Counter-Currents
Remembering Aleister Crowley
(October 12, 1875–December 1, 1947)
Greg Johnson
Aleister Crowley by Charles Krafft
648 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. Sadly, he was also an egomaniac, a pervert, and a drug addict. But at least he did not sacrifice babies to Satan or eat them for breakfast. Ironically, though, 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 many on the Right today, Crowley is something of a guilty pleasure, rather like Ayn Rand: someone who opened their minds and set them on a path toward the broader Right, someone whose works still hold value, but not someone they can endorse as a whole, either as a thinker or a person. This, for instance, was very much Charles Krafft’s attitude toward Crowley.
So, to Aleister Crowley, we wish a (qualified) happy birthday! And to you, dear reader, we commend the following articles, reviews, and podcasts on Crowley’s life, ideas, and legacy for the Right.
You can buy James O’Meara’s book The Eldritch Evola here.
- Beau Albrecht, “116 Years of Aleister Crowley’s The Book of the Law.”
- Winston E. Bakewell, “‘Cocaine’ & Crowley’s Mad Men.”
- 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” (Czech version: Part 1, Part 2)
- Julius Evola, “Aleister Crowley.”
- Mark Gullick, “Aleister Crowley & the Devil’s Picture Book.”
- 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 as Political Animal.”
- Dionýz Sokol, “The Ideological War for the Occult Scene.”
Phil Eiger Newmann, Aleister Crowley, 2020
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:
- Kerry Bolton, “P. R. Stephensen.”
- Jonathan Bowden, “Wyndham Lewis’ Tarr: An Exercise in Right-Wing Psychology” (in Bulgarian)
- Peter D. Bredon, “He’s Our Bannon, Only Better.”
- Collin Cleary, “Evola, Magical Idealism, & Western Metaphysics, Part Two.”
- Mark Gullick, “Killing Joke’s The Death and Resurrection Show.”
- Tobias Langdon, “Mountains of the Mind: Dürer, Disenchantment, & the Urge to Ascend.”
- 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.”
- James J. O’Meara and Nick Jeelvy, “Spooky Writers’ Bloc on the Occult & Magic” (podcast).
- Christopher Pankhurst, “Giacinto Scelsi: A Soundtrack for Radical Traditionalism.”
- Christopher Pankhurst, “Spengler: The Numinous Genesis of Culture.”
- Scott Weisswald, “Remembering Genesis P-Orridge.”
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10 comments
He was also a spy.
“Sadly, he was also an egomaniac, a pervert, and a drug addict.”
Well, “sadly”, that was mostly what his life was about, his occultism a means to achieve power, lust, ecstasy and mind-altering experiences. Without his wicked side barely anyone would be interested in him today, it’s precisely what makes him so appealing to most of his fans.
I’m also not sure whether he really can classified as a “man of the right”, he certainly was no egalitarian, even though “every man and woman is a star”, while “the slaves shall serve”. He rather was a radical sexual, moral and societal libertarian, advocating total individual liberty (though in practice for the chosen few only).
He’s like the libertarians: he inoculates his readers against egalitarianism, which doesn’t wear off, but those who continue on to our sort of Right generally slough off the individualism and libertinism.
The hyperlink on J.F.C. Fuller’s name appears to lead to a blank page. Were there previously articles under that tag that are no longer on the site, or is this just an issue on my end?
Fixed it. Somehow the Fuller tag was deleted. Thanks for the catch.
So, apart from getting pissed, taking loads of drugs, shagging, wearing fancy dress and talking bollocks, what did Crowley actually do?
He wrote a lot of good books and poetry.
He played chess, climbed mountains, and especially did lots of research into metaphysics – which is pretty interesting if you’re into that sort of thing.
I read as much as I could stand of Crowley’s ‘Autohagiography’. He comes over as apolitical and rather self-obsessed.
I always thought his book “Diary of a Drug Fiend” was so much better than Burrough’s “Junky,” (I think it was called; unless there’s one called Heroin?). I spent most of my late teens and 20’s studying western occultism: tarot, enochianism, kabballah (the later of which I have a totally different opinion of now) and “book store” metaphysics. Then I got into philosophy and found actual/academic metaphysics just as if not much more interesting. I was delighted when I first encountered C-C and found that they had an author named James J. O’Meara writing books on similar topics. I’m excited about this collection of articles! (p.s. not that anybody asked but I’m pretty skeptical of these things since taking up philosophy but who knows)
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