Just found a very impressive article online that’s bound to be of interest to many visitors to this site: Unleashing The Beast – Aleister Crowley, Tantra and Sex Magic in Late Victorian England by Hugh Urban of Ohio State University.
… Despite his importance, Crowley has been largely ignored by historians of religions. In most cases he has been dismissed as, at best, a pathetic charlatan, and, at worst, a sadistic pervert and a ridiculous crank. Most scholars of Western esotericism, such as Antoine Faivre, make only passing reference to Crowley, while leading scholars of new age religions, such as Wouter Hanegraaff, give him only briefest mention. Perhaps the primary reason for this neglect of Crowley — and also for the intense scandal and titillation that surrounded him during his life — was his practice of sexual magic…
For the full article, visit Volume VII of Esoterica.