Singing For Satan---Part 20

This week I continue my once-per-month series of posts regarding an informal study I undertook in the early 1990s regarding rock and pop music. The purpose of my study (and the background to it) can be read in the first installment of August 7, 2017. If you have not read that post, I strongly encourage you to do so before reading this installment. I will only repeat here the seven (7) evil elements that pervade today's music:

1. Violence/Murder/Suicide
2. Nihilism/Despair
3. Drug and alcohol glorification
4. Adultery/ Fornication and sexual perversion
5. The occult
6. Rebellion against lawful superiors
7. Blasphemy against God, Jesus Christ in particular, and the Church

 The exposing of the bands/artists continues.

Jim Morrison  and The Doors

This is just one of Jim Morrison's mug shots. A man who wanted people to rebel against lawful authority, he was no hypocrite. He was arrested on many charges by the age of 27. The charges included Lewd and Lascivious Behavior, Indecent Exposure, Public Profanity and Public Drunkenness. 

James Douglas Morrison (1943-1971) was born in Florida, and was a troubled person his entire life. He embodied the "hippie" counterculture movement of the 1960s. He was a "military brat," the son of a Rear Admiral, and had to relocate around the country. At the age of four, Morrison claims that there was a road accident wherein he witnessed a truck overturn, and there were bodies of Native Americans all over the road bleeding to death. He said the incident always stuck with him, and even influenced his songs. The veracity of the incident is challenged by his own parents and sister. In Morrison's biography No One Here Gets Out Alive, his father claimed they drove past some Native Americans who were in a vehicular accident, and one was crying, upsetting young Morrison. There was no mention of bleeding, dying Native Americans (or "Indians") along the road.  His sister is quoted as saying, "He enjoyed telling that story and exaggerating it. He said he saw a dead Indian [singular--Introibo] by the side of the road, and I don't even know if that's true." (See The Doors:The Illustrated History, [2012], pg. 12). I can't help but wonder if these were lies and exaggerations, or if perhaps young Morrison had a demonic encounter--a foreboding of when he would give himself over to Satan.

Morrison was a voracious reader, and took such notable atheists as Friedrich Nietzsche and Albert Camus as his literary and philosophical "heroes." He attended UCLA and graduated in 1965 with a bachelor's degree in cinematography. He lead a bohemian lifestyle, ingesting large amounts of LSD. Fancying himself a "poet," Morrison wrote many poems which would become the lyrics to his songs. He had a chance encounter with Ray Manzarek (d. 2013), a fellow student at UCLA who soon became a close friend. Manzarek was a keyboard player interested in forming a rock band, and he loved Morrison's poems, wanting them to be used as songs. Morrison went along with Manzarek, and the keyboard player also brought in guitarist Robert Kriege (b. 1946), and drummer John Paul Densmore (b. 1944).

The band got its name from the title of Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception, and it was a reference to the "perceptions" opened up by the members' unceasing use of drugs. Morrison would write the lyrics and sing, and all of them (except for Morrison at the beginning) were into the teachings of the pagan guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (d. 2008). They got their break when they signed a record contract with Elektra Records, and released eight albums in five years. In 1967, the song Light My Fire, would become their first smash hit, selling over one million copies.

The band broke up in 1971 after the mysterious death of Morrison on July 3rd. The cause of his death was never determined (no autopsy was performed) and lead to the urban legend that (like the late Elvis Presley) Morrison "faked his death." The legend was a powerful one for quite some time. In the 1980s, here in New York City, you would often see graffiti that proclaimed "Jim Morrison Lives."  The Doors sold over 100 million records to date and Rolling Stone magazine lists them as #41 on "The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time." They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

Possessed from a Young Age

Morrison never recanted his tale about the dead Indians (Native Americans). Did he perhaps see demons? I believe he did. According to Morrison himself, "The reaction I get now, thinking about it, looking back--is that the souls of the ghosts of those dead Indians...maybe one or two of 'em... were just running around freaking out, and just leaped into my soul. And they're still in there." (See lyrics of The Doors song Fragile Eggshell Mind). The biography Break on Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison[1991], has Doors producer Paul Rothchild quoted as saying, "...(the) spirit entered Jim's body. That was the pivotal event of his life. He always viewed himself as the shaman, having mystical powers..." (pg. 193; Emphasis mine). A shaman is a pagan "witch doctor" who uses drugs and forms of meditation designed to reach altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with the "spirits" (i.e., demons). The shaman will then channel them to ostensibly help others, but ultimately lead these souls to perdition. Morrison and The Doors did this, not in some isolated part of Africa or Asia, but to the masses of Catholics; especially in Europe and America. 

This experience manifested itself in Morrison the singer during his shows when he would often "channel" a Native American shaman on stage, performing Indian dances and chanting.You can see him screaming and dancing like a shaman here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihn8ldJsfgQ. (You will also notice him sporting what appears to be a cross--what sacrilege!). The song The Soft Parade claims prayer to God is useless and you should "slay a few animals at the crossroads"--a reference to a Satanic ritual. 

When I was back there in seminary school
There was a person there
Who put forth the proposition
That you can petition the Lord with prayer
Petition the Lord with prayer
Petition the Lord with prayer
You cannot petition the lord with prayer...

You gotta meet me
Too late, baby
Slay a few animals
At the crossroads
Too late

The song Break On Through encourages the listener to "break on through to the other side." It has a double meaning. It encourages necromancy (condemned by the Church and in the Bible), and according to Morrison, "I like ideas about the breaking away or overthrowing of established order. I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos, especially activity that seems to have no meaning."

You know the day destroys the night
Night divides the day
Tried to run, tried to hide
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Chased our plea here
Dug our trea there
Still recall, time we cried
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through, yeah
All right
Everybody loves my baby
Everybody loves my baby
She get
She get
She get
She get high

His demons made use of the other band members. According to Break On Through (cited above) Morrison's friend and keyboard player, Manzarak said, "Fifteen thousand people would be hushed, stopped, not even breathing. Man, when I was on stage with the guy (Morrison), I don't know who was playing the organ. Sure, it was my fingers, but..." (pg. 187; Emphasis mine). From No One Gets Out Alive (cited above) we read: "It was like Jim was an electric shaman, and we were the electric shaman's band, pounding away behind him. It would take him over...You could see every once in a while--twitch--I could hit a chord and make him twitch. And he'd go off again." (pgs. 159-160).

In Break On Through, Morrison agrees he is playing the part of a pagan shaman: "In the seance the shaman lead...A sensuous panic,deliberately evoked through drugs, chants, dancing, hurls the shaman into a trance. Changed voice. Convulsive movement. he acts like a madman." (pgs. 197-198).

The Shaman "Marries" A Witch

Patricia Kennealy, a Wiccan (witch), married Morrison in a Celtic-pagan "hand fasting" ceremony. Kennealy wrote a book Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison in 1992. She reveals that on June 21, 1970, the ceremony took place wherein the Wiccan marriage ceremony had blood spilled and a knife was used for that purpose. Kennealy wrote, "...there were ceremonial cuts upon himself in the handfasting" (tying of the couples hands together). (See Strange Days, pg. 383) She relates how she and Morrison made cuts inside of their left wrists, carefully over the bone and "...blood wells up immediately." (pg. 172) Jim Morrison and Patricia Kennealy then mixed their blood. (pg. 173).

The Celtic hand-fasting ceremony was realistically dramatized in Oliver Stone's 1991 movie The Doors as Kennealy acted as a consultant on the film and also played the part of the "high priestess." In the ceremony, a circle is drawn with a "consecrated" sword, invocations are made to the four quarters (east, west, north and south), and everyone involved in the ceremony is purified by earth, air, fire and water. Morrison and Kennealy then stepped into circle, took the vows and cut their palms and dripped the blood into "sacramental" wine. Their hands were then bound together with a red cord and they drank the wine. Like a traditional wedding they exchanged rings, and Irish Claddaghs, of which Kennealy wears both to this day. The couple then stepped over fire and a sword and Kennealy blew out a candle to conclude the ceremony, at which point Morrison fainted. (See https://yeahstub.com/jim-morrison-marries-patricia-kennealy-in-wiccan-wedding-ceremony/; year of film and quotation marks, mine). 

The Doors most popular song, Light My Fire, was written not by Morrison but by guitarist Kriege, who wanted to write about "one of the elements." The worship of Earth and the elements is a common theme among shamans and Wiccans. It also tells of a funeral pyre--a pagan practice of burning dead bodies; an ancient cremation. "Light my fire" is also a sexual innuendo, and the lyrics talk about "we couldn't get much higher"--a blatant drug reference.

You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
If I was to say to you
Girl, we couldn't get much higher
Come on baby, light my fire
Come on baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire
The time for hesitation's through
There's no time to wallow in the mire
Darling we could only lose
And our love become a funeral pyre
Come on baby, light my fire
Come on baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire

Conclusion

Jim Morrison and The Doors were modern day pagans. Constantly high on drugs, and using himself as a shaman for demons to possess, Morrison had said religion was "bulls*it" even as he influenced millions with his paganism. He wanted young people to get high and give themselves over to spirits on the "other side" while being in open rebellion against society. Morrison practiced what he preached. He was arrested for criminal behavior more than once, and on March 1, 1969, he was arrested during a concert in Florida for "lewd and lascivious behavior, indecent exposure, public profanity, and public drunkenness."

What did Jim Morrison do? While high (and in a demonic inspired frenzy) The Doors launched into the song Touch Me. Morrison suddenly stopped the band and started a long speech about love and hate. After someone from the audience poured champagne on him, Morrison took his shirt off, held it over his crotch and simulated masturbation. Many people at the concert alleged he also exposed his genitals, was using foul language, and was visibly very high (probably LSD as well as alcohol). This is the man the world deems one of the greatest musical artists. If you value your soul, slam The Doors to Hell shut, and keep their music/influence out of your life.