Article Sketch: Aleister Crowley - the Beast is Back?

This December will mark 75 years since the supposed death of the infamous occultist Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), the so-called 'Wickedest Man in the World'.

His name is back in the news for a variety of reasons, including the recent assassination of the daughter of Crowley acolyte Alexsandr Dugin.

Charles Dance plays a very Crowley-esque mage in Netflix's Sandman.

It can't be denied that Crowley lived an eventful life, which included writing various religious tomes, novels, painting, devising recipes, mountaineering and conducting orgiastic 'Sex Magick' rituals at his notorious Abbey of Thelema in Sicily,

The 'Magus' has been revived as a character in TV shows (Pennyworth, Strange Angel, Supernatural, DC's Legends of Tomorrow), graphic novels (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,?Requiem Chevalier Vampire?and upcoming?The Witches of World War II).

Crowley in Strange Angel as (it was rumoured) a British secret service agent

And TV commissioners, why not take a look a his surely ripe-for-adaptation Simon Iff magickal detective series, which includes?Moonchild?(1929), his best known novel.?

Crowley was also something of a precursor to David Bowie and the New Romantic movement:

Boy George

Raconteur:

”Two strangers sat down opposite each other in a railway carriage. One of the men had on his lap a cardboard box with holes in the top. After some time wondering what might be inside it, the second man said, “Excuse me, but I couldn’t help noticing your box. Does it contain an animal?”

The first man smiled politely. “Yes, a mongoose.”

“A mongoose? Where are you going with that?"

“Ah,” the first man replied, “My sister has terrible dreams. She sees snakes everywhere. I'm taking the mongoose so it can scare them off."

“But how can that work,” the second man said, “Those are imaginary snakes?”

“Indeed,” his fellow traveller replied. “Which is why this,” and here he lifted the top and tilted it to show an empty box, "is an imaginary mongoose.”

Lest we forget, outgoing Prime Ministerial wife Carrie Johnson's (née Symonds) 'artistic' flirtation with?Crowley?whilst at Warwick University.

Charming.

Crowley's Highlands lair of Boleskine House is now open to the public - an alternative to Peppa Pig World?

Something for the weekend?

Crowley's recipe for curried rice:

EXTRAS:

Ozzy Osbourne - Mr Crowley

Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains The Same film (1976)

Invocation of my Demon Brother & Lucifer Rising - Kenneth Anger

Lucifer Rising (With Jimmy Page's original soundtrack)

The Seahorses - Love Is The Law

I took a purely academic interest in the subject for a dissertation whilst studying History & Art at The University of Hull: