Tag: Treadwells

Lecture: Crowley On Film

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This illustrated lecture traces the appearance of  the infamous magus Aleister Crowley in cinema, as both a character and an influence. Gary Parsons follows him from earliest flickering images portraying him, through the Hammer horror era, and right up to the avant-garde. Along the way we meet Kenneth Anger, The Devil Rides Out, and a smattering of European art house films.  We promise an enlivening evening with the Great Beast, celluloid-style. Gary Parsons is a film maker and a graduate in film from Goldsmiths College London. He has been interviewed for both Dazed and Hero magazines. He has previously spoken on ‘Witchcraft Documentaries of the 1970s’ and we are delighted to welcome him back to Treadwell’s.

Treadwells: Aleister Crowley’s Mysteries of Filth

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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.