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When the mystic, occult magician, poet, and founder of the religious philosophy of Thelema, Aleister Crowley died in an obscure boarding house in Hastings, England, on December 5 1947, at the age of 72, few knew he was to become one of the most enduring pop culture figures of the next hundred years. In this definitive work Gary Lachman traces both the arc of the occultist’s strange and controversial life, and his influence on rock-and-roll giants from the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, to Black Sabbath and Blondie, of which Lachman was a founding member. Twenty years after his death, in the middle of the Swinging Sixties, Crowley was more popular than he ever was in his lifetime. In 1967, the Beatles put him on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Rolling Stones became, for a time, serious devotees, their music and image being groomed by one of Crowley’s most influential disciples, the avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger. His libertarian philosophies informed generations of notable heavy metal groups like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Metallica, and others, while these same beliefs form the subject of scholarly theses. His image hangs in goth rock bars, occult temples, and college dorm rooms alike, and he’s turned up as a character in pop cultural environments from Batman comic books to Playstation video games. But ALEISTER CROWLEY is more than just a biography of this continually compelling and divisive figure; it’s also a portrait of his influence on modern pop culture and rock music. Lachman paints the first truly thorough portrait of one of the most famous occult figures of all time.

ALEISTER CROWLEY shows readers not only who The Great Beast was and where he came from, but also why he’s still on our minds nearly one hundred years later.

Reviews:

• Having read a couple of biographies of Aleister Crowley in the past, I wasn’t sure if buying Lachman’s book would be money well spent. However, his objective analysis, from a previously neglected angle, makes for compelling reading. Few other books look at the impact Crowley had beyond fellow Occultists, and most of them really focus mainly on Satanists. Lachman takes a more panoramic view, dissecting the Great Beast’s considerable impact on wider culture – the repercussions of which can still be seen today, if you know what you are looking for. Unlike most Crowley biographies, Beast isn’t presented here as a virtual caricature, and Lachman doesn’t fall into the trap of simplistic demonising or defending the indefensible. There were far more influences on, and aspects of, Crowley’s spiritual journey than is generally perceived. Lachman’s esoteric knowledge is both wide and profound, the insights of which he brings to bear on the life and legacy of Aleister Crowley – but he does not dispense with the reality check where necessary, and remembers the importance of context and belief, not to mention the more difficult, but very relevant, issue of evidence, not only in relation to what exactly constitutes Magickal theory and practice, but also the enormity of the task of separating fact from fiction about Crowley himself, the parameters of which the Great Beast worked hard to blur.

• Whoever proclaimed this book the ‘definitive work’ on Crowley clearly hasn’t read many of the others. It’s a competent biography in most respects, and not a bad place to start if you’re a newcomer, but it is marred by minor factual errors and lacks the depth and scope of some of the other books available on the subject, and certain of Lachman’s analyses – for example of The Book Of The Law, or of the essence of Thelema – veer between crude and off-the-mark. You can ignore the misleading subtitle too; this book has very little to do with rock and roll. If you want the best of the Crowley biographers you’re better off seeking out the likes of Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley by Richard Kaczynski, Do What Thou Wilt by Lawrence Sutin, or A Magick Life by Martin Booth, all of which give a much more nuanced reading of the man, but if you’re just looking for a general overview Lachman does the job serviceably enough.

Aleister Crowley (born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century. As a prolific writer, he published widely over the course of his life. Born to a wealthy family in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, Crowley rejected his parents’ fundamentalist Christian Plymouth Brethren faith to pursue an interest in Western esotericism. He was educated at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where he focused his attention upon mountaineering and poetry, resulting in several publications. Some biographers allege that here he was recruited into a British intelligence agency, further suggesting that he remained a spy throughout his life. In 1898, he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where he was trained in ceremonial magic by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and Allan Bennett. He went mountaineering in Mexico with Oscar Eckenstein, before studying Hindu and Buddhist practices in India. In 1904, he married Rose Edith Kelly, and they honeymooned in Cairo, Egypt, where Crowley wrote down The Book of the Law—a sacred text that serves as the basis for Thelema, which he said had been dictated to him by a supernatural entity named Aiwass. The Book announced the start of the Æon of Horus and declared that its followers should “Do what thou wilt”: seek to align themselves with their True Will via the practice of ceremonial magic. After the unsuccessful 1905 Kanchenjunga expedition and a visit to India and China, Crowley returned to Britain, where he attracted attention as a prolific author of poetry, novels, and occult literature. In 1907, he and George Cecil Jones co-founded an esoteric order—the A∴A∴, through which they propagated Thelema. After spending time in Algeria, in 1912 he was initiated into another esoteric order, the German-based Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.); he rose to become the leader of its British branch, which he reformulated in accordance with Thelema. Through O.T.O., Thelemite groups were established in Britain, Australia, and North America. Crowley spent the First World War in the United States, where he took up painting, and campaigned for the German war effort against Britain. His biographers later revealed that he had infiltrated the pro-German movement to assist the British intelligence services. In 1920, he established the Abbey of Thelema, a religious commune in Cefalù, Sicily, where he lived with various followers. His libertine lifestyle led to denunciations in the British press, and the Italian government evicted him in 1923. He divided the following two decades between France, Germany, and England, and continued to promote Thelema until his death. Crowley gained widespread notoriety during his lifetime, being a drug user, a bisexual, and an individualist social critic. Crowley has remained a highly influential figure over western esotericism and the counterculture of the 1960s, and he continues to be considered a prophet in Thelema. He is the subject of various biographies and academic studies.