In my last post on Killing Joke, I mentioned the fact that Aleister Crowley was an influence on Killing Joke. In this post I will point to two more connections between the two.
The first connection is on the artwork of their 1981 single “Follow the Leaders”. On the sleeve there is somekind of procession or demonstration. The second figure in the procession carries a Tarot card. It is the first card of the tarot deck: the Magus. As I’m not that familiar with tarot, I have little to offer about its meaning. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about Coleman in the early 1980’s, but later he joined several magical orders. It is possible that he joined around that time and wanted to show his initiation into an order by showing this card. And of course, Crowley was a member of a magical order and a magus (magician) in his own right.
The card is from a specific tarot deck called: the “Thoth Tarot”. The deck was painted by Lady Frieda Harris. She painted the cards after the design of (yes here he is) Aleister Crowley. So, it seems that KJ didn’t pick this card from this particular deck at random. For a definite reason, we will probably have to wait until the publication of Coleman’s “An Irrational Domain”. However, it seems that the book takes age to be published. Twenty years ago, Coleman mentioned it during a lecture. This lecture was recorded and released as “The Courtauld Talks”. On the web there are some excerpts available, but I haven’t had a chance to read them yet.
In 1986 Killing Joke released “Brighter Than A Thousand Suns”. On the sleeve you can find a quote from Crowley called “Onion-Peelings”. I don’t have the album with me, so I can’t quote it verbatim. As far as, I remember the quote dealt with the absurdity of life and the cosmos. On the one hand, the universe is full of sorrow and on the other the universe can be experienced as a joke. The statement makes the disciples of Frater Perdurabo both weep and laugh. Whereas some do both. I think the quote refers to the name of the band and their view of the cosmos. Life, the cosmos is a joke, but one filled with sorrow. The absurdity of this realization is reflected in both their artwork and their music.
I´m quite curious from which book this quote was taken and from which period in Crowley´s life it originates. It seems as though Crowley is speaking about himself in the third person. As his motto in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was Perdurabo.
Tags: Aleister Crowley, Brighter Than A Thousand Suns, Killing Joke
January 22, 2008 at 20:37 |
[...] churches. The second theme is related to Crowley and his religious system of Thelema. In earlier posts, I already pointed to a connection of Killing Joke with Crowley. In this song, I think such a [...]
January 23, 2009 at 21:04 |
[...] The central message of Onion-Peelings is that all life is in essence tragic. It is this theme of tragedy, sorrow and suffering that pervades the work of Jaz Coleman and Killing Joke. Furthermore, it must be the main reason why Killing Joke chose this piece of Crowley on their album Brighter Than A Thousand Suns, on which I wrote before. [...]
October 21, 2009 at 23:49 |
“Onion-Peelings” is from Crowley’s “Book of Lies” and was written ca. 1913 e.v.