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)