Thursday, June 12, 2008

Ritual Olympics: "Making This Magic Begin"

 
Ever wonder what an Olympic ceremony would look like had it been produced by Aleister Crowley? 

Well, neither had I until a Rik Clay turned me onto this unbelievable video from the 1984 Summer Olympics. Now, of course, there's no earthly reason to assume this was some mass-scale occult ritual, but boy, it sure plays out like one. 

We have an announcer imploring the audience to hold up their (Masonic) blue lights in order that they can do "magic," under a full moon, no less. And we have "Also Sprach Zarathrusta"- which was inspired by the book written by Crowley's hero, Friedrich Nietzsche - blaring as a UFO hovers over the stadium,

Now, I admit I'm not a big fan of the Olympics, but what the hell do UFOs have to do with anything? Remember, this is the closing ceremony to the biggest sports event in the world. And to top it all off, we have a Lam lookalike come out of the ship (and out of Crowley's "Amalantrah Working") and address the crowd while standing in front of a obelisk, all in a stadium designed with a repeating arch motif.

The music here adds multiple layers of strangeness to it all- 1984 was the year the Russians and the Soviet bloc countries boycotted the games, and it also saw the release of the second part of Arthur C. Clarke's ancient astronaut manifesto, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, which also dealt with US/Soviet tension. 

The book the film is based on also brings us the alien transformation of Jupiter into "Lucifer," the new sun. The book actually uses "Lucifer Rising" for a chapter title, which again ties us back to Crowley. The release dates for these films are fascinating: 1968 was 33 years and 1984 was 17 years before 2001.

Now, that wasn't a real UFO or a real alien, which is why this plays like a ritual and not a working. But you had however many billion people watching this and absorbing this witches' brew subconsciously, which is undoubtedly the largest audience for what looks a devil of a lot like the largest explicitly magical invocation in history.

If you know anyone who still believes that only cranks and backwoods yokels believe in UFOs or ancient astronaut theory, show them this video and then have them take a gander at Picknett and Prince's The Stargate Conspiracy. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't see how you can hit all of those semiotic bases by accident, or stage something like that just for giggles and grins. That looks like someone was making a statement.

EDIT: Michael S. noted that the alien is a giant, and I noticed that at 09:00 we see an ejaculatory firework explosion shoot from behind the obelisk the giant alien is standing in front of. 

Ah, subtlety.