Aleister Crowley Painting To Be Auctioned

This is, without exaggeration, a once in a lifetime opportunity to own a one of kind, obscenely rare painting done by the notorious English occultist (and self-described “Great Beast 666”) Aleister Crowley. This is a Smithsonian Institute level artifact, there can be no doubt about it. Even a signed Crowley book is next to impossible to locate these days.

It will be of interest to occult and literary collectors, museums housing world class collections of unusual and exotic items or perhaps rock music related collections, such as the Paul Allen museums in Seattle or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, due to the rather obvious Led Zeppelin tie-in. In such a context (Led Zeppelin) this piece would be an otherwise impossible to secure cornerstone of the collection. Or for an exhibit on the “darkside” of rock and roll (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Ozzy Osbourne), this piece is of obvious importance.

The painting was done in 1918 in New York City and given to a woman that Crowley was trying to seduce. It is practically the sole known Crowley painting with an overtly occult image, as odd as this may seem. Perhaps this is because the Nazis destroyed many of his paintings in Berlin in the early 1930s. Nevertheless, the fact remains that most known Crowley paintings are of ugly women, sketches of male friends or unremarkable landscapes.

This is one of the four or five best Crowleys, I don’t think many people who know the work would dispute that assertion. I think it’s one of the top two, the other being his self-portrait.

There should be no question as to the provenance: Not only has the OTO (the “official” Crowley organization) examined and photographed the piece for their archives, Kenneth Anger, the late Jhon Balance (from Coil) and other Crowley experts have admired this piece as well. Aside from all of that. Crowley’s style is as distinctive as a signature and this is not just “a” Crowley, it’s one of the very best. It’s pretty obvious it’s authentic. My own reputation as a Crowley expert is well-known, additionally.

Adding to what makes this painting such a distinctive piece amongst all of the known Crowley works is the incorporation of a symbol closely associated with Crowley throughout his career, the Eye of Horus or eye in the triangle. The book “Eye in the Triangle” is considered one of the finest Crowley biographies and was written by his onetime assistant, Israel Regardie and this indicates how important this symbol, which was more or less a “logo” of sorts for Crowley’s occult journal, The Equinox, was to the Great Beast.

Note that the being crossing the river has a scarab beetle for a head. Clutched in its mandibles is a golden globe, an eye in the triangle –the sigil of the Astrum Argentum, or “Order of the Sliver Star.” As should be obvious, the painting holds all sorts of occult symbolism and portent to be unlocked after months and years of living with it and studying it, and again, it’s practically the sole Crowley painting still known to exist with an overtly occult theme.