John Symonds - The Great Beast (1st Edition)

THIE

GIREArf lEAST The Life of Aleister Crowley

by

JOHN SYMONDS

l First Impression

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'1'1·1E MAGICIAN < :rm\lc y stands al lht" altar in his robe and Uraeus serpent crown, armed ''''" w.11ul, ,.,,p, swmd, 1>nlcr ?' 1\ voice answered for him. 'My soul is wandering in the Darkness t:d,ing for the light of Occult Knowledge, and I believe that in this Order t ltl' Knowledge of that Light may be obtained.' 'Are you willing,' asked the Hierophant, 'in the presence of this t ~Hl'mbly, to take a great and solemn obligation to keep inviolate the secrets tnd mysteries of our Order?' 'I am,' replied Crowley. £Ie was ordered to kneel and place his right hand upon a white triangle which symbolized his active aspiration towards the Higher Soul. He bowed ltts head and was touched once with the sceptre. Then he repeated, after t lte Hierophant, his obligations: to keep the Order secret; to maintain 1, tndly and benevolent relations with its members; and to prosecute with 1':11 the study of the occult sciences. The penalty for breaking these oaths was severe: a hostile current vould be set in motion against him, which would cause him to fall slain or p;t ralysed 'as if blasted by a lightning flash! So help me the Lord of the l J oiverse and my own Higher Soul.' 'Child of Darkness!' cried the Hierophant, terminating the tl'rcmony. 'Long hast thou dwe~t in darkness. Quit the night and seek the tLtyl' The hood over Aleister Crowley's head was then removed, and he 1oyously arose with the light of understanding already beginning to shine in his eyes and the magical name, or motto, of 'Perdurabo', which means 'I will endure to the end'. Thus was born, in a house in Great Queen Street, London, Brother J'(·nlurabo, a Neophyte 1° = I0° of the Hermetic Order of the Golden n:~wn.

'fhe Golden Dawn, in common with other Rosicrucian and Masonic ol'icties, had its members arranged in a hierarchy of office. As one inneased in wisdom and purity, so one ascended the scale. At the top is an entity called Ipsissimus, who is perfection itself. Next, in descending order, m· Magus, Master of the Temple, Adeptus Exemptus (the grade held by M.tthers), Adeptus Major, Adeptus Minor, Philosophus, Practicus, 'I 'lworieus and Zelator. These grades are identified with the ten branches ,,r 1he tree of life, symbol of the universe, whose explanation lies in the tnyHLical doctrine of the Holy Cabbala. The first stages are comparatively rot'~y, to judge from the way Crowley swarmed up them; the later ones, 111ylhing after Adeptus Minor, so difficult that Dr. Israel Regardie, the l'orl·tnost living authority on this subject, considers that those 'individuals

26

THE GREAT BEAST

who lay claim openly to such exalted grades, by that very act place a gigantic question mark against the validity of their attainment'. In December, 1898, Crowley took the grade of Zelator, and that of Theoricus and Practicus in the two following months. The Order in· sisted upon a three months' breathing space for members before allowing them to leap to the next grade, so Crowley did not become a Philosophus until May. He certainly did better at the Golden Dawn than at Trinity College, where after three years' study he was given no degree at all. Mathers, searching for a system of magic which really works, had discovered in the Bibliotheque de I' Arsenal in Paris a strange and unique manuscript, The Book of Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage, 'as delivered by Abraham the Jew unto his son Lamech, A.D. 1458'. It is said that that old French magician, Eliphas Levi, also knew of this document and drew much of his power from it. Abraham the Jew (or his Master, Abra-Melin) seems to have been an entirely honest man. His magic does not explain one mystery by another, but is a kind of teach-yourself system in which some practical guidance is given for those who wish to impose their will on nature. Since contemplation, prayer, and abstinence are enjoined, the magic of the Mage who called himself Abra-Melin is, in essence, the same as that Eastern magic commonly known by the name of yoga. For this reason, perhaps, it works. And Abra-Melin doesn't hold up the proceedings by asking you to hack off the hand of a man hanging from the gibbet, or acquire half a pint of bat's blood. In magic there have always been two schools, the one invoking the forces of good, the other evoking the forces of evil, or white and black magic. Now, Abra-Melin teaches that the good, or angelic, forces are superior in power to the bad, or satanic, forces; and that the latter, as a punishment, have to serve the former. All material effects, all phenomena, are the results of the actions of evil spirits working under the directions of good ones. And sometimes the other way round; for bad spirits manage, occasionally, to escape, and, revengefully, they do what harm they can. These satanic forces conclude pacts with men and hold them in their power as Mephistopheles held Dr. Faustus; for man is the middle nature between angels and demons, and has attendant upon him a Holy Guardian Angel and a Malevolent Demon. The practising magician has therefore to lead a strictly pure life. By prayer and contemplation in a suitable place (called an Oratory) he can call forth his Holy Guardian Angel, who will instruct him in the right use of the Powers of Darkness. On the other hand, if he fails to steer clear of temptation he will speedily become a prey to the Malevolent Demon and his career will be a series of misfortunes ending at his death with a rapid descent to hell. Abra-Melin gives warning that when the aspirant starts to perform the operation of invoking his Holy Guardian Angel he will find himself strenuously opposed by his family. He must therefore shun them and go

THE HERMETIC ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWN

27

olr into the wilderness. Crowley, by now almost an outcast from his mother, 11ndes, and aunts (all of whom were Plymouth Brethren), was only too pk·ased to leave home. So he took a flat in the wilderness of Chancery I ,nne and, by way of disguise, gave out that he was Count Vladimir t\vareff. A further volume of his poetry, entitled Jezebel, appeared under Ids new name, which, he said, he adopted to increase his knowledge of mankind. He had seen how servile were Cambridge tradesmen towards members of the University; now he would know how they behaved to· wards a Russian aristocrat. Instead of constructing an Oratory, he furnished two of the rooms as tnnples, one for the performance of white magic, the other for black ntagic. The former room was lined with six huge mirrors for the purpose 11f throwing back the force of the invocations; the latter room was empty, 11avc for a large cupboard in which stood an altar supported by the figure of an ebony Negro standing on his hands. The only other article in this black temple was a human skeleton, which Brother Perdurabo fed on blood, 1unall birds, and beef tea. And both temples had their magic circle and pentagram in the centre of the floor. During one of the ceremonies at the headquarters of the Golden I>awn Crowley became aware of a tremendous magical force. It emanated from a young man with luminous eyes and a mass of black, untidy hair. This was Brother Iehi Aour, called among men Allan Bennett. The fame of lehi Aour, who was four years older than Crowley, was immense; he was t·steemed second only to Mathers himself, and was, perhaps, even more ~'cared.

When they were unrobing in another room, Iehi Aour suddenly came to Perdurabo, looked penetratingly at him and said in an almost menacing manner, 'Little Brother, you have been meddling with the -<

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Crowley hurried back to Paris, and informed Mathers of what had llltppl'ned. Mathers was furious. He thundered at the rebellious members I !111· London lodge: they must either submit to his discipline or get out. i • t\V Icy, now Mathers' 'Envoy Plenipotentiary', swept back to London and It ulcd on the legal front with a police-court summons for the return of lt'•llplc furniture and one vault which Deo Duce Comite Ferro claimed as ld 1 pl'rsonal property. 'I have had,' wrote Yeats to Lady Gregory, 'to take the whole n·'lponsibility for everything, and to decide on every step. Fortull,ttdy this wretched envoy [Crowley] has any number of false names 111o:l

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n the whole, the summer of 1920 passed for the Thelemites success1\dl y nud without too many worries or upsets. Sometimes during those d.tyil und nights The Beast reached heights of maniac intensity, ran \' tt ,1111 i ng into the temple, 'went all but insane'. He roared out words lllitgirul , names barbarous, and in an ecstasy performed his mysterious liJ 11 of Hex-magic. His succinct and curious explanation of these shamanI!Hifl (wrformances is not inaccurate: 'The cudgel of jolly Priapus beat me ll iUIII the head and drove me mad.' And HO it went on, unending, incredible, the Dionysian cries from the ( ';,lf,·,;i/1111 ad Spiritum Sanctum making passing Sicilian peasants hastily r ' fl llll tlll'rnsclves and hurry home. ' l ' l~t• n• is no reference in The Magical Record to Elizabeth Fox's l••.'l~ ottdng the third concubine of The Beast-where, if it had happened, it \l nllld, aHsuredly, appear. Crowley had hoped for a lover and found nnly 11 cl i~ciplc. Perhaps it was just as well, for jealousy between Concubine I i11 e tuHI ( 'oncubine Two continued unabated, in spite of the other half I tlt o ' l'lll'lcmi c law: Love is the law, love under will. Alostrael was jealous I fllt,Y ollu r· woman The Beast cast his eyes upon. He recorded that she tly,u:d 11p Into rnania' when he looked too keenly upon a Sicilian girl. •ld Ilt l.' t o i!l 11 passing reference to Sister Cypris's threatening The Beast, f 1\·ln•.tf:r, with a revolver. 'fh l• ~ nod n; t rological aspects changed, unhurriedly but unfailingly, ii !l hnd. In Hpitc of the exhilarations of bathing, hill-climbing, and i!rii•:r rtl lll;tgic:rl currents, The Beast was ill: there are many references \'ll tiril i t ~~:< rn 'lomnia, lassitude. He said he was upon his cross, but it rit ~

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