For starters, if you don’t know who Crowley was (no, not the Supernatural dude), he was a 1900s occultist who coined a portion of what modern witchcraft uses today, such as the word “magick” which he, although did not ‘invent’, popularised. (you’ll learn why I denounce that term and try to educate people who use it in a second). He was, in a nutshell, everything modern society hates. Racist, antisemitic, sexist, you name it and Crowley was it.
Crowley wrote several books about the occult, some of them having slightly useful information and still are referenced today, but his occult books are not what I intend to talk about. Little known to most, Crowley wrote an essay entitled “The Jewish Problem”, that title is enough of a disgrace, but what is actually IN the writing is atrocious, which I will be going over in a second. In other writing, he refers to Jewish people as “parasites”, “a barbarous race”, talks about how Jewish people are their bad stereotypes, among other things. This article does a wonderful job of compiling some of his worst quotes and explaining how racist he really is, as well as explaining some of the undertones of the quotes.
“Christians and other troglodytes — but most especially the parasites of man, the Jews (The New Comment on Liber AL, III:11)“
“the Jews were an entirely barbarous race, incapable of any spiritual pursuit. (preface to 777, printed in The Equinox, Vol. 1, No. 8)”
“A similar case is presented by the Jew, who really does only too often possess the bad qualities for which he is disliked (Confessions, chapter 54)“
“But in America, the Christian elements have been removed so that wealthy Jews may reach the summit of masonry. (Confessions, chapter 72)“
“It has been said that every nation has the government which it deserves. I would add, the type of Jew which it deserves. (Confessions, chapter 61)“
“the Jews are a critically important factor in the social and economic problems of the day (Confessions, chapter 75)“
Anyway, he also used to throw slurs at his Jewish friend Victor Neuburg andadmitted to being interested in fascism multiple times.
As for quotes from The Jewish Problem:
“Israel has corrupted the world, whether by conquest, by conversion, or by conspiracy. The Jew has eaten his way into everything.”
“The Jew, living so long on sufferance, by subterfuge, servility, and self-effacement, has taught his tricks to the whole world.“
And many, many, many more.
Some of his comments on other groups of people:
About Chinese people: “One cannot fraternize with the Chinese of the lower classes; one must treat them with absolute contempt and callousness“ / “The Chinese does not respect the white man as the Indian does — for his possession of high moral qualities.“
About Mexican people: “Neither the coyotes nor the turkey-buzzards will touch a dead Mexican. His flesh has been too thoroughly impregnated with chillies and other pungent condiments.”
About black people: “Where Islam and Christianity meet in open competition, as in some parts of Africa, it is found that only the lowest type of Negro, such as is accustomed to arrange matters with conscience by hanging a rag on a piece of stick, accepts Christianity”
About Indian people: “I am not fond of Benaglis at the best and he as the worst specimen of his race I have ever seen. He was fat and oily, with small piglike treacherous eyes.”
Crowley also heavily used the term “black magic” in reference to the “dark art” types of witchcraft, this term is now considered racist by a good portion of the community. Not to mention he was also a regular user of the N slur! I’m talking hard-R.
I never much liked the usage of magic with a K to start with, but I’ve been learning more and more about AC as time has passed, I’ve started denouncing it entirely and educating people about it’s connections to him as best as I can, most people have no idea how awful he is. It’s scary to think that someone so despicable is still heavily referenced and worshiped in the Occult community, so I wanted to finally make this post. I am asked a lot about it and why I hate the term “magick” so much, now you all know. I hope you will consider using the terms witchcraft, or even just magic rather than adding the K at the end, because we all know what the K stands for now, and who it represents. This is not even the beginning of how awful he was, there is so much more that can be dug up. I encourage you to do it, research him and understand how absolutely terrible he was. Please.
He was a super creep like whenever someone mentions him all I can think is how he would cum in food, ect (for ritual purposes) and he wouldn’t tell anyone.
Ew. O.o to be honest this is why I find ritual magic and magicians to be so off-putting. I do know genuinely lovely people who are into such things but so many of them model themselves after Crowley etc and think what they’re doing is cool and edgy. Firstly magic isn’t meant to be cool, it’s not a game. But also there’s nothing edgy about racism etc. O.o I don’t know, I always liked the look of ‘magick’ but now I understand that the insinuations are related to a racist edgelord who wanted to make himself seem elitist, no thanks. This would also explain why I’ve been having creepy dreams with him involved. O.o
Yeah… I was reading up on Crowley for writing research, as I’ve been wanting to get some details right for a project. Anyway, just the historical foreword to his Book IV sent up about a dozen red flags, which it seemed as if the guest writer was attempting to gloss over—I just got a huge sense that there was much “in between the lines” that actually might make people less excited to read a Crowley book, so it couldn’t get published in one.
Lo and behold, a few minutes of independent research later, I found out that he tended to go through women like tissue paper, but at one point was married to one Rose Edith Kelly. She was who from which he received much of his guidance for The Book of the Law—she would go into a trance via ritual and would dictate knowledge for him. This was a role he often had women in his life fulfill—he would typically draw them into his circle, ply them with substances and with his noteworthy charisma, and before long, they would start spouting secret knowledge on his behalf, often enduring some very questionable conditions. Anyway, Rose and him had two children, and it is said she developed a drinking problem, but it is also fact he committed her to an asylum for “alcohol dementia” in her thirties a couple years after their divorce. Further research uncovered another noteworthy name: Mary Desti, who it seems Crowley met the same year he had Rose committed. She was the “seer” who revealed much of his seminal Book IV. Her son, the playwright Preston Sturges, was none-too-happy to recount that in her induced trances, if she stepped out of line in any way, including if she would start a sentence with “I”, Crowley would slice open her arm with a penknife. Some may start to wonder less why Rose started to drink. Mary would later leave Crowley as well, and Crowley would head over to another mistress, and the train of the world’s fascination with him would keep rolling.
I could go on for ages; this is an exceedingly small sample of how he treated those nearest and “dearest” to him. It honestly put me off using the term “magick” in my project and deeply put me off using many other elements of his work. The sanitized elements that trickled down and insinuated themselves into later traditions… I suspect there is good reason those survived, but lionizing Crowley himself is not an act I think I could look at without some suspicion.
Ew… O.o and I’m guessing he simply said that these things were revealed to him with no credit to the women involved. When you say ‘seer’ do you think it’s more likely that she was simply being put into an altered state of consciousness and suggested to rather than actually being given wisdom by spirits?
MY BLESSINGS UPON THIS ENTIRE POST
Yeah Crowley was an arsehole and half the reason I side-eye “ceremonial” magicians.
fair--y backup 