Kenneth Anger: Lucifer Rising



The 28-minute film Lucifer Rising was finished and released in 1981, but it had begun filming in 1966 by much influential experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger. Bobby Beausoleil, a free man back then, was hired to act in the film and compose the musical score.


The project was abandoned in 1967, when Anger run out of funds and claimed that Beausoleil stole the film footage. In 1970 Beausoleil allegedly acting under the orders of Charles Manson was convicted of murder and Anger went on to use most of the Lucifer Rising footage for another film, Invocation of My Demon Brother. Years later he began filming for Lucifer Rising again, this time with Marianne Faithfull and Chris Jagger (brother of Mick) as Lucifer, who left later on after an argument with Anger and his parts got edited out of the film. Around that time Anger became friends with Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and convinced him to compose a new score for the film, but that didn’t work out as well and Page’s music was dropped out of the movie too. Then Anger and the imprisoned Bobby Beausoleil made peace and the latter wrote and recorded new music for the film in prison. Jimmy Page’s version of the soundtrack was released in 2012 on a record exclusively available through his website, titled Lucifer Rising And Other Sound Tracks.




The film’s theme is based on the religion of Thelema and how mankind divided into a series of aeons, enters a new period called the Aeon of Horus, which in the film is controlled by the angel Lucifer, summoned by the Egyptian gods to guide humanity into this new occult age of self-realization and self-actualization. Leslie Huggins stars as Lucifer, Miriam Gibril is Isis and Donald Cammell is her partner Osiris, Marianne Faithfull is Lilith and Kenneth Anger himself is Magus. Bobby Beausoleil, Chris Jagger and Jimmy Page can also be spotted in the film in uncredited roles.

Here is Lucifer Rising in its entirety…






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