More on Dr Kaczynski at Treadwells

ALEISTER CROWLEY’S ‘SCARLET WOMEN’
A seminar talk
by Dr Richard Kaczynski, author of Perdurabo

14 August (Saturday)
7.15 for 7.30 pm start – £5.00
Treadwell’s Bookshop Meeting Room
34 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden
Reservations by email info@treadwells-london.com

In this seminar talk, biographer Richard Kaczynski considers in depth the magical women with whom Aleister Crowley worked.

Kaczynski looks at the question: how did these women contribute to his project of trying to bring about the Aeon of Horus – which for Crowley involved the destruction of the puritanical, bourgeois social norms? They were to embody and ‘channel’ overt and subversive sexuality in all areas of their lives — a tall order… and possibly a particularly male fantasy?

It is often forgotten that these women were the first female Thelemic magicians. Kaczynski looks at such questions as: how did they practice their magic, and what did their sexuality mean to their magical life? How did their constructed identities fit into, or attempt to subvert, roles prescribed for women in the Edwardian period? And to what extent did they fall in with Crowley’s prescriptions for the role?

The final section of the talk examines Frieda, Lady Harris, who is best known for having painted the Thoth Tarot deck under Crowley’s guidance. Her own magical, artistic and thelemic work outside this project is little known, and tonight’s speaker will draw on his unique access to unpublished papers to tell us more about this extraordinary woman.

Richard Kaczynski, PhD, is the author of the most recent biography of Aleister Crowley, Perdurabo, which has made a substantial scholarly contribution. Kaczynksi gained access to documents unseen by previous Crowley biographers, and obtained interviews with normally-reclusive acquaintances of his subject. He lives in America and is visiting the UK briefly this summer.

The talk begins at 7.30 sharp. It will last about an hour, and will be followed by a round-table discussion, in which all are invited to participate. Wine and drinks will be served afterward in a cocktail party on the shop floor.

Signed limited editions of Perdurabo will be available.

For those who wish to read up a little on Crowley’s female counterparts, there is a little online background information for the non-specialist.
Among the thousands of online short bios of AC, a few place the women in the foreground in the context of AC’s life, including

http://www.magickalmind.com/crowleybio.htm.
Leila Waddell: http://laylah.s5.com/men2345f.htm Leah Hirsig: http://www.hermetic.com/sabazius/hirsig.htm
Leah Hirsig’s 1924 Diary:
http://www.funet.fi/pub/doc/occult/chaos/misc/scwoman.txt
Frieda Harris: http://www.supertarot.co.uk/adept/fharris.htm