Indeed, they were certainly magical, as long as Morrison wasn't too loaded; when he was, he was sloppy. But, as mystical as it sounded, I'm not entirely sure how metaphorical "Ride the snake to the lake" really was; maybe it was simply about a 7-mile road trip to go for a swim
. Morrison fancied himself a poet, but he seemed to be channeling something larger (and darker) than himself. Unlike Jimmy Page and Ozzy Osbourn, there were no overt Crowley, Thoth or tarot references that I can recall. As most here know, Page owned Boleskine House, formerly owned by Crowley, from 1970 to 1992, but only spent six weeks there during all that time. He admits to "reading a lot of Crowley," but I never saw anything mentioned about the Thoth tarot. On the other hand, I suspect the illustration of The (RWS) Hermit on the fourth album cover came from Page, since Plant always seemed more like a Tolkien/faerie kind of guy. I'm sure it helped lure in the rock crowd to tarot (when they were finally done puzzling over what
Stairway to Heaven meant).