Editing Jimmy Page (section)

===Interest in the occult===

Page's interest in the [[occult]] started as a schoolboy at the age of fifteen, when he read English occultist's [[Aleister Crowley]]'s ''[[Magick (Book 4)#Part III: Magick in Theory and Practice|Magick in Theory and Practice]]''. He later said that following this discovery, he thought: "Yes, that's it. My thing: I've found it."{{sfn|Salewicz|2018|p=33}}

<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Zoso Jimmy Page Saturn sigil.png|thumb|A derivative of Page's [[Saturn]] [[Sigil (magic)|sigil]], itself derived from a 1557 source{{ffdc|1=Zoso Jimmy Page Saturn sigil.png|log=2022 January 13|date=January 2022}}]] -->
The appearance of four symbols on the jacket of Led Zeppelin's [[Led Zeppelin IV|fourth album]] has been linked to Page's interest in the occult.<ref name="GW2008">''Jimmy Page interview'', ''Guitar World'', January 2008.</ref> The four symbols represented each member of the band. Page's own so-called "Zoso" symbol originated in ''Ars Magica Arteficii'' (1557) by [[Gerolamo Cardano]], an old alchemical [[grimoire]], where it has been identified as a [[sigil (magic)|sigil]] consisting of zodiac signs. The sigil is reproduced in ''[[Dictionary of Occult, Hermetic and Alchemical Sigils]]'' by Fred Gettings.{{sfn|Gettings|1981|p=201}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.inthelight.co.nz/ledzep/zososymbol.htm|title=Jimmy Page's symbol|date=17 September 2009|access-date=4 December 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222124002/http://www.inthelight.co.nz/ledzep/zososymbol.htm|archive-date=22 February 2012}}
</ref>

During tours and performances after the release of the fourth album, Page often had the "Zoso" symbol embroidered on his clothes, along with [[zodiac]] symbols. These were visible most notably on his "Dragon Suit", which included the signs for Capricorn, Scorpio and Cancer which are Page's Sun, Ascendant and Moon signs, respectively.  The "Zoso" symbol also appeared on Page's amplifiers.

The artwork inside the album cover of ''Led Zeppelin IV'' is from a painting attributed to the artist Barrington Colby, influenced by the traditional Rider/Waite Tarot card design for the card called "The Hermit". Very little is known about Colby and rumours have persisted down the years that Page himself is responsible for the painting.<ref name="GW2008" /> Page transforms into this character during his fantasy sequence in Led Zeppelin's concert film ''The Song Remains the Same''.

In the early 1970s Page owned an occult bookshop and publishing house, The Equinox Booksellers and Publishers, at 4 [[Holland Street, Kensington|Holland Street]] in [[Kensington]], London, named after Crowley's biannual magazine, ''[[The Equinox]]''.{{sfn|Salewicz|2018|p=289}} The design of the interior incorporated Egyptian and Art Deco motifs, with Crowley's birth chart affixed to a wall. Page's reasons for setting up the bookshop were straightforward:
<blockquote>There was not one bookshop in London with a good collection of occult books and I was so pissed off at not being able to get the books I wanted.{{sfn|Salewicz|2018|p=289}}</blockquote>

The company published two books: a facsimile of Crowley's 1904 edition of ''[[The Goetia]]''<ref name="Tolinski2012">{{cite book|author=Brad Tolinski|title=Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page|year=2012|publisher=Virgin|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=6gzUbV5AJQYC}}|isbn=978-0-7535-4039-8|page=183}}</ref> and ''Astrology, A Cosmic Science'' by Isabel Hickey.{{sfn|Salewicz|2018|p=290}} The lease eventually expired on the premises and was not renewed. As Page said: "It obviously wasn't going to run the way it should without some drastic business changes, and I didn't really want to have to agree to all that. I basically just wanted the shop to be the nucleus, that's all."{{sfn|Salewicz|2018|p=410}}

Page has maintained a strong interest in Crowley for many years. In 1978, he explained:

{{blockquote|I feel Aleister Crowley is a misunderstood genius of the 20th century. It is because his whole thing was liberation of the person, of the entity and that restrictions would foul you up, lead to frustration which leads to violence, crime, mental breakdown, depending on what sort of makeup you have underneath. The further this age we're in now gets into technology and alienation, a lot of the points he's made seem to manifest themselves all down the line. ... I'm not saying it's a system for anybody to follow. I don't agree with everything but I find a lot of it relevant and it's those things that people attacked him on, so he was misunderstood. ... I'm not trying to interest anyone in Aleister Crowley any more than I am in Charles Dickens. All it was, was that at a particular time he was expounding a theory of self-liberation, which is something which is so important. He was like an eye to the world, into the forthcoming situation. My studies have been quite intensive, but I don't particularly want to go into it because it's a personal thing and isn't in relation to anything apart from the fact that I've employed his system in my own day to day life. ... The thing is to come to terms with one's free will, discover one's place and what one is, and from that you can go ahead and do it and not spend your whole life suppressed and frustrated. It's very basically coming to terms with yourself.<ref>''[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds]]'', 13&nbsp;March 1978.</ref>}}

Page was commissioned to write the soundtrack music for the film ''[[Lucifer Rising (film)|Lucifer Rising]]'' by Crowley admirer and underground movie director [[Kenneth Anger]]. Page ultimately produced 23 minutes of music, which Anger felt was insufficient because the film ran for 28 minutes and Anger wanted the film to have a full soundtrack. Anger claimed Page took three years to deliver the music and the final product was only 23 minutes of "droning". The director also slammed the guitarist in the press by calling him a "dabbler" in the occult and an addict and being too strung out on drugs to complete the project. Page countered that he had fulfilled all his obligations, even going so far as to lend Anger his own film editing equipment to help him finish the project.<ref name="GW2006">''The Story Behind The Lost Lucifer Rising Soundtrack'', ''[[Guitar World]]'', October 2006.</ref> Page released the Lucifer Rising music on vinyl in 2012 via his website on "Lucifer Rising and other sound tracks". Side one contained "Lucifer Rising – Main Track", whilst side two contained the tracks "Incubus", "Damask", "Unharmonics", "Damask – Ambient", and "Lucifer Rising  – Percussive Return". In the December 2012 Rolling Stone cover story "Jimmy Page: The Rolling Stone Interview", Page said: "... there was a request, suggesting that Lucifer Rising should come out again with my music on. I ignored it."<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Fricke |first=David|title=Jimmy Page: The Rolling Stone Interview|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/jimmy-page-the-rolling-stone-interview-101221/8/|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=December 2012|access-date=October 10, 2024}}</ref>

Although Page collected works by Crowley, he has never described himself as a [[Thelemite]] nor was he ever initiated into [[Ordo Templi Orientis]].{{citation needed|date=May 2024}} The Equinox Bookstore and Boleskine House were both sold off during the 1980s, as Page settled into family life and participated in charity work.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}