Plastic Macca ~ Paul is Dead: April 2014

Dare I delve into the "magick" works of Aleister Crowley looking for Beatles connections? Why not, it won't damn me to Satan's grasp or eternal hell, since I haven't the faintest idea what Crowley's esoteric musings mean, being clear as mud to me. Ignorance is not quite bliss, in this case, but at least I'm in no danger of complicity (I hope).

I've started reading PORTABLE DARKNESS: An Aleister Crowley Reader edited by Scott Michaelsen. Reading this stuff only because I'm trying to discern what Lennon and McCartney -- Fennon and Faul? -- (and/or their inner circle) saw in it that impressed them somehow. After all, Crowley's picture appears once or twice on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper album and has been flashed in multimedia screens at 21st century Faul's live concerts.

So, I'm assuming there must be something there.

First, let me emphasize that one would have to be an experienced Crowley scholar to get what he's saying or trying to say.

Here's some typical Crowley from his Berashith: An Essay in Ontology, "Now the multiplying of the infinitely great by the infinitely small results in some unknown finite number extended by an unknown number of categories. It happened, when this our great inversion took place, from the essence of all nothingness to finity extended in innumerable categories, that an incalculably vast system was produced. Merely by chance, chance in the truest sense of the term, we are found with gods, men, stars, planets, devils, colours, forces, and all the materials of the cosmos: and with time, space, and causality, the conditions limiting and involving them all." Huh? I guess I sort of maybe understand it, if I squint. He's describing the Big Bang?

So, perhaps Crowley was the inspiration for the character Jeremy Hillary Boob, Ph.D. in Yellow Submarine?

The Wikipedia article on Jeremy quotes him from the movie...

"Ad hoc, ad loc and quid pro quo.

So little time — so much to know!"

George Harrison: Do you speak English?

Jeremy: Old English, Middle, a dialect pure ...

Paul McCartney: Well, do you speak English?

Jeremy: You know, I'm not sure!

Ringo: He's so smart he doesn't even remember what he knows.

Paul: Hey, fellers, look!

Jeremy: [Writing with his toes] The footnotes for my nineteenth book. This is my standard procedure for doing it. And while I compose it, I'm also reviewing it!

Jeremy: If I spoke prose you'd all find out

I don't know what I talk about.

Ringo: Jeremy! Can it be you?

Jeremy: Can it be me? I think you'd better inquire of the guard,

For when I was captured, they took all my cards.

(When preparing to fight the Chief Blue Meanie) "Where ground is soft, most often grows/Arise, arise, arouse, arose! A... a rosy nose?"

(While rejoicing with the redeemed Chief Blue Meanie and Max) YES! Ah "yes" is a word with a glorious ring! A true universal euphonious thing! Engenders! Embracing! And chasing of blues! The very best word for the whole world to use!!

Well, anyway, as I read Crowley, he sounds to me like Jeremy.

Now, for a few hints at synchronicities. In Crowley's The Magical Theory of the Universe, we have, "The father of thought -- the word -- is called chaos -- the dyad." Chaos and creation in the backyard?

From the same treatise: "In the number nine, we reach the last of the purely mental qualities. It identifies change with stability." Number 9, number 9, number 9...

and, "An excellent man of great intelligence, a learned Qabalist, once amazed the master Therion by stating that the Tree of Life was the framework of the universe." Maybe I'm amazed... (neon sign says Broad Tree instead of Broadstreet).

and, "Thus, when we say that Nakhiel is the "intelligence" of the Sun, we do not mean that he lives in the sun, but only that he has a certain rank and character; and although we can invoke him, we do not necessarily mean that he exists in the same sense of the word in which our butcher exists." The infamous butcher cover?

and, "When we conjure 'Nakhiel to visible appearance', it may be that our process resembles creation -- or, rather imagination -- more nearly than it does calling-forth. The aura of a man is called the 'magical mirror of the universe'; and, so far as anyone can tell, nothing exists outside of this mirror." Notice that we now have both words, "chaos" and "creation" in the same Crowley essay. Magical mirror, he says. Right, hold a mirror up to the bass drum on the Sgt. Pepper cover.

What about all the PID clues, in general? Here's Crowley, "There is a certain natural connection between certain letters, words, numbers, gestures, shapes, perfumes, and so on, so that any idea or (as we might call it) 'spirit', may be composed or called forth by the use of those things which are harmonious with it, and express particular parts of its nature." Odd collection of things on the Sgt. Pepper cover?

Strangely, Crowley concludes The Magical Theory of the Universe with, "Solvitur ambulando: which does not mean 'Call the ambulance!'" Well, that's a bit spooky as a synchronicity to PID.

In his footnotes, Crowley says, "Chesed is Daleth, Venus the female. Geburah is the Sephira of Mars, the male." Venus and Mars are alright tonight.

End of Episode One. Stay tuned. Next week, more Crowley fragments, as we muddle through PORTABLE DARKNESS: An Aleister Crowley Reader.

Lewis Carroll

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