Beware Satanic sex-cults and Aleister Crowley!

[greatdane]

Didn't he really encourage his rep?

I researched Crowley and it seemed he ENJOYED his image of being the "wickedest man on earth". So really if people think of him in that way, I think he perpetuated it more than anyone else did. I think he loved his bad boy image because he certainly seemed to encourage it. Not saying that's good, bad or indifferent, but that it appeared he was a man who tried to live up to the ...mystique?

 

[yogiman]

Well, I have to sell my point, and to give it more body I thought it was a good idea also to sell myself.

But instead of pointing arrows at the new age mafia, those arrows are coming to me now. You LUST me!!

 

[ravenest]

Ah ! The law of attraction

Because part of magical development (if that IS what you are interested in) is navigating through 'New Age mafia' ? ( as well as the old age ones ).

No use just bitchin about it ... ya gotta find your solution.

(Mine was to enter the foray and set up a moral and ethical alternative ... there is quiet a bit of it about ... but we aren't famous or make money from it

 

[yogiman]

Why did Crowley replace the king by the knight? Okay, virility. But is it not much easier to sit on your ass like the king, than to fight and be bold?

 

[Zephyros]

Why did Crowley replace the king by the knight? Okay, virility. But is it not much easier to sit on your ass like the king, than to fight and be bold?

He didn't. The misconception about the Courts are the result of a deliberate deceit by Waite, ordering the courts in the PKT King, Queen, Knight Page. However, the correct Golden Dawn ordering was Knight (denoting the movement of Chochma), Queen (Binah), King or Emperor or Prince (Tiphareth) and Princess or Empress or Page (Malkuth). Strictly speaking horse=movement=Knight, throne=sitting still=Prince.

One could say he did change the courts' names as a kind of romanticism, this is explained in the BoT, but I don't think there is any esoteric reason for it other than that.

ETA: It is preferable that you open new threads for each unrelated question, this makes both the moderators' jobs easier, and also helps people use the search function for the information they need. It is also more polite than hijacking unrelated threads.

 

[Zephyros]

I researched Crowley and it seemed he ENJOYED his image of being the "wickedest man on earth". So really if people think of him in that way, I think he perpetuated it more than anyone else did. I think he loved his bad boy image because he certainly seemed to encourage it. Not saying that's good, bad or indifferent, but that it appeared he was a man who tried to live up to the ...mystique?

Good question, greatdane, and it's good seeing you here, you're not a regular writer on the Thoth.

However, I think it is important to answer the question on his own terms. Whether one believes in the revelation of the Book of Law or not, one must keep in mind that he did believe it. He was a man with a mission, not merely any kind of mundane provocateur. As I mentioned before, I think part of the persona was to keep people from misinterpreting it (something that may have backfired) but also, as his mission was to change society, he probably tried to push the envelope as far as he could, and this is no different from others trying to cause social change. Think about it, if such a "horrendous" man could accept the law and gain much from it, completely eschewing modern sensibilities and sensitivities, people like us who live more or less "average" lives could also gain from it. He tried to present a real alternative to the modesty of his, and our, day.

But he was also human, with a sense of humor, and I don't doubt he did in fact enjoy his notoriety.