James Patrick “Jimmy” Page was born January 9, 1944, 80 years ago. He has been renowned as one of Rock music’s greatest guitarists and had his greatest success with the band he founded Led Zeppelin, though maintained an active record and touring careers decades after Led Zeppelin called it quits after the death of drummer John Bonham.
He’s also the most well known fan of the Prophet of the Lovely Star who discovered as a teenager, when read Magick In Theory in Practice. Over the years he would own Boleskine House, found the Equinox Bookstore in London and published facsimile editions of The Goetia and Astrology. He has a cameo in Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising and had composed and recorded the original score for the film. While he’s never been an active proselytizer for Thelema, whenever questioned about his interest in it, he has been forthright in his support. Here’s a quote of his from 1978.
“I feel Aleister Crowley is a misunderstood genius of the 20th century. It is because his whole thing was liberation of the person, of the entity and that restrictions would foul you up, lead to frustration which leads to violence, crime, mental breakdown, depending on what sort of makeup you have underneath. The further this age we’re in now gets into technology and alienation, a lot of the points he’s made seem to manifest themselves all down the line. … I’m not saying it’s a system for anybody to follow. I don’t agree with everything but I find a lot of it relevant and it’s those things that people attacked him on, so he was misunderstood. … I’m not trying to interest anyone in Aleister Crowley any more than I am in Charles Dickens. All it was, was that at a particular time he was expounding a theory of self-liberation, which is something which is so important. He was like an eye to the world, into the forthcoming situation. My studies have been quite intensive, but I don’t particularly want to go into it because it’s a personal thing and isn’t in relation to anything apart from the fact that I’ve employed his system in my own day to day life. … The thing is to come to terms with one’s free will, discover one’s place and what one is, and from that you can go ahead and do it and not spend your whole life suppressed and frustrated. It’s very basically coming to terms with yourself.”
