Being Aleister Crowley

Almost exactly two years ago, on what was most likely August 9th, I stumbled upon and bought a DVD of the British film Chemical Wedding, titled Crowley in the US. I meant to watch it later that night, but didn't - and kept either putting it off or forgetting about it up until last week.

It's not a great film, but boy, did it drop a syncstorm A-bomb.

It starrs Paul McDowell as Symonds, Cambridge University professor who was once a student of Aleister Crowley's in late-1947.

In the first scene we follow Symonds and his friend Alex to the apartment of Aleister Crowley.

Symonds brings Crowley his mail which includes a postcard from Jack Parsons explaining that he and L. Ron Hubbard have begun conducting the Babalon Working with the intent of creating a Moonchild, much to the dismay of Crowley.

If it's not enough that we have McDowell and his friend Alex, the name of McDowell's character in Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange, 

but when Crowley dies moments later it is Alex who takes the watch from Crowley's hand.

Crowley comes back to life long enough to put a curse on Alex, saying, "Cursed is the man who steals my time!"

Symonds (McDowell) picks up the watch

and...

The clock themes are largely emphasized in the film. Every scene begins with either the sound of a clock ticking or a bell tolling.

Additionally there is a running theme of time throughout the film.

It should also be pointed out that old-man Alex is wheelchair-bound. Just like old-man Mr. Alexander in A Clockwork Orange - who can be interpreted metaphorically as Alex's old self.

Malcolm McDowell functions as a Paul McCartney surrogate and a "Paul is dead" mythology poster-child in the film O Lucky Man, which I have gone over here.

Paul McDowell was in a band in the late-50s/early-60s named The Temperance Seven, which also included Brian Innes of The Rutles and Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band fame.

Their first #1 hit came in 1961 with a song called You're Driving Me Crazy, produced by George Martin, who would later produce The Beatles' records.

Their next hit was titled Pasadena. Which is the residence of Jack Parsons, and the protagonist of the film Josh Mathers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Temperance_Seven

Back to Chemical Wedding.

Long story short, a man named Victor (right), working at a high-tech virtual reality computer lab has downloaded all of Crowley's teachings onto a computer named the Z93.

(93 being the number of Thelema)

Already syncing with the film Transcendence, in which Will, an innovative AI researcher, uploads the entire contents of his mind and consciousness onto his computer, which as a program can be activated after his death.

Will's best friend is played by Paul Bettany.

Transcendence being the most blatantly Thelemic film I've ever seen.

Also very Golem-y. See my post on that here.

Now things get interesting in Chemical Wedding when, unbeknownst to anybody, Crowley's entire brain also gets downloaded into the Zed93 via the astral plane (bear with me).

Stuttering Shakespeare Lit professor, aspiring magician and Crowley enthusiast Mr. Haddo gets Victor to allow him to enter the VR suit - and, you guessed it.

(Here are the protagonists,VR suit creator Mathers, and Lia)

Professor Haddo's body has become the host for the mind of Aleister Crowley.

Crowley then quickly proceeds to undergo his Scarlet Woman ritual in order to complete his resurrection.

Now; I snuck in to see Being John Malkovich when it was in theaters in 1999. I wasn't sure if I particularly liked it at the time and kind of forgot all about it.

A couple weeks ago I woke up with the inexplicable notion to reserve it at the library. These notions have never been wrong before (see other posts), so I did.

For those that haven't seen it, it's about-

The person who enters the portal gets to experience "being" John Malkovich for 15 minutes. More accurately, they are able to see through his eyes for that portion of time.

However, the man who discovered the portal happens to be a puppeteer, and thus is able to take control of Malkovich, remaining in the portal, and thus living with his mind in Malkovich's body for as long as he wants.

Incidentally, the Twin Towers are the first thing Cusack sees after exiting the portal.

He later dicovers that the portal was discovered by a man who has been achieving immortality by transferring his mind into other people's bodies for over 90 years.

...Being John Malkovich was the film I watched before Chemical Wedding...

which was sitting on my shelf for 2 years...

(said in the same manner as Cusack in the clip above)

I didn't know anything about the premise of Chemical Wedding.

John Cusack plays our puppeteer protagonist. Remember he was born on 6-28-66

the birth date of Rosemary's baby.

The Moonchild.

Lester, the man who has been using the portal is always talking about sex and cum, just like Crowley, in Chemical Wedding, and real life.

The actor that plays Lester was also in Innerspace, a movie about a miniaturized man injected into another man, whom he is able to control.

We even have the same initials being shared between John Malkovich and James Paul McCartney.

In Transcendence, Will has the ability to take over the bodies of his followers. The name of the main one is Paul.

Another film I watched just shortly before Being John Malkovich was K-PAX, after not having seen it since it came out in 2001.

In it, the body of a catatonic man, Porter, is inhabited by the mind of an alien named Prot.

Notice the word port/portal being played with here.

The name K-PAX can't help but make one think of Crowley's book Konx Om Pax.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers, one of the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, claims the name to have been derived from Khabs Am Pekht, which in the Egyptian language essentially means "Light in extension" or "Light rushing out in a single ray", which is used in the Golden Dawn's Vernal and Autumnal Equinox ceremonies.

Prot travels through the universe on a single ray of light.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konx_om_Pax

Malkovich starrs in Color Me Kubrick, a film based on a true story of a man, Alan Conway, who traveled the world impersonating Stanley Kubrick.

Oh, by the way, Being John Malkovich was released 237 days after Kubrick died.

Back to Chemical Wedding.

producer Malcolm Kohll provided effects for the scene in which Crowley/Haddo injects Victor's eye with a needle.

Bringing to mind Alex's forced lid-locked snuff-film viewing.

Crowley's resurrection ceremony involves him being surrounded by 12 witnesses.

Bringing to mind Sharon Tate's first and last films

Eye of the Devil (aka 13) and 12 + 1 (aka 13 Chairs)

See my Sharon Tate post here.

And of course, it wouldn't be a film without someone saying

Crowley/Haddo says this just before commencing his Scarlet Woman ritual.

There seriously needs to be a database for every film that contains this line.

Long story short again, Mathers the Cal Tech guy saves Lia, the red-haired co-star in the astral plane/cyberspace while also inadvertently creating a Donnie Darko-esque parallel/alternate universe.

One in which Crowley's mind never downloaded into Haddo, and one in which it did.

We learn the universe in which the beginning and ending of the film takes place is the one without Crowley, it is also one in which Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election.

After the climax of the film, the computer screen reads:

Lia can be taken as a female derivative of Leo.

The Zodiac sign attributed to the Strength/Lust card.

Crowley's depicts the Scarlet Woman riding atop the Beast of the Apocalypse.

Symonds and his friend Alex attend Haddo's lecture, which was when he as Crowley first made a public appearance in the alternate universe.

Alex asks Symonds about Crowley's watch, which Symonds mysteriously no longer has.

Yeah, it's a little goofy, just pointing out the emphasis on Alex, McDowell and clocks in the film.

The film ends with, instead of Haddo entering the lecture hall as Crowley, Haddo reciting a line from Shakespeare.

But not just any line, and not just from any play.

It's the very same line from Hamlet that McCartney recites in A Hard Day's Night.

He then turns from the mirror to the camera and exclaims, "Zap!"

 In the 1969 film The Magic Christian, starring Ringo and Peter Sellers, the first thing Ringo & Sellers do together is attend a showing of Hamlet. They arrive late and Peter's sister tells them they are at the part with Rosencrantz & Guildenstern.

As Hamlet, played by Laurence Harvey, the Manchurian candidate in The Manchurian Candidate, exits the stage, this sign reading "Zap" is lowered.
(I also have posts on The Manchurian Candidate and The Magic Christian)

Interesting that there is a (loaded) film titled Rosencrantz and Guildensters Are Dead

and that Sean Lennon wrote & recorded the soundtrack to a film titled Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead.

And in the late-90s he was in the band Cibo Matto that recorded a song titled Moonchild.

The refrain of which contains the line "Come together..."

A popular Youtube video creator under the name iamaphoney has postulated in his series that McCartney is inhabited by the spirit of Aleister Crowley.

Or something like that.

In Alchemical Wedding, Crowley dies in 1947 immediately after reading Parsons' postcard about the creation of the Moonchild. That's now how it happened in real life, but he did die in 1947.

He appears in the far left corner of the Sgt. Pepper album cover, which came out in 1967.

The album begins with the line, "It was twenty years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play."

 In other posts I've gone into how I find this to be more a reference to the Moonchild/Elemental created by Parsons, Hubbard & Cameron than to Crowley, but none the less, when the album cover is folded diagonally into itself, the stone that the builders rejected becomes the capstone.

Also notice that the kick drum becomes a Vesica Piscis which perfectly holds the OTO lamen

and the roses form a phallus, which Aleister Crowley used as the A in his signature.

Alex also talks with Symonds about the likelihood of multiple parallel universes. Bringing up the notion of multiple McCartneys.



Interestingly, it is when Malkovich enters the portal, that he enters a world of multiple Malkovichs.

And speaking of walk-ins. In the Beatles cartoon for I'm Looking Through You, the spirit of an Egyptian Pharaoh walks into Ringo's body.



From the Kenneth Anger film Invocation of My Demon Brother.

UPDATE:
On November 9th (of all days), John Malkovich released the latest song from his new album titled "Like A Puppet Show".
It was recorded with Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon.
The song is about Plato's Cave!
Cyolife 7:14 AM