1 00:00:02,240 --> 00:00:05,720 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Alistair Crowley plays a role in what of 2 00:00:05,760 --> 00:00:08,879 Speaker 1: our upcoming episodes this week, so we are breaking out 3 00:00:08,960 --> 00:00:13,360 Speaker 1: our episode on him as Today's Saturday Classic. This one 4 00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:16,880 Speaker 1: originally came out on October fourth, twenty twenty one. Enjoy 5 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:23,400 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 6 00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:34,400 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and Welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson, 7 00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:38,440 Speaker 1: and I'm Holly Frye. Alistair Crowley is somebody I've been 8 00:00:38,479 --> 00:00:43,239 Speaker 1: considering for an October episode for quite a while. But 9 00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:45,839 Speaker 1: the thing is, I would kind of stumble across his 10 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:49,960 Speaker 1: name in some totally random other part of the year 11 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:54,320 Speaker 1: and has nothing to do with October and kind of go, oh, yeah, 12 00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:56,800 Speaker 1: I was thinking about him for an October episode, but 13 00:00:56,840 --> 00:01:00,600 Speaker 1: then I'd never made note of that anywhere, and then 14 00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:04,600 Speaker 1: it would be November. We don't only cover these types 15 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:09,720 Speaker 1: of subjects around October, but Crowley does seem particularly suited 16 00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:14,960 Speaker 1: for a more seasonal October episode, which on this show 17 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:20,760 Speaker 1: has become traditionally associated with things that are otherworldly in 18 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:25,800 Speaker 1: some way. I grew up in a pretty conservative Methodist 19 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:29,959 Speaker 1: household in the nineteen eighties and early nineties. In other words, 20 00:01:30,040 --> 00:01:33,039 Speaker 1: in the middle of Satanic panic. That meant there were 21 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:36,440 Speaker 1: some subjects my mom felt very strongly that I should 22 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:41,080 Speaker 1: not be exposed to, and that included sex, drugs, and Satanism. 23 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:44,720 Speaker 1: And this episode is going to touch on pretty much 24 00:01:45,400 --> 00:01:49,440 Speaker 1: all of those things because Alister Crowley was a truly 25 00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:55,480 Speaker 1: prolific and deliberately transgressive occultist whose practices included sex and 26 00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:59,440 Speaker 1: drug use. He went on to influence things like modern Satanism, 27 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:03,440 Speaker 1: as well as various other new religious movements. And also 28 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:07,440 Speaker 1: just the note on pronunciation. If you've ever listened to 29 00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:11,560 Speaker 1: Ozzy Osbourne, or if you're just an American, or if 30 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:16,960 Speaker 1: you speak English with various specific accents, you have probably 31 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:22,560 Speaker 1: gotten really used to the pronunciation Alister Crawley. I know 32 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:25,119 Speaker 1: that's how I always said it. That's how I think 33 00:02:25,160 --> 00:02:27,600 Speaker 1: you and I both said it. In last year's episode 34 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:32,280 Speaker 1: on Taro Crowley is mine Crowley. Yeah, I think that 35 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:34,799 Speaker 1: was what I was even trying to say in that 36 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:37,240 Speaker 1: moment when more I said it more Crawley. I think 37 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:41,400 Speaker 1: I've always said it Crowley. He said it Crawley though 38 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:45,880 Speaker 1: the brewery that his family owned even had crows on 39 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:51,160 Speaker 1: the labels, Like I don't know entirely how it became 40 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:54,960 Speaker 1: more like Crowley, so it's totally possible at some point 41 00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:58,640 Speaker 1: during this episode I will regress to saying it the 42 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:00,960 Speaker 1: way I've said it my entire life life before learning 43 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:04,560 Speaker 1: that he said it Crowley over the last four days. Also, 44 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:06,800 Speaker 1: I just want to note that this episode is wild. 45 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:10,280 Speaker 1: I kept feeling like this must be the strangest thing 46 00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:12,679 Speaker 1: that's gonna happen this entire episode, and then I would 47 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:16,200 Speaker 1: find another a stranger thing. But at the same time, 48 00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:18,480 Speaker 1: I feel like his life and his work were just 49 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:22,239 Speaker 1: so prolific and so varied that it just really scratches 50 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:26,320 Speaker 1: the surface. If you're a deve otey of Alistair Crowley, 51 00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:29,080 Speaker 1: you may find ten million things that you think we 52 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:34,040 Speaker 1: left out. I think that's true of any subject we do. Yeah. 53 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:39,480 Speaker 1: Alistair Crowley was born Edward Alexander Crowley in Lymington, spa, Warwickshire, England, 54 00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:43,520 Speaker 1: on October twelfth, eighteen seventy five. This was the same 55 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:47,080 Speaker 1: year that French occultists Elifas Levy died. He was the 56 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:50,560 Speaker 1: author of books like The History of Magic, Transcendental Magic, 57 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:53,440 Speaker 1: Its Doctrine and Ritual, and The Key to the Great 58 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:58,400 Speaker 1: Mysteries we talked about him in our hero episode I Forgot. 59 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:01,880 Speaker 1: It was also this same year that past podcast subject 60 00:04:01,880 --> 00:04:08,080 Speaker 1: Helena Blovotsky co founded the Theosophical Society, which pulled together religious, philosophical, 61 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:12,200 Speaker 1: and mystical traditions from all over the world. Crowley felt 62 00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:15,000 Speaker 1: that it was significant that these two things happened in 63 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:18,479 Speaker 1: the year of his birth. This would not have resonated 64 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:21,680 Speaker 1: in that way with his parents, though, they were Edward 65 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:25,080 Speaker 1: and Emily Crowley, who were part of an evangelical Christian 66 00:04:25,160 --> 00:04:29,280 Speaker 1: movement known as the Plymouth Brethren. Its founders included John 67 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:33,280 Speaker 1: Nelson Darby, whose teachings included the idea that humanity was 68 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:36,520 Speaker 1: progressing through a series of ages that would culminate with 69 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:39,039 Speaker 1: the end of the world as it was described in 70 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:42,840 Speaker 1: the Book of Revelation. Before that point, Christians would be 71 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:46,960 Speaker 1: taken to Heaven through the rapture. Plymouth Brethren don't really 72 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:50,200 Speaker 1: have a hierarchy of clergy and laity, but Edward was 73 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:52,880 Speaker 1: an evangelist and all of this was a big part 74 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:56,920 Speaker 1: of Crowley's upbringing. From a young age, he was fascinated 75 00:04:56,960 --> 00:04:59,159 Speaker 1: by some of the more vivid figures from the Book 76 00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:04,000 Speaker 1: of Revelation, including the Dragon, the Scarlet Woman, the false Prophet, 77 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:08,000 Speaker 1: and the Beast. Thanks to the Crowley's long involvement with 78 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:11,440 Speaker 1: the brewing industry, the family was pretty well off. They 79 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:14,960 Speaker 1: called their son Alec, and in his words, his childhood 80 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:20,120 Speaker 1: was almost abnormally normal. He was educated in private schools, 81 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:23,320 Speaker 1: most of them affiliated either with the Plymouth Brethren or 82 00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:27,960 Speaker 1: with other evangelical sects. His father died when he was eleven, 83 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:32,400 Speaker 1: and this was really traumatic. Alec had really idolized his father, 84 00:05:32,720 --> 00:05:35,920 Speaker 1: and an uncle who played a much bigger role in 85 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:40,160 Speaker 1: his life from that point, was really pretty cruel to him. Eventually, 86 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:45,680 Speaker 1: alex started to rebel against school, against Christianity, and against 87 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:50,880 Speaker 1: his family. He also experienced chronic illnesses, including asthma, that 88 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:54,160 Speaker 1: sometimes kept him from being able to attend school, and 89 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:57,640 Speaker 1: during those periods he worked with private tutors. He spent 90 00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:00,880 Speaker 1: some time in both Malvern College and Tone School before 91 00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:05,920 Speaker 1: entering Trinity College, Cambridge in eighteen ninety five. Curley changed 92 00:06:05,960 --> 00:06:10,560 Speaker 1: his name from Edward Alexander to Alistair at about this time. 93 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:14,920 Speaker 1: This change probably had a couple of inspirations. One was 94 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:19,120 Speaker 1: Percy Bis Shelley's poem Alistair or the Spirit of Solitude, 95 00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:22,640 Speaker 1: and the other was the Gaelic version of the name Alexander, 96 00:06:22,720 --> 00:06:31,000 Speaker 1: although that is usually spelled Alasdair, not al eist Er, 97 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:35,279 Speaker 1: a name I spelled wrong a lot of times while 98 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:38,039 Speaker 1: typing this. I had to add it to my word 99 00:06:38,120 --> 00:06:43,200 Speaker 1: dictionaries I could keep it straight. Although Curley didn't finish 100 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:45,640 Speaker 1: a degree at Trinity, the three years that he did 101 00:06:45,640 --> 00:06:49,440 Speaker 1: spend there were formative. He played chess and wrote poetry, 102 00:06:49,520 --> 00:06:51,520 Speaker 1: and he did well in his courses in spite of 103 00:06:51,560 --> 00:06:55,159 Speaker 1: not really paying attention to them. His parents had always 104 00:06:55,160 --> 00:06:58,360 Speaker 1: expected him to excel at his schoolwork, but they were 105 00:06:58,400 --> 00:07:01,000 Speaker 1: also really strict about what he was allowed to read. 106 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:04,080 Speaker 1: The only book he could have at home was the Bible. 107 00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:07,279 Speaker 1: So while he wasn't all that focused on his formal 108 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:10,400 Speaker 1: course of study at Trinity, he still studied a lot, 109 00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:15,640 Speaker 1: immersing himself in things like medieval magic and Rosicrucian mysticism. 110 00:07:16,440 --> 00:07:19,880 Speaker 1: Rosicrucianism dates back to the seventeenth century, and it's focused 111 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:23,160 Speaker 1: on the idea that its members are maintaining and passing 112 00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:27,880 Speaker 1: down ancient esoteric secrets and wisdom. Curley's time at Trinity 113 00:07:28,040 --> 00:07:31,920 Speaker 1: was also happening well into a renewed interest in the 114 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:35,600 Speaker 1: occult that started in the late nineteenth century. Sometimes this 115 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:39,240 Speaker 1: is described as the Occult Revival. It had some common 116 00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:42,840 Speaker 1: elements with the spiritualist movement that was evolving at about 117 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:47,080 Speaker 1: the same time, Like the theosophist movement that was also 118 00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: part of this whole landscape, the Occult Revival brought together 119 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:56,440 Speaker 1: a range of influences, including a Victorian understanding of the 120 00:07:56,520 --> 00:08:01,960 Speaker 1: religious and mythical traditions of ancient Egypt and Greece and Asia. 121 00:08:02,160 --> 00:08:05,160 Speaker 1: Just as a side note, if you get into academic 122 00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:08,040 Speaker 1: work about this whole period, there are a lot of 123 00:08:08,200 --> 00:08:12,880 Speaker 1: different and sometimes slightly contradictory definitions in use for terms 124 00:08:12,960 --> 00:08:17,280 Speaker 1: like occult and esoteric. Some draw a distinction between a 125 00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:21,480 Speaker 1: cult meaning hidden knowledge, an esoteric meaning knowledge that is 126 00:08:21,520 --> 00:08:26,040 Speaker 1: revealed only too specific people like initiates of a specific order. 127 00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:29,240 Speaker 1: But there is some overlap there, and some people use 128 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:32,960 Speaker 1: these terms kind of interchangeably. We aren't going to try 129 00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:36,120 Speaker 1: to draw a huge distinction between them, especially since a 130 00:08:36,160 --> 00:08:39,160 Speaker 1: lot of what Alistair Crowley did could really be described 131 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:42,160 Speaker 1: using both terms, just kind of depending on what we're 132 00:08:42,160 --> 00:08:46,360 Speaker 1: talking about. Crowley had his first mystical experience on New 133 00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:49,520 Speaker 1: Year's Eve, eighteen ninety six while he was on winter 134 00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:53,800 Speaker 1: break in Stockholm. He later said that this experience quote 135 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:57,120 Speaker 1: put me on the road to myself. A year later, 136 00:08:57,200 --> 00:08:59,440 Speaker 1: the same thing happened again, and he described it this 137 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:03,480 Speaker 1: way quote, my animal nature stood rebuked and kept silent 138 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:08,679 Speaker 1: in the presence of the imminent divinity of the Holy Ghost, omnipotent, 139 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:13,320 Speaker 1: omniscient and omnipresent, yet blossoming in my soul, as if 140 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:16,880 Speaker 1: the entire forces of the universe from all eternity were 141 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:22,200 Speaker 1: concentrated and made manifest in a single rose. Crowley left 142 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:25,520 Speaker 1: Trinity College in eighteen ninety eight. His first poem was 143 00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:29,160 Speaker 1: published that same year, titled Accladema, A Place to Bury 144 00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:32,760 Speaker 1: Strangers in, which was credited to a gentleman of the 145 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:37,640 Speaker 1: University of Cambridge. Thanks to Crowley's inheritance, he was able 146 00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:40,240 Speaker 1: to pretty much do what he wanted after leaving college. 147 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:45,240 Speaker 1: This included mountaineering and big game hunting, and he traveled 148 00:09:45,280 --> 00:09:49,199 Speaker 1: extensively for both of those pursuits. But he also traveled 149 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:53,119 Speaker 1: in pursuit of knowledge, seeking out mystical and spiritual guidance. 150 00:09:53,880 --> 00:09:56,880 Speaker 1: Yeah as he started developing whole systems of ritual magic. 151 00:09:56,920 --> 00:10:00,400 Speaker 1: This travel would also include going to places and like 152 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:08,520 Speaker 1: doing these very prolonged involved like mystical rituals and incantations 153 00:10:08,520 --> 00:10:12,640 Speaker 1: and things. On November twenty sixth, eighteen ninety eight, Croley 154 00:10:12,760 --> 00:10:16,000 Speaker 1: was initiated into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, 155 00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:19,800 Speaker 1: which had been established ten years earlier by William Wynn 156 00:10:19,880 --> 00:10:24,080 Speaker 1: Westcott and Samuel Ledel McGregor Mathers. This was one of 157 00:10:24,320 --> 00:10:28,319 Speaker 1: several Hermetic orders that trace their teachings back to writings 158 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:33,680 Speaker 1: that were attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, that's a figure who 159 00:10:33,720 --> 00:10:38,920 Speaker 1: combined the Egyptian deity thought with the Greek deity Hermes. 160 00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:43,280 Speaker 1: In addition to its Greek and Egyptian influences, the Hermetic 161 00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:47,040 Speaker 1: Order of the Golden Dawn drew on Christian Mysticism, Kabbalah, 162 00:10:47,160 --> 00:10:51,080 Speaker 1: and Paganism, as well as Hinduism and Buddhism, plus the 163 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:54,400 Speaker 1: work of Queen Elizabeth the first court adviser and astronomer 164 00:10:54,520 --> 00:10:58,640 Speaker 1: John de On My short list. Folded into all of 165 00:10:58,679 --> 00:11:03,160 Speaker 1: these influences was focus on ritual magic. The Hermetic Order 166 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:05,160 Speaker 1: of the Golden Dawn was one of the most prominent 167 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:09,160 Speaker 1: and influential esoteric orders of the day, and its influence 168 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:12,800 Speaker 1: spread as former members went on to establish their own orders. 169 00:11:13,640 --> 00:11:16,800 Speaker 1: Initiates into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn adopted 170 00:11:16,800 --> 00:11:21,679 Speaker 1: a name or sort of motto. Crowley's was perdurabo or 171 00:11:21,800 --> 00:11:25,920 Speaker 1: I will endure, and then having been initiated, they progressed 172 00:11:26,080 --> 00:11:30,560 Speaker 1: through ten levels of esoteric knowledge, with each grade being 173 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:34,600 Speaker 1: mastered before the person moved on to the next one, 174 00:11:34,760 --> 00:11:38,240 Speaker 1: revealing a new body of knowledge they had access to. 175 00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:42,400 Speaker 1: And it wasn't just that a person had to learn 176 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:46,560 Speaker 1: everything from one stage before being allowed to advance. The 177 00:11:46,760 --> 00:11:50,640 Speaker 1: order's members also believed that as you mastered each level, 178 00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:57,199 Speaker 1: you really evolved and progressed spiritually and psychically. Crowley had 179 00:11:57,200 --> 00:12:00,280 Speaker 1: a really good memory and was also deeply interested in 180 00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:02,600 Speaker 1: all of this, and he rose through the grades of 181 00:12:02,640 --> 00:12:06,520 Speaker 1: the London chapter really quickly. But that did not sit 182 00:12:06,600 --> 00:12:08,920 Speaker 1: well with everyone else in the order. We're going to 183 00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:21,120 Speaker 1: talk about that more after a little sponsor break. The 184 00:12:21,200 --> 00:12:24,720 Speaker 1: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn had some pretty prominent 185 00:12:24,800 --> 00:12:29,560 Speaker 1: members and it was enormously influential in Aleister Crowley's life. 186 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:35,119 Speaker 1: Its progression through a series of increasingly secretive progressive degrees, 187 00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:40,080 Speaker 1: and it's focus on ritual magic performed using specific regalia 188 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:42,880 Speaker 1: that all formed a template for a lot of Crowley's 189 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:46,599 Speaker 1: later writing and work, But his involvement with the organization 190 00:12:46,760 --> 00:12:50,800 Speaker 1: was also pretty contentious. Some of its more advanced members, 191 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:53,720 Speaker 1: including Alan Bennett, took an interest in him, and they 192 00:12:53,760 --> 00:12:56,840 Speaker 1: personally tutored him and its rituals and its secrets, but 193 00:12:56,960 --> 00:13:01,080 Speaker 1: other people really questioned his morals. He had developed a 194 00:13:01,120 --> 00:13:05,720 Speaker 1: reputation as a libertine who abused drugs, and his sex 195 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:10,560 Speaker 1: partners included other men. At this point, homosexuality was outlawed 196 00:13:10,559 --> 00:13:14,760 Speaker 1: in Britain. Oscar Wilde's homosexuality trial had taken place just 197 00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:18,959 Speaker 1: a few years before. In nineteen hundred, Samuel Ledel McGregor 198 00:13:19,040 --> 00:13:21,720 Speaker 1: Mathers was head of the Order but had gone to France. 199 00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:25,760 Speaker 1: Florence Farr was temporarily leading the Order in London in 200 00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:29,560 Speaker 1: his place. Crowley reached a point where he expected to 201 00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:33,360 Speaker 1: be inducted into the Golden Dawn's Inner Order, but Farr 202 00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:37,480 Speaker 1: refused to do it, citing his quote sexual intemperance, so 203 00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:41,320 Speaker 1: Crowley went over her head, traveling to Paris and taking 204 00:13:41,320 --> 00:13:45,240 Speaker 1: it up with Mathers. Mathers inducted Crowley into the Inner 205 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:49,560 Speaker 1: Order himself. The relationship between Mathers and the rest of 206 00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:53,240 Speaker 1: the Order was already contentious. Since he was in France, 207 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:56,400 Speaker 1: he was out of regular contact with most of the Order, 208 00:13:56,440 --> 00:13:58,760 Speaker 1: and a lot of people found his behavior to be 209 00:13:58,880 --> 00:14:04,839 Speaker 1: increasingly errare and dictatorial. Allegations had also arisen that some 210 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:08,800 Speaker 1: of the order's foundational manuscripts, which were supposed to be 211 00:14:09,080 --> 00:14:13,079 Speaker 1: ancient secrets that had been passed down and protected for centuries, 212 00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:18,720 Speaker 1: were really nineteenth century fakes. So when Crowley arrived at 213 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:22,480 Speaker 1: the Order's isis Uranias Temple at thirty six blythe Road 214 00:14:22,520 --> 00:14:26,800 Speaker 1: in London and announced that Mathers had inducted him into 215 00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:30,080 Speaker 1: the next degree of the Order and demanded to be 216 00:14:30,200 --> 00:14:32,720 Speaker 1: shown the manuscripts he was supposed to be able to 217 00:14:32,800 --> 00:14:37,840 Speaker 1: access at that level, people were upset, and they again 218 00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:41,400 Speaker 1: refused to do it. Crowley went right back to France, 219 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:44,640 Speaker 1: where Mathers told him to take over the temple entirely. 220 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:48,920 Speaker 1: So Crowley went back to London again, talked the landlord 221 00:14:48,960 --> 00:14:51,960 Speaker 1: into letting him into the temple, and then he changed 222 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:56,400 Speaker 1: the locks. He said Mathers had designated him as his envoy, 223 00:14:56,720 --> 00:14:59,120 Speaker 1: and he summoned each member of the Inner order to 224 00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:04,160 Speaker 1: be questioned. When they arrived, Crowley was wearing Scottish Highland dress, 225 00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:08,560 Speaker 1: a black mask, a large gold cross, and a dagger 226 00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:12,080 Speaker 1: at his waist. With the assistance of a police officer, 227 00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:16,640 Speaker 1: several members of the Order physically removed Crowley from the premises. 228 00:15:17,560 --> 00:15:21,840 Speaker 1: One of those members was William Butler Yates. In some accounts, 229 00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:26,680 Speaker 1: Yates and others physically threw Crowley down the stairs. Yates 230 00:15:26,680 --> 00:15:30,480 Speaker 1: and Crowley really did not like each other. Yates described 231 00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:35,720 Speaker 1: him as indescribably mad, and also thought Crowley's poetry, which 232 00:15:35,760 --> 00:15:39,000 Speaker 1: he had written a lot of at this point, was terrible. 233 00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:42,920 Speaker 1: This incident became known as the Battle of blythe Road, 234 00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:46,120 Speaker 1: and some accounts of it are fairly straightforward. It was 235 00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:50,160 Speaker 1: a schism within an organization, followed by each side trying 236 00:15:50,200 --> 00:15:53,960 Speaker 1: to retain control of its documents and other materials, but 237 00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:59,960 Speaker 1: others are increasingly fantastic. Crowley biographer Richard Kazinski describes Crowley 238 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:03,680 Speaker 1: determining he was under a magical attack during all of this, 239 00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:08,400 Speaker 1: as street lamps and hearthfires behaved strangely when he passed by, 240 00:16:08,840 --> 00:16:13,920 Speaker 1: and his raincoat is said to have spontaneously combusted. Yates 241 00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:18,160 Speaker 1: biographer Richard Ellman published an account in The Partisan Review 242 00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:22,400 Speaker 1: in nineteen forty eight that describes Crowley and Yates attacking 243 00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:25,520 Speaker 1: each other, with Crowley using black magic and Yates using 244 00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:29,800 Speaker 1: white magic. In this account, Yates used some of Crowley's 245 00:16:29,800 --> 00:16:33,240 Speaker 1: hair to perform an exorcism at the request of poet 246 00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:37,280 Speaker 1: and artist Althea Gilds, who was in a tumultuous relationship 247 00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:42,840 Speaker 1: with him. Him being Crowley, not Yates. This piece describes 248 00:16:42,920 --> 00:16:47,400 Speaker 1: the exorcism as causing a vampire to torment Crowley in 249 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:51,960 Speaker 1: the night, and another experienced magician had to help him 250 00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:55,800 Speaker 1: get rid of this vampire. Ellman's biography of Yates also 251 00:16:55,920 --> 00:16:59,280 Speaker 1: mentions that quote it is said, which is one of 252 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:01,680 Speaker 1: those words that you can say to say a thing 253 00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:04,399 Speaker 1: that maybe you believe or maybe you don't believe. It 254 00:17:04,480 --> 00:17:08,400 Speaker 1: is said that Samuel McGregor Mathers died in nineteen eighteen 255 00:17:08,760 --> 00:17:12,360 Speaker 1: as a result of a magical duel with Alistair Crowley. 256 00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:17,119 Speaker 1: I'm telling you, this Partisan Review piece is so weird 257 00:17:17,280 --> 00:17:20,600 Speaker 1: that I am just not confident whether he meant it 258 00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:26,000 Speaker 1: to be factual or not. Like he's talking about a 259 00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:30,199 Speaker 1: literal vampire being in bed with Alister Crowley. And picking 260 00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:31,960 Speaker 1: at him in the night, and I'm just like, it's 261 00:17:32,080 --> 00:17:38,600 Speaker 1: for real, though I have thoughts, they're not terribly kind. 262 00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:42,200 Speaker 1: Crowley withdrew from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, 263 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:44,960 Speaker 1: or if you look at this from the Order's point 264 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:49,120 Speaker 1: of view, he was expelled. The order continued to fracture, 265 00:17:49,359 --> 00:17:53,240 Speaker 1: eventually changing its name to Stella Matutina and then dissolving 266 00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:57,440 Speaker 1: in the nineteen twenties. William Butler Yates, who described magic 267 00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:00,879 Speaker 1: as the most important pursuit of his life next to poetry, 268 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:03,680 Speaker 1: went on to be regarded as one of the greatest 269 00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:07,760 Speaker 1: English language poets of the twentieth century. His widely quoted 270 00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:11,520 Speaker 1: poem The Second Coming is sometimes read as alluding to 271 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:14,959 Speaker 1: Alister Crowley in its last lines, which read, and what 272 00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:18,959 Speaker 1: rough beast its hour come round at last slouches towards 273 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:22,560 Speaker 1: Bethlehem to be born. I had to memorize this poem, 274 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:26,359 Speaker 1: and I guess probably high school. We definitely did not 275 00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:29,760 Speaker 1: have any conversations about William Butler Yates having a magical 276 00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:34,280 Speaker 1: duel with anybody, or with Alistair Crowley having anything to 277 00:18:34,320 --> 00:18:38,120 Speaker 1: do with this. Crowley was twenty four when he tried 278 00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:41,080 Speaker 1: to take over the isis Urania Temple, and the previous 279 00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:43,639 Speaker 1: year he had bought bolskein house on the shore of 280 00:18:43,680 --> 00:18:47,000 Speaker 1: Lochness and was using it to study and do research 281 00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:50,200 Speaker 1: and to perform arcane rituals, some of which really took 282 00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:53,920 Speaker 1: months to complete. In the early nineteen hundreds, he also 283 00:18:54,040 --> 00:18:58,159 Speaker 1: traveled extensively, going to Mexico in July of nineteen hundred 284 00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:02,480 Speaker 1: with mountaineer Oscar ec and Stein and studying yoga in 285 00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:05,040 Speaker 1: Sri Lanka, which was known as Ceylon at the time. 286 00:19:05,560 --> 00:19:08,760 Speaker 1: He did that in nineteen oh one. He also studied 287 00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:12,879 Speaker 1: Buddhist meditation practices with mentor and former Golden Dawn member 288 00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:17,560 Speaker 1: Alan Bennett. In nineteen oh two, Crowley and Eckenstein were 289 00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:20,600 Speaker 1: part of the first formal attempts to reach the summit 290 00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:23,560 Speaker 1: of the Mountain K two. They got to an elevation 291 00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:26,400 Speaker 1: of eighteen thousand, six hundred feet, which is five thy 292 00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:29,000 Speaker 1: six hundred and seventy meters. This is just a little 293 00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:31,239 Speaker 1: snapshot of Ali's traveling. There was a ton of it. 294 00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:34,680 Speaker 1: He was a busy bee. After returning to the UK 295 00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:38,280 Speaker 1: in nineteen oh three, Crowley married Rose Edith Kelly, the 296 00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:42,800 Speaker 1: widow of Frederick Thomas Scarett. They honeymooned in India and Egypt. 297 00:19:43,359 --> 00:19:46,679 Speaker 1: Alister claims that Rose had never had any kind of 298 00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:50,320 Speaker 1: interest in the occult and had no knowledge of Egyptian deities, 299 00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:53,000 Speaker 1: but that while they were in Cairo in the spring 300 00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:56,480 Speaker 1: of nineteen oh four, she went into a trance, repeating 301 00:19:56,560 --> 00:20:00,520 Speaker 1: quote they are waiting for you. He discribed her as 302 00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:03,879 Speaker 1: being possessed by an entity known as Iowas, who was 303 00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:06,400 Speaker 1: an agent of Horace and whose name was the true 304 00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:09,760 Speaker 1: name of the god of Yeside's. So the Jesides are 305 00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:14,760 Speaker 1: an ethnically Kurdish people who have historically been extremely persecuted, 306 00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:18,040 Speaker 1: and that is carrying through until today. They continued to 307 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:22,240 Speaker 1: be extremely persecuted. It is possible that Crowley had read 308 00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:26,280 Speaker 1: about them in the work of past podcast subject Helena Blovatski. 309 00:20:27,119 --> 00:20:31,480 Speaker 1: Her work about them is honestly pretty offensive and mischaracterized 310 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:36,359 Speaker 1: them as just straight up devil worshippers. Alistair really didn't 311 00:20:36,359 --> 00:20:40,520 Speaker 1: believe his wife. She relayed instructions on how to invoke Horace, 312 00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:43,720 Speaker 1: and he thought that what she said was absurd. He 313 00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:46,479 Speaker 1: took her to the nearby Egyptian Museum to see if 314 00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:49,800 Speaker 1: she could identify Horace in any of the objects there. 315 00:20:50,560 --> 00:20:54,280 Speaker 1: She was drawn to one particular steely, saying it identified 316 00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:57,280 Speaker 1: the god who was talking to her. That object was 317 00:20:57,359 --> 00:21:01,520 Speaker 1: labeled as Catalog number six sixty six, and Alistair later 318 00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:05,840 Speaker 1: called it the Steally of Revealing. Allister eventually came to 319 00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:08,960 Speaker 1: believe that she was telling him something genuine, and he 320 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:13,600 Speaker 1: did various incantations and invocations over a period of weeks 321 00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:17,879 Speaker 1: in March and early April. Eventually, Rose instructed him to 322 00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:21,200 Speaker 1: enter the room where he had been working at noon 323 00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:24,160 Speaker 1: on April eighth, ninth, and tenth, and then for about 324 00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:27,720 Speaker 1: an hour over those three days, still reporting that she 325 00:21:27,960 --> 00:21:31,960 Speaker 1: was directly transmitting the words of iowas she dictated what 326 00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:35,920 Speaker 1: became known as the Book of the Law. This made 327 00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:39,000 Speaker 1: Rose the first woman to fill the role that Crowley 328 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:41,800 Speaker 1: would call his Scarlet Woman. This was meant to be 329 00:21:42,359 --> 00:21:46,800 Speaker 1: a manifestation of the gardess Babylon, who could channel or 330 00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:52,119 Speaker 1: transmit messages to him from higher beings. That's not spelled 331 00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:55,960 Speaker 1: quite like Babylon. It is Baba l o inn instead 332 00:21:55,960 --> 00:22:00,600 Speaker 1: of b A b y lonn, because the spelling with 333 00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:04,879 Speaker 1: an a instead of a y was numerogically more important 334 00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:09,960 Speaker 1: in Crowley's mind. Various women filled this role of the 335 00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:14,640 Speaker 1: scarlet woman over the next decades, typically after having had 336 00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:20,280 Speaker 1: various sexual encounters, including performing sexual magic rituals with Crowley. 337 00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:23,560 Speaker 1: The Book of the Law became the central text of 338 00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:27,520 Speaker 1: the philosophy and religious movement known as the Lima. The 339 00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:30,879 Speaker 1: book contains the law of Salima quote do what you 340 00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:33,359 Speaker 1: will shall be the whole of the law, which is 341 00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:37,240 Speaker 1: often followed by quote love is the Law, love underwill, 342 00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:41,879 Speaker 1: and every man and woman is a star. Rose had 343 00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:44,280 Speaker 1: also told Alistair that he was to be the prophet 344 00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:46,680 Speaker 1: of a new eon which would see the world move 345 00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:49,960 Speaker 1: from the Age of o Cyrus to the Age of Horace. 346 00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:53,520 Speaker 1: This was to be an almost apocalyptic time of struggle 347 00:22:53,560 --> 00:22:57,480 Speaker 1: and strife, and Crowley later suggested that four printings of 348 00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:00,560 Speaker 1: the Book of the Law had each preceded the Balllkin War, 349 00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:04,080 Speaker 1: World War I, the Sino Japanese War, and World War 350 00:23:04,119 --> 00:23:08,240 Speaker 1: II by a period of nine months. After these events 351 00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:12,320 Speaker 1: in Cairo, Alister Crowley started associating himself with the number 352 00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:15,040 Speaker 1: sixty sixty six and the beast from the Biblical Book 353 00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:19,080 Speaker 1: of Revelation, calling himself the Beast sixty six six or 354 00:23:19,119 --> 00:23:22,560 Speaker 1: the Great Beast six sixty six. He would go on 355 00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:26,160 Speaker 1: to write twelve more holy books between nineteen oh seven 356 00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:31,080 Speaker 1: and nineteen eleven, describing himself as under the direct influence 357 00:23:31,119 --> 00:23:34,240 Speaker 1: of a spirit or some kind of other elevated being 358 00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:38,280 Speaker 1: while writing each of them. In May of nineteen oh five, 359 00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:40,919 Speaker 1: Rose gave birth to a daughter. That daughter died as 360 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:44,560 Speaker 1: a baby. Alistair and Rose later had two more children 361 00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:48,840 Speaker 1: and then eventually divorced. Crowley also continued to indulge his 362 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:51,600 Speaker 1: love of mountaineering and led a team in an attempt 363 00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:55,880 Speaker 1: to summit Counchinjunga in nineteen oh five. After a climber 364 00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:59,160 Speaker 1: and three porters were killed in an avalanche, he ended 365 00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:03,680 Speaker 1: the expedition. In nineteen oh nine, Crowley established a religious 366 00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:07,760 Speaker 1: order that's often called by the name Argentum, Astrum, or 367 00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:11,800 Speaker 1: Silver Star. This order's name, though, is typically written as 368 00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:14,840 Speaker 1: two a's, each of them, followed by a symbol of 369 00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:18,120 Speaker 1: three dots arranged in a triangle. That symbol is used 370 00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:22,439 Speaker 1: as an abbreviation symbol in freemasonry. As part of this 371 00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:26,440 Speaker 1: he established a periodical called The Equinox, which was dedicated 372 00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:30,320 Speaker 1: to publishing things about magic and the occult. When he 373 00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:33,720 Speaker 1: printed materials that had originated with the Hermetic Order of 374 00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:39,440 Speaker 1: the Golden Dawn. Samuel McGregor Mathers tried unsuccessfully to sue him. 375 00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:42,480 Speaker 1: A few years later, Theodore Royce of the Ordo templey 376 00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:46,920 Speaker 1: Orientis made a similar allegation about the OTO's secrets appearing 377 00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:51,119 Speaker 1: in Crowley's writings. The OTO had been founded sometime around 378 00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:53,960 Speaker 1: the turn of the twentieth century, and it drew from 379 00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:58,520 Speaker 1: both Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism, with some of its practices also 380 00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:02,679 Speaker 1: involving sex magic. Crowley claimed to have had no knowledge 381 00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:05,359 Speaker 1: of the OTO, and that he must have learned those 382 00:25:05,359 --> 00:25:09,120 Speaker 1: secrets directly from the entities that he was channeling when 383 00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:13,880 Speaker 1: he wrote his Holy Books. Royce inducted Crowley into the OTO, 384 00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:19,760 Speaker 1: and Crowley became deeply involved and really influential in this organization, 385 00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:25,159 Speaker 1: including writing its gnostic Mass in nineteen thirteen. The rituals 386 00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:28,879 Speaker 1: and practices that he developed for the OTO expanded on 387 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:32,440 Speaker 1: its existing use of sex magic and involved both sexual 388 00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:37,119 Speaker 1: symbolism and ritual sex. In his words, quote, when you 389 00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:39,679 Speaker 1: have proved that God is merely a name for the 390 00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:42,840 Speaker 1: sex instinct, it appears to me not far to the 391 00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:46,960 Speaker 1: perception that the sex instinct is God. We're gonna move 392 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:51,120 Speaker 1: on to some more mundane but we promise still controversial 393 00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:54,560 Speaker 1: parts of Crowley's life after we pause for another sponsor break. 394 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:06,679 Speaker 1: Alister Crowley spent most of World War One in the 395 00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:10,360 Speaker 1: United States, and during that time he contributed to a 396 00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:14,639 Speaker 1: pro German newspaper called The Fatherland. He also wrote a 397 00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:18,160 Speaker 1: lot of material that was both pro German and anti British, 398 00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:22,680 Speaker 1: and more broadly anti Allies. He claimed that he did 399 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:24,800 Speaker 1: all of this because he was working for the British 400 00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:29,119 Speaker 1: Secret Service to help the Allied war effort. In his account, 401 00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:32,640 Speaker 1: he had used his surname, which, although he was English, 402 00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:35,960 Speaker 1: there are plenty of Irish people who have some variation 403 00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:39,160 Speaker 1: on Crowley as their surname, and he had also used 404 00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:43,159 Speaker 1: his past connection to Irish poet William Butler Yates to 405 00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:48,040 Speaker 1: convince German American poet and journalist George Viereck that he 406 00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:51,560 Speaker 1: was an Irish nationalist, and he had done this so 407 00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:54,919 Speaker 1: that he could infiltrate a secret network of German operatives 408 00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:58,520 Speaker 1: in New York. As part of this entire ruse, on 409 00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:02,080 Speaker 1: July third, nineteen fifteen, he and nine other people sailed 410 00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:05,399 Speaker 1: all around New York Harbor under an Irish flag, calling 411 00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:08,840 Speaker 1: themselves the Secret Revolutionary Committee of Public Safety of the 412 00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:13,240 Speaker 1: Provisional Government of the Irish Republic, and declaring war on England. 413 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:17,119 Speaker 1: Whether Crowley was really working for the British Secret Service 414 00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:20,879 Speaker 1: isn't entirely clear. His accounts make it sound like he 415 00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:24,240 Speaker 1: took all this upon himself and then went to the 416 00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:28,639 Speaker 1: British authorities to get their buy in, basically repeatedly offering 417 00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:32,679 Speaker 1: his services as a spy, only to be ignored. He 418 00:27:32,760 --> 00:27:36,400 Speaker 1: also claimed that his pro German writing was intentionally over 419 00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:39,520 Speaker 1: the top so that it would make Germany look ridiculous. 420 00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:45,320 Speaker 1: Crowley's activities in the United States naturally raised suspicions, and 421 00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:49,679 Speaker 1: at one point British consul Charles Clive Bailey confirmed to 422 00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:54,880 Speaker 1: US investigators that Crowley was working with Britain, but other 423 00:27:55,000 --> 00:28:00,120 Speaker 1: British officials contradicted this. Although the British press was scathing 424 00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:03,159 Speaker 1: about Crowley's wartime behavior, when he went back to the 425 00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:06,159 Speaker 1: UK after the war, he never faced any sort of 426 00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:09,199 Speaker 1: official inquiry or charges for any of the actions that 427 00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:14,359 Speaker 1: really would have been considered treasonous unless he really was 428 00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:18,480 Speaker 1: doing them as some kind of covert operation for British Intelligence. 429 00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:21,840 Speaker 1: There is a whole book about this whole idea. I 430 00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:23,600 Speaker 1: did not read the whole book, but I did read 431 00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:26,600 Speaker 1: some papers and articles by the author, and I don't 432 00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:29,840 Speaker 1: know where. I have thoughts about where I land on it, 433 00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:32,479 Speaker 1: but I don't feel like I have hear backing up 434 00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:38,080 Speaker 1: of them. Uh. In nineteen twenty Crowley started a religious 435 00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:41,960 Speaker 1: community in Sicily called the Abbey of Thelema. This was 436 00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:44,520 Speaker 1: meant to be a utopian community as well as a 437 00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:48,560 Speaker 1: spiritual community for members of the argent Astrom and the Oto. 438 00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:54,320 Speaker 1: This community became associated with drug use, sexual excesses, and 439 00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:59,720 Speaker 1: strange rituals, and faced increasing hostility from neighbors. Crowley was 440 00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:02,360 Speaker 1: a cue used of murder after one of the Thelemites, 441 00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:07,800 Speaker 1: Raul Loveday, died in nineteen twenty three. Loveday had probably 442 00:29:07,880 --> 00:29:11,959 Speaker 1: drunk some contaminated water, not totally clear, but his wife, 443 00:29:12,040 --> 00:29:15,320 Speaker 1: Betty May, said that her late husband had been forced 444 00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:18,080 Speaker 1: to drink the blood of a cat in a ritual. 445 00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:22,760 Speaker 1: Not long after that all of this controversy surrounding him, 446 00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:26,800 Speaker 1: Crowley was expelled from Sicily. By this point, Crowley had 447 00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:31,160 Speaker 1: pursued relationships with various people regardless of their gender, both 448 00:29:31,200 --> 00:29:35,479 Speaker 1: within and outside the context of sex magic. Crowley had 449 00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:39,280 Speaker 1: also started to describe himself as androgynists, or as having 450 00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:43,840 Speaker 1: both masculine and feminine traits, calling himself both Alister and 451 00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:48,000 Speaker 1: a feminized version of Alice. Over the years, he also 452 00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:51,160 Speaker 1: took on just a ton of pseudonyms and identities drawn 453 00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:56,080 Speaker 1: from an assortment of ethnicities and religious identities. At times, 454 00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:59,800 Speaker 1: Crowley used language coined by Karl Heinrich Unrichs to describe 455 00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:05,040 Speaker 1: a range of sexual orientations and gender identities. By this point, 456 00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:08,320 Speaker 1: Curley had also become addicted to heroin. We haven't really 457 00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:10,360 Speaker 1: gotten into it here, but like a lot of the 458 00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:14,600 Speaker 1: rituals that he would do and his mystical work would 459 00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:18,560 Speaker 1: be done under the influence of various drugs. In nineteen 460 00:30:18,600 --> 00:30:21,680 Speaker 1: twenty two, he wrote Diary of a Drug Fiend, which 461 00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:24,720 Speaker 1: was a novel that he said was based on personal experience. 462 00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:28,040 Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty five, he was named Outer Head of 463 00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:31,120 Speaker 1: the Order of the Oto, and then in nineteen twenty 464 00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:33,680 Speaker 1: nine he got married again, this time to Maria Theresa 465 00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:38,080 Speaker 1: Ferrari de Miramar. They separated not long after that. Also 466 00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:42,280 Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty nine, he wrote Magic in theory and practice. 467 00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:46,440 Speaker 1: This outlined quote the science and art of causing change 468 00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:50,800 Speaker 1: to occur. In conformity with will, Curley explained that he 469 00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:54,320 Speaker 1: spelled magic with a K at the end because quote, 470 00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:57,920 Speaker 1: I chose therefore the name magic as essentially the most 471 00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:01,880 Speaker 1: sublime and actually the most credited, of all the available terms. 472 00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:06,000 Speaker 1: I swore to rehabilitate magic, to identify it with my 473 00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:10,960 Speaker 1: own career. In nineteen thirty Crowley faked his own death 474 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:14,520 Speaker 1: in Portugal, leaving a suicide note for nineteen year old 475 00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:17,520 Speaker 1: Hanni Yaeger, who was the latest to be appointed his 476 00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:20,880 Speaker 1: scarlet woman. This letter said he was going to be 477 00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:24,040 Speaker 1: swallowed by the Bocca do Inferno, or the mouth of Hell, 478 00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:28,160 Speaker 1: which is a dramatically arched cliff formation over rushing seawater 479 00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:32,680 Speaker 1: not far from Lisbon. He did not die. He resurfaced 480 00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:35,480 Speaker 1: in Berlin, where his artwork, which we have not gotten 481 00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:39,200 Speaker 1: into at all, was being shown at the Newmannerendorf Gallery 482 00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:42,360 Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty one. Yeah, this nineteen year old who 483 00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:45,920 Speaker 1: was acting as a Scarlet Woman, apparently after his disappearance, 484 00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:48,480 Speaker 1: insisted that she had seen his ghost. The next day, 485 00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:53,440 Speaker 1: Crowley once again apparently offered his services as some kind 486 00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:57,080 Speaker 1: of spy during World War Two, but was apparently again denied. 487 00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:00,520 Speaker 1: There are also some reports that he tried to personally 488 00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:04,440 Speaker 1: meet with Adolf Hitler, but those are really unsubstantiated. In 489 00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:07,360 Speaker 1: the nineteen forties, he wrote the Book of Toth, a 490 00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:09,840 Speaker 1: short essay on the tarot of the Egyptians, and he 491 00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:12,360 Speaker 1: worked on a tarot deck with FRIEDA. Harris. That's something 492 00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:15,320 Speaker 1: we talk about more in our episode on Taro, which 493 00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:18,320 Speaker 1: came out last year. In the last years of his life, 494 00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:22,120 Speaker 1: Alister Crowley became friends with writer John Simmons, who essentially 495 00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:26,320 Speaker 1: filled the role of literary executor after Crowley's death. He 496 00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:29,760 Speaker 1: also met Kenneth Grant, who started working as Crowley's secretary 497 00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:33,560 Speaker 1: and assistant. In one letter, Crowley called Grant quote a 498 00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:38,720 Speaker 1: definite gift from the gods. Many of Crowley's many posthumously 499 00:32:38,760 --> 00:32:43,040 Speaker 1: published works were curated and edited by Simmons and Grant. 500 00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:47,760 Speaker 1: Alister Crowley died on December one, nineteen forty seven. He 501 00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:52,160 Speaker 1: had spent the last of his inheritance many years before this, 502 00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:54,840 Speaker 1: and by the time he died he was penniless and 503 00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:58,600 Speaker 1: living in a boarding house in Hastings. Although he had 504 00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:03,120 Speaker 1: been the subject of just scandalous newspaper reports in earlier years. 505 00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:06,160 Speaker 1: By the time he died, he was not nearly so infamous. 506 00:33:06,680 --> 00:33:09,960 Speaker 1: His obituary in the New York Times simply read Edward 507 00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:14,320 Speaker 1: Alexander Crowley, better known as Alister Crowley, author and poet, 508 00:33:14,440 --> 00:33:17,880 Speaker 1: who was an alleged practitioner of black magic, died today 509 00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:21,880 Speaker 1: in Hastings at the age of seventy two. But Crowley's 510 00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:27,240 Speaker 1: popularity and infamy skyrocketed during the nineteen sixties in tandem 511 00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:31,360 Speaker 1: with the counterculture movement. This wasn't really a defined movement, 512 00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:34,560 Speaker 1: but more of an overlapping group of movements and interests 513 00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:37,240 Speaker 1: and organizations that were all, in one way or another, 514 00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:41,040 Speaker 1: a rejection of the values and norms of earlier decades. 515 00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:44,520 Speaker 1: This included, of course, the free love movement, the psychedelic 516 00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:48,840 Speaker 1: drug movement, and a resurgence in interest in spiritualism and 517 00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:52,760 Speaker 1: the occult, all of which makes total sense for people 518 00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:56,200 Speaker 1: to bring Alistair Crowley into it. A ripe time, Yeah, 519 00:33:56,280 --> 00:33:58,720 Speaker 1: Alister Crowley is one of the people on the cover 520 00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:02,440 Speaker 1: of the Beatles Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which 521 00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:05,520 Speaker 1: came out in nineteen sixty seven. He's in the back row, 522 00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:08,799 Speaker 1: second from the left. Crowley was also one of the 523 00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:12,680 Speaker 1: first Westerners to write about a number of Eastern disciplines 524 00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:17,879 Speaker 1: and practices, including tantra and Hatha and Raja yoga. These 525 00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:21,960 Speaker 1: writings found a new audience as interest in Eastern practices 526 00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:26,239 Speaker 1: really spread in the nineteen sixties and seventies. Although since 527 00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:29,960 Speaker 1: Crowley's understanding of all this was definitely skewed through his 528 00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:35,640 Speaker 1: very specific lens, that unfortunately means that his perspective on 529 00:34:35,719 --> 00:34:38,680 Speaker 1: some of this has become pretty entrenched in the Western 530 00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:42,320 Speaker 1: understanding of these disciplines, even when it does not represent 531 00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:46,040 Speaker 1: them accurately at all. The Oto went through its own 532 00:34:46,080 --> 00:34:49,719 Speaker 1: resurgence in the nineteen sixties, and Crowley's work influenced other 533 00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:54,160 Speaker 1: new religious movements in the mid twentieth century as well. Today, 534 00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:57,799 Speaker 1: Croley's name is almost synonymous with Satanism, although his work 535 00:34:57,960 --> 00:35:01,360 Speaker 1: wasn't really about worshiping the devil, but his work did 536 00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:06,240 Speaker 1: influence the development of modern Satanism. Yeah. Among other things, 537 00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:11,080 Speaker 1: he extensively used the deity of Baphomet, which is the 538 00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:15,200 Speaker 1: one with the goat head, which has become a symbol 539 00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:19,960 Speaker 1: associated with Satanism. He was not the only person that 540 00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:23,239 Speaker 1: was using that deity obviously, but like that's one of 541 00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:28,080 Speaker 1: the many ways. Crowley also knew and worked with Gerald Gardner, 542 00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:32,680 Speaker 1: who's the namesake of Gardenerian Wiccka, and Gardner's early writing 543 00:35:32,719 --> 00:35:36,760 Speaker 1: on witchcraft draws pretty heavily from Crowley's work on ritual 544 00:35:36,800 --> 00:35:40,680 Speaker 1: magic and from the Oto, which Gardner tried to revive 545 00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:45,399 Speaker 1: after World War Two. Gardner's work in witchcraft eventually did 546 00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:50,600 Speaker 1: move away from these roots, but Crowley's work also influenced 547 00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:54,960 Speaker 1: modern witchcraft more broadly outside of the scope of Gardenerian Wicca, 548 00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:58,759 Speaker 1: starting in about the nineteen fifties and sixties. It is 549 00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:02,359 Speaker 1: not entirely clear whether Crowley and l Ron Hubbard ever 550 00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:06,799 Speaker 1: personally met, although Hubbard described him meaning Crowley as his 551 00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:10,399 Speaker 1: quote very good friend in various lectures, but it does 552 00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:13,280 Speaker 1: seem as though Crowley's work had an influence on Hubbard, 553 00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:17,680 Speaker 1: which may have influenced his development of dianetics and scientology. 554 00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:21,680 Speaker 1: Hubbard had worked with rocket engineer and OTO leader Jack 555 00:36:21,719 --> 00:36:24,400 Speaker 1: Parsons on a series of magical rituals known as the 556 00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,840 Speaker 1: Babylon working in nineteen forty six that is, once again 557 00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:31,839 Speaker 1: not Babylon like the place but Baba Lon. These were 558 00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:34,720 Speaker 1: based on Crowley's teachings and were centered on the idea 559 00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:38,120 Speaker 1: of conceiving a child that would be known as the Moonchild, 560 00:36:38,160 --> 00:36:42,360 Speaker 1: which would allow the deity Babylon to take a human form. 561 00:36:42,520 --> 00:36:46,440 Speaker 1: Hubbard served as parsons seer or scribe during these rituals, 562 00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:51,440 Speaker 1: dictating the voice of Babylon from the astral plane. Curly 563 00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:54,480 Speaker 1: himself does not seem to have been too eager about 564 00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:58,160 Speaker 1: all this. In a nineteen forty six letter, he wrote, quote, 565 00:36:58,200 --> 00:37:01,800 Speaker 1: apparently Parsons or Hubbard or somebody is trying to produce 566 00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:05,359 Speaker 1: a moonchild. I get fairly frantic when I contemplate the 567 00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:10,080 Speaker 1: idiocy of these goats. The collaboration between Parsons and Hubbard 568 00:37:10,080 --> 00:37:13,120 Speaker 1: did not last long, though Parson's wife left him for Hubbard, 569 00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:16,200 Speaker 1: and Parsons lost most of his life savings in a 570 00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:19,600 Speaker 1: failed project that he his sister in law, and Hubbard 571 00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:21,920 Speaker 1: started to try to buy yachts and resell them for 572 00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:26,239 Speaker 1: a prophet. The Church of Scientology is notoriously secretive and 573 00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:30,200 Speaker 1: has denied that Crowley influenced its doctrines in any way, 574 00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:34,359 Speaker 1: but in the paper The Occult Roots of Scientology, which 575 00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:37,680 Speaker 1: was published in the Journal Nova Religio, the Journal of 576 00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:41,440 Speaker 1: Alternative and Emergent Religions, and then also in the book 577 00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:46,319 Speaker 1: Alister Crowley and Western Esotericism. Hugh B. Urban argues that 578 00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:49,480 Speaker 1: the idea of a guardian or a guardian angel, which 579 00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:52,200 Speaker 1: was present in Crowley's work all the way back to 580 00:37:52,239 --> 00:37:55,200 Speaker 1: the Book of the Law, also appears in a nearly 581 00:37:55,320 --> 00:38:00,000 Speaker 1: identical way in some of Hubbard's scientology writing. Aside from 582 00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:04,239 Speaker 1: Alister Crowley also became a recognizable and notorious figure in 583 00:38:04,320 --> 00:38:08,640 Speaker 1: popular culture. He had already been reimagined in fiction decades 584 00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:12,000 Speaker 1: before his death, including in William Somerset Mom's nineteen oh 585 00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:16,600 Speaker 1: eight novel The Magician. Later Ian Fleming modeled the Bond 586 00:38:16,680 --> 00:38:22,120 Speaker 1: villain Ernst stavro Blofeld after him. Crowley's work influenced psychologist 587 00:38:22,239 --> 00:38:26,080 Speaker 1: and psychedelic drug advocate Timothy Leary and led Zeppelin guitarist 588 00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:30,280 Speaker 1: Jimmy Page, whose Alister Crowley collection included bull Scheme House, 589 00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:33,520 Speaker 1: which is currently slated for renovations after it was badly 590 00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:37,120 Speaker 1: damaged by two fires. In the last few years. Crowley 591 00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:39,880 Speaker 1: has appeared in that Ozzy Osbourne song we mentioned at 592 00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:42,879 Speaker 1: the top of the show, and in David Bowie's quicksand 593 00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:46,319 Speaker 1: the Demon Crowley in the novel Good Omens by Neil 594 00:38:46,320 --> 00:38:49,359 Speaker 1: Gaiman and Terry Pratchett was also of course named for him. 595 00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:52,960 Speaker 1: The list goes on and on. In terms of writing 596 00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:56,719 Speaker 1: about Crowley, for a long time, there were pretty much 597 00:38:56,800 --> 00:39:00,759 Speaker 1: two modes. There was the work of believers who uncritically 598 00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:04,640 Speaker 1: accepted everything he saidis fact, and people who saw him 599 00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:08,680 Speaker 1: as more of an egomaniacal Charlatan libertine, whose work was 600 00:39:08,680 --> 00:39:12,880 Speaker 1: a lot more about self aggrandizement and intentionally scandalizing people 601 00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:16,160 Speaker 1: than it was about occult beliefs and practices. But there's 602 00:39:16,239 --> 00:39:19,920 Speaker 1: been some really more nuanced and thoughtful work about Crowley 603 00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:24,120 Speaker 1: and about the nineteenth century occult revival more generally, just 604 00:39:24,200 --> 00:39:29,200 Speaker 1: in the last couple of decades, which honestly, I took 605 00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:32,080 Speaker 1: some pleasure in reading all of those things, even though 606 00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:34,960 Speaker 1: sometimes there was whiplash involved, because I would read one 607 00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:38,439 Speaker 1: person that was like just making it sound like all 608 00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:40,960 Speaker 1: of these things that happened were one hundred percent real, 609 00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:44,040 Speaker 1: and then a different person would describe the exact same 610 00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:46,560 Speaker 1: scenario and be like, and of course you can see 611 00:39:46,600 --> 00:39:51,719 Speaker 1: Alistair Crowley was totally absurd, and then you know some 612 00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:55,040 Speaker 1: more nuanced writing that has been happening more recently that's 613 00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:57,680 Speaker 1: more like, Okay, this is the context that all of 614 00:39:57,719 --> 00:40:01,680 Speaker 1: this was happening in. These are the many things that 615 00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:13,680 Speaker 1: it has contributed to that kind of stuff. Whoosh, Thanks 616 00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:16,400 Speaker 1: so much for joining us on this Saturday. Since this 617 00:40:16,520 --> 00:40:18,520 Speaker 1: episode is out of the archive, if you heard an 618 00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:21,480 Speaker 1: email address or a Facebook RL or something similar over 619 00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:24,160 Speaker 1: the course of the show, that could be obsolete now. 620 00:40:24,560 --> 00:40:30,320 Speaker 1: Our current email address is History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. 621 00:40:30,719 --> 00:40:33,960 Speaker 1: You can find us all over social media at misst inistory, 622 00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:37,360 Speaker 1: and you can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts, 623 00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:40,960 Speaker 1: Google podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, and wherever else you listen 624 00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:46,160 Speaker 1: to podcasts. Stuff you missed in History Class is a 625 00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:50,560 Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio. 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