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Horary Astrology
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Natal Mandala
[11] Aleister Crowley
ABSAdomain no.: 11
[Primary] Knowledge type: Esoteric
Role in ABSAprime's worldview: Moderate
ABSAlink(s): TBA [via ABSAdomain interaction]
Degree of Difficulty: Extremely difficult
"Crowley was a hero of mine. The things he was able to achieve with his willpower were simply amazing..” -- William S. Burroughs
"Crowley was a man of extraordinary ability, and a man of great personal magnetism. He had a genius for self-advertisement, and he could persuade people to believe in the most incredible things." -- Arthur Edward Waite
"Crowley was a remarkable man who knew how to manipulate people and circumstances to his advantage. His works have influenced many." -- L. Ron Hubbard
"The only way to deal with the future is to function efficiently in the now." -- Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley: Beast, Benefactor? Both?
This might prove to be one of the more controversial of the domains, as it involves Aleister Crowley, the notorious English occultist, whose public personae (“The Beast 666,” “The Wickedest Man Alive,” and on and on) reflected not only Crowley’s sardonic sense of humor but saw him couch his most outrageous demonstrations in such intellectually stimulating and satisfying terms that one of his real goals, to find a way of uniting the principles of “white” magic (Wicca and similar approaches) and “black” magic (Satanism, etc.), is to a great extent obscured by his social antics (during the mid-20th century, his conduct outraged and titillated large parts of London high society).
An interesting exploration of this latter phenomenon can be found in the tv series Pennyworth, where crowley's hold on britain's high society figures into Alfred Pennyworth's (this is the "alfred" identified as the Wayne family butler in Batman lore) plan to stop a cadre of Fascists bent on takeover.
But on the other side of the coin is Crowley’s superlative mind. His grasp of a range of world philosophies (including those in foreign languages) is breathtaking. We were particularly impressed with his instructions to acolytes to his magical lodge: he required them, prior to being admitted to study, to be thoroughly familiar with several dozen works on philosophy, classic volumes, notoriously difficult to comprehend for the non-academic mind, and which would do any philosophy doctoral candidate proud.
So, with Crowley you have to take his truly amazing observations about reality (his controversial edict, “do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law,” is a great example—you could study the rest of your life and not get to the bottom of that idea) and keep that compartmentalized from his over-the-top public behavior. In that wise, it’s not just interesting that there seems to be a strict bifurcation between the two realms, but that clearly Crowley does not want there to be. He seems to want us to know that outrageousness, public or private, is essential to spiritual advancement. That's one reason we so often see trickery, pranks, or downright tomfoolery (one of crowley's specialties) written into initiation rites. As we unpack this fascinating idea, we will see that it conforms to other modes of thought: where seems to be division is really unity (and vice versa). Was the outrageous behavior in fact necessary to bring attention to the “reality” of Crowley’s hermetic workings? We will do much, much more with this notion as we move through the domains.
With Crowley, never, ever, forget drama...
Crowley was in love with the spotlight and one of the things we can take from that is to see every human act as some sort of public dramatic performance, with the edict “do what thou wilt” referring to the raw material of existence, from which one can, no, must, assemble processes to deal with life. Crowley is also a great example of someone you could follow far down the rabbit hole of his view of the universes, should that be your determination in pursuit of your own evolved consciousness. Hats off to you if you choose to do that with Aleister Crowley...seriously, the dude is an adult-size portion. In any case, public persona be damned (pun perhaps intended!), he is probably the most accomplished metaphysician ever and we will rely on him (or at least what we can understand) for numerous insights. Just don’t be put off by that attention-getting “Satanic” thing: most folks know that’s probably, and mostly, just PR 😜
"As Below, So Above"
[Graphics by Descript's Overlord and Microsoft's Powerpoint. Background videos by Wix.com].
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