What do you think of Aleister Crowley?

[buzzcock]

I've never really gotton into ritual magick type stuff (and I've always stayed away from any dark themed stuff) but I got into reading an internet scanned version of his "Magick Without Tears" and quite enjoyed it. I like his olden-day British humor and he goes into a lot of interesting topics like astral projection, manifesting, yoga etc. It's hard to get facts about how evil he really was, with his and other's stories about his life being possibly fictional - IE, he tells a story about killing a cat when he was a boy which seems to me to be written for shock value and not really factual (At least I hope not) and I don't really know how abusive he really was to his followers/family. To be honest I'm just enjoying reading the book and his sense of humour. I don't want to fall down a rabbit hole of being interested in him if it's not right for me (or not right for anyone who wants to avoid negative energy).

I know Robert talks about Kraig (?)'s modern magick in his Self Defense book, which surprised me as I thought he was part of that whole occult genre and the kind of thing the book was about avoiding. I'm unsure now about magick, good and bad/unsafe magick? How Robert or you people here would discern the two? I know Robert and some here read Franz Bardon who I believe is seen as having a more moral/right path than Crowley or his "lineage"?

thanks everyone.

[buzzcock]

I've just found this thread while searching here. this has a lot of stuff for me to read. https://www.astraldynamics.com.au/showthread.php?2344-has-anyone-heard-of-Aleister-Crowley-the-Golden-Dawn/page3&highlight=crowley

[CFTraveler]

That thread took me to a trip down memory lane. Thanks for bringing it up.

[olyris]

Two things in this -
1. will needs light (a pillar) 2. light is sound (the fortune)

Is magic scary at all if the focus is on affluence? Well... tragedy is written all over royal family's - s'just don't have too many winning ideas (or spells) at once. Circumspect if you figure.

[Antares]

I also have never gotten into ritual magick after all, though I was and am interested in magic - but rather I'm searching for its roots, where they came from etc., particularly the extraterrestial sources rather than human-based. I'm also far from anything like XX-th century occultism, wicca movement etc.

However, I several times stumbled upon groups involved in such a stuff, never got involved and interested myself, though. My opinion on A. Crowley is that he was a very inventive, visionary person, a leader who created some new ideas and perceived most of the occult movements he was involved in at those times as "poor", for the reason. But his life wasn't perfect, and having not that much guidance as we have nowadays, he seemed to lost his way.

Certain extraordinary Crowley's experiences had a big impact on his life and viewpoints, particularly his travel to Egypt. He had a contact with different non-material beings and channelled stuff, including his tarot deck. But in time it turned out the channeled stuff wasn't easy to grasp and understand, the most famous of which is this verse:


Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law

Which has been interpreted and misinterpreted many times.