Aleister Crowley: A Passion for Evil? – Disinformation: The Podcast

it's funny how many modern practitioners try to distance themselves from crowley or the other oldschool people to show how normal they are.lots of hatchet jobs on AC

he liked the image but besides being decades ahead of the sexual revolution
he doesnt seem to have done much besides offend the got taste standard of the day.
there were some big names of the day involved in the golden dawn during their little war,
that could have been part of his reputation

I though 616 was the new 666, to align with the earliest and most original records “Scholars at Oxford University using advanced imaging techniques had been able to read previously illegible portions of the earliest known record of the Book of Revelation (a 1,700 year old papyrus), from the Oxyrhynchus site, Papyrus 115 or P115, dating one century after Irenaeus. The fragment gives the Number of the Beast as 616 (χ ι ϛ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_Beast. It seems they switch to 666 because it sounded cooler, 'damn' pretty lame.

He is more like the biggest douchebag of all time!

like Einstein said ” mediocre minds…”

Crowley’s life and his writings are, sadly, a mess. He was a sincere seeker of something, but wasted much of his energy reacting against the morality of his upbringing and his era, which he understandably found stifling. Like Marylin Manson, Lady Gaga or Ann Coulter, Crowley cultivated his scandalous reputation not only through libertine living, but also shocking comments sanctioning things like rape and child sacrifice. This may have reflected his occasional antipathy, but more likely helped keep him in he press, thus attracting followers (sex partners) and sell his writings. Biological father to 7 children by different women, he was hardly a father figure to any, and his surviving children didn’t want to be associated with his legacy. And why would they? Drug addiction is hardly glorious.

“Do as thou wilt” is indeed interpreted by the vast majority of drug users who stumble onto his work (via Ozzy’s music or sites like this) as ‘Do whatever you want’, especially taken in tandem with his hedonistic life. More mature Thelemites have figured out that those who fail to learn the value of limiting themselves, and simply indulge every urge, are at risk of never achieving their destiny; and, of course, drug addiction. Cocaine and other stimulants have been found to physically alter the structure of the prefrontal cortex, which is the area repsonsible for self-limiting and the consideration of adverse consequences. Those who combine Crowley and coke are thus especially at risk.

The most enlightened parts of Crowley’s work were lifted from Buddhism, which he seriously studied for a few years, and unlike Thelema, IMHO, has a well-developed concept of Love which does not involve stomping the weak, fighting or killing those who get in your way- and in which thyself is not the center of the universe.

Let Crowley’s life be a cautionary tale; but don’t think for a minute his mystical contacts with ancient Egyptian gods hold any more water than the myths of the Christians that drove him nuts.

Einstein said “beware of people who say ‘ Einstein said: ‘ ! “

you sir… are a moron!