Crowley in popular culture

Rosanne said:

Yes, that is what I want and could not find the words. I want Tarot used, especially by those who float on the surface of life like oil. In the use of Tarot, you can go as deep or as shallow as you like, but it will awake something at least and you will change.

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hmmmmm, I don't know about that...................
do you really believe that if you managed to sneak a deck of Rider Waites into Paris Hiltons handbag we would see a new and improved Paris Hilton?

I really shudder to think what the nature of such a transformation might entail.........

we may be in dire need of the services of Father Lankester Merrin

trismegistus said:

hmmmmm, I don't know about that...................
do you really believe that if you managed to sneak a deck of Rider Waites into Paris Hiltons handbag we would see a new and improved Paris Hilton?

I really shudder to think what the nature of such a transformation might entail.........

we may be in dire need of the services of Father Lankester Merrin

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Lol. If people like Paris Hilton start useing tarot cards that would just be awful, that just might kill tarot. I guess these things shouldn't enter pop culture or they will get butchered

mr crowley

The world will one day come around to the philosophy of Thelema. It is the natural step that must be taken. One could even go so far as to say that Crowley built the society we live in today. His influence is endless. Only a true prophet of the apocalypse could achieve the kind of impact that Crowley was able to. He certainly was the great beast just like he said he was, as silly as he might have appeared to those who laughed. That Mr. Crowley song was totally ignorant. Ozzy didn't even pronounce it right. But Led Zepplin was cool. By the way Fulgour, I like your icon the mark of the beast. Very Aleister Crowley.

lampkin said:

The world will one day come around to the philosophy of Thelema. It is the natural step that must be taken. One could even go so far as to say that Crowley built the society we live in today. His influence is endless. Only a true prophet of the apocalypse could achieve the kind of impact that Crowley was able to. He certainly was the great beast just like he said he was, as silly as he might have appeared to those who laughed. That Mr. Crowley song was totally ignorant. Ozzy didn't even pronounce it right. But Led Zepplin was cool. By the way Fulgour, I like your icon the mark of the beast. Very Aleister Crowley.

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His influence? I think you give Mr. Crowley too much credit. He has built a reputation, nothing more.

impact

So you say, trismegistus. It only shows that you haven't done a trace of research or meditation on the subject matter at hand. Crowley in fact influenced a broad spectrum of people, who then started their own lines. It's the ones that go supernova that you really have to watch out for. Consider the impact of Scientology, NLP, wicca, Satanism, Jack Parsons, Timothy Leary, the Process, John Lennon, Charles Manson, Mel Lyman, Jimmy Paige, Skinny Puppy, Sting, Hall & Oats, Marilyn Manson, - do I need to keep going? Aleister Crowley might not have been the first and the last, but he was the bottleneck in the middle of the hourglass.

lampkin said:

do I need to keep going?

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please, don't trouble yourself. Mr. Crowley isn't worth so much time and consideration, but this has been a revealing thread nonetheless.

There is no sense in casting judgements upon another man either. A very correct philosophy will stand on its own merits.

trismegistus said:

do you really believe that if you managed to sneak a deck of Rider Waites into Paris Hiltons handbag we would see a new and improved Paris Hilton?

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Well, there's the example of tarot-loving Madonna. No sign of any depth, not once, not ever.

Crowley, I think, was smart, funny, brave, angry and damaged; he hurt others and himself: a knight of wands with an ax to grind. It's one thing to "transgress"--who doesn't?--but the presumption that everyone is so repressed only "thelema" can help, and only the worthy--well, it's the Nietzsche stuff, eh? Fun for a bit; tiresome in large doses.

How do we decide if someone "really' shaped civilization and culture? I don't think it's enough to say LOOK! He's on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper album! I see Crowley as more a product of his time than a shaper of ours, but really it might be an unanswerable question.

Perhaps people are aware of the library of occult books that Crowley workaholically obsessed over during the course of his life. I don't know if maybe AE Waite was a fairly nice guy or if AC was a jerk, but I do know that Waite's stuff can't hold a candle to Crowley's. And that is what really matters.

bit of a rant but someone may enjoy it...

trismegistus said:

please, don't trouble yourself. Mr. Crowley isn't worth so much time and consideration, but this has been a revealing thread nonetheless.

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That's an odd thing to say in a forum dedicated to the man's most prolific work (well, I guess Liber Al is the most prolific, but if Crowley didn't receive that I'm sure someone else would have).

His impact amongst all the various countercultures is widespread. The mystics and yoga buffs have his lectures on asana and pranayama etc, the devotionalists out there have his Gnostic Mass (or is that our Gnostic Mass?). No single person has written so extensively on Magick, the qabalah, or tarot. Regardie tried to paraphrase Crowley and we were left with dense volumes completely lacking the scallywag humour. He epitomised the libertine personae in a time where society was quite dour, where only a few individuals dared to be themselves. This carried on beautifully into the Thoth deck as no other published decks had the correct associations assigned to them (for whatever reasons). Crowley's complete disregard for social convention gave all previous esoteric writers the middle finger, and (along with a few other characters from history) paved the way to the spiritual and social revolution that has been taking place for the past hundred and almost three years.
Now is that a direct or indirect influence? Does it really matter? There are extremely contemporary influences such as the Lonelygirl15 youtube phenomenon, cards popping up on movie posters, people getting tattoos of Lady Harris' Thoth artwork, chapter and verse signifier tattoos from Liber Al.... If you take a closer look its everywhere, these currents are becoming more and more obvious as the New Aeon progresses. Sexuality, drug culture (chapter's one and two of the Book of The Law take on a whole new light if you ever are inclined to absorb it under the influence of MDMA), all it takes is an observant mind and you can literally be taken aback by how far the dude’s influence has spread.