passive attitude toward life. 19
The Book of Lapis Lazuli
was, Crowley said, inspired by his crossing the Abyss during his walk across China. Crowley did not formally adopt the grade of Magister Templi 8 0 = 3 0 until the end of 1909, having claimed the grade of Adeptus Exemptus 7 0 = 4 0 earlier that year, taking the names OU MH
and then Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici (“By the Force of Truth I have Conquered the Universe While Living,” which Crowley usually wrote as
V.V.V.V.V.
) respectively. But he believed that by the end of his Asian trek, he had passed through the barrier and entered the sphere of the Supernals. He was indeed unlike other men, was, in fact, no man at all, but one of the Secret Chiefs.
Crowley had exceeded Mathers in magical rank, and it was time to found his own esoteric order. At some point between 1907 and 1908, Crowley formed his magical society, the A. . .A. . . Crowley began to take on students, and did so for the rest of his life. We can regard Crowley’s mystical tutoring as merely a way to fill his increasingly empty pockets, but this would be doing him a disservice. Crowley was sincere. A look at the “required reading” at the back of
Magick in Theory and Practice
shows that, if nothing else, following it would provide the equivalent of a college degree. Nothing would be easier than to dismiss Crowley as an opportunistic fake,
or
to take him atface value as the champion of human liberation. Crowley was not wholly one or the other but a frustrating confusion of the two. Anyone serious about understanding him has to master the difficult art of sifting one from the other.
At the beginning, recruitment for his new order was low. The first two members were Crowley and George Cecil Jones (Volo Noscere
—
“I Wish to Know”). Captain Fuller (Per Ardura ad Astra “Through Struggle to the Stars”) soon joined their ranks and he was to bring along a new recruit who would play an important role in Crowley’s life.
—
B Y A PRIL 1908 Rose’s condition had worsened. Crowley’s frequent exits for parts unknown didn’t help, but it was precisely this advice that Gerald Kelly, Oscar Eckenstein, and the family doctor offered: Crowley should go away and threaten not to return until Rose got on the wagon. Crowley didn’t need to hear this twice. He had kept his wandering ways and when not entertaining on Jermyn Street or sharing the Warwick Road flat with Rose, he was overseeing his precarious estate in Boleskine, visiting his mother in Eastbourne, or frequenting favorite haunts in Paris. It was to this last that he decided to repair. He took a room in the Hôtel de Blois at 50 rue Vavin in the Latin Quarter, an address he maintained for several years. In Paris, Crowley tried his hand at writing short stories, something he would return to a decade later during his years in New York with his Simon Iff detective tales. Crowley’s occult fiction has its admirers, but for my taste it doesn’t rank with other weird writers of the time, such as Algernon Blackwood or Arthur Machen, both of whom Crowley considered amateurs. 20 But even Paris could not hold himfor long and Crowley slipped out of the City of Light for forays into Venice.
In 1908 Crowley published
The World’s Tragedy
, another attack on Christianity, couched in the form of autobiography. He wanted it to circulate among the young and “seduce the boys of England,” so they could “bring about the new heaven and the new earth” by joining him in the worship of Pan. 21 Speaking of Pan at that time was fashionable; there was a veritable pandemic of writing then celebrating the randy Greek god (Arthur Machen had made his name in 1894 with “The Great God Pan,” and J. M. Barrie’s
Peter Pan
had appeared in 1904). “Seduce the boys of England” suggests a double entendre, especially as part of the book is a defense of sodomy.
But what is important is that Crowley is openly seeking followers. “You are not a Crowleian,” he
The Book of Lapis Lazuli
was, Crowley said, inspired by his crossing the Abyss during his walk across China. Crowley did not formally adopt the grade of Magister Templi 8 0 = 3 0 until the end of 1909, having claimed the grade of Adeptus Exemptus 7 0 = 4 0 earlier that year, taking the names OU MH
and then Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici (“By the Force of Truth I have Conquered the Universe While Living,” which Crowley usually wrote as
V.V.V.V.V.
) respectively. But he believed that by the end of his Asian trek, he had passed through the barrier and entered the sphere of the Supernals. He was indeed unlike other men, was, in fact, no man at all, but one of the Secret Chiefs.
Crowley had exceeded Mathers in magical rank, and it was time to found his own esoteric order. At some point between 1907 and 1908, Crowley formed his magical society, the A. . .A. . . Crowley began to take on students, and did so for the rest of his life. We can regard Crowley’s mystical tutoring as merely a way to fill his increasingly empty pockets, but this would be doing him a disservice. Crowley was sincere. A look at the “required reading” at the back of
Magick in Theory and Practice
shows that, if nothing else, following it would provide the equivalent of a college degree. Nothing would be easier than to dismiss Crowley as an opportunistic fake,
or
to take him atface value as the champion of human liberation. Crowley was not wholly one or the other but a frustrating confusion of the two. Anyone serious about understanding him has to master the difficult art of sifting one from the other.
At the beginning, recruitment for his new order was low. The first two members were Crowley and George Cecil Jones (Volo Noscere
—
“I Wish to Know”). Captain Fuller (Per Ardura ad Astra “Through Struggle to the Stars”) soon joined their ranks and he was to bring along a new recruit who would play an important role in Crowley’s life.
—
B Y A PRIL 1908 Rose’s condition had worsened. Crowley’s frequent exits for parts unknown didn’t help, but it was precisely this advice that Gerald Kelly, Oscar Eckenstein, and the family doctor offered: Crowley should go away and threaten not to return until Rose got on the wagon. Crowley didn’t need to hear this twice. He had kept his wandering ways and when not entertaining on Jermyn Street or sharing the Warwick Road flat with Rose, he was overseeing his precarious estate in Boleskine, visiting his mother in Eastbourne, or frequenting favorite haunts in Paris. It was to this last that he decided to repair. He took a room in the Hôtel de Blois at 50 rue Vavin in the Latin Quarter, an address he maintained for several years. In Paris, Crowley tried his hand at writing short stories, something he would return to a decade later during his years in New York with his Simon Iff detective tales. Crowley’s occult fiction has its admirers, but for my taste it doesn’t rank with other weird writers of the time, such as Algernon Blackwood or Arthur Machen, both of whom Crowley considered amateurs. 20 But even Paris could not hold himfor long and Crowley slipped out of the City of Light for forays into Venice.
In 1908 Crowley published
The World’s Tragedy
, another attack on Christianity, couched in the form of autobiography. He wanted it to circulate among the young and “seduce the boys of England,” so they could “bring about the new heaven and the new earth” by joining him in the worship of Pan. 21 Speaking of Pan at that time was fashionable; there was a veritable pandemic of writing then celebrating the randy Greek god (Arthur Machen had made his name in 1894 with “The Great God Pan,” and J. M. Barrie’s
Peter Pan
had appeared in 1904). “Seduce the boys of England” suggests a double entendre, especially as part of the book is a defense of sodomy.
But what is important is that Crowley is openly seeking followers. “You are not a Crowleian,” he
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