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Speaker 1: floors homes are built on. Man of the Mammoth. When
Speaker 1: Jack Parsons first heard the name Alista Crowley, he could
Speaker 1: scarcely have known how much it would change his life.
Speaker 1: But who was the man once dubbed the wickedest man
Speaker 1: in the world. With Part two of We Are the Witchcraft,
Speaker 1: due out on Tuesday, April third, we take a look
Speaker 1: back at two of the more extraordinary moments of Crowley's life.
Speaker 1: The story of Bleskin House is inseparable from that of
Speaker 1: his most infamous former resident, Alista Crowley. It was a
Speaker 1: very particular journey that brought Crowley to Bleskin, and it
Speaker 1: begins a short time before midnight on the twelfth of
Speaker 1: October eighteen seventy five, with his birth in Royal Leamington, Spa, England. Crowley,
Speaker 1: who was christened Edward Alexander, was the first of two
Speaker 1: children born to Edward and Emily Crowley. Their second, a
Speaker 1: baby girl, would arrive five years later, but would tragically
Speaker 1: die after only five hours of life. The family was
Speaker 1: devoutly religious and belonged to a Christian sect known as
Speaker 1: the Plymouth Breath. The sect were renowned for their belief
Speaker 1: in the literal truth of the Bible and their puritanical
Speaker 1: attitude towards sin and the dangers of temptation. It was
Speaker 1: into this deeply rigid and conservative environment that Crowley was
Speaker 1: brought up, an environment which many believe contributed to his
Speaker 1: utter rejection of all such beliefs in later life. Owing
Speaker 1: to his share in the lucrative family brewing business, Crowley's father, Edward,
Speaker 1: had been able to take an early retirement, and as
Speaker 1: such divided most of his time between his family and
Speaker 1: volunteering as a traveling preacher for the sect. Despite the
Speaker 1: socially claustrophobic upbringing and unhappy childhood, Crowley was utterly devoted
Speaker 1: to Edward. In March eighteen eighty seven, Crowley was devastated
Speaker 1: when his father died after a short battle with cancer.
Speaker 1: The young Alister was only eleven years old, and the
Speaker 1: death would prove to be a significant turning point in
Speaker 1: his life. Crowley's sorrow at the loss of his father
Speaker 1: soon morphed into anger. That Crowley began attacking the very
Speaker 1: thing that had made his life such a misery, rejecting
Speaker 1: what he saw as the zealous and authoritarian scourge of Christianity.
Speaker 1: In the years that followed, it would seem that Crowley
Speaker 1: had developed a pathological yearning to commit the sins he
Speaker 1: had so studiously been warned against. He started to experiment sexually,
Speaker 1: dabbled with debauchery, and took any opportunity to point out
Speaker 1: what he considered to be the many inconsistencies in the
Speaker 1: Bible to anyone who would listen. Crowley had the sense
Speaker 1: that he was searching for something, but it wasn't until
Speaker 1: he arrived at Cambridge University that the pieces began to
Speaker 1: shift into place. At some point, Crowley had become interested
Speaker 1: in the occult, in particular the study of ritual magic,
Speaker 1: an enthusiasm that was piqued after he read A. E.
Speaker 1: Waits's The Book of Black Magic and Pacts, an acute
Speaker 1: interest in alchemy brought him into contact with British chemist
Speaker 1: and occultist George Cecil Jones, who in turn introduced Crowley
Speaker 1: to the hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Order
Speaker 1: had been established in eighteen eighty eight and was led
Speaker 1: by the charismatic Samuel Liddell McGregor Mathis. Some of you
Speaker 1: may remember that it was to Mathis that the Alpha
Speaker 1: and Omega group had stayed faithful, the same group to
Speaker 1: which Netta Fornario had belonged before her death under mysterious
Speaker 1: circumstances in nineteen twenty nine, As we explored in Episode one,
Speaker 1: after graduation and with the luxury of his family's brewing
Speaker 1: dynasty inheritance, Crowley was able to untether himself from the
Speaker 1: usual constraints of life. As such, he was free to
Speaker 1: throw himself into his new and burgeoning obsession of ritual magic.
Speaker 1: A year after leaving Cambridge, Crowley had moved into a
Speaker 1: luxury London flat in Chancery Lane and had hired fellow
Speaker 1: Golden Dawn member Alan Bennett to become his personal magic tutor.
Speaker 1: It was Bennett who formerly introduced Crowley to ceremonial magic
Speaker 1: and the ritual use of drugs, but most importantly to
Speaker 1: the rituals of the Goetia, the practice of invoking what
Speaker 1: are commonly known as angels and demons, in particular the
Speaker 1: urs Goetia, as found in the opening section of the
Speaker 1: seventeenth century Grimoire The Lesser Key of Solomon, a Grimoire
Speaker 1: being another term for a book of magic spells. Maths
Speaker 1: was impressed by Crowley's dedication and rapid rise through the
Speaker 1: various grades of the Golden Dawn, and the two became
Speaker 1: close friends, but Crowley was growing increasingly frustrated with the movement.
Speaker 1: His frustration was in part due to the reticence that
Speaker 1: some of the more established members had about Crowley's membership.
Speaker 1: In what was quite a rarity for the time, Crowley
Speaker 1: was openly bisexual, a state of affairs that many members
Speaker 1: sadly found uncomfortable. But what irked Crowley more than anything
Speaker 1: was what he considered to be the inherent phoniness of
Speaker 1: the group, peopled as it was by many esteemed intellects
Speaker 1: of the day such as W. B. Yates and Brown Stoker.
Speaker 1: Crowley felt that they were merely playing at magic, and
Speaker 1: treated the organization as little more than a glorified salon.
Speaker 1: In what would later become a feature of Crowley's life,
Speaker 1: he wanted more and to go further than anyone had
Speaker 1: gone before. In eighteen ninety eight, Mathers introduced Crowley to
Speaker 1: a strange nimistical text called The Secret Book of abramel
Speaker 1: and Magic. The book, which is said to date back
Speaker 1: to the fifteenth century, recounts the story of an Egyptian
Speaker 1: carbalistic magician known as Abramelum the Mage and his pupil,
Speaker 1: Abraham of Vorms in Germany. As the story goes, Abraham
Speaker 1: found the Maide living in the desert outside a Ratchi,
Speaker 1: an Egyptian town near the River Nile. After agreeing to
Speaker 1: serve and fear the Lord and to live and die
Speaker 1: in his most holy Law, Abraham was instructed by Abramelin
Speaker 1: in the divine science and true magic embedded within the
Speaker 1: two manuscripts. Abraham was warned only to pass this knowledge
Speaker 1: on to those he knew well and trusted, but now
Speaker 1: it was in the hands of Alister Crowley. Crucially, the
Speaker 1: book describes an elaborate ritual known as the Abramelin Operation,
Speaker 1: designed to conjure up the magician's guardian angel. It became
Speaker 1: clear to Crowley that this was the next step that
Speaker 1: he must take in his path to complete enlightenment. It
Speaker 1: is a path that many believed to have led to
Speaker 1: fatal consequences. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, the
Speaker 1: well healed, Crowley embarked on a lengthy undertaking to find
Speaker 1: the ideal location for the operation. As Crowley later wrote,
Speaker 1: the house must be in a more or less secluded situation.
Speaker 1: There should be a door opening to the north from
Speaker 1: the room of which you make your oratory. Outside this
Speaker 1: door you construct a terrace covered with fine river sand.
Speaker 1: This ends in a lodge where the spirits may congregate.
Speaker 1: A year after searching, Crowley had failed to find the
Speaker 1: perfect location. That was until he found himself traveling into
Speaker 1: the highlands of Scotland along the haunting shores of the
Speaker 1: majestic Lochness. A short time later, Crowley arrived at a
Speaker 1: small grave site by the side of the road overlooking
Speaker 1: the loch. There, perched a short distance up the hill
Speaker 1: overlooking the graveyard, he saw it for the first time,
Speaker 1: the house that would forever become synonymous with his name, Bleskin,
Speaker 1: the single floored mansion located on the eastern shore of
Speaker 1: Loch Ness, was built in the late eighteenth century by
Speaker 1: a Colonel Archibald Fraser. It is not clear what exactly
Speaker 1: brought Crowley to Bleskin, though the filmmaker and Crowley aficionado
Speaker 1: Kenneth Anger has pointed out that he may have been
Speaker 1: drawn to the name and its similarity to Baal, the
Speaker 1: Canaan god of gods, later remodeled as the lord of flies.
Speaker 1: In the Old Testament, Bal is represented by the symbol
Speaker 1: of the bull, the word Boal from Bleskin, being an
Speaker 1: ancient Scottish form of the same animal. Others believe, however,
Speaker 1: that Crowley had in some way been preternaturally drawn to
Speaker 1: the house. It was said that a medieval church had
Speaker 1: once stood on the same site. One morning, with the
Speaker 1: congregation inside, the church mysteriously caught fire. As the congregation
Speaker 1: rushed to escape, they found themselves inexplicably trapped inside. Unable
Speaker 1: to escape, they perished as the church burnt steadily to
Speaker 1: the ground. Had something of the event remained, something that
Speaker 1: Crowley was eager to tap into. It is also said
Speaker 1: that the graveyard itself was once a meeting point for witches.
Speaker 1: Reports of a tunnel leading from the house to the
Speaker 1: grave site, which some claim to have been used by
Speaker 1: Crowley to conduct his own nighttime rituals, remain unsubstantiated. So
Speaker 1: convinced was Crowley of the house's suitability that in August
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety nine, he paid more than twice its value
Speaker 1: to secure the property. A short time later, he relocated
Speaker 1: his possessions and began preparing for the great Operation. It
Speaker 1: is important at this point to draw the distinction between
Speaker 1: what many see as Crowley's unhealthy obsession with black magic
Speaker 1: and satanism, and what, in reality, it was that Crowley
Speaker 1: hoped to achieve. Whether there is a truth to it
Speaker 1: or not, Crowley's intention and the sole purpose of the
Speaker 1: ritual was to seek knowledge and conversation with his own
Speaker 1: personal guardian angel. It is, by all accounts, a ritual
Speaker 1: to invoke positive change, a force for good, but there
Speaker 1: was one glaringly large catch. In order to do this,
Speaker 1: Crowley would have to invoke and then bring under his
Speaker 1: control the twelve Kings of Hell before beginning the ritual,
Speaker 1: which required him to start in Easter. Crowley spent the
Speaker 1: intervening month entertaining guests and readying the property in preparation
Speaker 1: for the ceremony. The final stage was to cover the
Speaker 1: outdoor terrace in a fine river sand. The reason was simple.
Speaker 1: It was so Crowley could see the feat marks of
Speaker 1: the spirits and demons he was about to invoke. The
Speaker 1: ritual was to last six months and required the utmost conviction.
Speaker 1: It would require him to live off little more than
Speaker 1: bread and water, and to wait regularly at three am
Speaker 1: to begin the invocations. Chastity had to be observed at
Speaker 1: all times, and complete abstinence was paramount for the free
Speaker 1: spirited Crowley. That in itself would have proved a tall order. However,
Speaker 1: as the winter snow of eighteen ninety nine began to
Speaker 1: thaw and with it past the season of death, new
Speaker 1: life was bursting forth throughout the surrounding hills. Spring had
Speaker 1: finally arrived, and Crowley's dedication had not faulted. The time
Speaker 1: had come to begin the ritual. Are you always taking
Speaker 1: care of your family? Do you often take care of
Speaker 1: others and not yourself? Now it's time to take care
Speaker 1: of yourself, to make time for you you deserve it.
Speaker 1: TELEDOC gives you access to a licensed therapist to help
Speaker 1: you get back to feeling your best to feeling like
Speaker 1: yourself again. With teledoc, you can speak to a licensed
Speaker 1: therapist by phone or video. Therapy appointments are available seven
Speaker 1: days a week from seven am to nine pm local time.
Speaker 1: If you feel overwhelmed sometimes maybe you feel stressed or anxious,
Speaker 1: depressed or lonely, or you might be struggling with a
Speaker 1: personal or family issue, teledoc can help. Teledoc is committed
Speaker 1: to facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they make it easy
Speaker 1: to change counselors if needed. For free. Teledoc therapy is
Speaker 1: available through most insurance or employers. Download the app or
Speaker 1: visit teledoc dot com forward slash Unexplained podcast today to
Speaker 1: get started. That's teladoc dot com slash Unexplained Podcast. Crowley
Speaker 1: began by preparing the talismans that were essential for the operation.
Speaker 1: The talismans, which can be found at the back of
Speaker 1: the Book of Abramelon, are a set of magic word
Speaker 1: squares required to bring the twelve kings of Hell into order.
Speaker 1: Crowley had moved to the brightest room in the house
Speaker 1: to best complete the task. The room, located at the
Speaker 1: front of the house, overlooked the terrace and down to
Speaker 1: the dark and still lockness beyond, Crowley cut the squares
Speaker 1: from the material vellum, and as a bright sun flooded
Speaker 1: the room with light, he began to inscribe the squares
Speaker 1: with Indian ink. When something strange happened, Despite the clear skies,
Speaker 1: the room began to darken, until the light had been
Speaker 1: almost entirely extinguished. From this point on, Crowley was required
Speaker 1: to use a large array of candles to keep the
Speaker 1: room alight even during the brightest times of day. With
Speaker 1: everything in order, Crowley embarked on his sixth month odyssey.
Speaker 1: Almost immediately he received confirmation that he was on the
Speaker 1: right path as he began to chant in the room.
Speaker 1: Even with all its artificial light, it again began to darken,
Speaker 1: while all around the lodge and terrace became peopled with
Speaker 1: shadowy shapes, or, as Crowley writes, the demons and evil
Speaker 1: forces had congregated round me so thickly that they were
Speaker 1: shutting off the light. A number of friends had declined
Speaker 1: to visit Crowley, believing he was going too far meddling
Speaker 1: with things he couldn't understand, let alone control. The grimoire
Speaker 1: itself begins with the warning not to attempt any of
Speaker 1: the magic contained. Within only a few weeks into the operation,
Speaker 1: already there were ominous stirrings. One acquaintance named Russia, lasted
Speaker 1: only two weeks before terror forced him to flee Crowley
Speaker 1: coming down to breakfast one day, only to be informed
Speaker 1: that Russia had taken the first boat to in Vaness
Speaker 1: that morning. At one point, Crowley returned to Boleskin one
Speaker 1: afternoon to find a Catholic priest waiting for him in
Speaker 1: his study. The priest informed him that the day before
Speaker 1: his lodge keeper, who had not touched alcohol for twenty years,
Speaker 1: had come home raving drunk and attempted to murder his
Speaker 1: wife and children. Already, it would seem that the ritual,
Speaker 1: despite being a very personal pursuit, was provoking forces beyond
Speaker 1: Crowley's control. Although it may not have been going well
Speaker 1: for those around him, the ritual seemed to be working
Speaker 1: for Crowley. But all that was about to change. Barely
Speaker 1: two months in, Crowley received a letter from Samuel Mathis
Speaker 1: requesting Crowley's immediate assistance. In Crowley's absence, the Order of
Speaker 1: the Golden Dawn had fractured into two opposing schools of thought,
Speaker 1: with Maths believing he was in great danger of being usurped.
Speaker 1: Despite only being part way through the ritual, Crowley felt
Speaker 1: compelled to offer his assistance. Immediately, he packed his bags
Speaker 1: and headed straight to London, and with that the magic
Speaker 1: ritual was broken. It had been Crowley's intention to return
Speaker 1: and complete the spell, but with one thing leading to
Speaker 1: another in the summer of nineteen hundred, Crowley instead moved
Speaker 1: to Mexico. The ritual remained incomplete. As Kenneth Anger notes,
Speaker 1: if you invoke spirits to help you or teach you,
Speaker 1: there is something that has to be done afterwards. They
Speaker 1: must be banished. But Crowley never did that. It is
Speaker 1: said that soon after a dark cloud appeared over the
Speaker 1: house that failed to disperse for many months. Locals refused
Speaker 1: to go by the house, instead preferring to travel the
Speaker 1: entire circumference of the lock rather than pass it. As
Speaker 1: for Crowley, there are some who believe that failure to
Speaker 1: complete the ritual left him dangerously open to demonic possession,
Speaker 1: that the twelve Kings of Hell may well have somehow
Speaker 1: found their way inside him, using him for their own purpose.
Speaker 1: Some consider what later became a Crowley to be directly
Speaker 1: linked to this moment. After breaking off the ritual, Crowley
Speaker 1: spent some time in Paris with his friend Samuel Mathers,
Speaker 1: only for their relationship to ultimately turn sour. He returned
Speaker 1: to Scotland and became friendly with a young painter known
Speaker 1: as Gerald Kelly. Kelly would later be known as Sir
Speaker 1: Gerald Kelly, President of the Royal Academy. After spending some
Speaker 1: time with Kelly at his family home in Strathpeffer in Scotland,
Speaker 1: Crowley met and became close to Gerald's sister, Rose Kelly,
Speaker 1: a widower now betrothed unhappily to another man. In a
Speaker 1: characteristically impulsive gesture, Crowley suggested she married him, toward off
Speaker 1: the unwonted suitor. The pair eloped the following day, on
Speaker 1: August the twelfth, nineteen o three. Despite the apparent flippancy
Speaker 1: of the gesture, it would seem that Crowley, a man
Speaker 1: who had always been enthralled to his own heightened sense
Speaker 1: of sexuality, fell to growing magnetism between them. Reveling in
Speaker 1: the scandalous behavior, Crowley and Rose returned to Boleskin House
Speaker 1: before embarking on an extended honeymoon to Cairo, and it
Speaker 1: is there that the story takes a peculiar turn. After
Speaker 1: arriving in Cairo. In what had become a feature of
Speaker 1: Crowley's life, Alister adopted the pseudonym Prince Choya Khan. The
Speaker 1: pair took up residence in an apartment which Crowley had
Speaker 1: had partially converted to mimic an Egyptian temple. They told
Speaker 1: all who cared to listen that they had been granted
Speaker 1: the rank of prince and princess by an unnamed Eastern sultan.
Speaker 1: At some time, Crowley attempted a ritual for the benefit
Speaker 1: of Rose, who was by this point pregnant with Crowley's
Speaker 1: first child. The operation, known as the Bornless Ritual, is
Speaker 1: the preliminary invocation to the ars Goetier, which in turn
Speaker 1: forms the first book of the infamous Lesser Key of Solomon.
Speaker 1: The book, also known as the Lemegaton, was compiled anonymously
Speaker 1: sometime in the seventeenth century and is considered a primary
Speaker 1: text of demonology, with the ars Goetier detailing no less
Speaker 1: than seventy two demons for invocation. It is not clear
Speaker 1: exactly what Crowley had intended with the ritual, though some
Speaker 1: suggest he had grown impatient with his new wife and
Speaker 1: had taken to teasing her with his magic obsession. However,
Speaker 1: after a short bout of chanting, Rose began acting strangely.
Speaker 1: She had fallen into some kind of trance and had
Speaker 1: started to mutter something. They are waiting for you, she said.
Speaker 1: The irritated Crowley, who at this point, despite years of trying,
Speaker 1: had never actually made contact with any of the spirits
Speaker 1: he had tried to invoke, demanded to know who Rose
Speaker 1: was talking to. It was the ancient Egyptian god Horace,
Speaker 1: she replied. She told Crowley he had offended the god.
Speaker 1: An incredulous Crowley took Rose immediately to the nearby Bulak
Speaker 1: Museum now known as the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities to
Speaker 1: identify the deity she claimed to be in communication with.
Speaker 1: Arriving shortly after at the museum, Rose proceeded to lead
Speaker 1: Crowley past a number of holy and ancient Egyptian artifacts
Speaker 1: before finally coming to a stop in front of an
Speaker 1: intricately decorated piece of wood known as a steely. More precisely,
Speaker 1: it was the Steely of Revealing and dated from around
Speaker 1: six hundred and eighty BC. Sure enough, the beautiful piece
Speaker 1: of funerary art on the right hand side depicts a
Speaker 1: recently deceased priest making an offering to the falcon headed
Speaker 1: god Ra Harakhti, an amalgamation of the sun god Ra
Speaker 1: and Horace Rose, at least to Crowley's mind, seemed to
Speaker 1: be telling the truth. Crowley was convinced further when he
Speaker 1: looked down to find the exhibition number of the artifact.
Speaker 1: The number was six six, six six sixty six, as
Speaker 1: many will know, is equated with the number of the Beast,
Speaker 1: as depicted in the Book of Revelation. The number has
Speaker 1: become synonymous with the Antichrist and Satan and all their
Speaker 1: dark and evil connotations. To Crowley, however, it meant something
Speaker 1: a little different. It was Crowley's mother who first labeled
Speaker 1: him the Beast, presumably in reaction to a young Crowley's
Speaker 1: burgeoning rejection of the family's Puritanical beliefs. To Crowley, it
Speaker 1: was a label that he would gleefully come to embrace.
Speaker 1: To some, it was evidence of Crowley's innate wickedness, but
Speaker 1: for others it spoke of nothing more than his refusal
Speaker 1: to accept what he saw as the arbitrary labels and
Speaker 1: morals of the Christian faith. The Moniker served ultimately as
Speaker 1: a symbol of Crowley's core belief, a belief that was
Speaker 1: soon to be articulated in the most extraordinary of circumstances.
Speaker 1: After the visit to the museum, the couple returned to
Speaker 1: their Cairo apartment, where Rose is believed to have instructed
Speaker 1: Crowley on how to communicate with Horace. On April eighth,
Speaker 1: nineteen o four, Crowley commenced a new ritual, now under
Speaker 1: the guidance of Rose. A short time later, he heard
Speaker 1: a voice that seemed to become from behind his shoulder.
Speaker 1: Crowley later claimed the voice belonged to an entity known
Speaker 1: as I Was, who presented itself as none other than
Speaker 1: Crowley's own guardian angel, the same entity with which he
Speaker 1: had been trying to communicate in Bleskan House. I Was
Speaker 1: told Crowley that he was the messenger of Horace, and
Speaker 1: instructed Alister to be ready at twelve noon every day
Speaker 1: for the next three days in order to receive his
Speaker 1: word sure enough. Over the course of the next three days,
Speaker 1: I Was, as believed to have returned to speak to Crowley,
Speaker 1: who in turn wrote down every word that he received.
Speaker 1: When the three days were over, Crowley had before him
Speaker 1: the document that would become his true legacy. The book
Speaker 1: was titled Liber l l Legis, or the Book of
Speaker 1: the Law. Regardless of your belief or its true provenance,
Speaker 1: the text is a fascinating document which sets out's ideas
Speaker 1: for a brand new religion that he would later come
Speaker 1: to call Thelema, which is still followed and practiced today.
Speaker 1: As the author Colin Wilson points out, there is nothing
Speaker 1: particularly original about the text, comparing it as he does,
Speaker 1: to the far Superior Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw,
Speaker 1: as well as pointing out its clear indebtedness to the
Speaker 1: philosophy of Nietzsche. However, it does suggest that Crowley was
Speaker 1: more than the brainless charlatan his detractors would have him be. Certainly,
Speaker 1: for Crowley at least, the text was nothing less than
Speaker 1: the Bible for his new religion, an attempt to obliterate
Speaker 1: the reigning monotheistic religions and usher in a new epoch
Speaker 1: for man, one based on liberation without restriction, and one
Speaker 1: that above all implored people to follow their own path.
Speaker 1: It is a philosophy perhaps best summed up by the
Speaker 1: book's most famous line, do what thou wilt should be
Speaker 1: the whole of the law, a basic idea that is
Speaker 1: often greatly misunderstood as the justification of selfish or immoral behavior,
Speaker 1: a situation or the more ironic, since what Crowley ultimately
Speaker 1: preached was the complete control of life for one's self,
Speaker 1: and not to have it defined by what other people
Speaker 1: might project onto it. In the years that followed on
Speaker 1: from the Cairo trip, it is fair to say that
Speaker 1: Crowley lived a fairly colorful life, the extent to which
Speaker 1: will not be done justice in the time we have here.
Speaker 1: Suffice to say there are plenty of books and documentaries
Speaker 1: out there for anyone interested in finding out more about
Speaker 1: his life. It is also fair to say that much
Speaker 1: of his life was shrouded in controversy, and to many
Speaker 1: some of it will seem unpalatable sadistic. Even his voracious
Speaker 1: commitment to the practice of sex magic and the insanely
Speaker 1: chaotic attempt to form a Thelema community on the island
Speaker 1: of Sicily are just two aspects that come to mind.
Speaker 1: But for me, it all comes back to the Book
Speaker 1: of the Law. Whether you believe that Crowley was blessed
Speaker 1: with genuine magic powers or not, and there are many
Speaker 1: who do, there is something deeply profound at the heart
Speaker 1: of his belief that speaks to us all. For Crowley,
Speaker 1: magic was really just an expression of the power of
Speaker 1: human will, that anybody in a sense could conduct magic,
Speaker 1: providing they had a sufficient control of their own will.
Speaker 1: Crowley's Do What Thou Wilt is a cry to look
Speaker 1: beyond social convention and the narrow definitions with which others
Speaker 1: might attempt to define us, encouraging each of us to
Speaker 1: exercise our right to determine who we are or should
Speaker 1: be on our own terms. It is a reminder that
Speaker 1: no religion, political party, media outlet, or social movement is
Speaker 1: the arbiter of what is and what isn't right, a
Speaker 1: reminder that we should never be afraid to be who
Speaker 1: we want to be in spite of how we feel
Speaker 1: the world might want us to be. If you enjoy
Speaker 1: listening to Unexplained and would like to show your appreciation,
Speaker 1: you can help support us by going to Unexplained podcast
Speaker 1: dot com forward slash support. All donations, no matter how
Speaker 1: large or small, are massively appreciated. All elements of Unexplained
Speaker 1: are produced by me, Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and
Speaker 1: rate the show on iTunes, and feel free to get
Speaker 1: in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories
Speaker 1: you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation
Speaker 1: of your own you'd like to share. You can reach
Speaker 1: us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Unexplained pod atttttttttttttttt. Now it's time to take care
Speaker 1: of yourself. To make time for you, teledoc gives you
Speaker 1: access to a licensed therapist to help you get back
Speaker 1: to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by
Speaker 1: phone or video anytime between seven am to nine pm
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