Aleister Crowley etc., Gary Lachman. Pub: Tarcher Penguin, 2014.

 

Here, Gary Lachman lays out the wake of a life that inspired and revelled in suicides, racism, sexism, drug abuse and general mayhem. If I'm to take Gary Lachman's word for it, its no wonder Crowley's reputation is so controversial. No amount of selective quotes and affirmations towards self empowerment and how to attain it, can take away from the destructive bedrock of his life.

Personally,  I  believe A.C is a truly repugnant character who had a profoundly engaged and complex reaction to his upbringing - how many times do you hear about people with damaged psyches fueled by an unquenchable rage, having been brought up in straight-jacketing religion, or otherwise to their needs - spending their lives unravelling in an oppositional war of attrition? A.C's life takes trauma response to a whole new level of understanding as I see it.

In my experience, having worked in an esoteric bookshop for 27 years, many individuals who celebrate him seem ... off, and domineeringly overconfident. Akin to confidence acquiring a near hostile, even, malevolent quality. To be sure, the facts related in this biography speak far louder than any acolytes ownership ne.projection shit-fight. Nor, I believe, may I consign revulsion towards A.C as manufactured moral panic.

I would like to have known who A.C came across on his Indian travels, particularly whether he had any exposure to radical Kaula practitioners - my bet is he did. Perhaps it's via these sects practices he had been inspired for his most misunderstood quote - "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law". This title by Lachman accounts scant detail of A.C's travels in India. It's interesting to note that Tobias Churton has covered A.C's Indian travels in Aleister Crowley in India.

Bias and intuitive repulsion confirmed.

Originally reviewed 08.2019