Season of the Witch: How the Occult Saved Rock and Roll

(Paperback)

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From the Hoodoo-inspired sounds of Elvis Presley to the Eastern odysseys of George Harrison, from the dark dalliances of Led Zeppelin to the Masonic imagery of today's hip-hop scene, the occult has long breathed life into rock and hip hop - and indeed, esoteric and supernatural traditions are the secret ingredient behind the emergence and development of rock and roll. With intellectual substance, vivid storytelling, and laser-sharp analysis, writer and critic, Peter Bebergal, illuminates this web of influences to produce SEASON OF THE WITCH, the definitive work on how the occult shaped and saved popular music. As Bebergal explains, occult and mystical ideals gave rock and roll its heart and purpose - making rock into more than just backbeat music, but into a cultural revolution of political, spiritual, sexual and social liberation. Bebergal explores how the biggest names in popular music have participated in this spiritual rebellion and in so doing crafted rock's mythic soul. The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, King Crimson, Black Sabbath, Killing Joke and even The Rolling Stones, among many others, not only transformed rock with their musical innovations, but saved rock from becoming a series of radio-friendly 45s spinning out endless redundant chords. Their stories serve as a window that exposes how, without the occult imagination, there would be no rock as we know it. SEASON OF THE WITCH, also, investigates the figures whose lives intersect, both directly and indirectly, with the culture of rock: the fin-de-siecle magician, Aleister Crowley, who would become a counterculture icon; the symbolist artist, Austin Osmond Spare, whose sigil magic would influence an entire subculture of British musicians in the 1980s and 1990s; the pulp horror writer, H.P. Lovecraft; the nightmarish serial killer, Charles Manson; and the underground filmmaker and Crowley devotee, Kenneth Anger. While occult influences appeared at rock's inception, the true alchemical marriage didn't happen overnight, but rather built slowly towards its own peak when the planets aligned in the 1960s and sexual liberation, anti-war protests and other social movements collided. In this climate, musicians and fans alike would blow their music and their minds with LSD, opening up a cultural third eye that exposed them to alternative religious and occult practice. It was a shot heard round the word in song, such as the cosmic I AM spirituality of The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows," one of the first great mystical moments in popular music. From then on, at every turn, musicians pushed at the edges and would eventually give rock its truly defining sound and mythology. All the essential rock genres, from heavy metal to progressive, from glam to punk gathered their wool from the occult's harvest. These are just a few of the extraordinary figures who readers meet in this feast of storytelling and cultural illumination.

Reviews

A fascinating thesis reflecting the time when everyone seemed to give rock and roll the status of, if not a religion, then certainly that of a spiritual belief system. Peter Bebergals Season of the Witch brought it all back. It's an absorbing read deserving an important place in rock literature.
--Michael Moorcock

"Rather than turning in either a fanboyish rhapsody or a scholarly dissertation, he treads the line between those approaches. The result is passionate, informed, gripping and at times wonderfully lyrical."
--NPR

This sharply written narrative illuminates the centrality of the occult imagination at the heart of rock and roll.
--Library Journal (starred review)

"A thoroughly researched, absorbing, entertaining ride for anyone whos ever played the Beatles White Album backwards.
--Andrea Shea, WBUR/ NPR

Kudos to Bebergal for taming the wily spirits of rock long enough to capture their essence in thisfascinating book. Perhaps more impressive is the books comprehensivenessfrom Delta blues to beatnik bluster toacid evangelists tometal overlords, Season of the Witch puts the hellfire inhighbrow.
--The Contrarian

"Skillfully woven...will delight any music fan and music historian in equal measure.
--Spirituality Today (5/5 stars)

This book is a glorious headlong rush into the dark, full of the electricity of the arcane. I loved it.
--Warren Ellis, author of Gun Machine and Transmetropolitan

From grimoires to topographic oceans, from heavy metal to hip-hop, Peter Bebergal tracks the Mysteries through half a century of popular music (and some underground noise as well). At once an overview of rock's mystic rebellions and a handy primer on modern esoterica, Season of the Witch suggests that we may need to round out the trinity of sex, drugs, and rock' n' roll with an additional deity: the occult, another primal portal to a re-enchanted world.
--Erik Davis, author of Led Zeppelin IV and Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica

Told with clear-eyed scholarship and delectable anecdotes, Peter Bebergal's mind-expanding occult history opened my third eye to Rock & Roll's awesome power over human behavior. Rock & Roll will never sound the same to me again, and I'm glad about it.
--Mark Frauenfelder, founder of Boing Boing

"Bebergal displays an intelligent understanding of the interaction between religion and culture when he argues that the '"occult imagination is the vital force of rock-and-roll culture.' "
--Publishers Weekly

Peter Bebergal has written of his own searching, reconciling spiritual aspirations and personal background, in The Faith Between Us and Too Much To Dream. Both are on my bookshelves. Here, in Season Of The Witch, Peter presents an overview of one alternative influence at work on some of those intending to change the world.

The world they hoped to change was a dangerous mess.

Now, half a century later
--Robert Fripp

Unfussy but thoroughly documentedestablishes the occult as a phenomenon above and beyond its debatable status of mere fad in the history of contemporary music.--Ralph Elawani, Exclaim!

Anyone seeking shocking tales of demonic rocknroll would be best served looking elsewhere, but for someone interested in the interplay between music, culture and spirituality, Season Of The Witch is a revelatory and fascinating grimoire. --Record Collector

A must-read for anyone who prefers their music loud, riff-driven, and loaded with lyrics about Satan, wizards, and mystical quests. --Cheryl Eddy, io9.com

Bebergal, a Dungeons & Dragons playing rock fanboy and graduate of Harvard Divinity School has exactly the right pedigree for this line of work, infusing what could be a dry litany of rumors, hearsay, and matter-of-facts with a genuine love for the source material. --Cooper Berkmoyer, Flavorpill

Author Bio

Peter Bebergal writes widely on the speculative and slightly fringe. His recent essays and reviews have appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, BoingBoing, The Believer and The Quietus. He is the author of Too Much to Dream: A Psychedelic American Boyhood and The Faith between Us (with Scott Korb). Bebergal studied religion and culture at Harvard Divinity School.