Why Does everyone think Crowley was a Satanist

Goat of Mendes

mac22 said:
I believe he was paid for those Pro German newsletters. Crowley was always in need of funds.
Do you know any newspaper columnists that write for free? :laugh:
 

Debra

Let's face it, he was an ubermensch kind o' guy.

Every collaborator and Germany/Hitler supporter had some story afterwards about how they "really" intended something other than what seemed obvious. Of course.
 

Goat of Mendes

Debra said:
Every collaborator and Germany/Hitler supporter had some story afterwards about how they "really" intended something other than what seemed obvious. Of course.
Erm...... sorry that's the wrong war. :laugh:
 

Debra

Yes, sorry, confused! He had that complex thing going on w/ British Intelligence--or not--in WWII.
 

Goat of Mendes

I think a lot of people make the same mistake. Crowley wrote articles for a pro-German newspaper in the time leading up to America's entry into World War 1. (A stupid war in which no side was "in the right".) Many people automatically assume that Crowley was writing pro-German propagander. But if you actually read the articles he wrote you soon realise how ridiculous that is. The articles are so funny and tongue-in-cheek that they must have been counter productive and made the German cause look stupid in the eyes of the American public. Some of them really are funny like his Letter to Count Zeppelin. :laugh:

Crowley claimed that he was working as a British spy during this time. Is this true? Nobody knows for sure. The German owner of the paper (The Fatherland), George Sylvester Viereck, came to believe that Crowley was a spy and had tried to sell him out.

After America entered the war Crowley claimed that the US Department of Justice recognized his efforts and gave him enough money to settle his debts and buy passage back to England. True or not the money suddenly appeared from somewhere!

In 1918 Crowley was questioned about his war time activities by the Assistant to New York's Attorney General. He was satisfied with Crowley's explanation. Anyone who is interested can check with the FBI by asking for a copy of a "Memorandum for Mr. Hoover, 1 August 1924. FBI document 61-2069-4".

On Crowley's return to England the country was gripped by anti-German hysteria and talk of treason was everywhere. Crowley's activities in America were known to the British government. Was Crowley arrested and questioned on his return? No.
In fact in 1919 Admiral Sir Guy Reginald Archer Gaunt, England's Naval Intelligence attache in Washington, contacted British Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Sir Edward Gray, and Basil Thompson, chief of Scotland Yard's Criminal Investigation Department and head of MI5's Special Branch. Both of these men were told by Gaunt to leave Crowley alone.

Years later during World War 2 Crowley worked with and had friends in both MI5 and MI6. Hardly the occupation for a pro-German spy.

Was Crowley a traitor? Make up your own mind. ;)
 

frelkins

I never said Crowley was a traitor. This whole thread is about C's love of the center stage and how that is perceived. He never saw any incident in which he didn't try to play a controversial starring role.

Nowadays he would have been seen as some kind of extreme performance artist, probably. I mean, that artist Chris Burden had himself nailed to a Volkswagen or something. Right up Crowley's alley.

I have heard a whole bunch of people say that all of Crowley's activities until almost the end were in the aid of being a spy, that the crazy theosophy stuff was completely a cover. I guess the old British secret service often recruited wealthy young gentleman from Oxbridge to the spy work in those days, so definitely that would have been C's milieu.

But if you run around in writing and public calling yourself "the Beast," years later people are going to say, oh, Satanism. The general public isn't good at nuance or detail, you know? And until recently, being openly gay and a junkie weren't positively received. ;) Nobody reads the pro-German stuff, they just hear he was pro-German.

If you like Crowley, great! Whatever works for you. But the man courted controversy and shock his entire life. So why is anyone surprised at his reputation?
 

Goat of Mendes

frelkins said:
Nobody reads the pro-German stuff, they just hear he was pro-German.
Not quite. Usually a funny little quirk of the human mind takes over. The word German somehow transforms into Nazi. It's odd how often that happens when Crowley is involved. ;)
frelkins said:
But the man courted controversy and shock his entire life. So why is anyone surprised at his reputation?
Of course Crowley courted controversy during his life. He loved to shock and play centre stage. But you can only shock the shockable and gull the gullible, and the surprise (or maybe no surprise) is that it still works to this day.

Why do so many people think Crowley was an evil Satanist? Mostly because the vast majority of people, whether they admit it or not, still secretly fear a supernatural bogey man call the Devil. It's this silly superstition and it's vice-like hold over peoples minds that causes people to get stuck on Crowley's supposedly evil reputation as a Satanist. Why else would you hear people constanlty saying that they fear the Thoth Tarot and the black shadow of Aleister Crowley that hangs over it like some sort of evil vapour. It's hilarious. :laugh:

I see Crowley's reputation as a kind of litmus test. If you can't see past the stage show antics you won't get anything out of Crowley or his writings at all.
 

Debra

Hmm. A point of disagreement here. I don't believe in the devil but I do believe that there are better and worse ways of living and Crowley's way was toward the "worse" side, deliberately so. It's the cruelty and fascination with pain and power that's at issue.
 

Goat of Mendes

Would you care to provide us with a few factual examples?
 

Debra

Actually, it makes me unhappy just to think about it so I'll leave this discussion to others, but I read with interest.