Disinformation Book of Lists (39 page)

 

The definition of what magick is and what magick
is not
, seems to me to need redefining in the public eye. Magick isn't some sort of hocus-pocus sleight of hand; it's manifesting something extraordinary in your life or in the culture. Here's a list of twentieth century “magicians” using what I think is a more appropriate description of what magick is really all about.

1

Pablo Picasso

In the history of art there is “Before Picasso” and “After Picasso,” meaning that no other single figure changed the way we
see
things like Pablo Picasso did. There is a documentary film called
The Mystery of Picasso
and in it, you can watch him paint—he's painting on a glass pane for the camera to see. It's one of the most astonishing things I have ever seen in my life. If you want to see real magick in action, check this film out. While you are watching it, keep in mind that it took him years to develop his talent to the point where he could do something like that in a matter of minutes. It didn't just happen overnight!

2

Aleister Crowley

Crowley, of course, was magick's Picasso. Crowley came along and wiped the chessboard clean of the archaic hoodoo of the previous era, installing himself along the way as the prophet of
Thelema
(Greek for “will”) and as the Great Beast 666—the Antichrist—in the popular imagination. Whether that last part is true or not remains to be seen, obviously, but certainly Uncle Al changed the face of the occult forever with his potent synthesis of Eastern and Western magical traditions and techniques. (Hint: To make
any
sense of Crowley, you must start with either a biography or his autobiography,
The Confessions of Aleister Crowley.
His magical texts are incomprehensible unless you have a working knowledge of his life before you begin.)

3
4

William Burroughs and Brion Gysin

Burroughs and Gysin collaborated for many years on the literary “cut-ups” method of rearranging text on the page like a collage artist would to see what would
happen
and what was
really being said.
They wrote a book together called
The Third Mind
, which shows in detail how a magician using literature as his or her magical medium can
write things into existence
(a lesson not lost on Grant Morrison, see below).
The Third Mind
is both a manual and a “book of shadows” record of the work they did. For that and many other reasons requiring too much detail for our purposes here, they make the list, hands down.

5

Kenneth Anger

Anger was the first magician to really use cinema as his magical medium and in doing so opened the minds of so many people to the power and lure of the occult. One of the things I find fascinating about his work is how he would use human “stand-ins” for the gods and goddesses he was evoking and his uncanny knack for choosing just the right people, such as casting Marianne Faithfull as Lilith in
Lucifer Rising
or witchy Marjorie Cameron as the Scarlet Woman in
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome.
Another interesting aspect of his work is that his spells, by virtue of being on celluloid, can be watched over and over again, exponentially charging his intent each time they are screened.

6

Genesis P-Orridge

When I was a teenager, I read and will never forget something Genesis said about how a modern magician would use the tools of the time, meaning forget about the Latin, the robes, and the wands, and pick up a computer, a video camera, or an electric guitar. Founding father of industrial music and rave, now using his own body as a sigil in an effort to “break sex”—one of the most complex, creative, and courageous people ever to walk the face of the earth. When God made Gen, he threw away the cast!

7

Salvador Dalí

The “monstrous ego” of
Le Divine Dalí
insured that he was constantly in the media eye during his time, but if not for his prodigious artistic talents, would we still care? Study of the “paranoiac-critical” method of Dalí's creativity is a must for those seriously interested in magick.

8

Timothy Leary

One of the greatest minds of this or any other century, Leary took seriously the Great Work of alchemy—the cosmic perfection of mankind. In doing so he risked his sanity and the sanity of many others to boot! He was called “the most dangerous man in America” by Nixon and Hoover. By turning on the world, or trying to, with LSD, Leary joined the ranks of the great magi and liberators of human history. It may take another century before the good doctor gets his due, though. But it will happen, mark my words. (Hint:
All
the “secrets” of magick are neatly encoded within the pages of Leary's “Future History Series” of 1970s books. But coded they are: He wrote these books whilst in jail; if he'd have come right out and said in plain English what he was hinting at, they'd have thrown away the key.)

9

John Coltrane

Music as mantra. John Coltrane isn't merely
playing
his saxophone on “A Love Supreme,” he is
praying
with it. If you don't see the practical magical lesson that can be learned here, think harder.

10

Miles Davis

Well, Miles might have been a total asshole, true, but he did manage to change the direction of music several times during his lifetime, and if
that
ain't magical, I don't know what is! (And eat your heart out Brian Eno—it was
Miles
who invented “ambient music,” as one listen to his eerie 1975 elegy to Duke Ellington, “He Loved Him Madly,” will prove)

Honorable mention
goes to
Grant Morrison
, whom I have called “the heir to William Burroughs” for years. Morrison's
meisterwerk, The Invisibles
, smuggles magical thought into the minds of comics readers like a Trojan horse, a true magical initiation disguised as an adventure series. It's one of the most subversive things ever to be funded by a major corporation and a spell the reverberations of which will still be felt for some time to come.

 

1

The Alcohol Tarot

By the Cult of the Drunken Prophet.
Some people who really, really like booze have come up with a full Tarot deck devoted to a different kind of “spirit.” The four traditional suits have been replaced by Beer, Wine, Lager, and Spirits. “The Magician” is, of course, the bartender, who can combine all kinds of alcohol and other beverages into an endless variety of yummy concoctions. “The Hanged Man” is a guy puking in a toilet, while “The Star” is a dartboard. The images are in the form of photographs. The heavily Photoshopped major arcana are so-so, but the minor arcana are elegant.

2

The Bosch Tarot

By
A. Atanassov.
Many decks use the style of famous artists to reinterpret the Tarot. In this case, Atanassov employs many images straight from Renaissance painter Hierony-omous Bosch, whose bizarre, labyrinthine works detail the joys of heaven and the horrors of hell. “The Chariot,” for instance, shows a man in reptilian body armor riding a chariot made of a saddle on a giant fish. Two dogs wearing sweaters appear to be pulling the odd contraption. It only gets weirder from there….

3

Chaos Tarot

By John Berger.
In this gorgeous deck, every card is a radiantly colorful fractal. Although it may not always be immediately apparent, each image has been carefully selected to correspond to the meaning of the card: the isolated feel of “The Hermit,” the merging of “The Lovers,” the fiery explosion of “Strength.” Some of the Major Arcana have been changed—”The High Priest” has become “Progenesis”—and two have been added to the end: “Hyperspace” and “Eschaton.” One of the most beautiful Tarot decks ever created.

4

Cosmic Tribe Tarot

By Stevee Postman.
One of the most popular recent decks, these phantasmagoric, psychedelic images show the possibilities when Photoshop is used by the right person. Influences include Alex Grey, the Grateful Dead, collage art, butterflies, flowers, LSD, sacred geometry, and attractive, naked people. Perhaps the most talked-about aspect of this deck is “The Lovers” card, which comes in three flavors: gay, lesbian, and het. I can't help thinking that the originators of the Tarot would be surprised but pleased.

5

Erotic Tarots of Milo Manara

Taking a different approach to the idea of a sexual Tarot, legendary erotic comic Euro-artist
Milo Manara
fills the deck with his trademark pouty, slinky women.

6

Erotica Tarot

By Ylva Trollstierna, Patrik Carlsson, and Pierre Brawin.
From Sweden, this deck takes its cue from sex magick, Tantra, and other traditions that merge flesh and spirit. The black-and-white line drawings display only a medium level of sophistication, but there are many interesting ideas here. “The World” is represented by a daisy chain of people performing oral sex on each other, overlaid with the symbols of the zodiac. “The Lovers” sit entwined in a lotus position on a flaming heart. The phallic symbolism of “The Tower” is made blatant when it becomes a gigantic penis cracking in half.

7

Glow in the Dark Tarot

The Major Arcana have been taken from the Rider-Waite deck, reproduced in black and white, and printed with ink that glows in the dark.

8

H.R. Giger Tarot

The biomechanical work of artist
H.R. Giger
—best known for giving the
Alien
movies their sinister look—has been selected to represent each of the 22 Major Arcana. Dark and fearsome.

9

Hello, Tarot

By Joe Rosales.
Comic artist Rosales has designed a black-and-white line art Tarot featuring scenes from the Rider-Waite deck but with the hypercute characters from the “Hello Kitty” universe replacing the traditional figures. Naturally, Kitty is “The High Priestess,” while Pochacco the puppy is “Death,” striking down other saccharine characters with his scythe.

10

Physical Egg Tarot

By Dirk Gillabel.
The image for each card (Major Arcana only) was painted on the shell of a brown egg, which was then photographed on sand. In a similar vein, Gillabel's Oak Tarot is a series of photographs showing the Major Aracana painted on slices of a young oak tree.

11

Rock and Roll Tarot

by Chris Paradis.
Photoshopped images show how rockers fit the Tarot archetypes: Frank Zappa is “The Magician”; Tina Turner is “The High Priestess”; Kurt Cobain is “The Hanged Man”; and Elvis is “The Emperor.” The “Guitar” suit features Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Carlos Santana. Tori Amos, Aretha Franklin, and Bob Marley appear in the “Voice” suit.

12

The Silicon Valley Tarot

By Thomas Scoville.
This deck is basically a vehicle to spoof dot-com culture. The Minor Arcana's suits are disks, cubicles, networks, and hosts. The Major Arcana includes “The Hacker,” “Venture Capital,” “IPO”, “Spam,” and “The Layoff.”

13

Tarot Art Quilt Project

In this collaborative project, 42 fiber artists created all 78 Tarot cards, each as a full-size quilt. The entire set was displayed at the 2003 International Quilt Festival.

14

Tarot of Baseball

By Robert Kasher and Beverley Ransom.
The illustrations have the style and coloring of the Rider-Waite deck, but they poke gentle fun at America's Pastime. “The Fool” is a rookie, “Death” is a general manager running over people in his big car, and “The High Priestess” is the girlfriend or wife forced to watch the games. Gloves, caps, balls, and bats make up the Minor Arcana.

15

Tarot of the New Vision

By Pietro Alligo, R. Cestaro, G. Cestaro.
Three Italian artists had a brilliant idea: Take the familiar images of the Rider-Waite deck, and paint them from the opposite perspective, showing what was previously “out of the frame.” Thus we see that the Magician, with his candle burning at both ends, is performing for an audience in a garden, while a small monkey behind him tugs on his red robe. In the Nine of Swords, the anguished man in bed is actually being attacked by a demon, and two women behind the imperial Justice are nestling a baby into a basket.

16

Tarot Universal Dalí

By Salvador Dalí.
Although many decks are retroactively done in the
style
of master artists, very few famous artists have directly taken up the challenge. Supreme Surrealist Salvador Dalí did, and the result—as you might expect—is a wild, phantasmagoric deck that is often considered one of the most stunning ever published.

17

The Thoth Tarot

By Aleister Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris.
Using concepts from the Kabalah and the Golden Dawn combined with his own wild insights, the world's most famous occultist directed Harris to paint the surreal, abstracted images that adorn the cards.

Honorable Mentions:
The Tarot of Oz, Lord of the Rings Tarot, PoMo Tarot, Stick Figure Tarot, Wonderland Tarot, Ferret Tarot, Gummibear Tarot, Fantastic Medical Tarot, Tiny Tarot, Vampire Tarot, Gay Tarot, Nightmare Before Christmas Tarot.