Aleister Crowley, born
Edward Alexander Crowley,
was a British occultist,
writer, mountaineer, philosopher,
and mystic. He was an
influential member in
several occult organizations,
including the Golden Dawn,
the A.A., and Ordo Templi
Orientis (O.T.O.), and
is best known today for
his occult writings, especially
The Book of the Law, the
central sacred text of
Thelema. He gained much
notoriety during his lifetime,
and was infamously dubbed
"The Wickedest Man
In the World."
Crowley's
other interests and accomplishments
were wide-ranging—he
was a chess player, mountain
climber, poet, painter,
astrologer, hedonist, bisexual
, drug experimenter, and
social critic. Crowley had
claimed to be a Freemason,
but the regularity of his
initiations with the United
Grand Lodge of England has
been disputed.
WHAT CAN BE SAID THAT HASN'T BEEN
SAID?
Aleister Crowley was
a paranormal investigator in his
time from researching the creature
of Lochness in his Boleskine Lodge
to calling up demons and countless
spirits. Demonoligist, ocultist,
or ghost hunter Crowley did it all.
The 'Wickedest Man in the World'
died in quiet obscurity in Hastings
in December 1947, his reputation
having been somewhat overtaken by
one Adolf Hitler, and in quiet obscurity
he might have stayed had he not
appeared on the cover of one of
the1960s iconic rock albums. When
asked to draw up a list of names
to appear on the cover of their
forthcoming Sgt Pepper album John
Lennon included that of Aleister
Crowley thereby introducing 'the
Beast' to a whole new generation.
Crowley's diabolical reputation
was based on press reports of his
activities at the Abbey of Themela
in Sicily in the early 1920s. The
Abbey was to have been an 'ark of
refuge' from the 'Aeon of a Dying
God,' and an archetype of a new
society based on ideas outlined
in Crowley's The Book of the Law.
In reality it appears to have been
a rather squalid Mediterranean villa,
with occult paintings covering the
walls, where Crowley and a small
band of followers carried out sex
magick under the influence of drugs.
Following the death of a disciple
Raoul Loveday from gastro-enteritis
at the Abbey the British Press had
a field day with stories of drug
induced 'bestial orgies' and 'satanic
rituals' - not helped by Crowley's
attempted to finance the community
by publishing a fictionalised account
of it under the title - The Diary
of a Drug Fiend. Mussolini ordered
the now notorious Crowley out of
Italy and the community disbanded.
Love Is The Law,
Love Under Will
Family photograph
of Crowley, his mistress Leah Hirsig,
whom he called the scarlet woman,
and their baby Poupee outside the
abbey in 1921.
Crowley
was a highly prolific writer, not
only on the topic of Thelema and magick,
but on philosophy, politics, and culture.
The poems and plays written in his
twenties and found in his Collected
Works of Aleister Crowley 1905-1907
were alone enough to substantiate
a common writer's career.[citation
needed] He left behind a countless
number of personal letters and daily
journal entries. He self-published
many of his books, expending the majority
of his inheritance to disseminate
his views.
Within the subject of occultism Crowley
wrote widely, penning commentaries
on magick, the Tarot, Yoga, Qabalah,
astrology, and numerous other subjects.
He also wrote a Thelemic interpolation
of the Tao Te Ching, based on earlier
English translations since he knew
little or no Chinese. Like the Golden
Dawn mystics before him, Crowley evidently
sought to comprehend the entire human
religious and mystical experience
in a single philosophy.
Some of his most influential books
include:
* The Book of the Law
* Magick (Book 4)
* The Book of Lies
* The Vision and the Voice
* 777 and other Qabalistic writings
* The Confessions of Aleister Crowley
* Magick Without Tears
* Little Essays Toward Truth
* The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon
the King (translation of original
text)
* The General Principles of Astrology
(with Evangeline Adams, Hymenaeus
Beta, and others)
He also edited and produced a series
of publications in book form called
The Equinox (subtitled "The Review
of Scientific Illuminism"), which
served as the voice of his magical
order, the A?A?. Although the entire
set is influential and remains one
of the definitive works on occultism,
some of the more notable issues are:
* III:1, "The Blue Equinox"
(largely regarding the structure of
OTO)
* III:2, The Gospel According to St.
Bernard Shaw and other papers (proof
copy only)
* III:3, The Equinox of the Gods (covering
the events leading up to the writing
of Liber Legis)
* III:4, Eight Lectures on Yoga
* III:5, The Book of Thoth (a full
treatise on his Thoth Tarot)
* III:6, Liber Aleph (An extended
and elaborate commentary on Liber
Legis in the form of short letters)
* III:7, The Shih I (allegedly. An
unfinished/published translation of
the I Ching)
* III:8, The Tao Te Ching (a translation
of the Chinese classic)
* III:9, The Holy Books of Thelema
(the "received" works of
Crowley)
* III:10, An issue with mostly O.T.O
constitutional papers
* IV:1, Commentary on the Holy Books,
and other papers (mainly Liber 65
and Madame Blavatsky's The Voice of
the Silence)
* IV:2, The Vision and the Voice with
Commentary and other papers
Crowley also wrote fiction, including
plays and later novels, most of which
have not received significant notice
outside of occult circles. Some of
these fictional works include:
* Moonchild
* The Scrutinies of Simon Iff
* Golden Twigs
* Diary of a Drug Fiend
* The Fish (unfinished)
* Simon Iff Abroad (unpublished)
* Simon Iff in America (unpublished)
* Simon Iff, Psychoanalyst (unpublished)
* The Stratagem and other Stories
* The Testament of Magdalen Blair
Crowley also had a peculiar sense
of humour, which he often utilised
as a teaching instrument. He wrote
a polemic arguing against George Bernard
Shaw's interpretation of the Gospels
in his preface to Androcles and the
Lion, which was edited by Francis
King and published as Crowley on Christ.
In his Magick, Book 4 he includes
a chapter purporting to illuminate
the Qabalistic significance of Mother
Goose nursery rhymes. In re Humpty
Dumpty, for instance, he recommends
the occult authority "Ludovicus
Carolus" -- better known as Lewis
Carroll. In a footnote to the chapter
he admits that he had invented the
alleged meanings, to show that one
can find occult "Truth"
in everything. His "8 Lectures
On Yoga" are written under the
name Guru Sri Pramahansa Shivaji (which
translates into something along the
lines of "Great Exalted Guru
of Shiva") and are divided into
"Yoga for Yahoos" and "Yoga
for Yellowbellies". In The Book
of Lies, the title to chapter 69 is
given as "The Way to Succeed
- and the Way to Suck Eggs!"
a pun, as the chapter concerns the
69 sex position as a mystical act.
Crowley was also a published, if
minor, poet. He wrote the 1929 Hymn
to Pan,[90] perhaps his most widely
read and anthologised poem.[citation
needed] Three pieces by Crowley, "The
Quest","The Neophyte",
and "The Rose and the Cross"
appear in the 1917 collection The
Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse.
Crowley's unusual sense of humour
is on display in White Stains, an
1898 collection of pornographic verse
pretended to be "the literary
remains of George Archibald Bishop,
a neuropath of the Second Empire;"
the volume is prefaced with a notice
that says that " The Editor hopes
that Mental Pathologists, for whose
eyes alone this treatise is destined,
will spare no precaution to prevent
it falling into other hands."
Some of his published poetry includes:
* White Stains (1898).
* Alice, an Adultery (1903).
* The Sword of Song (1904).
* The Star and the Garter. (1904).
* Orpheus, a Lyrical Legend (two volumes,
1905).
* Snowdrops From a Curate’s
Garden. (1904).
* Clouds without Water ("by the
Reverend C. Verey", 1909)
* The Scented Garden of Abdullah the
Satirist of Shiraz. ( "translated
by Major Lutiy", 1910).
* Aha ! (1910)
* Ambergris: the Selected Poems of
Aleister Crowley (1910)
* The Winged Beetle. (1912).
* Olla, an Anthology of Sixty years
of Song (1946, his last published
work)
The Greek scholar Dionysios Psilopoulos
has written on Crowley as a poet (Ph.D.,
Edinburgh).
Another
way they can be "accepted"
is by believing their lies whispered
into the human mind, or accepting
their suggestions, subtly disguised
as one's own thoughts or otherwise
(typically this can be recognized
when the voices heard in the head
seem to come from *outside* the
bodily frame, especially if there
are no signs of insanity in the
person).
It might be interesting
to note at this point that Crowley
believed himself to be the reincarnation
of the occultist Eliphas Levi who
died the same year that Crowley
was born. He had also determined
that his past lives had included
Count Cagliostro, an 18th century
occultist, founder of 'Egyptian
Rite Masonry', Alexander VI, the
notorious Borgia Pope, and Edward
Kelley (who along with John Dee
were the Elizabethan court magicians
who invented, err, deciphered Enochian,
the language of the angels.)
Coronzon (more commonly,
but perhaps less correctly, spelled
Choronzon) is an angelic being first
named in the transcripts of the
conversations that took place between
the Elizabethan mathematician and
magician Dr. John Dee and the hierarchy
of spiritual beings who identified
themselves as the angels that had
instructed the patriarch Enoch in
the holy magic of God.
These angelic conversations occurred
between the years 1582 and 1587,
through the mediumship of Dee's
hired crystal scryer, the alchemist
Edward Kelley. One or more times
a week Kelley, under Dee's guidance,
established communication with the
Enochian angels in a ritual setting,
using a globe of natural rock crystal
as his instrument. He described
to Dee what he saw in the crystal.
Dee asked questions of the angels,
and Kelley reported their replies
verbatim. Dee transcribed both his
questions, and the responses transmitted
through Kelley, in a set of diaries.
A large portion of this transcript
has survived. Much of the most important
material was reprinted in Meric
Casaubon's A True and Faithful Relation,
published in London in 1659.
In the Enochian Key known as the
Call of the Thirty Aethyrs, Coronzon
is referred to under the descriptive
title "Him That Is Fallen,"
which is equated with the Enochian
words Teloc-vovim. Coronzon is the
proper name of the fallen leader
of the Watchers, whereas Teloc-vovim
is a title similar to those applied
to God, such as Lord of Hosts. In
the Eighth Key, reference is made
to the "stooping dragon."
This is almost certainly another
title for Coronzon, who stoops in
the way that a falcon stoops upon
its prey, falling like a bolt of
lightning from the heavens. In Enochian
it translates as Abai-vovin. Note
the similarity between the endings
of both titles. They are probably
the same word -- vovim or vovin
is translated by Laycock in his
Complete Enochian Dictionary as
"dragon." The Enochian
word teloc means "death."
Therefore a more accurate meaning
for Teloc-vovim is the Death Dragon,
or perhaps the Slaying Dragon.
Aleister Crowley linked Coronzon
to the Tenth Aethyr of Enochian
magic. The aethyrs (or aethers or
ethers or airs) are dimensions or
worlds of spirit arranged in a series
of concentric shells, like Ukrainian
nesting dolls. The outermost sphere
is numbered 1, and the innermost
that is next to the earthly sphere
of the four elements is numbered
30. One Call is used to invoke the
spirits of all the aethyrs, but
the name of each aethyr is inserted
into the first sentence of this
invocation to differentiate it.
The name of the Tenth Aethyr is
ZAX. It is unique in that it is
associated with the spirit names
that lie upon the Black Cross of
the Great Tablet of the Watchtowers.
All the other Aethyrs are linked
to spirit names that appear within
one of the four Watchtowers on the
quarters of the Great Table -- the
names linked with ZAX lie outside
the Watchtowers. They are Lexarph,
Comanan and Tabitom. It is interesting
that this particular Air rules over
the nation of Germany, in view of
the attempt by the Nazis to exterminate
the Jews during the Second World
War.
In 1909, while on a walking tour
of Algeria in northern Africa, Crowley
took up a project he had begun in
1900 in Mexico -- the invocation
of the Thirty Enochian Aethyrs.
While in Mexico he had procured
through ritual means psychic visions
of the last two Aethyrs, numbers
Thirty and Twenty-nine. Now, nine
years later, he took up where he
had left off with an invocation
to the Twenty-eighth Aethyr. Israel
Regardie wrote concerning this inspiration
of Crowley's to begin again this
ambitious project: "It is not
at all clear how the idea came to
him, but in 1909, during a walk
through the desert with Frater O.
V. (Victor Neuburg) a Probationer
of the A[rgenteum] A[strum], a Hand
suddenly smote its lightning into
his heart at Aumale, and he knew
that now, that very day, he must
take up "the Vision and the
Voice" from the point where
he had laid it down in 1900"
(Crowley, The Vision and the Voice,
introduced and explained by Israel
Regardie. Dallas: Sangreal Foundation,
1972, page 5). This episode in Crowley's
life is described in many places,
notably in chapter 66 of Crowley's
autobiography The Confessions of
Aleister Crowley (London: Arkana,
1989, pages 611-24).
Aumale is a small town in Algeria
around 60 miles or so inland from
Algiers, in a mountainous desert
region -- the elevation is between
three thousand and six thousand
feet above sea level in that part
of the country. It must have been
a physically demanding undertaking
to go into the desert and invoke
spirits, but the desert places of
the world have always been the best
places to communicate with spirits
of dubious origins.
Crowley fancied himself a reincarnation
of Edward Kelley, whom he idolized,
insofar as Crowley was capable of
placing any historical figure on
a pedestal. Victor Neuberg, a strange
masochistic follower of Crowley,
was regarded by Crowley as fulfilling
the role of John Dee, who wrote
down the original Enochian communications
dictated by Kelley. Crowley never
understood that the Enochian communications
were focused entirely upon John
Dee, or that in the eyes of the
angels Kelley was merely a psychic
telephone through which they could
talk to Dee. Crowley placed all
importance in Kelley, and regarded
Dee with the same contempt that
he heaped upon his own poor follower,
Neuberg. This distortion of the
true relationship between Dee, Kelley
and the angels says a great deal
about Frater Perdurabo's ego, his
vanity, and the limitations of his
mind.
Since Crowley's vision of the Tenth
Aethyr reveals a great deal about
his personal concept of Coronzon
(spelled by him Choronzon), I will
quote the text of the vision in
full. It was first published in
1911 in the supplement to issue
5 of volume 1 of Crowley's periodical
The Equinox. It may be of some minor
interest that the name "Coronzon"
appears at the bottom of page 92,
the page facing page 93 of Casaubon's
True and Faithful Relation, and
that the vision of the Tenth Aethyr
begins just before page 93 of the
supplement to Vol. 1, number 5 of
The Equinox, but of course the scientifically
minded reader will see in this nothing
more than a coincidence.
The Cry of the 10th Aethyr, Which
is Called ZAX
There is no being in the outermost
Abyss, but constant forms come forth
from the nothingness of it.
Then the Devil of the Aethyr, that
mighty devil Choronzon, crieth aloud,
Zazas, Zazas, Nasatanada Zasas.
I am the Master of Form, and from
me all forms proceed.
I am I. I have shut myself up from
the spendthrifts, my gold is safe
in my treasure-chamber, and I have
made every living thing my concubine,
and none shall touch them, save
only I. And yet I am scorched, even
while I shiver in the wind. He hateth
me and tormenteth me. He would have
stolen me from myself, but I shut
myself up and mock at him, even
while he plagueth me. From me come
leprosy and pox and plague and cancer
and cholera and the falling sickness.
Ah! I will reach up to the knees
of the Most High, and tear his phallus
with my teeth, and I will bray his
testicles in a mortar, and make
poison thereof, to slay the sons
of men.
(Here the Spirit stimulated the
voice of Frater P[edurabo], which
also appeared to come from his station
and not from the triangle.)
I don't think I can get any more;
I think that's all there is.
(The Frater was seated in a secret
place covered completely by a black
robe, in the position called the
"Thunderbolt". He did
not move or speak during the ceremony.)
Next the Scribe was hallucinated,
believing that before him was a
beautiful courtesan whom previously
he had loved in Paris. Now, she
wooed him with soft words and glances,
but he knew these things for delusions
of the devil, and he would not leave
the circle.
The demon then laughed wildly and
loud.
(Upon the Scribe threatening him,
the Demon proceeded, after a short
delay.)
They have called me the God of
laughter, and I laugh when I will
slay. And they have thought that
I could not smile, but I smile upon
whom I would seduce. O inviolable
one, that canst not be tempted.
If thou canst command me by the
power of the Most High, know that
I did indeed tempt thee, and it
repenteth me. I bow myself humbly
before the great and terrible names
whereby thou hast conjured and constrained
me. But thy name is mercy, and I
cry aloud for pardon. Let me come
and put my head beneath thy feet,
that I may serve thee. For if thou
commandest me to obedience in the
Holy names, I cannot swerve therefrom,
for their first whispering is greater
than the noise of all my temptests.
Bid me therefore come unto thee
upon my hands and knees that I may
adore thee, and partake of thy forgiveness.
Is not thy mercy infinite?
(Here Choronzon attempts to seduce
the Scribe by appealing to his pride.
But the Scribe refused to be tempted,
and commanded the demon to continue
with the Aethyr.
There was again a short delay.)
Choronzon hath no form, because
he is the maker of all form; and
so rapidly he changeth from one
to the other as he may best think
fit to seduce those whom he hateth,
the servants of the Most High.
Thus taketh he the form of a beautiful
woman, or of a wise and holy man,
or of a serpent that writheth upon
the earth ready to sting.
And, because he is himself, therefore
he is no self; the terror of darkness,
and the blindness of night, and
the deafness of the adder, and the
tastelessness of stale and stagnant
water, and the black fire of hatred,
and the udders of the Cat of slime;
not one thing, but many things.
Yet, with all that, his torment
is eternal. The sun burns him as
he writhes naked upon the sands
of hell, and the wind cuts him bitterly
to the bone, a harsh dry wind, so
that he is sore athirst. Give unto
me, I pray thee, one drop of water
from the pure springs of Paradise,
that I may quench my thirst.
(The Scribe refused.)
Sprinkle water upon my head. I
can hardly go on.
(This last was spoken from the
triangle in the natural voice of
the Frater, which Choronzon again
simulated. But he did not succeed
in taking the Frater's form -- which
was absurd!
The Scribe resisted the appeal
to his pity, and conjured the demon
to proceed by the names of the Most
High. Choronzon attempted also to
seduce the faithfulness of the Scribe.
A long colloquy ensued. The Scribe
cursed him by the Holy Names of
God, and the power of the Pentagram.)
I feed upon the names of the Most
High. I churn them in my jaws, and
I void them from my fundament. I
fear not the power of the Pentagram,
for I am the Master of the Triangle.
My name is three hundred and thirty
and three, and that is thrice one.
Be vigilant, therefore, for I warn
thee that I am about to deceive
thee. I shall say words that thou
wilt take to be the cry of the Aethyr,
and thou wilt write them down, thinking
them to be great secrets of Magick
power, and they will be only my
jesting with thee.
(Here the Scribe invoked the Angels,
and the Holy Guardian Angel of the
Frater P. . . . The demon replied:)
I know the name of the Angel of
thee and thy brother P. . . ., and
all thy dealings with him are but
a cloak for thy filthy sorceries.
(Here the Scribe averred that he
knew more than the demon, and so
feared him not, and ordered the
demon to proceed.)
Thou canst tell me naught that
I know not, for in me is all Knowledge:
Knowledge is my name. Is not the
head of the great Serpent arisen
into Knowledge?
(Here the Scribe again commanded
Choronzon to continue with the call.)
Know thou that there is no Cry
in the tenth Aethyr like unto the
other Cries, for Choronzon is Dispersion,
and cannot fix his mind upon any
one thing for any length of time.
Thou canst master him in argument,
O talkative one; thou wast commanded,
wast thou not, to talk to Choronzon?
He sought not to enter the circle,
or to leave the triangle, yet thou
didst prate of all these things.
(Here the Scribe threatened the
demon with anger and pain and hell.
The demon replied:)
Thinkest thou, O fool, that there
is any anger and any pain that I
am not, or any hell but this my
spirit?
Images, images, images, all without
control, all without reason. The
malice of Choronzon is not the malice
of a being; it is the quality of
malice, because he that boasteth
himself "I am I", hath
in truth no self, and these are
they that are fallen under my power,
the slaves of the Blind One that
boasted himself to be the Enlightened
One. For there is no centre, nay,
nothing but Dispersion.
Woe, woe, woe, threefold to him
that is led away by talk, O talkative
One.
O thou that hast written two-and-thirty
books of Wisdom, and art more stupid
than an owl, by thine own talk is
thy vigilance wearied, and by my
talk art thou befooled and tricked,
O thou that sayest that thou shalt
endure. Knowest thou how nigh thou
art to destruction? For thou that
art the Scribe hast not the understanding
that alone availeth against Choronzon.
And wert thou not protected by the
Holy Names of God and the circle,
I would rush upon thee and tear
thee. For when I made myself like
unto a beautiful woman, if thou
hadst come to me, I would have rotted
thy body with the pox, and thy liver
with cancer, and I would have torn
off thy testicles with my teeth.
And if I had seduced thy pride,
and thou hadst bidden me to come
into the circle, I would have trampled
thee under foot, and for a thousand
years shouldst thou have been but
one of the tape-worms that is in
me. And if I had seduced thy pity,
and thou hadst poured one drop of
water without the circle, then would
I have blasted thee with flame.
But I was not able to prevail against
thee.
How beautiful are the shadows of
the ripples of the sand!
Would God that I were dead.
For know that I am proud and revengeful
and lascivious, and I prate even
as thou. For even as I walked among
the Sons of God, I heard it said
that P. . . . could both will and
know, and might learn at length
to dare, but that to keep silence
he should never learn. O thou that
art so ready to speak, so slow to
watch, thou art delivered over unto
my power for this. And now one word
was necessary unto me, and I could
not speak it. I behold the beauty
of the earth in her desolation,
and greater far is mine, who sought
to be my naked self. Knowest thou
that in my soul is utmost fear?
And such is my force and my cunning,
that a hundred times have I been
ready to leap, and for fear have
missed. And a thousand times am
I baulked by them of the City of
the Pyramids, that set snares for
my feet. More knowledge have I than
the Most High, but my will is broken,
and my fierceness is marred by fear,
and I must speak, speak, speak,
millions of mad voices in my brain.
With a heart of furious fancies,
Whereof I am Commander,
With a burning spear
And a horse of Air
To the wilderness I wander.
(The idea was to keep the Scribe
busy writing, so as to spring upon
him. For, while the Scribe talked,
Choronzon had thrown sand into the
circle, and filled it up. But Choronzon
could not think fast and continuously,
and so resorted to the device of
quotation.
The Scribe had written two or three
words of "Tom o'Bedlam,"
when Choronzon sprang within the
circle (that part of the circumference
of which that was nearest to him
he had been filling up with sand
all this time), and leaped upon
the Scribe, throwing him to the
earth. The conflict took place within
the circle. The Scribe called upon
Tetragrammaton, and succeeded in
compelling Choronzon to return into
his triangle. By dint of anger and
of threatening him with the Magick
Staff did he accomplish this. He
then repaired the circle. The discomfited
demon now continued:)
All is dispersion. These are the
qualities of things.
The tenth Aethyr is the world of
adjectives, and there is no substance
therein.
(Now returneth the beautiful woman
who had before tempted the Scribe.
She prevailed not.)
I am afraid of sunset, for Tum
is more terrible than Ra, and Khephra
the Beetle is greater than the Lion
Mau.
I am a-cold.
(Here Choronzon wanted to leave
the triangle to obtain wherewith
to cover his nakedness. The Scribe
refused the request, threatening
the demon. After a while the latter
continued:)
I am commanded, why I know not,
by him that speaketh. Were it thou,
thou little fool, I would tear thee
limb from limb. I would bite off
thine ears and nose before I began
with thee. I would take thy guts
for fiddle-strings at the Black
Sabbath.
Thou didst make a great fight there
in the circle; thou art a goodly
warrior!
(Then did the demon laugh loudly.
The Scribe said: Thou canst not
harm one hair of my head.)
I will pull out every hair of thy
head, every hair of thy body, every
hair of thy soul, one by one.
(Then said the Scribe: Thou hast
no power.)
Yea, verily I have power over thee,
for thou hast taken the Oath, and
art bound unto the White Brothers,
and therefore have I the power to
torture thee so long as thou shalt
be.
(Then said the Scribe unto him:
Thou liest.)
Ask of thy brother P. . . ., and
he shall tell thee if I lie!
(This the Scribe refused to do,
saying that it was no concern of
the demon's.)
I have prevailed against the Kingdom
of the Father, and befouled his
beard; and I have prevailed against
the Kingdom of the Son, and torn
off his Phallus; but against the
Kingdom of the Holy Ghost shall
I strive and not prevail. The three
slain doves are my threefold blasphemy
against him; but their blood shall
make fertile the sand, and I writhe
in blackness and horror of hate,
and prevail not.
(Then the demon tried to make the
Scribe laugh at Magick, and to think
that it was all rubbish, that he
might deny the names of God that
he had invoked to protect him; which,
if he had doubted but for an instant,
he had leapt upon him, and gnawed
through his spine at the neck.
Choronzon succeed not in his design.)
In this Aethyr is neither beginning
nor end, for it is all hotch-potch,
because it is of the wicked on earth
and the damned in hell. And so long
as it be hotch-potch, it mattereth
little what may be written by the
sea-green incorruptible Scribe.
The horror of it will be given
in another place and time, and through
another Seer, and that Seer shall
be slain as a result of his revealing.
But the present Seer, who is not
P. . . ., seeth not the horror,
because he is shut up, and hath
no name.
(Now was there some further parleying
betwixt the demon and the Scribe,
concerning the departure and the
writing of the word, the Scribe
not knowing if it were meet that
the demon should depart.
Then the Seer took the Holy Ring,
and wrote the name BABALON, that
is victory over Choronzon, and he
was no more manifest.)
(This cry was obtained on Dec.
6, 1909, between 2 and 4.15 p.m.,
in a lonely valley of fine sand,
in the desert near Bou-Saada. The
Aethyr was edited and revised on
the following day.)
After the conclusion of the Ceremony,
a great fire was kindled to purify
the place, and the Circle and Triangle
were destroyed.
NOTE BY SCRIBE
Almost from the beginning of the
ceremony was the Scribe overshadowed,
and he spoke as it were in spite
of himself, remembering afterwards
scarcely a word of his speeches,
some of which were long and seemingly
eloquent.
All the time he had a sense of
being protected from Choronzon,
and this sense of security prevented
his knowing fear.
Several times did the Scribe threaten
to put a curse upon the demon; but
ever, before he uttered the words
of the curse, did the demon obey
him. For himself, he knoweth not
the words of the curse.
Also is it meet to record in this
place that the Scribe several times
whistled in a Magical manner, which
never before had he attempted, and
the demon was apparently much discomforted
thereat.
Now knoweth the Scribe that he
was wrong in holding much converse
with the demon; for Choronzon, in
the confusion and chaos of his thought,
is much terrified by silence. And
by silence can he be brought to
obey.
For cunningly doth he talk of many
things, going from subject to subject,
and thus he misleadeth the wary
into argument with him. And though
Choronzon be easily beaten in argument,
yet, by disturbing the attention
of him who would command him, doth
he gain the victory.
For Choronzon feareth of all things
concentration and silence: he therefore
who would command him should will
in silence: thus is he brought to
obey.
This the Scribe knoweth; for that
since the obtaining of the Accursed
Tenth Aethyr, he hath held converse
with Choronzon. And unexpectedly
did he obtain the information he
sought after having long refused
to answer the demon's speeches.
Choronzon is dispersion; and such
is his fear of concentration that
he will obey rather than be subjected
to it, or even behold it in another.
The account of the further dealings
of Choronzon with the Scribe will
be found in the Record of Omnia
Vincam.
In his autobiography Crowley wrote
concerning his concept of the nature
of Coronzon: "The name of the
Dweller in the Abyss is Choronzon,
but he is not really an individual.
The Abyss is empty of being; it
is filled with all possible forms,
each equally inane, each therefore
evil in the only true sense of the
word -- that is, meaningless, but
malignant, in so far as it craves
to become real" (Confessions,
page 623).
To understand this surprising analysis,
you must realize that for Crowley,
the Abyss did not lie beneath the
lowest Sephirah, Malkuth, the sphere
of the four elements, but was a
gulf that divided the Tree of the
Sephiroth just below the three highest
spheres, known collectively as the
Supernals. To reach the Supernals
in a spiritual sense, it was necessary
for the seeker to cross the Abyss.
The Abyss may be entered through
the doorway of the eleventh quasi-Sephirah,
Daath, located just below the Supernals
on the Middle Pillar of the Tree.
Kenneth Grant has treated the connection
of the realm of Coronzon with Daath
at length in his book Nightside
of Eden, which is to a large extent
a commentary and expansion on an
essay by Crowley titled Liber CCXXXI,
first published in 1912 in volume
1, issue 7 of Crowley's periodical
The Equinox. Grant writes about
this essay: "The present work,
therefore, which is based upon an
extremely sinister grimoire known
as Liber 231, continues to transmit
the 93 Current as revived by Crowley
in the twentieth century" (Nightside
of Eden, page xii). In a footnote
he adds: "The number 231 is
the sum of the numbers of the Tarot
Cards, 0-21; it is, therefore, the
extension of the number 22. Liber
231 (or CCXXXI as it is more usually
designated) treats of the 22 Atus
of Thoth as applied to the 22 Paths
of the Tree of Life, and the 22
cells of the Qliphoth. Crowley has
treated openly of the Atus (see
The Book of Thoth), but of the 22
Cells of the Qliphoth and the Tunnels
of Set beneath the Paths, he did
not write. The present book therefore
completes the work he left unfinished"
(Ibid.).
Set is the Egyptian god of evil
and darkness, one of whose forms
is that of a great serpent. He is
therefore another name of the Death
Dragon, Coronzon.
The Book of Thoth
: a Short Essay on the Tarot of the
Egyptians, being the Equinox, Volume
III, no. 5 by the Master Therion ;
artist executant: Frieda Harris. Published
by O.T.O., 1944 (London: Chiswick
Press)
Crowley's
major work on the tarot, was
remarkable not least for its
unusually handsome production
at a time when - due to wartime
paper restrictions - most
British books were shoddy
in the extreme. For the printing
of The Book of Thoth Crowley
had returned to the Chiswick
Press, who somehow managed
to unearth a stock of pre-war
Arnold unbleached handmade
paper. Seemingly rather oddly
the Board of Trade had much
more stringent restrictions
on the use of paper for new
books than it did for periodicals,
and the fact that Crowley
designated the volume as part
of The Equinox series, coupled
with the origin of the paper
enabled him to produce such
a lavish publication in a
time of austerity. The book
was bound in half (sometimes
quarter) morocco by Sangorski
and Sutcliffe, and issued
in an edition of 200 signed
copies.
The contents of The Book
of Thoth clearly owe much
to the tarot teachings of
the Golden Dawn, although
Crowley made a number of innovations:
most notably changing the
order of two of the trumps
in accord with instructions
contained in The Book of the
Law. The volume is illustrated
in colour and black and white
with tarot designs executed
by Lady Frieda Harris under
instructions from Crowley.
The
tarot is a set of
cards featuring 21
trump cards, the fool,
and an extra face
card per suit, in
addition to the usual
suit (face and pip)
cards found in ordinary
playing cards. Tarot
cards are used throughout
much of Europe to
play Tarot card games.
In English-speaking
countries, where the
games are largely
unknown, Tarot cards
came to be utilized
primarily for divinatory
purposes with the
trump cards--along
with the Fool card--comprising
the 22 major arcana
cards and the pip
and four face cards
the 56 minor arcana.
Marguerit Frieda,
Lady Harris, nee Bloxham,
(1877 – May
11, 1962) was commissioned
by Aleister Crowley
to paint the Thoth
Tarot. Although involved
in the women's branch
of Freemasonry –
Co-Freemasonry –
her interest in the
occult was not deep.
Crowley had to initiate
her into his Orders
to expand her knowledge
and commence the spiritual
training necessary
to design a deck of
such power. By his
own admission, the
deck was intended
to be traditional,
but she encouraged
him to commit his
occult, magical, spiritual
and scientific knowledge
to the project. Apart
from his mother, Frieda
Harris was probably
the strongest, longest
lasting and most platonic
relationship in his
life. The extant letters
from Frieda Harris
to Crowley show her
fondness and compassion
for him, despite his
regular begging for
more money. Along
with Louis Wilkinson,
Frieda seems to be
one of the few genuine
friends in Crowley's
life.
There were three
significant events
in 1937 - she met
Aleister Crowley;
he initiated her into
his own Order, and
she studied the teachings
of Rudolf Steiner.
Crowley was on the
lookout for a talented
artist for the three
month Tarot project.
His headhunter was
Clifford Bax, playwright,
author, and co-editor
of an art & literature
magazine entitled
The Golden Hind between
1922-24, founded by
Austin Osman Spare.
On June 9th, 1937
Bax had intended to
introduce the artists
Meum Stewart and Leslie
Blanche to Crowley,
but they do not seem
to have turned up,
so he invited Frieda
instead. Bax may have
known Harris through
Masonic links. Clifford
Bax was also instrumental
in introducing John
Symonds to Crowley.
Symonds takes up the
Frieda Harris story:
"[Crowley] helped
her through the portals
of the mystical Order
of the A.'. A.'. (Argenteum
Astrum]]) She took
the name of Tzaba
“Hosts”,
which adds up to 93;
this is also the number
of the thelema current
which she was trying
to tap." John
Symonds, The Great
Beast.
Frieda Harris was
no stranger to ritual
through her membership
of Co-Masonry, but
her knowledge was
lacking. As well as
reading books by Crowley,
her studies of Anthroposophy
were to be a critical
aspect in the creation
of the Tarot. It is
quite possible that
her studies of Steiner
were suggested by
Crowley himself. Crowley
is on the record as
saying that his mission
was to continue the
work of Blavatsky
and Theosophy. Another
avenue may have been
Greta Valentine who
introduced Frieda
to Aleister. Greta
Valentine was a London
socialite whom Crowley
loved, but probably
never conquered.
"When they met
in 1936 she was studying
anthroposophy, the
mystical teachings
of Rudolf Steiner,
whose school she attended.
Her own interests
stopped short of traditional
occultism."
Greta was an artist
friend of Frieda,
and it was at her
house in Hyde Park
Crescent, London,
that Frieda and Aleister
worked on the Book
of Thoth.
Frieda lived the
construction and design
of the deck to the
point that events
in her life mirrored
the cards she was
working on. For example,
when she was working
on the Eight and Nine
of Swords, she experienced
all sorts of accidents
and delays.
Frieda was sending
Crowley a regular
stipend throughout
the project. She was
also using her society
contacts to find financial
backers for the exhibition
of the paintings,
the catalogues, and
for the publication
of the Tarot. The
mental, emotional
and spiritual pressures
took its toll on Frieda,
who became somewhat
erratic. Aleister
was sufficiently concerned
to call in the lawyers
to protect his 66%
investment in the
project. Despite the
legal hitches, Aleister
gives Frieda fulsome
praise in the Introduction
to The Book of Thoth
- this from a man
who spent much of
his life creating
enemies:
"She
devoted her genius to the
Work. With incredible rapidity
she picked up the rhythm,
and with inexhaustible patience
submitted to the correction
of the fanatical slave-driver
that she had invoked, often
painting the same card as
many as eight times until
it measured up to has Vanadium
Steel yardstick!"
Throughout the project she
insisted on her own anonymity,
but she revelled in working
for such a notorious man.
Although the Book of Thoth
was published in a 200 limited
edition, neither Crowley nor
Frieda lived to see the deck
printed.
There are several ways
to view what magick is. Again, at
its most broad, it can be defined
as any willed action leading to intended
change. It can also be seen as the
general set of methods used to accomplish
the Great Work (The term
is also used in several spiritual
traditions, such as Qabalah, Thelema,
and alchemy, with a complex meaning
that mainly refers to the philosopher's
stone) of mystical attainment. At
the practical level, magick most often
takes several practices and forms
of ritual, including banishing, invocation
and evocation, eucharistic ritual,
consecration and purification, astral
travel, yoga, sex magick, and divination.
Egypt, in March of
1904, that Crowley had the most
important experience of his life.
Crowley had been trying for several
years to contact his Holy Guardian
Angel using the methods described
in The Book of the Sacred Magic
of Abramelin the Mage with no success.
However it was in Cairo that Crowley
finally encountered an entity known
as Aiwass, whom Crowley believed
was his Holy Guardian Angel.
According to Crowley's
own account, while (unsuccessfully)
trying to summon sylphs for his
wife's amusement, she began to receive
a very powerful psychic message
from the Ancient Egyptian god Horus.
Skeptical of his
wife's sudden clairvoyancy, Crowley
demanded answers to a series of
questions from her, of which she
had no possible prior knowledge.
Upon answering all things correctly,
he took her to a museum, and after
passing several images of Horus
(which the still skeptical Crowley
reports, he "noted with silent
glee"), she pointed across
the room to a stele which could
not be clearly seen from where they
stood. When they examined the stele
(now referred to as the Stele of
Revealing, it was painted with the
image of Horus, and to Crowley's
further conviction, it was labelled
as item number 666 in the museum
catalog.
Crowley had himself
adopted 666 as his personal moniker
in rebellion to his religious upbringing
many years before. After invoking
Horus, Crowley made his fateful
breakthrough. For three days Crowley
took dictation from the entity identifying
itself as Aiwass, the resulting
text, Liber AL vel Legis, became
what is now known as The Book of
the Law.
This book was to
become the central core of Crowley's
philosophy. Crowley was named the
Prophet of a New Aeon which would
end the Age of Osiris and usher
in the Age of Horus, a signal that
a new era had begun for mankind,
and that the old religions were
to be swept aside.
The 3 key philosophical
ideas outlined in the book are:
Do What Thou Wilt
Shall Be The Whole Of The Law
Love Is The Law, Love
Under Will
Every Man And Every
Woman Is A Star
Interpretation of
what "Do What Thou Wilt..."
in contemporary times seems to have
deteriorated into "do whatever
you want...", however it seems
clear that the meaning was more
along the lines of 'doing that which
your higher self dictates'. The
higher self, or "Will"
is present in all of enlightened
people. In order to follow your
"Will", one must know
oneself. And self knowledge is the
central basis of most successful
philosophies.
Sister Cybele (Leila
Waddell) Priestess, musician, scarlet
woman and inspiration for many of
Crowley's writings.
After the encounter
with Aiwass, in typical grandiose
fashion, Mathers received a letter
announcing that the Equinox of the
Gods had come, and that Crowley had
forged a new link with the Secret
Chiefs, thus making him the supreme
magical authority. This naturally
resulted in a magical duel, which
Crowley seems to have eventually won.
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His father, Edward Crowley, was trained as an engineer
but according to Aleister, never worked as one .
He did, however, own shares in a lucrative family
brewery business, which allowed him to retire before
Aleister Crowley was born.
His mother, Emily Bertha Bishop, drew roots from
a Devon and Somerset family.
Both of his parents were Exclusive Brethren, a
radical wing of the Plymouth Brethren.Crowley grew
up in a staunch Brethren household and was only
allowed to play with children whose families followed
the same faith. His father was a fanatical preacher,
travelling around Britain and producing pamphlets.
Daily Bible studies and private tutoring were mainstays
in "Alick's" childhood.
On February 29, 1880, a sister, Grace Mary Elizabeth,
was born but lived only five hours. Crowley was
taken to see the body and in his own words (in the
third person):
"The incident made a curious impression on
him. He did not see why he should be disturbed so
uselessly. He couldn't do any good; the child was
dead; it was none of his business. This attitude
continued through his life. He has never attended
any funeral but that of his father, which he did
not mind doing, as he felt himself to be the real
centre of interest." ... The Confessions of
Aleister Crowley
On March 5, 1887, his father died of tongue cancer.
This was a turning point in Crowley's life, after
which he then began to describe his childhood in
the first person in his 'Confessions'.
After the death of his father to whom he was very
close, he drifted from his religious upbringing,
and his mother's efforts at keeping her son in the
Christian faith only served to provoke his skepticism.
When he was a child, his constant rebellious behaviour
displeased his mother to such an extent she would
chastise him by calling him "The Beast"
(from the Book of Revelation), an epithet that Crowley
would later adopt for himself. He objected to the
labeling of what he saw as life's most worthwhile
and enjoyable activities as "sinful".
The unicursal hexagram
The unicursal
hexagram is a hexagram or six pointed star that
can be traced or drawn unicursally, in one continuous
line rather than two overlaid triangles. This is
significant as the triangles are often used to represent
opposites such as fire and water or male and female.
The unifying of the symbol into one represents the
synthesis of opposites.
The unicursal
hexagram, as pictured to the right, is one of the
key symbols within Thelema, the tradition founded
by Aleister Crowley in the early part of the twentieth-century.
Crowley did not invent the unicursal hexagram, the
emblem was created by the Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn and adapted by Crowley for his own use.[citation
needed]
Crowley's adaptation of the
unicursal hexagram placed a five petaled rose, symbolizing
a pentacle (and the divine feminine), in the center;
the symbol as a whole making eleven (five petals
of the rose plus six points of the hexagram), the
number of divine union.
Combined with the Marian
Rose, the unicursal hexagram becomes Crowley's personal
sigil, which is the magical union of 5 and 6 giving
11, the number of magick and new beginnings.
When Crowley introduces the
unicursal hexagram in his The Book of Thoth he writes
that "The lines, however, are strictly Euclidean;
they have no depth."
The ritual where he makes
use of the unicursal hexagram is 'Reguli' (He also
uses the "averse" pentagram in it). In
the commentary he writes that
"...for the True Will
has no goal, its nature being To Go. Similarly,
a parabola is bound by one law which fixes its relation
to two lines at every point; yet it has no end short
of infinity, and it constantly changes its direction."
The ability to draw it in
one continuous movement, like the pentagram, is
significant in ritual magick.
Aleister Crowley and his first wife, Rose Edith
Kelly. The couple were married on August 12th, 1903
in Dingwall, Scotland in a civil ceremony.
The union of Aleister and Rose proved passionate
and fruitful, both personally and magickally for
a short time before tragedy struck the couple in
the guise of the loss of their children. They eventually
divorced due to Rose’s struggle with dipsomania
and other problems.
Despite the eventual ruin of Aleister and Rose’s
relationship, Thelemites honor this date as one
of great importance. It was Rose (in her role as
Ouarda the Seer), who was the catalyst to a series
of events which lead to the writing of The Book
of the Law, the primary source of Thelemic philosophy.
The Abbey of Thelema refers to a small
house which was used as a temple and possible training
grounds founded by Aleister Crowley and Leah Hirsig
in Cefalù, Sicily in 1920.
The name was borrowed from François
Rabelais's satire Gargantua and Pantagruel, where
an Abbey of Thélème is described as
a sort of anti-monastery where the lives of the
inhabitants were "spent not in laws, statutes,
or rules, but according to their own free will and
pleasure." This idealistic utopia was to be
the model of Crowley's commune, while also being
a type of magical school, giving it the designation
"Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum", The College
of the Holy Spirit. The general programme was in
line with the A.'.A.'. course of training, and included
daily adorations to the sun, a study of Crowley's
writings, regular yogic and ritual practices (which
were to be recorded), as well as general domestic
labor. The object was for students to devote themselves
to the Great Work of discovering and manifesting
their True Will.
Crowley had planned to transform the small house
into a global center of magical devotion and perhaps
to gain tuition fees paid by acolytes seeking training
in the Magical Arts; these fees would further assist
him in his efforts to promulgate Thelema and publish
his manuscripts.
What both the Abbey and its master actually became
was the subject of much rumor and hearsay, partly
the gossip of locals but mostly the product of John
Bull, a British yellow journalist with a particularly
vindictive attitude towards Crowley. These included
charges of sexual orgies, animal and child sacrifices,
drug use, and bestiality. Crowley never admitted
to these, but neither did he deny them, feeling
that there was no such thing as bad publicity.
Raoul Loveday
In 1923, a 23-year old Oxford undergraduate by
the name of Raoul Loveday (or Frederick Charles
Loveday) died at the abbey. His wife, Betty May,
originally blamed this on his participation in one
of Crowley's rituals. Later, however, she accepted
the doctor's diagnosis of acute enteric fever contracted
by drinking from a mountain spring. (Crowley had
warned the couple against drinking the water. Lawrence
Sutin reports all this in his biography of AC.)
When May returned to London, she gave an interview
to a tabloid paper. The Sunday Express included
her story in its ongoing attacks on Crowley. With
these and similar rumors about activities at Thelema
in mind, Mussolini's government demanded that Crowley
leave the country in 1923. After Crowley's departure,
the Abbey of Thelema was eventually abandoned and
local residents whitewashed over Crowley's murals.
The villa still stands today, but in very poor
condition. Filmmaker Kenneth Anger, himself a devotee
of Crowley, later uncovered and filmed some of its
murals in his film Thelema Abbey (1955) now considered
a lost film. Recently other murals were uncovered,
and pictures of them were posted on the Internet.
"Abbey of Thelema" remains a popular name
for various magical societies, Witchcraft covens,
and Satanist grottoes. It is also the name of a
fan club for controversial rock star Marilyn Manson,
who included the line "We're gonna ride to
the Abbey of Thelema, to the Abbey of Thelema..."
in his song Misery Machine. Experimental musicians
Coil, known to be fascinated by mysticism, went
a step farther in "The Sea Priestess"
on Astral Disaster, whose lyrics are a bizarre interpretation
of the murals in the Abbey.
Magick, in the broadest sense, is any act designed
to cause intentional change. To change nothing into
something and something into something else. The
spelling with the terminal "k" was repopularized
in the first half of the 20th century by Aleister
Crowley when he introduced it as a core component
of Thelema.
For Crowley, the alternate spelling was used to
differentiate it from other practices, such as stage
magic. Magick is not capable of producing "miracles"
or violating the physical laws of the universe (e.g.,
it cannot cause a solar eclipse), although "it
is theoretically possible to cause in any object
any change of which that object is capable by nature".
Crowley preferred the spelling magick, defining
it as "the science and art of causing change
to occur in conformity with the will." By this,
he included "mundane" acts of will as
well as ritual magic. In Magick in Theory and Practice,
Chapter XIV, Crowley says:
What is a Magical Operation? It may be defined
as any event in nature which is brought to pass
by Will. We must not exclude potato-growing or banking
from our definition. Let us take a very simple example
of a Magical Act: that of a man blowing his nose.
Crowley saw magick as the essential method for
a person to reach true understanding of the self
and to act according to one's True Will, which he
saw as the reconciliation "between freewill
and destiny. Crowley describes this process:
One must find out for oneself, and make sure beyond
doubt, who one is, what one is, why one is...Being
thus conscious of the proper course to pursue, the
next thing is to understand the conditions necessary
to following it out. After that, one must eliminate
from oneself every element alien or hostile to success,
and develop those parts of oneself which are specially
needed to control the aforesaid conditions.
Since the time of Crowley's writing about magick,
many different spiritual and occult traditions have
adopted the spelling with the terminal -k, but have
redefined what it means to some degree. For many
modern occultists, it refers strictly to paranormal
magic, which involves influencing events and physical
phenomena by supernatural, mystical, or paranormal
means.
Crowley made many claims for the paranormal effects
of magick; however, as magicians and mystics had
done before him and continue to do after him, Crowley
dismissed such effects as useless:
So we find that from November, 1901, he did no
practices of any kind until the Spring Equinox of
1904, with the exception of a casual week in the
summer of 1903, and an exhibition game of magick
in the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid in November,
1903, when by his invocations he filled that chamber
with a brightness as of full moonlight. (This was
no subjective illusion. The light was sufficient
for him to read the ritual by.) Only to conclude,
"There, you see it? What's the good of it?"
-- (Crowley, The Equinox of the Gods)
Even so, Crowley realized that paranormal effects
and magical powers have some level of value for
the individual:
My own experience was very convincing on this
point; for one power after another came popping
up when it was least wanted, and I saw at once that
they represented so many leaks in my boat. They
argued imperfect insulation. And really they are
quite a bit of a nuisance. Their possession is so
flattering, and their seduction so subtle. One understands
at once why all the first-class Teachers insist
so sternly that the Siddhi (or Iddhi) must be rejected
firmly by the Aspirant, if he is not to be sidetracked
and ultimately lost. Nevertheless, "even the
evil germs of Matter may alike become useful and
good" as Zoroaster reminds us. For one thing,
their possession is indubitably a sheet-anchor,
at the mercy of the hurricane of Doubt— doubt
as to whether the whole business is not Tommy-rot!
Such moments are frequent, even when one has advanced
to a stage when Doubt would seem impossible; until
you get there, you can have no idea how bad it is!
Then, again, when these powers have sprung naturally
and spontaneously from the exercise of one's proper
faculties in the Great Work, they ought to be a
little more than leaks. You ought to be able to
organize and control them in such wise that they
are of actual assistance to you in taking the Next
Step. After all, what moral or magical difference
is there between the power of digesting one's food,
and that of transforming oneself into a hawk? --
(Crowley, Magick Without Tears)
Stele of Revealing
Within Thelema, the Great Work is generally defined
as those spiritual practice leading to the mystical
union of the Self and the All—"The Great
Work is the uniting of opposites. It may mean the
uniting of the soul with God, of the microcosm with
the macrocosm, of the female with the male, of the
ego with the non-ego." According to Aleister
Crowley, this is first represented by what he called
the "Knowledge and Conversation with the Holy
Guardian Angel." From another perspective,
he also considered the Great Work to be the pursuit
of self-knowledge, to "obtain the knowledge
of the nature and powers of my own being."
Although Crowley often discussed the idea of "succeeding"
or "accomplishing" in the Great Work,
he also recognized that the process is ongoing:
The Quest of the Holy Grail, the Search for the
Stone of the Philosophers—by whatever name
we choose to call the Great Work—is therefore
endless. Success only opens up new avenues of brilliant
possibility. Yea, verily, and Amen! the task is
tireless and its joys without bounds; for the whole
Universe, and all that in it is, what is it but
the infinite playground of the Crowned and Conquering
Child, of the insatiable, the innocent, the ever-rejoicing
Heir of Space and Eternity, whose name is MAN
Mr. Crowley Lyrics
Artist(Band):Ozzy Osbourne
Mr. Crowley, what they done in your head
(Oh) Mr. Crowley, did you talk to the dead
Your lifestyle to me seemed so tragic
With the thrill of it all
You fooled all the people with magic
(Yeah)You waited on Satan's door
Mr. Charming, did you think you were pure
Mr. Alarming, in nocturnal rapport
Uncovering things that were sacred, manifest on
this earth
(Oh)Conceived in the eye of a secret
Yeah, they scattered the afterbirth
Mr. Crowley, won't you ride my white horse?
Mr. Crowley, it's symbolic of course
Approaching a time that is classic
I hear that maidens call
Approaching a time that is drastic
Standing with their backs to the wall
Was it polemically sent?
I wanna know what you meant
I wanna know
I wanna know what you meant, yeah!
Mr. Crowley is a 1980 heavy metal song performed
by Ozzy Osbourne (with Bob Daisley contributing
lyrics, and Randy Rhoads the music), released on
the album Blizzard of Ozz. The song is one of Osbourne's
first two singles as a solo artist following his
expulsion from Black Sabbath. It reached #46 on
the UK charts. The intro, guitar solos and harmony
line all were some of the earliest neo-classical
metal parts ever written.
Aleister Crowley served as the Outer
Head of the Order from 1922 until his death in December
of 1947. Crowley's first act as O.H.O. was to reconfirm
the charters of Jones and Tränker as Grand
Masters for North America and Germany, respectively.
Tränker, on Jones's recommendation, invited
Crowley to formally assume leadership of O.T.O.
as well as of the various organizations included
in the Pansophical movement, at a conference to
be held at Hohenleuben, near Weida, in the summer
of 1925. The other attendees of the conference were:
Heinrich and Helene Tränker; Karl Germer (Saturnus,
Jan. 22, 1885 - Oct. 25, 1962), at the time Tränker's
secretary and publisher); Albin Grau; Eugen Grosche;
Martha Künzel; Henri Birven; a gentleman named
Hopfer; Crowley; Crowley's associates Dorothy Olsen,
Leah Hirsig, Norman Mudd; and others.
Ozzy came up with the song's title, a reference
to the infamous Aleister Crowley, and Bob Daisley's
subsequent lyrics are addressed to him. The song's
lyrics do not display a profound knowledge of Aleister
Crowley. His last name is mispronounced (it rhymes
with "holy"). The lyrics ask "did
you talk with the dead?", where Crowley believed
in reincarnation. The lyrics state that Crowley
"waited on Satan's call", where -- despite
his reputation as a Satanist -- Crowley did not
believe that Satan even existed.
Mr. Crowley seems to cast the life of the occultist
in a critical light; Osbourne asks Crowley, "Mr.
Charming, did you think you were pure?" and
invites Crowley to "ride my white horse".
It is commonly thought to refer to Crowley's addiction
to heroin which was a prescribed medication for
him. The line is open to interpretation, as Osbourne
indicates in the following line, "It's symbolic,
of course." Osbourne ends the song with a plea
to the long-dead Crowley, "Was it polemically
sent?/I wanna know what you meant", perhaps
referring to Crowley's often-controversial doctrines.
Osbourne also says in the reissue of Blizzard of
Ozz that, in Black Sabbath, he had a roadie named
Frank who'd worked with Led Zeppelin and Jimmy Page
had given him a book signed "To Frank, Polemically
Yours".
THE TAROT DECK: The Book of Thoth : a Short Essay
on the Tarot of the Egyptians, being the Equinox,
Volume III, no. 5 by the Master Therion ; artist
executant: Frieda Harris. Published by O.T.O., 1944
(London: Chiswick Press) by Aleister Crowley (Author),
Frieda Harris (Author )This book describes the philosophy
and the use of Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot, a
deck of Tarot cards designed by Crowley and painted
by Lady Frieda Harris. The Thoth Tarot has become
one of the best-selling and most popular Tarot Decks
in the world.
In 1943 Crowley had a series of collotype printing
blocks made to reproduce in color the images of
seven individual tarot cards plus the design that
he intended to have printed on the reverse side
of each card. The plates were primarily struck so
that high-quality color prints could be made to
tip into his forthcoming The Book of Thoth, however
he also took advantage of their availability to
have a small test run of those cards made, for distribution
to friends and acquaintances who might be persuaded
to help finance the full printing of the pack. These
are two of that test run. Each with the Rose Cross
design on the back. Very unusual, and the true first
printing of one of the most famous tarot decks.
ALEISTER CROWLEY WALLPAPER
To download your ALEISTER
CROWLEY wallpaper visit the image size links
below. THEN: Please right click the image and save
to your computer!
