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 opinion 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 know 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 Bolskine 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 Beatle’s 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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