Crowley - A Beginners Guide (Look Inside)

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A Modern Maste A le is te r C ro w le y : A M o d e rn M a s te r

description

Crowley – A Beginners GuideJohn S Moore & John Patrick HigginsOCCULTISM, ALEISTER CROWLEY978-1-906958-69-5154pp graphic book 176x128mm£7.99/$12Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.Nearly seventy years after his death Aleister Crowley, the notorious Beast 666, is only just beginning to attract serious academic attention. Even so we would not expect to find him on any mainstream university courses; he is still too much associated with occultism. So, Crowley – A Beginners Guide is not your standard beginner’s guide.Let my servants be few & secret: they shall rule the many & the known.Readers may be surprised at the richness and complexity of his thought, as well as the extent of his influence. He needs background to be understood. Giving this opens fresh perspectives on much recent intellectual history.Crowley – A Beginners Guide presents his main ideas in a straightforward and accessible format, with drawings and diagrams to place them in their historical context. It relates him to contemporary movements in art and scholarship. It describes his relationship to modernism and postmodernism, and his role in the counterculture of the sixties, as well as his continuing influence today. Interspersed are entertaining stories of his life and reputation.Brilliantly illustrated by John Higgins, Crowley – A Beginners Guide, is a highly accessible guide to this fascinating, complex and controversial figure. It neither promotes nor condemns him, presenting hostile as well as favourable views of his character and achievement.John S Moore is a freelance writer and independent scholar living in London. He is the author of Aleister Crowley: A Modern Master (Mandrake of Oxford, 2009) and Nietzsche – An Interpretation, (AuthorsOnline Ltd, 2011) and has written on Schopenhauer, Wittgenstein and Edward Bulwer-Lytton among others. More information at www.johnsmoore.co.uk/John Patrick Higgins is a writer and illustrator. He is the author of The Narwhal and Other stories. His second collection will be published later in the year. He writes art criticism for various magazines and is Creative Director of Shot Glass Theatre Company. He lives in Belfast, which he continues to find extraordinary.

Transcript of Crowley - A Beginners Guide (Look Inside)

Page 1: Crowley - A Beginners Guide (Look Inside)

A Modern Master

Aleister Crow

ley : A M

ode rn Master

MANDRAKE.UK.NET, PO BOX 250,OXFORD, OX1 1AP

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MA N D R A KE

Crowley - A Beginners GuideA Graphic Introduction

by

John S MooreIllustrated by

John Patrick HigginsDesign and formatting by Alistair Moore

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© John S Moore & John Patrick Higgins 2015

First Edition

Published by Mandrake

9781906958695

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by

any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or

otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

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Contents

0 Introduction ................................................................................... 71 Life ................................................................................................... 92 Decadence .................................................................................... 103 Romanticism ................................................................................ 124 The Beast ...................................................................................... 135 Absurd .......................................................................................... 146 His biographers ........................................................................... 157 Ambition....................................................................................... 168 Secret path of the initiate ........................................................... 179 Grades ........................................................................................... 1910 The Abyss ..................................................................................... 2111 The Path of Poetry ..................................................................... 2412. Open Sea of Romance .............................................................. 2513 Open sea of adventure .............................................................. 2614 The path of philosophy ............................................................. 2815 Nietzsche....................................................................................... 2916 Mountaineering ............................................................................ 3017 Affirmation .................................................................................. 3118 Balance .......................................................................................... 3319 Dress ............................................................................................. 3420 Identity .......................................................................................... 3521 Espionage ..................................................................................... 3622 Theosophy .................................................................................... 3723 Useful Myths ................................................................................ 3824 Rosicrucians .................................................................................. 3925 Orientalism ................................................................................... 4026 Imperialism................................................................................... 41

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92 Modernism .................................................................................11993 Pop...............................................................................................12094 Science .........................................................................................12195 Leg pulls ...................................................................................... 12296 Postmodernism ......................................................................... 12397 Ego .............................................................................................. 12498 Paradox ....................................................................................... 12599 Political Thelema ....................................................................... 126100 Appreciation ............................................................................... 127101 Dualism perverted ....................................................................128102 Cool ............................................................................................. 130103 The Esoteric Tradition .............................................................131104 Academia ....................................................................................132105 Fundies ........................................................................................133106 The Gnostic Mass .....................................................................134107 The Gnostic Saints ....................................................................135108 Occult tradition ......................................................................... 136109 Science Fiction ...........................................................................137110 Parsons ........................................................................................138111 Thought ...................................................................................... 140112 Alternative ...................................................................................141113 Human relations ........................................................................ 142114 Religious truth ............................................................................143115 Self praise ...................................................................................145116 Death ...........................................................................................147117 How serious ............................................................................... 148118 His Heritage ................................................................................ 149

About the authors .....................................................................150Bibliography ............................................................................... 151

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A Modern Master

Aleister Crow

ley : A M

ode rn Master

MANDRAKE.UK.NET, PO BOX 250,OXFORD, OX1 1AP