoun’s preferred spelling; the word is also spelt Cabala, Kabbalah, Kabala or Cabbala. This, together with 19th century additions as diverse as astrology, Egyptian theology, colour symbolism, alchemy and the Taro, whose twenty-two trumps became identified with the twenty-two paths of the Tree of Life. All of this gave the occult researcher almost unlimited scope for the discovery of hidden, yet apparently meaningful relationships and correspondences. Magical techniques, which are not acts of worship but acts of discovery and self-development, are intended to develop this knowledge. The key to knowledge of the world is self-knowledge.
Although the Qabalah formed the basis of Colquhoun’s world view, it did not define its limits. Interest in Eastern spirituality was, as time elapsed, combined with earth magic, Celtic lore, Druidism and Wicca. In general, she attempted to build bridges between the apparently disparate concepts and traditions. For example, her interest in Celtic esotericism led her to researches into Celtic gods, druidical sites and ceremonies, tree lore and correspondences between Celtic concepts and the Tree of Life. This may have been inspired, at least in part, by the example of W.B. Yeats. Colquhoun was an admirer of Yeats' poetry and occult work. Her painting The Gyre (1978) is a reference to his theory of the gyres.
In amongst these influences, Colquhoun’s roots in her own Christian background remain readily apparent. Her recurring interest in the Fall of mankind and the need for gender reintegration, together with spiritual alchemy, place her much closer to mystics such as Jacob Böhme, William Blake and to the Martinists than to conventional Christian doctrines. Hers was a heterodox Christianity, informed also by an unfashionable interest in angelic orders.
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