studying crowley is like studying a poltergeist. some aspects are really well known, some are obviously fictional. the confessions that are published is an edited account of his life and missing in some very salient details. these are the interesting parts of the legacy of crowley i would like to know answers to:
1. what really happened to his body when he died?
2. what were the conditions and details of his second, and (I think there was a third) third, marriages? for that matter, is there any surviving marriage certificates? who, and what church, did the ceremonies?
3. what was he doing in the late 1930's?
4. when was his first homosexual encounter? the confessions are vague about a tutor when a young man.
5. where are the cipher manuscripts purported in Liber 61 that authorized the G.'.D.'. to act for the mystical Anna Sprengal?
6. what actually transpired at his funeral that had the city council vow to never allow to have that kind of incident happen again?
7. if he was penniless as he was supposed to be, how was his books, manuscripts, and other magickal items stored?
8. where is a photocopy of the supposed Ministry of Intelligence paycheck that crowley was supposed to be on payroll?
9. what happened to the bulk of his magick weapons and paraphernalia?
10. where, if any, is rose crowleys account of her life and what actually transpired during April 8, 9, 10, 1904, Cairo?
if you have any ideas or theorys, feel free to post, or let me know by email.
Have you read Sutin's biography?
Posted by: Logickal | January 26, 2006 at 11:48 AM
i have not. most of the bio's out there tend to rehash the same stories over and over. anything in that biography that stands out as being different, perhaps including the things i mentioned?
--andrew
Posted by: andrew | January 26, 2006 at 02:45 PM
In sequence, and from memory:
1 - His body was cremated and the ashes transferred to his followers, Karl and Sasha Germer. They were subsequently buried at the foot of a tree in their garden in or near Hampton, New Jersey - exact location not known.
2 - Crowley married only twice. First, in 1903, to Rose Kelly, the ceremony being held on 12 August in Scotland (the Sheriff's office at Dingwall, if I recall correctly).
Secondly, he married Marie Teresa de Miramar in August 1929 at the British embassy in Germany.
3 - In the late 1930s, Crowley fathered a son, published The Equinox Of The Gods and worked on the Thoth tarot, besides becoming increasingly concerned about the activities at the US Agape Lodge.
4 - I believe the tutor story related to an attempted seduction. It's generally accepted that the first real homosexual relationship occurred in 1897/1898 with H C J Pollitt.
5 - The cipher manuscripts have been discussed in detail in many books and are reproduced in their entirety by a book by Darcy Kuntz, called, I think, Complete Golden Dawn Cipher Manuscripts. They are now in "a private collection".
6 - Nothing beyond a reading of the Hymn To Pan - Brighton council just didn't enjoy the publicity.
7 - Various places, of course, throughout his fairly long life. Which period are you interested in?
8 - No knowledge, sorry.
9 - Some was lost, some destroyed in a fire at the desert base of a bunch of OTO wannabes in California, and some in Jimmy Page's collection. The author James Herbert has a chair!
10 - I'm not aware of any account written by her.
I hope some of this helps. As I said, this is all from memory as my collection is inaccessible at the moment, so I'll see if members of my website, LAShTAL.COM, can fill in any of the gaps.
Best wishes,
Paul
[email protected]
Posted by: Paul | January 27, 2006 at 06:01 PM
93,
Wow, thanks Paul! You're a scholar and a gentleman! For question 7 I'm interested in the late 30's and 40's where the biographys get thin about details of Crowleys life. Obviously he was was working on the Thoth deck and Book of Thoth but real details of his second marriage and conditions of his life seem to be hard to find.
93 93/93
Andrew
Posted by: andrew | January 28, 2006 at 08:25 AM
93 Andrew,
Regrettably, I'm no scholar - just an enthusiastic student.
There are, however, real scholars out there that I'm sure will do their best to help.
In my experience, Thelemites tend to be pleasant and helpful.
Nice Blog you've got here, by the way...
Regards,
93 93/93
Paul
Posted by: Paul | January 28, 2006 at 08:48 AM