Accidental Mage

“The fact that [certain mages] were famous in mainstream circles was just a strike against them. By the standards of magical society they'd fallen at the first hurdle: they hadn't had the basic good sense to keep their shit to themselves.”
~ Lev Grossman, The Magicians: A Novel

Mage Music 51

Not everyone who seems to be a Mage is really a Mage.

 
These things do not mean a person is a Mage:

1. Other people think that person is a Mage.
2. A person follows a particular philosophy that focuses on or embraces Magick or the occult (e.g. Thelema, Wicca, Kabbalah).
3. A person engages in practices associated with Magick or the occult (e.g. augury, fortune telling, scrying, tarot reading, rituals).
4. A person can actually use Magick to change reality.

Not Mage

Not everyone who is popularly thought of as being a Mage is really a Mage. Being a Mage is a whole person thing, not a job or hobby. "Mage" is a description of a person's state of a being, not his skill set.

A Mage is merged with Magick, and in his mind the difference between the inner world of Magick and outer world of reality is necessarily rather fuzzy. Just because a person studies Magickal theory or performs the practices doesn't mean that Magick has infused his very soul, any more than just having an MD makes a person a healer.

A person isn't necessarily a Mage even if clear acts of altering reality are witnessed. What would have been seen is one instance of Magick, not necessarily the act of a Mage.  After all, ordinary people are able to do Magick, too - Mages don't have a monopoly on Magick.

You can't just ask the person in question, because if he's real he probably won't want to tell you.  And of course, even if he was willing to admit it he might not understand that he is a Mage, particularly if the Magick comes through the act of creation known as art.

Accidental Mages

The principles of Magick hold true across all disciplines and rituals that are used to change reality, but nowhere is Magick so unconsciously and accidentally evoked as within the area of creative arts, particularly music.

Music that carries Magick is produced by a very few musicians. Even fewer of those who do so are aware they are doing it - or care. Any artists' purpose is art, not the practice or the study of Magick. However, when an artist sufficiently merges himself with the music (or painting or whatever medium) and his desire and will are powerful enough, the act of creation is ultimately no different than any formal ritual of Magick.

Intense desire and will applied to any ritual submerges the performer into the ritual so that nothing else exists but the now of the Work. This is what it takes to change reality, whether it's the alchemy of chemicals or of musical notes.

The beauty of Magick is that anyone can do it, but like with a great musical performance, not everyone can do it so consistently and so well that they live it in their bones, their cells, their soul. The difference between the person who can perform discrete acts of Magick and a Mage is the difference between oh, you and me and Jimmy Page.

Mr. Page has always maintained that his music says everything there needs to be said about him.  If he is a Mage, he has the good sense to keep that to himself and let the music be the Magick.

Can you hear the Magick?  Case closed.

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Nattering on:

I listened to Led Zeppelin's Madison Square Garden show of Wednesday Feb 12, 1975 while working on this post. That made writing the post a very slow process, indeed, since I kept stopping to listen closely to the music.

That show was just prior to the release of  Physical Graffiti and when Mr. Plant introduces Kashmir, the audience doesn't go wild because they didn't really know what it was.  That seems so strange now!

"We came four blocks in the snow to get here, do you realize that?" says Robert Plant.  Funny guy.

By the way - Amazon.com gives free MP3 downloads when you buy CDs. A good deal - 2 for the price of one with no copyright guilt.

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)

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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

Alchemy: Led Into Gold (Part 2)

..when it is cast ... does fully perfect them in the very projection...

~The Mirror of Alchemy, by Friar Roger Bacon  

Mage Music 23

A table of alchemical symbols
from Basil Valentine's
The Last Will and Testament, 1670

Alchemy was the forerunner of chemistry, with a metaphysical twist that modern chemists eschew. Like any good scientist, an alchemist researches to find out what might work and what might not, and why. After gathering the tools and the raw materials, both chemist and alchemist combines and manipulates the components in precise ways with the intention of producing a specific end product.

Today chemists might be trying to create the world's next greatest breakthrough in personal deodorant or the ultimate biodegradable plastic. Alchemists, on the other hand, seek to create perfection in life and soul via discovery of a catalyst (an Elixir, according to Roger Bacon, a.k.a. the Philosopher's Stone) that takes imperfect matter and makes it perfect. The methodology of the alchemist is like today's chemist, in that it is very calculated and precise, and many records are made of every step so the process can be duplicated. Unlike today's chemists, however, alchemists' intentions are not merely to produce gold, but to produce a catalyst that will perfect anything, including the human soul.

Microcosm vs Macrocosm
Chemists intentionally limit their focus to the task at hand. Issues of the larger world are basically irrelevant to the chemical processes. Theirs is a microcosmic view.

Alchemists, on the other hand, take the macrocosmic view. Their physical labors are intended to impact the world of the non-physical and their work is multi-layered (multi-realitied) and complex. Far from experimenting to simply discover chemical reactions that produce a single physical property or object, the alchemist chooses each alchemical element not only for its physical properties but because the element embodies other qualities in the Universe, and the intention is to generate results on many levels. The physical generation of gold simply provides evidence of success in creating perfection from the imperfect components, and the catalyst that has been generated can then be used to create perfection of the soul.

The Alchemy of Music
Mage musicians are obviously not alchemists - at least as far as their music is concerned. They don't stand on the stage with flasks and burners, boiling and steaming noxious chemicals - but they are mixing components with the intention of creating perfection from imperfection.

2007 O2 Concert
movie trailer image

Jimmy Page spent many years as a session musician and with various bands sampling materials, practicing techniques and assessing other musicians, as revealed in Dave Lewis' playlist from Part 1, last week on this blog. This week's playlist, also from Dave Lewis' book, Led Zeppelin: A Celebration (Omnibus Press, 1991) is entirely Led Zeppelin music.  It represents the results of years of research, an alchemical-like selection of components that are meticulously blended and heated to the perfect temperature to create the elixir of Mage Music, music that is transformed to something more.

Through the careful selection of gifted musicians who could and would push the envelope, with the added ingredient of Jimmy Page's own incredible talent with guitar and in the studio, and with Mr. Page's powerful desire and intention, Led Zeppelin opened an alchemical door and Mage Music stepped through.

♪ 

Future post :
Led Into Gold (Part 3), with more of David Lewis’s History of Guitar Master list
The Chicken/Egg quandary (the neurophysics of music)

♫ 

YouTube Playlist - Led Into Gold - The Led Zeppelin Years

Individual songs 

1969 Dazed and Confused (studio) Album: Led Zeppelin. Dave says: "From its sonic signalling intro, right through to its mesmerising climax, 'Dazed And Confused' remains one of [Jimmy Page's] most complete performances."
1969 Whole Lotta Love (studio) Album: Led Zeppelin II. Dave says: "Every inch of drama is compressed into the arrangement... "
1970 Since I've Been Loving You (studio) Album: Led Zeppelin III. Dave says: "...[Jimmy Page] had by now switched from the Telecaster back to a Gibson Les Paul guitar and the choice of instrument brings a sustained fluency to his playing, particularly during the tortured solo, that is quite breathaking. "
1970 Tangerine (studio) Album: Led Zeppelin III. Dave says: "A perfect illustration of the light and shade of [Jimmy Page's] expansive style. "
1973 No Quarter (live) No Quarter MSG -The Song Remains The Same. Dave says: "...this track took on an extra dimension when played live as it became an extended vehicle for John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page not only to flex their respective talents but to play off each other by weaving melodies together."
1975 In My Time Of Dying (studio) Album: Physical Graffiti. Dave says: "...a showcase for Page's bottleneck banshee wailings. "
1975 Kashmir (studio) Physical Graffiti. Dave says: "...a clear example of the potency of the Led Zeppelin chemistry..."
1976 Achilles Last Stand (studio) Album: Presence. Dave says: "...a new level of urgency and intensity..."

Alchemy: Led Into Gold (Part 1)

…all went into the melting pot...  ~ Jimmy Page, Interview Musician Magazine November 1990

The Alchemist in Search of the Philosopher's Stone, 

by Joseph Wright, 1771

Mage Music 22

From saints to scientists, some of the world’s most brilliant thinkers also studied alchemy, including St Thomas Aquinas, Pope Innocent VIII, Martin Luther, philosopher and Franciscan friar Roger Bacon, and Sir Isaac Newton. Philosophers, scientists, physicians, religious theorists and occultists round the world have studied and practiced the art and science for thousands of years. 

From chemistry, medicine and nuclear physics to psychology and the arts, alchemical-like research still goes on today. The goal of transmutation (changing of the form, appearance, or nature of something, especially to a higher form) is all, in a sense, the search for a Philosopher’s Stone, an object (or some other, depending on who’s answering the question) that can turn base metals into silver or gold.

Why Bother?

You would think with all those great minds invested in alchemy, there would have to be more to it than just making expensive metals. After all, you have more likelihood of success with panning for gold in a stream than you do creating it using Magick. Even the gold produced by physicists who have converted platinum atoms via nuclear reaction has only lasted for a few seconds: A lot of effort for not much result.

Of course, true Magickal alchemy is not really about gold, but rather is about something very different. Like with so many of the other Magickal traditions (shamanism, Kabbalah, Thelema, Wicca, divination, etc.), when practiced by the most advanced Mages, what you think you are seeing of the Magickal alchemy is not what is really happening.

More than just the transmutation of lead into gold, alchemy’s core is spiritual. The Magick is in the personal transmutation of the human soul to a higher, more perfect and enlightened state.

The Philosopher’s Stone is not unlike the Grail and other transformational objects, such as the Cup of Jamshid, in that they all represent hidden spiritual truth or power that enables the Mage to change not just the outer world, but the inner. The difference between the Philosopher’s Stone and the Grail or Cup, however, is that the alchemist has to discover how to create the Stone - and that, too, is hidden knowledge, just as the locations of the Grail and Cup are.

While there have always been those alchemists who just wanted to create a Stone that would enable them to transmute gold from base metal, the great thinkers understood the terminology and apparatus of alchemy to be symbolic of the higher quest, a way of talking about the search for knowledge and enlightenment without sharing the information with the rest of the world.

Remember the lesson of Lucifer: Throughout human history people have been broken on the rack and burned at the stake for using Magick openly. Being secretive has often been the safest bet for the brilliant.

The Alchemy of Music

Many of the arts have used the quest for the Philosopher’s Stone as a basis for their work, as subject and plot devices as well as a Magickal alchemical process of transmutation. Painters and other visual artists have incorporated alchemical thought and symbols in their work. Music, too, has been influenced by alchemy. In fact, of all the arts, music is perhaps the most suitable for transmutation of the soul.  That is why, in the hands of a Mage, music can be such powerful Magick.

Kimiya-yi sa'ādat (The Alchemy of Happiness)
a text on Islamic philosophy and spiritual alchemy
by Al-Ghazālī (1058–1111).

A masterful selection of the components of any substance and the artistic touch in combining the components is part of the task of the alchemist. The alchemy of any group of people – such as in a band, and yes, I’m talking about Led Zeppelin – is such that if there is the right selection of people and an artistic touch in combining their musical output, the music can be transformed from pitch, volume, tone, rhythm and all the other acoustic factors into something much greater. In the vision of a Mage, alchemical process transmutes sound into Magick.

Although he was talking about the rapport between a bass player and a drummer, when John Paul Jones said it was “…quite uncanny sometimes; we would both pick an off-the-wall phrase and put it in at exactly the same time and it would end up totally in synch….”, he was talking about successful alchemy (Musician Magazine interview, November 1990). We know that Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones were extraordinary musicians as part of Led Zeppelin, however it was the Mage Musician in the form of the guitarist Jimmy Page, who selected and mixed using his vision and his art, that created a musical Philosopher’s Stone of their music.

Rather than provide my own playlist, here the first ten of a playlist recommended by Dave Lewis in his book, Led Zeppelin: A Celebration (Omnibus Press, 1991). Mr. Lewis selected these songs “…to demonstrate the achievements of Jimmy Page as a guitar player.” These selections are meant to provide examples of Jimmy Page’s work spanning every stage of his career. “You will discover an aural history of a guitar master and his art,” wrote Mr. Lewis.  This first half of the playlist provides the search for the components. The second half of the playlist will appear in this blog next week and will contain the artistic touch that creates the Philosopher’s Stone.

Don’t listen to lyrics, don’t listen to style - don’t listen to anything but the guitar to get a glimpse into the evolution of this alchemist’s Mage Music. All of it went into the alchemical melting pot.

♪

Future posts:

Led Into Gold (Part 2), with more of David Lewis’s History of Guitar Master list
The Chicken/Egg quandary (the neurophysics of music)

♫

YouTube Playlist - Led Into Gold (Part 1)

Individual songs (URLs)

1963 "Your Mamma's Out Of Town", Carter Lewis and The Southerners.  Dave says:  "…young Jimmy can be heard subtly undercutting the innocent pop beat of the day with some clever acoustic picking."

1963 "Money Honey", Mickie Most.  Dave says:  "…an early and aggressive flexing of the Gibson Les Paul custom guitar Page used during his session days…"

1964 "I Just Can't Go To Sleep", The Sneekers.  Dave says:  "…Page's early deployment of guitar effects.  Fuzz, distortion and wah-wah…"

1964 "Once In A While", The Brooks.  Dave says:  "…Jimmy injects a series of sizzling runs culminating in a brief but quite brilliant solo that is years ahead of its time."

1965 "She Just Satisfies", Jimmy Page.  Dave says:  "… early example of Page's ability to manipulate a simple guitar riff and stretch it over the framework of an entire song. "  Jimmy Page plays all the instruments on this song except drums, and it appears that he sings as well.

1966 "Happenings 10 Years Time Ago", The Yardbirds. Jimmy Page sharing guitar duty with Jeff Beck.  Dave says:  "…largely responsible for the song's arrangement [Page] takes credit for the jerky rhythmic chording and the eerie police siren effects…"  The solo is Jeff Beck.  Dave further says:  "… a yardstick for some of the adventurous and unorthodox guitar arrangements that were to follow…"  John Paul Jones, bass.

1967 "Little Games", The Yardbirds. Dave says:  "…represents the subtle beginnings of the Page/Jones guitar/stricg section interplay that would manifest itself years later and to much great effect on their composition, 'Kashmir'."  Also, "On the fade-out Page, by now using a Fender Telecaster, plays a beautifully sustained note that echoes above the strings."

1967 "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor", The Yardbirds.  Dave says:  "…concentrate on the slashing simmering guitar chordings that drive the song along.  It's very similar to the layered effect on Zeppelin's own 'The Song Remains The Same'".  Note the use of the bow to produce "… the atmospheric, almost majestic, sound that was to become the highlight of almost every live Zeppelin concert during 'Dazed And Confused'".

1967 "White Summer", The Yardbirds.  Dave says:  "…the first flowering of Jimmy's flirtation with a finger-picked acoustic guitar," and "…the first master-stroke on a trilogy of Page studio performances that would continue with 'Black Mountain Side' and climax with 'Kashmir'".

1968 "Think About It", The Yardbirds.  Dave says "…a stepping-off point from which Jimmy Page was able to transfer his musical identity and relocate it within the framework that was to become Led Zeppelin's first album."