Drawing Down the Elvis

Soon after Lammas, the largest pagan gathering in the United States occurs in Memphis, Tennessee. The gathering is called “Dead Week” and every year it swells in attendance. At this point, well over 50, 000 devotees make the pilgrimage to honor the death of America’s own Sun King, Elvis Aron Presley. Elvis is the newest indigenous pagan god to be worshipped on these shores since the European ancestors landed here and began their assault on the local deities and their worshippers.

Elvis the historical figure died over twenty years ago, but the mythical Elvis is gaining an ever increasing number of followers. Reclaiming witches have the saying, “What is remembered lives.” If there’s a germ of truth to that, then Elvis is alive and thriving. Look around and you will see that as Mojo Nixon says, Elvis is everywhere. More than any other of our cultural icons, he remains alive in our popular consciousness.

It is becoming increasingly acknowledged that the Elvis phenomenon can only be categorized as the birth of a religious movement. Elvis’s home, Graceland, is one of the most visited and cherished spots in the country. Some visit out of curiosity, but many go as holy pilgrims, to honor and worship the divine spirit of Elvis. Bits of clothes, even single strands of hair (verified by Priscilla) are sold as sacred relics. There have been countless sightings of Elvis after death and many tales abound of miracles attributed to him.

Unfortunately and inaccurately, most Elvisologists have equated the Elvis religion with Christianity, seeing Elvis as Christ-like figure and Elvis worshippers as similar to early Christians. This is dead wrong. Elvis is clearly a Pagan phenomenon!

In the landscape of popular culture, Elvis is the top cat pagan deity, embodying many aspects of our gods and standing for pagan virtues over Judeo-Christian ones. The Christians have a long history of stealing and absorbing the best of pagan traditions. They took our Yule tree and the eggs of Eostar. We can’t let them get away with taking Elvis! The King of Rock and Roll belongs to us. To that purpose, we need to claim him as ours and give him a place in our pantheons and on our altars.

Like the Sun King he is, Elvis was born soon after Winter Solstice in Tupelo, Mississipi. His (divine) identical twin, Jesse, died during childbirth. Jesse would continue to be a presence for Elvis throughout his life, serving as what we witches call a companion self. His parents, Gladys and Vernon, were the last in a long line of sharecroppers, the poorest of the poor white southerners. He was raised as a Pentecostal, where the focus is not on liturgy, but on direct contact with the Holy Spirit. Unlike Jesus, whose primary loyalty was to his father, Elvis’s focus and guiding light was his love for his mother. Many have cast aspirations on their close relationship, but in Wiccan theology, the god is both consort and son of the goddess. For Elvis the person, being so dependent and close to his mother may not have been emotionally healthy, but as Elvis the mythic figure affecting mass consciousness, this relationship helps restore and ancient pagan paradigm. Like we witches, Elvis had not problem publicly worshipping his mother. His love and respect for Gladys are a key part of the Elvis myth and were indeed a way he stands out from other famous figures of his time.

Elvis and his parents moved from Tupelo into Memphis, living in a housing project while Elvis attended high school. Elvis then drove a truck for Crown Electric until Sam Phillips heard a record that Elvis paid to have cut as a present for Gladys. After hearing Elvis’s distinct sound, Sam knew that history had chance of being shaken, rattled and rolled.

This was smack dab in the middle of the 1950’s, an extremely uptight time. Black and white America lived n two different worlds. Gender roles were strongly proscribed and adhered to. Music itself was segregated. If you were anything but a Christian, you were suspect. Elvis the trickster had a genius for mixing things up and looking perfectly innocent while he did it. He crossed gender, race and class lines and made it all look and sound appealing. Although not the inventor of rock and roll, he was the best white embodiment of it at the time. As John Lennon said; “Before Elvis, there was nothing”. In the beginning, white stations would not play him because he sounded black, and black stations would not play him because he was white. When he finally got airtime he became an instant sensation.

Elvis, the trickster god, began a cultural revolution by crossing the racial line and playing music that until that point had been primarily a black musical tradition. In crossing the line, he also reminds us that the line exists, and if not for racism, Little Richard or Chuck Berry might be known as The King. As trickster, Elvis paradoxically symbolized both racial lines being dissolved and the power of racism and culturally appropriation.

Elvis, the “hillbilly cat” wore hair pomade worn by black men slick back his dyed black hair. He bought his bright pink shirts and flashy pants at Lansky’s, a store frequented primarily by black musicians and hipsters. At a time when most white males were wearing crewcuts and dressing drably, Elvis was a stunning Peacock God, fanning and strutting around the stage. He shirts of satin and velvet, and when he got enough money, had a suit made from gold lame. Whether as the epitome of cool or later, in his white jumpsuit years, the epitome of tacky, Elvis never wore anything boring. As pagan Peacock God, Elvis would always jump gender lines with ease. He admired that other white gender bender of the 1950’s, Liberace, and could inhabit the same gaudy outfits with a sexuality that defied categorization.

Young God Elvis was Peacock God, the Horned One, the Trickster, and Dionysus, all rolled into one, continually giving all due to his mother. The guy was hot. In less than fifteen minutes of televised air time, Elvis cracked the wall of 4,000 years of Judeo-Christian uptightness about se and opened the sex chakra of white America. The day after he gyrated and burlesqued and boogied out “Hound Dog” on national television, he was roundly denounced, his music called “the devil’s music”. You betcha. The Horned God was back, and Christianity would never have quite the same grip on us. Elvis wed his experience of Pentecostal possession of the Holy Spirit with the beat of rock and roll. Popular culture was blasted with the Wiccan value of sexuality and spirit being connected. Elvis helped create the climate in which the Craft would come to flourish. Praise the Elvis!

At the height of his fame, Elvis was drafted in the army. Soon after, Gladys died. Elvis was devastated. Most celebrities have the slimmest of chances of a comeback after their stardom dims. Elvis in his aspect of God of the Grain rose and fell several times in his career. The boy, who rose from poverty to stardom, rose again to fame after his hiatus in the military. Then, chained like Sisyphus to a series of horrible movies by his carny huckster manager, Col. Parker, he faded in the light of the brilliant revolution he had been instrumental in creating. It’s hard to find a rock star of the 1960’s who doesn’t pay homage to Elvis, but while the youth of that generation were finding religion in sex, drugs, and rock and roll, Elvis was starring in films like “Clambake”.

In 1968, Elvis shook off his chains and did what is now called “The Comeback Special”. Most of America tuned in and watched, and once again, The King was on top. After years out of the limelight, Elvis prowled the stage in black leather, casting a huge glamour. He might not have been a part of the Woodstock Nation, but he was still the King of Rock and Roll.

After this, he made no more bad movies, choosing instead to remain on stage in front of live and loving audiences. He chose to focus on performing in the one spot that gave him a cold reception in his hottest years: Las Vegas. This time around he was received with adoration. Wiccans have a practice of “drawing down the moon” in which we aspect the Goddess, let her move in us. Many in our tradition have aspected all sorts of manner of deities. With the number of Elvis impersonators constantly growing, “Las Vegas Elvis” is the most aspected deity on this planet, and most who do so, are true devotees of the god.

The pot-gutted, white jumpsuited, bejeweled Elvis embodies the pagan view of the deity as fallible. The Great God of the Celts, the Dagda, can be glimpsed in this aspect of Elvis.

The Dagda was fat, with a tremendous appetite. His ass hung out of his pants, and he was jolly at being the butt of jokes, presiding over a cauldron of plenty, being known for his generosity. Las Vegas Elvis split his pants more than once, and would frequently make jokes and allusions to it. Elvis was always able to laugh at himself. The Charge of the Goddess requires us to find mirth and reverence within ourselves. Followers of Elvis are experts at this. Those who revere Elvis can also laugh at him, without finding any contradiction in the two states. Like the Dagda, Elvis was legendary for his generosity. He gave away Cadillacs and guns like party favors, and had a constant supply of gold jewelry at hand to give away. Throughout his rises and falls, Elvis remained rooted in Memphis, where he supported a small army of poor relations.

Elvis remained staunchy true to his class roots, refusing to act “high class”. He has been ridiculed for this, but many of us from poor or working class backgrounds find it refreshing and downright radical. He could have lived on champagne and caviar over Central Park, but instead stayed at Graceland with his peanut butter and banana sandwiches and Nutty Buddies.

Las Vegas Elvis embodies the god of rot and decay. Like any Sun King, he casts a long shadow. Incarcerated in the jailhouse of fame, he went increasingly stir crazy. His chronic insomnia led to the use of an ever increasing amount of uppers and downers. Elvis’s abuse of prescription drugs would eventually result in his mortal fall from the throne of his bathroom toilet at the age of 42.

Elvis died on August 16^th 1977. He was reading an occult tract at the time. Elvis was drawn to spiritualist and occult writings. He believed in numerology and would practice moving clouds with focused will. Elvis was interested in magic. As pagans and witches, it behooves us to embrace Elvis as one of ours. He is. Like the Goddess, Elvis is everywhere. Look around, you’ll find him.