The portrait of Aleister Crowley

Sometimes labeled a Satanist, nominated in the tabloid press of his time as “the wickedest man in the world” and targeted as public enemy number one, Crowley was definitively a controversial figure and an interesting man. He enjoyed all that buzz and attention and fueled it to keep himself in the spotlight. While before – and even after – him most of the Magicians (Occultists) were extremely discrete and kept their activities hidden (occult means hidden, secret, clandestine – as we know), Crowley was on a constant campaign for media attention and scandals. Those scandals and controversial issues affect his work and inheritance, but can not diminish its actual value. And not so surprisingly, a BBC poll ranked Crowley as the seventy-third greatest Briton of all time (1st is obviousely Sir Winston Churchill; third is Diana, Princess of Wales; while Johnny Rotten and David Beckham line up alongside Sir Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare).
Yet, people are more interested if Crowley really was such an evil person, then what he achieved as Magician and the significant work he left behind. It’s still much exciting to speak about his spicy sex life, speculating about he was or he was not a British secret agent, then actually read and decode his writings. Continue reading