The motto of “The Equinox” journal was “The method of science; the aim of religion”. Having read a lot of theory and experimented with some practical work, I can attest that “this system works”.
“My
interest in the occult started when I was 15. I do not worship the devil but
Magick does intrigue me. Magick of all kinds. I read “Magick in Theory and
Practice” when I was about 11 years old but it wasn’t for some years that
I understood what it was all about.“
~Jimmy Page Sept. 1974 – Melody Maker Interview with Michael Watts
“Light & Shade” – Musical Dynamics or The Equinoxes of The Gods?
As I meditate on yesterdays event of the Vernol Equinox, it reminds me of when Jimmy Page briefly touched on what the term ‘light and shade’ meant to him, in the 2009 music documentary “It Might Get Loud”…
“Dynamics…whisper to thunder; sounds that invite you in and intoxicate. The thing that fascinates me about the guitar is that no one ever approaches it the same way. Everyone plays differently and their personality always comes through.”
40 years earlier, Cameron Crowes reminded us of a time when Jimmy Page used this phrase in his essay titled “Light & Shade” that was reprinted inthe 30 page booklet of the 1990 “The Complete Collection” Boxset (not to be confused with the later 1993 release The Complete Studio Recordings Boxset).
[circa 1968] “…At Page’s home, they explored each other’s tastes by playing favorite records—everything from Buddy Guy to the Incredible String Band to Muddy Waters and Elvis. Then Page broke out an odd choice. It was Joan Baez’s dramatic version of the ballad, “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You.” Page outlined a plan for a band that could play a song like that. “I’d like to play it heavy,” he said, “but with a lot of light and shade.”
It appears that Page has come to refer to the above performance idea “…with a lot of Light and Shade”, continuously over his career. He also appears to be describing something greater than what composers, musicians and instrumentalists mean when they discuss musical dynamics. Page describes musical dynamics in terms that evoke magick and will… “…sounds that invite you in and intoxicate” and also “ones unique approach”. His descriptions seem more akin to what Igor Skravinsky described in his six lessons titled “The Poetics of Music”, written in 1947. In his book, Stravinski describes something beyond dynamics when he writes about the phenomenon, typography, composition, avatars and performance of music. [Download It Here]
However, does the phrase “Light & Shade” really denote ideas around the approach taken with musical composition or performance? Google searches of the term “Light & Shade” result in an over abundance of references to Jimmy Page or Brad Tolinksi’s book of that title. This then poses the question, “is this really a unique phrase to Jimmy Page referencing musical dynamics or could this phrase have derived from the world of his esoteric occult interests?” If so, could this phrase have a deeper spiritual meaning to him?
If you alter the phrase slightly to “Light & Shadow”, something interesting happens in your search results, links to more esoteric content are returned. It appears that in many cultures throughout the world, prehistoric builders have been constructing monuments to create dramatic lighting effects from both the light of the sun and the moon. When do these dramatic effects of “Light & Shadow” often happen? …on the Vernal or Autumn Equinoxes.
One such structure that forms a unique Shadow on the Vernal Equinox is Temple of K’uk’ulkan at Chichen Itza, also known as “El Castillo”. El Castillo, is a stepped pyramid on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, that has four staircases running from the top to the bottom of the pyramid’s faces. The temple of K’uk’ulkan is notorious for the bloody human sacrifices that used to take place down its stairs. The staircases are built at a carefully calculated angle which makes it look like an enormous snake of sunlight slithers down the stairs at the precise moment of the Vernal (March) Equinox.
The March equinox celebration at the Temple of K’uk’ulkan connects the Maya astronomical knowledge and agricultural practices with mythology. K’uk’ulkan is one of the Maya creator gods who is usually pictured as part snake and part bird.
Other Solar and Lunar Light & Shadow events can be witnessed at Stonehenge on the Vernal and Autumn Equinoxes. Whatever the religious, mystical or spiritual elements were central to Stonehenge, it’s design includes a celestial observatory function, which might have allowed the prediction of an eclipse, solstice, equinox and/or other celestial events important to a contemporary religion.
A Giant “Egg Shaped Stone” ;-), floats above Stonehenge at Led Zeppelin’s last American performance in Oakland CA, on July 23/24, 1977.
So how does the term Equinox relate to Jimmy Page? Well for starters “The Equinox” (Booksellers & Publishers) was the name of the bookshop and publishing house that he opened in 1975. The bookshop sold hard to find Occult books and the Publishing house released two occult classics: the highly respected Astrology: A Cosmic Science by Spiritual Astrology Pioneer Isabel Hickey and Aleister Crowley and S.L. MacGregor Mathers’s translation of The Book of Goetia of Solomon the King.
Jimmy Page most likely chose this name due to the fact that The Equinox (subtitle: “The Review of Scientific Illuminism”) was also the title to a series of publications in book form that served as the official organ of the A∴A∴, the magical order founded by Aleister Crowley. Begun in 1909, it mainly features articles about occultism and magick, while several issues also contain poetry, fiction, plays, artwork, and biographies. It is no secret that Jimmy Page was a serious collector of Crowley’s works, including the Equinox Series. So considering that the cover logo of Crowley’s series and the Bookshop match perfectly, the coincidence seems to prove the influence.
But what exactly is an Equinox and what does it have to do with “Light & Shade”?
An equinox occurs twice a year (around 20 March and 22 September), when the plane of Earth’s equator passes the center of the Sun. At this time the tilt of the Earth’s axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun. The term equinox can also be used in a broader sense, meaning the date when such a passage happens. The name “equinox” is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night), because around the equinox, night and day are about equal length.
It also turns out that in the religion of Thelema, the “Thelemic year” starts on the northern-hemisphere Vernal Equinox. This earth orbital event coincides with the Thelemic holiday called “The Feast for the Equinox of the Gods”. This is often observed on March 20th of the common calendar but truly occurs at the exact time of the Equinox. So in other words, Jimmy Page might say, “…Happy Thelemic New Year!”
The Thelemic calendar counts years from 1904 EV (the year Liber AL was received). Rather than simply giving the year count from 1904, the Thelemic calendar uses a two-tiered system. The “upper” level gives a count of twenty-two year periods since 1904; the “lower” level gives the years since the start of the current twenty-two year period. Both are zero-based, with nonzero numbers being represented as upper and lower case Roman numerals, respectively. So, for example, the civil year 2014 is (after March 20) Thelemic year V:0 because 1904 + (5x 22) + 0 equals 2014.
Some Thelemites assign the twenty-two years of each cycle to the twenty-two Trumps of the Tarot. The 22-year period numbers themselves are also assigned in this way. Hence, 2014, the year V:0 may be seen as the year of the Fool (Card 0) in the cycle of the Hierophant (Card V)
Equinox of the Gods (March 20) aka Vernal Equinox is:
The anniversary of the beginning of the Aeon of Horus in 1904 e.v.. & the date that also marks the beginning of the Thelemic New Year.
So what Jimmy Page and or Led Zeppelin events coincided with a Vernal or Autumn Equinox?
It appears that the first two attempts to release music on an Equinox, may have commenced in 1973 with Houses of The Holy. Released on March 28th 1973, just 1 week and 1 day after the Vernal Equinox of 1973. The album’s second single D’yer Mak’er”/”The Crunge“ was subsequently released on September 17th 1973, just 6 days prior to the Autumn Equinox of 1973.
The second attempt to release an album on an Equinox appears to have been with Presence,which was released on March 31st 1976. This release missed the Vernal Equinox by only 11 days. Given the fact that the music industry had an industry wide rule of releasing albums on Tuesday’s and production schedules were constantly getting bumped due to manufacturing or shipping delay’s, coordinating an album’s release date was very hard to control from the artist’s position.
However the first major release by Led Zeppelin, post the Bands break up and post the bands last album, Coda, saw a release coinciding perfectly with a years Autumn Equinox. This occurred In 1990 when Jimmy Page released a collection of releases that would comprise the bands first comprehensive Boxed Set.
The Autumn Equinox of 1990 fell on September 21st. This day marked the first time a Led Zeppelin release since Coda would come out and coincidentally land on an Equinox. The album titled “Profiled”, was an interview album released by Atlantic Records precisely on 21 September 1990 in advance of the bands highly anticipated first ever Boxset remastered for the CD format, titled “The Complete Collection” (not to be confused with the later 1993 release The Complete Studio Recordings).
Profiled was a promo-only interview CD made specifically to accompany Led Zeppelin’s first ever box set [aka The Crop Circle box set], but oddly was not released on the same day. Instead it appears it was deliberately released ahead of the box set, so it could come out on the Autumn Equinox.
In the rush to complete the mastering of the box set, Jimmy Page not only missed the Autumn September 21st date, as the Box Set was released in late October. This release created mass confuision with consumers due the sets incompleteness and varying configurations (Vinyl, CD Cassette, etc). Also, an additional version of the set added to this confusion with the added “The Remasters” to the title, along with a different photo angle of initial Crop circle image. Eventually “Profiled” was commercially released as part of the special edition Led Zeppelin Remasters boxed set in 1992 and the entire set discontinued with the release of the The Complete Studio Recordings set.
In effort to finally release a truly complete box set, Jimmy Page completed all the Mastering in 1993 and released two box Sets surrounding the 1993 Autumn Equinox. On September 21th 1993, two days before “93” Autumn Equinox, (9/23/1993) the Led Zeppelin Box Set 2 was released. This box set provided all the tracks that were missing from the previous Box set. This was so that those who invest in the prior set didn’t have to pay again for an entirely new set and simply supplement what they had at a lower cost.
Then only 1 days after the Autumn Equinox of “93” (Sept. 23rd), Led Zeppelin The Complete Studio Recordings was released on September 24th 1993. This box set, with the steel framing of the inside of a Zeppelin covering the outer box, really was the definitive shining moment for Jimmy Page as a producer. So it seems fitting that not only was it released 1 day after the Autumn Equinox, (a Holy Day for Thelemites) but in a year ending in 93, a number that holds great significance in Thelema.
When reading the chapter Adolescence : Beginnings of Magick in the Equinox of The Gods, Crowley interestingly discusses traveling to Mexico and developing his Magick there via journal entries of his ritual work.
Equinox is a phenomenon that can occur on any planet with a significant tilt to its rotational axis. Most dramatic of these is Saturn, where the equinox places its normally majestic ring system edge-on facing the Sun. As a result, they are visible only as a thin line when seen from Earth. When seen from above – a view seen by humans during an equinox for the first time from the Cassini space probe in 2009 – they receive very little sunshine, indeed more planetshine than light from the Sun.
This lack of sunshine occurs once every 14.7 years. It can last a few weeks before and after the exact equinox. The most recent exact equinox for Saturn was on 11 August 2009. Saturn’s next equinox will take place on 30 April 2024.
Occult Aspects 