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THE EVENING CHRONICLE Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, England 11 April 1934 (page 1)
AMAZING EVIDENCE IN “BLACK MAGIC” ACTION
AUTHOR’S VIEWS ON HUMAN SACRIFICE
LIBEL CLAIM AGAINST A WOMAN WRITER
STORY OF ALTAR IN VILLA
STATEMENT THAT HE MADE HIMSELF INVISIBLE
Evidence that he believed in the efficacy of the practice of sacrifice, and that “for nearly all purposes human sacrifice is best”—although he did not approve of it—was given to-day in the King’s Bench by Mr. Aleister Crowley, the author, during the resumed hearing of his libel action against Miss Nina Hamnett.
Mr. Crowley, who alleged that Miss Hamnett imputed in a book that he practiced “black magic,” admitted that in his villa he had an altar, a book of laws, and incense.
PLAINTIFF’S ADMISSIONS
The book in which the libel is alleged to have been committed is “Laughing Torso.”
Other defendants besides Miss Hamnett were Constable and Company, Ltd., publishers, and Charles Whittingham and Briggs, printers. The defense was a plea of justification.
At the material time Mr. Crowley had a villa on the mountainside at Cefalu (Sicily). He denied he practiced “black magic” there.
Master Magician
In his cross-examination yesterday Mr. Crowley admitted that he assumed the designation of “Beast 666” and “The Master Therium” (The Great Wild Beast). He claimed to be a “master magician.”
Miss Hamnett, he said, was once a student of his, but he denied that he supplied the information on which she based the remarks in her book.
Resuming his cross-examination of Mr. Crowley to-day, Mr. Malcolm Hilbery (for the printers and publishers) referred to a book entitled “Clouds Without Water,” on which he suggested Mr. Crowley had built his reputation.
COUNSEL READS POEM Congratulated by Plaintiff on His Effort
Mr. Hilbery read a poem from the book and asked, “Is that not filthy?”
Mr. Crowley: Is the meaning of it filth?—In my opinion it is of no importance in this matter. You have read a sonnet out of its context, as you do everything.
Comment on Reputation
Mr. Crowley agreed that his publishers sent out a list of books he had written and it included “Clouds Without Water.” That book had been circulated in only a very small way, and few people knew about it.
Mr. Hilbery: Do you still swear you were not known as the author of the book?—Not generally known. I regret my reputation is not much wider that it is.
Do you want your reputation to be wider? I should like to be universally known hailed as the greatest living poet.
Asked about another poem, Mr. Crowley
said that the author of those words had been “dead for
years.”
And you created the poem?—I created this work of an imaginary author.
German Propaganda
Mr. Hilbery read an extract from an article which Mr. Crowley said he contributed to a Chicago magazine before America came into the war, and asked “Did you write that against your own country?”
Mr. Crowley: I did, and I am proud of it.
Was it part of the German propaganda in America?—Yes.
Mr. Crowley explained that what he wanted to do was to overbalance the sanity of German propaganda by turning it into absolute nonsense.
Mr. Crowley agreed that he wrote “The Diary of a Drug Fiend,” which was assailed in the Press. He agreed, too, that in a newspaper article he had written “I have been at with broad arrows. They have called me ‘the worst man in the world.’ ”
“Canard Every Week”
“The first part meant,” he said, “that my principal assailant was sent to penal servitude.
Mr. Hilbery: Publicly called the worst man in the world?—In some papers.
Mr. Hilbery (reading from the article): “They have accused me of doing everything from murdering women and throwing their bodies in the Seine.” Is that true?—I hear a canard about me every week. Every man of distinction has rumours about him.
BECAME INVISIBLE Believes in Efficacy of Sacrifice
Mr. Crowley agreed that in a London flat which he once had was “a hall of mirrors, the function of which was to concentrate the invoked forces.”
Did you have two temples in the flat?—Yes; but one was not really a temple; it was a lobby which was not used.
On one occasion he invoked the forces with the result that some people were attacked by unseen assailants.
Mr. Hilbery: Was that your black magic or your white magic?—It is white magic with which you protect yourself from such things.
Plaintiff’s Claim
Mr. Crowley added that because of his magic he had once walked in the street in Mexico in a scarlet robe and with a jewelled crown without anyone seeing him.
Mr. Hilbery: As a part of your magic you do believe in a practice of bloody sacrifice? I believe in its efficacy, but I do not approve it at all.
Don’t approve it?—You say (in his book on magic), “For nearly all purposes human sacrifice is best”?—Yes, it is.
Mr. Justice Swift: Do you say that you don’t approve it?—Yes. |