The Magick of David Bowie

October 14, 2010 12:56 PM

The Laughing Gnostic: David Bowie and the Occult A lengthy analysis.
posted by kimdog (15 comments total)

This kind of stuff, I love:

When I asked Angie Bowie why her ex was involved in magick, she remembered that he heard that Led Zeppelin were involved in the occult, and so he wanted to be even cooler and scare Jimmy Page. [...] Jimmy Page was allegedly already interested in the Qabalah at the age of eleven. In 1964, Page had been a member of Bowie’s “Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men”.

I always prefer my history stranger than I had previously imagined.
posted by philip-random at 1:03 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Now I'm thinking of changing my nick to The Gesamtkunstwerk 'David Bowie'
posted by jquinby at 1:07 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Anything that was fashionable to be into, Bowie at least dabbled. He was never first, but he always got in before the masses.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 1:09 PM on October 14, 2010

So is China Girl still about heroin or was it always about gnostic magik?
posted by bionic.junkie at 1:11 PM on October 14, 2010

phillip-random, I bet you'd like to see an interview with the then-17-year-old leader of the club.
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:11 PM on October 14, 2010

Huh, maybe Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick were on to something with this whole "Guild of Calamitous Intent" thing.
posted by kkokkodalk at 1:32 PM on October 14, 2010 [5 favorites]

Came for the eponysteria, stayed for the list of reasons why Bowie is better than God:

taken from www.white-man-killer.com/bowie/bowievgod.html [defunct]: a fan site

1. We know for certain that David exists.
2. David has cooler clothes; God's billowing robes are just so passe.
3. David is less prone to smiting sinners (a definite plus).
4. If you hear God's voice in your head, you're probably crazy.
5. If you hear Bowie's voice in your head, you may be crazy, but at least you have something to sing along to.
6. David looks better naked than God does. (Conclusion based on appearances in "The Man Who Fell To Earth" and the uncensored "China Girl" video)
7. God couldn't tease his hair that high, even during the 80's.
8. God can't play the guitar.
9. David has better shoes.
10. David is richer.
11. David is still attractive.
12. God probably looks like Mick Jagger or Keith Richards by now.
13. Going to a Bowie concert is a lot more fun than church.
14. God doesn't paint his toenails.
15. God's too uptight.
16. People don't corner you at malls to tell you that "Bowie loves you."
17. David looks better in a dress.

It's one of several lists near the end; another corresponds the major arcana of the Tarot to different Bowie albums. By the Snow-white Tan of Ziggy Stardust, that's beyond beanplating!
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:38 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

no so long ago on MeFi [Bowie 76: somewhere between Mars and Berlin] ... perhaps indicative of where dabbling with the occult gets one.
posted by philip-random at 1:43 PM on October 14, 2010

Slack-a-gogo: “Anything that was fashionable to be into, Bowie at least dabbled. He was never first, but he always got in before the masses.”

Would've been nice if he'd done something besides dabble – musically, I mean.
posted by koeselitz at 1:49 PM on October 14, 2010

(That is: I could've taken ten more albums just like Low and Lodger. But there are none. And then two years later he's doing, what – Scary Monsters? Geez, man. Not that that's bad, but stick with something for once.)
posted by koeselitz at 1:52 PM on October 14, 2010

Between this and the Burroughs post I'm in groovy-deviant-artiste heaven at work this afternoon - thanks!
posted by chaff at 2:27 PM on October 14, 2010

The way I heard it, while many 60s hits were written in the Brill Building, ALL Bowie's hits were written in the Vril building!
posted by Twang at 2:59 PM on October 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

It's not the side-effects of the cocaine
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 3:16 PM on October 14, 2010

It's not the side-effects of the cocaine

The Magick was the cure for cocaine.
posted by twoleftfeet at 12:29 AM on October 15, 2010

so the moral of the story is, you've got to get your sleep. Stay awake for weeks, deny your brain/psyche any dream time and those images and reflections will eventually just impose themselves. Same thing happens to serious alcoholics with delirium tremens. Even though they may black out occasionally, they cease to dream. And for whatever reason, we must dream.

There's science somewhere to back this up. I heard an expert talking about it once on the radio, before there were internets.
posted by philip-random at 8:37 AM on October 15, 2010