Tag: Events

Treadwells: Aleister Crowley’s Mysteries of Filth

In 1920 Aleister Crowley and his magical partner Leah Hirsig established the Abbey of Thelema at Cefalù, in Sicily. Here they undertook taboo-breaking magical experiments, including rites involving eating faeces. This lecture reveals this previously-unexplored side of Crowley’s magic, telling a story which raises questions about taboo and purity in ceremonial magic, but equally — gender, ideals of womanhood and the idea of the Scarlet Woman. The workings probed the boundaries of selfhood, subjectivity and taboo, and insights can be drawn from Mary Douglas’ work on purity and taboo and Georges Bataille’s writing on the negative paths to mystical ecstasy.