Hearth & Horn

I think that one of the biggest hurdles around Crowley is that, for all his MANY faults, he was a genuinely talented writer and occultist. The unfortunate fact is that often, the two do not always overlap.

Then and now, we are often faced with this problem as occultists. Piles of books are published in the public sector that are easy to read yet provide no useful information -- while in the private sector, results are foremost, but recording them legibly, less so. To borrow from medicine, it feels as though you have no choice between extremely technical medical journals, who expect you to have full medical training and experience in the field to read them...or one of those terrible "have you considered eating less of what you don't eat anyway?" pamphlets you get when a doctor is concerned about your weight. (How can I stop eating butter if I don't eat butter? But I digress).

There's also the issue of PR. Most experimental or research-forward occultists, then as now, tended towards presenting (in both the queer sense and the public speaking sense) simply but dully. Emphasizing that they hold steady jobs, are upstanding members of the community, are connected to families they love. This is all fine and good in the practical sense, but this is not what PR is made from.

Crowley, on the other hand? He may not have had Steiner's big-eyed, delicate good looks, but what he lacked there he made up everywhere else. Summon something called the Bornless One in the Great Pyramid at Giza? Why not. Be flagrantly bisexual? Absolutely. Do piles of drugs, equally for fun, for health reasons (heroin was originally prescribed to him for his asthma, as it was the medical standard pre-inhaler) and for religious purposes? Definitely. His penchant for public bridge-burning, to go big or go home, only increases his reputation down the line. To quote a pop song, "History will hate us, but they'll never forget our names!"

Then there's the relatability factor. A lot of people getting into the occult, especially those who are queer, don't have a good relationship with their families. Having drug use and interest in the wrong kind of partner lead to your parents declaring you part of the Devil's retinue -- that's still a common enough tale.