Invocation of My Demon Brother: Feature Articles

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Magick in Theory and Practice: Ritual Use of Colour in Kenneth Anger’s Invocation of My Demon Brother
 Deborah Allison (https://www.sensesofcinema.com/author/deborah-allison/)  February 2005
 Feature Articles (https://www.sensesofcinema.com/category/feature-articles/)  Issue 34 (/issues/34)
https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2005/feature-articles/invocation_demon_brother/ 1/16
In 1970 Kenneth Anger received Film Culture‘s Tenth Independent Film Award
…for his lm Invocation of My Demon Brother speci cally, and for his entire creative work in general; for his
unique fusion of magick, symbolism, myth, mystery and vision with the most modern sensibilities, techniques and
rhythms of being… ()(1)
Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969) is the eighth of Anger’s nine extant short lms, which are collectively titled
The Magick Lantern Cycle (1947–1980). Not one of Kenneth Anger’s best-known works, Invocation has come to be
eclipsed by the earlier pieces, Fireworks (1947) and Scorpio Rising (1963), in the pantheon of American avant-garde
lms that are regularly revived by lm societies and universities. In this essay, I will show that it remains one of
Kenneth Anger’s richest works, in terms of its use of symbol and ritual, and is a title that deserves greater critical
recognition than it has been a orded in recent years.
As well as providing an overdue reappraisal of the lm, the broader purpose of this essay derives from the
opportunity o ered by Invocation – and, indeed, several of Anger’s other lms – to examine the functioning of
colour in cinema. This is in itself a surprisingly neglected area. Whilst the topic has been tackled by a number of
previous writers, the relative scarcity of material on the subject fails to re ect the importance of this aspect of mise
en scène to countless lms of both the mainstream and avant-garde cinemas ()(1).
My account of the ways in which colour is used in Invocation of My Demon Brother raises certain issues that are
pertinent to a broad spectrum of lms while, at the same time, the discussion centres on a representational
system that is peculiar to the lm’s director. In doing so, it describes the extent to which Anger’s adoption of
modern occultism has helped to de ne his use of colour, just as it has determined his choice of other lmic
elements.
The importance of occult ideas to Anger’s lms, and the extent to which they are shaped by ritual, is highlighted in
Anger’s own accounts of his work, and has also provided a focal point for a great deal of previous critical writing.
Carel Rowe has shown a particular commitment to exploring this aspect of Anger’s cinema, but it is also central to
the writings of Tony Rayns, P. Adams Sitney, William C. Wees and Anna Powell, amongst others ()(3). This essay
follows in this tradition but, in focusing upon Anger’s ritual use of colour, it explores an aspect of his lm style that
has hitherto been largely overshadowed by focus upon his iconography and/or editing ()(4). This essay also
provides a slightly more detailed account of some of the central tenets of 20th century occultism than is customary
in writings about Anger, by which means I hope to illuminate further the complex set of ideas and representational
systems that Invocation pro ers. Neither my discussions of colour theory nor occultism are in any way exhaustive,
but the points selected will su ce to demonstrate some of the intricate patterns of symbolism that operate in this
work, and show some of the ways in which it relates to the other lms of the Magick Lantern Cycle.
Crowley, Lucifer and the “Demon Brother”

Each of Anger’s lms is framed as a ritual. They depict rituals and, if one accepts Anger’s stated intentions, they
also perform rituals; the various elements within each lm are calculated to have speci c e ects upon the viewer.
As Carel Rowe has succinctly explained
All his lms have been evocations or invocations, attempting to conjure primal forces which, once visually released,
are designed to have the e ect of ‘casting a spell’ on the audience. The Magick in the lm is related to the magickal
e ects of the lm on the audience ()(5).
Whilst it is true that all lms are designed in such a way as to encourage certain responses in the viewer, the
unusual characteristic of the lms in the Magick Lantern Cycle is the extent to which both the subject matter and
systems of representation are explicitly structured according to occult practice. Such beliefs may not feature
signi cantly in the orthodoxies of lm studies as a discipline, but in order to reach any understanding of the rituals
depicted in Invocation, or the parallel ways in which Anger intends the audience to be a ected by the ritual of lm
spectatorship, they need to be explained.
Perhaps the single strongest in uence on Kenneth Anger, evident from both lms and interviews, has been that of
the English occultist Aleister Crowley (1875–1947). Crowley coined the term magick to refer to the system of occult
beliefs that he propounded and to distinguish them from traditional systems of magic. Crowley’s most signi cant
contributions to early 20th century occultism were the integration of Nietzschean thought along with principles
derived from the budding science of psychology. He de ned magick as “the Science and Art of causing Change to
occur in conformity with the Will”, and argued that every intentional act is a magickal act ()(6). The religious
doctrine that he developed, known as the “Holy Law of Thelema”, centres on his maxim, “Do what thou Wilt shall
be the whole of the Law” ()(7). One should not assume, though, that he intended this as a license for the execution
of any whim. Rather, he argued, one should act only after a lengthy process of self-examination through which the
“true will”, and one’s true nature, is discovered. “Do what thou wilt”, claimed Crowley, “is to bid the stars to shine,
the vine to bear grapes, water to nd its level. Man is the only being in nature who has striven to set himself at
odds with himself” ()(8).
Crowley’s theory postulates a “higher” part of oneself that one must access in order to understand one’s true will,
along with the power and self-control required to act upon it. This higher self is sometimes referred to as the
“demon brother”, so that the title of the lm, Invocation of My Demon Brother, can be read as a reference to a
ritualised process of self-development. For Anger, the gure of the demon brother is closely linked to another
gure that plays a central role in his oeuvre. This is Lucifer who, whilst occupying a very minor position in Crowley’s
pantheon, is an important presence in each of Anger’s lms, whether he is implicitly or overtly represented. In
each lm a ritual is performed to invoke the powers that the director associates with Lucifer, an archetype with
whom Anger as a magician wishes to identify. For Anger, Lucifer is both the “patron saint of movies”, in his capacity
as god of light, and “the rebel angel behind what’s happening in the world today whose message is that the key of
joy is disobedience” ()(9). As conceived by Anger, he is a gure linking a preoccupation with individuality and the
spirit of the Aquarian Age.
Crowley describes the methods to be used for communing with the demon brother. In everyone, he claims, there
is “a consciousness to be attained by prescribed methods” ()(10). “Each human being”, he argues, “is an element of
the cosmos, self-determined and supreme, coequal with all other gods” ()(11). According to Crowley’s Holy Law of
Thelema, one must master the various forces that exist in the universe in order to achieve this higher state of
consciousness and become one’s own master. The occultist’s world view does not admit to a single omniscient,
omnipresent and omnipotent deity, but posits instead a range of forces allowing the magician the status of a god
once s/he has gained full mastery of them. These forces are named after gods and planets, and are deemed to
exist either externally or within one’s mind. Although internalisation of these forces was a feature of some earlier
occult theories, it was not until the late 19th century that the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, to which
Crowley belonged for a time, emphasised psychological factors of occultism. Crowley, like the Golden Dawn,
regarded preparations and rituals as self-development techniques and he drew on the work of Freud and Jung to
explain how rituals could be used to access elements of one’s inner being. He argued of gods, spirits, planes,
spheres and other ordering principles of magick, “It is immaterial whether they exist or not. By doing certain things
certain results follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic
validity to any of them” ()(12).
For the Crowleyite, to invoke the force and power of a particular god does not necessarily presuppose a belief in
his/her metaphysical or historical existence, nor the religious dogma surrounding that gure. It is simply a way of
referencing a particular psychic force. Such forces are seldom burdened with notions of morality, and are
considered by the magician to be neither good nor evil. Heat, writes Crowley, in a trivial but clear illustration, is
good for co ee but bad for ice cream ()(13). Each force has, in occult terminology, a “positive” and “negative”
aspect, which are anthropomorphised into the gures of angels and demons. These forces are frequently
associated with gods and/or planets, which act as nodes around which a range of attributes are clustered. This is
known as the system of “correspondences”. For instance, just a few of the associations with the god and the planet
Mars are re, violence, destruction, the colour red, iron, the basilisk, the oak, the nettle, the ruby, tobacco and the
astrological sign of Scorpio ()(14). The ritual use of items associated with a particular force is believed to assist the
magician’s invocation of that force. It helps the magician to focus concentration and build a mental map of where
he wants to be in psychic terms – “the coordinates of consciousness” as Colin Low has termed it ()(15). Costumes,
objects of particular shapes, colours or substances, can all function as talismans that represent and connect the
state of consciousness at which the magician aims with the aesthetics of his surroundings. The theory of
correspondences has made a considerable impact both within and without occult practice, nding its aesthetic
epitome in the Symbolist movement.
Magickal Ritual and the Cinema

Kenneth Anger’s intention that his lms both depict and perform rituals, “casting a spell” on the audience, reached
its zenith with Invocation of My Demon Brother, which can be read as one of the most masterfully constructed
rituals in The Magick Lantern Cycle. The detail and complexity with which it is fashioned is no less astonishing than
the extremely visceral responses that it creates in most viewers. Although many may be reluctant to accept the
notion that such reactions arise from the lm’s implementation of a spell, when couched in other language the
underlying ideas may come to sound more orthodox.
Anger has spoken of the belief in the power of the photograph to steal the soul, which has been attributed to
some “primitive” societies ()(16). The origins of such beliefs have been explained by anthropologist J. G. Frazer in
The Golden Bough, his classic study of magic and religion. He describes the principles of “sympathetic magic”, which
state that a powerful link exists between things that are similar in appearance or that have come into contact with
one another. For example, voodoo magic may aim to harm a person by performing a ritual using a doll that
resembles the intended victim. Frazer describes this as “imitative magic”. The spell would be deemed more likely to
succeed if the doll were augmented by an object that the victim had come into contact with, such as piece of hair
or clothing. Frazer describes this as “contagious magic” ()(17).
It is possible to draw parallels between Frazer’s categorisation of the principles of magical tradition and a system
of classi cation that most lm academics will nd rather more familiar. This is C. S. Peirce’s classi cation of signs
as icon, index or symbol. Imitative magic relies on an iconic connection between magical ritual and its victim or
bene ciary. Contagious magic, on the other hand, depends upon an indexical relationship. As Peirce argued, a
photograph, or lm, is simultaneously icon and index ()(18). Thus, each can be read as a particularly powerful
talisman, using both imitative and contagious magic.
Anger has named the cinematograph as his “magickal weapon” ()(19). His lms are “incantations” composed in a
“magickal language”, a language described by Crowley simply as “that which is understood by the people I wish to
instruct” ()(20). Like Crowley’s book, Magick in Theory and Practice, in which this thesis is laid out, “the composition
and distribution of (Anger’s lms) is thus an act of MAGICK by which (he) cause(s) change to take place in
conformity with (his) will” ()(21). The cinema can show apparent acts of magic, such as the trick photography
pioneered by Meliès but, if one accepts Crowley’s de nition, it can also perform genuine acts of magick. At the
forefront of this power is its ability to act upon the spectator in such a way as to engender ideas and emotions.
Invocation of My Demon Brother depicts a ritual intended to conjure forth the powers that Anger associates with
Lucifer and, in doing so, to access the demon brother or higher self. Through their act of submission to the lm,
Anger aims to reproduce in the audience, to some degree at least, the state of consciousness achieved by the
participants of the ritual depicted. At the time the lm was made, Anger’s conception of Lucifer was still closely tied
to the gure and force of Mars. The invocation is a battle cry in a period of transition between an old order and a
new. He explains that period of transition in terms that di er somewhat from standard astrological accounts:
The age that ended in 1962 was the Piscean Age… which was the age of Jesus Christ. Where the Piscean Age was
ruled by Neptune, the planet of mysticism, the Aquarian Age is ruled by Uranus, the most erratic planet of all… it’s
the sign of the unexpected, revolution… The last 2000 years were based on renunciation, sacri ce and guilt. The ght
for the next generation, the next 25 years, 50 years, is skinning o the shell that’s left over from the last era ()(22).
The con ict of opposites, the skinning o the shell of the Piscean age, is articulated in Invocation by way of an
abrasive juxtaposition of images through montage, a grating soundtrack and an emphasis on the colours of Mars.
It is intended, in Anger’s words, as “an attack on the sensorium” ()(23).
Debates About the Signi cance of Colour

The ways in which Invocation of My Demon Brother uses colour in order to in uence the spectator are manifold.
Colour is not used primarily for naturalistic depictions of objects, although this occurs. Nor is it used merely in a
symbolic fashion, though this occurs too. Crucially, it is designed to act in very speci c ways upon the viewer, which
may often reach beyond his/her conscious interpretation of colour meaning.
The extent to which colours can stimulate responses in those who experience them, and the means by which they
do so, remains the subject of an unresolved debate. Some scientists have endeavoured to demonstrate that
exposure to colour can trigger biochemical responses in the human organism. Others assert, to the contrary, that
responses to colours are the result of acquired knowledge of their cultural coding. Both of these perspectives can
illuminate the intended functioning of colour in Invocation.
It is widely accepted within modern science and medicine that light from the edges of the spectrum – invisible to
the eye, such as ultraviolet – can cause temporary or permanent alterations within the human body. It is less
clearly established whether visible colours at the centre of the spectrum can have similar e ects. One scientist and
physician who believed that they could was J. Dodson Hessey. He made several claims about the action of colour
on glands, including the allegation that exposure to the colour red increases the activity of the male sex glands ()
(24). Such claims have been challenged by rival specialists who argue that Hessey, and other researchers asserting
the existence of physiological responses to colours, have conducted their experiments without su cient scienti c
objectivity. Research has persisted nevertheless and, in the 1990s, Jules B. Davido noted that studies by a range
of scientists had led to similar conclusions. Most of this research has focused on the causal connections between
emotional states and exposure to colours. In summarising their ndings he writes:
Warm (the ‘red’ end of the spectrum) and cold (the ‘blue’ end of the spectrum) colours have been found to
di erentially alter both physiological and emotional states… Colour is also believed to produce a direct e ect on the
endocrine system via the pituitary gland; its action is to increase aggressive behaviour under long-wave (red) light
and reduce it under short-wave (blue/violet) light ()(25).
Colour therapist Faber Birren claims that exposure to red actually increases pulse rate and blood pressure
although Davido rejects this as a spurious claim ()(26). He does acknowledge, nevertheless, the startling e ects
that colours have been proven to have on less complex organisms and admits “it could be that some remnant of
our evolution is lodged in the human sub cortical networks” ()(27).
Whilst the controversy about the physiological e ects of colour remains unresolved, other investigations have
focused upon psychological e ects. These have tended to centre on links between colours and physical objects,
explaining emotional states arising from colour exposure as acquired causal responses to associations with
speci c objects. Commonly cited examples include red with blood and re, white with snow and black with night.
Acknowledging the ubiquity of such associations, Wittgenstein has argued that “it is worthless and of no use for
the understanding of painting to speak of the characteristics of the individual colours. When we do it, we are really
only thinking of special uses” ()(28). He argues that colour meaning is not intrinsic to colour itself, but arises instead
from the set of conventions that determine the symbolic use of colour in art. In so doing, he di ers from writers
such as Hessey and Davido who believe that physiological responses play an important role in causing
psychological responses.
Given the inconclusiveness of research into the ability of colour to e ect physiological change, it is perhaps more
useful to focus upon common associations between colours, objects and emotions: the psychological e ects of the
cultural coding of colour. Faber Birren provides a table of empirically derived common colour associations in
American culture. He divides this into eight colour categories: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white and
black. Although studies have shown that linguistic constraints have no in uence on the ability to di erentiate
between hues, both memory and description of colour are limited by language. Research has demonstrated that
the number of shades easily recalled by di erent populations has been signi cantly de ned by linguistic
constraints. These, it has often been argued, have been determined in their turn by the colour distribution of
objects in the cultural landscape. It is therefore signi cant that Birren’s research is speci c to 20th century
Americans. As such, his study has immediate applications to Invocation of My Demon Brother.
One of the most oft-used colours in Invocation is red. Birren itemises the following associations with this colour:
General appearance: brilliant, intense, opaque, dry

Mental associations: hot, re, heat, blood
Direct associations: danger, Christmas, Fourth of July, St. Valentines, Mother’s Day, ag
Objective impressions: passionate, exciting, fervid, active
Subjective impressions: intensity, rage, rapacity, erceness ()(29)
He uses the phrase “objective impressions” to refer to the qualities an object is deemed to possess, whilst
“subjective impressions” are those that become psychologically active in the viewer. This di erentiation of qualities
helps him to analyse why some colours have contradictory sets of associations.
Most of the associations and impressions of the colour red that he lists are reinforced through the ways that they
have been taken up by various media. Red (passionate, exciting) is the traditional colour of brothel lighting. It both
signals the establishment as such (“red light district”) and attempts to rouse the passions of the clientele. (Hessey
would argue that this response would be physiological as well as associative.) It is often associated with
amboyance in women’s clothing and can be read as a sign of loose sexual morals – in movies think of the red
petticoat of the eponymous Sapphire (Basil Dearden, 1959), or Cary (Jane Wyman)’s red dress in the opening party
scene of All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955). In verbal discourse, too, we have adopted colour psychology,
and regularly use such expressions as “painting the town red”, “seeing red”, “red-letter days”, “feeling blue” and
“black list”. The permeation of our everyday language by such associations between mood and colour can be seen
as a powerful demonstration, and perhaps also a cause, of the depth of the roots of such associations in mass
psychology.
Although many colour associations are widely recognised, the meaning of colour is far from absolute. In some
cases a colour may have a range of quite contradictory associations, perhaps none more so than green, which is
pointedly used by Anger in most of his lms, including Invocation. Sergei Eisenstein has written of green being
“directly associated with the symbols of life – young leaf-shoots, foliage and ‘greenery’ itself – just as rmly with the
symbols of death and decay – leaf-mould, slime, and the shadows on a dead face” ()(30). Birren has speci cally
linked the repugnant aspect of green to that produced by “green illumination shining on the human esh” ()(31).
Thus the highly saturated, non-naturalistic lighting of many theatre productions tends to produce this rather than
the calming e ect. Such uses can be seen widely in cinema too, ranging from Eisenstein’s own Ivan the Terrible
(1942–1946) to the scene in Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) where Judy (Kim Novak) emerges from the hotel
bathroom, transformed once again into the “dead” Madeleine.
Many assumptions about colour have in ltrated cinematic discourse and certain associations have been used so
widely as to approach cliché. Rebel without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955), for instance, provides a master class in
creating semantic oppositions between dull, repressive shades of brown and ochre, and vibrant jewel colours, with
red used to ag moments of danger, excitement and sexuality. The capacity of colours to generate contradictory
interpretations means, however, that lms need to create their own contextual parameters if colour associations
are to be used with precision. Eisenstein has argued that,
The emotional intelligibility and function of colour will rise from the natural order of establishing the colour imagery
of the work… (any shade) not only evades being given a single ‘value’ as an absolute image, but can even assume
absolutely contradictory meanings, dependent only upon the general system of imagery that has been decided upon
for the particular lm ()(32).
There are two ways of establishing the meaning of the colour imagery. A particular colour, or colours, may be used
systematically throughout the lm, as we see in Rebel without a Cause. Alternatively, a colour may be signi cant
only within a localised context, such as a shot or a scene, where other clues to meaning may be needed if the
association is not su ciently clichéd. Vertigo‘s use of green is one such example.
Kenneth Anger’s Ritual Use of Colour

My interpretation of Anger’s use of colour in Invocation of My Demon Brother is based on the following assumptions.
Firstly, whilst physiological e ects of colour on humans have not been rmly established, there exist strong
enough and consistent enough associations between colours and ideas (within Western culture at least) to
psychologically a ect the viewer. Secondly, such e ects on the viewer can be said to be “magickal” in the sense
that Crowley uses the term. Any transformation that is e ected in the viewer (psychological or otherwise) is a
testimony to the power of the artist or magician with whom the images originate, and who has “cause(d) change to
occur in conformity with the will”. Thus Anger may well term his movies “spells”.
Of all the lms in The Magic Lantern Cycle, Invocation of My Demon Brother is perhaps the one that entails the most
schematic use of colour codes and symbolism. No one lm in the cycle uses colour in precisely the same way as
any other. As Eisenstein argued, the meaning of colour in cinema is largely dependent upon the design of each
individual text. Nevertheless, parallels can be drawn between Invocation and other lms in the Cycle, whilst some of
the di erences that exist can be explained partly in terms of developments in the ways Anger uses colour to
represent certain ideas as well as in those very ideas.
Invocation of My Demon Brother has particularly strong links with the earlier Scorpio Rising and can be viewed as a
progression of certain ideas and e ects attempted in that lm. Invocation was created using a substantial amount
of footage from an aborted project, Lucifer Rising (not to be confused with a later lm called Lucifer Rising [1970–80]
that was made immediately after Invocation). The similarity in titles suggests both commonality and di erence
between the two – in other words, the development of a theme. The relationship between Scorpio and Invocation
might be compared to the opening pages of Anthony Burgess’ novel, A Clockwork Orange, in so far as the meaning
of a particular sign – a newly invented word in the case of the book or a particular implication of an aspect of mise
en scène or iconography in the case of Anger’s work – is clearly rendered when rst used. These signs then recur in
less obvious contexts, requiring the reader or viewer to rely on memory to expand their vocabulary in order to
interpret later uses. Invocation may not be the easiest of lms to get to grips with, but is far easier to make sense
of after watching Scorpio Rising, which o ers a key to the cipher. In the immediacy of the viewing experience,
however, intellectual interpretation of Anger’s symbolic method is eclipsed by the more visceral results of his
stylistic choices.
On a visual level, the strongest similarity between Invocation and Scorpio is their domination by certain colours, in
particular black and red. In each lm, these colours are crucial elements of both the rituals depicted and the rituals
that Anger claims the lms perform. Black and red are not the only colours that are used in a similar fashion in
each lm though. Both use blue in the opening scenes and green in the nal moments. In each case, green adds
an element of the uncanny at the end, as well as pointing to key “magickal” moments elsewhere. Each lm is
structured according to an identical sequence of dominant colours, although the devices used to mark these
colours as dominant vary in both technique and meaning.
The colours of Invocation of My Demon Brother function unambiguously within the occult dialectic that is set up.
Like Scorpio Rising, Invocation is split into a tripartite structure less by narrative elements than by the prevailing
colours and their connotations. These parts correspond to the three primary colours of light: blue, red and green.
When combined, these colours generate the pure white light that can be seen to represent Lucifer, god of light,
and the demon brother with which he is identi ed. Three opposites fuse in an alchemical union, the product of
which transcends the sum of its parts. The distinction between the three stages in the lms is not absolute
however, as green appears at earlier moments in each. These are key moments that are thematically linked with
the end sections in which the colour dominates.
I have indicated that a range of techniques can be used in order to mark the dominance of particular colours.
Signi cant variables include not only the sequence in which colours occur but also the iconographic element that is
distinctive for its colouring, the frequency with which a colour is used, the area of the screen that it covers and the
level of colour saturation. A distinction should also be made between the actual colour of an object and the colour
of lighting or tinting used in a shot. This can represent the di erence between an object that, because of certain
attributes such as colour, may be intended to function as a talisman in a magickal ritual, and a special or
“magickal” e ect achieved by the lmmaker that represents the transformational power of cinematic “magick”. By
mixing and alternating these strategic uses of colour Anger is able to represent both the process and the e ect of
the invocation that his lm depicts.
The narrative content of Invocation is barely present. A gathering of dope-smoking revellers are seen amidst a
décor laden with esoteric symbols. Increasingly detailed imagery of occult rituals is shown and an invocation of
Lucifer is performed. The invocation sequence lacks consistency of character and location, editing together
documentary and ctional material, including footage shot for the earlier Lucifer Rising. Integrity is maintained
instead by theme, colour, symbol and sound. The invocation footage is intercut with further images of the
worshippers in occult attire, which coincides with the appearance of Lucifer (Bobby Beausoleil), also intercut. In
this lm as in others, Anger uses a free-association of images that are connected visually and thematically. The
bridge of the sound track also helps to bind the images together. Mick Jagger’s synthesised score is, like the visual
content, abrasive in such a way as to uphold continuity whilst frustrating attempts to completely synthesise
opposing elements. Of the lms in the Magick Lantern Cycle, this is the most hermetic and provides the greatest
problems of comprehension for the non-initiate. Colour thus plays an important role in imparting some of the
intended meaning to the viewer, as it is a system that most can comprehend to some degree. At the same time, it
partakes in a more arcane occult system of representation. Just as the actions of the characters perform a ritual or
symbolic function, so the structural organisation of the lm, in terms of colour, editing, sound and iconography,
also functions symbolically. These symbols are themselves part of a ritual that creates an e ect upon the viewer.
The precise manner in which such an e ect is achieved is open to debate but, even if one does not accept this
claim in an occult sense, the orchestration of the various elements is capable of creating a visual rhapsody with a
dramatic psychological impact.
The Colour Structure of Invocation of My Demon Brother
The inaugural palette of the lm is a passive, contemplative, spiritual blue. This can be seen to represent the
process of mental expansion that propels the key players towards an attempt to acquire knowledge of the true
self, or demon brother. The blue tones arise from the lighting rather than the colouring of pro lmic objects and
are not foregrounded to the extent that other colours are later in the lm. The calming e ect of the blue helps to
lure the viewer into the second part of the lm, which is dominated by red. The use of hazy blue light o sets the
later more speci c uses of red and black by providing a contrast. The change in technique suggests a move
forward, an active liberation from the unde ned haziness of earlier shots, from passive spirituality to active
occultism.
The second part of Invocation is characterised by the dominance of red lighting, lters and tinting, in contrast to
Scorpio Rising, where the centre section is lled with red objects. The techniques used in Invocation e ectively
eliminate all undesired supplementary colours. In most shots, virtually the entire screen is su used with a red
wash, which dominates and assimilates virtually every other colour but black. In so doing, the colour itself is
emphasised more than any individual object.
The conjunction of red with black is in itself signi cant. Black is also a colour with many clear and consistent
associations. It is most commonly connected with death and night because it is, more properly, an absence of
colour, an absence of light, an absence of vision. These associations are often linked to emotional impressions
such as misery and defeat. In terms of its associations, rather than its position on the colour spectrum, black can
be seen as the polar opposite to red, which makes their juxtaposition striking on a psychological as well as visual
level. The contrast between the two colours represents the pairing of the respective opposites of generation and
destruction. In Anger’s lms, as elsewhere, the pairing of symbols of sex and death is common since a new order
can arise only through the destruction of the old. According to the occultist’s worldview, death, or symbolic death,
is intrinsic to creation on any sort.
The central section of Invocation of My Demon Brother might be thought of as representing the “Scorpio” stage, in
which the talismans and tools of the ritual are geared towards an imperfectly conceived goal, since the higher self,
or “ideal other” cannot be accurately visualised until it is found. Like Scorpio Rising, which depicts only the ritual and
the sacri ce, and thus contains colours largely limited to the ritual purpose of the invocation, the later lm focuses
on the ceremonial process. Although Invocation does represent the arrival of Lucifer, it does so in a manner which,
in Anger’s vision, has not yet been wholly liberated from that projected in the preliminary ceremonial. These
colours are eventually transmuted into the green that dominates the end of each lm, representing the truly
magickal, the sign of the success of the ritual but not its culmination.
In Invocation, the use of lighting and lters means that the colour is imposed externally, in the process of the lm’s
production, rather than arising naturally from pro lmic objects. By such means, it di ers from Scorpio Rising, which
frequently forged associations between colours and objects. Here too, though, the associations between colours
and certain objects often occur naturally instead of being symbolically contrived. The nature of such objects often
reinforces the potency of colour associations.
The blue tones that su use the opening shots are broken rst by images of the Wandbearer (Speed Hacker), who
wears a vivid shade of green as well as being gently lit in green. From an early stage, this colour marks the
imminence of highly signi cant events or visual signs. This image is followed by the rst clearly talismanic shot of
the lm, the image of a black and red tattoo. Thus the colour green is used to anticipate the rst image that has
clear links with the magickal ritual designed for the invocation of Lucifer. The shot of the tattoo is the point at
which red begins to play a signi cant role in the mise en scène. The use of black and red as the primary palette is
clearly manifest from this point onwards, as a close up of a joint attached to the top of a small skull is lit in red.
The combination of this colour scheme with speci c iconography provides an example of the way in which colour
can reinforce visual symbols. Scorpio Rising had associated black and red in a clear and consistent manner with the
death/rebirth polarity. In Invocation, this association is less schematic, although the use of the skull as an image of
death is certainly one that echoes their frequent appearance in Scorpio. In this sequence, the colour red has
perhaps a stronger association with the joint that the skull supports, rather than the skull itself. A connection can
be made between the ritual of drug taking here and Anger’s 1954 lm, Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, in which
drugs are depicted as leading to the achievement of a transcendental state.
Moments later, we are shown the image of a man’s face peering through foliage. He watches from behind a lily
(traditionally a funereal ower) and smiles. Here again the colour green anticipates a signi cant event. Once again,
an association between green and voyeurism echoes Scorpio Rising, in which recurrent shots of a green-lit face
achieve an uncanny e ect. In Inauguration, too, the bright green face of Lord Shiva (Samson DeBrier), coloured by
both light and grease paint, accomplishes a similar impact. As a poison chalice is poured, his green face looks on.
Later the colour isolates him in a frame where other characters are drawn in re shades, thus drawing attention to
the manner in which his movements appear to control the rest of the image.
The shot of the face in Invocation di ers from these other lms in so far as the colour arises naturally from the
photographed foliage, rather than from a special e ect of the lighting. Yet the use of the colour characteristically
marks the imminence of a key moment in the lm as it immediately precedes the appearance of the Magus,
played by Anger himself. From this point, documentary footage of an invocation rite comprises the bulk of the
material. All of the shots are entirely dominated by black and red. The robes worn, the objects used and the
lighting employed are all red. During the ritual, the Magus burns a document, the resulting con agration imposed
over subsequent shots. Here the “ re” colours that dominate are referred back to the origin of some of their most
important connotations.
Towards the end of the lm, a shot of a green-lit skull, similar to one seen earlier in the lm, recurs, this time more
prominently. The green here suggests the achievement of something that is both magickal and frightening. The
e ect is promptly supplemented by a shift in the general colour scheme to one that uses green as a central part of
the system. As in previous cases, the appearance of the colour immediately precedes a pivotal event: the
appearance of Lucifer. A verbal reinforcement of the magickal aspect of the colour occurs with the appearance of a
placard stating, “Zap you’re pregnant that’s witchcraft”. Lucifer himself is robed in black and white, although the
background and lighting are red. The black and white can be understood to represent the dual aspect of the god,
whilst the red is a hangover from the invocation that has caused him to appear. Finally, he reappears, naked and
criss-crossed with white light. He links and raises his hands, a sign of closure that marks the end of the lm.
Like Invocation, Scorpio Rising had also ended with an alternation between red and green, although that lm was
resolved with a closing shot of a black belt studded with the word, “end”. Chaos in both lms is supplanted by the
restoration of an orderly colour scheme, Scorpio ending in a lack of colour, in terminal blackness, whilst Invocation
gives prominence to pure white light that shines all the brighter through its conjunction with black. This ending
represents a shift from the emphasis on death that characterised Scorpio to the possibilities of rebirth that
Invocation suggests and which the subsequent Lucifer Rising ultimately depicts.
Magick in Theory and Practice

Kenneth Anger’s lms are by no means the rst works to fuse magic with artistic expression, although his choice of
the cinema as a medium through which to o er his audience an experience structured by occult ritual endows his
oeuvre with a startling originality. Symbolist painting probably represents the most widely recognised use of occult
systems of representation in the modern era, although Anger has been especially keen to equate his lms with
poetry. He has described his early, no longer extant lms, such as Who Has Been Rocking My Dreamboat (1941) and
Escape Episode (1944), as haiku, a poetic style that conjures ideas or emotions from a very simple juxtaposition of
images, and has referred to Fireworks, the rst lm of the Magick Lantern Cycle, as “my black tanka” ()(33).
The writer Aldous Huxley has argued that spells are poetry and magicians are poets since the spell, like a poem,
uses associations and symbols ()(34). Both are capable of working a magickal e ect upon the listener (if not the
world at large). Anaïs Nin has said that, “We forget that language can be used for many things, that it was used by
primitive people as magic. It was used to enchant, it was used to seduce, it was used to make others feel what you
feel” ()(35). Nin’s description, though written with reference to verbal communication, speaks with equal eloquence
of the range of formal devices that constitute the language of cinema. She continues, “We are admitting now that
we do think unconsciously in terms of images and that symbolism and images were not only part of the Romantic
movement but are a part of our makeup, since we are still dreaming in symbols despite our scienti c period” ()(36).
Kenneth Anger’s masterful harnessing of such core components of lm style as colour, discussed here, and
montage, widely discussed elsewhere, and his use of these techniques within a framework of occult ritual provides
an opportunity to consider a range of theories pertaining to their in uence upon the viewer. The debates
surrounding both the physiological and psychological e ects of colour can help to shed light upon the arcane
systems of occult ritual that permeate his lms at every level, since such an approach is closer to established
methodologies of lm theory and criticism than are the teachings of occultists such as Crowley, whose somewhat
erratic writings have rarely been mediated by non-partisan academic studies. At the same time, careful
consideration of the ways in which colour can be used in occult ritual can help to elucidate the use of colour in
other contexts too. Let it not be forgotten that the rst systematic categorisations of colour associations were
undertaken by magicians, astrologers and cabbalists and that their conclusions continue to inform a great deal of
modern colour theory.
In the intelligence and consistency with which Anger applies his carefully developed ideas about the consequences
of stylistic choices – expressed in many interviews, as well as in his article, Modesty and the Art of Film – he excels
both as theorist and practitioner ()(37). Although his path may be unorthodox, an exploration of his singular
approach to lm aesthetics can not only yield a host of viewing pleasures but can engender fresh and valuable
perspectives on the ways in which cinema works.
This article has been refereed.
Endnotes
1. ()Film Culture, no. 48–49, Winter and Spring 1970, p. 9.

2. ()For examples of writing on colour in the cinema, see Edward Branigan, “The articulation of colour in a lmic
system: Two or Three Things I Know About Her”, Wide Angle, vol. 1, no. 3, 1976, pp. 20–31; Gorham Kindem, Toward
a semiotic theory of visual communication in the cinema: A reappraisal of semiotic theories from a cinematic
perspective and a semiotic analysis of color signs and communication in the color lms of Alfred Hitchcock
(Northwestern University PhD Thesis, 1977: UMI, 1988); Ralph Stephenson and J. R. Debrix, The Cinema as Art
(Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1965), pp. 157–169; William Johnson, “Coming to terms with color”, Film
Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 1, Fall 1966, pp. 2–22.
3. ()See, for instance, Carel Rowe, “Illuminating Lucifer”, Film Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 6, 1974; Tony Rayns, “Lucifer: A
Kenneth Anger compendium”, Cinema, no. 4, October 1969; P. Adams Sitney, Visionary Film: The American Avant-
Garde 1943-1978 Second Edition (Oxford University Press, New York, 1974, 1979); William C. Wees, Light Moving
in Time: Studies in the Visual Aesthetics of Avant-Garde Film (University of California Press, 1992); Anna Powell, “The
occult: A torch for Lucifer”, in Jack Hunter (ed.), Moonchild: The Films of Kenneth Anger (Creation Books, 2002), pp.
47–104.
4. ()For an excellent account of Anger’s use of iconography and montage in Scorpio Rising see Ed Lowry, “The
appropriation of signs in Scorpio Rising”, Velvet Light Trap, no. 20, Summer 1983.
5. ()Rowe, p. 26.
6. ()Aleister Crowley, Magick In Theory and Practice, Castle Books, Secaucus, 1929, 1991, p. xii.
7. ()Aleister Crowley, “The Book of the Law”, in The Law is For All, New Falcon Publications, Scottsdale, 1975, 1991, p.
48.
8. ()Crowley, 1929, p. 262.
9. ()Anger cited in Wees, p. 107; Anger cited in Robert Haller, Kenneth Anger: A Monograph (Film in the Cities, 1990),
p. 9.
10. ()Crowley, 1975, p. 72.
11. ()Crowley, 1975, p. 73.
12. ()Crowley cited in Richard Cavedish, The Magical Arts: Western Occultism and Occultists, Arkana, London, 1967,
1984, p. 83.
13. ()Crowley, 1975, p. 75.
14. ()Crowley, 1929, pp. 303–326.
15. ()Colin Low, Ritual Theory and Technique (http://www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/rtt.htm).
16. ()Anger cited in Rayns, p. 24.
17. ()J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, Papermac, London, 1922, 1992, pp. 11–48.
18. ()Peirce cited in Peter Wollen, Signs and Meaning in the Cinema, Third Edition, Secker & Warburg, London, 1969,
1972, pp. 123–4.
19. ()Anger cited in Sitney, p. 122.
20. ()Crowley, 1929, p. xiii.
21. ()Crowley, 1929, p. xiii.
22. ()“An interview with Kenneth Anger: conducted by Spider magazine”, Film Culture, no. 40, spring 1966, p. 70.
23. ()Anger cited in Rayns, p. 31.
24. ()Faber Birren, Color Psychology and Color Therapy, Citadel Press, Secaucus, 1950, 1961, p. 61.
25. ()Jules B. Davido , Cognition Through Colour, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass./London, 1991, p. 113.
26. ()Birren, p. 133; Davido , p. 114.
27. ()Davido , p. 114.
28. ()Ludwig Wittgenstein, Remarks on Colour, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, n.d., p. 46e.
29. ()Birren, p. 143.
30. ()Sergei Eisenstein, The Film Sense, Faber & Faber, London, 1943, 1986, pp. 100–101.
31. ()Birren, p. 142.

32. ()Eisenstein, pp. 120–21.
33. ()Kenneth Anger, “Modesty and the art of lm”, in Jayne Pilling and Mike O’Pray (eds.), Into the Pleasure Dome: The
Films of Kenneth Anger, BFI, London, 1989, p. 21. The tanka is a slightly longer poetic form than the haiku.
34. ()Aldous Huxley, Texts and Pretexts, Chatto & Windus, London, 1932, p. 222.
35. ()Anaïs Nin, “The artist as magician”, in A Woman Speaks, W. H. Allen & Co., London, 1975, 1982), p. 189.
36. ()Nin, pp. 210–11.
37. ()Kenneth Anger, “Modesty and the art of lm”, in Pilling and O’Pray, pp. 18–22.
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14/12/2020 Magick in Theory and Practice: Ritual Use of Colour in Kenneth Anger’s Invocation of My Demon Brother – Senses of Cinema

Crowley, Lucifer and the “Demon Brother”

Magickal Ritual and the Cinema

Debates About the Signi cance of Colour

General appearance: brilliant, intense, opaque, dry

Kenneth Anger’s Ritual Use of Colour

The Colour Structure of Invocation of My Demon Brother

Magick in Theory and Practice

This article has been refereed.

1. ()Film Culture, no. 48–49, Winter and Spring 1970, p. 9.

31. ()Birren, p. 142.

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