Devolution Device

Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est: And thus knowledge itself is power 

~ Sir Francis Bacon, Meditationes Sacrae (1597)

Mage Music 42

Back in Merlin's day Magick was still an accepted scientia, that is, a form of knowledge.  Today scientia is understood to be a discipline with exclusionary rules rather than of direct and personal knowledge. Magick has been reduced to the sleight of hand of Las Vegas, which is no Magick at all.

Magick is scientia in the original meaning of the term.  Knowledge of the true nature of Magick persists, though modern science can't explain it.  These days if a thing isn't science then science says the thing is fiction, and that makes the scientia of Magick harder than it has to be.  Of course, Magick never has been easy, truth be told - not even for a Merlin. After all, Magick taps into the foundational energy of the Universe, and if that isn't a challenge then what is?

Ironically, humans have an intuitive knowledge of how the Universe and its parts work because not only do humans live in this Universe - they are a microcosm of it. How could humans not understand Magick, then? We only have to look within.

Do Not Enter

Science has made fiction of Magick in self-defense, even though Magick is an extraordinary and yet natural process of human manipulation of energy that works perfectly well. Magick has an impact on reality that can be directly known, if not exactly duplicated, measured and quantified. So what does it matter if science can't explain it? 

It matters because what Sir Francis said is absolute truth: Knowledge itself is power. How could anyone have control over anyone else if everyone could have knowledge... and thus power?  Ideas like that give entities that are in positions of control (governments, religions, science and other institutions) the willies - it's bad enough to them that there are artists loose out there.   

We have no Merlin these days because people with true knowledge threaten the social, scientific and political status quo, and wielders of true scientia can't afford to be blatant about it.  There isn't an Inquisition any more, but history warns us that there are plenty of ways of dealing with Mages that are darned effective besides inflicting physical pain, as traditional as that has been.

Still, there's no stopping scientia.   Discretion may be the name of the game in these modern, so-called "enlightened" times, but there still is Magick and there still are Mages. Some of them just don't use the same tools of the trade as Merlin did.

Let There Be Light

“…she held the image…strong within her mind, demanding of the Light that what she saw must become the world's truth. Because she desired it. Because she willed it. Because the world itself must bow to the will of the Lightborn".
~ Mercedes Lackey: Crown of Vengeance

Mage Music 37 

In science fiction/fantasy novels, Mages are always getting involved with battles, conjuring deadly forces to kill enemies with a flick of the fingers, a twitch of a wand, or a circle in chalk on the floor. They blast mountains to gravel, change the courses of rivers, generate blizzards from balmy spring days, bestow Magickal powers on inanimate objects and even take over the minds of the unwary and unshielded. Certainly all good tricks, but such conjuring is truly the stuff of fiction, not real Magick. 

That's not because it is absolutely impossible to do those things, but because the immense power needed to generate those kind of changes of reality is just an impractical - and darned tough - way to use Magick.  Even the most powerful Mage is courting failure when attempting to go against the forces of entropy in the Universe - or even the desires of living things. Which is not to say that a Mage can't do some pretty impressive stuff. It's just that changing the world that way is using the wrong end of a lever to move a rock. There are easier ways to go about Magick that will, in the end, get you where you want to be.

The reality of the reality of Magick

Think about it: Here's an army of orcs, here's the brave, solitary Mage facing that ugly bunch. Fiction would tell you that the Mage will use Magick to force the orcs to stop their advance. The reality is that the most powerful control a Mage (or anyone) has is of himself*- meaning the Mage isn't going to be using Magick against orcs at all.

So - do the orcs get to pound the Mage into mush? Actually, no - in the real world, the Mage changes his own reality to one in which there are no orcs doing damage. Um... if there were actual orcs in this world for a Mage to deal with, of course. Metaphor, okay?

But wait!

I know you are objecting - because what I've described might sound a bit... wimpy - and likely at least one of your objections probably goes something like this: If the Mage's reality is changed to orclessness in a new reality, are there still orcs storming the castle in the old reality?

Probably. Maybe. It depends on whether you subscribe to the infinite Universes theory or not. Still, one soul incarnate in one body experiences one reality at a time in finite existence.  Magick is about purposefully choosing what that reality will be like. Even Mages can't change realities they aren't experiencing (and that means Mages can't experience the reality of another living being without becoming that being, which would mean not being the Mage any more...).  And this means that the best Magickal leverage for a Mage is to simply create a reality where orcs aren't an issue.  For him, the Mage.

Perhaps this version of Magick is not something you'd like to spend time in a movie watching, but it's the way things really work.  Look around you at the reality you live in. If Magick was used like a super-power, things would be a bit different than the reality we are currently sharing.

What are Mages for if not to stop orc armies? 

And why do we think they should be stopping armies of orcs, anyway?  Aren't orcs living beings that have their own desire and will?

Well, no.  Orcs are fictional.  I'm talking about this plane of reality, not theirs.  Faced with the real-world equivalent of orcs, a Mage needs to leverage energy, and that comes about through knowing the true goal, the true desire, and using the true desire with will and ritual to bring about change in the Mage's reality.  And the true desire can only be that of the Mage, not that of the castle or anyone else.

A fine point, but a crucial one.

If the castle is to be safe from the charging orc army (or the Mage's equivalent of orcs) the Mage must exist in a reality where it is already safe and has always been safe and always will be safe.  Orcs are not part of the picture.  To do this, the Mage is the one who must know in his body, mind and soul what existence in a reality of safe castle feels like, must know without a doubt that this is the reality for the past, for the now and for the future, and must bind it with ritual that will make it so.

And then it's the Mage's reality that changes - and how the energy of the Universe brings that about depends on factors beyond any finite Mage's ability.  Orcs?  Who cares.  That army may be just charging the castle to get to the Black Friday sale.  It doesn't matter what the orcs do because in the Mage's reality the castle is safe, if not orc-free.

What Mages are for in this reality

Fantasy is a wonderful thing, though as a friend of mine just said the other day, it can be frustrating reading about those Gifts that none of us have.

Except we do have them.

Not to the same degree, not every gift for every person - but we all have Magick in us and the ability to change our own reality.  We can't help it - it goes with the human package.  The difference between Mages and the bulk of humanity is that Mages choose their reality and the rest of us pretend we have no choice and let reality happen to us.

Thank goodness, then, that real Mages are living breathing conduits to the energy of the Universe.  They may be manifesting their own realities, but in doing so Mages open portals to the Light for us. Even if we don't choose to step through, we can still bask in the Light.  I've said it before and I'll keep saying it here:

Light bringers - that's what Mages are for.

That's no small potatoes, either.

♪

* I use the masculine pronoun but understand it includes the feminine.  I'm a female, and I don't exclude my gender, just am going along with what's easiest.  The he/she, him/her way of writing is kinda kludgy, and I just can't make myself like using "their" when what I really mean is his/her, you know?  Yeah, okay, sometimes I do, but give me a break here.

Vision Quest

How far did they go?
"As far as our imaginations would carry us."

~ Jimmy Page, from Brad Tolinski's Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page

Mage Music 35

Vision: "the act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be". 

Vision drives everything.  Every normal person has a belief system that describes the world is and what their place is in it.  Belief is the basis for vision of what will be.  Even if they're not conscious of having any vision at all, still people's decisions are influenced by their vision.  Their emotions arise from that vision.

Vision guides and shapes human lives.  The vision may not be based on "truth" - it may in fact be totally unrealistic - but it still guides and shapes decisions and emotions, and vision is the paradigm against which success and failure are measured.

The range of vision is infinite
For most people personal vision is small - that's not a value judgement, just a statement about scale.   Vision is derived from what is believed to be possible, and for most what is possible comes from what has existed or what is known.  Their vision goes not much further than the basics of everyday life.  As "small" as this vision may seem, it is still something extraordinary - few, if any, animals have the capacity for extensive vision.  

Moving along the range of possibility of vision, there are creative people - such as artists - whose vision is broader.  Their vision involves imagination and goes well beyond the basics of everyday life into areas that push the envelope of what is known and accepted.  Success is measured against the internal vision as well as external factors, such as how well the creation is received by peers and audience.

Sages, Mages and other grand visionaries are at the other end of the scale.  Their vision encompasses that which may never have been, and includes the improbable and the impossible.  These are the Masters who don't require external validation - their Work may never even be seen by others.  Their measure of success is how close their Work comes to fulfillment of their personal vision.  What they produce may be so different as to be frightening, so frightening as to be threatening, so threatening as to cause others to want to cast them down.

Vision Quest

Vision is always changing and growing as the human who holds the vision changes and grows. Sometimes, however, the vision is just a seed, an idea with no flesh.  Sometimes the holder of the seed has no idea of how it will grow or what it will grow into.  Sometimes that person only owns the desire to find out.

A vision quest is a search for the clues that will allow the seeker to find answers.  For those with small vision, the goal is to find one's life purpose: Who am I, why am I here, where am I supposed to be going?  For those with greater vision, the goal is to find the purpose of life:  Who are we, why are we here, and where are we going?  

For the Masters, the goal is to find the Way that will allow them to move life along.  For the Mage, the goal is to create a new reality.

For the Mage Musician, the Way is through the vision of the music.  How far can the vision go?  As far as the Mage will allow the vision to carry him.

Alchemy: Led Into Gold (Part 4) The 1990s

The colours, the textures, the tones; the blood, the flesh, the bones ...

                    ~ Jimmy Page, jimmypage.com On This Day 14 October 1994

Mage Music 25

Alchemy is not an overnight-wonder kind of Magick. It is a process of methodical experimentation that takes time to not only perform – which is actually the last step in the process - but to think, design, experiment, analyze and rethink, and then reattempt the Work - repeating until the Magick has created the new reality. Alchemy is not a Magick for the weak-willed or undisciplined. It does not provide immediate gratification. It is unforgiving: Either it is performed perfectly or there is no Magick at all. “Almost” is not nearly enough for Alchemy.

Yoda: "Do or do not. There is no try."

Jimmy Page seemed to come out of the 1980s with a renewed enthusiasm for reincarnating himself. Mr. Page appeared onstage with numerous bands during that time, essentially auditioning while having a good time.

He was seeking a combination of musical components that would recreate or reinvent the Magick he had found so successfully with Led Zeppelin. The problem, of course, was that accomplished musicians of the caliber of Mr. Page would be already involved with established bands and not interested or able to experiment outside their comfort zones. These musical egos wouldn't want to have their own music challenged by proximity of a Master Mage who wasn't looking for musicians to musically follow or to be followed by, but to collaboratively engage in the a creative Magickal process that follows the Mage's vision.

It takes 100% to be successful in Magick. Trying doesn't make it – doing is all that counts. Of course, Yoda knew that just any old action – the “do” part – doesn't raise a spaceship out of the swamp; it has to be the perfect action. And the only real way to learn the perfect action is by trying - experimenting, testing, over and over and over until the perfect action is discovered - and then there is no more “try”. Luke had already received training, he knew what to do. He’d fallen into try and Yoda knew that. Believe me; even Yoda didn't raise a spaceship the first time he made the attempt.

And Jimmy Page wouldn't find the perfect components for post-Zeppelin musical Magick right away, either.

You can never go back 

In a 1993 MTV Most Wanted interview, Jimmy Page said of David Coverdale: "…within the creative side.... he's as passionate about the music as I am.” Coverdale had decided to retire, but the invitation to work with Jimmy Page was a rare opportunity not to be ignored and Coverdale tossed thoughts of retirement out the window.

In that same interview, Mr. Page admitted he had been totally uninspired prior to that point. The Whitesnake singer was a mature and accomplished musician whose abilities could help break Mr. Page out of his musical (and Magickal) stasis. Jimmy Page’s need was for artistic co-creators, strong musicians who would contribute to the music and thereby the Magickal process yet who would submit to the Mage’s Magickal vision.  David Coverdale was not only available, but qualified. 

“It was nice to present ideas - some pretty off the wall, chord sequences and things,” Jimmy Page said. “David would get an immediate grasp on them, and come in exactly with the right emotional factor, the right passionate factor.”

The subtext, given the post-Zep work Jimmy Page had done by that point with Robert Plant, was that the Page/Plant collaboration wasn't a viable solution. After David Coverdale took his musical rejuvenation back to Whitesnake, the disharmony of the musical goals of the two former band mates of Led Zeppelin became obvious. This is not surprising - Robert Plant had been going his own way musically for more than a decade. His voice and his musical vision had changed. Performing reworked versions of Zeppelin classics within Jimmy Page’s vision was no longer compelling to Mr. Plant - as the mid-1990s Page/Plant musical product clearly shows.

If nothing else demonstrates the impossibility of recreating successful alchemy with changed components, it is the music of Page and Plant in 1990 and in the subsequent No Quarter years. They couldn't go back. It couldn't be Led Zeppelin, and even if it was good music it wasn't Magickal. As Robert Plant put more of himself into the music, Jimmy Page increasingly seemed to fade. He seemed be in a holding pattern, an accompanist rather than a creator. By 1995 Kashmir had changed so much from the original vision that none of the Magick was left.

Change happens

Whether you want it to or not, nothing stays the same. The alchemist must make constant, if minute, changes in the process to account for every factor that is no longer the same as it was the last time the process was performed. The second round of Page/Plant collaboration that resulted in Walking Into Clarksdale revealed the beginnings of Jimmy Page’s finding his Magickal power again.

Sometimes, however, it pays to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Sometimes it takes radical change to forge ahead.  Jimmy Page had the desire and the will to change and so rather stay with something good musically but not pushing the Magickal envelope enough, the quest continued.

Although many fans decried the Page/Puff Daddy partnership, we know that Jimmy Page has been attracted to working with soundtracks in the past.  And although the musical presence of Mr. Page in this version of Kashmir is not obvious, the chance to play with a visual component adds a new twist to the Work - there is a strange scent of Magick to it. Kashmir and Godzilla? Who could have imagined it, yet it seems to fit its purpose.

Ultimately, even when a Mage is in a place that feels wrong, with sufficient desire and intention he will return to what feels right if he will allow the Magick to lead him. Although Jimmy Page continued to experiment with new partnerships into the next decade, the most Magickally touched of the Work still rested in the Music Mage himself. Behold the Master performing Domino: Rhythm and the Magick through the voice of a guitar. The Force was with him.

♫ 

♪ 

Future posts:

Led Into Gold (Part 5) Jimmy Page in the 2000s
The Chicken/Egg quandary (the neurophysics of music)

♫ 

YouTube Playlist - Alchemy: Led Into Gold (Part 4) Jimmy Page in the 1990s

Individual songs

1990 Page & Plant, Wearing & Tearing (live) Knebworth
1993 Page & Coverdale, Absolution Blues (studio) Album: Coverdale/Page
1994 Page & Plant, Kashmir (live) No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded with the London Metropolitan Orchestra & Hossam Ramzy Ensemble
1995 Page & Plant, Kashmir (live) Irvine Meadows, Irvine California, 3 October 1995
1995 Page & Plant, Thank You (live) Irvine Meadows, Irvine California, 3 October 1995
1996 Page & Plant, Thank You (live) Japan
1998 Page & Puff Daddy, Come With Me (Kashmir) Soundtrack, Godzilla
1998 Page & Plant, Whiskey From The Glass (studio) Album: Walking Into Clarksdale
1999 Page & The Black Crowes, What Is And What Should Never Be (live) US Tour
1999 Jimmy Page, Dazed and Confused (live) NetAid
1999 Jimmy Page, Domino (live) NetAid

Mage Music 18: Fetching the Magick

Ritual is the glue that holds the Magickal process together...

Mage Music 18

Black Dog
artwork based on NASA image
click on image to enlarge

Like everything else associated with Magick, Ritual is simple, but it’s not easy. Just for openers, there is more than one flavor of Magick. There is no one Magical path that is the sole truth of things. There is no good or bad Magick, either – Magick is what the Mage chooses to make it, since Magick is a process and tool of the Mage, not an independent thing in itself. The Power that the Mage accesses using Magick is the infinite energy of the Universe, which is not owned by Magick, the Mage, a demon, an angel or any being.

Even within one flavor of Magick there are many possible rituals that can be used by a Mage to achieve the desired outcomes. The ritual can be from any number of possible sources or it can be created by the Mage. The same ritual can be used over and over again or can be changed from time to time. Always, however, the risk exists for putting too much emphasis on the ritual’s form rather than its function. More on this in a bit.


Ritual: The Abracadabra Part

Ritual is the visible, external part of Magick. It’s what people see in the movies and read about in books and, if they are uneducated about Magick, it's what they think Magick is all about. Not so.

Ritual is the action that is used to bind the desire and will of the Mage and provides a focus for long enough for the Mage to access and open to the energy of the Universe. It’s the unlimited and infinite energy of the Universe that makes changes in the reality of the Mage... if all the component parts of Magick come together just right.

There is no Power in Magick itself, since Magick is a process not a thing. There is no Magick in a magic wand or in a secret word or symbol – if any of those things seem to contain Magick, it is only an illusion, a seeming that comes from the Mage at the time of use in ritual. Don't believe it? Well, a non-Mage can go to a magic store and buy the most arcane, most talismanic object - but outside of Magickal process by a Mage, the object will be just an inert thing. Think about this: Jimmy Page told Brad Tolinski in 2010 that the iconic outfits that our favorite Mage Musician wore on the 1977 tour were “more than just stage clothes; they were talismanic”, yet I doubt anyone who put one of those dragon suits would suddenly gain the Mage Music abilities of Jimmy Page. That's because....

Magick isn't in the objects or the ritual; Magick is a process that provides a framework for a flow-through of purposeful and directed energy of the Universe. It isn't easy to do this - and it's not an immediate cause-effect, either, which is a good thing when you think about it. One moment of inattention and a demon pops through!  No, it is fortunate for reality as we know it that immediate cause-effect - a wave of a wand and an Abracadabra - is not how Magick works.

Focus 

I mentioned in discussion of the use of a Mage's will how hard it is to sustain powerful desire and a conscious awareness of purpose for any meaningful length of time. For most of us, a moment or two is pretty good. For a Mage, minutes - many of them - may be needed to bring about the desired changes in Reality. There probably have been humans who could sustain the desire and awareness for long enough solely through their own will, but for most Mages, ritual is the tool that allows them to do the job.

Good ritual, through the use of stylized, formal actions performed sequentially, focuses the mind and emotions so that distractions are prevented and the primary desire and purpose can be maintained. Good ritual draws in and binds the senses and ensnares conscious awareness in order to align the mind, body and soul with the desired outcome. It is the loss of awareness and surrender to the desired new state - existing in the changed reality before the change exists in reality - that is the key to the ritual of Magick. Shamans dance and chant or dream, priests use prayer, Mages use Magickal ritual - all do so to surrender to the process, to step out of themselves and into the new state and to sustain that altered existence until it becomes the new reality. For some Mages, the form of ritual - and the surrender - is to music:  Mage Music.


Form vs. Function

The form of ritual provides a framework for the Magickal process that creates a familiar pattern.  [Note that if the pattern is achieved, then the ritual isn't improved by increasing technical expertise of performance, since it is the familiar patterns themselves that tell the receiver what kind of information to expect.  Jimmy Page has often been criticized for sloppy technique, but technique is secondary to content for a Mage Musician.]

The formula for ritual is pretty standardized:  There's a beginning, middle and end.  Each kind of ritual has its own pattern-within-pattern.  With Magick (and Mage Music) the ritual pattern looks approximately like this:

• Preparation - Sets the desire and will, repeated so that the body/mind/soul are prepared (theme, riff) 
• Invocation - Losing self in order to put the desire and intention of the Mage out into the Universe and to thereby become aligned with the change that is desired (solo) 
• Close - Gratitude and creating the path to return to end of ritual (return to theme)

The function of ritual is essentially that of prayer (in the sense of spiritual communion), the object of which is to transform the Mage and thereby transform the Mage’s reality.

Ritual in itself is a catalyst, meaning that it brings about change while itself not being changed. Ritual is simply a component in a process that brings about/transmutes the Mage's reality, via desire and will, into a new reality. The need for the Mage to be able to surrender while maintaining the highest and most powerful levels of desire in full purpose and awareness means that during the sequential moments of ritual, what it looks (or sounds) like is secondary to the change it brings about in the Mage's reality.

No quality of musical performance, however skilled, will bring Magick to the music without the Mage’s purposeful immersion in the ritual.  The technical skill of a Mage Musician is less important than the strength of emotion, the purity of desire and the power of will used to perform the musical ritual.It can’t be faked and it can’t be emulated – Magick in music can only be created and recreated each individual time and only through the efforts of a Mage.

Fortunately for Mage Musician, audience has a function in the ritual.  We provide energy.  When we recognize the the ritual pattern and the quality of the music that carries Magick, when we feel the Magick we are transmuted along with the Mage and our feedback helps power the Mage.  It is the Mage Musician, however, who always does the fetching for us.

  

♪

Future post: Magickal Mystery

♫

YouTube Playlist -  Black Dog

Individual songs

1971 Led Zeppelin  Black Dog (live) Osaka (pre-album performance)
1971 Led Zeppelin  Black Dog (studio) Album: Led Zeppelin IV 

1971 Led Zeppelin  Black Dog (live) Knebworth
1973 Led Zeppelin  Black Dog (live) Madison Square Garden
1975 Led Zeppelin  Black Dog (live) Earls Court
1979 Led Zeppelin  Black Dog (live) Knebworth
1993 Page Coverdale  Black Dog (live) Osaka
1995 Page Plant   Black Dog (live) New Orleans
2007 Led Zeppelin/Jason Bonham  Black Dog (live) O2

Mage Music: Whence Magick?

It was a very successful experiment.

-           Jimmy Page, Guitar World, 1993

Mage Music 12
How magical to get to use the word “whence” – never did I imagine I’d ever have reason to use it, but “Where Does Magic Come From?” is such a boring title for a blog post, don’t you think?

♪

Last week on the official JimmyPage Facebook page, Sara said she can’t listen to more than one version of Tea For One or any Led Zeppelin song one after another because they are so intense she feels like they would stop her heart - she said she has to pace herself. It’s easy to feel that way about such powerful music. For me it’s particularly tough when I first begin to hear a Led Zeppelin song. Like Sara I feel that the act of listening could cause my heart to falter, my blood to cease to circulate, my lungs to be unable to take in oxygen ever again. That’s intense!

Intense… but not mundane.
What we’re reacting to isn't just ordinary music - there's plenty of music out in the world that's really great but it doesn't make anyone feel like they're having a near-death experience.  What we're reacting to is pure Power, and so much of the stuff that it feels like it is too much for a merely physical human being to withstand. Power... but not mundane. It's Magickal Power.

So where does this Magickal Power come from? And how is it that Mage Musicians can not only withstand the Power, but do so performance after performance?

Whence?
Magick doesn't come from the Mage - let's get that straight. And so sorry, but Magick isn't a Super Power either.

Magick is a process that the Mage is a part of.

The process of Magick involves the Mage's engaging with and essentially becoming an active component of the evolution of the Universal Energy (you could call it Magickal Energy, Source, Great Spirit or just plain Power if you prefer) that everything that exists is made of, in order to bring about some change in the Mage's reality.

Desire, focus and ritual (conscious choice, will and action) bring about alignment with the Universal Energy that manifests as the change the Mage seeks. If the Mage fails in any part of the process, the whole process will fail. Failure means that something else will happen.  It could be good, bad or ugly - once the Mage falls out of alignment something will still happen, but it's the Universe, not the Mage, that "decides" what will happen.  

The Paradox of Control
The process of Magick is about control – having it and letting it go. The Mage has to have absolute control - not over other people or over things, but control of Self: Control of the Mage's own mind, thoughts, emotions and physical body. There needs to be so much control that the Mage can let it go; the goal is to move beyond it to as pure a state of simply being as possible.

In other words, the Mage's goal is to have no control of the process, of the Magick, at all.

This seemingly contradictory state of absolute control and absolute lack of control is like meditation - except that the Buddha had it easy: A Mage can’t do sitting meditation but must be able to perform the Magickal rituals while in the meditative state; a Mage Musician has to play a musical instrument while holding a pure state of being!

And to top it all, the Mage must also let the Power that results in the change in the Mage's reality do what it will.

To maintain sufficient control while giving Self to the music and the Magick and letting them manifest as they will is another seeming contradictory state of no will and free will, of control and no control. This is the true choice that a Mage makes: Choosing the end, then allowing the journey to happen; abandoning Self to the journey, trusting/knowing/believing that it will all come out the way it needs to; controlling to perfection and then letting it go… this is the choice that is made to allow the Power to pass through the Mage and into the Music, and it is the choice that means the Mage Musician is not burned out by the Magick.

A Mage Musician is a pure crystal lens that channels light without interference. No matter how strong the light, the lens is unharmed by it, but oh, beware when you are in the focus of that light! We mere mortal listeners to Mage Music risk frying our souls unless we, too, open ourselves and become lenses that pass the Light  through.

♪

Future post:
Comments on Jimmy Page's playing a bit of Beck's Bolero in How Many More Times

♫

Playlist for 07/29 post: How Many More Times
Please listen to these selections while contemplating what a Mage Musician is actually doing as he channels the Magick. 

Mage Music 12 Full Playlist on YouTube

Individual song versions:

Led Zeppelin Studio - Led Zeppelin 1969

Led Zeppelin Live Gonzaga University, Spokane Washington 1968
Led Zeppelin Live Olympia Theater 1969
Led Zeppelin Live Danish TV 1969
Led Zeppelin Live BBC Sessions 1969
Led Zeppelin Live Royal Albert Hall 1970
Led Zeppelin Live Montreux 1970

Page & Plant Live WDR Rockpalast / Bizarre Festival 1998
Page & Plant Live MGM Grand Las Vegas 1998

Page & Plant Live Shepherds Bush Empire, London 1998 (How Many More Times begins at 7:00)
 

Links to other versions are appreciated.

Mage Music: Magickal Interlude

Take a deep breath of enlightenment...


Mage Music 10: A Magickal Interlude

I turned on the radio while driving home from Colorado last weekend, after getting within range of a decently strong station.  I had forgotten to bring my iPod so was otherwise without music for most of the 12 hour drive as I can’t stand commercial radio, but after this many hours on the road I was getting tired and needed something to keep me going.  As usual I was listening for hints of Mage Music – it’s something I always do, though of course I rarely come across it.  Doesn't mean that the music I hear carries no hint of Magick – it could be there, it’s just that I'm not open to hearing it from those sources.  We all have favorite bands, after all!

Anyway, I'm listening hour after hour to stuff that sounds pretty much the same: That fuzzy, high-gain guitar distortion effect, the vocalists belting out lyrics that are a full stop musically, not meant for more.  Song after song, the music was so much the same that it all ended up being white noise after a while.  Truly - I was hearing the same music no matter what the song and what the band, all of it sounding like it could be one group with one big playlist, some songs marginally better than others at best.

The annoyance factor alone was keeping me awake.

Then, a couple hours into this drek, I heard the first chords of Kashmir.  It was like an electric shock. It was like the whole world stopped and took a cleansing breath.  It was clarity, precision, meaning, all there in one soaring, wide-open, no-fooling around Magickal package.  I felt like the sun had come out when I hadn't realized it was cloudy.  I felt like I could breathe again freely when I hadn't known I had been holding my breath.    I felt emotions loosen that had been wound up tightly, and a crazy grin plastered itself across my face.

I felt like I had been sucker punched in the psyche.  It felt good.

I've always loved Kashmir; even though there's no extensive Jimmy Page solos in it.  Still, the melody is based on Mr. Page’s unique and immediately identifiable chord progression, a riff so gripping that it entrances and practically pries open the soul of the willing listener to the Magick.  A riff so powerful, too, that it has been adopted by other guitarists who play it in their own songs, never realizing that that the Magick isn’t in the notes but in the soul of the Mage who conjures the music.

Physical Graffiti
album cover

I've always felt Kashmir is Led Zeppelin's best work ever, and an example of a Mage Musician's work beyond the guitar - precise and incredibly powerful orchestration and production that supports the higher-level content above the notes to produce music that is On Purpose.  Led Zeppelin expert Dave Lewis describes Kashmir as “the finest example of the sheer majesty of Zeppelin's special chemistry”.  [Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin (1994)]

"Let me take you there. Let me take you there..." Robert Plant sings.  I heard the lyrics totally differently as I drove down the road.  I realized it wasn't an offer to take me to some mythological Shangri-La at all, but rather to a much higher plane. I all but stopped my truck and let myself go.

And then it was over, the silly grin still pasted on my face as the next awful muddle of metal pedal buzz came on.  The ray of light shining through the spiritual cloud of music had been obscured again.  But I had heard.  I had been taken through both time and space for a few moments while driving down the freeway.

YouTube Playlist for this post 

Direct links to Kashmir

Physical Graffiti (studio) 1975 

Live LA Forum 1975 

Live Knebworth 1979 

No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded with the London Metropolitan Orchestra & Hossam Ramzy Ensemble 1994 

Mage Music: Ritual is not Magick

A black robe with a black cat looking on, a few candles and props, a chanted spell and a pass with the wand:  Magic?  No way!  On stage, maybe - but that's not real magick at all.

The truth:  Even when they use tools, today’s occult magicians and most other reality transforming professionals don't perform rituals like they did in the olden days.  In spite of what you may have learned from Harry Potter, real magic doesn’t require wands, spells, magic potions and powders, pentangles, crystals or any other prop to make the connections with the energy that will do the heavy lifting.  Still, all those things and more can be used to create magic - even if they are just tools that make the job easier.

The need to use specific tools of magic is indirectly proportionate to the skill of the mage. What this means is that a powerful mage can use anything – or nothing at all – to bring about transformations in the world, whereas a lesser magician can become dependent upon ritual, on the use of tools in a formulaic way to focus the mind and keep the will of the magician on task.

The reason rituals and magical props are not intrinsically necessary is because rituals are not the magic itself.  The fact is, anyone can use the recommended magical tools and perform the prescribed rituals with them, but only some will get the desired magical results.  Even the most highly skilled practice of ritual can never achieve the same level of results as a gifted mage who isn’t even half trying, because magical success resides not in the ritual but in the person performing the magic.

Lascaux, France paleolithicave painting

A little history
One theory of art history is that cave paintings, petrographs and petroglyphs were not art so much as summonings, blessings, and/or entreaties to the spirit world for success in the hunt.  The Lascaux cave paintings are around 17,300 years old and petroglyphs sites in Australia have been dated at 27,000 to 40,000 years old.  Undoubtedly the first human music consisted of humming, whistling, and singing; rhythm-keeping in the form of clapping or drumming must have occurred early on as well.

Music is powerful.  We don’t need science to tell us that music can evoke strong emotions and changed states of awareness (although science can, in fact, tell us how that works).  Shamanic drumming has its modern-day counterpart in trance music; a young child can tell the difference between happy and sad music; words that are used to describe music also are used to describe spiritual experience.  There has always been something magical about the application of paint to canvas or stringing one word or one musical note after another and having the end result be something that has meaning above and beyond the physical object.  For some practitioners of the various arts, the result is also magick.

Performance vs. creation

Jimmy Page is often referred to as “The Master” or “Mage”.   Magick or music - the honorifics acknowledge the quality and quantity his gift and his expression of it.  Yet performance itself, no matter how dazzling and technically excellent, does not a Master make.

Jimmy Page is definitely a master musician.  The YouTube playlist provided here includes selections of original music of Mr. Page's over a 15 year period from 1983-1998.  These songs were chosen to provide a powerful example of the skill of a musician at the level of mage.  Please note that some songs have solos that I have identified for particular consideration (also scroll down for individual links).

While any search of YouTube will yield numerous young guitarists (and some not-so-young or unknown) who have performed Jimmy Page’s tracks from various songs, none carry the magic of Mr. Page’s own work as he performs it.  Many can play the works of Jimmy Page's with technical excellence that may surpass his own technical skills, but none of it is magic.

“Music is an outburst of the soul.”  Frederick Delius

Jimmy Page, as has often been noted by his detractors, can be a sloppy guitarist and even off-pitch, yet somehow the magic is still there.  This is because ritual – musical technique – is not the magic.  You can listen to far more technically accomplished guitarists and be left cold.  Magic comes about as a result of the desire and will of the mage, not technique.  Jimmy Page plays music and makes it his own - he is always creating, not simply performing.  The music he produces is the result of focus of his desire and will; he is not merely producing a sequence of notes on his guitar that he has produced before, that anyone can produce – he is creating a new state in the world that matches his inner vision.

Each of the songs in the playlist is different, but each at its core expresses a certain Truth.  The expression of that Truth is magic.

It is highly recommended that you do not watch the videos while listening to the selections below. Concentrate on the sound for there lies the magic.


1983  Midnight Moonlight Live, ARMS concert with Paul Rogers [note particularly 3:23 – 5:15]

1988  Emerald Eyes Studio version, Outrider

1988  Writes of Winter Studio version, Outrider 

1993  Saccharin Unreleased, Coverdale/Page  [note particularly 2:50 – 3:16]

1998  Walking Into Clarksdale Live,  La Cigale Paris March 30 [note particularly 4:22 – end]

Mage Music: Imagine This

Mage Music: Imagine This

Aubrey Beardsley
Frontispiece to The Wonderful History of
Vergilius the Sorcerer1893 

What exactly makes a mage powerful?  Unlike what is portrayed in fiction, a mage doesn’t have to be a person in black robes, and isn’t a person who has a lot of magic stored up in amulets or who is born with magical power.  A mage doesn’t “have” magic any more than a computer “has” the internet.  Magic is like Yoda’s Force – it is the energy source of life.  Like a Jedi who masters the Force, a true mage is one who has the skill, talent and will to open to that energy and to use it to make changes in the world. 

Think of the relationship of a mage to magic the same way you do of the device you use to access the internet to the internet itself.  The internet is gigantic, so big it is for all practical purposes infinite – there’s no way your device can access it all.  Still, the more powerful the device the better it can access the internet and the more data it can process, providing it isn’t hampered by malware, poor programming or by just not having sufficient capacity.

It’s the same with a mage.  All of us access the energy of the universe without even thinking about it – it’s called being alive.  A mage, however, accesses that energy on purpose, using clarity of mind to visualize the desired outcome, and then ritual of some sort to focus the mind on the desired outcome.

The clarity both comes from and results in enlightenment – literally aligning with the energy of the universe.  The most proficient use of the energy comes through focus.  The actual process is not truly important – alignment with the energy of the universe can be equally achieved through magick, meditation, the sciences, art or, in the case of Jimmy Page, through music.  The product of true enlightenment is readily apparent to anyone who sees experiences it. 

It can be easily seen why Jimmy Page is considered a mage:  He engages purposeful clarity of vision, and focuses through the ritual of the music on a desired outcome.  Music is the ritual of his magic.

Jimmy Page is well known for his attention to detail and his control of all aspects of his vision.  Thus when comparing the John Lennon/Yoko Ono 1972 film, Imagine,  to the Jimmy Page acoustic segment deleted from the 2008 video It Might Get Loud, we must wonder what Mr. Page’s choices meant in the context of the music he was playing.

It would be very hard to believe that Jimmy Page had never seen the Lennon/Ono film, if not when it first came out then sometime over the next thirty-something years, when Mr. Page makes a video of himself playing an unnamed acoustic guitar piece in a room so identical to the one in the Lennon/Ono film that one might only tell the difference by checking out the scenery through the windows and details of the rooms.

A white empty room; a white chair for Jimmy Page, a white piano for John Lennon:  We must believe Jimmy Page didn’t just “happen” to choose that room to be filmed in or that his chair placement, in basically the same location as John Lennon’s piano, was accidental.  We must believe that the video starts and ends with visual focus on a reflection in the floor rather than the guitarist for a reason.  We must believe that there is purpose for everything in this video because control of detail has always been in Jimmy Page’s nature.  He is, after all, a master mage – he is performing ritual - but it is for his own purposes and it is up to us to take meaning from it.

The music

John Lennon’s song is very different from Jimmy Page’s.  Lennon’s is finished and polished.  It has lyrics that carry the meaning; the music is support for the lyrics.  Jimmy Page’s song sounds raw and unfinished.  It doesn’t even seem like it was meant for an acoustic guitar; it sounds very much like he was hearing an electric guitar in his head along with support instruments.  It has no need for lyrics because the music itself carries the meaning.

The visuals

While each song is being played, the music is the focus.  But before and after each song, the visuals are the focus. 

At the beginning of Imagine, Yoko Ono and John Lennon walk together to the room where the music will take place.  At the end they look at each other, then kiss – excluding the viewer and, in making the video be about the two of them, leaving the message of the song behind.  The song is over.

At the beginning of the Jimmy Page acoustic video the camera focuses on the reflective floor before panning to the musician.  At the end, Jimmy Page sits back and looks out the window, redirecting focus out to the world before turning to look at the camera, which then pans to the reflective floor.  The music has been given to the world, and then to the viewer, and then… the reflection.  Has the song, or more importantly the message, actually ended?

This brings us to the message, the intent of the work of the ritual.

The message

No one can read the mind of the artist or the mage, or presume to know what the meaning of a work is.  The inner vision is the artist’s alone and each person brings to a work his or her own life experience, which acts as a filter and framework for interpretation.

Nevertheless, we can make some statements about the message of Jimmy Page’s video.  The setting is meant to evoke another setting.  The beginning and end focus on a reflective surface:  This video is meant to reflect something else.  There are no lyrics, so the music and the video itself convey the message.  Jimmy Page’s song and video have no name, but reflects the Lennon/Ono film and song:  Imagine.  To me the message is just that:  Imagine what this song of Jimmy Page’s - still in process, still more in his head than in the world – will be.  Imagine, because there is so much more than what is seen and heard there.

Of course there is no way to know if any of this interpretation was meant by Jimmy Page. Sometimes, perhaps often, the creator doesn't actually know what the work means - he or she only knows that it must be created.  Still... keep in mind what Albert Einstein said:  “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”  Technology can come in many forms, can't it?  Science or art, video or music - whatever it is, advanced enough and it is indistinguishable from magic.  

The Music and The Magic

Mage Music: The Music and The Magic
What I’m listening to as I write: Ten Years Gone

Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti
Led Zeppelin Atlanta 1977
Led Zeppelin Seattle 1977
Led Zeppelin California 1977
Led Zeppelin MSG New York 1977
Led Zeppelin Knebworth 1979
Led Zeppelin Cleveland 1979
Page & Plant Rehearsal 1996
Page & Plant Japan 1996
The Black Crowes with Jimmy Page New York 2000

Jimmy Page is often referred to as a Mage or Magus. A mage is a person who performs a paranormal kind of magic as opposed to magical tricks like a stage illusionist in Las Vegas. It's likely the label originally reflected Mr. Page's interest in the occult teachings of Aleister Crowley, although today it holds true for a different reason: Jimmy Page's uncanny musical ability.

A mage can also be referred to as an enchanter, wizard, magus, thaumaturgist, or simply magician. Each term has a subtly different meaning - some more negative than others - but all terms that refer to the occult kind of magic revolve around the manipulation of reality through supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws.

Magic is similar to religion in many ways. Although magic is generally more result-oriented and religion more worship-oriented, both (ideally) are about spiritual growth. And, as with religion, magic may take different approaches: That of the holographic or sympathetic universe (the practitioner's actions cause a parallel effect elsewhere), or that of collaboration (the practitioner gets supernatural beings to cause the effect).

In some ways all meanings apply to Jimmy Page as magus, especially since he, himself, described his life as “a fusion of magick and music” (Guitar World, January 2008). (Note the alternate spelling: magick. Crowley chose the spelling with “k” at the end to differentiate between occult vs. stage illusionist practice).

Rituals are sets of symbolic actions, performed in a certain order. Almost all religions and magic use rituals in their practice, however those more "purely" spiritual are seen as being able to practice without need of ritual. For most practitioners, pure or otherwise, ritual is a tool that serves as a means of settling the mind into the right frame to achieve the transformation desired.

The specific ritual used in magic depends on the type of magician and his/her approach to the practice, but the purpose for using ritual for all practitioners is the same: To create a focus of the will (focused desire) of the mage in order to bring about the desired transformations and to focus and unify the other participants in the ceremony (ceremonial participants are generally a source of power for the magician).

It would be easy to simply say that Jimmy Page’s musical work is magical because it is so very good, but that says nothing much at all.

It would be more accurate to say that Jimmy Page’s musical work is magical because it is about manipulation of reality through music and, in my opinion, because it is also for purposes of spiritual growth.
In his own words and actions, Mr. Page shows that his music speaks for him in a magical way. In a 1973 interview he stated that “We're all still seeking for truth - the search goes on", and “…at those times when I've hit it [when performing], it's just like I'm a vehicle for some greater force."

Of course, people grow, people change. The beliefs of the young are tempered by age. The Jimmy Page of 1973 is not the Jimmy Page of today, yet in 2010 Mr. Page still believed in the power of music: “ I think it’s got to be all part of our DNA, this mass communication through music” (The Scotsman interview).

Pure magic, the transformation of the world, is achieved almost every time that Jimmy Page performs. Mr. Page has been dismissed by critics for his sloppy playing, for not always staying in tune – basically for lack of perfection - but even on his worst, most tuneless, sloppy days, his music conveys an extra layer of meaning, a communication that makes the manner in which it is performed almost irrelevant. It is magic coming through, as Jimmy Page says about Embryo, a work in progress that he plays in the movie It Might Get Loud.

It is what we, the participants in the ritualistic ceremony of the music of Jimmy Page, understand is the guitar alchemy of a powerful mage.