In the summer of 1901, the English occultist Aleister Crowley, age 25, stood before the Great Buddha at Kamakura. Having arrived in Yokohama just a few days before, he had crossed the Pacific from San Francisco via Honolulu and was in the midst of wrapping up a shipboard extramarital affair. He was also wrestling with a major life decision: Should he remain and live in Japan, or move on?
The Spectator (UK) magazine has an interesting review by Nicholas Lezard of Phil Baker’s excellent book, The City of the Beast…
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Follow the link to Zero Equals Two website for a fascinating article by Frater Orpheus…
The Abbey of Thelema looks out on the wide Mediterranean. Italy has a long history of occultism and Crowley was likely aware of the various cults and religious sects that… Read more »
They are definitely not the first heavy metal act to sing about Aleister Crowley, but at this point in time, CARONTE are easily the most effective. “Wolves of Thelema” is… Read more »
“Aleister Crowley was a noted, sinister and controversial occultist who founded his own religious order and designed a set of tarot cards that are still used today… His links with west Cornwall were revealed and it’s believed the self-styled ‘Great Beast’ summoned up the very Devil himself in Carn Cottage and performed a black mass down the hill in Zennor’s church.”
‘Using previously unpublished letters and diaries, Churton explores how Crowley was initiated into the Golden Dawn’s Inner Order in Paris in 1900 and how, in 1902, he relocated to Montparnasse. Soon engaged to Anglo-Irish artist Eileen Gray, Crowley pontificates and parties with English, American, and French artists gathered around sculptor Auguste Rodin: all keen to exhibit at Paris’s famed Salon d’Automne. In 1904 — still dressed as “Prince Chioa Khan” and recently returned from his Book of the Law experience in Cairo — Crowley dines with novelist Arnold Bennett at Paillard’s. In 1908 Crowley is back in Paris to prove it’s possible to attain Samadhi (or “knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel”) while living a modern life in a busy metropolis. In 1913 he organizes a demonstration for artistic and sexual freedom at Oscar Wilde’s tomb. Until war spoils all in 1914, Paris is Crowley’s playground.’
Crowley is notable as the first Westerner to attempt K2 (8,611 meters), in 1902, with Oscar Eckenstein, and for leading an attempt on Kanchenjunga (8,586 meters). The latter expedition, although… Read more »
The ‘wickedest man in Cornwall’ is a title strongly fought – infamous magician Aleister Crowley and the planner who gave permission for the first Greggs in Kernow could lay claim to the dubious honour.
Kamuret’s edition of Aleister Crowley’s Sword of Song has been sent to the printers! Edited, annotated and introduced by Richard Kaczynski, this edition far surpasses that found in the Collected Works: red and black ink has been employed to capture the feel of the 1904 edition; a 50 page introduction by Crowley’s foremost biographer introduces the reader to the many themes to be found throughout the book; finally, copious end-notes further elucidate concepts and ideas in need of clarification.
There is magic in these here hills but also tales of evil – occultist Aleister Crowley was supposed to have raised the Devil in Carn Cottage, which now sits broken… Read more »