also offereda complete first edition of Crowley’s original ten-volume
Equinox
, whose stated aim was “to synthesize the aim of religion and the method of science.” Page’s enterprise was also set up to republish facsimiles of important occult works, including some written by—hold onto your hats—Aleister Crowley.
At this point in his life, however, Jimmy Page’s occult side projects could be said to have lacked a certain follow-through. As mentioned earlier, Page had been working on a soundtrack for Kenneth Anger’s Thelemite film
Lucifer Rising
for years. Page first met Anger when he outbid the California underground filmmaker for a pornographic Crowley manuscript at Sotheby’s. The two hit it off, and Anger’s densely symbolic film gave Page a perfect platform to explore the intense electronic trance music his more commercial work kept hinting at. But he couldn’t get it together, and though Anger had one of the most famous rockers in the world working for him gratis, the filmmaker eventually got fed up with Page’s lackluster efforts and turned the soundtrack chores over to the imprisoned Manson Family member Bobby Beausoleil. 36
Similarly, by the time the Equinox closed its doors in 1979, the enterprise had managed to publish only two books. The first of these, which appeared in 1976 with the kind of black camelhair wrappers fancied by Crowley, was called
The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the
King
. It was the facsimile edition of a sixteenth century magical text edited and published in English by Crowley in 1904, the same year the master channeled the Thelemite revelation
The Book of the Law. The Goetia
is the first portion of the
Lemegeton
, or the
Lesser Key of Solomon
, one of the most famous magical grimoires. On
The Goetia
’s elaborate title page, Crowley attributes the translation of the book to a “dead hand”; the translator was in fact the still-living MacGregor Mathers, the Golden Dawn co-founder from whom Crowley was then estranged. This seeming rip-off was appropriate, for though there are many exalted and noble works in the canons of magic,
The Goetia
is not one of them. Its sigils and conjurations are designed to give the mage brute command over an army of several million devils organized into legions headed by seventy-two Kings and Princes of Hell. Goetia, it should be mentioned, is Greek for
howling
.
Page’s decision to begin his publishing career with the org charts to Lucifer’s own guitar army should dispel any lingering doubts about which side the guitarist’s bread was buttered on. Friend makes much of this diabolical book in
Fallen Angel
, and is particularly drawn to the spirit Paimon. A great King with a roaring voice, Paimon is surrounded by musicians; Friend even hears an echo of “The Song Remains the Same” in
The Goetia
’s promise that this demon can teach you “any … thingthou mayest desire to know.” That’s pretty silly, and Friend would have done well to read the Crowley essay that accompanies the text, wherein the Beast, wearing the skeptical hat he favored at this stage of his career, writes that the goetic demons are just “portions of the human brain.” But Friend gets much closer to the mark when he cites the “Preliminary Definition of Magic” that opens the grimoire. According to this brief commentary, magic is the highest form of natural philosophy, and its operations are driven by the magician’s understanding of the inner or “occult” nature of things. By skillfully applying this understanding to things, the operator can produce “strange and admirable effects … which to the vulgar shall seem to be a miracle.” 37
The magician, then, is a technician of special effects, which seems as good a place as any to consider how Page’s occult predilections may have informed Led Zeppelin’s music. In particular, we can talk about the sound of this music, which not only howls and roars, but plumbs the depths—literally. Live and on record,
Equinox
, whose stated aim was “to synthesize the aim of religion and the method of science.” Page’s enterprise was also set up to republish facsimiles of important occult works, including some written by—hold onto your hats—Aleister Crowley.
At this point in his life, however, Jimmy Page’s occult side projects could be said to have lacked a certain follow-through. As mentioned earlier, Page had been working on a soundtrack for Kenneth Anger’s Thelemite film
Lucifer Rising
for years. Page first met Anger when he outbid the California underground filmmaker for a pornographic Crowley manuscript at Sotheby’s. The two hit it off, and Anger’s densely symbolic film gave Page a perfect platform to explore the intense electronic trance music his more commercial work kept hinting at. But he couldn’t get it together, and though Anger had one of the most famous rockers in the world working for him gratis, the filmmaker eventually got fed up with Page’s lackluster efforts and turned the soundtrack chores over to the imprisoned Manson Family member Bobby Beausoleil. 36
Similarly, by the time the Equinox closed its doors in 1979, the enterprise had managed to publish only two books. The first of these, which appeared in 1976 with the kind of black camelhair wrappers fancied by Crowley, was called
The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the
King
. It was the facsimile edition of a sixteenth century magical text edited and published in English by Crowley in 1904, the same year the master channeled the Thelemite revelation
The Book of the Law. The Goetia
is the first portion of the
Lemegeton
, or the
Lesser Key of Solomon
, one of the most famous magical grimoires. On
The Goetia
’s elaborate title page, Crowley attributes the translation of the book to a “dead hand”; the translator was in fact the still-living MacGregor Mathers, the Golden Dawn co-founder from whom Crowley was then estranged. This seeming rip-off was appropriate, for though there are many exalted and noble works in the canons of magic,
The Goetia
is not one of them. Its sigils and conjurations are designed to give the mage brute command over an army of several million devils organized into legions headed by seventy-two Kings and Princes of Hell. Goetia, it should be mentioned, is Greek for
howling
.
Page’s decision to begin his publishing career with the org charts to Lucifer’s own guitar army should dispel any lingering doubts about which side the guitarist’s bread was buttered on. Friend makes much of this diabolical book in
Fallen Angel
, and is particularly drawn to the spirit Paimon. A great King with a roaring voice, Paimon is surrounded by musicians; Friend even hears an echo of “The Song Remains the Same” in
The Goetia
’s promise that this demon can teach you “any … thingthou mayest desire to know.” That’s pretty silly, and Friend would have done well to read the Crowley essay that accompanies the text, wherein the Beast, wearing the skeptical hat he favored at this stage of his career, writes that the goetic demons are just “portions of the human brain.” But Friend gets much closer to the mark when he cites the “Preliminary Definition of Magic” that opens the grimoire. According to this brief commentary, magic is the highest form of natural philosophy, and its operations are driven by the magician’s understanding of the inner or “occult” nature of things. By skillfully applying this understanding to things, the operator can produce “strange and admirable effects … which to the vulgar shall seem to be a miracle.” 37
The magician, then, is a technician of special effects, which seems as good a place as any to consider how Page’s occult predilections may have informed Led Zeppelin’s music. In particular, we can talk about the sound of this music, which not only howls and roars, but plumbs the depths—literally. Live and on record,
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