DO WHAT THOU WILT Aleister Crowley
Sep 13, 2010
Cover that left eye: in a new book, the Beast's biographer, Dr. Richard Kaczynski, aims to bring a degree of balance to all the crazy shit.
BY ROBERT DEAN LURIE
At first blush Aleister Crowley's "spiritual guru" credentials seem dubious indeed: per various accounts, the collateral damage from the English occultist's lifelong vision quest included at least two cats (presumably black), a couple of goats who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, a crucified toad, an unlucky acolyte who expired after drinking contaminated cat's blood, and a boatload of wives, mistresses, and male lovers who ended up either dead by their own hand or institutionalized. As bad as all that sounds, though, it's the supremely lame Ozzy Osbourne song that really makes one want to have a word or two with "Mr. Crowley."
Then along comes Dr. Richard Kaczynski (pictured above, right) who, through painstaking research, demonstrates in his new book Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley (Expanded Edition) that much of what we thought we knew about the notorious magician is either greatly exaggerated or just plain wrong. Which is not to say that the man who called himself "The Beast 666" was a lovely guy-one former lover declared from her deathbed that he was the "nastiest son of a bitch" she had ever known-but it now appears the business of drinking cat's blood and sacrificing a goat while it humped his mistress didn't happen at all (though Crowley did admit in his diary that he tried to get the goat to mount his ladyfriend but the animal showed little interest. Make of that distinction what you will).
AC got up to some crazy shit, there's no doubt about it. But Kaczynski balances that well-documented facet of his life with a vivid account of the magus's inner journey. It's important to remember that Crowley was a prolific writer and serious student of western mysticism. On any given day you were more likely to find him writing, studying, or meditating than getting loaded on ether and buggering Arab boys. If anything, the pansexual debauchery was what the guy did to unwind, like having a scotch after dinner. More important is that Crowley's rigorous spiritual study resulted in a concrete system of "practical magick" that incorporated, in Kaczynski's estimation, "a broad range of yogic, divinatory, and meditative techniques." In our own era of yoga studios on every corner, it's easy to miss the significance of Crowley's achievement: he was one of the very first westerners to introduce the practice of yoga to European audiences. Similarly, his synthesis of Buddhism, Gnosticism, and Kabbalah was groundbreaking for its time.
Kaczynski has an intimate working knowledge of Crowley's system, something that distinguishes him from the many other writers who have attempted to tell this story. His interest in the mystical realm began early: "I grew up in the era of Star Trek and In Search Of," he tells me. "Monsters and UFOs were a real big craze in the ‘70s. Mix that in with David Carradine's Kung Fu, which I used to watch in lotus position. What makes a seven or eight-year-old kid do that?
"Years later I made my way to the occult bookshop. I picked out two or three books and then the bookseller recommended (Crowley's) Magick in Theory and Practice."
From there it was a slippery slope.
Granted, a diet of science fiction, UFO conspiracy theories, martial arts shows, and the occult was not particularly unusual for a kid growing up in the ‘70s - especially with Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page acting as the C.S. Lewis of Crowleyanity, What was unusual was Kaczynski's continued practice of occultism as he ascended the ladder of his academic career, eventually landing a research scientist position with the VA Northeast Program Evaluation Center and an affiliation with the psychiatry department at Yale University's School of Medicine. His website gives curious onlookers the opportunity to browse his curriculum vitae, which includes citations of such peer-reviewed publications as "BANA Assessment of Putative Periodontal Pathogen Levels in Relation to Malocclusion in a Pre-treatment Orthodontic Population." From there, one can take a gander at his many articles and books concerning Crowley, the occult, and paganism. Then there's the extensive gallery of Kaczynski's pumpkin carvings: lifelike portraits of Viggo Mortensen, Keanu Reeves, Bill Clinton, and, uh, "Solid Snake" from the videogame Metal Game Solid, meticulously etched into decaying vegetable matter. Last but not least, there is a wealth of information on his prog-rock band House of Usher.
Clearly the guy follows his own path, which he says is the essence of the Crowley philosophy: "His axiom ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law' simply means find out what you're here to do, and do nothing else. It's about finding the thing that you love. Don't get discouraged; see it through to the end. That's what Crowley's magical name Perdurabo means: ‘I shall endure to the end.' Concomitant with that, other people don't have the right to tell you what you can or cannot do if you're not bothering anyone else. I think that's a message we can all find inspiring."
So..."Do what thou wilt" is not so much the diabolical proclamation of The Wickedest Man in the World as it is a cogent distillation of an almost universal human desire, shades of which can also be found in the writings of Rousseau, Thomas Paine, Ayn Rand, and, yes, even the garbled but nonetheless libertarian slogans wafting from that creepy Glenn Beck rally the other day.
It is true that the hierarchical system of ritual magick Crowley designed to this end includes outlandish costumes, portentous incantations and, at higher levels, the controversial practice of "sex magick," but by his own dictum you can take it or leave it. Do what thou wilt, bro. And don't tase me if I decide to do this.
So, is Perdurabo the best Crowley biography currently on the market? I would argue that Martin Booth's marvelously entertaining A Magick Life holds that honor, though that probably reflects my own preference for a ripping good yarn over detailed analysis. Perdurabo is certainly the most thoroughly researched and balanced account of Crowley's life available. It achieves the alchemical feat of transmogrifying a maligned demon into...if not a saint then some kind of mad prophet worth a second look. Readers may not take AC's ecstatic visions as seriously as his biographer does, but at the very least they will come away with a greater appreciation for the man's criminally underrated literary gifts.
Recommended.
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