There is something mystical about the English musical geniuses known as Killing Joke that makes them more than just a band. For 40 years, with the help of their frontman and founding member, Jaz Coleman, they have unleashed their particular brand of esotericism onto the world to create a completely unique occult genre of tunes.
Music that would magically carry Coleman and his band from the old dirty streets of London to rocking in the king’s chamber at the Great Pyramid of Giza and to befriending and collaborating with Russia’s greatest musicians.
A feat that no other modern musician could accomplish, nor fully appreciate and understand the deep meaning behind their Great Work.
It was recorded in Russia with their country’s oldest and most prestigious orchestra, the St Petersburg Philharmonic. Together, they created what is called, “a body of work that taps into the more melodic, uplifting aspects of Killing Joke’s music., as the consummate vehicle for a Gnostic mass (a ritualized celebration of the mysteries of existence).”
In a 2018 video filmed in St. Petersberg, Coleman talks about his awesome experience working with some of Russia’s greatest musicians and how well he was treated;
The title of the album was said to be inspired by the founder of the Lucis Trust – late author, Alice Bailey. The Lucis Trust is an esoteric organization formed in the early 1930s dedicated to the establishment of a new and better way of life based on the fulfillment of the divine plan for humanity and with consultative status to the United Nations (UN).
In a Facebook video Coleman published in 2018, he says this new album is his Greatest Work and that their music has always had two meanings – a simple meaning for the masses and another hidden meaning. He also claims that this work marks a transition from his former self to his new self.
These statements made by Coleman, the title of the album and the fact that he has been big into self-education and also ancestral worship proves to me that he is who we can call a Modern Gnostic with a band who is now backed by the United Nations.
Yes, these are Gnostic times…
It is no secret that Jaz Coleman has been on a lifelong quest for knowledge (Gnosis) and has a keen interest in the occult that has taken him all over the globe in search of the light.
Coleman has traveled the globe in search of the Gnosis found at some of the world’s most sacred and mystical sites. He has even lived a monkish type of life on a remote New Zealand island for decades where he was a member of the local church and sung in the choir.
In the early ’80s, he set off to Iceland where he immersed himself in the teachings of Carl Jung and learning the process of individuation. Like Jung, Coleman is obviously a man who has done the necessary but most difficult work to face his own Shadow and in the process, he has embraced the darkness to find true enlightenment.
Something that he feels the need to share this Gnosis with the world.
In a recent interview in the Chicago Reader, Coleman said that he believes the band’s influence is part of invisible college that goes beyond their music and that self-education is the duty of each and every one of us is to expand our knowledge.
He had said;
“If there is any legacy of Killing Joke, it’s self-education—the duty of each and every one of us is to expand our knowledge until we’re in the next world.
In so many different mediums I’ve taken different masters, one by one. I’ve been very lucky like this. Basically, Killing Joke has been my further education. It’s been an invisible college, and it’s been more effective than any university could have offered.”
With Coleman’s new album invoking the global Gnostic Mass with the St Petersburg Philharmonic, we have what they call “a ritualised celebration of the mysteries of existence.”
“So the world is in a terrible state but that’s why we need Killing Joke. Something I need, we need, and the world needs. I’ll tell you something, the next album will be stratospheric. If the gods allow us to make it.
Killing Joke is meant to be here now. Killing Joke will rise, rise, and rise till you see it’s our destiny.
He concludes, “Our destiny to be at this stage in the world’s development and the time of the sixth extinction period. We’re heading towards tumultuous changes.”
This extinction period could possibly do with what Coleman has observed happening here in the United States with our food supply making people fat and dumbed down with no attention spans or focus and computers are making the situation much worse. In a May 2013 interview, Coleman explained:
“It’s different from 30 years ago. There’s no rebellion left. Everyone is just a passive zombie. Food supply has something to do with it – it’s dumbed down everyone to obese, lethargic corpses … People are worn down … It’s a fragmented society.
People have access now to amazing amounts of information, but their attention spans are getting shorter, their focus is gone.
He said, “Instant gratification. Instant knowledge orgasm! I think that a lot of the great thinkers couldn’t achieve what they did through a computer.”
I don’t know about you, but his prophetic words in 2013 seem to predict our current reality in 2019 and this new album may be part of the Gnostic medicine that is required to help heal humanity traumatized by this societal madness that we call modern society.
In a press release announcing the release of Magna Invocatio – A Gnostic Mass For Choir And Orchestra Inspired By The Sublime Music Of Killing Joke, it was said that the music was meant “to appeal to those not generally engaged with the world of orchestral music and to lift the listener up to another dimension.”
It reads; “What we have here is a passion project recorded at a time of international tension and delivered against the odds – “13 digestible epics”, five with full chorus, ordered to be experienced in a single sitting, and conceived to appeal to those not generally engaged with the world of orchestral music….
Coleman explains, “I wanted to revisit not just a succession of epiphanies that transformed my own life but also to portray some of the more hidden or occulted milestones of the human race that have captured my imagination for some four decades.
So I specifically chose an unusual combination of sacred texts that I discovered at different stages throughout my life.
The only possible connection between them was that they had the immediate effect of inflaming and lifting my spirits to another level. They are, to coin a phrase, Words of Power!,” he said.
Launching with a choral fanfare, aiming “to project the themes of ‘The Great Invocation’ to the four corners of the earth”, ‘Magna Invocatio’ is 90 minutes of powerful, transcendental orchestral music designed “to lift the listener up and away from the traumas of our world to another dimension, a more desirable reality where positivity and possibility, Agape and interconnectedness take precedence.”
In his past life, the mysterious Jaz Coleman always had a hidden meaning behind his music and what initially appeared as an undefined mission with his Great Work. But has he reaches his figurative golden years, it is clear that he has awakened to the sacred gift of Gnosis within his heart and is willing to share it with his fans who are willing to take the Great Journey.
In my humble opinion, one thing is for sure, Coleman is here to bring light into their hearts come hell or heavenly water.
“The end goal was always to bring magic into the listener’s life in some meaningful way,” Coleman said.
From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.
From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ* return to Earth.
From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men –
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.
From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.
MUSICAL TRACKS: ‘Magna Invocatio – a Gnostic Mass for choir and orchestra inspired by the sublime music of Killing Joke’:
Absolute Descent Of Light (Magna Invocatio Choral Fanfare)
The Raven King
Intravenous
You’ll Never Get To Me
Absent Friends
Invocation
In Cythera
Big Buzz
Adorations
Into The Unknown
Euphoria
Honour The Fire
Magna Invocatio (Gloria)
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
Alright ; we shall never opt to say that Killing Joke is not the bright -in matter of harmony – it is geniune and educated. Their music is genius but what inspires this genius always shall matter to us by describing it after all. You cannot invocate the United Nations after having performed from your bands lyrics more violent accusations unless the U.N. had some offering for your band and a perspective to help a promotion : “It’s total invasion ; United Nations…” also claiming on stage that “next will be Iran war” – dixit- Jaz Coleman. I followed this band since I am 14 years old and I have now a bitter opinion because I discovered what was the real joke without the “Joker’s mask” – it is not an illumination in my brain but an complete understanding : who does what and what is doctrinal. This punk band had a switch at one Album tour that could be found mystical and that wasn’t. “Brighter than a Thousand Suns is the U-turn”. In terms of punk phenomenon we would note an influence embrassing the anarchism – that Killing Joke adopted like Ministry and Nine Inch Nails – they are close to each other because these democratic bands need a politically correct match to survive independently. Also by providing American/UK tours. Let’s say they represent a commercial venture as a line-up. With the switch in time and period ; it topped into psychedelism ; new age ; paganism and other magick features. The idea is: you are the mass ; I am the Guru and I know more than you do – it defines New Age and Modern Gnostic. “I am Shepard and you are nothing but a lost sheep”. Here ; the misunderstanding and the trap features the “Promethean occult myth”. Jaz Colman failed to become a grand mystic – which he could have been as “wise”. On contrary he is not “wise” but became a magician by falling into the easy trap. This trap is thus simple : it is in misinterpretation of human sacrifices into blood sacrifice (A Love Like Blood) having become the “socialist virtue” and the democratic tool It is a potion made of many ingredients that are no elixirs from essence – as there is there no SPIRIT at all but a “solve et coagula”. Our modern autocracies create the problem that never existed and then they propose the solution – in accord with Hegel. Christ was crucified because he transmitted the Revelation (Truth) to a very small group of adepts and not as Messianist part of some Universalist group. He tolerated “money” and the capital. He said to Pilate about a golden coin at the image of Caesar – “give back to Caesar what belongs to him”. The impregnation of the fake Gnosis is found like a worm inside a rotten apple almost everywhere. Jaz Coleman’s boils now his cup at “every sauce it sate”.If he has some entricist relation with U.N.O. in the now ; it would mean an opportunist. The acceptance to do what he is told to do to save his anarchic enterprise. – rather than being an individualist preaching to his adepts ; he had evidently flirted with the core masonic. “London is a Temple city and The City placed its power above the common”. The pledge is necessity to survive the flood. You can be famous into the terrestrial Jerusalem – what if your name isn’t know Above. It would mean this band found a way to career ; after some time there is a fork leading in two ways – the path of the Modern Gnostic looks bright – the other one is not made into the light – but seen “unknown” like the Unknown Philosopher – distant from any public is rather less profitable : it a way more difficult to take… Killing Joke is settled ; it is a bet not to work gracefully – and being inspired by the “LOW”. Therefeore the leader of KJ has granted his choice in the “Promethean” confusion. His Illuminated fire camp… maybe….
Honestly, I am struggling with your work. On one hand, you write extensively about the evils of the son of Sophia, and at the same time, support groups like the Lucis trust, that claim Lucifer sacrificed himself for us and was the light bringer. How can he be both a god of lies, spite, and wrath, due to his malformed imperfections and also our savior? Did not Christ warn us of this. The god of lies would deceive us. Is that not specifically what the Lucis trust seems to be doing, claiming gnostic beliefs, while changing who the savior is? I am newly enlightened, having been agnostic for a long time, and I found myself drawn the pre church gnostic texts, which seem to actually explain a lot, but I don’t see how anybody who claims gnostic beliefs can believe thay the God of this World (Lucifer) is actually our savior. Seems to me, while he may be our indirect creator (only made possible by Sophia and the aeons), and the clumsy, angry architect of his false pleroma, that he isn’t our savior at all, but has us and our divine spirit/soul trapped in his machine of forced death and rebirth. Isn’t the likes of Lucis trust actually implementing the plans of the worm, while selling it as “light”? I don’t understand. I am a seeker, but I am a skeptic of all who say they know the full truth.
I know more about Theosophy and Besant/Leadbeater than i know about Alice Bailey, but Lucifer aka Sanat Kumara, is a Being coming from Venus 18.5 millions years ago to further enhance the development of life on earth with a particular work to awaken the flame of the intellect of the souls of the planet earth. So yes he and the lords of the flame (the kumaras) who came also from Venus made a sacrifice in order to accelerate our development. Lucifer/Sanat Kumara is the most evolved being on earth and incarnate the will of the Logos of our planet.
He is also the one who gives the last initiations allowing to become an ascended master, that is to say a being who is "saved", who is completely freed from the grip of matter. Christ is the one who gives the first 2 initiations, so both Christ and Lucifer are our saviors. Christ said "No one comes to the Father except through me". Lucifer/Sanat Kumara is this father, the will of the Logos.
Alright ; we shall never opt to say that Killing Joke is not the bright -in matter of harmony – it is geniune and educated. Their music is genius but what inspires this genius always shall matter to us by describing it after all. You cannot invocate the United Nations after having performed from your bands lyrics more violent accusations unless the U.N. had some offering for your band and a perspective to help a promotion : “It’s total invasion ; United Nations…” also claiming on stage that “next will be Iran war” – dixit- Jaz Coleman. I followed this band since I am 14 years old and I have now a bitter opinion because I discovered what was the real joke without the “Joker’s mask” – it is not an illumination in my brain but an complete understanding : who does what and what is doctrinal. This punk band had a switch at one Album tour that could be found mystical and that wasn’t. “Brighter than a Thousand Suns is the U-turn”. In terms of punk phenomenon we would note an influence embrassing the anarchism – that Killing Joke adopted like Ministry and Nine Inch Nails – they are close to each other because these democratic bands need a politically correct match to survive independently. Also by providing American/UK tours. Let’s say they represent a commercial venture as a line-up. With the switch in time and period ; it topped into psychedelism ; new age ; paganism and other magick features. The idea is: you are the mass ; I am the Guru and I know more than you do – it defines New Age and Modern Gnostic. “I am Shepard and you are nothing but a lost sheep”. Here ; the misunderstanding and the trap features the “Promethean occult myth”. Jaz Colman failed to become a grand mystic – which he could have been as “wise”. On contrary he is not “wise” but became a magician by falling into the easy trap. This trap is thus simple : it is in misinterpretation of human sacrifices into blood sacrifice (A Love Like Blood) having become the “socialist virtue” and the democratic tool It is a potion made of many ingredients that are no elixirs from essence – as there is there no SPIRIT at all but a “solve et coagula”. Our modern autocracies create the problem that never existed and then they propose the solution – in accord with Hegel. Christ was crucified because he transmitted the Revelation (Truth) to a very small group of adepts and not as Messianist part of some Universalist group. He tolerated “money” and the capital. He said to Pilate about a golden coin at the image of Caesar – “give back to Caesar what belongs to him”. The impregnation of the fake Gnosis is found like a worm inside a rotten apple almost everywhere. Jaz Coleman’s boils now his cup at “every sauce it sate”.If he has some entricist relation with U.N.O. in the now ; it would mean an opportunist. The acceptance to do what he is told to do to save his anarchic enterprise. – rather than being an individualist preaching to his adepts ; he had evidently flirted with the core masonic. “London is a Temple city and The City placed its power above the common”. The pledge is necessity to survive the flood. You can be famous into the terrestrial Jerusalem – what if your name isn’t know Above. It would mean this band found a way to career ; after some time there is a fork leading in two ways – the path of the Modern Gnostic looks bright – the other one is not made into the light – but seen “unknown” like the Unknown Philosopher – distant from any public is rather less profitable : it a way more difficult to take… Killing Joke is settled ; it is a bet not to work gracefully – and being inspired by the “LOW”. Therefeore the leader of KJ has granted his choice in the “Promethean” confusion. His Illuminated fire camp… maybe….
Honestly, I am struggling with your work. On one hand, you write extensively about the evils of the son of Sophia, and at the same time, support groups like the Lucis trust, that claim Lucifer sacrificed himself for us and was the light bringer. How can he be both a god of lies, spite, and wrath, due to his malformed imperfections and also our savior? Did not Christ warn us of this. The god of lies would deceive us. Is that not specifically what the Lucis trust seems to be doing, claiming gnostic beliefs, while changing who the savior is? I am newly enlightened, having been agnostic for a long time, and I found myself drawn the pre church gnostic texts, which seem to actually explain a lot, but I don’t see how anybody who claims gnostic beliefs can believe thay the God of this World (Lucifer) is actually our savior. Seems to me, while he may be our indirect creator (only made possible by Sophia and the aeons), and the clumsy, angry architect of his false pleroma, that he isn’t our savior at all, but has us and our divine spirit/soul trapped in his machine of forced death and rebirth. Isn’t the likes of Lucis trust actually implementing the plans of the worm, while selling it as “light”? I don’t understand. I am a seeker, but I am a skeptic of all who say they know the full truth.