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