A Dark Muse by Gary Lachman

Author:Gary Lachman [Lachman, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 0100-12-31T22:00:00+00:00

Aleister Crowley

The most notorious magician of the 20th century was born Edward Alexander Crowley on 12 October 1875 in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire; he later transformed himself to Aleister to avoid sharing a name with his father,23 one of many transformations throughout a long and turbulent career. Between his coming of age and his death in 1947, Crowley adopted a whole series of other selves. There was, for example, Brother Perdurabo. There were also the Laird of Boleskine, Prince Chioa Khan, Count Svareff, Ankh-f-n-Khonsu, and Simon Iff. If we count his identity with his `higher self', there was also Aiwass, a supernatural being from another dimension, approachable through sex, drugs and magical ritual. Bringing in the many individuals Crowley claimed to have been in past lives - like Cagliostro and Eliphas Levi - swells the ranks even further. But it was the nickname given him by his puritanical Plymouth Brethren mother that set the course of Crowley's life. Rebelling against an arid fundamentalism, Edward so angered his mother that she called him the Great Beast 666 from the Book of Revelations. Crowley agreed and acted accordingly. This petulant spitefulness remained throughout his life. Along with an ability to justify all of his actions, it created an ego impervious to criticism. Crowley believed in himself and in his mission, which often enough were identical. His mother didn't know what she unleashed upon the world.

Crowley's history has been told several times24. Since his revival in the late 1960s (both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were impressed by him) and adoption by the devotees of heavy metal, he's achieved a posthumous notoriety that far exceeds the infamy of his day. Today, "Do what thou wilt," the catch phrase of Crowley's religion of thelema, is teenage lingo. As his own plunge into sex and sadism was prompted by his intolerable upbringing, Crowley's philosophy of indulgence appeals to the young, hemmed in by parental restrictions. Most people, however, get through this phase and adjust to life. Crowley made a religion of it, with himself, the Master Therion (the Great Beast in Greek), as high priest and deity.

Crowley absorbed an enormous amount of experience. He climbed the Himalayas, walked across China, learned several languages, squandered a fortune, and belonged to several occult orders. He took a startling amount of drugs, and had erotic relations with members of both sex in a variety of ways and places, was a chess champion, wrote German propaganda during WWI and enjoyed the rare distinction of having his own magical abbey shut down by Mussolini. He was also in and out of the tabloids during the 1920s and 30s, and earned the tag of "the wickedest man in the world." Though technically not a black magician, there was little of the light about him, and as most accounts of his life relate, he left a trail of madness and shattered lives. Few close to him emerged unharmed.

As mentioned earlier, Crowley became interested in magic (or `magick', as he would spell it) through a book of A.

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