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The Magical World of Aleister Crowley
Thirty years after his death, occultist Aleister Crowley now has more followers than ever during his notorious lifetime. In this full-scale biography of the bizarre inventor of what he called "Magick," Francis King examines Crowley's writings and theories as well as the elaborate rituals and perverse sexual practices that were the mark of this magnetic personality and cult figure.
A talented writer and poet, an experienced mountaineer, and a heroin addict, Crowley was at the center of any occult controversy. He was expelled from the Golden Dawn Society, which numbered W.B. Yeats among its members, and wrote anti-British propaganda in the United States during World War I. When rumors of abominable rites and orgies at his Sicilian abbey reached the authorities, he was deported from Italy. His god was the Christian Satan, his religion a sexual occultism which was a Western version of tantra, his bible a mysterious manuscript called "The Book of the Law," which he said had been dictated to him by Aiwass, his devilish deity.
Aleister Crowley was far more than a vulgar black magician, although he once sacrificed a toad he had baptized "Jesus of Nazareth." While at various times in his life he indulged in every perversion from sodomy to coprophilia, he was not a mere sexual athlete, and he certainly was no ordinary "satanic occultist"—his synthesized religion was remarkably clear and consistent, showing a unique intellectual power and even beauty.
Francis King's wry account of Crowley's extraordinary life, and his detailed examination of the important writing, throws much new light on the man and will fascinate not only occultists but everyone intrigued by the strange and eccentric.
A talented writer and poet, an experienced mountaineer, and a heroin addict, Crowley was at the center of any occult controversy. He was expelled from the Golden Dawn Society, which numbered W.B. Yeats among its members, and wrote anti-British propaganda in the United States during World War I. When rumors of abominable rites and orgies at his Sicilian abbey reached the authorities, he was deported from Italy. His god was the Christian Satan, his religion a sexual occultism which was a Western version of tantra, his bible a mysterious manuscript called "The Book of the Law," which he said had been dictated to him by Aiwass, his devilish deity.
Aleister Crowley was far more than a vulgar black magician, although he once sacrificed a toad he had baptized "Jesus of Nazareth." While at various times in his life he indulged in every perversion from sodomy to coprophilia, he was not a mere sexual athlete, and he certainly was no ordinary "satanic occultist"—his synthesized religion was remarkably clear and consistent, showing a unique intellectual power and even beauty.
Francis King's wry account of Crowley's extraordinary life, and his detailed examination of the important writing, throws much new light on the man and will fascinate not only occultists but everyone intrigued by the strange and eccentric.
210 pages, Hardcover
First published July 16, 1987
3 people are currently reading
166 people want to read
About the author
Francis X. King
41 books25 followersFrancis X. King was an occult writer and editor who wrote about tarot, divination, witchcraft, magic, sex magic, tantra, and holistic medicine. He was a member of the Society of the Inner Light, an offshoot of the Alpha et Omega, which in turn was an offshoot of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 30, 2019
I started Megatherion for research purposes. Kathleen and I are working on the third book in our Cowboy and Vampire Thriller Series and in that world, there is a usually inaccessible, hidden spiritual dimension called The Meta (short for Meta-consciousness) where human and vampire souls exist before and after death. I wanted to read about someone who believed in worlds separate from our own.
Aleister Crowely, with his demons and ascended masters and misshapen gods and doorways into other realms seemed a logical choice.
Years ago, I went through a Crowley phase and purchased a tarot deck of his design, convinced I could unlock the secret mysteries. It didn’t last long; apparently, I was not cut out to be an adept or an initiate. I once thought he was a dark, dangerous man with insight into other planes, but after reading Megatherion, I am more inclined to think of him as a damaged individual with much charisma and strong, strange beliefs, who attracted many other damaged individuals.
Regardless of your stance on magic, or magick, the book is a fascinating look at a unique period of history when otherwise “normal” men and women dressed in robes, had ritual sex and killed a few cats (poor cats, they deserved better).
Here are a few things of note I learned:
So much sex. Crowley, and other Magicians of the Golden Dawn (and similar orders) had so much sex so often with men, with women, with themselves. Apparently, if you do it right, ritual sex can open the doors to astral planes and deeper knowledge about the other realms, etc. It’s almost like they created a magical construct as a cover for their sexual proclivities. In fact, it’s exactly like that. Sex was a big deal then.
Sex is a big deal now. The author makes much of the many incidents of “buggery,” going to great pains to point out when Crowley assumed the passive role versus the active role. That’s wasted ink to me and speaks of our own present day hang ups. Sex with consenting adults is all just good clean fun, regardless of who is in front or behind, and regardless of how many goats are watching.
We were right, menstrual blood is magic! In our first book, the vampires are after some very special menstrual blood from the chosen one. Some readers were offput. The Crowleyean magicians made special magic cakes with a blood as the binding, magic ingredient. Guess which blood was the MOST magical? That’s right, blood of the moon. Not so gross now, are we, easily offended readers?
Vampires were hot even in the 1930s. Apparently, Crowley once worked a big, elaborate magic spell involving a vampire and a werewolf. It appears Twilight owes a little something to the world’s wickedest man.
If you are interested in learning more about a time in history when upstanding gentlemen and ladies found it perfectly acceptable to get naked and freaky, as long as they were thinking about alternative beings from other dimensions, check this book out.
As for me, I’ll be reading Carlos Castaneda next. Don Juan had a thing for other worlds as well. And if you have any recommendations, please let me know by leaving a comment.
Aleister Crowely, with his demons and ascended masters and misshapen gods and doorways into other realms seemed a logical choice.
Years ago, I went through a Crowley phase and purchased a tarot deck of his design, convinced I could unlock the secret mysteries. It didn’t last long; apparently, I was not cut out to be an adept or an initiate. I once thought he was a dark, dangerous man with insight into other planes, but after reading Megatherion, I am more inclined to think of him as a damaged individual with much charisma and strong, strange beliefs, who attracted many other damaged individuals.
Regardless of your stance on magic, or magick, the book is a fascinating look at a unique period of history when otherwise “normal” men and women dressed in robes, had ritual sex and killed a few cats (poor cats, they deserved better).
Here are a few things of note I learned:
So much sex. Crowley, and other Magicians of the Golden Dawn (and similar orders) had so much sex so often with men, with women, with themselves. Apparently, if you do it right, ritual sex can open the doors to astral planes and deeper knowledge about the other realms, etc. It’s almost like they created a magical construct as a cover for their sexual proclivities. In fact, it’s exactly like that. Sex was a big deal then.
Sex is a big deal now. The author makes much of the many incidents of “buggery,” going to great pains to point out when Crowley assumed the passive role versus the active role. That’s wasted ink to me and speaks of our own present day hang ups. Sex with consenting adults is all just good clean fun, regardless of who is in front or behind, and regardless of how many goats are watching.
We were right, menstrual blood is magic! In our first book, the vampires are after some very special menstrual blood from the chosen one. Some readers were offput. The Crowleyean magicians made special magic cakes with a blood as the binding, magic ingredient. Guess which blood was the MOST magical? That’s right, blood of the moon. Not so gross now, are we, easily offended readers?
Vampires were hot even in the 1930s. Apparently, Crowley once worked a big, elaborate magic spell involving a vampire and a werewolf. It appears Twilight owes a little something to the world’s wickedest man.
If you are interested in learning more about a time in history when upstanding gentlemen and ladies found it perfectly acceptable to get naked and freaky, as long as they were thinking about alternative beings from other dimensions, check this book out.
As for me, I’ll be reading Carlos Castaneda next. Don Juan had a thing for other worlds as well. And if you have any recommendations, please let me know by leaving a comment.
October 16, 2019
While the book offers a great deal of detail, it lacks a compelling analysis of why Crowley was able to capture to imaginations of some many people across Europe and the North America.
February 12, 2020
People idolise THIS guy???!!.......Must be the very definition of "pathetic".
July 20, 2015
Excellent introduction to the bizarre world of Crowley.
November 13, 2016
Creation Books, 2004. Paperback.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews