MALIK SPIRITUALIST CIRCLE
20th Century, Austria
SELECTED WORKS
OVERVIEW
Austrian engineer Hans Malik (1887-1964) was the spiritual successor to the renowned spiritualist Adelma von Vay (1840-1925). Together with his wife, Maria “Mizi” Malik (1890-1971), a gifted spiritualist medium, he founded the Christophorus Society—a spiritualist community that attracted numerous mediums over the years.
The Society’s practices were similar to those described by Carl Wickland (1861-1945) in Thirty Years Among the Dead (1924). They interpreted mental and physical illnesses as manifestations of possession by spirits of the deceased. These spirits were transferred to a medium, who then guided them to recognize their death and move toward “the light” for higher development. In addition to these dramatic public sessions, many mediums in the Society practiced mediumistic drawing in more private settings. Mizi Malik was especially known for this, influencing the group’s interest in spirit art. Hans Malik illustrated his 1928 book, Der Baumeister seiner Welt: Ein Führer auf dem Weg in die Urheimat (“The Master Builder of His World: A Guide on the Path to the Primordial Home”), with several of these mediumistic drawings.
CoMA preserves most of the mediumistic drawings produced by the Christophorus Society and its successor organizations between approximately 1920 and 1970. This section contains a number of individual works by anonymous mediums. Works by mediums from the Malik circle whose names are at least known or of whom many works have survived are given their own entry. Notable figures include Hilda Ernest, Maria Hofman, Holub, Sister Hübsch, Gustav Leiss, Mizi Malik, Thea Pum, Karl Rom, Mitzi Schnatke, and several so far anonymous mediums identified only by the signatures of their mediating spirits, such as Franziskus, Henricus, and Phydias, as well as some (so far) completely anonymous authors, such as Anonymous [4], Anonymous [5], Anonymous [9], Anonymous [10].
