“This lady…” Ibid., c. 70.
“I made my speech…” Ibid., c. 67.
“I do not consider…” Jacob Epstein, letter to London Times, November 8, 1911.
“I detached the butterfly…” Confessions, c. 67.
“apparently seized…” Ibid., c. 70.
“Here is a book…” Crowley, The Vision and the Voice, p. 301.
“P[erdurabo]: How shall…” Ibid., p. 314.
“The practitioner…” Preston Sturges by Preston Sturges, ed. Sandy Sturges (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), p. 75.
“apart from its supernatural…” Ibid., p. 77.
“Mr. Crowley had…” Ibid.
“[Crowley’s] repugnant…” Ibid., pp. 77–8.
“Frater Perdurabo is…” Crowley, Magick, p. 3.
“It instantly flashed…” Confessions, c. 72.
“My entire life…” Letter, Crowley to J. W. Dunne, n.d., O.T.O. Archives.
“Let the Adept…” Crowley, The Book of Lies (New York: Weiser, 1970), p. 82.
“He explained to Crowley…” Yorke, “666, Sex, and the O.T.O.,” n.d., typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“faith of understanding…” See Shah, The Sufis, pp. 254–6.
“This serpent, Satan…” Crowley, Magick, p. 277, note.
“subsequent 1943 essay” The assertion by John Symonds (The Beast 666, p. 18) that Crowley claimed that H. P. Blavastsky was Jack the Ripper stems from a basic misreading of Crowley’s 1943 essay “Jack the Ripper.” Crowley opens the essay with the humorously ironic remark that “It is hardly one’s first, or even one’s hundredth guess, that the Victorian worthy in the case of Jack the Ripper was no less a person than Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.” But the remainder of the essay focuses on the case for Donston being the Ripper.
“It was sex…” Quoted in Jean Overton Fuller, The Magical Dilemma of Victor Neuburg, p. 46.
“up, up rose…” Anne Estelle Rice, “Memories of Katherine Mansfield,” in Adam 300, ed. Miron Grindea (London: Curwen Press, 1966), p. 78.
“‘The stuff is beginning…” Laver, Museum Piece, pp. 118–9.
“a pretentious and…” Jane Moore, Gurdjieff and Mansfield (London: Routledge Kegan Paul, 1980), p. 18 n. 2.
“Sgt. Pepper album…” According to Hymenaeus Beta, a more youthful photograph of Crowley was rejected by the album designers as it too closely resembled Paul McCartney.
“Works of destruction…” Magick, p. 279.
“Until the Great Work…” Ibid., p. 275.
“In a cafe…” Confessions, c. 73.
The proof of…” Ibid.
“And I rave…” Crowley, “Hymn to Pan,” in Crowley, Selected Poems, pp. 61–62.
“Crowley was a complete…” Gerald Yorke, “666, Sex, and the O.T.O.,” O.T.O. Archives.
“hordes of idiots…” Leslie A. Fiedler, “The Return of James Branch Cabell; or, The Cream of the Cream of the Jest,” in M. T. Inge and E. E. MacDonald, eds. James Branch Cabell: Centennial Essays (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1983), p. 141.
“they made up a ritual…” Jean Overton Fuller, The Magical Dilemma of Victor Neuburg, p. 193.
“Jungitur in vati…” Crowley, The Vision and the Voice, p. 406.
“the Temple grew…” Ibid., p. 354.
“Every drop of semen…” Ibid., p. 362.
“‘What fools to bother…” Ibid., pp. 364–5.
“An holy act…” Ibid., p. 365 n. 1.
“Far be it…” Crowley, Magick, pp. 179–80.
“that the essence…” Crowley, The Vision and the Voice, p. 380.
“This is the great idea…” Ibid., pp. 385–6.
“I am always unlucky…” Ibid., p. 388.
“The association with…” Victor E. Neuburg, Vickybird: A Memoir of Victor B. Neuburg by his son (London: The Polytechnic of North London, 1983), p. 5.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“a turgid bit…” William Brevda, Harry Kemp: The Last Bohemian (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1986), p. 94.
“rubbish” Confessions, c. 77.
“Frankly, his ‘magic’…” Alan Himber, The Letters of John Quinn to William Butler Yeats (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1983), letter of February 25, 1915, p. 148.
“awful slip…” Ezra Pound, letter to Margaret Anderson, editor of The Little Review, November 17, 1917, in The Little Review Correspondence, ed. T. L. Scott, M. Friedman and J. R. Bryer (New York: New Directions, 1988), p. 154.
“surrounded by…” H. L. Mencken, My Life as Author and Editor (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993), p. 119.
“For example, one…” Crowley, The Revival of Magick, pp. 36–7.
“It is rare…” Gerald Yorke, notes c. 1965 re: manuscript of Israel Regardie’s study of Crowley, The Eye of the Triangle (1970), O.T.O. Archives.
“Many a lover…” Crowley, Not the Life and Adventures of Sir Roger Bloxam, in The Magical Link VII(2) (1993), p. 3. The work was part-serialized in The Magical Link IV(3)–VII(4), 1990–4.
“The homosexual is…” Confessions, c. 76.
“(on the whole)…” Ibid.
“I am English…” Ibid.
“small-time traitor” Symonds, The Beast 666, p. 210.
“During the time…” Everard Feilding, letter to Gerald Yorke, May 1, 1929, O.T.O. Archives.
“I was not…” Confessions, c. 76.
“admitted that…” “Memorandum for Mr. Hoover,” Department of Justice, Bureau of Investigation, Washington, D.C., August 1, 1924, O.T.O. Archives. See also, letter, Acting Director to E. J. Brennan, August 1, 1924, in which it is stated that there was “nothing in the Bureau files indicating that any information was furnished to the [Justice] Department, by CROWLEY during the war, or at any time subsequent thereto [ … ]” Both documents were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
“philosophical basis…” Crowley, letter to George Sylvester Viereck, July 31, 1936, O.T.O. Archives.
“In the ancient…” Confessions, c. 81.
“I had unusually…” Ibid.
“Mentally, I woke…” Ibid.
“to make his every…” Ibid.
“kind enough…” Ibid., c. 77.
“I persuaded Dreiser…” Louis Marlow [pseud. Louis Wilkinson], Seven Friends (London: The Richards Press, 1953), pp. 57–8.
“And let every woman…” Crowley, “The Whole Duty of Woman,” in Magical Link (Vol. 9, No. 3, 1996).
“sending her husband…” J. B. Yeats, letter to John Quinn, March 16, 1916, O.T.O. Archives.
“I have not been…” Crowley, The Magical Record of the Beast 666 eds. John Symonds and Kenneth Grant (London: Duckworth, 1972), p. 137.
“This Operation is…” Ibid., p. 35.
“German prostitute” Confessions, c. 77.
“The [ethyl oxide]…” Crowley, “Ethyl Oxide,” in Magical Link, (Vol. 1, No. 9, 1987/88).
“I lost consciousness…” Confessions, c. 82.
“But why should…” Crowley, The Gospel According to St. Bernard Shaw (Barstow, CA: Thelema Publishing Company, 1953), pp. 114–5.
“The entire symbolism…” Ibid., pp. 214–5.
“There is nothing…” Crowley, 1916 Diary, typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“Night being fallen…” Ibid.
“Hope died in…” Confessions, c. 84.
“I found myself…” Ibid.
“Had news of…” Crowley, May 6, 1917, diary entry, 1917 Diary, typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“There is much exaggeration…” Gerald Yorke, notes c. 1965 re: manuscript of Regardie, The Eye of the Triangle, O.T.O. Archives.
“She was a Pennsylvania Dutch…” Confessions, c. 78.
“such a journey…” Ibid., c. 84.
“a near artist…” Ibid., c. 78.
“I now do…” Crowley, 1918 Diary, typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“I asked who…” Crowley, “The Amalantrah Working,” typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“Do thou study…” Crowley, Liber Aleph vel CXI. The Book of Wisdom or Folly rev. 2nd edition edited with “Prolegomenon” by Hymenaeus Beta (New York: 93 Publishing, 1991), p. 2.
“The ‘provisions’ looked…” William Seabrook, Witchcraft (London: Sphere Books, 1970), pp. 195–6.
“On both the east…” Confessions, c. 79.
“I refuse to assert…” Ibid., c. 86.
“The incarnation before…” Crowley, “The Hermit of Oesopus Island,” title for a series of diary entries made in late August and early September 1918, 1918 Diary, typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“very black-magical…” Ibid.
“My vices were…” Ibid.
“I was really more…” Ibid.
“to bring oriental wisdom…” Confessions, c. 86.
“present at a Council…” Ibid.
“a codex of…” Crowley, Tao Teh King ed. with “Introduction” by Stephen Skinner (London: Askin Publishers, 1976), p. 20.
“Now I ask you…” Charles Robert Stansfeld Jones, letter to Gerald Yorke, June 18, 1948, O.T.O. Archives.
“In a single instant…” Confessions, c. 86.
“Ahead of us…” Seabrook, Witchcraft, pp. 197–198.
“Crowley was sparing…” Crowley, Liber Aleph, p. xxii.
“The ‘little sister’…” Confessions, c. 80.
“While we talked…” Ibid.
“(She swears I…” Ibid.
“I was seized with…” Ibid.
“It is luxuriously fitted…” New York Evening World, February 26, 1919.
“Attainment is Insanity.” Crowley, Magical Record, p. 86.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“the war which…” John Bull, January 10, 1920.
“Traversed Rock…” Crowley, Magical Record, p. 105.
“The general idea…” Crowley, untitled brochure on Cefalù paintings, c. 1922, O.T.O. Archives.
“Four degenerates…” Ibid. The other titles and comments by Crowley are also from this brochure.
“is to pass students…” Ibid.
“Those who have come…” Ibid.
“When first I found…” Crowley, Magical Record, pp. 251–2.
“She is to direct…” Ibid., p. 230.
“a frightful ordeal…” Ibid.
“She discovered the…” Ibid., p. 234.
“my secret is not…” Ibid., p. 235.
“Then I obeyed…” Ibid.
“I have been howling…” Ibid., p. 110.
“utterly appalled at…” Ibid., p. 289.
“mystery of filth” Phyllis Seckler In the Continuum, O.T.O. Archives, pp. 35–36.
“Thou strivest ever…” Crowley, The Holy Books of Thelema, p. 56.
“He [Crowley] answered…” C. F. Russell, Znuz is Znees: Memoirs of a Magician vol. 1, 2nd edition (Privately printed: 1970), p. 29.
“to establish the Book…” “The Book of the Cephaloedium Working” in Crowley, The Fish ed. Anthony Naylor (Thame, UK: Mandrake Press, 1992), p. 118.
“He [Russell] wants…” Crowley, Magical Record, pp. 295–6.
“Now I’ll shave…” Crowley, 1921 Diary, typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“On the wall…” Russell, Znuz is Znees, p. 155.
“You see, Crowley…” Ibid., p. 131.
“I could have made…” Confessions, c. 90.
“I am by insight…” Crowley, 1921 Diary, typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“Your friendship stands out…” Crowley, undated 1921 letter to Fuller, O.T.O. Archives.
“‘Do what you like…” Capt. M. E. Townshend, letter to Fuller, April 17, 1921, O.T.O. Archives.
“You have quite…” Townshend, letter to Fuller, April 28, 1921, O.T.O. Archives.
“The ceremony of…” Crowley, June 30, 1921, diary entry, 1921 Diary, typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“a goat’s turd…” Symonds, The Beast 666, p. 287, n. 1.
“Butts’s diary…” Consider, for example, the following entry by Butts, dated August 21, 1921, in A Sacred Quest: The Life and Writings of Mary Butts ed. Christopher Wagstaff (McPherson: Kingston, NY, 1995), p. 130: “Part of the trouble here is a complex about complexes, i.e., our artificial inhibitions are cleared up, certain things will remain good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant. This is not realised, yet the silly people imply it all to him [Aleister Crowley]—when it suits them. It is right to promulgate his law. It is wrong to criticise it—if you do, you have a complex. C[ecil]. M[aitland]. said last night: they are making a sacrifice of personality to personality. He said that it makes A[leister] C[rowley] tragic because he is a kind, wise, honorable man crucified by his belief in his own teaching.”
“drinking thereof from…” Crowley, July 29, 1921 diary entry, 1921, Diary, typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“‘What shall I do…” Quoted in Symonds, The Great Beast, p. 299.
“and just as we…” Confessions, c. 90.
“I, The Beast 666…” Crowley, Liber Tzaba vel Nike (The Fountain of Hyacinth), in The Magical Link (Vol. 1, No. 8, 1987).
“[M]y memory is quite…” Ibid.
“Mine inmost identity…” Ibid.
“where I can direct…” Ibid.
“Lea[h] is a violent…” Ibid.
“became a nursery…” Yorke, letter to Barrucand, December 23, 1956, O.T.O. Archives.
“Nothing Doing.” Fuller, note to Crowley, May 13, 1922, O.T.O. Archives.
“was not part…” Virginia Berridge and Griffith Edwards, Opium and the People: Opiate Use in Nineteenth Century England (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981), p. 268.
“stationery printed up…” Martin P. Starr, “Introduction” to Crowley, Amrita: Essays in Magical Rejuvenation ed. Martin P. Starr (Kings Beach, CA: Thelema Publications, 1990), p. xiv.
“I attempted to produce…” Crowley [pseud. as given in title], “The Great Drug Delusion” (“By a New York Specialist”), in The English Review, June 1922.
“I would write…” Confessions, c. 92.
“partly a wish-phantasm…” This note by Crowley was transcribed by Gerald Yorke into a copy of Drug Fiend that forms part of the Yorke Collection, Warburg Institute, University of London. It is one of several notes by Crowley not included in the published annotated edition of Drug Fiend (London: Sphere Books, 1972).
“Mr. Crowley has not…” Book review, The Times Literary Supplement, November 16, 1922.
“Although there is…” James Douglas, “A Book for Burning,” London Sunday Express, November 19, 1922.
“covered with dust…” Betty May, Tiger-Woman (London: Duckworth, 1929), p. 134.
“This was the man…” Confessions, c. 94.
“I spoke exactly…” Betty May, Tiger-Woman, pp. 169–70.
“The Mystic held up…” Ibid., p. 182.
“it has left me…” Loveday, letter to his mother, February 11, 1923, O.T.O. Archives.
“He is laying down…” May, note to Loveday letter of February 11, 1923, O.T.O. Archives.
“I had not been reading…” May, Tiger-Woman, pp. 186–187.
“I tried to soothe…” Confessions, c. 96.
“Both Raoul and Alostrael…” Ibid.
Raoul developed…” Ibid.
“was as fair as…” Ibid.
“Rome was wild…” Ibid., c. 95.
CHAPTER NINE
“It is the beginning…” Crowley, May 12, 1923, diary entry, in Crowley, The Magical Diaries of Aleister Crowley (Jersey, UK: Neville Spearman, 1979), p. 16.
“a mere shadow…” Ibid., p. 20.
“Here is another…” Ibid.
“Suicide should not…” Ibid.
“I got the intimation…” Ibid., pp. 45–6.
“Nobody before Aleister Crowley…” Ibid., pp. 56–7. Skinner’s observation on this quote is contained in his editorial footnote thereto.
“I have always been…” Crowley, letter to Mudd, June 13,
1923, O.T.O. Archives.
“attitude of possession…” Norman Mudd, diary entry in “Retirement Diary of O.P.V.,” September 23, 1923, with subsequent response by Crowley, typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“an ordeal of utter…” Ibid. (The date of this diary entry by Mudd is not specified.)
“If they could get me…” Crowley, Magical Diaries, p. 46.
“I am always thinking…” Ibid., p. 78.
“I am a Sun…” Crowley, Magical and Philosophical Commentaries, p. 307.
“Gurdjieff, their prophet…” Crowley, February 10, 1924, diary entry, 1924 Diary, typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“Crowley arrived for…” James Webb, The Harmonious Circle: The Lives and Work of G.I. Gurdjieff, P.D. Ouspensky, and Their Followers (Boston: Shambhala, 1987), p. 315.
“Beast lay ill…” Leah Hirsig, letter to Frank Bennett, April 14, 1924, O.T.O. Archives.
“rasping voice so…” Hirsig June 8, 1924, entry in diary entitled Alostrael’s Visions, typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“Invaded 207…” Crowley, September 22, 1924, diary entry, 1924 Diary, typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“I have got the girl…” Crowley. November 1924 diary entry (no specific date), 1924 Diary, typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“A word to Dorothy…” Hirsig, September 26, 1924, entry in diary entitled The Magical Diary of Babalon, typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“A Thelemite doesn’t need…” Ibid.
“That was my only…” Ibid., October 5, 1924, entry.
“Parsifal used his lance…” Ibid.
“a man who does not…” Ibid., October 10, 1924, entry.
“At night went into…” Quoted in Hymenaeus Beta, “Editor’s Introduction” to Crowley, The Heart of the Master (Scottsdale, AZ: New Falcon Publications, 1992), p. xiv.
“I am still alive…” Dorothy Olsen, March 1925 letter to Norman Mudd, O.T.O. Archives.
“A single drink…” Crowley, April 24, 1925, diary entry, 1925 Diary, typescript, O.T.O. Archives.
“Reuss discovered the…” Tau Apiryon and Soror Helena, Mystery of Mystery: A Primer of Thelemic Ecclesiastical Gnosticism, published as issue No. 2 of Red Flame: A Thelemic Research Journal, (Berkeley: Pangenetor Lodge O.T.O., 1995), p. 220.
“physical satisfaction…” Karl Germer, letter to Crowley, June 2, 1929, O.T.O. Archives. I am grateful to Keith Richmond, who first provided me with copies of the 1927–30 Germer letters to Crowley.
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