Grace Slick and Paul Kantner were all that remained of the original 1966 band, but the availability of guest crew for
the Airplane seemed endless.
Kantner’s 1971-73 songs appeared to deemphasize space travel in favor of magical and mystical concepts,
ancient Egypt, and weird, futuristic fantasies. In Bark (1971) he had first focused on the summer of 1975 as an
occasion of special importance, but seemed reluctant to be specific. As late as May 30, 1975, when asked what he
thought was about to occur, he responded: “I think it is going to be obvious by the end of the summer where this
country is going. I’d be really surprised if it isn’t. Several different possibilities, depending upon whether you are
optimistic or pessimistic. Either you are going to have Gerald Ford for another 30 years and it will keep getting
progressively worse, or it will explode in a civil situation, or it’s going to get better. And there is a great chance of it
getting better from any number of natural and supernatural origins.”
“I don’t know,” commented Grace Slick. “I’ve asked Paul a number of times what he means in the lyrics. He
says, ‘I don’t know - any way you take it.’ I’m sure he means well, but I really don’t know what he is talking about. I
think the political situation all over is so screwed up that nothing is going to come together, and actually once a week
something else falls apart. Then next week something else falls apart, and the next week something else. It doesn’t
seem to go ‘Blam!’ all at once.”
In terms of mundane history 1975 proved to be neither more nor less noteworthy than its predecessors and
successors. It did prove to be a very significant year for the band itself, as its latest album, Dragonfly, had
mushroomed into an unprecedented hit. Coincidentally it had been released under the signature of “Jefferson
Starship”. The theme which had been ahead of its time in 1970 was now perfectly timed, aligned, and focused. The
United States had just emerged from the Scylla of Vietnam and the Charybdis of Watergate into energy shortages
and ecological doomsday forecasts. Escapism was pervasive, beginning with revivals or the old Star Trek television
series and culminating a year later in the popular hysteria that greeted George Lucas’ Star Wars.
Everyone in the music/literary world had an explanation for the Jefferson Starship’s sudden success. It was the
return of Marty Balin, or it was the new sophistication of the music, or Grace Slick’s voice was now repaired/
perfected. All such analyses blissfully ignored the elegantly simple fact of the name-change. Everyone was now
longing to escape to space, and here was a genuine space-band to sing us on our way.
Until 1975 the Jefferson Airplane had been significant to me primarily as an “old San Francisco friend”,
nostalgically comforting to hear as I roamed about the planet. But the crisis and destruction of the Church of Satan,
the Book of Coming Forth by Night, and the creation of the Temple of Set on the Summer Solstice of 1975 suddenly
made Paul Kantner’s predictions very intriguing indeed. I sensed the presence of a Magical Link. From their
disconnected beginnings in San Francisco nine years earlier, both the Jefferson Airplane and the Church of Satan
had passed through a “lens” in 1975 and emerged as something totally different. The only one of the original thirty
copies of the Book of Coming Forth by Night not sent to the hierarchy of the Satanic Priesthood, therefore, went to
Paul Kantner.
As the Temple of Set began to emerge in its newfound identity, Kantner’s curiosity was aroused. “Beware the
respectable,” he wired me. “Interested in your explorations of 7 deadly sins. What do you pursue in your
community? I’m coming through soon, perhaps, and care to explore the limits. What can you offer?”
“Essentially,” I answered, “the Temple of Set is a machine to facilitate the exchange of information and ideas
between Setians; it is a means, not an end. The real value of the Temple lies in the minds of the Setians
themselves.” But Kantner’s question continued to provoke me. He was in quest of “the limits” - presumably of
human consequence. He himself was pursuing this quest through the medium of musical expression, and very
successfully so. How might a “machine” like the Temple of Set embrace such a quest? The projects and priorities of
the Temple being what they were, I didn’t have a chance to devote serious time to the problem for another two years
- during which time the Starship launched two more albums, Spitfire and Earth.
Since the Winter Solstice of X/1975 the Temple of Set had been researching the concepts of human evolution
under the general title Setamorphosis. Setamorphosis-V crystallized the research into a proposal entitled Project
Atlantis, addressed to both the Priesthood and Paul Kantner:
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The object of Project Atlantis is to execute a three-phase operation designed to provide a base for
simultaneous transmission to both Earth and outer space. Such transmission is to be entirely artistic and
without any military or utilitarian/scientific influences or applications whatever. Project Atlantis is to be
controlled by a nonprofit corporation specifically designed for this purpose, with directors designated by the
J.S. and the T.S. but with no other legal or financial ties to either organization or to any other outside
agency or institution ...
Phase I’s object is to conduct a single, suborbital transmission from space ca. 1982 by means of the
NASA Space Shuttle, which is expected to be operational by 1980 and available for private experiments on a
time-sharing basis shortly thereafter. This package may consist of: (1) Transmission of specially recorded, or
retransmission of live music to Earth by the Jefferson Starship. (2) Transmission of the same program to
Alpha Centauri and the Andromeda Galaxy in the form of uncoded music or mathematically-encoded
impulses. (3) Transmission of test patterns to evaluate communications links between elements of the
Temple of Set First and Second Foundations. (4) Transmission of encoded signals by the Temple of Set to
Alpha Draconis, Sirius, and the Crab Nebula.
Phase II, ca. 1985, would be a series of scheduled transmissions of a mix similar to that of Phase I,
through relay from Earth to an orbiting satellite designed, orbited, and operated by Project Atlantis itself.
Difficulties may be encountered because of many nations’ propaganda and censorship policies towards an
independent satellite with a trans-world reach. A PSYOP analysis will be conducted accordingly, as will
feedback analysis of its influence.
Phase III, programmed for 1990, will consist of enhanced experiments of the order of Phase II,
conducted from a manned space station specifically designed for Project Atlantis and controlled by it,
subject only to recognized international space treaties. The station will be as inaccessible as possible to any
government, military instrument, or interest group. Its sole orientation will be towards the musical,
magical, and recreational principles of Project Atlantis. It is conceived as the starting-point for experiments
beyond Project Atlantis itself.
Paul Kantner wired back his enthusiasm for the preliminary study, and I began to correspond accordingly with
contacts in NASA, RAND, Princeton’s Space Studies Inst
itute, the World Future Society, and the Smithsonian. The
preliminary study, prepared in November 1978, identified some serious problems:
The Environmental Fund in Washington, D.C. projects an average annual world population increase
during the Project Atlantis time-span of 87.3 million. This figure’s significance lies in its effect upon the
freedom of action of U.S. individuals and institutions, including the tightening of domestic budgets
[including NASA]. The Soviet Union will have a temporary military advantage over the United States from
1983 to 1985, during which time the U.S.S.R. is projected to be under serious alliance and economic strain.
In addition to social pressure against the “selfish” use of an orbital space station for the recreational/artistic
use of a relative few, we would face significant danger of a military threat, considering that nuclear delivery
systems are targeted by satellite. In view of the estimated $3,000 per 1.5 square feet of space on the NASA
Space Shuttle, we may contact OTRAG in New York and Stuttgart for its estimates. Preliminary data for
Phase III will be initiated through NASA’s LDEF program.
Alas, Project Atlantis was doomed. Controversy bordering on outright fear was developing within the Temple of
Set, many of whose Initiates weren’t certain they were ready for orbit, much less a trip to M31. If our seasoned Black
Magicians were getting cold feet, one may presume that the Starship crewmembers were similarly dubious about
translating their Captain’s “quaint fantasy” into something very real - and in collaboration with the dark & diabolical
Temple of Set! Moreover the Jefferson Starship had confronted disaster of a more immediate kind during a trip to
Germany that year. 12,000 fans had rioted and destroyed over $200,000 of the band’s equipment. An exhausted
and unnerved Grace Slick had announced her departure from the group, and cofounder Marty Balin was on the
brink of following suit. The appearance of each new Starship album was accompanied by reviews lauding Balin’s
love songs and disparaging the “inevitable” Kantner sci-fi pieces.
Project Atlantis, it seemed, would have to be postponed until prospects for its success improved - from all input
sources. Then within three months I had retired from the High Priesthood, and the new High Priest was nervous
about flights even in conventional airliners.
While awaiting a more opportune launch-date, I decided to take Paul Kantner and Grace Slick to Andromeda
anyway - via The Dark Side. Slick was transformed into a fire-dæmon of Sith and a confederate of Darth Vader’s.
[She sang beautiful music in Dreams, and I was sorry I had painted such a terrifying picture of her. Then she
released Welcome to the Wrecking Ball, and I decided I wasn’t so far off the track after all.] I took the liberty of
destroying Kantner’s body and transferring his mind to a Pantechnikon (an “ultimate cyborg”). These two
remarkable creatures contributed to the outcome of the Star Wars scenario in a sequence rather more startling than
that experienced by audiences of the Lucasfilm movie sequels.
It has taken Paul Kantner five years to get the Jefferson Starship’s engines back to full translite power. Grace
Slick is back on board, and this month has seen the release of Kantner’s Planet Earth Rock & Roll Orchestra, the 13-
years-delayed evolutionary successor to Blows Against the Empire. [Appropriately Planet Earth is subtitled The
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Empire Blows Back.] I could tell you something about the plot, but then your curiosity wouldn’t drive you to acquire
the album and hear the music (which is the Key to the Link). [Select the record, not the cassette, as only the former
includes the critical documentary inserts.]
The Temple of Set may be returning to its original scope, and the Jefferson Starship may be soaring high again,
but Project Atlantis remains dormant. The projections in our initial research have materialized only too well. A
constricting network of barriers to Phases I & II have arisen, while the killer satellite technology of the Soviet Union
and the military capabilities of the Space Shuttle [whose program was saved from scuttling by Defense Department
interest] would make Phase III a highly vulnerable undertaking.
Space colonization efforts pioneered by Gerard O’Neill, deliberately designed to appeal to the corporate profit
motive, have yet to yield substantive results. Even so, space efforts by the military/industrial complex are a far cry
from the utopian beauty and vision of Project Atlantis. At the other end of the spectrum are the antics of Timothy
Leary et al., whose simplistic space migration fantasies tend to subject any serious attempt towards non-M/I use of
space to public ridicule [hence disinterest].
Are we then condemned to the placebo of fantasy? Must Paul Kantner content himself with singing about space
to audiences attracted far more to the mind-dulling throb of rock concerts than to his lyrical concepts and
expressions? Must the bodies of those who are developing Setian consciousnesses remain chained to a biosphere
governed increasingly by what Nietzsche described as “the tyranny of the most inferior and the most stupid”, even
as their intellects yearn towards the limits of existence? Not necessarily. The Order of the Trapezoid will be
concerning itself with research towards Project Atlantis’ successor. If it seems that your head is into this, please
write & talk about something for a bit. You will not be contacted immediately. Please just prepare your minds and
your bodies ...
___________________________________________________
Part II: [Musical] Notes Towards Project Andromeda
First published: Runes #II-1
January XIX/1984
Like art, magic is supra-rational. Attempts to explain it - to reduce it to logical statement or argument - always
fall short of the original and are thus inadequate and disappointing. Setians are well-acquainted with how difficult it
is to explain the atmosphere of a Black Magical ceremony to someone with a conventional, materialistic
background. This supra-rational quality also characterizes good music, whose impact on the senses similarly cannot
be reduced to words:
Music and architecture - Is it not in these disciplines that we find recorded the path of humanity’s
ascent? When I hear Wagner, it seems to me that I hear rhythms of a bygone world. I imagine to myself that
one day science will discover, in the waves set in motion by the Rheingold, secret mutual relations
connected with the order of the world. The observation of the world perceived by the senses precedes the
knowledge given by exact science as well as by philosophy. It is insofar as percipient awareness approaches
truth that it has value.
I can’t help wondering what Adolf Hitler, who uttered those words 42 years ago, would think of Paul Kantner
and the Jefferson Starship [Yes, the picture of such an encounter strains my imagination too, but read on.] - because
more than any other contemporary musical group, the Starship has managed to turn the human voice into a musical
instrument. The individual members of the band do not “sing the words to songs which they play on instruments”;
rather they become the songs - so much so that the words frequently become lost within a swelling of sheer musical
power. “When it works best,” Kantner says of the Starship, “we become a great churning air machine, capable of
moving people to the unknown, of making you cry, laugh, march in
silly parades.” All Airplane/Starship albums
since Blows Against the Empire have included printed lyrics, so that dazed audiences would be able to interpret at
least part of what they had just experienced.
Rock music with complicated and sophisticated themes is never going to be terribly popular, since it demands
too much thinking - and people don’t go to rock concerts to think. Quoth Alvin Toffler in his now-classic Future
Shock:
The religious fervor and bizarre behavior of certain hippie cultists may arise not merely from drug
abuse, but from group experimentation with both sensory deprivation and bombardment. The chanting of
monotonous mantras, the attempt to focus the individual’s attention on interior bodily sensation to the
exclusion of outside stimuli, are efforts to induce the weird and sometimes hallucinatory effects of
understimulation.
So the Starship, while successful and indeed legendary, has never quite been one of those hysterical/smash-hit/
teen-craze groups. Its better-known songs have been those with fairly familiar themes of love, and psychedelia. If
she sings a thousand other songs, Grace Slick will always be remembered as the girl who sang “White Rabbit”.
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And far out in the Twilight Zone of Starship esoterica are the compositions of Paul Kantner, who sine-waves
between visions of mankind’s ancient past and evolutionary future. Not too many listeners seem to have devoted
much serious thought to the ideas in Kantner’s lyrics, and this is not surprising given their complexity. But what is
surprising is that his music seems to have become the target of a modern-day witch-hunt.
Last week I was invited to appear on a radio talk-show with Kantner. Also on the show were one Catholic priest
and one fundamentalist pastor from the “Eagle’s Nest Christian Fellowship” in California’s fabled Orange County.
The issue of the evening was - seriously! - whether the Devil is french-frying the minds of today’s youth with secret
messages recorded backwards into rock-and-roll music.
I thought I had seen it all after The Exorcist movie came out and scores of people around the country began
being possessed. But this “reverse-mastering” scam actually seems to be believed - not only by fundamentalist