Do What Thou Wilt Is The Whole Of The Law
Aleister Crowley, an early 20th century occultist, asserted that “Do what thou wilt is the whole of the law.” (Crowley 1978). Crowley’s statement is the closest maxim I have found to be representative of human ethical theory. By acting upon this maxim, each individual is forwarding the well being of all humanity. This is because through the process of competing forces the most useful for that specific set of circumstances will arise as the victorious force. However, this does not mean that any issue contains any inherent ethical meaning, rather in the context of the specific “game” that is being played pragmatic value can be assigned.
Eastern philosophical theories highlight the illusory nature of human existence. For instance, if we look at early Indian traditions, we inevitably recognize that the world has no logical basis for being “real.” Early Hindu thought had various different darsanas, which ranged in thought on a…
Aleister Crowley May Have Been Behind The ‘Curse of Tutankhamun’
In post-WWI London, the public’s attention was gripped by a string of mysterious deaths of people linked in one way or another to the unsealing of Tutankhamun’s tomb. Was the “pharaoh’s curse” in fact carried out by Aleister Crowley? Via the Telegraph:
Six mysterious London deaths famously attributed to the ‘Curse of Tutankhamun’ were actually murders by notorious Satanist Aleister Crowley, a historian claims in a new book. Incredible parallels between Crowley and Jack the Ripper have also been discovered during research by historian Mark Beynon.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, London was gripped by the mythical curse of Tutankhamun, the Egyptian boy-king, whose tomb was uncovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter. More than 20 people linked to the opening of the pharaoh’s burial chamber in Luxor in 1923 bizarrely died over the following years – six of them in the capital.
Victims included Carter’s personal secretary Captain Richard Bethell, who was found…
Aleister Crowley’s Dirty, Dirty Poems
Victorian Gothic on Aleister Crowley’s White Stains:
Readers will likely be familiar with Aleister Crowley, the notorious English occultist, bisexual libertine, recreational drug user, founder of the Thelemic religion, leader of the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), and all-around scary wicked person. Those familiar with Crowley strictly through his esoteric writings, however, may be interested to know that one the “Great Beast’s” first forays into publishing consisted of a perverse little volume of erotic poetry entitled White Stains.
It was issued in Amsterdam in 1898 by Leonard Smithers; a leading publisher of English pornography, but also of controversial literature. His clients included Aubrey Beardsley, Arthur Symons, and Oscar Wilde. White Stains was published in a print run of one hundred copies which, according to rumors in the book world, Crowley is said to have white-stained himself. Most of these were destroyed in 1924 by British Customs; the surviving first editions currently sell for around $4,000 – $10,000.
The authorship of White Stains was attributed to…
Vale Kenneth Grant, 1924–2011: Grandfather Chaos and Flying Saucerer
Kenneth Grant by Austin Spare (c. 1951).
Finally unpacking the books bequeathed to me by my late ex-Freemason father-in-law’s estate has put me in a wistful mood. I just keep being reminded of how many 20th century disinformationists we’ve recently lost: John Keel, John Mitchell, Zecharia Sitchin — and a loss equivalent to the space filled by their contributions to occulture.
Stacking my now prized Golden Dawn collection turned my thoughts to Israel Regardie and so Crowley — and to his other spiritual son and former secretary, Kenneth Grant.
Both did a great deal to popularise modern post-Thelemic magic. I’ve got some fond ’80s teenage memories of coming across them all in the Psychology section (?) of my local library and reading furtively with one eye over my shoulder. It was the start of an endless study of esotericism.
So I was not surprised when I read that Kenneth Grant had passed away in…
Aleister Crowley Running For President In 2012?!?
When I was growing up in the UK we had some wonderful political parties competing in our national elections, including Screaming Lord Sutch and the Monster Raving Loony party. In comparison the choices in the U.S. are decidedly dull (although New York’s 2010 gubernatorial race did feature the fantastic Jimmy McMillan’s Rent Is Too Damn High party).
It’s a relief, then, to find that some nuttiness is in store for the presidential elections in 2012: as well as the Sarah Palin freak-show, it appears that the Great Beast 666, Aleister Crowley, is in the running (I know, he’s been dead a long time and he’s not American…). Here are his campaign’s top ten reasons to vote for the Beast in 2012:
10. If you are fed up with the election process, for whatever reason, Aleister Crowley provides a more meaningful choice than Mickey Mouse, Cthulhu, or Jackie Broyles. 9. You can get a photo posted here — of…
Damanhur: My Sci-Fi Theophany Under the Mountain
Joseph Allen writes about his visit to Damanhur, a sizeable New Age commune nestled in the Italian Alps. The community is best known for the stunning Temples of Humankind. From Confessions of a CyberCasualty:
December, 2007. The distant Alps are covered in snow. Small flakes swirl in the wind, dancing around red clay statues of muscular giants and voluptuous goddesses, reminiscent of Egypt. Most prominent is the falcon-headed god, Horus, facing the Fire Altar where the looming statues converge.
I start to walk into the grove of the Earth Altar, but my guide Shama tells me I should go no further.
“It is dangerous for anyone who is not spiritually prepared,” she warns me. “Very dangerous.”
I would be willing to chance it, but I suppose rules are rules.
In the distance is Monti Pelati, the sacred mountain of the Damanhurians. It is said that more Synchronic Lines converge there than any place in the world. These lines are like the Earth’s…
Aleister Crowley for President 2012 – Red State Update
There’s a new front-runner in the 2012 presidential elections, dead Victorian occultist Aleister Crowley. This ad makes a good case for why you should write in for Uncle Al.
If you want to learn more about this strange figure, check out our film Aleister Crowley: In Search of The Great Beast 666, available instantly through iTunes and Amazon On-Demand.
Donald Cammell’s Cinema of Excess
Anita Pallenberg with Cammell on the set of 'Performance.'
Even if you are a die-hard fan of outre, counter-cultural cinema, you might not leap to attention at the mention of the name Donald Cammell.
A painting prodigy as a young man, Cammell was making a living with his brushes by the age of 19. Having built the foundations of a lucrative portrait painting career, Cammell moved to Paris in search of a more inspired path in art. This shunning of commercial opportunity for artistic possibility marked Cammell’s pursuits in the years to come. It’s both the reason why he’s not more widely known and why he continues to be re-discovered by lovers of cinema on the fringes.
Returning to Swinging London in the 1960’s, Cammell decided that painting was dead and that he needed to turn his talents towards cinema. He lived a bohemian lifestyle and became the embodiment of the era’s libertine…
Brian Butler: The Wickedest Man In LA
Good to see one-time disinfo-collaborator Brian Butler being recognized as an occult expert. He was recently profiled by Charles Russell (of The Hills fame) in the Huffington Post:
Brian Butler speaks with the soft ease and quiet smirk of someone who either knows something you don’t or simply doesn’t care. There’s some unseen force that compels him to create some of the most haunting installations employing film and music with the likes of Kenneth Anger and Vincent Gallo. He is more unflinchingly dedicated to the validity of his craft than the most rabid of people.
42 second trailer for Night of Pan directed by Brian Butler. Features Vincent Gallo and Kenneth Anger.
However, it is not today, which concerns him for he appears to exist outside the dimensional constraints of time. I sat down with him recently to discuss his new works being shown internationally, dispel the nasty rumors of him hypnotizing and hexing the masses…
Occult Sentinel Podcast Episode 29 — Frater Puck Accomplishing the Great Work
Occult Sentinel Podcast Episode 29 — The Great Work
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This episode features an interview with Frater Puck, host of the Thelema Now! Podcast. The official podcast of the OTO.
He also organizes the Musicka Mystica Maxima Festival in Manhattan, where people such as John Zorn, Bill Laswell, Genesis P-Orridge, Amber Assylum, larkin Grimm come to perform.
Frater Puck is a long time member of the OTO and has some interesting things to say about art, occult culture, the great work, schisms in 80s occulture and much more in this interview.
More info at www.musickamysticamaxima.com and www.thelemanow.com.
And Crowley Said: “Let There Be Rock”
What do Timothy Leary, Jennifer Lopez, Jimmy Page, Michael Jackson, Anton LaVey, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Sid Vicious all have in common? Aleister Crowley, of course.
Aleister Crowley: Wicked
A wonderful set of photographs from the life of the ‘Great Beast’, via LIFE:
Born the son of a wealthy and devout British family in 1875, Edward Alexander Crowley became a rebel after his father’s death when he was 11. He became increasingly skeptical of Christianity and was expelled from school for “corrupting” another boy. Crowley’s own mother, alarmed by his affinity for what she saw as morbid and morally questionable pursuits (i.e., black magic), referred to him as “the Beast.” In time, as Crowley’s notoriety as an occultist and very public celebrant of unrestrained hedonism grew, the press dubbed him “the wickedest man in the world.”
View more photos at LIFE.
Photo: Crowley plays shadow puppets in 1938. Source: LIFE/Picture Post/Getty Images (Fair Use).
The Curse of Being Weird
The Infinite and the Beyond — Podcast: Episode #001 — The Curse of Being Weird
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In the introductory episode of The Infinite and the Beyond, we introduce the listener to the show by discussing the show title and direction. As you may be wondering if this is a pagan podcast why does it have such an unusual and generic title and why does the show seem to focus on such a broad scope of issues? Good Point! I address these issues right in the beginning of this episode.
We learn about Aleister Crowley in the regular show segment A Corner in the Occult. Love him or hate him, he is one of the more well known figures from the last one hundred years of occult history. One of the members of the original Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and primary figurehead behind the Ordo Templi Orientis, Aleister Crowley has influenced multiple spiritual, religious, and political movements; inspired a list of characters and films; and has even been the focus of famous song writers, singers, and musicians.
Later we address the issues with being an individual and what to avoid if you happen to be one of the cursed because being vastly different within any community is an extremely difficult thing to handle. Too many people fall in line with the norm and are oblivious to their situation, because to them they’re like everyone else, and if this is the case then what can be wrong with that?
Are you a Pantheist? After all, many pagans consider themselves to be Pantheists. To finish the show we take a look into Pantheism by addressing the tenants of Pantheism as laid down by The World Pantheism Movement and other Pantheist organizations.
To message the show please go here.
Aleister Crowley, Thelema and the O.T.O. – Out There Radio: Episode 43
Out There Radio – Episode 43: Aleister Crowley, Thelema, and the O.T.O.
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In this episode, we interview John Crow, host of Thelema Coast to Coast, a podcast “dedicated to the exploration of Thelema, Aleister Crowley, The New Aeon, ceremonial magick and the occult. ” John gives us a primer on Crowley and Thelema, and tells us about his experiences with the OTO. This episode is a great starting point for people who are interested in modern occult orders, 19th century English esoteric movements, or anyone who wonders what “Mr. Crowley” was all about.
