Aleister Crowley And The British Invasion

Aleister Crowley and the British Invasion

Aleister Crowley was an author, mystic and ‘drug cultist’ in the early part of the nineteen hundreds. He lived decidedly outside the mores of society and his lifestyle choices were occasionally a source of infamy among those who knew him. 

For example, his personal secretary later wrote that Crowley regularly consumed enough heroin to kill a room full of men, yet he lived into his eighties.

There are probably as many opinions about the man as there are people who knew him or know of him.

Opinions aside, it is my contention that Crowley was the culmination of a great conflict that went on within the masonic lodge, probably since the days of ancient Egypt. The crux of this conflict was, should the inner teachings of the masonic lodge remain a secret and only known to a few or should they be shared with the world at large.

Crowley was on the side of sharing them and he disseminated these teachings within the masonic order, which he founded. Later his secretary published the inner teachings, thus bringing an end to this conflict, although those who wish to suppress it are probably still around.

Crowley had disciples and followers, more so perhaps, after his death. Just how far did his influence extend?

Let us take up the following story about the band Led Zeppelin, who took up residence in Crowley’s Boleskine House. The ‘Vintage News’has a rather interesting article about Page trying to get the other band members do perform the same Magickal ritual that Crowley had and claims that this resulted in a curse for Page.

The ritual in question was the central ritual for the masonic order, which had as its purpose, the invocation of the ‘Higher Self,’ a ritual that takes much study and preparation, including a forty-day long fast.

Supposedly Crowley himself gave up on it half way through but it still worked. Crowley’s ‘Higher Self’ dictated a book to him through the medium of his ‘Scarlet Woman.’ The book is called the Book Of The Law.

Then we come to the cover of The Beatles Sargent Pepper’s album, where Crowley appears second from the left in the back row and we also find, in the song ‘A Day In The Life Of A Fool,’ the line ‘having read the book.’

Long after all of this but way before I knew about any of it, I was tripping in the living room of my apartment in Baltimore, where I was attending a classical music conservatory. I idly and purely on a whim, reached over a grabbed The Book Of The Law off of my roommate’s bookshelf, not having the slightest idea what it was.

I began to read it. This was one the most surprising things that ever happened in my life because I understood most of it.

I was yet to realize that I had made the connection between this book and the pop music of the sixties.

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