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To: America Online From: bheidrick@aol.com Subj: philosophy on Crowley/Good Crowley Biographies (9409.crowley.bh) Date: 49940908 [Some editing. - Mu] Well, first, he said he was a poet. Since he also wrote and published a good deal of poetry, some excellent, some awful in the other direction, that makes him a poet. After that would come published prose author. After that it's a tie between religious prophet and philosopher. Magician? --- yes, after an unusual definition of Magick (with a "K") Pagan? --- no. "Neo-pagan", probably. Worker of black arts? --- Not in my opinion or his expressed opinion. Qabalist? --- Yes, in his opinion. I haven't decided. Worker of the left-hand path? --- no. Not by his opinion or mine. Other things: Astrologer --- Yes. Reformer of morals --- Yes. Satanist --- no, unless you count childhood and early adult rebellion. Artist --- By his opinion, yes. By the world's opinion, probably also yes. By my opinion, not by much. Mountain climber --- Yes, beyond a doubt. A world record holder. Sociologist --- hard to say. Not a very skilled one. Educator --- of adults, probably yes. of children, he thought so, I don't. Mason --- yes by many views, except that of Masonry. Husband and father --- better father than husband. Theologist --- In some ways quite a good amateur, professional in some. Traveler, Sportsman, British spy, German propagandist, Literary Critic, Playwrite, Political Theorist, --- nearly everything but a financial success. Crowley has been called the "Worst Man in the World", the "Leader of British Occultism" and lots of other things, including "Craughly" --- proper pronunciation is "Crow-Lee". What he did that matters for me most is open up the obscure and concealed mystical philosophy of the West & East to easy access by anyone with an open mind and a reasonable library. He took an obscure half-joke of the last 500 years and turned it into the best philosophy and religion I have ever come across. Thelema is at one and the same time the most intensely moral and self-reliant thing available to me. Is it the way of the present World-Age? If not, I loose. If so, I'm doing the best I can. --------------------------- To: America Online From: bheidrick@aol.com Subj: Re:Good Crowley biography Date: 94-07-12 11:45:04 EDT 93, Larry Sutin is currently writing a new Crowley biography that promises to be a good one --- based mainly on A.C.'s later diaries. There will be a collection of accounts of/by people who knew Crowley published at some time in the next year or so by Jerry Cornelius (past master of Thelema Lodge, but now writing privately). Regardie's _The Eye in the Triangle_ is one of the best old standards. Susan Robert's _The Magician of the Golden Dawn_ is probably the most accurate in some respects, even tho' it reads like a soap opera --- based on Crowley's own diaries and correspondences paraphrased into dialogue and mental speculation style. Crowley's _Confessions_ (here in Pagan Library) is his own view --- as all autobiographies, very colored and very needful of "between-the-line"-ism. Forget Symonds' stuff. Forget Grant's stuff. Cammell's _Aleister Crowley, The Man: The Mage: The Poet_ is good for a contemporary's view of Crowley --- especially as Cammell didn't like any of the Magick or Thelema aspects but liked the man. Stephensen&Regardie's _The Legend of Aleister Crowley_ is worth a read. Howe's _The Magicians of the Golden Dawn_ has some background, a bit anti- in places. Colquhoun's _Sword of Wisdom_ has some valuable side material, but her checking of sources on individuals who were members of various organizations is slip-shod. I would tend to say forget Francis King, but despite the raving BS all over his books, there are some useful leads here and there --- just use King for clews to follow-up elsewhere and otherwise consider him to be a remarkably inaccurate heir to A.E.Waite. There are various personal reminiscences and items of history in the old O.T.O. Newsletter and the current Thelema Lodge Calendar --- starting to appear in the Pagan Library, with more on the way. 93 93/93 Bill Heidrick
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