Aleister Crowley - is it time for appreciation?

[Mephistopheles]

Aleister Crowley is possibly one of the most underrated, misunderstood yet wholly influential thinkers of the last century. Please, don't shake your head and tut at the name if your judgement is based on popular belief as you may be missing an exciting and exhiliarating collection of work. Bear with me please and understood why i believe that A.C. is a seminal figure in English Literature.

First though a couple of points to dispel common misconceptions -
1. Crowley was not a "satanist". The anti-christian elements of his work are in response to his parents protestant beliefs in the hope of shocking and appalling those who held similar Christian values. A Satanist must first believe in the values of christianity in order to turn them on their head and worship the opposite. An individual who rejects all Christian dogma and belief cannot possibly be a Satanist as Satan is a product of Christian thought.
2. Crowley did not 'sacrifice children' or 'drink blood'. He practiced a system of ritual magick (with a K) known as Thelema, the greek for 'will'. The intentions of this system being to develop the personal will both spiritually and mentally to find ones true course in life. The moniker is of course the ancient yet often used phrase 'Do what thou Will shall be the whole of the law'. He also travelled the globe not only studying a multitude of religions and philosophical theories
but also practicing and living them.

Anyway, the point to this is simple - as A.C. is responsible for some magnificent pieces of philosophical and theological writings, as well as volumes of poetry and excellent pieces of fictional prose, is it not time that more attention is payed to such a revolutionary man?
A famous poet who's name i just can't remember once dubbed Crowley as 'the greatest English poet that ever lived' and maybe now, after nearly a century, we are ready to face his work.

- Mephisto

[Logos]

Reading about (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley) his life, it's certainly interesting that he's so well-read and educated, partly basing his own philosophy on already existing traditional thought and spirituality (including Hinduism and Buddhism) though he gained so many `enemies' of Christian faith.

I didn't realise he had inspired so many musicians either :) but I think there already exists a `cult' if you will, or at least a wide-stemming respect for his works in many areas of literature and culture.

[PeterL]

While there is no doubt that Crowley practiced ceremonial magic, he wasn't a very good writer. If you wish to read about that, then you would do better reading the works of any other member of the Golden Dawn. Dion Fortune was my favorite.

[mono]

I remember the first book I read of his, fiction, Diary Of A Drug Fiend, I fell in love. True, as you and Logos said, he seemed exquisitely well read, very knowledgeable, and very wise. In terms of his non-fiction work, yes, he does seem overwhelmingly misunderstood, and I cannot claim to agree with him on everything regarding his philosophy, but I certainly offer my highest reverence and respect for him.
For anyone interested, I collected some quotes from Diary Of A Drug Fiend here (http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12634)
To answer the original question, I think I have already, in an abstract way, whether Crowley deserves appreciation. My answer: yes.
Welcome to the forum, Mephistopheles, and I send many compliments on your chosen screen name (I love Goethe ;)).

[Zippy]

I read Magick a very long time ago and was struck by its text-book quality. It seems to me more a series of instructions than 'literature'. There was some interesting philosophy in there as well, but the overall style of the book was a let-down to me. Based on this book, I don't think he's going to be added to the canon any time soon.

Having said that, though, I haven't read any of his other work, so perhaps it's time to read more - can you recommend anything?

[Pendragon]

I voted "no" but not because of Crowley's rather sinister reputation. I am not certain that anyone can fully understand what the man meant by a lot of his somewhat cryptic writings. For example, his Book of Thoth translation contains some strange stuff that I guess you had to be there to understand. Crowley's self-proclamation to be "the wickedest man in the world" and "The great beast of the Book of Revelations" probably had a lot to do with his mother's accusations everytime he did something she preceived as wrong. I'm not really playing devil's advocate here, but the man had issues, and I agree that he was misunderstood, even by himself.