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#1
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It's based on Crowley's own experiences. He was an early pioneer whith using drugs to explore new areas of consciousness. He experimented with mescaline, hashish, cocaine. heroin, and ether. He invented a system of 'magick' where the 'k' signified sex magic-- or a form of tantra. He esperimented with yoga, varoius forms of Eastern mysticism as well as the Western tradition of magic, through the Golden Dawn. He wrote many books about the Kaballah amd magick. He condsidered himself as the prophet of a new post-Christian aeon. He received "The Book of the Law" (Liber AL) in a ceremony in Egypt, form an entity maned Aiwas, which he believed contained the secrets of the new aeon. He still has many followers. He was also an able mountaineer, making an early (unsucessful) attempt on K2.
A fomous line is: Quote:
He did die impoverished in Hastings. His last meal was a boiled egg and a shot of heroin. His True Will never really did triumph over his addictions. |
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#3
By
illuminati boy
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Whatever else Crowley was, he was keenly aware of the historic role that psychoactive compounds played in religious rites:
Quote:
Aleister Crowley 'The Law is for All' I B |
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#4
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![]() "The Wickedest Man in the World" Quote:
I met someone who claimed to have repeated all of his experiments (which I don't believe)-- he took a lot of librium! |
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Last edited by enquirewithin; 01-05-2006 at 04:58..
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#6
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Quote:
On the original subject of this thread, I think 'Diary of a Drug Fiend' is a very poorly written book (roughly following his early exploits), that does little to capture the imagination of the reader (all personal opinion of course). I think that 'The Strategem and other stories' is a far better piece of work by the man (from a purely entertaining read point of view). |
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#7
By
Alfa
on
01-05-2006, 22:52
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Quote:
The man did some brutal drug experiments, which I am not going to totally describe here to prevent nutcases to repeat them. He burned a certain very toxic substance, to fill the room with smoke until demons strated to form in the smoke. Pretty sensational to read, but I'll pass as far as trying it. |
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Last edited by Alfa; 01-05-2006 at 22:57..
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#8
By
illuminati boy
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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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#9
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Quote:
Robert Anton Wilson does mention perfoming a magickal experiment under LSD in Cosmic Trigger II. I can't remeber the details now.RAW is a great admirer of Crowley but also said that, like all heads of occult orders, he was an asshole. |
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Last edited by enquirewithin; 04-05-2006 at 12:27..
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#10
By
Alfa
on
03-05-2006, 13:15
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His writings seem to vary a lot trough time. There are several drug related poems & writings in various editions of The Equinox. It isn't always clear which poems are written by Crowley. In many of his writings he is very good at setting an atmosphere, which is essential for his magick. But in his Diary of a drug friend, this is almost absent.
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#11
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Quote:
Quote:
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#12
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Whatever you think about his personality or his writing style, Crowley was a pioneer in consciousness changing and his escapades are great fun to read about.
Quote:
The problem with authorship of some of the works is that many are called Liber XXX, Fra A.'. A.'. (who is Crowley, I think). They were all called Fra (Brother) something or other, their magickal names. Crowley had many names, corresponding to his level of initiation (mainly made up by himself!). Alfa is right about the atmosphere (set and setting) he created. (Diary of a Drug Fiend is not one of his best books.) Jack Parsons, who was also later associated with L. Ron Hubbard, wrote: Quote:
There is "The Psychology of Hashish" from Volume 2, for example. |
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#13
By
Alfa
on
04-05-2006, 13:24
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I really like this part of the internet. 10 years ago you had to search for occult bookshops troughout the nation to find special books like this and pay your last savings to get the rare ones. Now much is online.
Check this wealth of OTO (Ordo Templi Orientis) texts out: http://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/ BTW, Liber simply means book or writing. Fra is short for Frater. Here is a sample text of Diary of a drug fiend: http://www.bambinidisatana.com/pdf/drugfiendsample.pdf |
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Last edited by Alfa; 16-05-2006 at 02:02..
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#14
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Quote:
Quote:
I suppose that most of this was lost. Searching for Crowley's work on drugs, I can't find as much as I had hoped. Absinthe:The Green Goddess is online, as is his translation of Baudelaire's The Poem of Hashish. You can see the cover of a pamhlet about Cocaine. There are his thoughts about opium from his Confessions. "Liber CMXXXIV. The Cactus." Quote:
There is an outline of articles he intended to write but never did. I am not sure of the veracity of this article but it could easily have been written by him: Quote:
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Last edited by enquirewithin; 06-05-2006 at 18:05..
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#16
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Quote:
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#17
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OK Benga now I understand. I just checked wikipedia and it says that now he recycled himself as a leading tarot expert. I quite liked his movies though.
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