Waterhouse and the Occultism
Translation: Joanna Brun
John William Waterhouse was a British painter who developed his work at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. He was a follower of the pictorial movement of the mid-19th century known as Pre-Raphaelitism. In fact, he has been nicknamed “the modern Pre-Raphaelite” for following its precepts decades later. An academic of recognized prestige, there is a theory that he may have belonged to some secret society of occultist nature, although there is no document to attest to it. In these pages we will try to elucidate the arguments in favor of this theory: was Waterhouse a follower of occultism?
We must place ourselves in time: we are at the end of the 19th century. In 1859 The Origin of Species by Darwin had been published, and technological progress was beginning. The official religions were in crisis, and at that moment a multitude of creeds and societies of an esoteric and occult nature arose. In 1875 Madame Blavatsky had founded the Theosophical Society in the United States and had published her great reference book Isis Unveiled. At that time, she traveled to Paris, which was a hotbed of heterodoxy; there were numerous spiritualist sessions and secret meetings, and many hermetic, Rosicrucian, theosophical, and occultist organizations began to proliferate. It was the time when Joséphin Péladan organized artistic exhibitions of an esoteric nature under the name Salons de la Rose+Croix. This influence of heterodox creeds spread throughout the continent in places such as Munich or Prague. England, although somewhat later, also followed this trend. World-famous would be the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded in England in 1888 — an order in which such distinguished figures as Arthur Machen, Bram Stoker, W. B. Yeats, H. G. Wells, and the well-known Aleister Crowley took part. It is believed that Waterhouse may have been one of them.
John William Waterhouse (Rome, April 6, 1849 – London, February 10, 1917) was the son of a British painter who worked for several years in Italy. The family soon returned to England, and the young John William was to follow in his father’s footsteps. His early works were devoted to history painting, a field in which he achieved notable success and the recognition of the Royal Academy, the highest institution of the arts in Great Britain. So much so that in 1895 he would be appointed Academician. His prestige allowed him greater freedom, and his painting began to approach the Pre-Raphaelite tradition, which had reached its height in the 1850s. In this period, we can see how some of his most important paintings are imbued with more than simple aestheticism: a whole series of symbols related to magic, divination, and the secret traditions of Antiquity appear, leading us to think that Waterhouse possessed deep knowledge of these subjects — beyond being a mere amateur — and prompting speculation about his occultist connections. To see this more clearly, let us focus on three of his best-known canvases: Consulting the Oracle (1884), The Magic Circle (1886), and The Crystal Ball (1902).

Consulting the Oracle depicts a group of young maidens who go to a sorceress to inquire about their future, which emanates from a head that whispers destiny into the sorceress’s ear. The moment captured by Waterhouse is that of revelation: the sorceress listens attentively to the oracle while with one arm she tries to restrain the surprise of the astonished young women present in the scene. According to the culture of the time, it would have been most logical to think that Waterhouse had represented a scene from Ancient Greece — the consultation of the Oracle of Delphi — but we will see that this is not the case. If we look closely at the setting in which the action takes place, we can see that it is a Hebrew interior. This leads us to consider what forms of divination existed in that culture. That head represented by Waterhouse could be a Teraphim, which according to the Targum — a translation into Aramaic of the Hebrew Bible produced or compiled in ancient Israel and Babylonia — would be none other than the head of a young firstborn male who had been sacrificed for magical purposes and who possessed the power of foretelling the future.

In The Magic Circle, the theme is much more evident: Waterhouse depicts an act of witchcraft. Here, a witch boils a potion in a magic cauldron while tracing a circle of fire—an element of protection against evil spirits—around herself. Around her are ravens, birds of ill omen, and a toad, an animal also linked to magic. If we look closely at the witch’s dress, we can see that it is embroidered with motifs from Ancient Greece. Moreover, on her belt she carries a sickle shaped like those used by the Druids. Finally, around her neck, a serpent bites its own tail. This serpent is called the Ouroboros, and it represents the cyclical nature of life. Its representation dates back to Ancient Egypt, but it is also common in Hermeticism and alchemy. In this context, the Ouroboros represents the unity of all things, both material and spiritual, which do not disappear but rather change form in an eternal cycle of destruction and creation; it is also a symbol of infinity. Here we can see how Waterhouse places within a single context magical elements from ancient cultures and from alchemical knowledge.
Finally, we turn to The Crystal Ball. Once again, a sorceress appears—this time gazing into the image reflected within a crystal ball. We see a spellbook open to a page from which the protagonist has likely uttered the magic words. Next to the book lies a skull, an element open to multiple interpretations, which may refer either to witchcraft practices or to death itself. If we look closely at the sorceress’s clothing and the interior of the room, we can see that it is a medieval scene. The theme takes us back to Consulting the Oracle, since, as we know, the crystal ball was used as a divinatory instrument, just as the oracle was. The crystal ball is used in a form of divination that dates back to Celtic culture, where the Druids saw in beryl stones the past, the present, and the future. In the Middle Ages, however, the spheres used for divination were made of rock crystal.
This painting, paradoxically, forms a pair with another—now lost—titled The Missal, in which a devout young woman kneels in prayer. It is said that Frederick Pyman commissioned the pair of paintings from Waterhouse for his residence in Whitby. Whitby is a coastal town in the northeast of England where both Christian traditions and the worship of white magic coexist. Moreover, Whitby is the town where Bram Stoker found the first references to the name Dracul and where he was inspired to create his masterpiece, Dracula, much of which takes place in this city. This is an element that suggests a possible connection between Waterhouse and Stoker, the latter being a member of the Golden Dawn. It has been proposed that the pair of paintings created by Waterhouse were meant to represent Christianity and magic in the city of Whitby.

There is a whole series of other canvases in which Waterhouse draws upon magical elements. On the one hand, Circe features prominently in several of them. She appears in the Odyssey and is a sorceress who turns all men into swine; she wishes to win the heart of Ulysses and keep him in her land forever. Other paintings refer to magical potions or charms, such as The Love Philtre, Jason and Medea, or Destiny. As we can see, magic is a theme that runs throughout Waterhouse’s painting.
In light of these considerations, it is worth noting that Waterhouse’s knowledge of magic goes far beyond mere curiosity. The elements that appear in his works imply a deep understanding of the subject—a degree of erudition which, given the context of the rise of occult societies, makes Waterhouse’s participation in one of them more than likely. Nevertheless, as a respected academic, it is quite possible that Waterhouse kept any such affiliation secret.
Experts on Waterhouse maintain the theory that the painter was an occultist. This writer also shares that belief.
OpenEdition le sugiere que cite este post de la siguiente manera:
Dr. Pedro Ortega (30 de octubre de 2025). Waterhouse y el ocultismo. El blog de Tartalo. Recuperado 14 de abril de 2026 de https://doi.org/10.58079/152cd

