A lot has been written on the work of independent filmmaker Kenneth Anger. In fact, so much has been written on his work that I really don’t have much to add other than my appreciation for what Anger’s work has given to me on a personal level. And so in this writing I would like to convey my appreciation for his films as they were meant to be taken, as literal rituals in the magickal arts. This entails elucidating the reader on some of the historical facts of Christianity, Paganism, Magic and Alchemy.
I have great personal interest in the ancient practices and have dedicated a bit of time in the study of each of the above mentioned; I also have a passion for film and art, making the films of Kenneth Anger interesting to me on a variety of levels. Much has been written on the films of Kenneth Anger, but nothing that I’ve read has encapsulated the importance of Anger’s use of film on a ritualistic level and how his system of beliefs could effect the world we’re living in today.
It’s well-documented that Anger’s films are meant to be magickal spells cast upon the viewer and although the symbols used are mentioned I haven’t read anything that goes into further detail. What do the symbols mean in a broader context? Is Anger using the symbols as they are meant to be used or has he appropriated them to use within the context of his own, unique cosmology? A lot has been written about the demonic nature of the films and Lucifer or Satan are popular figures within most of what I’ve read. We know that Anger holds Aleister Crowley in very high regard using his teachings as a basis for his practices. Anger is a prodigious filmmaker and artist which has also been documented rather thoroughly.
What I feel is missing, and what I hope to remedy in this piece, is the importance of an artist whose appreciation for ancient ‘religious’ practices didn’t die in the seventies along with the love and peace movement. Anger has literally, with cinematic and artistic mastery, documented magickal spells! Spells that are meant to be cast upon those who view his film. In a world that seems to be falling apart due to a lack of understanding about the world that we live with, the ideas and images that Anger puts forth in his films are more relevant than ever.
I may be reading a lot more into his films than he intended, but art is meant to be absorbed, processed and perceived by the viewer. This is my perception, I in no way pretend to know the mind of Kenneth Anger. I do believe that in order for one to fully appreciate Anger’s films one must have a basic understanding of Paganism, Magic, and Alchemy (presently and within an historical context) and how those practices were affected by the rise of Christianity.
There is a possibility that such attention to the Demonic and Luciferian aspects of Anger’s work has brushed aside the more valuable aspects of the films; especially if one considers the absolute importance of ancient practices. One of the threads tying together Paganism, Magick & Alchemy is the reverence for the intrinsic bonds that exist between humankind, nature and the Universe. Unfortunately, this is often overlooked perhaps in an attempt to exploit the darker elements of such practices as the dark side is far more romantic.
For example, I recently watched a documentary on Alchemy; the documentary didn’t mention anything about the practice other than the transmutation of lead into gold and the negative health effects of the practice. No mention of the fact that Sir Isaac Newton was a practicing Alchemist who wrote over one million, unpublished, words on the subject (After his death in 1727 the Royal Society deemed them “not fit to be printed”). Newton was a traditional Alchemist in the sense that he accepted the idea that Alchemy originated with Thoth (Hermes) in ancient Egypt. It was Newton’s Alchemical work that guided him to his findings on light and gravity.
Nostradamus was also a practicing Alchemist and physician. ‘His prophecies were composed with the aid of magical, astrological and cabbalistic books and were published in two parts, in 1555 and 1568. Both Napoleon Bonapart and Adolf Hitler, in their respective centuries, believed that their careers had been foreseen in Nostradamus’ prediction…’ (The Encyclopedia of Magic Witchcraft, by Susan Greenwood, page 163)
So I’d like to make an attempt at shedding some light on the positive elements of these ancient practices as used in Anger’s work and as I see it…
To understand the history of European religion and Christianity’s place in it is to understand how we’ve arrived in the current state of delusion; a state of crises as the environment is being destroyed by humankind’s overwhelming stupidity and it seems that we are in a constant state of war which we start under many guises but that, in reality, are all about the small percentage of the rich and powerful who wish to remain on top of the monetary garbage heap. At the expense of the welfare of the majority of people and of the environment these ‘Christians’ (as many of them are) seem to be without conscience.
Unlike Christianity Paganism, Magic and Alchemy held the natural world in very high regard seeing ‘Nature as a theophany, a manifestation of divinity, not as a Fallen creation of the latter’. (A History of Pagan Europe, by Prudence Jones & Nigel Pennick, page 2). Therefore Paganism, Magic and Alchemy create a sense of balance and equality among all living entities rather than taking the hierarchical, dominating approach that Christianity takes. The duality of Christianity, represented as good verses evil, strictly contrasts the Pagan view ‘which sees the rule of nature as either good (e.g. Stoicism) or neutral.’ (A History of Pagan Europe, by Prudence Jones & Nigel Pennick, page 59).
With the birth of the monotheistic approach of Christianity (and like religions) and the death of the plurality of Paganism came the further subjugation of the non-ruling classes by not only the state but also by the church which eventually became one. Like Paganism and Magic, the practice of Alchemy allowed the individual to empower themselves through the intrinsic bonds that exist in the natural world (the individual didn’t need a church or ‘priest’ to commune with ‘God’, ritual could be an individual experience, one on one with the elements); these bonds have been severed by Christianity further benefiting the ruling classes as Christianity is about the sanctioned domination of other cultures, societies, lands and nature.
Paganism, Alchemy and Magic use elaborate rituals linking ‘the people and the land in a sacred relationship.’ (The Encyclopedia of Magic Witchcraft, by Susan Greenwood, page 11) This appreciation for nature stems from animism, the belief that spirits reside in the natural elements. It would become quite natural for Christians to view themselves as superior to all things and beings in the material world including nature. Perhaps our current environmental crises and constant war mongering are a direct result of the egoism of Christianity.
In an attempt to maintain control and reign dominant over lands and people the Church deemed the establishment judge and jury persecuting and / or executing any group or individual who challenged their authority, ‘Christianity looked to extend its authority over its congregation, and as a result it began increasingly to view dissident sects with suspicion and to see them as a threat to its supremacy. All those who deviated from the Church’s orthodoxy in any way became labeled as heretics.’ Those individuals who the Church viewed as dangerous to their organization were subjected to various forms of torture and / or execution.
Throughout the High Medieval Period (950-1350) European rulers were persuaded and influenced by Christianity; as Christianity became the official religion of the kingdoms monotheism and the practice of androtheism (referring to God as masculine) reigned supreme. ‘In Christian Lands, the High Middle Ages were the crusading years. Christian dualism, never far beneath the surface of its official monotheism was first turned against the Islamic conquerors of Palestine, then against its Pagan
neighbors in the Baltic, and then against alleged heretics, infidels and apostates within its own jurisdiction.’ (A History of Pagan Europe, by Prudence Jones & Nigel Pennick, page 196)
The death penalty was introduced in 1215 in an attempt to deter ‘heretics’ and Pope Innocent III established the Inquisition affording the Church the opportunity to ‘take action’ against those who deviated from the System.
Up until the twelfth century the Church had viewed tales of Witches as nothing more than innocuous stories and superstitions. This changed in the 12th century as the Church became paranoid that secret organizations, who didn’t share the Church’s system of beliefs, were plotting the overthrow of the Church. The Church had always been suspicious of dissident sects, but with the growth of dissent came the growth of the Church’s lust for domination. Jews, lepers and homosexuals were believed to have been plotting the overthrow of the Church and thus became viable targets of persecution.
The Inquisition evolved into the Witch hunt leaving mostly women, although some men and children were effected, open to severe persecution. Once again accusations of orgies and the sacrifice of babies for the purpose of gaining supernatural powers flew through communities, ‘Trial records show accounts of Sabbaths and nocturnal flying from 1420 onwards.’ (The Encyclopedia of Magic Witchcraft, by Susan Greenwood, page 130)
The propagandistic tools utilized by the Church in its early days became apart of the institution. Accusations of cannibalism and the sacrifice of small children or babies to obtain blood for the Eucharist abounded striking fear into the followers of Christianity. In the 12th century the Waldensians became one of many groups who became the target of the Church’s dissatisfaction. When attempts to silence the Waldensians failed the group was excommunicated and then condemned three years after that. Threats of being burnt at the stake could not deter the Waldensians who chose a humble life of poverty; in observance of Christ they chose to renounce worldly pleasures.
Witchcraft was seen as the most deplorable of crimes as witches were thought to work against God; the Judge saw it as his natural duty, and right, to God to eradicate the evil that permeated society in an attempt to taint the good of humankind. ‘To this end, judges and magistrates were seen to have great power over the devil and his assistant demons…’ (The Encyclopedia of Magic Witchcraft, by Susan Greenwood, page 130) Various methods of torture were utilized in an attempt to gain confessions; the methods used by the courts ‘worked’ as convictions mounted.
One of many such [sadistic] accounts of torture took place in Germany, ‘In Germany, many courts used a ‘witches’ chair’, which was heated by a fire below.’ (The Encyclopedia of Magic Witchcraft, by Susan Greenwood, page 131) Another documented account of the atrocities committed by the Church /State reads as follows, ‘In Scotland, according to a pamphlet called Newes from Scotland published in 1591, a witch suspected of treason against the king, “was put to the most severe and cruell paine in the world, called the bootes”, and “his legges were crushte and beaten together as small as might bee, and the bones and flesh so bruised, that the bloud and marrowe sputed forth in great abundance.”’ (The Encyclopedia of Magic Witchcraft, by Susan Greenwood, page 131)
A modern parallel to the Witch hunts of the 13th century can be seen in the not too distant past; in the US, McCarthyism sent a surge of paranoia into the minds of Americans who saw communists as the modern day ‘witch’. The movement destroyed careers as people were ‘Black Listed’ most notably in the film industry. The eponymous movement began with a more ambitious than patriotic Joe McCarthy who began making outlandish accusations in 1950 against people working in the state department. The fervor lasted until 1954 (The same year that Anger’s original ‘Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome’ was completed) when a group of senators took a stand against McCarthy. Unfortunately, this four year ‘witch hunt’ left many with unsalvageable careers.
For over twenty years, from 1952 to 1973 (not including the prior and subsequent persecution of gays), homosexuality was thought to be an illness, gay people were thought to be sick; the persecution of that time extended its ugly tentacles of oppression out to African Americans, women and other ‘minorities.’ Through his films, Kenneth Anger broaches the un-broachable pulling queers out of the closet and setting them up where they belong, center stage. Christianity has continued to rob women of their proper positions of power (think Isis). Anger, unapologetically, gives it back.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Romantic Paganism:
“…Classical Paganism underwent a new phase in Northern Europe. It was through Thomas Taylor’s translation of the Orphic Hymn to Pan (1787) that the romantic poets rediscovered the soul of all things. The Romantic poets developed nostalgia for lost ages, as in Schiller’s Gotter Griechenlands. In England, they had a mutually shared esteem for Paganism. After the death and destruction of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars came the ‘year without a summer’ (1816), when famine swept Europe, accompanied by food riots. After the disintegration of the Old Order, the Romantic poets saw Paganism as the only remedy for the ‘wrong turnings’ of Christianity and industrialization. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson Hogg (22 January, 1818), Leigh Hunt wrote:
I hope you paid your devotions as usual to the Religio Loci, and hung up an evergreen. If you all go on so, there will be a hope some day…a voice will be heard along the water saying ‘The Great God Pan is alive again’, -upon which the villagers will leave off starving, and singing profane hymns, and fall to dancing again.
In his letters Thomas Love Peacock signed himself ‘In the name of Pan, yours most sincerely’. In October 1821, Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote to Thomas J. Hogg:
I am glad that you do not neglect the rites of the true religion. Your letter awoke my sleeping devotions, and the same evening I ascended alone the high mountain behind my house, and suspended a garland, and raised a small turf-altar to the mountain-walking Pan.
Later in the nineteenth century, Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) was influential in the Pagan movement. He was a member of several socialist groups, including William Morris’ Socialist League and the Fellowship of the New Life, from which came the Fabian Society. Giving up his Anglican ministry in 1874, he promoted neo-Pagan as a return to the essentials of life. In 1883, he set up a self-sufficient community at Millthrope between Sheffield and Chesterfield. In Civilization: Its Cause and Cure he wrote:
The meanings of the old religions will come back…On high tops once more gathering he will celebrate with naked dances the glory of the human form and the great processions of the stars, or greet the bright horn of the young moon which now after a hundred centuries comes back laden with such wondrous associations – all the yearnings and the dreams and the wonderment of the generations of mankind- the worship of Astarte and Diana, of Isis and the Virgin Mary; once more in sacred groves will he reunite the passion and the delight of human love with his deepest feelings of the sanctity and beauty of Nature; or in the open, standing uncovered to the Sun, will adore the emblem of the everlasting splendour which shines within.
Oscar Wilde echoed the sentiments of Carpenter, when he wrote:
O goat foot god of Arcady!
The modern world hath need of thee!
At this time in this intellectual milieu, there was a feeling that a new religion was about to be created: ‘A religion so splendid and all embracing that the hierarchy to which it will give birth, uniting within itself the artist and the priest, will supplant and utterly destroy our present commercial age’. This was none other than ‘the creative Pagan acceptance of life’ promoted by playwright Eugene O’ Neill.
During the nineteenth century, the Germanic legends were collected by the Grimm brothers, and crafted into a powerful mythos by Richard Wagner. As Wagner himself wrote in his essay, ‘What is German?’: ‘In rugged forests, in the long winter…he transmutes his home-bred myths of the gods in legends manifold and inexhaustible.’ …another constant theme in his art was the tension between the Christian asceticism which he inherited and the Pagan affirmation of life to which as an artist he was committed. Wagner’s commitment to recreating the spiritual-emotional catharsis of Greek tragedy in his temple of music drama at Bayreuth was encouraged and partly shaped by his friend, the classicist Friedrich Nietzsche.’ (A History of Pagan Europe by Prudence Jones & Nigel Pennick)
Symbolism & Magic(k) in Cinema:
‘There is a way of going to the movies as others go to church and I think that, from a certain angle, quite independently of what is playing, it is there that the only absolutely modern mystery is celebrated.’ (The Age of Gold by Robert Short, Intro: Ocular Alchemy page 9)
‘It is certain that any image, however prosaic or banal, arrives transformed on the screen. The smallest details, the most significant objects take on a meaning that belongs to them alone. By the fact that it isolates objects, it gives them a life apart which acquires a growing independence and detaches itself from the customary meaning of objects. A twig, a bottle, a hand start to live a quasi-animal existence.’ (Antonin Artaud quoted in The Age of Gold: Surrealist Cinema, page 14 by Robert Short)
‘Anger’s content can be understood as Decadent mainly in the content of his images, which are icons taken from a sick and dying society (Invocation of My Demon Brother…Scorpio Rising). The images in Scorpio or Invocation are carefully portrayed as symbolic representations of death. In Scorpio objects (tools, machines) are portrayed as fetishes which act as milestones on the protagonist’s [I question whether or not it is Scorpio’s Death that we witness. It seems to be one of the racer’s whose Death we witness as Scorpio orchestrates the procession (race) form the church altar] one-way trip down death’s highway. But these images of heroes and objects are presented to us for our judgement, not solely for our titillation…Anger records history as well as demythifies it…Scorpio Rising is an extension of self-gratification into self-immolation. The machine (now a motorcycle) is totemized into a tool for power: the “charioteer” is Death (the ultimate “dream lover” by Romantic standards). Violence replaces the poetic extension of personality and violent eroticism is combined with the tragic death of the highway hero (“the last cowboys”)… (Moonchild the Films of Kenneth Anger / Myth and Symbolism: Blue Velvet, pages 13 and 21 essay by Carel Rowe)
In Scorpio Rising Anger uses chains to decorate the floor of the garage and to decorate the bikers themselves; He also uses chains in Fireworks as ‘weapons’ used by the sailors on Kenneth Anger. Aleister Crowley used the chain to represent salt one of the three Alchemical principles. Within Alchemy Salt (Lion) represents fixity; the chain as salt, ‘serves to bind the wandering thoughts and for this reason is placed around the neck of the magician…these instruments also remind us of pain, death, and bondage…the chain restricts any wandering.’ (Magick: Book Four-Liber Aba, page 58-59)
Kenneth Anger made the following statement regarding Scorpio Rising as, ‘A "death mirror held up to American culture" - Brando, bikes and black leather; Christ, chains and cocaine. A "high" view of the myth of the American motorcyclist. The machine as totem from toy to terror. Thanatos in chrome and black leather and bursting jeans.’
In Greek mythology, Thanatos (Thanatus) is the God or daimon of non-violent death. Like his twin brother Hypnos (sleep) Thanatos has a light, gentle touch; in his duality he can be seen as the deliverer of man from the pains and sorrows of life or he can be seen as the destroyer.
Eros was the mischievous god of love, a minion and constant companion of the goddess Aphrodite; armed with either a bow and arrow or a flaming torch, it was Eros who lit the flame of love in the hearts of the gods and men; he was also the object of cult. Eros was often portrayed as a child, the disobedient, but fiercely loyal, son of Aphrodite.
The Thanateros Ritual:
‘…Before any magical work is undertaken a “banishing ritual is performed”. This is a preparation and centring exercise, which allows the magician to focus on the task ahead rather than on more mundane thoughts…banishing rituals typically have three parts. The first section focuses awareness on the magician and is aimed at clearing the mind of unwanted thoughts by the visualization of white light being drawn through the body. The second creates a symbolic Universe with the magician at the centre…
‘These are my weapons
Expressions of my will
I grasp them lightly
I stand poised at the centre
The Universe dances for my pleasure’-Phil Hine
The third section involves an identification of the chosen source of inspiration…By meditating on the death of self in the act of sex, and the birth of self in an encounter with death, the ritual simulates encounters with both sex and death, and then with both of these experiences simultaneously, which is said to force conception beyond its normal limits. After a statement of intent and litanies, Eros and Thanatos are invoked…
Invocation to Eros:
So come Eros we invoke thee
You who created us
In the chaotic conjunction
Of genetic roulette
Come create us anew
And kill us again!
Our lover approach
Our breathing quickens
As they come closer
Our breathing quickens
As we are clasped together
Our breathing quickens
At the thrill of touch
Our breathing quickens
We begin to gasp
We are ready to surrender
Three, Two, One
(Cry of Climax)!
Invocation to Thanatos:
So come Thanatos, we invoke thee
We accept your bargain
Come kill us again
And create us anew
Our nemesis approaches
Grinning skull and upraised scythe
Our breathing quickens
Closer it comes and closer
Our breathing quickens
Death stares us in the face
Our breathing quickens
Upraised terrible scythe
We begin to gasp
When it falls we shall die
Three, Two, One
(Cry of Death Terror)!
…the energy being raised is either to be used for itself or to cast a spell.’ (The Encyclopedia of Magic Witchcraft, by Susan Greenwood, page 244)
‘Scorpio’s iconoclasm is effected by the critique which the film conducts on itself, demythifying the very myths it propounds by interchanging them with one another and integrating them into a metamyth. Christ/Satan (religion), Brando/Dean (popular culture), and Hitler (political history) are reduced to sets of systems which destroy one another through an internarrative “montage-of-attraction”. Thus, the film itself is a metamyth of the films which constitute it. Different dogmas are equalized (and subsumed by) their structural and idealogical parallels.’ (Myth and Symbolism: Blue Velvet, page 24-26 by Carel Rowe)
‘In Alchemy, as in psychology, the goal is to develop a balance of the elements within the individual. Personal transformation and individual integration are dependent upon balancing the elements within the psyche, and the deeper relationships of the elements (whether they oppose or complement one another)…According to Jung, when two opposing elements encounter each other in the personality or are brought to the surface in a situation, there are three possibilities: 1) they may generate psychic energy; 2) they may neutralize each other; or 3) they may combine or unite. In Alchemy and psychology, the third case is the most profound, for the union of opposites is the Conjunction of Opposites (Coniunctio Oppositorum), the creation of a higher unity and transcendence of conflicting polarities.’ (Sorcerer’s Stone, page 51 by Dennis William Hauck)
In her essay on Anger’s use of color in his films Deborah Allison points out the dominant colors of Scorpio Rising as being red and black with the strategically placed colors blue and green. She points out that the color black, for example, has many, ‘clear and consistent associations. It is most commonly connected with death and night…These associations are often linked to emotional impressions such as misery and defeat.’
Allison also points out the use of the Skull as it is used in Scorpio Rising and Invocation of my Demon Brother, ‘The combination of this colour scheme with specific iconography provides an example of the way in which colour can reinforce visual symbols. Scorpio Rising had associated black and red in a clear and consistent manner with the death/rebirth polarity. In Invocation, this association is less schematic, although the use of the skull as an image of death is certainly one that echoes their frequent appearance in Scorpio. In this sequence, the colour red has perhaps a stronger association with the joint that the skull supports, rather than the skull itself.’ (Deborah Allison)
In Alchemy, the color black is linked with the black phase (nigredo) during which the subject of transformation is purified by breaking it down. In this first operation known as calcination the substance is burned (Fire was very important to Alchemists, who were often referred to as “Philosophers of Fire”) until it is reduced to ashes and turns chalky white. After calcination the substance at hand is no longer affected by common fire. The black crow is one symbol of this Black Phase while the Skull is one of many classic symbols of the process of calcination. Other images include funeral pyres, hell, bonfires etc.
The color green as represented by the symbol of a green serpent is the unrefined or unclean Mercury that must be redeemed during the first (Black) phase of calcination. ‘In the Alchemist, this is the false identity or poisoning ego that fights desperately for its survival but must be devoured in the flames of higher consciousness.’ (Sorcerer’s Stone, page 187 by Dennis William Hauck)
The color Red (Rubedo) in Alchemy represents the third and final stage of transformation in which the substance at hand is perfected through the union with the cosmic (or divine) forces.
In Astrology the colors red and black are attributed to the sign Scorpio which is ruled by the ‘Red Planet’ Mars. Mars is the third stop on the Ladder of the Planets. Like Earth, Mars has active volcanoes one of which is the largest yet discovered in the solar system. In older astrological systems Mars was considered a “malefic” indicator, bringing ill health and problems…Only recently have astrologers begun to see in Mars a redeeming value. It is through Mars the Warrior that we can mobilize the forces within us to reverse course, move toward the goal of divine liberation, and find the true peace that passes understanding. (Sorcerer’s Stone, page 91-92 by Dennis William Hauck)
And so it is understood, as presented to us in Scorpio Rising, that in order to make way for the new the old must be destroyed. Furthermore, the strength of the individual will (as demonstrated throughout history) to resist mass cultural influence must be exerted if one is to find true liberation.
Christ & Christianity:
In Scorpio Rising, Anger clearly conveys his irreverence for Christianity with the inter-cutting of Jesus doing his good deeds for the day and the bikers being bad boys (boys will be boys). ‘Blasphemous inter-cutting continues when a pious relief of Jesus’s face follows a flash-frame of bare buttocks.’ (Moonchild: the Films of Kenneth Anger (2002) The Occult: A Torch for Lucifer, Anna Powell)
I can’t pretend to know much about Christianity as a religion, however, my understanding of Jesus puts him in the position of being the rebel. Jesus certainly wasn’t squirting mustard on his nude apostles (at least not as far as we know, although it’s difficult to surmise what kind of shenanigans a guy who could turn water into wine might come up with), but he was a rebel to the extent that he went against the grain and was persecuted and eventually executed or sacrificed for his beliefs.
Jesus was a rebel living on the fringe of society; and like all subcultures Christianity gained acceptance and popularity as it became marketable.
The consumption and subsequent regurgitation, through the discourse of contemporary film and music videos, of Anger’s once marginal work has led to his being crowned the ‘Godfather of MTV’ a crown of thorns I’m not sure I’d want to rock as MTV totally sucks.
The Church really was the corporation of it’s time amassing extraordinary power and wealth in a relatively short time. The corporations of today are no different; they take what they can market from subcultures (Jazz, Blues, Hip Hop, and Punk Rock would be perfect examples although there are many examples that one could choose from) and recycle and reconfigure it to the point where one forgets the origin which is always far more interesting. The cultural roots are yanked out leaving a shell of the movement’s former self and relegating the original to the history books.
As ironic seeming as the juxtaposition of Nazi imagery (before its appropriation by Nazi Germany the swastika was a symbol of light (Lucifer) and life, since this appropriation the symbol is swathed in darkness) and Christian icons (Christians adopted Lucifer the lord of light making him the prince of darkness) appears to be, there are very strong parallels that can’t be ignored putting Christians of the past in the same genocidal category as Hitler and his cronies.
Christians sought ‘converts’ through whatever means necessary including extreme violence, threats of death and execution to those who would not allow themselves to be subjugated by this organization. They understood the power of linguistics and rhetoric using terms like ‘crusade’ ‘inquisition’ ‘heretic’ ‘barbarians’.
Although most Christians of today don’t condone overt violence against non-believers they have found more peacefully subversive ways of eradicating cultures from within thus the ‘mission through missionary’. Through these ‘missions’ the Church has successfully done away with many shamanic (the oldest ‘religion’ known to humankind) practices. And there’s no doubt in my mind that the average Christian’s feelings of superiority creates cognitive dissonance which makes the invasion (most currently Iraq) and subsequent murder of people seem somehow justifiable.
And so Anger’s choice of images hold very deep meaning for me. Far beyond being funny, which they are, the images make uncomfortably accurate comparisons of contemporary Western culture within an historical context. The images remind us of what many, throughout history, would love for us to forget; they are a reminder of what can happen when the individual stops thinking for oneself (the Patriot Act Etc).
Alchemy & Film:
Because Anger is a solo artist he has kept total control over the end result of his work; and, when he so desires, can make changes (evolution) to his films. I can almost envision Anger as a Cinematic Alchemist working in his lab; in isolation from the impure (ultra conservative) thoughts of the outside world meditating and ‘praying’ for his version of the Perfect Matter (Gnostic Mass perhaps?).
At the core of Alchemy, the precursor to chemistry, is an amalgamation of religion, medicine and science, ‘based on ancient methods of finding truth that combined all ways of knowing.’ (Sorcerer’s Stone: A Beginners Guide to Alchemy, by Dennis William Hauck, page 3) The practice of Alchemy involved not only work in the laboratory, but also extensive meditation and prayer; the experiments that took place in these laboratories were surreptitious performances because the Alchemist believed that the impure (greed, self-serving) thoughts of any other person could destroy the end result of the experiment.
The medieval alchemist was therefore independent from organized religion; this independence of thought, will, and practice was frowned upon by the church and the state as it threatened their control and would soon enough lead to the persecution of the Alchemist by the Church and State. (Diocletian)
Furthermore, Alchemists believed that through their transmutations, which took place in the laboratory, was a simultaneous transformation or evolution of everything on the planet and in the Universe including oneself. The transmutation of baser metals into gold or other substances directly reflected the evolution of the Universe and the Alchemist performing the work.
‘To alchemists, the whole universe is slowly evolving toward perfection.’(Sorcerer’s Stone, by Dennis William Hauck, page 6) Alchemists believe that Humans play a direct role in the evolution of the Universe serving as a sort of conduit. In stark contrast to Christianity, which separates divinity and humanity, and expounds Faith over Reason, the alchemist’s beliefs empowered the individual encouraging the use of both intuition and intellect bringing about the divinization of people and matter.
Allusions have been made to the Alchemical aspects or symbolism within Anger’s films with no explanation of the true nature of Alchemy. This dismissal is important because most people don’t understand that Alchemy is much more than the transmutation of baser metals into gold or the search for an elixir of immortality. Although there were Alchemists whose sole desire was that of material gain, the ‘real’ Alchemist wasn’t after such trivialities; and so the term ‘puffer’ was coined, the puffer being the superficial Alchemist, as a way of differentiating between the disparate practices. Another paradox is the world of cinema wherein the independent filmmaker / artist (Anger) is supplanted by the massive, money making productions that the movie industry (Hollywood) turns out.
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome:
‘Inauguration of The Pleasure Dome mixes the sacred and profane. Originating in a fancy dress masque where guests dressed as mythological deities, Anger’s own performers engage in a decadent occult Eucharist. They are accompanied by the swelling organ notes and rapturous drumming of Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass (1923) into which screaming is mixed. Here, the deities are given a Crowleyan slant, and feature Pan, Astarte, the Great Beast and the Scarlet Woman. They are joined by Cesare, the Somnambulist from Robert Wiene’s German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1922)…References to “strange drugs” feature strongly, from Coleridge’s poem Kubla Khan which is evoked in the films title, to Crowley’s opium pipe, the Scarlet Woman’s “big fat joint”, and narcotic wine and powders…Shiva adopts different forms to receive each guest, becoming Osiris to Isis. He gradually induces the loss of individual identities as characters blend into each other and unite in him at the ritual’s consummation. This mystic melding lends itself naturally to superimposition, the film’s dominant technique…Flash-frame and superimposition add photographs of Crowley, the unicursal hexagram and alchemical symbols, such as the white lion and the red eagle.’ (page 68 moonchild)
In Alchemy the Lion represents, ‘any salt or fixed substance obtained from metals. It is red, green, or black according to its state of perfection.’ The eagle (Aquilla) is the worldly bird of soul; in some depictions it represents the feminine side and the elements Water and Earth. The Eagle is ‘a symbol of volatilization. For instance, an Eagle devouring a Lion indicates the volatilization of a fixed component by a volatile component. Denotes sublimation or distillation.’
Salt (Lion) is the third heavenly substance in Alchemy, which represents the final manifestation of the perfected stone. The Emerald Tablet calls it “the glory of the ‘Whole Universe’.” It has also been associated with the Astral Body. In general, Salt represents the action of thought (meditation, prayer) on matter (metals, other substances), be it the One Mind acting on the One Thing of the universe or the Alchemist meditating in his inner laboratory.
When Alchemists discuss the Universe they are referring to the material Universe in which we live; when they speak of the ‘Whole Universe’ they are referring to not only the material Universe in which we reside (Below) but also the spiritual universe (above). That which is below corresponds to that which is above, and that which is above corresponds to that which is below.
‘Inauguration of The Pleasure Dome associates light with the precious stones swallowed by Shiva, who later eats a crystal pendant, a pearl and a gold snake. Such mixing of sight and taste recalls the experiments in synaesthesia by Baudelaire and other Symbolists. This process involves the extension and melding of the senses conditioned into five different spheres. As the jewels intrinsically possess light, the action of swallowing them suggests a talisman which only releases its power when ingested as food for the inner being. In Crowley’s teachings, the oral ingestion of fluids in a sex-magick context deploys the absorption of supernatural force. This produces intoxication with the god until the body is gradually purified by inner light. It is not sufficient to merely contemplate the light, but it must be consumed to be fully effective.’ (The Occult: A Torch For Lucifer, page 56 by Anna Powell)
‘We see then that there are in nature certain scenes, certain classes of objects, certain materials, possessed of the power to transport the beholder’s mind in the direction of its antipodes, out of everyday Here and toward the Other World of Vision. Similarly, in the realm of art, we find certain works, even certain classes of works, in which the same transporting power is manifest. These vision- inducing works may be executed in vision-inducing materials, such as glass, metal, gems or gemlike pigments. In other cases their power is due to the fact that they render, in some peculiarly expressive way, some transporting scene or object.
The best vision inducing art is produced by men and women who have themselves had the visionary experience; but it is also possible for any reasonably good artist, simply by following an approved recipe, to create works that shall have at least some transporting power.
Of all the vision-inducing arts that which depends most completely on raw materials is, of course, the art of the goldsmith and jeweler. Polished metals and precious stones are so intrinsically transporting that even a Victorian, even an art nouveau jewel is a thing of power. And when to this natural magic of glinting metal and self-luminous stone is added the other magic of noble forms and colors artfully blended, we find ourselves in the presence of a genuine talisman.
Religious art has always and everywhere made use of these vision inducing materials. The shrine of gold, the chryselephantine statue, the jeweled symbol or image, the glittering furniture of the altar-we find these things in contemporary Europe as in ancient Egypt, in India and China as among the Greeks, the Incas, the Aztecs…For Ezekiel, a gem was a stone of fire. Conversely, a flame is a living gem, endowed with all the transporting power that belongs to the precious stone and, to a lesser degree, to polished metal (think of the motorcycle, in Scorpio Rising, that scintillates as it is swathed in light.’ (The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell, page 106,107,108 by Aldous Huxley)
And so humankind, it would seem, has a natural attraction to the scintillating and the luminous. Furthermore, Humans seem to have a primal attraction to evolution. Like metals (think Alchemy), precious gems form in many different environments in the earth. Almost all gems are formed beneath the earth’s surface. Some gems are brought to the surface by man through mining and many are brought to the surface through the forces of nature (faulting, folding, large scale uplift, volcanism).
The interaction of water with copper-rich rocks will form malachite and azurite or turquoise. Magmatic gems crystallize in magmas or in gas bubbles (holes) in volcanic rocks. Examples include: zircon, topaz and ruby. Deep mantle gems such as kimberlites are eruptive volcanics that come from quite deep in the mantle and carry with them diamonds. Diamonds are made from carbon. The stable form of carbon at the Earth's surface is graphite. High pressures and temperatures are required to convert graphite to diamond. Thus, almost all diamonds formed about 100 miles below the Earth's surface. Dates suggest that their formation was restricted to in the first few billion years of the Earth’s history.
Precious gems are the perfect manifestation of evolution; the combination and transformation of liquids, gases and solids into the perfect, raw matter. We literally deck ourselves in evolution without giving our accoutrement a second thought. Think of the semi-precious stone Amber which is the preserved resin of prehistoric trees that grew tens of millions of years ago. Beyond their obvious beauty there exists a much deeper attraction and I believe this attraction rests with our intrinsic, instinctual desire to move beyond what we are and what we ‘know’; the attraction rests with our desire to evolve.
‘Intertextuality is shown by the filmmaker’s casting of bohemian writer of erotica Anais Nin as Astarte, goddess of the moon. Swinging her glittering mesh net she blurs our perspective and hypnotizes us. The net references the pivotal Priestess card in Crowley’s Thoth Tarot deck…In the film, focus on Astarte’s feet in black mesh (fish net) stockings. The symbolic meaning of feet in the Correspondence Tables is “the elder witch”, referring to one aspect of the triple goddess.’ (The Occult: A Torch for Lucifer, page 68 by Anna Powell)
Astarte: was the West Semitic counterpart of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar (the Sumerian Inanna) worshipped in Mesopotamia. Like Ishtar, she had both a benevolent and a terrifying aspect-she was a goddess of love and fertility, but also of war. This latter aspect was dominant in the goddess’s Syro-Canaanite manifestation – she appears as a war goddess in the Hebrew Bible (I Samuel 31) and entered Egypt in this guise during the New Kingdom where she was particularly linked to the military use of chariots and horses. She is mentioned on the Sphinx Stela set up by Amenophis II (perhaps her first appearance in Egyptian texts) as being delighted with the young prince’s equestrian skill and, like the Syrian goddess Anat, was believed to protect the pharaoh’s chariot in battle. She was adopted into the Egyptian pantheon as a daughter of Re (or sometimes Ptah) and wife of the god Seth with whose fearsome and bellicose nature she could easily be equated. According to the fragmentary 19th-dynasty story of Astarte and the Sea, the goddess seemed to have been involved in thwarting the demands of the tyrannical sea god Yam, though the details of this myth are lost to us. While the sexual aspect of Astarte does not seem to have been as pronounced in Egyptian religion as in her Canaanite homeland, it was probably not entirely absent in her Egyptian mythology.
Pan: PAN was the god of shepherds and flocks, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music. He wandered the hills and mountains of Arkadia playing his pan-pipes and chasing Nymphs. His unseen presence aroused feelings of panic in men passing through the remote, lonely places of the wilds.
Pan was depicted as a man with the horns, legs and tail of a goat, and with thick beard, snub nose and pointed ears. He often appears in the retinue of Dionysos alongside the other rustic gods. Greeks in the classical age associated his name with the word pan meaning "all". However, its true origin lies in an old Arkadian word for rustic.
Aleister Crowley was a controversial figure, but there is no doubt that he was extremely influential in the shaping of modern magic. Crowley’s major philosophical influence was through a liberation philosophy that focused on creating a powerful magical self, and his impact stemmed from his connection of themes of human evolution (the Aeon of Horus) with modernism (the development of the self through the will). He is also identified as playing a part in the creation of modern witchcraft as a nature religion, although how much he actually contributed is contested. His poem, ‘Hymn to Pan’, written in 1929, displays classical themes combined with a focus on Nature:
Thrill with the lissome lust of the light,
O man! My man!
Come careering out of the night
Of Pan! Io Pan!
Io Pan! Io Pan! Come over the sea
From Sicily and from Arcady!
Roaming at Bacchus, with fauns and pards
And nymphs and satyrs for thy guards,
On a milk white ass, come over the sea
To me, To me,
Come with Apollo in bridal dress
(Shepherdess and pythoness)
Come with Artemis, silken shod,
And wash thy white thigh, beautiful God,
In the moon of the woods, on the
marble mount,
The dimpled dawn of the amber fount!
Dip the purple of passionate prayer
In the crimson shrine, the scarlet snare,
The soul that startles in eyes of blue
To watch thy wantonness weeping through
The tangled grove, the gnarl’d bole
Of the living tree that is spirit and soul
And body and brain – come over the sea,
(Io Pan! Io Pan!)
Devil or God, to me, to me,
My man! My man!
‘Light and colour are expressively used to indicate shifts in consciousness. Shiva changes colour several times, becoming purple, green and pink as he contains all colours within himself. A red shot of him laughing is followed by a white image in the lotus pose of calm contemplation.’ (The Occult: A Torch for Lucifer, page 68-72 by Anna Powell)
Shiva: is referred to as 'the good one' or the 'auspicious one'. Shiva - Rudra is considered to be the destroyer of evil and sorrow. Shiva - Shankara is the doer of good. Shiva is 'tri netra' or three eyed, and is 'neela kantha' - blue necked (having consumed poison to save the world from destruction. Shiva - Nataraja is the Divine Cosmic Dancer. Shiva - Ardhanareeswara is both man and woman. S/he is both static and dynamic and is both creator and destroyer. S/he is the oldest and the youngest, s/he is the eternal youth as well as the infant. S/he is the source of fertility in all living beings. S/he has gentle as well as fierce forms. Shiva is the greatest of denouncers as well as the ideal lover. S/he destroys evil and protects good. S/he bestows prosperity on worshipers although s/he is austere. S/he is omnipresent and resides in everyone as pure consciousness.
Cesare the Somnambulist: In the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Cesare’s character is a peaceful sleepwalker who is forced to carry out the mad whims of his ‘master’ Caligari.
‘The mystical artist Marjorie Cameron, married to Jack Parsons, played the imperious Scarlet Woman. Against a dark ground, in black and white robe, her flaming red hair is thrown into relief, but a later shot shows her pallid, bleached out by the white light of ecstasy.
The Scarlet Woman: ‘Now ye shall know that the chosen priest & apostle of infinite space is the prince-priest the Beast; and in his woman called the Scarlet Woman is all power given. They shall gather my children into their fold: they shall bring the glory of the stars into the hearts of men.’
‘Black and white squares recall the floor of Solomon’s temple reproduced in ritual context. The contrasting elemental colours of blue and red are used for the eye in the triangle, a Masonic symbol of God’s all-seeing unity. Fire and flame imagery increases, to apocalyptic effect, with the brassy sheen of infernal fires as the damned fall into an abyss. A thirteen-petalled sunflower in mandala form has golden petals round a vermilion centre. Golden light emanates from Shiva’s hand in benediction. The predominance of fire at the end signals Anger’s belief that the declining Piscean Age had to be destroyed before the New Aeon of Horus could be born. The lavish costumes, elaborate sets and gorgeously jeweled colours create the effect of stasis and a decadence turned in upon itself and drained of energy…’ (The Occult: A Torch for Lucifer, page 72-73 by Anna Powell in Moonchild: the Films of Kenneth Anger)
Invocation of My Demon Brother:
‘The film as it now stands is based on fragments of a larger-scale unfinished work, a template from which Lucifer Rising was also produced. Its fragmentary nature is, however, its chief source of strength in mounting Anger’s ‘attack on the sensorium’. Viewers find this the most difficult of the Magick Lantern films. This is due to the rapid editing of confusing images, rarely on screen long enough to make meaning from them. Its visual flow is minimal, and for Tony Rayns “every cut hurts”. The demands of watching are compounded by the endless repetition of a monotonously abrasive riff on the moog soundtrack. Sitney connects the chaos to the lack of a centre of gravity, so that every image has an equal weight and “the burden of synthesis falls upon the viewer.” (Moonchild: The Films of Kenneth Anger / The Occult: A Torch for Lucifer, page 84 by Anna Powell)
‘"Invocation of my Demon Brother", a short, intense, ritualistic film with a jagged, rough, almost naive synthesizer soundtrack by Mick Jagger that had quite a disturbing effect…’ http://victorian.fortunecity.com/updike/723/page.html
It’s important to note that Bob Moog (rhymes with Vogue) saw musical instruments and computers quite literally as extensions of the human body and consciousness. Furthermore, he saw the Moog synthesizer as an instrument to be used as a means for communing with beings in outer-space; he took his beliefs very seriously up until his death and probably beyond. Perhaps he continues to communicate through his instruments from the space that is between here and outer-space.
‘New techniques for undermining conscious control are introduced. The most striking of these is Vietnam footage of a helicopter setting down a troop of Marines…The footage is intended to heighten the viewer’s anxiety…As the ritual progresses, Sitney notes the increase of abstraction and anamorphosis. This is the first use in Anger’s work of an anamorphic lens for the kaleidoscope effect of multiplying an image. This was a common technique to connote psychedelic states in the late 1960’s. A more innovative effect is the ball of light which rushes downstairs after a ragged procession of musicians to announce “Zap-You’re pregnant-That’s witchcraft!” This enigmatic message could either imply the natural miracle of birth or the gestation of the Demon Brother in a mortal mother.’
The 1960s saw the concentrated power of youth as it culminated in Berkeley in the form of anti-war demonstrations. This open opposition to the authoritative control of government spread like wild-fire across the country fueling college town after college town with an intense desire to end America’s abuses against Vietnam. Baffled adults watched in utter confusion as their children took to the streets in mass. Kenneth Anger himself got involved in the movement; in October 1967 Anger tried to ‘exorcize’ the Pentagon while Allen Ginsberg tried to ‘levitate’ it and Abby Hoffman, at the advice of Hopi Indian shaman Rolling Thunder, counted heads to make sure he had enough people to completely encircle the Pentagon. All of this in an attempt to end the vicious war against the people of Vietnam.
Powell points out that the announcement “Zap-You’re Pregnant-That’s witchcraft!” could either imply the natural miracle of birth or the gestation of the Demon Brother in a mortal mother. I prefer to think of the Demon Brother from an alchemical perspective. In Alchemy there rests the belief and subsequent desire for the evolution of not just Nature and man, but of the entire Universe; the true Alchemist believes himself, and all of humankind, to be a conduit for this change or evolution. This change happens naturally over time or the change can be helped along a bit by the adept. When I read about the ‘Demon Brother’ as realized in Anger’s films I think less of a ‘Guardian Angel’ and more of the idealized or evolved self brought on by either natural maturation or quickened through ritual as would be the case of the Demon Brother portrayed in Anger’s films. And so the ‘gestation’ of knowledge of the self brings about the inevitable ‘Birth’ of the new self inspired by erudition of the esoteric belief systems of the ancients.
‘The filmmaker himself returns to the screen in his most substantial role of Magus in a ritual to invoke the Demon Brother in “the shadowing forth of Our Lord Lucifer, as the Powers of Darkness gather at a midnight mass”. Anger’s billowing robe acts as a screen for flickering movie images of apocalyptic scenes. For a magickian, the robe symbolizes the aura. He gyrates widdershins (counter-clockwise) around the solar swastika as “Swirling Spiral Force” to enable the Bringer of Light to break through. In the Kabbalah, the swastika is an emblem of continuous spirit. Its symbolic use here as a flag is, however, difficult to dissociate from its historical deployment in the Nazi version of black magic…To reinforce the spell, Hell’s Angels and hippies dancing wildly at a festival are superimposed, along with Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan in San Francisco. The potentially magickal effect of rock music and drugs on young people is underlined. Recognisable people are used in the film to intensify its impact on the spectator. Crowley’s influence is shown in a still of Anger reading Moonchild. His system is expanded here by the inclusion of LaVey. Jagger, Faithfull and members of the Stones are featured at the Hyde Park memorial concert for Brian Jones. Bobby Beausoleil plays Lucifer and his psychedelic band, The Magick Powerhouse of Oz, is featured. As with Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, Anger’s own circle are used to personify aspects of his magick.’ (The Occult: A Torch For Lucifer, page 87-88 by Anna Powell)
‘It is even possible to work in reverse (counter-clockwise) rotation, which is known as the Death Rotation. The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus (500 B.C.) described the process thus: “Fire lives the death of Earth, and air lives the death of Fire; water lives the death of Air, and Earth lives the death of water.” In his book Purifications, Empedocles uses the reverse rotation to cleanse the soul of broken promises, crimes against humanity, and other bad karma.’ (Sorcerer’s Stone, page 55 by Dennis William Hauck)
In the 1960s individuals like Charles Manson and groups like the Process saw bikers and their gangs as ‘the shock troops of the coming Armageddon’. Manson himself tried to [ingratiate] himself with a few bike gangs like the Straight Satans, Satan Slaves, and the more appropriately named Jokers Out of Hell. These gangs are a far cry from the bikers that we love and lament in Scorpio Rising.
We saw Marianne Faithfull in all of her hip-ness in the biker film ‘Girl On a Motorcycle’ (aka Naked Under Leather). Faithfull portrays a beautiful wife who sneaks out of bed and away from her husband to embark on a two wheeled cross-country excursion. She strips out of her delicate night gown and wifely duties, pulls on her second skin/alter ego, a leather jumpsuit and black leather boots with chrome buckles, and then rides off into the darkness of night.
Bikes were Big…
The Rolling Stones and their gorgeous side-kicks Anita Pallenberg and Marianne Faithful stoked the Pagan fire of desire most notably with Jagger and Richards’ song ‘Sympathy For The Devil’. The song was supposedly inspired by Mikhail Bulgakov’s ‘The Master and Margarita’ (1967) which was given to Jagger by Marianne Faithfull. Jagger’s hymn to Satan then inspired Jean-Luc Godard’s film ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ also known as ‘One Plus One’ which featured black militants, news reports about the ‘revolution’, and a recitation from Mein Kampf. The inclusion of these rock and roll raconteurs in ‘Invocation’ is more than appropriate given the times and their seeming proclivity for walking the left-hand path. Anger was certainly not alone in his love for Lucifer.
‘The film’s abrasive impact on the spectator merits Anger’s description of it as a “burn”. If we are prepared to go with it, our usual mode of cognition is consigned to the flames. Anger defines his performance of the ritual, The Equinox of the Gods, at the Straight Theater on Haight Sreet, San Francisco on September 21st, 1967, as belonging to “the last blast of Haight consciousness”.’ (The Occult: A Torch For Lucifer, page 91 by Anna Powell)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)