-like savage weapon:from the sky....

RESURGENT ATAVISM(Outro)

 Return Trip

The sentinels gathered, everything of the four horsemen, defenders of my inner space otherworld and we are good to go. My beautiful sister turned her face away and the great mother brought me into her consciousness. The only voice I heard was my own-“if you can make it to the end kid you can witness your next incarnation-the piper at the gates of dawn.”

And so it begins- blasting  through the nine circles of expectation delayed. My otherworld, an index finger pointing directly at the mirror of self, avoiding the succubae, shit! Could just blast them with my third eye!

The  eternal secret of esoteric knowledge, acoylte of Harpocrates silent as a new born babe who through spiritual strength shall cross the abyss, time irrelevant, yet composite with eternity. The sacred lore of my humanity.

Travelling without moving. In troth an astral warrior,cruxiformed with the blessings of the tribe. An initiation into nothingness, memory blackened by perpetual space/time travel. It wasn’t enough, the waters were so powerful yet I did swim,but so innocent and pure with all the foibles of youth,so Christendom placates,as the book says,”let him who hath understanding…”

A decade of spiritual apostasy, I run my hair through, boiling down the belief systems, correlations and sacred allignments like baby fat to the sabbatic ungeunt. I’ve been through everything, the breath of the kill, the message of the nihilist, ever-rolling, unwinding blasting inverted Christianity with the atmospheric I of the(neither-neither)chaotician-draped in black. Awaking from the infinite slaying of the gods with the whipping smile of the adept-at this moment my spiritual body is one, yet continually perambulating.    

Something had blasted into me on a previous journey and created a hole in the fabric of  time, through chemogenesis I clipped on my psychonautic razor and sliced it wide, giving an omniscient cackle-“verily a great Daemon!” Subsequent dreams are of reality-relentless and the seam of silence keeps on cracking, the magik bus just doesn’t stop and psychosis often ensues. I’d gone and come back again but was still fucking about with the lock on the box. Must be the pentagram and the Floydian  slip.

And  so I voyaged ,ever so darkly through the globes of the pentagram-the silent watcher crushing the kaleidoscopic petals and the broken shards of the petitioned infinite. These carnage visors,these products of the bloodstains. And at last I saw the hooded glome of self, this silver shade and gilded eternity, the blinding arrows of the sun. For I am thy illustrious scrivener  at this arbitrary temple-speared usurper of tetragrammaton-my own rainbow.             

MAGIK LANTERN CYCLE-An Appreciation

Kenneth Anger’s- Magick Lantern Cycle,An Appreciation

The Magick Lantern Cycle is an arguable cornucopia of occult, avant-garde,Thelemic auteurism. I say Magick, because Anger is an  acolyte of Crowley and follows the Left Hand Path of Thelema. Anger has chosen as his magickal weapon the camera and the medium of cinema, which he claims is inherently evil, “a black day for humanity.”-Anger.

The Thelemic edict centres around the automatic writing dictated to A.C in a temple in Cairo in 1911 by his Holy Garden Angel Aiwass an emissary of the new aeon prophesized  and most likely made “flesh” by the arguably Naïve Utopic happenings of the nineteen-sixties,Woodstock being the “last splash”-as the onslaught of decadence ensued. Crowley however searched for greater truths and has greatly been misunderstood, he just didn’t let anything get in his way, Magick was his life and Magickal matters his main priority.

It is between the years 1949 and 1971 that Anger exacted control on his “persistence of vision,”from “Fireworks-a homoerotic invocation to the Norse God Thorr to  “Inaugaration of the Pleasuredome,” a “come as your own madness”-inspired by a fancy dress party held by  Anais Nin, she later went on to play Astarte complete with goldfish bowl on her head-a definite Saturnalia.

 The film,”Inaugaration of the PleasureDome,”16mm,runs at 38minutes long, in the 1966 Sacred Mushroom Edition.

Anger creates a place where the celluloid captures the (actual) God’s and Goddesses, arisen and in theurgic formation, their ecstatic prescence, casting their New Aeon Magick in front of our(third) eye.

Scorpio Rising,1963 where the princely(dark)angels of Mars drove motorbikes to the edge of oblivion,uses  as its soundtrack the hit parade of that Summer.Through this  Anger creates an  Avant-Garde cinema which arguably contained an esoteric substance, founded in the subtle complexities of the Qabbala and the majesty of the “Kingly man.”However marked with peril, such a path may be and the certainty of the  complication that this may incur on ones life.

Many of Anger’s projects, despite the grandeur of their initial plans were dogged with problems, both financial and biographical, relaying the fact that many of the films contained in the cycle survive only as fragments,aka “Puce Moment(1949),””Kustom Kar Kommandoes.(1965)”

Anger’s ability to take seemingly everyday images and through the use of careful editing and  synthesis between sound and image turn his films into a peculiar singularity of A very personal occult aesthetic will doubtless never be surpassed. His abilty to create the most beautiful striking esoteric setups and images with little or no finances is a talent which all aspiring guerrilla filmmakers should try and emulate.

In many of the films which comprise Anger’s Magick Lantern Cycle the auteur trying to attain an effect somewhat akin to Synaesthesia,an “attack on the sensorium” that knows no satiation.The (God)esses are real in Anger’s film are real-as also are the (sigil’s) printed circuits, often Thelemic, atavising Crowley’s New Aeon and the presiding reign of the crowned and conquering chylde,Ra-Hoor-Khuit (Hawk-Headed god and son of the Egyptian Pantheon) and his emissary,Hoor-Paar-Kraat(Set or Shaitan).

Angers artefacts are intrinsically linked with study of Thelema,the occult system linked with Aleister Crowley, acolyte of his belief system, the correlations of A.C’s ethos permeate the filmmakers cinematic magical theory and practice,even their shaared bi-sexuality. However, Anger’s  work is interesting because he has taken the appropriation  of many underground subcultures such as  the counter-culture of the late 1960’s and early 70’s.In such a way that he  using the symbiosis of the hit parade 1963,combined with Hells Angel imagery to subvert homoerotic undertones and make them truly occult. Also the use of Marianne Faithful in Lucifer Rising(1971) and a moog soundtrack gifted to the filmmaker by Mick Jagger for “Invocation of my Demon Brother(1969) It is the  longevity of the Magic Lantern cycle that we are now able to partake of and  expose the subcultures of the latter half of the twentieth century.

Of the films contained within the cycle,the one that has moved me most on both a visceral and intellectual level is “Inaugaration of the Pleasuredome.”(1954) The films inspiration comes from a piece of writing by poet Anais Nin entitled “come as your own madness.”It describes a party where the guests did just that,and so Anger appropriated this so that the guests were Gods and Goddesses of the magical pantheon.

In basic terms the film centres around a dream initiated by Lord Shiva. In righteous procession the Gods and Goddesses of the pantheon appear, Hecate, Kali, Astarte in languid repose. Even Cesare the somnambulist from “The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari” makes an appearance in homage to German expressionism. Finally Pan appears and the Vinum Sabbathi (Wine of the Sabbath) is imbibed, what occurs next is a mass Pan-daemon-ium, a triumph of Eisensteinian structuralism and montage, even to the extent of using footage form an earlier fragmentary film “Puce Moment.” ending chaotically as all Sabbath’s should-subsequent dreams are of reality,the artefact was reduxed in1966 as the “Sacred Mushroom Edition….

Invocation of my Demon Brother (1969):In this fragment(11.10Mintues)the entire synthesis of the sound/image synaesthesia, for that  apparently is the desired effect and for Anger afficianado Tony Rayns-“every cut hurts”-soundtrack is instigated on the mini-moog by Mick Jagger and gifted to Anger-has a real feel of Crowleys Aeon of Horus- an Aquarian Utopia-blackened by decadence and the travesty-Film originally was supposed to be LUCIFER RISING,but a certain amount of footage was stolen at one of Anger’s performances so that project was shelved till a later date. 

Lucifer Rising,the last in the Magick Lantern Cycle was recorded between 1970-1981 and is arguably his most ambitious project to date.In this film Anger returns Lucifer(bearer of light) to the gnostic tradition of the morning star, Venus and the light which rises and forms before the Dawn. i.e it’s herald.

In keeping with Anger’s Thelemic ideals the maker juxtaposes Horus (the crowned and conquering chylde for Lucifer.Anger’s film is essentially mythopoesic in the sense that it is a conjunction of personal, social and historic mythologies.

The film is set in Cairo, where Crowley received The Book of the Law from his guardian Angel Aiwaz in 1904 and stars Osiris and Isis signalling the birth of the Aquarian Age(Aeon of Horus).Sumerian Wind Daemon Lilith (and first wife of Adam) played by Marianne Faithful also makes an appearance in both Glastonbury and later transmogrified to Cairo.There are also scenes in Lucifer’s chambers.

Essentially Anger’s work uses the God’s and Goddesses of many pantheons to bring his vision to fruition.Linked throughout is Anger’s devotion to Thelema (Crowleyanity) links the whole thing together and when the flying saucers’ appear towards the end you know a true working has taken place.

JSP 03-05/2013

The Typhonian Trilogies

The Magical Revival-Kenneth Grant

Grant’s first book in his Typhonian trilogies concentrates on the esoteric traditions evident in humanity before the Christian epoch. It is an arguable cornucopia of hidden lore concentrating on elements as diverse as the chance of (re)union with the Sumerian tradition, Sexual magick and the relationship between drugs and the occult. Therein contains a wealth of knowledge of the often misunderstood occult systems of Aleister Crowley, the man himself and the events surrounding the translation of the the key to the Book of the Law(Liber al vel Legis)by Father Achad, Charles Stansfield

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 The Book of the Law was delivered to Crowley by his holy guardian angel Aiwaz in Cairo1904.According to Kenneth Grant Aiwaz is the,  "minister of Hoor-paar-Kratt or Set-the channel of extra-terrestrial energy permeating the Earth's atmosphere in the present Aeon of Horus."The crowned and conquering chylde who is ever ressurging and shall last till the end.Grant elucidates in terms of sacred numerology and aspects of Crowleys systems of ritual magick, more especially relating to his relationship with the scarlet woman, an avatar of the whore of Babalon. It is through the use of the scarlet woman as ritual conduit and muse that Crowley devised many of his Thelemic rituals and began one of his many quests to  (re)unite with the Hidden God or magickal chylde (relating to sexual magick).An interesting regression on this subject can be found in Crowley’s work of fiction “Moonchild,”my personal intiation into Thelema

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Grant also speaks objectively on the events surrounding the demise of the Golden Dawn the formation of Crowley’s Order of the Silver Star(Argentium Astram) and his relationship with the OTO(order templi orientis).Grant states that in the writing of this book he had at his disposal all of A.C’s writings both published and unpublished, the correlations and conclusions the author makes are profound and show an intense understanding of Crowley’s great work and its relationship to the larger magickal universe and both subjective and objective consciousness. 

Grants two chapters on South London Artist/Mage Austin Osman Spare(1886-1956) have had a great influence on me most especially concerning the “Death Posture” and the “New Sexuality” which is a part of Spares ethos that I was somewhat in the dark about before reading. It is quite a complicated topic and centres around the negation of thought and the definite Saturnalia of the Witches Sabbath.

As Spares literary executor,Grant has an intense understanding of Spares art, his systems of sorcery and magickal children, i.e sigil-making,alphabet of desire(sacred letters),his two chapters on Spare written long before the resurgence of popularity in his aesthetic and ethos perpetuated by chaos magic and fine press esoterica company Fulgur Limited.The chapters also inform his art in a way that other texts fail to do and makes tangible his concept of the Universal Woman,Witch Queen or Great Mother which elucidates the concept of inbetweeness which underpins the Spareian ethos 

As Alan Moore states in his “razor-sharp firestorm,” which appeared in the Summer Solstice edition of Abraxas, I paraphrase.

 Although Spares writings are an interesting accompaniment, nothing can compare to his visionary art and the immediate liminality of his line. Grant writes of Spare in a definite Thannoerotic context perhaps formed through many years of correspondence and drinks in Spares  South London stamping ground. Concepts such as the Witch Patterson who taught Spare the fortune-tellers argot are clearly on the edge of reality ,however the knowledge of those who knew him that Spare could actually make things happen without asking, possibly the central tenant of magic,is beyond doubt.

Grant demonstrates this through anecdotes regarding rainmaking and the transmutation of an elemental to visual appearance,these are fascinating to say the least.

 A lot of this material can be found in Grant’s Fulgur opus, “Images and Oracles of Austin Osman Spare.”

Therein is also an illuminating chapter on Dion Fortune who I knew little about and she is clearly an important person in the occultism of the twentieth century.