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…
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.
