Is it dangerous to study Aleister Crowley?
Aleister Crowley was by no means perfect. He was not good with people and often alienated those who loved him dearest. His bold explorations of human sexuality and drugs (always meticulously recorded and analysed) are fascinating to study, but were never intended to be casually emulated. I have never encountered anyone who new him that did not disapprove of some aspect of his character or behaviour.
But he is dead. For us, only his works remain as a measure of the man and they are currently more accesible to the general public than at any time during his life. His influence on the modern world of art, literature, religion, and philosophy is now widely acknowledged even by his most vehement critics.
But is it dangerous for some people to study Aleister Crowley? I guess I have to say yes. For those whose belief in a God of goodness hinges upon the reality of a devil who is equally evil; for the superstitious, the ignorant, the lazy, the immature, the unbalanced, the mentally ill, the paranoid, the fainthearted; for anyone who for any reason cannot or will not take responsibility for their own actions, their own lives, their own souls; for these people Aleister Crowley is still a dangerous man.