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Kenneth Anger

People · Articulation · 1927–2023 · documented

The documented hinge from the Parsons orbit into underground film and the rock counterculture — and a textbook case of a real connection that must not be read as a chain of cause.123

Documented connection

Anger was a self-identified OTO member and Crowley devotee. In his own words, he was introduced to Crowley “by Marjorie Cameron… She was married to Jack Parsons… After his death in 1952, Marjorie and I lived together and studied the Crowleyian teachings” — the documented tie binding his cinema to the Parsons crown. He described Lucifer Rising as made “in accordance with the principles of OTO,” and Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969) carried a Moog score by Mick Jagger and footage of the Rolling Stones, with Marianne Faithfull later appearing in Lucifer Rising — the documented threads out into the music rail.

Asserted intent — firewalled

That Anger “pushed” the Rolling Stones toward the occult is his own framing plus later embellishment, attributed, not documented. The sharper firewall is the Manson tail: Anger cast Bobby Beausoleil as Lucifer in 1967; Beausoleil later murdered Gary Hinman on Manson’s orders in 1970. Anger’s own account draws the line — “I fired him from the film because he was dishonest… Two years later, he met Manson.” The casting is documented; the transmission to Manson is not — Anger fired him, and the Manson connection was independent and later.

Held-open

Anger’s and Beausoleil’s accounts of a stolen Lucifer Rising film reel directly contradict; both kept open, neither picked.

Role in the thesis

The rail’s proof that a dense, documented web — Crowley to Cameron to Anger to the Stones to a future Manson associate — can be real at every hop and still license no directed plot. Every edge here happened; the line someone would draw through them did not.

  1. Kenneth Anger, interview in AnOther Magazine: 'I was introduced to the works of Aleister Crowley by Marjorie Cameron, a very good friend who was also, without any doubt, a genuine witch… She was married to Jack Parsons… After his death in 1952, Marjorie and I lived together and studied the Crowleyian teachings.' — https://www.anothermag.com/design-living/14890 ↩︎

  2. Kenneth Anger, (S8) interview: 'I'm a member of the OTO — Ordo Templi Orientis — an occult order founded by British genius Aleister Crowley… Lucifer Rising was about Egyptian gods summoning the angel Lucifer — in order to usher in a new occult age, in accordance with the principles of OTO.' — https://s8cinema.com/en/2024/05/31/kenneth-anger-how-i-made-lucifer-rising/ ↩︎

  3. Kenneth Anger, interview with Roger Ebert: on Bobby Beausoleil — 'One of the actors in my original version was Bobby Beausoleil, who got involved with the Manson family. I fired him from the film because he was dishonest… Two years later, he met Manson.' — https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/interview-with-kenneth-anger ↩︎

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  • The Links Hold — “After Parsons's death his widow, the artist Marjorie Cameron, lived with the filmmaker Kenneth Anger, introduced him to Crowley's work, and appeared in the underground films that carried the Pasadena milieu onto the screen and out toward the rock counterculture — Anger's Invocation of My Demon Brother ran a Mick Jagger score over footage of the Rolling Stones.”