settima

Thelema

Night Tide (Curtis Harrington, 1961)

May

22

National Maritime Day

Night Tide (1961)

Johnny Drake (Dennis Hopper) and Mora (Linda Lawson) in front of her joint that reads “MORA the MERMAID. ALIVE! LOVELY SIREN of the DEEP”. The sideshow's mural, and presumably the lettering too, were painted by Kenneth Anger associate Paul Mathison, both part of (Marjorie) Cameron's Magick Circle. DPs: Vilis Lapenieks & Floyd Crosby.

On the Santa Monica pier, sailor Johnny falls in love with one of the attractions of the local #sideshow, Mora the Mermaid. As people warn Johnny about the faith of Mora's previous suitors, captivated, he becomes convinced that she is a real siren, planning his downfall.

– Yes, I love the sea most of all. But I'm afraid of it, too.

– I guess we're all a little afraid of what we love.

 

This, lost dreamlike L.A. is gone; a treasure like Night Tide serves as a reminder of a more spellbinding Hollywood.

Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (Kenneth Anger, 1954) & The Wormwood Star (Curtis Harrington, 1956)

Mar

26

Purple Day

Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954)
The Wormwood Star (1956)

1: The Scarlet Woman (Marjorie Cameron) wearing a fantastic peacock-like robe and crown. DP: Kenneth Anger.
2: Cameron as herself. Here too she wears references to the peacock Aiwass, who dictated The Book of the Law to Crowley.

Someone wears purple on Purple Day (International Epilepsy Day).

 

Both in The Wormwood Star (Curtis Harrington, 1956) and Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (Kenneth Anger, 1954), Marjorie Cameron wears shades of purple. Professionally known as Cameron, she was a follower of #Thelema, the philosophical movement founded by occultist Aleister Crowley.

“Purple beyond purple: it is the light higher than eyesight”

– Aleister Crowley, Liber AL vel Legis sub figura CCXX (1904)