Artist, filmmaker and musician Brian Butler discusses his fascination with renown occultist/writer Aleister Crowley - whom he plans to make a feature film about - and explains Crowley’s connection to rocket scientist Jack Parsons.
“(Crowley and Parsons) are two of the most famous musicians this century. And by Magic, I mean Magick, spelled with a “k,” which is sort of like Western occultism, it’s not like magic tricks,” Butler said. “They were both very intelligent and prolific, and also innovative people.”
He explains that Parsons – who met a tragic end in 1952 when he was killed in an accidental explosion – was friends with Kenneth Anger. The two also knew Aleister Crowley, who was in England, and wanted to bring him over as well, but it didn’t work out before Crowley died in 1947. He said there was a home in Hollywood where these influential people would meet with each other and others to collaborate on various things.
Butler has optioned The Great Beast, the definitive biography of Aleister Crowley by author John Symonds, which he plans to develop into a feature film.
“I think it’s more about translating the energy or vibe, or the essence of what he was communicating,” he said about his approach to the project. “I’m not so concerned with teaching people the facts of his life, I think it’s more about what he did. And he had a sense of humor. A lot of the things he did were in humor, and I think it got lost obviously with a lot of people in the press.”
One example of Crowley’s prankster antics was when he faked his own death (a concocted story about suicide) in 1930, with the help of poet Fernando Pessoa, in Portugal. “He later reappeared in Berlin for an art opening,” Butler said. “He enjoyed the public – they were so reactionary to these things, and I think he got a laugh out of that.”
Watch the full episode to also hear Butler reveal his latest collaboration with filmmaker Kenneth Anger to screen his 1950s classic Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, and to see a demonstration of his own Cognitive Enhancement device, which involves attaching electrodes the head to send small electrical currents through the brain.
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