The last days of Aleister Crowley (Via Further: Strange Attractor & beyond)Crowley brought with him some special gold coins, which he claimed had magic powers and was anxious about keeping safe, and a 'box of (I Ching) sticks'. He made frequent use of the latter. 'When he had an appointment for the dentist, for instance, he threw the sticks in the air. And once he called me and said, "Phone the dentist immediately! The sticks have told me not to go." The dentist was very amazed.'
The Great Beast soon settled into a regular daily routine. At nine each morning the housekeeper Miss Clarke took him his breakfast, and at ten, if the weather was fine, he would take a stroll in the garden, where Johnny kept some beautiful plump white rabbits, which he nicknamed 'The Chrysanthemums' and would love to watch. When the sun shone he would often sit with his hands held heavenwards.
Crowley then spent most of the rest of the day sleeping in his room, where he also took his other meals. His favourite snack was sardines sprinkled with curry powder. He roused himself as darkness fell, and sat up all night either writing letters, reading or indulging in his heroin drug habit.
'He had a ration of heroin which was allowed him,' Mrs Symonds said. 'It used to come down from a chemist called Heppel's in London. But the police knew about it. I've often watched him stick a needle in his arm. He didn't mind.'
...
According to Johnny, Aleister Crowley was an easy-going, trouble-free resident, who not only spent much of his time in his room, but who rubbed along well with the other visitors and with her and her husband. Indeed, her feelings about him were entirely positive: 'I liked him,' she said. 'He was great fun.'
The last days of Aleister Crowley
In 1975 Rodney Davies met Kathleen "Johnny" Symonds, who had been Aleister Crowley's (AKA "The Great Beast 666" and "The Wickedest Man on Earth") landlady during the last months of his life in 1947. Here's his entertaining piece about it.
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Let us now praise famous weirdos.
Shouldn't you have to rape and murder people or something before you get to be called "The Wickedest Man on Earth"?
pretty good reason to suspect he's Barbara Bush's father. look it up.
One of the best kooks of all time. I like the story about how at a private gentleman's club he took a dump on a priceless oriental rug in front of a group of rich guys and nobles, pulled up his pants, pointed to the steaming pile, and said "Don't touch that--it's sacred!"
What is this that stands before me?
Figure in black which points at me
Turn around quick, and start to run
Find out I'm the chosen one
Oh no!
Big black shape with eyes of fire
Telling people their desire
Satan's sitting there, he's smiling
Watches those flames get higher and higher
Oh no, no, please God help me!
Is it the end, my friend?
Satan's coming 'round the bend
people running 'cause they're scared
The people better go and beware
No, no, please, no!
@ #2 No, to this day disbelieving in the Christian God is considered worse than any other crime by a large segment of the "civilized" world.
It was his inability to live up (or down) to his own reputation that really sent Crowley over the edge.
He was only really dangerous if you knew him personally, danger to your self, your psyche and your bank account (especially your bank account).
The "Wickedest Man in the World" epithet was given him by one of the tabloid rags that pursued him for years, either the Sunday Express or John Bull, John Symonds' biography doesn't say which. Crowley enjoyed his scandalous reputation, of course.
I always find his heroin addiction troublingly ironic as his work in many ways helped me defy addiction in my own experiments
I have a Tarot deck designed by Crowley, tucked away somewhere. Pretty interesting cosmology, if you're into that sort of stuff.
Sardines and curry powder...The gas from that alone should be enough to garner the tag "Wickedest Man on Earth."
Aleister Crowley changed the world for the better, and almost nobody knows about it.
His tarot design was very, very beautiful.
Unfortunately, I never felt comfortable about buying one. Superstition, on my part, I'm afraid.
Hooray; This is the most interesting article about the mundane daily routines of geriatric decline I've perused yet. Crowley gave a good swift kick to the shins of a society that needed it.
He still died. We all do. May as well live large while you are here.
Wicked is a label just like satanist - only works when its opposite is afraid of it. (of course true wickedness is part of duality too and not just a label) Complex world yes?
Predurabo
I used to have the thoth tarot deck but tossed it, as I found it very difficult to read, what without th ehelpfull little picto-stories and all. However, if you are looking for a unique and awesome tatto, check it out an dyou'll find some serious inspiration.
Anon@~12: Do you mean by being the father of Barbara Bush? I don't think that was for the better. In fact, I think it earns him the title he was given, albeit indirectly.
"He was great fun." That is the final judgement on Crowley's life? So awesome that I am off to read the original article.
HAHAHAHA or "indulge in his heroin habit"....
"stick a needle in his arm. He didn't mind".
So I've always wondered, what is the upshot of being a devout satanist? What? When you get to hell you get a room with air conditioning? 72 virgins with vagina dentata?
Satanists don't believe in heaven or hell, or even Satan in the literal sense. Try googling it.
I don't know what's worse, a bunch of kooks performing weird rituals to appease a deity that exists to torment humanity or a bunch or kooks performing weird rituals in the name of a deity they don't even believe in. Either way, it's a big waste of candles.
are there any recordings of him going "Mwahahahah!"
I don't know a whole lot about Mr Crowley's rituals, or really a whole lot about Satanism in general, but it seems to be based on good ideas.
from web.satanism101.com
"It is a religion and a philosophy based on man as he really is: a carnal being free from the fiction that is spirituality and one who champions total responsibility, pragmatism, and the here-and-now. "
I could get behind that. Not the sex magick stuff though. Creepy.
@Phikus:
Mr. Crowley, what went on in your head
Mr. Crowley, did you talk with the dead
Your life style to me seemed so tragic
With the thrill of it all
You fooled all the people with magic
You waited on Satan's call
Mr. Charming, did you think you were pure
Mr. Alarming, in nocturnal rapport
Uncovering things that were sacred manifest on this Earth
Conceived in the eye of a secret
And they scattered the afterbirth
(solo)
Mr. Crowley, won't you ride my white horse
Mr. Crowley, it's symbolic of course
Approaching a time that is classic
I hear maidens call
Approaching a time that is drastic
Standing with their backs to the wall
Was it polemically sent
l wanna know what you meant
I wanna know
I wanna know what you meant
Thank goodness the Sandman got out of that crystal sphere before Crowley died.
Crowley wasn't a Satanist at all. Satanism as it is currently conceived didn't even exist until after his death.
It needs to be understood that proscribing Heroin was an entirely legal and recognized treatment regime, under professional medical supervision and used widely in London at the height of its heyday 1960s heroin epidemic, as well as before (like this, for Crowley). This isn't just some strange quirk of the law at the time, or the prior legal status of opium or marijuana, but was fully understood to be treatment by use of an otherwise illegal class-A prohibited substance.
Compare this with the mindless retreat into detox, Methadone, and other mostly useless methods enforced today, rampant HIV, Hepatitis, needle sharing etc, Jail-related problems. The list is endless.
Crowley pioneered the use that satanism gimmick to get chicks, like a modern-day Marilyn Manson.
@23 Glad you had the same thought :) Before I read the post, I had to youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-2NQnxDDJE as a background/soundtrack. (try it!)
I love Crowley, that great Role model for youth!
They talk about his Heroin addiction. Pfah! Just as whatever the personal relationship was between Gaius Germanicus Caesar and his horse, it was the least of his vices, by far. He actually regretted that he couldn't quit smoking more than getting addicted to Heroin.
Good or bad, good and bad, he was the tops.
May he rest in peace somewhere, getting sucked into some strange proto dimension much more interesting than ours...
The finest Crowley gag I've seen yet is in Liber 9 which gives some introductory asanas.
The fine part is that both sets of photos (page 6 and page 14 in the PDF) are Crowley as far as I know, yet the second set are taken later in life and prefixed "An elderly, corpulent gentleman of sedentary habit has been good enough to pose, so that none feel debarred from devoting himself to The Great Work on the ground of physical infirmary".
Not taking himself to seriously (well sometimes) is something good about his writing.
Reading many of the comments, it would seem Mr. Crowley is still as misunderstood as he ever was. First off and unlike many progenitors of new spiritual thought, Crowley resisted being the static guru and never went the way of many cult leaders who grew fat off the worship from others, always pointing the way forward to that inner teacher he called the Holy Guardian Angel. Second he left, useful, practical information on preliminary occult practices such as directions on early rituals and step by step yoga instructions. Third, many of his writings include almost controversial but essential axioms of wisdom on what to do or not to do, for example his exhortation for young tarot readers not to do readings on themselves seems to be largely ignored today, but is probably one of the wisest statements you could make on the practice. And if not last in its entirety, certainly last here, his exhortation when using any of his exercises or occult practices not to assign external validity to what you experience (basically not assigning labels) seems to be something missed not only by those who follow his teachings but by those totally skeptical of them as well. As always all he often said was do these things, results will follow, keep track of them.
So it's no wonder he's considered a wicked man or some sort of harmless kook or even some sort of advanced spiritual teacher of the age, any of which is a prism he can be viewed through. I think this leaves him remarkably human in the end and perhaps is what separates him the most from other would be spiritual writers. And it seems to the very end he stuck to his guns, despite a heroin addiction, a spent fortune, a dispersed family and on the other hand a legacy of writings seekers still pore over, one of the most beautiful and artistic tarot decks ever created and about 3,000 death and black metal bands who missed the dartboard by a mile.
Thanks, BB. I love the power that name still holds in the right circles. The comments were nearly as fun to read as the article.
These anecdotes concerning Crowley's later years in Netherwood don't say much about the man apart from the rarely acknowledged truth that Crowley could play the part of the English gentleman and could come across as extremely charming and entertaining when it suited him.
Crowley Sr was a wealthy brewer and young Al attended the type of upper crust establishments - Oxbridge included - where he acquired the flash and panache of the young upper class English gent.
The caricature of Crowley repeated in the comments on this thread - Satanist, drug fied etc - is a tabloid press/comic-book legend that plays to the need for larger-than-life villains, especially those with 'occult' associations.
Crowley wasn't a Satanist and has said as much and more in his writings. With reference to black magic he said "I despise the thing to such an extent that I can hardly believe in the existence of people so debased and idiotic as to practice it."
He was engaged in the revival of an ancient current associated with the Egyptian/Sumerian traditions. To equate this with the 'Satan' of the Bible is a mistake. Christians often incorrectly infer that a person with an unconventional lifestyle who engages in magic must therefore be Satanic in the 'inverse-Christian' sense. Flawed logic at best.
Crowley was an original and exceptionally talented. His practical system of magic(k) works, whether or not you agree with magic or even the premise.
He adapted Kabbalistic material to suit contemporary needs. His book "777" was written before he turned 40 and is one of the best collections of Qabalistic (western-style Kabbalah) texts around.
Maybe not so hot as poet, but still engaging and at times rather humorous. His claim to be a better poet than W.B. Yeats (also a Golden Dawn initiate) was definitely a stretch.
The discussion of AC's human side in the lead post is a pleasant change from the usual. Its about time Crowley was appreciated in a less sensational light.