New Britain Herald Newspaper, May 9, 1928, Page 19

J \ Q b \ Hounding the King of 1heD\;i|w.Hs Around the |obe Barred from England. Raided ‘ . By NIGEL TRASK. il PARIS, LEISTER CROWLEY is back again, a fatter, balder, older, sadder but apparently no wiser man, This hi priest of dark devil cults, once hn,fl:d and feared by Parisians, he who mys- teriously diufle-nd from America, was driven from London and hounded from Sieily, returns to the boulevards like a re from his own fantastic pages on zllck magic. Thereby hangs an amazing o. Last year they said Crowley was dead, murdered by other demonologists in the high rluu of ancient Thibet. Now the Parisians assert he sent out this story himself to protect himself from his sworn enemies, If that is true, Crowley might have naved himself the trouble. The most tragic thing that could happen to “the Beast of the Apocalypse” has happened —he has become old-fashioned, he is ne longer feared, he is considered just & mild, harmless, slightly eccentric, elderly Englishman, not vich and not at all terrifying. The celebrated “basilisk stare” at made scores of women his “love slaves” doesn’t seem to work :?y mol’oi :‘,ho _mur}\ho-jumb‘o of s :Illnl c rituals calls forth \aughter. e he other day I talked te o charming blonde, blue-eyed Amen fean flapper, aged 22" who had met Crowley at the Cafe du Dome = Aleister Crowley lin ltaly. the ‘Beast 666" Bobs Up in Paris— and Gets Yawns ‘Where Once He Thrilled . and Horrified When First Loft Oxford an as am Asthote of the - Ninsties, the day before. She could l‘nrdly describe the incident or y,” began Miss 1928. “Mamma used to know him, and every time she men- tioned him she used to shud- der. He was so dark, dlnm ous and handsome, and he those hypnotic eyes. He was $0 mysterious, daring and evil. Of course | wanted to meet him, “Well, it hngptned. and he was 8 shock, but not i the way he expected to be. He grabbed my hand, just like sny Yale man on his best Crowley in Full Regalis e King of the Devil Cults. night ciub behavior, but with s difference in results, drew me over to him, and began to yodel sotto voce: ‘Do what thou wift‘:hnu ‘- the whole of the law!’ “Can you imagine! 1 learned after- ward that that is always his opening line. It's part of his funny pagan ritual. Then he began working his eyebrows fast, just like old Svengall himself. I'm hmnf you, that may have got results in the naughty aineties, but it seemed just & wee bit ham to me. “Then he told me that ! was Nuit, his lady of the starry heavens, that | should take my fill of love, that my ecstasy was his, and bis joy was to see my joy. 1 was simply aghast, but 1 let him carry on just for the fun of the thing. Then when he came up for air I answered. “‘Listen,’ | said, ‘you ought to see Jung. He does'a lot for cases like you. You have a Messianic complex because you were dropped in a pulpit as a child, or some- thing. Any behaviorist could tell at & glance you haven't been properly con- ditioned. Your reactions are dated, and {:ur manifestations of ego show a desire escape from actualities. Besides, your ehnmht.r! is different from mine. I don’t like you.’” I really think that pretty Miss 1928 fs e little hard on the famous Aleister Crowley. I have known him for years, and have often found him a dt“‘hmli companion. He is a man of tremendous energy, mountain climber, explorer, nove olist, painter as well as King of the Devil Cults. He is also & poet of some dis- tinction, But the reaction of this 22-year-old child shows why Crowley's astonishil wer has fled, why he is no long oared. The world has advanoced and has grown older. His dark, mysterio power — and he undoubtedly had it— fades before the shibboleths of the new, materialistic neration. Jung, Freud, Adler and the behavioristic psychologists, which Miss 1928 drew on so amusingly by way of reprisal, have done for him. Those who hated and hounded him around the globe, d him “monster,” “Satanist” and “Sadist,” now snap their fingers in derision. The king is deposed! Crowley still has his followers in Paris, who tried to give the “Beast” a welcome on his return from “death,” but their number has dwindled to a pi few. Yot this bald-headed man wi hypnotic eyes was only a few years ag the self-proclaimed “Anti- Christ,” the head of the celebrated “0. T. 0.” cult, with secret branches all over the world. Many people, including Crowley himself, believed be could perform miracles. He first became widely known in the London of the nineties as s brilliant oung poet. You will ind a number of lt. oems in the Oxford Book of Mys- tical Verse. His friends were the most distinguished writers, artista end diplo- mats of the Yellow Book days. Then he turned to mysticism as a cult, and to drugs, but was never enslaved thera. Crowley never did anything half way. His researches in anclent religious and mystical beliefs consumed years. He robably knows as much about these sub- jocts as any man li ving today. He emerged from these studies to found the cult of “O. T. O.,” founded on the an- clent practices of the Rosicrucian Order and the Gnostics. But Crowley was not satisfied with the teach of books; he went among peo- le. He lived for three months among liglous fakirs and starved him- self as they did. He walked across China, he studied the Mayan and Astec religions R iven b started bis cul everything en be is eult went swimmingly at first. He was hand- Guyriaht, 1913, istemationel Fostess Ouvim, (e, Greet Sritate Bights Bewwd, Lofs, _nsigals of Crowley’s Mystis O, T O. Cult. He ls Said te Have Branded the Sige on the Bedies of Some of His Faverite Disciples. Left, Mrs. Botty May Leveday, the Beautiful London Artists Model Who Expesed Practices in the “Beast’s” Sicilian Love Coleny After Her Husband Died There. some — then —and magnetic. Women were drawn to him, men liked him, too; he drew his disciples from both sexes. I have always thought he was absolutely sincers, but he was an excellent show- man and instinctive sychologist in the argain. A tre- mendous egotist himself, he catered to the egos of other people. lri- maxim, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law,” summed up his philosophy. He believed that people should be f d tions placed on them %y civilized society. 'his phrase, begin- ning “Do what thou wilt,” was the open- ing line in his ritual. He would it and his disciples would then answer, “Love is the law. Love i under will.” Another part of ritual contained these words: “Dress ye all in fine ap- parel, eat rich food, snd drink sweet wines and wines that foam; slso take your fill of love, when, where and with whom you will.” These paganistic words pleased some people and horrified others. It was bruited about in London that the Crowley cult was a mere excuse for k- centious love prac- tices. Storles were told of Crowley branding beautiful women, whom he had selected as high priestesses, with the circle and star of the cult, ap- plied :ith a I“!?. Other stories told how women had been whipped by men and by one another— as part of the ritusl. This was known as mortification of the flesh. London husbands, whose wied 1o the Beant¥ ekt up & fearful row. Crow- A loy & o ! @ “ horror, then du’rd from sight followed ':u::ubyul-'u nareotic ergies, ing the words of hh-lgu I aoml “'d brandings, acknow at ocen o Now Sork e met Les Bz the Dead Soul,” whom ke inte & brilliant rmnllty. She had [ school tescher before she met . u.oj, ;looth.“ dulm:fl person. made her lostess, and Beg been devoted to ever since. a. used to have her recite these werds: “I am the blue-lidded "',“':{. 1am ’:l.o :.l,hl . of voluptuous night sky. the raptur ous rm song unte me! ;'u‘m to me fumes! Wear to me jewels! me, for I love you! I love you!” No wonder a bright new leok came te Lea's quiet eyes! w became one oy o . —ho sign his letters, “The Beast 0“": turned painter. He worked f: tu'ml out weird oy were in their attempts to n-'rr;:h a?:d honil ble.th en Crowley, ‘“the purple diugund from Gun:k? Vi a8 mysteriously as he had come. He was next heard of in Sicily, where his cultish cs- perings created a d |, He established the of in t{n;.pmr-‘qno little town of on literranesn. There verts gave him, o homage to One of Crow] 'l‘lm‘ wes an This was disproved, as it was Loveday died from inflam: u;ldnclmm