MARGARET BEVAN

b. 1885, Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales
d. 1972, Little Hallingbury, England

WORKS  |  BIOGRAPHY  |  PUBLICATIONS

SELECTED WORKS

BIOGRAPHY

At age 26, Welshwoman Margaret Ann Bevan traveled to the United States to "evangelize the rich." It is not known how long she remained on the continent. In September 1939, she wrote about an impressive paranormal phenomenon she experienced in 1935 with a captain and a major of the Canadian Army among a Native American tribe in Psychic News magazine. The ceremony, known as a "shaking tent" or "spirit lodge" ceremony, was particularly common among the Northern Algonquian peoples, including the Cree and Ojibwe. During the séance, the shaman mysteriously frees himself from the ropes that were securely tying him. Peculiar spirit voices then come from inside the tent. The tent sways violently due to the spirits' presence. Then, it can be seen swaying as if moved by a giant hand. Bevan saw the tent rise into the air and a white-clad spirit of a Native American appear.

It is not known when Bevan returned to England. In any case, from 1940 onwards, we find her repeatedly advertised in English magazines with lectures and drawing sessions as a spiritualist medium, especially as a "psychic artist" or "portrait medium" from Watford. She specialized in drawing portraits of her clients' deceased loved ones and spirit guides on black paper using semi-transparent Chinese white. These spirit guides are often men from foreign cultures, Native Americans, or individuals identifiable by their clothing as spiritual figures of various religions.

The works in the collection were drawn in pairs for four clients. An identical letter in the lower left corner indicates the matching images. The deceased loved one is depicted in profile facing right in all four drawings, while the respective spirit guide is shown in profile facing left.

PUBLICATIONS

“Medium Sees Materialisation at Red Indian Séance.” Psychic News, September 2, 1939.
Cooper, John M., “The Shaking tent Rite Among Plains and Forest Algonquians.” Primitive Man, 17, 1944, 60-84.
Hultkrantz, Åke, “Spirit Lodge, a North American Shamanistic Séance.” In: Edsman, Carl Martin (Hg.), Studies in Shamanism. Stockholm: Almquits and Wiksell, 1967.