Was Aleister Crowley really as bad as depicted?

Aeon418

The original or the new one ? And anyway - having read it before, you could skip.
The new edition. The last time I read the original was quite a few years ago, so I doubt I could have skipped ahead even if I had wanted to. I still recognised large portions of the book, but the new material made it 'feel' quite different.
 

Zezina

*still stuck in the Perdurabo swamp*

Just for the record, I started last July and I'm now on page 322 out of over 600. Please tell me I'm over halfway through. (have you overtaken me yet gregory?). I read Sutin in just over a couple of weeks last year. The worst thing is the guilt at not being able to just get it finished and feel "enlightened" but that day feels a long way off.

With Perdurabo, I get the sensation that the question would not be "was Aleister Crowley really as bed as depicted?" But rather, "was Aleister Crowley really as dull as depicted?" This books feels like a rambling account of all the people he met and it's hard to isolate the gems of the man and his thinking.

I'm so tempted to just skip ahead and read the Thoth deck chapters...

Ouch! And I was looking forward to that parcel from Amazon...

*Z*
 

Le Fanu

The original or the new one ? And anyway - having read it before, you could skip.

Leffy - I am on page - just sec - 290 of 596 - so yes you have passed half way ! As shall I, later today :D

And I started after you did !
I'm now on page 332! Progress. This thread has made me go back determined and - you know what? - at last he has met Leah Hirsig, so the pacing should pick up a bit now.

I would say - rough guess but I bet I'm right - of the 600 pages in this book only 200 must be devoted to Crowley.
 

gregory

I'm now on page 332! Progress. This thread has made me go back determined and - you know what? - at last he has met Leah Hirsig, so the pacing should pick up a bit now.

I would say - rough guess but I bet I'm right - of the 600 pages in this book only 200 must be devoted to Crowley.

I'd agree ! I passed 300 last night - would have been more, but the phone rang...
 

Bhavana

Have you ever walked the Milford Track? I haven't, but know some people who have, and I gather it's quite a test of endurance.

I understand that to 'walk the track' takes 4 days and one hikes for 53 miles, even today.

The issue, I think, is that despite that being the only garment she could wear to go tramping, Frieda still went ahead with the adventure.

*Z*

No, I have not - and never heard of the Milford Track until I read your post. I googled it after I made my reply, though.. I agree, that is quite a feat. When I have a skirt on, I can't wait to get home and change into sweats. Can't imagine having to do anything strenuous while wearing one.
 

Zezina

My point about Lady Frieda Harris and the Milford Track was that Frieda was unusually adventurous throughout her life, well beyond her wearing trousers and red henna in her hair when it was really 'not done'. Yesterday I spent several hours with a friend who is also Frieda's grand-daughter, and there's no doubt in my mind that Frieda was highly adventurous.

Frieda's artistic talent had been nurtured by the best training available, at the Slade, and by the time she was 60 and met Crowley, her artistic ability was very well matured.

At a stage of her life when Frieda was free of family concerns, she also had complete financial and actual freedom to explore Projective Synthetic Geometry as fully as possible with two expert tutors in the method while she was painting these images.

I'm told Frieda even visited Germany in the course of creating the Thoth images, to further her skill in of this method of painting. For the record, the Thoth images were painted in gouache, which her grand-daughter, who is also a London-trained artist, so would know, has confirmed to me.

Apparently most of Frieda's first versions of her Thoth Tarot paintings were accepted by Crowley immediately. There were only a relative handful of the images on which they both wrestled for quite some time to achieve results as perfect as they could conceive together.

As Tarot lovers we are very fortunate indeed that the exceptional combination of Frieda's matured artistic talent, and Aleister Crowley's very experienced philosophical genius, along with the dedication and perseverance of them both, has left such an enduring legacy as the Thoth Tarot deck.

*Z*
 

Zezina

My Churton and Kaczynski books on Crowley arrived in the mail today.

I'm astonished at how heavy and large they are! Reading them is going to take me a very long time.

*Z*
 

Zephyros

I'm usually the guilty party when it comes to posting off-topic, but this thread is really going off topic, and even worse, boring, since it has deteriorated into a list of page numbers in books... meh. I'm sure there could be another thread discussing Crowley biographies... or even... how far you are into them...

Yes, I know, I'm that party-pooper nobody likes :)
 

gregory

My apologies. But - that stuff refers ONLY to Perdurabo, and is in a WAY relevant to the BOOK - though not to the topic, as it is damnably hard work to read. I would say that reading that biography, you'd have to come to the conclusion that he was DULL rather than bad, you really would.

But also - as I said way back in the thread, TOTALLY committed to his beliefs in a way that very few are - even when they were deeply inconvenient for him.