Is Aleister Crowley an Evil Man?

chriske

Chuffed

Thanks ravenest. I was really chuffed that I got such a good response.

I reflected today on my own reasons for taking an interest in AC. I even read your list of reasons from the experience of your group, to try and find where I fitted in! Seriously, it was very enlightening.
 

sacredashes

Aeon418 said:
One big difference.... Crowley never pretended to be whiter-than-white. He exposed all his faults.

People who cling to the myth of "perfect" gurus or spiritual masters need to grow up. Perfect gurus don't exist. Get over it. Crowley was honest about his failings, and for that he is branded "evil". Other gurus remain silent about their private lives in order to maintain their squeeky clean image. It makes the con trick a lot easier, you see. :laugh:

Better the devil you know than the devil you don't. ;)

And that's what I actually like about the guy. He made no pretenses about how he lived his life.. maybe he did.. maybe he down-played everything so as not to shock people with the stuff he didn't tell them about... LOL
 

Always Wondering

I'm glad (grateful) Crowley embraced his dark side. Made me feel less alone when I discovered mine. The Thoth tarot was a great comfort to me when nobody else wanted to talk about that icky, scary, shadowy, stuff. It kept me from making some awful (destructive) choices. I was not at all surprised to read later that he called himself the beast, because I had met mine.

}) AW
 

sacredashes

Always Wondering said:
I'm glad (grateful) Crowley embraced his dark side. Made me feel less alone when I discovered mine. The Thoth tarot was a great comfort to me when nobody else wanted to talk about that icky, scary, shadowy, stuff. It kept me from making some awful (destructive) choices. I was not at all surprised to read later that he called himself the beast, because I had met mine.

}) AW

}) I know what you mean. I met my beastie too and she ain't all that pretty!!
... well, see? The guy did do something good afterall.. :laugh:

For the record though, I have no business being here making comments.. I don't use the Thoth myself; too geometrical for me (I have a borderline-neurotic dislike for anything resembling Maths) but I do love the Queen of Pentacles in this deck.


Ash
 

Aeon418

sacredashes said:
And that's what I actually like about the guy. He made no pretenses about how he lived his life.. maybe he did.. maybe he down-played everything so as not to shock people with the stuff he didn't tell them about... LOL
I'm sure there's a private letter (I can't find it now :rolleyes:) where Crowley expresses a bit of regret late in life. He feared that his eccentric, over-the-top life might detract from his teachings. And that's certainly what seems to happen when most people encounter Crowley. They become obsessed about how he lived his life, and don't bother to look any further.

Unfortunately that really does miss the point altogether. Crowley's teachings revolve around actual experience of, and extensive work with, spiritual practices. He was absolutely convinced that spiritual experience was only to be gained through working with various spiritual disciplines and personal effort. Following religious moral codes, behaving in certain ways, eating certain foods, dressing in certain ways, was (and is) an irrelavancy. And yet so many people seem to have this strange notion in thier minds that a "spiritual person" must behave in certain ways and follow certain codes of conduct. And when Crowley doesn't fit in their narrow little box labeled "spiritual person", they become hysterical and begin trotting out phrases like evil, demonic, satanist, etc., etc. :rolleyes:
 

Aeon418

Lillie said:
Gardener stole them from Crowley.

It's all the same, isn't it?
Not to the Wiccan's. :laugh:
 

Lillie

What?

The wiccans would rather Crowley wrote them than Gardener nicked them from Crowley???

It's a weird world....
 

Aeon418

Wiccan's would rather believe that Crowley had nothing to do with their rituals. ;) If you mention Crowley in Wiccan circles you will probably end up with an athame stuck in your back. :laugh:
 

Lillie

Well, Crowley having nothing to do with Gardeners rituals is option C....
Does anyone believe it?

And if anyone stuck an athame in me I'd beat them to death with the wet end of their own arm.