Scrying the lost Wildflowers of "Wee Witchee Wee"

Abstract

<p>This chapter discusses two speculative experiments I have been conducting while working with the bewildering and bewitching archive of the Australian artist Adelaide Eliza Scott Ironside (1831–1867). By attuning to the idiosyncrasies of her sources and story, in particular her practice of scrying crystal balls, I have developed an approach that is inspired by the origins of the word 'speculation', which was first coined to describe the 'close observation and rapt attention' ancient scryers used to see within their otherwise opaque speculums. This approach also responds to a call recently made by a group of historians who have urged the development of approaches that are more respectful towards that which they call 'the Unbelieved' or 'Invisible', namely, the spiritual beliefs, practices and experiences of previous people and communities. By combining 'close observation' of Ironside's archival traces with what E.P. Thompson called the 'discipline of context' and Mary Wollstonecraft referred to as 'the fires of the imagination' I am also, as this chapter shows, scrying a collection of wildflower watercolour illustrations which were once central to Ironside's character and career but are now, sadly, lost.</p>