SOME FRUITS OF THEOSOPHY

By

Stanley Morrison

1919

(page 56)

Mr. Aleister Crowley is a clever rogue who earns something of a living by duping our open-mouthed occultists with his “Scientific Illuminism.” In this connection he ran a flat, where, posing as an adept, he held séances, expensive to his audiences. That he has mastered all the jargon is evident from his periodical, The Equinox, which he has published from 1907-1911, and his expensively got up and high-priced books, Konx Om Pax, Book 4 [Book 4, Part I / Book 4, Part II] and Liber 333 [The Book of Lies], the alleged works of Frater Perdurabo of the A∴A∴ The last is a nauseating collection of erotic nonsense, filth, blasphemy, and occult rubbish. With the exception of some clever parodies (cf. English Review, August 1914) Liber 333 is his last book, and may stand so for some time, since the injudicious fervor of their pro-Germanism has landed him and his bosom friend, Mr. Frank Harris, in Sing Penitentiary. His occult schools were a better paying game than the Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth, which he was running some years ago. Apart from A. C. the Society had no existence, and its only business was the hawking of Mr. Crowley’s writings. Some idea of his versatility may be gained when it is recalled that he issued anonymously (elsewhere putting it abroad as “the work of a leading London actress”) a book of Marian verse, Amphora (Burns & Oates, 1908). This book was well received by the Catholic press, the excellent Crucible alone justifying its review and its name. At the same time Mr. Crowley was publishing erotic verses in Paris under the name of “H. D. Carr,” and in 1911 he brought out Hail Mary under his own name. This is Amphora once more, but by another publisher.