Rose Cross, Saturn’s Menagerie and the Coal Mines of Silesia: Strange Visions of Teofil Ociepka

This article analyzes the artistic visions of Teofil Ociepka, an overground mine worker known as one of the Polish Naïve Art painters. The artist, who was strongly influenced by aspects of Western Esotericism, was the initiator and most prominent member of a Silesian occultist circle of painters called the Janowska Group. He believed that his artistic talent was given to him as an esoteric gift to use as a practice for self-development. Very colorful and uncommon visions of this and other worlds brought his artistic works popularity. His insight into the miners’ subterranean work, which can be understood as a kind of alchemical process, in combination with his extraterrestrial and celestial images produced a unique and inspiring collection of paintings. The article traces the esoteric inspirations in Ociepka’s painting in various periods of his career.