[illuminati boy]

Double entendre, hermetic code, humorous ‘in’ jokes, large lexicon, pure bullshit, and some really no bullshit practical experiments… classic Crowley all. I neither idealize nor revile the individual… but he was a very clever chap and I have certainly read works by him. He is to be read much like the old alchemical texts of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. On one level, everything is practical instructions; on another it is all about sexual intercourse; and on yet another it is all about purification of the spiritual dross. It is too bad that most of the persons who read Crowley don’t follow his actual initial admonitions. Originally he required his students to first become ambidextrous and then to have taken and relatively mastered one analytic discipline (chemistry, math, logic, philosophy, etc.). If someone who is knowledgeable in some of the European Hermetic Tradition, with a fairly good bullshit detector reads his works; they will find them both intriguing and entertaining. If an undereducated wannabe tries to take any work by Crowley at face value, they will likely damage themselves in the process and mistake the resulting iron pyrite for treasure. BTW the ambiguous individual that Nagognog2 mentions may actually have gotten something useful from Crowley… ah but what do I know…

I B

PS Robert Anton Wilson reports having done a number of Crowley / HOGD rituals while under the effects of LSD.

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