Aleister Crowley in America

by Tobias Churton

  The “stupid stories” could refer to anything from jealousy over his relations with other women—Helen Hollis or Bertha Bruce—to stories of wickedness and espionage.

  It is poignant that the man who remembered seeing Crowley mount the gangplank of the Lapland, bound for England in December 1919, was Hereward Carrington, an introduction to whom Everard Feilding had given Crowley before his departure for New York in October 1914, more than five hard years before. In later days, Carrington would remember introducing Crowley to Leah Hirsig, whom he described as “an extreme nymphomaniac,” as well as participating in magical ceremonies with Crowley and Seabrook.

  Carrington considered Crowley’s mission for Thelema in America a failure, something for which the Beast was largely responsible. At the time, Crowley’s riposte, delivered when boarding the ship that would take him from America forever was, “Well, what can you expect of a country that accepts Ella Wheeler Wilcox as its greatest poet!”9 Five years later, Crowley accepted his failure. “I was simply too young, ignorant, and bigoted to make any impression on the United States.”10

  Before becoming head of the Bureau of Investigation’s new General Intelligence Division in August 1919, J. Edgar Hoover (1895–1972) had run the Department of Justice’s Alien Enemy Bureau, charged with arresting and jailing disloyal foreigners. Hoover’s new role in the General Intelligence Division, known as the “Radical Division,” specialized in arrest, punishment, jailing, and deportation of those whose political views were deemed dangerous by the bureau. This was the time of the first “Red Scares,” and targets included Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and Marcus Garvey, among many other communists and black militants. On Friday night, January 2, 1920, B.I. agents with local police assistance arrested ten thousand alleged “members” of the Communist and Communist Labor Parties in raids across the United States. Many were arrested for having attended quite lawful political gatherings that Hoover and his colleagues considered subversive.11

  Five days after the raids, on January 7, 1920, F. E. Haynes at Washington’s Department of Justice composed a “Memorandum” for “Mr. Hoover” on “Aleister St. Edward Crowley.”12 Its contents were exclusively drawn from the letter Freemason Joseph Norwood sent to the department in June 1919 (see here), which accused Crowley of radicalism and included a quote from Crowley claiming employment by the Secret Service, and, above all, the memorandum was composed from material collected by agent Frank X. O’Donnell in July and October that year, including Crowley’s two examinations by the New York State attorney general in July and October, 1918, revealed in chapter 34.

  The new “Memorandum” for Hoover placed emphasis on Crowley’s relationship with Theodor Reuss, who “left England with the German Ambassador on England’s entrance into the European War.”13 Its three pages conclude with a statement from “the British Military Intelligence on July 8, 1919,” regarding Crowley’s Statue of Liberty stunt, where Crowley is reported to have claimed that he would “fight to the last drop of his blood for Ireland.” As O’Donnell described this source, it is likely it came out of the British War Mission, either in Washington or, most likely, New York, and that a skeptical Frederick Hall had a hand in it somewhere (see here). In the context of the other snippets, “Mr. Hoover” could hardly reach any conclusion but that Crowley was very likely a radical, certainly worthy of suspicion. The only caveat was that Crowley “explained his alleged connections with the British Secret Service by stating that he had attempted to join the service but never succeeded in obtaining an official position with them. He states throughout his communications for a position he dealt with Commodore Gaunt of the British Intelligence Office. (O’Donnell—July 19, 1919).”14

  Three weeks later, on January 30, 1920, W. L. Hurley who worked in the office of the Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, wrote to Frank Burke at the Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. (Burke had been instrumental in the busting of Dr. Albert and his subversion of the American press in summer, 1915; see here). Well up on his subject, Burke had just written the Bureau of Investigation’s “Outline for the Interrogation of Radical Aliens and Instructions for Its Use,” which included helpful guidance to interrogators, such as “Do not frame the questions in such a way as to suggest untruthful answers. For example, do not say at first ‘Are you a member of the Communist Party?, etc.’ but rather ‘When did you join the Communist Party?’ or ‘What did you do with your membership card?’”15—wherein we see the genesis of language employed in the notorious McCarthy “Un-American Activities” investigations of the 1940s and early 1950s. Hurley’s letter to Burke reads as follows:

  Dear Mr. Burke,

  It is my understanding that Alastarr [sic] Crowley, known to you as a pro-German propagandist and Irish agitator has the intention of returning to England. I have been informed that the British authorities have conveyed to Crowley an intimation that if he returns to England, his reception will be rather more warm than cordial and that it would probably be safer for him to remain on this side for the present. In view of the British attitude, you may wish to keep an eye on Crowley.

  Very truly yours,

  W.L. Hurley16

  In fact, the Beast had arrived at Plymouth, England, on December 21, 1919, a pilgrim returned. The Bureau of Investigation thought he was still in America. And in a sense, he was.

  THIRTY-SIX

  Legacy

  Orson Welles used to allege that at his father, Richard Head Welles’s, funeral at Kenosha, Wisconsin, in December 1930, Orson’s grandmother, Christian Scientist Mary Head Wells Gottfredsen, inserted portions “of a highly questionable character” from the “infamous writings of Aleister Crowley” into the service.1 While the allegation was very likely mischievous, it demonstrates two things. First, that Crowley’s works had been disseminated widely in America in certain circles by the late 1920s, and second, that for Orson to paint his loathed grandmother as a witch, or “black magician,” only required suggesting the influence of “the evil works of the diabolist Aleister Crowley.”2

  Kenosha is only about 50 miles due north of Chicago, where C. S. Jones and C. F. Russell actively promoted Crowley’s works after the two Thelemites went sour on Detroit toward the end of 1919 and early 1920 amid ill-will from Detroit’s Scottish Rite Masons.

  Crowley’s works spread as much through hostile reaction to them as by active promotion. It will be noted too that especially after the Detroit debacle, which reached the local press in 1922, Crowley’s work was practically always associated with words like cult, with all the shadows of secret society corruption thrown in, its supposed anti-Christian wickedness taken as read. Anyone associated with it was expected to be on the defensive. This from the Detroit Times of January 10, 1922, the beginning of a press circus that got darker and darker with hullabulloo about priestesses, drug-filled orgies, and eventually, when the inflammatory fuss reached a Hollywood allegedly corrupted by the arrival of The Equinox amid moviestar mansions—murder.

  BUSINESS WRECKED, FRIENDS LOST, RYERSON WROTE TO COMPILER OF “EQUINOX”

  Marketing of literature furnished by Aleister Crowley, compiler of the Equinox and endorsement of Crowley personally, caused all the troubles of Albert W. Ryerson, manager and organizer of the Universal Book Stores, Inc., according to a letter written by Ryerson to Crowley, June 6, 1919.

  The letter was introduced in evidence at the hearing in bankruptcy proceedings before George Marston, referee in bankruptcy, by Grover L. Morden, attorney for the creditors of the company, Monday afternoon.

  His family and friends had practically been alienated and his business destroyed, Ryerson told Crowley. Opposition of minority stock-holders of the company had been aroused, which threatened to put the business in the hands of receivers if Crowley carried out his threatened legal action to get money due him for furnishing the book store with literature, the letter continued.

  Ryerson Protests

  Mr. Ryerson protested that the letter was unfair, if read by itself,
and that Mr. Crowley’s reply should be considered in conjunction with it. Mr. Morden promised to allow the letter to be introduced without objection at the next hearing, scheduled for Jan. 20 at 2:00 p.m.

  Previous hearings have indicated that the Equinox, an exotic publication, caused the upheaval which disrupted the directorate of the bookstore.

  The Equinox, Mr. Morden contends, is the official organ of a cult calling itself the O.T.O., and some of its alleged activities came up for discussion Monday. The advisability of establishing a chapter of the cult here was discussed by seven Detroiters, Mr. Ryerson admitted, after the purchase of several hundred copies of the Equinox had practically been agreed on. This was in November, 1918.

  Because of the “mess in the press,” Ryerson said, he would not give the names of the seven Detroiters, to save them from suffering as he had. These seven insisted on some changes of the ritual which conflicted with the ritual of secret organization they were members of and to which women could not belong, he said.

  Later four of the men got together at the D.A.C. [Detroit Athletic Club] to form a Supreme Grand Council, Mr. Ryerson said. Dr. Gordon W. Hill, secretary of the book company, and himself were not invited.

  Quarrel Follows

  “It was charged afterwards that some one wanted to be the ‘supreme grand cheese’ of the organization,” Mr. Ryerson said, laughing. Later a quarrel broke out between Dr. Hill and Crowley and Dr. Hill tried to cancel the order for books placed with Crowley.

  Organization of the O.T.O. was not carried on, Mr. Ryerson insisted. No one was initiated and no dues were paid.

  “Did you know that Crowley and Sylvester Viereck, editor of Vaterland, [sic, Fatherland] were friends?” asked Mr. Morden. The Vaterland was the pro-German publication in New York that caused much discussion before America entered the war.

  Mr. Ryerson admitted that he knew of Crowley’s connection with Viereck. “Crowley really was a secret services man for Great Britain, in the war,” he explained. “German spies were continually after him. He played a slick trick on the Germans by having himself, a British spy, on their publication, He practically destroyed the Vaterland.”

  Among the letters introduced by Mr. Morden was one addressed to Ryerson by Crowley and dated Oct. 2, 1918. It began with the salutation, “Dear Sir and Brother,” which Ryerson said was a reference to another fraternity. This was followed by “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law,” which appears in almost all of Crowley’s letters to the book dealer. “I have entered into a certain silence,” is the next sentence, followed by “Love is the law, love under the will.” The letter closed with the following: “Fraternally, Aleister Crowley, 666.”

  University Course

  In another letter Crowley tells Ryerson of plans to establish a university course in connection with the establishment of the cult, “with diplomas and all the rest of the humbug.” This was a bit of facetiousness on Mr. Crowley’s part, Mr. Ryerson said.

  In a letter dated March 6, 1919, Mr. Crowley’s facetiousness broke out at the very opening of the letter, where appears:

  “Cheer up, little bookstore,

  Don’t you cry;

  You will be a barroom

  Bye and bye, where the Right Wine of Iacchus will be dispensed.”

  Prohibition is coming, the letter states. “I am in conference with some people this afternoon about a Mystic Tea Shop, and propose to add a bookselling feature: it is not a bad combination, in view of the closing of the saloons,” Mr. Crowley wrote.

  In a letter to Crowley, March 4, 1919, Mr. Ryerson wrote: “Our paths lie further.” And further: “Our work is stirring up the opposition of the churches.” We have secret information that a $5,000 loan that was promised us has been blocked by one of our enemies.

  It was the intention, Mr. Ryerson wrote, to increase the stock to $50,000. Mr. Crowley is asked to invest and get his friends to do likewise.

  Pamphlet Introduced

  Mr. Ryerson recognized a little pamphlet as one which was used to advertise the Equinox. It gives the contents of the various chapters in the unintelligible terms of the cult, and contains a reference to Mr. Crowley as the “Symbolic Pantacle of the Universe.”

  Mr. Ryerson testified that the first contact with Crowley for the books was drawn up in the office of Frank T. Lodge. It was signed there by Crowley. The contract was to be signed later by other members of the book company. Dr. Hill objected to Mr. Lodge’s part in the proceedings and another contract was drawn in the office of Clarence Hill, he said.

  Mr. Ryerson, in a sketch of his career, said he was reared in a home adjoining that of Ralph Waldo Emerson and that he came in contact with a school of philosophy there. It was the philosophic atmosphere he was reared in which determined his later career, Mr. Ryerson said. He referred to the membership of various groups which had been labeled “love cults,” and said their membership included only the best people.

  “Because of the leprous press, these fine people have to go in hiding when they hold their meetings,” he said.

  In Prohibition America the popular press enjoyed pandering to the prejudice that the movie colony flouted restrictions on alcohol and was itself a cauldron of sin poisoning the morals of the world. Blame Crowley and the O.T.O.!

  Only a month after the relatively measured, if obviously biased account above, the Detroit Times got well onto the bandwagon of moral outrage.

  BOOK SENT TO MOVIE COLONY

  Ritual of Detroit Love Cult Was Mailed to Hollywood

  The possibility of the sinister influence of the O.T.O. underlying the mystery of the murder of William Desmond Taylor developed today when it was discovered that many copies of the Equinox had circulated among the movie folk of Hollywood.

  Grover L. Morden, counsel for the complainant to the bankruptcy proceedings of the Universal Book Stores, Inc., in which the O.T.O. is the principal factor, said that a copy of the Equinox had been mailed to the wife of a prominent moving picture director in Hollywood some time ago, and it was known many other copies had been shipped to the movie colony.

  It is possible that the order has obtained a foothold in the picture colony and color is lent this theory by the frequent occurrence of alleged drug orgies among the movie stars.

  Drugs Play Part

  Drugs and their indulgence play an important part in the ritual of the O.T.O., especially “hashish,” the exotic drug of the Orient. This combines the two theories of Craig Kennedy. He said, “Women or drugs.” The O.T.O. combines both.

  Hashish is a drug much used by voluptuaries of the far east and its evil influence, may have been the moving impulse in the crime. Some drug crazed maniac or jealous woman of the O.T.O. may have been Taylor’s mysterious assailant, believes Morden.

  One contributing factor to the belief that Taylor may have been an active member of the O.T.O. is his power to attract women. Adepts in the rites of the O.T.O. are usually surrounded by many woman adherents.

  Warning comes from Mr. Morden that the next O.T.O. scandal, and possibly another “sex crime” may come out of Chicago. “Chicago is now ripe for the organization of another branch of the O.T.O.,” says Mr. Morden. “That city has been crying for copies of the Equinox. The groundwork is usually prepared by Aleister Crowley’s lieutenant and when the preliminary work is completed and a foothold gained the “Master” follows to complete the work with his lectures and the distribution of the Equinox.

  Needless to say, once this first wave of vituperative disapprobation received fresh impetus from appalling personal attacks on Crowley by James Douglas, editor of Britain’s Sunday Express who condemned Crowley’s 1922 novel The Diary of a Drug Fiend as an incitement to drug use, whereas the novel advocated Thelema as the philosophical basis for curing drug dependency—the jury of popular world opinion was well and truly nobbled; indeed, things got considerably worse from there.

  So, the first aspect of Crowley’s legacy in America is obviously his reputation. This was not something he left h
imself by choice, but something laid on him by a sensationalist press, and the attacks of personal enemies, against a man without proper means to defend himself in court against wealthy newspapers.

  It is always a striking feature of undertaking scholarly research into Crowley’s real legacy—his written works, published and (largely) unpublished—to find that the gory picture generated in hostile press reports over the past century or so, which persist despite scholarly standards having been established on the matter, is simply alien to the man and his writing. You look for it perhaps, and you do not find it. Of course, the Grand Inquisitor can twist anything and everything to suit the case. “He aspires to God”—you mean he worships the Devil; he experiments with entheogens to determine the nature of consciousness; he is a drug addict. He enjoys sex and practices it as a sacred, potentially magical power; he is a libertine sex maniac. And so on. He was not a Christian! True, but he admired the figure so often obscured behind Christian mythology, and believed Thelema incorporated the fruit of Jesus’s original spiritual teaching in a fresh synthesis. Besides, the Crowley legend had things in common with the gospel figure.

  Jesus had considerable dialogue with Satan and was accused of getting his power therefrom; he was counted among sinners and rejected of men. He was also accused of consorting with prostitutes and condemned for unusual attitudes to women. “Ye are gods,” he is reported to have said (John 10:32–36), quoting scripture, when answering the accusation of blasphemy. But we can all find a text to suit, can’t we?

  Crowley underestimated the sheer power of stupidity, partly because he truly believed, as his father taught him from the thoughts of Saint Paul, that for those who love God, all things work to the good (Romans 8:28). People may put obstacles before the work of God, but His great army marches on. As Israel Regardie once wrote, Crowley was “God-intoxicated.” In those terms I suppose he might be accused of being a God addict. His “God” was, according to sometime pupil and preserver of most of his manuscripts Gerald Yorke, the Brahman of the Vedantists, seen in Qabalistic terms as the three Negative states behind “Kether” (Ain, Ain Soph, and Ain Soph Aur). In Yorke’s analysis, Crowley praised the Demiurge, or Creator God, and the “Devil” equally, and respected both with a view first to identify with them, and then to transcending both of them. “He is caricatured,” wrote Yorke, “if his Antichrist or the Devil side of the equation is so stressed that the other side is lost sight of.”3 Crowley’s most successful first biographer, John Symonds, whose The Great Beast (1951) served as template for myriad twisted accounts that followed, caricatured Crowley because Symonds could only see the dark side and knew there were more sales in sensation than truth.