Although this is a biography of Crowley, Wilson didn’t intend it to be definitive. A definitive biography has already been
written ably by John Symonds. Wilson appears to hope to somehow rehabilitate Crowley into the human fold, something Symonds was ultimately unable to do on an intellectual level. Wilson conversely appears to succeed. But appearances can be deceiving. Wilson understands and appreciates science, but also attempts to understand magic as Crowley claimed to, discovers there is something to it, and observes that, Crowley’s psycopathy notwithstanding, he could be a scientific, disciplined researcher contributing positively and greatly to modern magic. Wilson through study of Crowley and the occult now believes magic, though not presently described by science, is nonetheless a valid, powerful human feature; this validates Crowley’s life which credit must be offset against Crowley’s narcissistic, destructive, manipulative, anti-social, irresponsible, self-aggrandizing personality.
Crowley evoked great credulity in his public. He wasted whatever money he had, invariably he could inveigle more money out of trusting believers to continue for years with his excursions, retreats and experiments in magic.
Others have discussed what magic means in terms of human experience: Dr. Brian Bates in his “Real Middle Earth” discusses magic in Jungian terms as a shared architecture of human consciousness – visions of shamanic journeys and the tree of life are so basic that we see them independent of culture and since our minds are multilayered with different perceptions of reality at each level. The conscious mind susceptible to the rational, magic operates on the other levels, and the imposes something of their different structure on perceived reality. Since existence and reality are more philosophical concepts than verifiable facts, it is hard to call it all nonsense. This is an interesting, rather sophisticated view. I don’t suggest people can cast spells to pass an exam or make love potions or turn enemies into toads, but merely that science and magic are both based on perception and the boundary between perception and reality isn’t well understood. This was not Crowley’s view. He knew he was pulling our collective leg sometimes, but he truly believed himself a master who could summon and command spirits from other planes. He also believed himself chosen for high purpose by secret masters in higher planes (he believed he became a secret master. He also promoted himself to a yet higher plane invented for the occasion when a followers he was loathe to alienate just then for financial reasons announced a bit insensitively that he had attained the same level of secret masterhood as Crowley. One of Wilson’s great merits is his ability to juxtapose the sublime and the silly in Crowley.)
Crowley was raised in a Plymouth Brethren fundamentalist Christian home in late Victorian England (present day trendy prejudices aside this didn’t invariably produce evil or psychopathic people). That and Crowley’s inherent nature led him to interminable rebellion, convinced that he was as underappreciated as he was superlative. The immensity of his lack of consideration for those close to him remains difficult to comprehend even in a world where such lack is common. Freed from the restrictive control of his relatives, he immediately gravitated to occult circles, probably because they represented complete rebellion from his hated origins. He quickly joined the genteel occult Heremetic societies in London at that time and, although gifted in research of occult matters, his divisive personality led those groups to shun him. He then associated with
Samuel Liddell Mathers (perhaps then the leading English occultist, living in Parisian exile) with whom he soon predictably parted ways. He began to publish a series of Occult Annuals or “Equinoxes” and according to Wilson these may be his true contribution. They continued to attract people to his cause when his behaviour had rendered him penniless and alone.
After working on his Equinoxes in England, he founded his own society, and established abbeys and temples of “
Crowleyanity” (he felt intensely competitive toward Christ) in various places around the world, engaged in as exotic and orgiastic a sexual program as his Victorian mind could conceive with a few men and a long series of women, for most of whom association with Crowley led to alcoholism and madness. Crowley went on magical retreats, recruited, abused and was repudiated by disciples, became the increasing object of scandal and finally, his finances exhausted, died old and largely forgotten. His Equinoxes were his legacy and his epithet “Do what thou wilt – that is the whole of the law” suggest he couldn’t understand the extent that much of what he believed was a base and self gratifying reflection of what he claimed to hate. In spite of his self image as a great poet, his poetry has been largely and perhaps justly ignored and it is his contributions to the occult that define whatever of value he left.
Wilson believes is empirical validity to the magical research Crowley engaged in as research of something authentic and within the framework of alchemy and attempts by non-Jews to understand the Kabbalah this may be so. The larger question Crowley’s life raises is perhaps what it means to be and do evil. Crowley did his level best and short of mayhem and murder he seems to have indulged in every acknowledged sin possible. If he was not evil, and I suspect he himself believed he was if ever any man did, then what is evil?