Serpentium, I recall hearing that Crowley's circle of friends had an unusually high rate of suicide and nervous breakdowns. Is this accurate? Thanks for calling me gently on my assumption that he was "Eeevil". We have CM's and others who may feel differently{blush}. Of all people, Witches should be real careful who we call "evil" before the facts are in eh? But I still suspect he wasn't a swell fella....
Scorched Eartha, that stuff is REALLY interesting. Thanks.
I don't know for sure, but it wouldn't surprise me. If you stand next to a flame of that magnitude, you stand a real risk of being burned. It doesn't mean the flame is evil though. Just hot. I have yet to find one verifiable single act of Evil that can be attributed to Crowley. If he showed scant regard for the safety/sanity of others, it just shows he assumed they were aware of their own True Wills, (a point he was always very careful to emphasise to anyone he worked with) He truly was a visionary, and possessed of a singular and selfless mission to improve mankind's position in the grand scheme of things.
If he sometimes lost sight of the very people he was trying to 'share his dream' with, it was not through evil intent, but rather a lack of understanding of how huge a gulf there sometimes was between his vision, and the ability of others to share it. But his impact upon popular culture transcends (as it should) any stricture of morality we can place on it, and his influence upon just about every school of Occult knowledge was so huge, it still hasn't fully been assimilated.
But you are right on one thing, you couldn't really describe him as a very "nice" man. But then "nice" never achieved the kind of goals he set for himself. And those goals weren't concerned with self-aggrandisment, wealth/status or reputation. Rather, his characterisation of himself, and his shameless self promotion were just tools to help him achieve those goals. If he was doing it all for his own benefit, he would have fallen rather messily by the roadside, as a warning to all those who came after. We can see that towards the end of his life, he was plagued by doubt, and was constantly examining his motivation. A lesser man would have put off any such doubts long before death came knocking. And his last words, (allegedly) before giving up the ghost, were "I am perplexed". And even if that isn't true, it is fitting.
SE, In Crowley's "Diary of a Drug Fiend" (still the best book ever written on the nature of addiction) he fictionalises his ideal of himself with brutal honesty, (using at least three peripheral characters
) and in the last third of the book, gives a working hypothesis of the "Abbey of Thelema", and the intent he had behind it's creation. Admittedly, it differs greatly in it's description from other accounts, but it does demonstrate beautifully the gulf between his own intent, and other's perceptions (or lack of) regarding his vision. A good read, anyway. I always found his 'fiction' far more instructive than his theory anyway.
