15 Comments

1. Lynne says:
   March 15, 2011 at 11:39 pm

   I’ll do what I want because I’m above the law.

   Any scumbag MP or minister you care to name…
2. RAB says:
   March 16, 2011 at 12:03 am

   Do what thou Wilt doesn’t mean what you think it means…
3. Ian B says:
   March 16, 2011 at 12:22 am

   Also, Ian B apparently.

   Crowley’s a funny figure really. Silly old Victorian loon, and not really very wicked either, at least by modern standards. I fear he’d have had a fit of the vapours at some of the glories the internet has to offer.

   “Do what thou wilt, so long as it has consent”. That one works for me. I have this strong suspicion that if we freed ourselves of moralism, the result would be that the vast majority would just live rather unremarkable lives, get married, have kids, nice holiday in the Algarve, beer or two down the boozer, that kind of thing. It’s the lure of the forbidden that make the extreme so tantalising. What fun is there in being wicked, when nobody is shocked?
4. Bod says:
   March 16, 2011 at 12:38 am

   I’m probably remembering this wrong (or maybe hallucinating) , but didn’t he write a letter to Hitler, demanding to know why his aunt’s house in Addiscombe, Surrey, hadn’t been bombed?

   Strange old cove, indeed.
5. JuliaM says:
   March 16, 2011 at 12:45 am

   Strange and fascinating. A real old English eccentric.
6. JuliaM says:
   March 16, 2011 at 12:47 am

   ““Do what thou wilt, so long as it has consent”. That one works for me…”

   The Wiccan creed, ‘An’ it harm none, do what thou wilt’ is pretty close to that.
7. EndivioR says:
   March 16, 2011 at 12:53 am

   Back at university I knew a Crowley fan, who said the guy was fond of crapping on people’s carpets when they were out the room. A recent movie featuring Crowley has attracted the tagline “Poo where thou Wilt…”. Cracked me up.

   His parent were Plymouth Brethren. Says it all really.
8. dfwmtx says:
   March 16, 2011 at 2:09 am

   I believe the full quote is “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law; love is the law, love under will.”

   If I recall, Crowley’s only substantial contact with the Nazis was the fact he was beaten up in Germany because some brownshirts caught him in Berlin smacking up his then-current Scarlet Woman.

   There’s also some belief he was an agent for MI-5 or 6. Secret Agent 666.

   Praytell, what in reality hath inspired thou to post this quote today?
9. RAB says:
   March 16, 2011 at 3:26 am

   I may have mentioned in the past, that I did the soup to nuts of Mysticism and Occultism in my late teens and early twenties, so I am well versed in matters Crowley.

   I have a stong affection for the old Loon, as Ian puts it, and yes he was hardly wicked at all by today’s standards.

   He was a very intelligent man. A very good poet and an outstanding mountaineer. He got to within a few thousand feet of the peak of K2 without oxygen.

   He was also bisexual and yes, had a thing about crap, but only in a sexual connotation. I have never heard of him having a crafty poo on the carpet when someone was not looking, like a nasty contemporary burglar does.

   Now then, there is more to it than you all seem to think…

   Love is the Law, Love under Will.
   Do what thou Wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

   What this means is that there is a mystical power that can be focused by Sex Magic Ritual to achieving the aim of your “Will” If done with the right purity of thought, action and Spirit, any aim you wish can be achieved.

   What it is not, is…

   I’m gonna do my own fing, innit! And no bugger’s gonna stop me alright!

   It’s all bonkers of course, but interesting intellegent bonkers. I’m glad I delved into it for a bit.
10. mike says:
    March 16, 2011 at 3:45 am

    “…there is a mystical power that can be focused by Sex Magic Ritual…”

    Yeah - it’s called a good night’s sleep.
11. PeterT says:
    March 16, 2011 at 4:15 am

    Speaking of excess, did anybody read the Daily Mail’s review of the new nightclub ‘the box’? Pretty hilarious. Full of ‘I was disgusted by the pert titties of the nubile vixen…’ kind of stuff. They love it don’t they.
12. EndivioR says:
    March 16, 2011 at 4:39 am

    I must admit I was doing the IPCC thing there. Friend mentioned one (1) case of scatological exhibitionism along the lines described, the rest seems to have come from the imagination of a film maker who had something to do with Iron Maiden.

    This mate of mine at uni had Crowley in with a mixed bag of alleged “Gnostics” which managed to include, inter alia, Wm Blake, Pico Della Mirandola, Jim Morrisson, Hermes Trismegistus, John Lennon, the Cathars esp. Guilhabert de Castres, and I forget who else. He even did a C4 series on it as I recall. Recently I discovered a colleague of mine (English teacher) is a Rosicrucian in his spare time. It’s odd the compulsion that mystical claptrap still exerts. Or maybe it’s the spliff.
13. Philip Scott Thomas says:
    March 16, 2011 at 5:17 am

    His parent were Plymouth Brethren.

    Yeah, but so were Garrison Keillor’s. And he turned out OK. Well, more or less.
14. Michael Fowke says:
    March 16, 2011 at 6:03 am

    Brilliant! But I don’t recommend Chaos Magic.
15. HSLD says:
    March 16, 2011 at 6:49 am

    I read some Crowley, back in the day ( my day, not his day - I’m not as old as RAB )

    I was just looking for vicarious thrills, and it wasn’t what I expected at all. Much of it I couldn’t even understand.
    I’ve still got a copy of the Clavicle of Solomon somewhere ( printed in the 1980’s and not bound in human skin )

    I used to own a Necronomicon. Paperback edition, signed by Cthulhu himself ( I’m lying about the last part )

    One of the most enjoyable books I have ever read ( and which I don’t have a copy of anymore ) is Black Easter\The Day After Judgement by James Blish. The plot centres around an arms dealer with an interest in the occult who gets bored with using his wealth and political influence to foment conflicts and then sell arms to both sides.
    He comes up with the idea of unleashing all the demons in hell upon the earth, via a medieval grimoire, just to see what might happen. It doesn’t go exactly how he planned though…