Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome, one and
all, to the Magic Music Podcast.
I'm your host, Joseph Matthew,and in this series, we will be
discussing various occult andesoteric practices in music,
art, and culture.
So sit back, relax, and let'sexplore the unknown together.
Enjoy.
(00:21):
Welcome, welcome, everyone.
Thank you so much for joining metoday.
This is the very first episodeof the Magic Music Podcast.
During this series, we're goingto be talking about different
occult esoteric practices asthey relate to music, art, and
(00:45):
popular culture.
I decided to start this podcastbecause I've always had an
affinity for things that Icannot explain.
whether it's UFOs or ghosts,things that are just
otherworldly, that are not inthis physical domain that we
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live in.
And I am a musician.
I'm an audio engineer.
I have my bachelor's degree inmusic.
So my entire life, I've beenobsessed with music.
I play bass guitar, electricguitar, drums, do a little bit
of singing.
to describe myself as like aone-stop shop band where you
(01:29):
know i could probably you knowplay make like a demo of myself
playing as one band kind of likedave grohl did on the first foo
fighters record i'm not like anexpert or like an extraordinaire
at one instrument um i'm kind ofbroad with all of them and i
just have an affinity for justmusic in general like how it
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sounds I love mixing music,writing songs, being a part of a
process with other musicians.
I've been in various bands overthe years, different rock bands.
I make my own music as well.
So it's very, very fun for me.
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Yeah, so let's get into it.
I mean, I think that thisepisode, since it's the first
episode...
We'll kind of just go over somebasic terminology in the occult,
starting with, like, what is it?
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Like, what is the occult?
And my journey with the occultstarted probably when I was
about 10 years old.
My father had a decent recordcollection down in our basement.
And, you know, I would go downthere and I would, you know,
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sift through.
his records and just stare atthe artwork because it was so
fucking cool to see all thesebands and what the people looked
like.
That's the guy that sang thatsong or played guitar on that
song.
You felt this connection withthat person even though you've
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never met them before.
And one of the records thatstood out to me the most out of
all of them was Led Zeppelin IV.
And that's the record thatbasically has the hermit
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representation of the tarot cardwhere he's up on the hill with
the lantern and he's lookingdown at the small town.
And it's kind of like agatefold.
So you open up the record allthe way and you can see you can
see the hermit, like this, thiswizard looking guy, he's got a
big white fucking beard.
And like, he just looks supercool.
And I was like, holy shit, like10 year old me was like losing
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my fucking mind looking at thisthing.
Like I thought it was so cool.
And then also what fascinated meabout that record was songs
aside.
I mean, it's, it's a, brilliantrecord it has you know some of
their best tracks zeppelinclassics on that one stairway of
course rock and roll black dogevery single song on there is
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basically a fucking hit whatreally um what really piqued my
interest was seeing you knowtheir individual um symbols that
they had or sigils you knowjimmy page um The guitarist for
Led Zeppelin, his famous sigilwas, I don't know if it's called
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Zozo, but it's Z-O-S-O.
That's kind of what it lookslike.
And then also Robert Plant was afeather.
And then John Paul Jones andJohn Bonham had their own
symbols, like the Holy Trinitysymbol.
I just can't remember the otherone off the top of my head.
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But yeah, they were super, superinteresting to look at that and
go, wow, you can identify as asymbol if you want to.
That you can make a piece of artthat people can just recognize
you.
By seeing that symbol, you'relike, oh yeah, that's Jimmy
Page.
Right off the bat.
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So I started kind of lookinginto it when I was...
probably in my early 20s.
But I've always loved just, youknow, ancient stuff and, yeah,
just looking at like ancientcultures and what they believed
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and how it kind of resonateswith modern day religion.
I grew up around Christianity,but, you know, I kind of went to
church on Sunday and, you know,I went with my parents.
I was baptized and did...
Communion, confirmation, all thesteps to take, the necessary
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steps to take to become afull-fledged Christian that will
one day possibly get intoheaven.
And I'm not here to knock anykind of religion.
I think religion is beautiful.
It gives someone purpose.
It gives someone...
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It's something to look forwardto.
It gives them faith and justkind of like a stable rock,
whether it's Jesus or Muhammador any deity that you feel this
connection to.
I didn't really feel aconnection with Jesus or God
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when I was younger.
It was strange.
If God was this all-knowing,all-powerful being, why is there
so much horrible shit in theworld?
He would think he would want tomake this paradise, right?
That was my question.
Why am I doing this?
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Why am I choosing to go to thisplace where I don't feel a
connection?
And with the people or thepriest or whatever.
And it kind of depends on thechurch too.
Like if you, you know, go to asmaller church where you know
everybody, there's like 50people in there or like maybe
even less.
It's a small church.
You feel that sense ofcommunity.
You feel connected to something,you know, so much bigger than
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you are that you can't evenfucking fathom it.
So I think that's great forthose people.
But for me, like I kind ofstemmed off into this stuff.
Because there's not really likea school besides, I guess, like,
you know, the Hermetic Order ofthe Golden Dawn or the
Illuminati.
And there's all these likeridiculous, like negative
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connotations about the occult.
And I think that in popularculture, it's been like
demonized.
Like, oh, you only use it tofucking summon these horrific
things, these really darkthings.
And yes, you can go down.
that path you can go way downlike way the fuck down and you
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can get into some really darkshit
SPEAKER_01 (08:35):
and it's hard to get
out of it so i'm here to kind of
just
SPEAKER_00 (08:43):
you know explain to
people that there is there is a
bright side to it most of it isgood positive spiritual energy
And, you know, there are very...
What's the word?
There's various occultiststhroughout time that have tried
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to explain these practices infull and the best way that they
can.
You have different types ofpractices that can resonate with
you.
It's such a vast...
a vast topic that you candefinitely get lost in it.
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It's like a sea of things thatyou may or may not perceive.
That's why people don't reallypossibly resonate with it too
SPEAKER_01 (09:44):
much.
Yeah, it's like
SPEAKER_00 (09:49):
if you don't
resonate with it, there's
definitely a reason for it.
And it is because it's verydense.
It's very dense to get into.
So I hope to kind of just helpyou guys learn or help you guys,
you know, help to figure out,you know, some of these things
(10:11):
and how you can apply them inyour own life and specifically
in like a musical and artisticcontext.
SPEAKER_01 (10:22):
So when I...
SPEAKER_00 (10:25):
Was getting into
Zeppelin, you know, I started
doing some research when I wasyounger and came across all
these different things and allthese different stories about
how Jimmy Page was a huge fan ofAleister Crowley.
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And Aleister Crowley...
He's a pretty famous occultist.
I think he's known as the mostevil man in the world.
He wrote some really, reallyinfluential books, very dark
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books.
He came up with the idea ofThelema, and he had that famous
phrase in his Book of the Law,Do what thou wilt shall be the
whole of the law.
which is actually printed on, Ithink, the inner cover of Led
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Zeppelin 3.
So, you know, Jimmy Page, youknow, he got into this stuff.
He got into this stuff at anearly age and was fascinated by
it.
You know, one of the otherconcepts that Crowley talked
about was sex magic and how youcan use, you know, your sexual
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powers to channel it intosomething else.
You know, Jimmy Page was anincredible guitarist.
Before he was in Zeppelin, hewas in the Yardbirds.
And before that, he had anamazing career as a studio
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musician.
He was the go-to guy for a lotof sessions back in the day.
a lot of artists who werelooking for guitarists that
could fingerpick really well.
And he was an amazing acousticguitar player, still is.
I mean, he's still alive.
He's still with us.
But yeah, an amazing guitaristin general.
He definitely imbued a lot ofsymbolism into the music and
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into the lyrics themselves.
I mean, Stairway is just, youknow, has so many references
that are kind of unexplained.
And I think that if you leavesomething alone and you let your
fans kind of figure it out forthemselves, there's a lot of
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power in that.
There's a lot of power in justkind of letting things out into
the wild without giving anexplanation for it.
And that band did that very,very well.
I mean, they rarely gaveinterviews.
They were, yeah, a lot, likethey were kind of like behind
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the scenes.
Like they were four, LedZeppelin was four, you know,
just amazing musicians that cametogether under one roof to make
incredible songs.
And Jimmy Page, you know, Ithink he is a magician.
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Like he, has channeled all ofthese things into creating
something that has lasted alifetime, and it will continue
to last.
I mean, it's 2025 right now.
Zeppelin started in the mid tolate 60s, and still their
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influence is so strong.
But I think maybe, and I don'tknow this for a fact, but Maybe
Jimmy got lost in a lot of thatstuff.
Like maybe he just, his head waslike spinning because he was,
you know, he had all this fameand it's like, how do you deal
with it?
And you're like, you know,reading into a guy like Aleister
Crowley, you know, who had a lotof interesting things to say,
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but, you know, was probably notthe best person in the world.
You know, he was probably a verynarcissistic individual.
Yeah, that believed in like,like hedonism and, yeah, just
taking things for yourself.
But, you know, you could alsospin that another way of like,
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you know, do what thou wilt
SPEAKER_01 (14:49):
for the betterment
of mankind.
And yeah, Zeppelin was one ofthose acts that
SPEAKER_00 (14:59):
was just a
powerhouse.
And there's so many things thathave affected that band over
time.
You know, there was the LedZeppelin curse where, you know,
a lot of horrible things happen.
Robert Plant got into a caraccident.
I think he lost his son.
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You know, John Bonham, you know,passed away.
Yeah, that Zeppelin curse, youknow, people thought it was
because, you know, Jimmy Pageand how he acquired a bullskin
house, which...
for Crowley was like that'swhere he practiced a lot of his
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rituals and his seances andmaybe you know Jimmy Page like
channeled like some kind of ofdemon you know to enter into
into that world to enter intothe band's music possibly I
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don't know it's all speculationbut at the end of the day their
influence remains like very verystrong and they've influenced a
ton of other bands and you knowhow can you take what Zeppelin
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did and kind of apply it to yourown life How can you apply it to
writing a song?
Where does that idea come from?
Where does that idea stem from?
Does it come from within or doesit come from the ether?
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Does it come from somethingoutside of yourself, outside of
this physical plane and into thespiritual plane?
Does a being just drop it intoyour head?
Does it plant a seed?
Or are you influenced by otherpeople that might say a word to
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you or say a phrase to you toget your mind really thinking?
And I think it's probably both.
I think that just enacting yourown will
SPEAKER_01 (17:31):
onto something,
that's
SPEAKER_00 (17:35):
magic.
That's magic.
Most people think about magic asif you are pulling a rabbit out
of a hat.
Someone's doing all these tricksand they're fooling you.
SPEAKER_01 (17:52):
But I don't know if
I would call that magic.
SPEAKER_00 (17:59):
Because I think
magic might be life itself.
like the essence that makes uplife.
You know, we're more than justthis physical body.
We have so much more that drivesus, that pushes us to do
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something.
It's like, why do people want tocreate things?
Like, why do people want to havechildren?
You enact that ritual of havingsex with somebody, and the next
thing you know, you have a baby,and then that baby grows up, and
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you are basically continuingthis cyclical pattern over and
over and over again.
But the will to create is such astrong will, such a strong
desire in people.
And it's as if we are channelingsomething from another realm.
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And whether that's a good entityor a bad entity, it's still
something that's being channeledand you should be very wary of.
Because once you open that door,
SPEAKER_01 (19:21):
you have to close
it.
SPEAKER_00 (19:24):
And if you forget to
close that door, I'm not saying
a demon will harass you and makeyour life a living hell, but
there might be a good chance ofthat.
I don't have any proof for that,but maybe the people who are
listening, maybe you guys haveexperiences that you want to
share.
(19:44):
I'm very, very open to that.
I think on the next podcast,I'll kind of talk about that,
having those experiences.
you know, like seeing like aloved one or a friend or
relative that you have maybelike a dream of them.
And then you write a song aboutthem the next day.
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And you think about them.
And you take that idea of like,oh, I just saw like this person
in a dream.
And then the next day you'relike, oh, I miss this person so
much.
I'm going to write a song aboutthem.
I'm going to make a video aboutthem.
I'm going to remember what theirlegacy was and, you know, do my
best to you know, show honor
SPEAKER_01 (20:28):
for that.
So yeah,
SPEAKER_00 (20:35):
this is something
that it's going to be a work in
progress.
I'm so excited to go on thisjourney with you guys.
And thank you so much forjoining me on the very first
episode.
And I hope you guys, I hope Igot the gears spinning in your
heads of like just, you know,thinking about this stuff and
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like you know we're gonna delveinto more specifics like you
know in each episode coming upum because i know this one was
kind of like broad in generaland talking about like zeppelin
a little bit but um yeah we'regonna go a lot further into this
stuff as the next um episodescome out so um thank you so much
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for joining me um stay safe andi hope you guys have had a happy
easter And I will see you nexttime.
Thank you so much guys.