Counter-Currents
Remembering Aleister Crowley:
October 12, 1875–December 1, 1947
Greg Johnson
Aleister Crowley by Charles Krafft
382 words
Aleister Crowley was an English poet, novelist, painter, and mountaineer who is most famous as an occultist, ceremonial magician, and founder of the religion and philosophy of Thelema. But ironically Crowley’s supposed Satanism and Black Magic are far less frightening to most people than his politics. For Aleister Crowley was also a man of the Right.
Although surprising numbers of Crowley’s followers are conventional liberal humanists, those who actually grasp Crowley’s destruction of liberal humanism usually end up on the Right. Thus Crowley inspired such important 20th-century Rightists as novelist and essayist P. R. Stephensen and military strategist and historian J. F. C. Fuller — as well as some 21st-century Rightists who tag him in the pages of Counter-Currents. Crowley was also praised by none other than Julius Evola, who was every bit the political bad boy that Crowley was rumored to be.
For more information on Crowley’s life, work, and significance for the Right, I recommend the following pieces on this site:
- Kerry Bolton, “Aleister Crowley as Political Theorist,” Part 1, Part 2 (in Polish) — also included in More Artists of the Right
- Kerry Bolton, “The Influence of H. P. Lovecraft on Occultism”
- Julius Evola, “Aleister Crowley”
- Juleigh Howard-Hobson, “Crowley the Poet: A Different Look at Aleister Crowley on this, the Occasion of his 136th Birthday”
- James J. O’Meara, “Artist & Autist: Crowley in the Light of Neville,” Part 1, Part 2
- James J. O’Meara, “‘The Name is Crowley . . . Aleister Crowley’: Reflections on Enlightenment & Espionage“
- James J. O’Meara, “Put Down That Rifle & Read This Instead”
- James J. O’Meara, “The Unmaking of the Magus: Crowley and Political Animal”
- Dionýz Sokol, “The Ideological War for the Occult Scene”
Another important work on Crowley and the Right is Marco Pasi’s Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics (New York: Routledge, 2014), reviewed here by James J. O’Meara.
The following articles reference Crowley in passing:
- Kerry Bolton, “P. R. Stephensen“
- Jonathan Bowden, “Wyndham Lewis’ Tarr: An Exercise in Right-Wing Psychology” (in Bulgarian)
- James J. O’Meara, “A Band Apart: Wulf Grimsson’s Loki’s Way“
- James J. O’Meara, “Battle of the Magicians: Baron Evola between the Dancer & the Druid“
- James J. O’Meara, “Lord Kek Commands! A Look at the Origins of Meme Magic“
- Christopher Pankhurst, “Giacinto Scelsi: A Soundtrack for Radical Traditionalism“
- Christopher Pankhurst, “Spengler: The Numinous Genesis of Culture“
2 comments
Some years back I was spending the day at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo when I suddenly remembered Crowley’s “Stele of Revealing”. I couldn’t recall its official name or inventory number (no it’s not 666 [!] but that was indeed the number it had when stored at the former Bulaq Museum).
I knew that the stele had the sky goddess Nuit arched across the scene so went in search of her. You have no idea how many steles in the Egyptian Museum have Nuit arched across them. I was about to give up when I came across what was presumably the right one as numerous visitors had defaced the item with graffiti like “All hail the Master Therion” and “Love is the Law”. Where were Museum Security?!
So if you ever want to write “Tracy shagged Kevin behind the bike sheds” on a priceless antiquity you now know where to go.
In my late teens and early 20s I was essentially a fedora-tier agnostic / weak atheist. What convinced me otherwise were not the intellectual arguments of folks such as Plato or CS Lewis, but direct personal experience.
I recall my first EGC / Gnostic Catholic mass at the OTO.
Not long into the mass, I fell into a weird trance-like state and recall seeing various apparitions floating in the air, as well as other things I’ll forgo explaining here since I have no way of proving any of this– the reader can take it or leave it.
I was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time and felt totally normal seconds after the mass ended and I exited the temple area.
Aleister Crowley and Thelema are the real deal.
I was actually not even aware of A.C.’s political views until after I’d already taken an interest in his occult works. His high-tory / pro-aristocracy positions are just the icing on the cake. Much as with Evola, if you read only his political works & essays (e.g., “Men Among The Ruins”), you’re missing out on their most important contributions.
For those interested, here’s another essay on A.C.’s politics by Kerry Bolton: https://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/the-great-beast-on-politics-aleister-crowleys-thelemic-state-revealed
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