Symbolism In Lucifer Rising

The film Lucifer Rising (1972), directed by Kenneth Anger uses Avant-garde practises (“of or relating to the experimental treatment of artistic, musical, or literary material.”(2)) in order to inspire the idea of the new generation bringing change to the new age. Anger uses paganist imagery and symbolism, combined with a soundtrack by Bobby Beausoleil that was composed entirely in prison in order to aptly describe the growing counter-cultural movement in San Francisco at the time of the film’s conception. Lucifer in the film is used as a symbolic equivalent to the teenagers, turned- on children, teeny-boppers and adolescent hippies of the late 1960’s. A fundamental feature of this film is the way Anger portrays Lucifer. He is not perceived as a force for evil, but a positive force for the new era.
The scene (0:18:30 – 0:20:07) begins with the modern magus standing at the far end of the magick circle. It then cuts to a shot of the circle for one second before cutting to

Anger, through the use of symbolism manages to give us insight regarding the anti-establishmentarianism that was occurring at the time. He uses contradictory iconography in order to overturn tired social ideologies. As a result rigid societal norms are thrown in discordance and people suddenly become aware of things they should have been aware of years earlier. This is obvious as seen by the anti-war and civil rights movements that were occurring. It is clear that from Lucifer Rising Anger endeavours to show the audience that change is a necessary aspect of life. Thus overall showing that chaos and awareness are the driving force of change. Lucifer Rising is a vision that describes an overhaul of archaic belief in the name of