Perdurabo

by Richard Kaczynski

  10 Raymond Radclyffe, “Aleister Crowley’s ‘Rite of Artemis,’ ” The Sketch, 24 Aug 1910.

  11 William Allison, “My Kingdom for a Horse!”: Yorkshire, Rugby, Balliol, the Bar, Bloodstock and Journalistic Recollections (London: G. Richards, 1919), 319. “Mr. William Allison,” Times (London), 16 Jul 1925, 44015: 20. Ada Elizabeth Jones Chesterton, The Chestertons (London: Chapman & Hall, 1941), 32.

  12 “Reg. v. Allison and Others,” Law Times, 23 Feb 1889, 59: 933–6. R. Cunningham Glen, Reports of Cases in Criminal Law, Arbued and Determined in All the Courts in England and Ireland (London: Horace Cox, 1890), 559–66.

  13 “In Re Radcliffe,” Times (London), 16 Jan 1892, 33536: 11.

  14 Raymond Radclyffe, Wealth and Wild Cats: Travels and Researches in the Gold-Fields of Western Australia and New Zealand (London: Downey & Co, 1898).

  15 Martha S. Vogeler, Austin Harrison and the English Review (Columbia: Univ. of Missouri Press, 2008), 210–1. Raymond Radclyffe, The War and Finance: How to Save the Situation (London: W. Dawson and Sons, 1914).

  16 Chesterton, The Chestertons, 85.

  17 Confessions, 639.

  18 Crowley’s inscription to a copy of his collected Works, originally belonging to Radclyffe but, after the journalist’s death, was later signed over to Collin Brooks (from a catalog listing by Harrington Books, U.K.).

  19 http://archive.rarebookreview.com/detail/437/149.0 (accessed Oct 24 2009).

  20 Birth record, GRO, Q4 1885, Cuckfield, Sussex, 2b: 176. 1881 British Census, Whitbourne, Herefordshire, RG11, piece 2603, 100: 5. 1891 British Census, Oxford, Oxfordshire, RG12, piece 1164, 123: 8.

  21 Ethel Archer, The Book of Plain Cooking, practical housewife series v. 2 (London: A. Treherne, 1904).

  22 Record of marriage, GRO, Q4 1908, Strannd, London, 1b: 1028. British Commonwealth War Graves Registers, 1914–1918.

  23 Elizabeth Robbins Pennell, “Les Amoureux,” Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Jun 1911, 82(2): 217–23.

  24 Wieland & Co. published issues 6–10 of The Equinox (1911–1913), and the following titles: Book IV parts I and II (1912–1913), The Book of Lies (1912), Hail Mary (1912), The High History of Sir Palamedes (1912), Mortadello (1912), and The Tango Song (1913). Given Wieland’s impecuniousness, Clive Harper (personal communication, 2010) suggests that AC set up Wieland & Co. for strategic business reasons. Indeed, the company shared the address of The Equinox offices, and the only books it published were Crowley’s.

  25 Eugene’s letters from the front to Ethel are collected in Elizabeth Robins Pennell, The Lovers (London: W. Heinemann, 1917).

  26 Archer’s work after parting with Crowley consists of: “An Idyll of Dawn,” English Review, Apr 1914, 8–9; “Silence,” English Review, Jul 1919, 7; “A Song,” English Review, Jul 1919, 7; “A Ballad of Bedlam,” English Review, Nov 1919, 392–3 (rept. from The Equinox); “Song,” English Review, Jul 1921, 8; “Phantasy,” English Review, Mar 1922, 204–6; “Vision,” English Review, Sep 1924, 401; Phantasy, and Other Poems (Steyning: The Vine press, 1930); “The Golden Thread of Truth,” Occult Review, Jan 1932, 47–9; The Hieroglyph (London: D. Archer, 1932).

  27 Birth record, Q3 1876, GRO, Ecclesall Bierlow, Derbyshire, 9c: 398. Herbert van Thal, “Miss Gwendolen Otter,” Times (London), 11 Jul 11958, 54200: 10.

  28 Under her initials E. G. O., Otter reviewed Helen George’s The Clay’s Revenge and Sidney Place’s Les frequentations de Maurice in the spring, 1913, issue I(9).

  29 The Equinox 1912, 1(7): 159–78.

  30 “A Fresh Young Russian: He Falls Victim to a Siren’s Wiles: A Romantic Story—He Sues for Damages for Libel—A Shoemaker and His Daughter the Cause,” Dallas Morning News, 20 Feb 1888, 6. “A Baron’s Suit,” Wisconsin State Journal 3 Feb 1888.

  31 Confessions, 691.

  32 Aleister Crowley, “Jack the Ripper.” Sothis 1974, 1(4): 62.

  33 Sylvia Cranston, HPB: The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky, Founder of the Modern Theosophical Movement (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1993), 371.

  34 Available in various editions as pamphlets and chapbooks, and in Sothis, op. cit.

  35 James Laver, “Some Impressions of Aleister Crowley,” New 18, Yorke Collection.

  36 Fuller, Magical Dilemma, 183.

  37 Birth record, Q3 1890, GRO, Edmonton, Middlesex, 3a: 270. Death record, Q3 1912, GRO, Chelsea, London, 1a: 391. 1901 UK census, Walthamstow, Essex, RG13, piece 1630, 35: 3). Jeanne’s two younger sisters were Eileen (b. 1892, according to the 1911 census) and Blanche Mildred (b. 1897). 1911 UK census. Birth record, Q3 1897, GRO, West Ham, Essex, 4a: 75.

  38 Wilfred Merton, quoted in “Art Student’s Suicide: ‘Unfortunate Marriage,’ ” Times (London), 5 Aug 1912, 39969: 2.

  39 Ezra Pound, “Dance Figure,” Poetry, Apr 1913, 2(1): 1–12; also published in New Freewoman, 15 Aug 1913, 1(5): 87–8. Heyse was but one of Pound’s retinue of lovers in 1910; see Maria Luisa Ardizzone, Guido Cavalcanti tra i suoi lettori (Fiesole, Firenze: Cadmo, 2003), 274. Although unnamed in the poem, Terrell identifies Heyse as the subject, named in an earlier draft. See Carroll F. Terrell, A Companion to the Cantos of Ezra Pound (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), 31–2. Felicia M. McCarren, Dancing Machines: Choreographies of the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 2003), 79.

  40 James Laver, Museum Piece: or the Education of an Iconographer (Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1964), 117.

  41 “Editorial,” The Equinox 1910, 1(4): 3–4.

  42 Fuller, Bibliotheca Crowleyana, 6.

  43 “To-night’s gossip,” Evening News, 28 Sep 1910.

  44 Wilson, Arnold Bennett and H. G. Wells, 108 fn.

  45 “ ‘Teaching’ Titled Beauties to Raise ‘Evil Spirits’: Diversion of English Society which is Conjuring ‘Demons’ and Practicing the ‘Black Art’: But Seems to Need a Lot More Practice,” Washington Post, 27 Nov 1910, MT4.

  46 “New ‘Religion’: Strange Rites Performed in Semi-Darkness,” Hawera & Normanby Star, 15 Dec 1910, 60: 2.

  47 “ ‘Rites of Eleusis’ in London,” New York Times, 13 Nov 1910, C2.

  48 “The Black Mass Idea: Mystic (?) Rites at a Guinea a Rite,” Penny Illustrated Paper, 5 Oct 1910, 2580: 596.

  49 Crowley was never an art student. He set up mirrors in one of his rooms in Chancery Lane. And Skerrett was one of Rose’s married names, never used by Crowley … although he did reside at Chancery Lane under the name Count Svareff.

  50 “The Amazing Sect Again—Crowley on His Defence,” John Bull, 19 Nov 1910.

  51 “An Amazing Sect—No. 3: Further Details of Mr. Aleister Crowley,” John Bull, 26 Nov 1910, 268.

  52 Richmond, “Introduction” to Rites of Eleusis.

  53 J. F. Brown, “Aleister Crowley’s Rites of Eleusis,” Drama Review, Jun 1978, 22(2): 3–26.

  54 Tracy W. Tupman, Theatre Magick: Aleister Crowley and the Rites Eleusis, doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2003, 269, 269 and ii–iii, respectively.

  55 Edmund B. Lingan, The Theatre of the New Religious Movements of Europe and America from the Nineteenth Century to the Present, doctoral dissertation, City Univ. of New York, 2006.

  56 Confessions, 636.

  57 “Amazing Exposures of Moseley’s Lieutenent: General Fuller Initiated into Aleister Crowley’s (Beast 666) Occult Group: Control of Kosher Fascists,” The Fascist, May 1935, 72: 1.

  58 Arnold Spencer Leese, Out of Step: Events in the Two Lives of an Anti-Jewish Camel Doctor (Guildford: n.p., 1951).

  59 Stanley Passmore to Sir Oswald Mosley, 27 May 1935, Oswald Mosley Papers, XOMN/B/7/4, Special Collections Department, Birmingham University.

  60 The Looking Glass 17 Dec 1910.

  61 From AC’s desert notebook, auctioned by Sotheby’s. “On the Edge of the Desert” appeared in the English Review, Jun 1911, 362–363. “Return” and “Prayer at Sunset” were slated for the ill-fated The Giant’s Thumb (1915); although page proofs survived a fire at the printe
rs, the book never appeared. “Prayer at Sunset” ultimately turned up in Crowley’s last book, the poetry anthology Olla (1946), 30.

  62 The Equinox 1911, 1(6): 67–107.

  63 The Equinox 1911, 1(5): 130–2.

  64 The Equinox 1911, 1(6): 113–48.

  65 Crowley, Diary of a Drug Fiend, 65.

  66 The Equinox 1911, 1(6): 53–65.

  67 The Equinox 1911, 1(6): 108–11.

  68 George Raffalovich, U. S. Passport Application, 24 Mar 1921, National Archives, College Park, MD. “Duce Biographer to Speak Monday on Emory Campus,” Atlanta Constitution, 3 Nov 1929, 4.

  69 George Raffalovich, Benito Mussolini: A Preliminary Sketch (Firenze: The Owl, 1923).

  70 “Dr. Raffalovich Gives Lecture to Atlanta University Women,” Atlanta Constitution, 24 Jan 1932, 6M. “Lecture Tomorrow by Dr. Raffalovich,” Atlanta Constitution, 3 Mar 1932, 14. “Dr. Raffalovich Dead: Writer and Teacher of Slavic and French History, 77,” New York Times, 22 May 1958, 29. His wife, Dorothy Dawson, would predecease him by eighteen years in 1940; see “Obituary,” Atlanta Constitution, 3 Apr 1940, 12.

  71 After his ordination, Bennett, now Ananda Metteya, established the International Buddhist Society in Rangoon. He also published its journal, Buddhism: An Illustrated Quarterly Review from 1903 to 1908 when he returned to London as its first Buddhist missionary. His visit generated worldwide press coverage; alas, this also included “exposures” in the magazine Truth, which would later be used against Crowley by The Looking Glass. By this point the spiritual paths of Crowley and Metteya had diverged and they continued to drift apart. In London Metteya announced plans to continue his mission in America, but ill health prevented him. For press examples, see: “Unusual Appearance in London of Buddhist,” Montgomery Advertiser, 10 May 1908; “Priest Who Shuns the Women Coming to Convert America,” Atlanta Constitution, 7 Jun 1908, 2; “Will Teach Buddhism in the United States,” Baltimore American, 7 Jun 1908; “New Buddhist in England: Cockney by Birth, Hopes to Convert His Countrymen,” The Sun (New York), 16 Aug 1908, 6; “Has a New Religion: Englishman Picks up Buddhist Doctrine in India: Born of Scottish Parents,” Washington Herald, 23 Aug 1908, 5.

  72 AC to John Quinn, 1 Sep 1913, New 12, Yorke Collection.

  73 Aleister Crowley, “The Camel: A Discussion of the Value of ‘Interior Certainty,’ ” Occult Review, Apr 1911, 13: 208–13.

  74 Accounts of this trial are based on copious newspaper coverage, including the official transcript printed in The Looking Glass. I am faithful to the reports, but delete or paraphrase sections which are too long, impertinent, or undocumented. Crowley’s unspoken reactions are drawn from The Rosicrucian Scandal.

  75 Fuller, Bibliotheca Crowleyana, 7.

  76 This transcript was the basis of an unused chapter in Perdurabo (2002), which has since been printed separately with extensive documentary material from the press in Richard Kaczynski, Perdurabo Outtakes (Royal Oak, MI: Bue Equinox Oasis, 2005).

  77 B. L. Reid, The Man from New York: John Quinn and His Friends (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1968), 101.

  78 Fuller’s subsequent occult-themed writings include “The Black Arts,” Form, Nov/Dec 1921, 2(1): 57–62; Yoga: A Study of the Mystical Philosophy of the Brahmins and Buddhists (London: William Rider & Son, 1925); “A Study of Mystical Relavitivy,” Occult Review 1933, 57(5): 306–12, 57(6): 370–7, and 58(1): 14–20; The Secret Wisdom of the Qabalah; A Study in Jewish Mystical Thought (London: Rider & Co, 1937); “Magic and War,” Occult Review 1942, 69(2): 53–4 “The Attack by Magic,” Occult Review 1942, 69(4): 125–6; and “The City and the Bomb,” Occult Review 1944, 71(1): 10–2; Two unpublished works also survive in his papers at King’s College: The Hidden Wisdom of the Illuminati (1926, IV/14) and Four Dimensional Man (1930, IV/16).

  Interestingly, Gerald Gardner’s occult novel High Magic’s Aid (1954) apparently draws the chant “Eko! Eko! Azarak! Eko! Eko! Zomelak!” from Fuller’s “Black Arts.” See James W. Baker, “White Witches: Historic Fact and Romantic Fantasy,” in James R. Lewis (ed.), Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1996), 174–5.

  79 John Frederick Charles Fuller, “Aleister Crowley 1898–1911: An Introductory Essay,” in Bibliotheca Crowleyana, 8.

  80 First published in the English Review, Nov 1911, and later in The Equinox 1919, 3(1): 187–94.

  81 Aleister Crowley, Mortadello, or the Angel of Venice: A Comedy (London: Wieland & Co., 1912).

  82 W. W. G. “Mortadello, or the Angel of Venice: A Comedy” [Review], Rhythm, Oct 1912, 9: 234.

  83 Although born in England, Hener Skene self-identified as Scottish; c.f. the passenger list for the La Provence, which arrived in New York on February 11, 1911 (Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, NY, National Archives, Washington, D.C.).

  84 Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 1907, v. 1; 1908, v. 2, and the Referee, 12 May 1907. In the society’s 1911 member list, she was member no. 130 out of over three hundred.

  85 Roger Lhombreaud, Arthur Symons, A Critical Biography (Philadelphia: Dufour Editions, 1964), 17, 277.

  86 Quoted in Simon Wilson, Tate Gallery: An Illustrated Companion, rev. ed. (Tate Gallery: London, 1991), 101. See also Emmanuel Cooper, The Sexual Perspective: Homosexuality and Art in the Last 100 Years in the West (London: Routledge, 1994), 104.

  87 Aleister Crowley, “The Ghouls,” The Equinox 1912, 1(7): 161.

  88 The Equinox 1911, 1(7), included “Adonis” (117–57), “The Ghouls” (159–78) and “A Birthday” (419–24). The Equinox 1912, 1(8), ran “His Secret Sin” (49–60) and “The Woodcutter” (79–88).

  89 As with all of the AA documents, the names of the instructions are laced with symbolism. “The Book of the Magus” is titled “B vel Magi” because the Hebrew B, Beth, is attributed to the Magus or Magician in the tarot. Because Beth is the second letter, it also has associations with the grade of Magus in the AA, which is the second highest grade in the system. “Tzaddi vel Hamus Hermiticus” is the “Hermetic Fish-Hook” because the Hebrew letter Tzaddi literally means “fish hook.” “A’ash vel Capricorni Pneumatici” is the “Goat of the Spirit” because the book’s number, seventy, is that of the Hebrew letter Ayin, which, in turn, is attributed to the astrological sign of Capricorn the goat.

  90 Unpublished (and probably unfinished) in his lifetime, two modern reconstructions of The Greek Qabalah have appeared: One as an article in OTO Newsletter 1979, 2(7–8): 9–44, and one as a booklet (Auckland, NZ: Kantharos Oasis OTO, 1984).

  91 The libri appeared in the following Equinoxes. In 1(6): “Turris” (8–15); “Tzaddi” (17–22); “Cheth” (23–7); “Resh” (29–32); and “A’ash” (33–9). In 1(7): “B” (5–9); “NV” (11–20); “Israfel” (21–7); “Astarte” (37–58); “RV” (59–67); “Os Abysmi” (77–81); “HAD” (83–91); “IOD,” inaccurately called TAV (93–100); “Viarum Viae” (101–3); and “Across the Gulf” (239–54).

  92 Aleister Crowley’s review of The Arcane Schools appears in The Equinox 1910, 1(4): 240. Yarker’s thanks comes from John Yarker to AC, 4 Nov 1910, OTO Archives.

  93 Aleister Crowley, The Star and the Garter (London: Watts & Co., 1903).

  94 op. cit.

  95 Crowley, Moonchild, 13. For other impressions of Skene, see Confessions 356, 669, 676. Carl Van Vechten, Sacred and Profane Memories (London: Cassell, 1932), 110–2.

  96 Crowley, Moonchild, 12.

  97 “Hail! Spring She is Due in Newark Tonight,” Newark Daily Advocate, 20 Mar 1912, 7.

  98 Confessions, 676. Here, Crowley says he sat cross-legged like a Chinese god. Hence the fictionalized account of this party in Moonchild is titled “A Chinese God.”

  99 Her parents’ names are curiously listed as Dominick d’Este and Catherine Campbell Dempsey (née Smyth) in Ebenezer Buckingham, Solomon Sturges and His Descendants: A Memoir and a Genealogy (New York: Grafton Press, 1907), 73.

  100 “Met Here; Wed in London: Former Mrs. Sturges’ Turkish Spouse
Once Chicago Man: Cigaret Company failure: Pretty Divorcee and ‘Soul Dancer’ Renwed Acquaintance Abroad,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 15 Mar 1912, 3.

  101 Crowley reports that Mary Desti married Vely Bey after he met her, and the 15 Mar 1912 Chicago Tribune article on her wedding (ibid.) supports this. However, other sources give the date of her wedding and business as 1911 [c.f. James Curtis, Between Flops: A Biography of Preston Sturges (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984), 9; Ray Cywinski, Preston Sturges: A Guide to References and Resources (Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1984), 3; Andrew Dickos, Intrepid Laughter: Preston Sturges and the Movies (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1985), xi]. Most accounts give this husband’s name as Vely Bey, although Dickos gives it as Vely Bey Denizli.

  102 “Met Here; Wed in London,” Chicago Daily Tribune. Noel F. Busch, “Preston Sturges: Brilliant Producer of Eccentric Movie Comedies Has Led an Eccentric, Implausible Life,” Life, 7 Jan 1946, 89. Ean Wood, Headlong through Life: The Story of Isadora Duncan (Lewes: Book Guild, 2006), 236. Rob White and Edward Buscombe. British Film Institute Film Classics (London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2003), 507.

  103 “George McNie Cowie, a.k.a. George MacNie Cowie, Sir George McNie Cowie,” http://www.nethop.net/~sandness/COWIE_Geo_M.htm (accessed Mar 3 2009).

  104 1891 Scottish Census, GRO, Edinburgh St. Cuthberts, 102: 10.

  105 1901 Scottish Census, GRO, Edinburgh Morningside, 113: 6.

  106 Confessions, 856.

  107 Abuldiz Working, OTO Archives.

  108 Confessions, 676.

  109 Curtis, Between Flops, 9.

  110 AL i.61.

  111 “Liber LX: The Abuldiz Working” appears in Crowley et al., Vision and the Voice with Commentary.

  112 Dickos, Intrepid Laughter, 10–1.

  113 Crowley, Magical Record of the Beast 666, 145.

  114 The Equinox 1912, 1(8): 63–77.

  115 The Equinox 1912, 1(8): 211–4.

  116 The Equinox 1913, 1(9): 295–305.

  117 Dickos, Intrepid Laughter, 11.

  Chapter Eleven • Ordo Templi Orientis

  1 Augustus John to AC, 9 May 1912, Augustus Edwin John Vertical File Manuscript 388, Morris Library Special Collections, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.