On This Day 08 April

...all will be revealed 

2004 08 April On This Day Jimmy Page visited the Cairo Museum

• 1968 The Yardbirds - Miami Beach FL at Thee Image Club (day 1 of 3)
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Welwyn England at Bluesville 69 Club 
• 1970 Led Zeppelin - Raleigh NC at J.S. Dorton Arena 

1968 Jimmy Page / The Yardbirds, Miami Beach FL

1969:
"If Led Zeppelin plays ten times stronger than the Yardbirds, the sound is similar. In that, it is primarily the group of Jimmy Page. Hopefully the Led Zeppelin will also be appreciated that the Yardbirds were in their time."
~Bruno Ducourant, Rock & Folk, No. 29, 5/69

1969 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin, Welwyn England

1970:
Unlike most rock concerts, the audience spent a great portion of the show saluting the solos in standing ovations.
~Steve A. Jones

1970 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin, Raleigh NC

1977 Jimmy Page, Shirley Dixon, Robert Plant, Chicago 

2004:
The Stele of Revealing is a painted, wooden funerary tablet discovered in 1858 at the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, fifth pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. It was made for the priest Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu i, a Theban priest of the god Mentu, whose coffin was in the temple.

Not long after coming across the stele in a museum in Cairo in 1904, Aleister Crowley authored The Book of the Law (the Law of Thelema), the basis for which was the hieroglyphic text on the stele.

The number 666 on the reverse of the stele is the catalog number assigned to the object by the Egyptian Museum.  666 has numerological significance in the system of Thelema, a religion based on a philosophical law (the stele's current catalog number is A 9422).

Thelema is a Greek word meaning "will" or "intention". One of the earliest mentions of the spiritual philosophy of Thelema is found in the five-book serial novel, Gargantua and Pantagruel, written by Francois Rabelais in 1532, which recounts the adventures of a father and son who happen to be giants. In one book, a Friar John founds an "anti-church", the Abbey of Thélème, for the purpose of providing an education that countered the Christian standards and morals of the day. The rule of the Abbey was "Do what thou wilt", one of the basic tenets of Thelemic philosophy today.

The Stele of Revealing, Cairo Museum Egypt

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♪  Kashmir (Led Zeppelin, Knebworth 1979) YouTube

♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
♪ Mage Music 2 playlist at YouTube
♪ Page & Plant playlist at YouTube

NOTICE: April 11 will be the last daily On This Day post as that will be a full year's worth.  I won't post any more unless Jimmy Page's website offers some new ones. Stay tuned for new posts here on the Mage Music blog about the music and Magick of  JIMMY PAGE and previews of new Mage Music projects!

On This Day 23 December 2015 - Boleskine House Fire

Although Jimmy Page sold the property years ago, the destruction of Boleskine House is still an ending to a chapter in history.

2015 23 December Boleskine House burns (BBC Photo)

2015 23 December Boleskine House burns (BBC Photo)

2015 23 December Boleskine House burns (Press and Journal Photo)

2015 23 December Boleskine House burns (BBC Photo)

Boleskine House is - or perhaps now we should say was -  south of Inverness, Scotland, overlooking Loch Ness.  The main house was constructed in the 1760s by Colonel Archibald Fraser as a hunting lodge. Today's fire is apparently not the first on that property. A kirk (church) on the property supposedly burned with a full congregation inside, killing all.

Aleister Crowley purchased the house just prior to the turn of the century (that would be 1899, not 1999), where he could conduct his rituals of black magic in seclusion. Crowley left Boleskine House in 1913 and Jimmy Page purchased it in 1970. By that time it had deteriorated to the point where it was uninhabitable. Jimmy Page had it restored but he never spent more than a few weeks in residence. He sold the house in 1992.

Boleskine House in better days

Boleskine House, rear courtyard

Edited 12/22/17:  Addition of post-fire photos by Mark Wallbank

1926 Silent Movie Based on Aleister Crowley

Reviewed at Dangerous Minds, the 1926 silent movie, The Magician, was adapted by Rex Ingram from the novel of that name written by W. Somerset Maugham. The main character, Haddo, was based on Aleister Crowley (1875-1947).

One sentence Mage Music review: The Magician is not the Star Wars of the silent movie era, but it has some historical value.

1926 silent movie based on Aleister Crowley

Crowley was not happy with the book. He filed an injunction against the French premier of the movie, holding out for publicity and power after being offered a settlement. Crowley lost.

Irish film director, producer, writer and actor Rex Ingram (1892-1950) made only one "talkie" but he was considered one of the top creative people of his day. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

German actor Paul Wegener as Oliver Haddo, portraying Aleister Crowley

Paul Wegener (1874-1948) was a German actor, writer and film director known for his pioneering role in German expressionist cinema. He started out as a law student, which may have prepared him for his acting career.

This was before Jimmy Page's time, of course.  Now back to your regular musical programming.

♪ Everybody Makes It Through (In The Light) (Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti 2014 remaster) YouTube
♪ Shining in the Light (Page & Plant)YouTube

Form Follows Function

"It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things superhuman, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law." 

~  Louis H. Sullivan

Mage Music 54

Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) wasn't an occultist, though you might think so from the above quote. He wasn't a theologian or philosopher, either. Mr. Sullivan was an architect. 

Mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright and called "father of the skyscraper", Mr. Sullivan was a visionary who coined the phrase "form ever follows function". The shortened version we are more familiar with, "form follows function", is fully stated as the aesthetic credo quoted above. Things are known by how they manifest in the world.  

When Louis Sullivan put forth his ideas in his article "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered"(Lippincott's Magazine, March 1896: 403-409), he was discussing a new approach to architecture that addressed the engineering problems associated with buildings that went up, way up. He understood that the old ways of doing things could literally not support the new needs.

Form follows function means that to bring about the true manifestation of a thing, the shape should express what its purpose is, but Louis Sullivan was also talking about much more than skyscrapers. New function goes hand in hand with new aesthetic freedom as well. 

More or Less

Obviously the forms of things don't have to be shaped by their functions. We love all the embellishments - the different colors and looks and sizes - knowing they're all just icing on the cake and that none of it has anything to do with the function of the objects that have been so decorated. If we didn't love the flash and the bling, the meaningless difference, we wouldn't crave - much less put up with - all the options for cars, computers, clothes or covers for iPhones.   

In the world of true manifestation, though, even the ornamentation needs to be in alignment with function. Sometimes even a little more is just too much. This is true with music as well as Magick.

I remember thinking, back in the late 1960s, how amazing it was that Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience could put out such a rich and complete sound with just three musicians each. I also remember being very disappointed with bands whose music was full and deep on their albums, but that on stage came across like skim milk compared to the recordings. For them, what was created using multiple tracks and engineering in a studio was not duplicable live. Needless to say, Led Zeppelin wasn't like that - there was just as much live as there was on the albums, if not more.

That's because every component of Led Zeppelin's music, whether on stage or recorded, was an expression of the function of the ritual of the music.  Every beat, every riff was an expression of the song's purpose. Every component of each performance was essential.  And every musician's input was crucial to the construction of the ritual.   

In his comment on the Page/Plant tour of 1998 on jimmypage.com (On This Day, May 18), Jimmy Page said: "With a stripped-down line-up ... it gave us more freedom to explore and re-work the songs, without the orchestra and supplementary musicians ..."

Not only can more be too much, more can't always make up for a missing essential.  The Magick of Led Zeppelin was in the alchemy of those four musicians, and adding more musicians down the line could not recreate the true manifestations of the missing members of the band. Life is recognizable in its expression. It can't be simulated; it must be a true manifestation of the purpose.

Designing Ritual

While objects and actions of ritual - Magick or music - that come from elsewhere can be used as inspiration, in fact true manifestation comes from expression of the Mage's own desire and will. That means that using ritual from some other source, no matter how successful it is for the other source, is not necessarily going to manifest anything for the Mage that he intends until all the objects and actions become his own.

Thus, creating a ritual starting from scratch is in a way easier - or at least less risky - than starting with a pre-existing design. When all component parts have to have meaning and form within the function of the intended purpose, using enough of the wrong ones leads to failure.  The notes, pitch and all components of the melodies, riffs and rhythms of music and the ceremonial objects and actions of Magick have to be the right ones in the right quantities and they have to express the function of the performing musician's or Mage's intended purpose - not some other band's or Aleister Crowley's.   

No substitutions!  Original work only!  No grading on a curve!  According to Louis Sullivan, it's the law. 

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Note:  As always, use of the masculine gender is not meant to exclude the feminine.

  

A Year of Music and Magick

"We had been taken somewhere and brought back and we were different people..."
~ Terry Pratchett, Snuff (Discworld)


Mage Music 52

A little over a year ago I posted my first article to this Mage Music blog.  I really didn't know what I was going to write about, but I knew that there were questions I had that needed answering.  I was pulled towards the music of Jimmy Page.  There was a depth to it that spoke to me in a language that was beyond words.  It was... vaster, more meaningful.  It was the essence of emotion... primitive, essential and powerful.  I wanted to connect with that, but first I had to know it.

I confess that part of the reason I wanted to write was because I couldn't seem to find anything about what I wanted to learn anywhere else.  There is so much to say about Jimmy Page's work, but I wasn't finding anyone writing about what I was interested in reading about, which wasn't the drugs, sex or excesses, the outfits, his facial expressions or his hair (sorry if that offends or disappoints, but there it is).

And of course, people like to natter on about Mr. Page's connection with the occult, specifically the work of Aleister Crowley. To me that wasn't the right direction.  Yes, there was Magick in the music but it was so obviously Jimmy Page's own Magick - not someone else's - that I didn't see the point of looking to anyone or anywhere else for answers.

So I have spent a year exploring the concepts, delving into understanding the basis of Magick across disciplines and focusing on music as an expression of Magick.  I used Mr. Page's work as inspiration for the words I wrote.  I came to understand that I was translating from not only another language but another reality, and the result could only ever approximate the depth, the beauty and the mystery of what I sought. Still, the music compelled me to keep trying.  Or maybe it's been the Magick doing so.

It took me somewhere and made me grow

Over the course of the year I listened to so much of Jimmy Page's music that I began to hear it in an entirely different way.  The beauty and mystery that had always called to me now was speaking to me with a meaning that I could almost comprehend, but that remained elusive.  I knew I would understand if only I listened just a little more closely, a little more carefully, so I really listened, focusing on what I was hearing at the root rather than at the surface.

What I was hearing was the Magick that was speaking through Mr. Page's guitar, of course.  I came to understand that I was never going to understand it with my thinking brain, because Magick is meant for a deeper part of a human than that.

I'm no musician, I'm a listener and I'm a writer, so I finally just let the mystery of the music flow past my brain and into my heart and soul to inspire me and push my own creative process.  I found myself writing much more than I ever had before, and about things that that I didn't know I knew.  The music of Jimmy Page has taken me to times and places I'd never been before in my own work - a process so exciting and so inspiring that I plan to keep going there.

♫

The job of the artist is to recognize the truth of All That Is and to fairly represent it to the best of his ability. The tragedy of the artist's lot is knowing that, no matter how skilled he is, the artist's creation can only ever be an infinitesimal aspect of All That Is.  And the triumph of the artist is that he keeps doing it anyway.

Here is a Kashmir playlist - because the Magick is right there.

♫

I hope you have enjoyed reading these posts as much as I've enjoyed writing them this past year.  I hope you won't mind if I keep on writing them, too.  I've got another big project in the works that I'll be talking about in upcoming months, but you can count on Mage Music posts every week as long as the music has Magick. I guess that'll be for a while.

As always, thank you Jimmy Page