Aleister Crowley in India by Tobias Churton

Author:Tobias Churton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography/Occult History
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2019-09-21T00:00:00+00:00

Aum! let us meditate aright

On that adorable One Light,

Divine Savitri! So may She

Illume our minds! So mote it be!

After which magnificent climax, it is something of a comedown to read G. K. Chesterton’s review of The Sword of Song, which appeared on its publication in the Daily News. Readers may judge for themselves the appropriateness of Chesterton’s comments on Crowley’s work:

Mr. Crowley has always been, in my opinion, a good poet; his “Soul of Osiris,” written during an Egyptian mood, was better poetry than his Browningesque rhapsody in a Buddhistic mood; but this also, though very affected, is very interesting. But the main fact about it is, that it is the expression of a man who has really found Buddhism more satisfactory than Christianity. Mr. Crowley begins his poem, I believe, with an earnest intention to explain the beauty of the Buddhistic philosophy: he knows a great deal about it; he believes in it. . . . But Mr. Crowley has got something into his soul stronger even than the beautiful passion of the man who believes in Buddhism; he has the passion of the man who does not believe in Christianity. He adds one more testimony to the endless series of testimonials to the fascination and vitality of the faith. For some mysterious reason no man can contrive to be agnostic about Christianity. He always tries to prove something about it—that it is unphilosophical or immoral or disastrous—which is not true. . . . A casual carpenter wandered about a string of villages; and suddenly a horde of rich men and sceptics and Sadducees and respectable persons rushed at him and nailed him up like vermin; then people saw that he was a god. He had provided that he was not a common man, for he was murdered. And ever since his creed has proved that it is not a common hypothesis; for it is hated. Next week I hope to make a fuller study of Mr. Crowley’s interpretation of Buddhism [he didn’t] . . . suffice for the moment to say that if this be indeed a true interpretation of the creed, as it is certainly a capable one, I need go no further than its pages for example of how a change of abstract belief may break a civilization to pieces. Under the influence of this book earnest modern philosophers may, I think, begin to perceive the outlines of two vast and mystical philosophies, which if they were subtly and slowly worked out in two continents through many centuries, might possibly, under special circumstances, make the East and West almost as different as they really are.

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