On this day I VISITED CAIRO, EGYPTI filch the picture for you.
On the centenary of Aleister Crowley's channelling 'The Book of the Law', I revisited the Egyptian Museum of Cairo to see the 'Stele of Revealing'; the conduit to that event. I was curious to see how many people might attend the museum and indeed there was a small gathering of Thelemites.
6 comments:
I visited the Cairo Museum in '75. Not knowing the story, the significance of the Stele escaped me. (It's one unassuming artefact in a building full of artefacts.) Which made me wonder why it appeared significant to Crowley & wife in 1904: significant enough to inspire a theology. (The official line is that Rose recognised Horus from a vision.)
Curiously, the photographs barely show the Stele. (It's at the bottom of the glass case on the right. No idea what's on the left.) What the photographs do clearly show is the original exhibit number 666. Is this what attracted Crowley's attention? Would 666 have had any cultural significance in 1904? (And would the original number have been displayed, since the Stele was moved from the Bulaq Museum in 1902. It's present now, but ...)
These days, the Apocalypse of the Book of Revelations is well-known: we've seen The Omen and heard The Number of the Beast. But Omen's screenwriter David Seltzer claims to have invented most of the Revelations mythos for the film.
I wondered why he didn't show a clear photo of the stele itself.
Yes, that's it's original number and yes, it attracted Crowley's attention and yes, the man who called himself The Great Beast was aware of the number 666. I tried to display something from John Symonds, C's biographer on Google books but magicians are a secretive lot and don't seem to allow much previewing. (Though not so secretive as not to sell the books, I suppose.)
I'm so glad your blog exists! It's so refreshing to read interesting Zeppelin tidbits from fans who aren't the hypersexual (but often funny) teens on Tumblr or the way-too-technical music geeks on too many sites to count. Your blog balances it perfectly for this 45-year-old mom and huge Jimmy fan. Thanks.
Thanks, Anon! I leave it to the Tumblr folk to do the hypersexual thing, partly because they are younger than I am and partly because they care less about the copyrights of the shmexy photos and the photographers haven't discovered them yet. Hope I can continue to amuse! :)
Thanks Ralph! Did you see this one about the alternative white satin suit?
http://peromyscus.blogspot.com/2009/03/jimmy-pages-stage-suit-on-display-at-v.html
Yes, I photoshopped the rest of the Stele of Revealing into the second picture of the suit (and got the wrong eye in the pyramid), but the top pictures are from the museum - Nut, the dark sky arch and the winged sundisk (looks like a boomerang) are embroidered onto the back.
Thanks for the link to Photon Beam's memories.
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