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Panic in Detroit: The Magician and the Motor City
"Is Detroit heaven?" Aleister Crowley asked his field organizer, Charles Stansfeld Jones.It certainly seemed so at the time: Bookman Albert W. Ryerson was selling Crowley's books and publishing the latest installment of The Equinox. Several prominent Masons were interested in establishing the Lakes Region of Ordo Templi Orientis. Jones was in high demand teaching classes on magick and Thelema.But things turned suddenly sour. When slow sales dragged the Universal Book Stores into bankruptcy, the activities of the O.T.O. were luridly thrust onto the front pages of the daily news. The Equinox was declared obscene and all copiesimpounded. The O.T.O. love cult was blamed for everything from broken homes and Hollywood's wild parties to the mysterious murder of film director William Desmond Taylor.The revised and significantly expanded blue Equinox centennial edition of Panic in Detroit chronicles this chapter of Thelemic history through an original historical essay by Aleister Crowely biographer Richard Kaczynski; over forty previously-unpublished letters from Crowley and his circle; never-before-seen transcripts of the Universal Book Stores' bankruptcy trial, in which Crowley, The Equinox, and O.T.O. figure prominently; fifty newspaper article transcripts documenting what was later dubbed the "mess in the press"; a street guide to Aleister Crowley's Detroit; an essay on the unlikely disappearance, recovery, and preservation of Crowley's "rariora" in years after his death; and much, much more.
- GenresThelema
406 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
About the author
Richard Kaczynski
27 books89 followersRichard Kaczynski is an American writer, musician, research scientist, and lecturer in the fields of social psychology, metaphysical beliefs and new religious movements. He is known for his biography Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley (North Atlantic Books, 2010), acclaimed by the Times Literary Supplement as "the major biography to date" of the Edwardian enfant terrible, and regarded by the Norwegian daily Aftenposten as the best biography of Crowley.
He has lectured internationally since 1990, and over the years his writing has appeared in magazines ranging from High Times to the Lovecraftian role-playing journal Different Worlds. He has also appeared on television in the documentaries Secrets of the Occult and Aleister Crowley: The Beast 666.
Kaczynski has also played keyboards for the progressive rock bands House of Usher, Page, and Celestial Serenity.
Dr. Kaczynski earned his Ph.D. in social psychology, with a minor in measurement and statistics, in 1993 with a dissertation on metaphysical beliefs and experiences among occult practitioners in New Religious Movements. He works professionally as a research scientist and biostatistician on studies ranging from clinical trials of psychiatric medications to program evaluation of compensated work therapy.
He has lectured internationally since 1990, and over the years his writing has appeared in magazines ranging from High Times to the Lovecraftian role-playing journal Different Worlds. He has also appeared on television in the documentaries Secrets of the Occult and Aleister Crowley: The Beast 666.
Kaczynski has also played keyboards for the progressive rock bands House of Usher, Page, and Celestial Serenity.
Dr. Kaczynski earned his Ph.D. in social psychology, with a minor in measurement and statistics, in 1993 with a dissertation on metaphysical beliefs and experiences among occult practitioners in New Religious Movements. He works professionally as a research scientist and biostatistician on studies ranging from clinical trials of psychiatric medications to program evaluation of compensated work therapy.
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