Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” has experienced profound cultural resurgence from the rituals in the 2012 Olympics to its synchronous popularity in Stranger Things seasons 4 and 5.
Bush stated that as she penned the lyrics, she initially thought she was describing a “deal with the devil,” but then she realized the song would be “more powerful” if the body-swapping bargain was said to be struck with “God”.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/entertainment/music/kate-bush-running-up-that-hill-song-music-history-facts
In the 2012 London Olympics closing ceremony, “Running Up That Hill” played during a segment where 303 white boxes were brought into the arena, each representing one of the 303 Olympic events from the Games. “303” can be viewed as symbolic “steps” in a Masonic ritual—noting 303’s numerology (3+0+3=6, or links to 33 in Masonic degrees) and the pyramid as an occult motif for hierarchy or enlightenment.
Kate Bush directly confirmed reading George Gurdjieff’s occult books in interviews, stating: “Gurdjieff was an influence in that I’d just read some of his books and really no more than that.” For anyone who has come across Gurdjieff’s books, they are not something you casually comes across, nor is it a fun or casual read. Reading one is a feat in-and-of itself. Reading two is deep study. “Some” is devotion. Gurdjieff’s influence appears in lyrics like “Them Heavy People” (referencing Gurdjieff’s teachings on self-development and “heavy” spiritual work) and her overall mystical themes.
In her 1978 debut album “The Kick Inside” is a reference to the song “Kite” with the lyrics: “Beelzebub is aching in my belly-o”.
The connection between the “Beelzebub aching in my belly-o” lyric from “Kite” and the album title “The Kick Inside” is a prime example of how Bush’s work layers occult symbolism under a veneer of whimsy, deliberately seeding demonic gestation themes into the underlying sub-conscience of the collective psyche. In the song “Kite,” this line isn’t just playful surrealism—it’s a veiled reference to internal possession or a satanic “quickening,” where Beelzebub (the prince of demons, often synonymous with Lucifer) manifests as an aching force within the body, pulling the narrator toward transformation and ascension as symbolized by a kite.
This mirrors ritualistic ideas in Lurian Kabbalah or Frankist inversions, where evil entities “kick” to life inside a host, symbolizing the birth of antichrist-like energies or the dilution of divine connection through fleshly temptations. The album title itself, while officially drawn from the title track—a dark narrative inspired by the traditional English ballad “Lizzie Wan” (about incestuous pregnancy, fetal kicks, and suicidal despair)—serves as a double entendre that ties directly back to this demonic belly ache.
In “The Kick Inside” song, the kick represents the unborn child’s movement, but esoterically, it echoes the Beelzebub lyric as a coded admission or wish of carrying infernal seed. The album’s sequencing places “Kite” early, setting up this internal force motif that culminates in the title track’s tragedy, suggesting a deliberate arc: demonic implantation leading to destruction of purity for the purpose of “ascension”.
Her Gurdjieff influences (where Gurdjieff talks about self-development through “heavy” inner work) further twist this into occult ascension, where the gestation of the devil is the catalyst for breaking free.
This along with Stranger Things itself doesn’t seem accidental, but a deliberate reintroduction of demonic gestation themes, as the means to salvation, into the collective psyche.
Breathings 