Peradurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley (2002)

if you’ve only heard bad things about Aleister Crowley, you’d do well to read the book, if you have the time. Very thick, well documented, 562 pages.

Not saying I would have enjoyed being part of his OTO family; just that you realize he was nowhere near as evil as the British and American press said he was while he was alive. Enormously intelligent and quite gifted. He seemed to REALLY enjoy sex magick, until he got older and his ‘get up and go’ got up and went. AND, he seemed to have an odd habit of being sexually attracted to women who were borderline insane – in the medical sense of the word "insane" – as more than a few of them became so downright frightening after becoming involved with him that he seemed tame in comparison. Of course, our primary source for that are his notes and diaries, so he could have greatly exaggerated his own demeanor in the midst of their chaotic hysteria, jealous madness, knife-wielding and baby-producing.

Things I questioned: I tend to give people of Crowley’s era a bit of a break, because it almost feels as though they were the ones who had to forcibly begin to crawl out from under the historically smothering, dangerous, toxic cloud of the patriarchal religion that had placed Europe and the Americas in the dark ages for so long, and had distorted so many individual psyches. Crowley’s biography discusses OTO and one of the grades of Magus he claims Crowley had attained:

"The Magus was a special attainment, as only seven others in the past had ever attained the grade and founded a religion: Lao Tzu’s Taoism, Thoth’s Egyptian mysteries, Krishna’s Vedanta, Gautama’s Buddhism, Moses’ Judaism, the suffering and slain pattern of Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Jesus and Dionysus, and the Islamic religion of Mohammed." (p. 295)

Now, I would have backed away from "founded a religion" like I would have backed away from a nervous skunk backing away from a porcupine being stalked by a cougar. As it was, my first thought was, "Yeah, THAT’s exactly what the world needed: another religion!" But Crowley was still deeply entrenched in the era of men whose world view consisted exclusively of organized systems of political, sexual and personal power with themselves at the apex, something all the more evident if you look at the gender of the list of so-called "Magi", above.

As far as Crowley was concerned, women were merely tools in sex magick and walking wombs who could produce heirs. Not a single one of them had any real power or respect. (And his women, being the stupid, chronically insane nitwits they were, went along with it.) Crowley wasn’t intelligent enough to see past his own world view, and ultimately, that would be why he DIDN’T found anything of lasting value beyond many interesting ideas which can be incorporated into more relevant and contemporary belief systems. And as I said, he was enormously intelligent, so many of his thoughts are worth the read.

Yes, there are those still studying Thelema and more power to them if they can bring it into the next century. But I don’t think they can. I don’t mean to pick on the Thelemites, though. Honestly, I don’t think any of us can. Seeing past one’s own world view is something so rare, I have yet to see or read anyone who could manage it.

If you’re going to create a "religion", name it the "Religion of Moi", because you’re the only person who will understand it; the only adherent to whom it will make sense.

2002, First edition HB. One of 104 signed & numbered copies.

Of the five biographies of Crowley I have read, this is my favorite. This book is information rich, densely packed with meticulously cited details. Nowhere else have I seen so many references to passenger manifests and census records; deeply researched indeed. Another good feature is the numerous photos, the great majority of which I had not seen previously. This book is more profusely illustrated than most books which contain photos. To give an example of the level of detail, the author provides four distinct illustrations of advertisements by C. F. Russell for his “Choronzon Club” as well as listing the text and dates for all of Russell’s ads in the Occult Review. This is more than worth the money, in my opinion.

Biography of Crowley, aka The Great Beast, among other things – including Perdurabo, "I will endure".

While perhaps overly sympathetic, this biography has the great grace to be readable – which so many things are not. It is also well supported by evidence – the notes are complete and the bibliography impressive.

Presenting more the man than the beast, it might well do to be balanced against with a less sympathetic tome. It is, however, a good introduction to this incredibly influential figure, taking in not only his magic(k) but his relationships, mountain climbing, publishing and art work.