Random Famous People Who Allegedly Practiced Black Magic (13 items)

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  (#1) Lana Del Rey

  • 33

  In February 2017, mere weeks after Donald Trump became POTUS, singer Lana del Rey posted a cryptic (now-deleted) tweet that listed four dates and said, "Ingredients can b found online." Her fans followed the tweets and discovered she was part of an international witch effort to hex Trump.

  In July 2017, del Rey confirmed to music publication NME that she did in fact participate in the ritual:

  Yeah, I did it. Why not? Look, I do a lot of sh*t... I'm in line with Yoko an John and the belief that there's a power to the vibration of a thought. Your thoughts are very powerful things and they become words, and words become actions, and actions lead to physical changes... I really do believe that words are one of the last forms of magic and I'm a bit of a mystic at heart. 
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  (#2) David Bowie

  • 72

  David Bowie was one of the most influential rock musicians of all time. He was known for his experimentation in sound, style, and persona. However, things got a little weird for him in the '70s. While recording the 1976 album Station To Station - an album which he barely remembered recording - Bowie became swallowed by cocaine use, alcoholism, paranoia, and magic. He became obsessed with using magic to attain success and protect and defend himself from demonic forces. He would draw pentagrams on every surface he possibly could. 

  Bowie would go on strange rants that no one could follow, refused to go above the third floor in any building, took part in strange rituals, and believed that witches were trying to steal his seed to create a demon baby. Eventually he even called a white witch to lift the curse and exorcize his house. 
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  (#3) William S. Burroughs

  • Dec. at 83 (1914-1997)

  As one of the most famous authors of all time, William S. Burroughs had a lot of significance in 20th century counterculture. While he's known for his book Naked Lunch, Burroughs is less known for his love of curses. As in he placed curses on places and people he didn't like or he felt wronged by. Burroughs claimed he had closed a restaurant in London where he had gotten bad service with magic.

  Burroughs and fellow novelist Truman Capote had been insulting each other and their work for years when Burroughs finally reached his breaking point. He cursed the other author in an open letter: 

  “You will never have anything else. You will never write another sentence above the level of In Cold Blood. As a writer you are finished.”  

  Weirdly enough, Burroughs' curse came true. The only thing Capote managed to have published before his death a year later got him kicked out of celebrity circles. 
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  (#4) Christopher Lee

  • 96

  Actor and musician Sir Christopher Lee is so well known for playing terrifying villains on stage and screen that it began to spill into his real-life reputation. During his life he was suspected of engaging in occult practices, and one of the most popular rumors was that he had one of the largest collections of occult literature in the world.

  Lee himself not only denied all of this, but delivered a powerful warning to all wannabe black magic practitioners.  

  “I have met people who claim to be Satanists, who claim to be involved with black magic, who claimed that they not only knew a lot about it. But as I said, I certainly have not been involved and I warn all of you: never, never, never. You will not only lose your mind: you lose your soul.”
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  (#5) Grimes

  • 30

  Canadian Witch House artist Grimes is known for her brilliant music and odd persona. She has featured occult personalities in her videos, as well as tweeted pictures of different mystic books. She is also known to go to extreme lengths while recording, such as locking herself away without food, water, or company for extended periods of time in order to access weird realms of consciousness. That is exactly what she did while recording her 2012 album Visions. 

  She told The Guardian that on day nine of deprivation everything changed. 

  "I started to feel like I was channeling spirits. I was convinced my music was a gift from God. It was like I knew exactly what to do next, as if my songs were already written."
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  (#6) Jimmy Page

  • 75

  Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page is perhaps one of the most famous alleged black magic practitioners in the world. Encountering his writings for the first time at age 11, Page immersed himself in Aleister Crowley's writings as a teen and young man. He began collecting rare magic books and even purchased Crowley's allegedly haunted old home, Boleskine house, on the shore of Loch Ness in Scotland.  

  After selling the house he opened an occult bookstore in London called Equinox. Page was quoted as saying magic as an important right of passage. Led Zeppelin's music is also famously filled with occult references, and their album covers full of mystic symbols. Page even famously wore these symbols on stage. While he himself has never directly admitted to practicing, he has one of the largest collections of Crowley's rare works on earth. 
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  (#7) Sammy Davis, Jr.

  • Dec. at 65 (1925-1990)

  Famous entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr., was known as the kind of person who wanted to have every kind of experience he possibly could, and who would rarely turn down anything offered to him. He flirted with Satanism for a few years after ending up at an orgy in 1968. He attended a number of orgies and his involvement with the church inspired him to create probably the worst sitcom of all time: Poor Devil.   

  This sitcom featured Davis as a low level demon trying to work his way up through hell by procuring the soul of an accountant. This feature length sitcom pilot has no laugh track, is not at all funny, and features Christopher Lee as the Devil in a strangely detailed vision of hell. While it got Sammy Davis Jr., accepted as a member of the Church of Satan, it was not picked up by NBC. 
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  (#8) Daryl Hall

  • 72

  Daryl Hall may be famously known as half of the Philadelphia pop rock duo Hall & Oates, but what not a lot of people know is that he spent years dabbling in the dark arts. He spent over half of the '70s immersed in various traditions while trying to "transform his inner universe." Around that time he also decided he came from an entire line of black magic practitioners and was descended from famous 19th century occultist Aleister Crowley.  

  While it's hard to imagine a man half responsible for some of the most benign and catchy soft rock songs of all time secretly dabbling in the dark arts, Hall spent almost a decade obsessed with Crowley and the occult.
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  (#9) Björk

  • 53

  Singer, musician, producer, and occasional actress Björk's occult upbringing would be enough to terrify any conservative. When discussing astrology and her beliefs on magic in a 1995 interview she said: 

  My mum did it. I think she took me to all the occult creatures of Iceland, from the age of zero until I was 18, when I became a rebel anti-hippie. I got my fortune told and everything. I think I probably believe most of it, actually. I’ve got Pluto in a very important place, and that’s what I’m about. I have to re-create the universe every morning when I wake up. And kill it in the evening, which is a bit outrageous, but there you go.

  Björk being raised by a witch makes a lot of sense when you consider her tendency toward nature-based and very pagan lyrics. 
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  (#10) John Lennon

  • Dec. at 40 (1940-1980)

  The Beatles's relationship with the occult has been so controversial and hotly debated that there are whole books on it. Multiple people have tried to piece together "proof" that John Lennon sold his soul to the devil in exchange for fame and fortune. In fact, author Joseph Niezgoda claims he can trace back to the exact moment when Lennon sold his soul, on the night of December 27, 1960.  

  Some flippant claims Lennon made about selling his soul have had conspiracy theorists speculating for years. A main piece of evidence? The fact that famed occultist Aleister Crowley can be seen on the cover of the Sergeant Pepper album. 
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  (#11) Alan Moore

  • 65

  Famously known for writing the comic books V For Vendetta and Watchmen, Alan Moore has been a known practicing magician since 1993. Through his own writing he began to question new realms of human consciousness and experience, and thought they were worth exploring himself. Moore believes art and magic are inextricably interlinked and are extensions of one another. 

  While some consider any dabbling in these areas to be black magic, it looks as though Moore is in pursuit of magical understanding more than laying curses on those who displease him. His patron deity is the snake-god Glycon. 
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  (#12) Marina Abramović

  • 72

  Performance artist Marina Abramović has become world famous for her striking, violent, and strange performance art which directly engages with viewers, making them a part of her installations in boundary-pushing ways. She's also known for her occult-like approach to pieces, involving others occasionally in strange and painful rituals.

  Abromović created a short film about the sexual aspects of Balkan pagan traditions.
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  (#13) Elvis Presley

  • Dec. at 42 (1935-1977)

  While Elvis Presley, king of rock and roll, was well-known as devout Christian, his interests in mysticism and religion didn't end there. It's known he had a roughly 250 books at Graceland, most of those being occult and religious texts. Presley was allegedly a known occultist who would read from occult books on stage at his concerts.

  He apparently favored books by Theosophist Madame Blavatsky, who taught that Lucifer is the one true god. 

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