John Upton left a full 13 sketchbooks and designs for an initiated Tarot deck which comprise the story, workings, heritage and Book of Shadows of the original initiated Ayrshire Wica (‘The Wica’ as it is known).

The two sketchbooks reproduced here tell the stories of the trials and executions of three Scottish witches: Isobel Gowdie, Aleson Piersom and Bessie Dunlop, and form a remarkable connection to both the initiated practice of witchcraft and the folklore of Scotland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries up to the present era.

John Uptons artworks are a dazzling and explosive mix of vibrant colour coming from his involvement with the subculture of psychedelia among artists in Brighton in the 1960s.

With collage, numerous physical inclusions on the original pages (including feathers, plants, talismans and photographs), sections of the work physically opening up as doorways, images powerfully erotic and pansexual: John Upton tells the story of witchcraft through the practice of the craft itself fusing faery lore and channelled voices in a vibrant modern graphic novel style. Through the imagery by which he recounts the stories, John Upton divulges initiated witch lore: the ritual and sexual practices by which the devotee became immersed in the sabbat.

Dr. John Callow

John Uptons life was every bit as interesting, and as varied, as his artistic work. A professional boxer in his youth, a counter-cultural anarchist, mural painter, sculptor and associate of Bill Butler, the radical publisher and homosexual poet late of the legendary Unicorn Bookshop which in the 1960’s was a centre for Beat culture literature and banned pornography including early work by J.G.Ballard.

Upton’s work invokes the role of art in the ancient Mystery Religions: having resonances in some places with William Blake, in others with the woodcut illustrations of the 16th and 17th century witchcraft and folk tracts, as well as the vibrant pop art of his own day, he performs the role of alchemist and transformer of consciousness: drawing us back into the realm of historical witchcraft and bringing that primitive undeniably shamanic atmosphere into our experience of the present.

With their emphasis on vibrancy of colour, truth of narrative, channelling of faery power and deep rooted in the witchcraft of our times and times long gone, the Upton sketchbooks evoke a world just on the borders of our own.

Charles Clark was for several years secretary to Gerald Gardner founder of modern witchcraft, and was initiated by Gardner and his wife Donna intro witchcraft in the 1950’s.

Charles Clark was charged by Gardner with the task of heading the Scottish Wica and went on to found three covens: Perth, Glasgow and Ayrshire. Initiates of Charles Clark’s Scots lineage included Monique Wilson and Raymond Buckland.