THE HALIFAX DAILY COURIER AND GUARDIAN

Halifax, Yorkshire, England

12 April 1934

(page 10)

“BLACK MAGIC” LIBEL ACTION

Counsel’s Request to Mr. Crowley

Invisibility Challenge In Court

AUTHOR AND VILLA CEREMONY

‘There Was No Drinking of Cat’s Blood’

The “Black Magic” libel action again came before Mr. Justice Swift and a special jury in the King’s Bench Division to-day. Mr. Aleister Crowley, the author, claimed damages against Miss Nina Hamnett, authoress of a book entitled “Laughing Torso,” and Messrs. Constable and Co., Ltd., the publishers, and Messrs. Charles Whittingham and Briggs, the printers.

Mr. Crowley complained that the book imputed that he practised “black magic,” and he said this was a libel upon him. The defence was a plea of justification. At the material time Mr. Crowley had a villa on the mountainside at Cefalu, Sicily, which was known as the “Abbey of Thelema.” He denied that he practiced “black magic” there.

Mr. Martin O’Connor (for Miss Hamnett), resuming his cross-examination to-day, invited Mr. Crowley to try his magic in court.

“You said yesterday,” said Mr. O’Connor, “that, as the result of early experiments, you invoked certain forces with the result that some people were attacked by unseen assailants. Try your magic now on my learned friend (pointing to Mr. Hilbery, who appeared for the publishers). I am sure he will not object.

“I would not attack anyone,” replied Mr. Crowley. “I absolutely refuse.”

Mr. Justice Swift: We cannot turn this court into a temple, Mr. O’Connor.

“INVISIBLE.”

On a later occasion (continued Mr. O’Connor to the plaintiff) you said you succeeded in rendering yourself invisible. Would you like to try that on now, for, if you don’t, I shall pronounce you an imposter?—You can ask me to do anything you like; it won’t alter the truth.

Counsel then dealt with the ritual observed in the ceremonies at the Villa at Cefalu. Mr. Crowley denied that a cat was killed in the ceremony and that part of the cat’s blood was drunk by a person taking part. “There was no cat, no animal, no blood, and no drinking,” he declared.

Mr. Eddy (for Mr. Crowley) asked the plaintiff about a passage in his “Confessions” [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley] (concerning which he had been cross-examined) and said the passage referred to a village girl, and showed that Mr. Crowley “went roaming with her amid the heather.”

“How old were you,” asked Mr. Eddy. “I was a boy of fifteen or sixteen,” replied Mr. Crowley. “Roaming the heather with anyone is a terrible offence in itself in the surroundings in which I was brought up,” he added. “Merely to look at a girl across the street was considered an offense and dealt with in the most severe way.” (Mr. Crowley’s family were Plymouth Brethren).

YEARS OF “TORTURE.”

Mr. Crowley agreed that he had studied black magic, though only as a student. “I was just coming out from years of abominable torture,” he explained. “I wanted to find out what a church was like and I sneaked secretly into a church at the danger of incurring the severest penalty, because among the Plymouth Brethren, even the idea of entering a church might have incurred damnation.”

Mr. Eddy (Mr. Crowley’s counsel): Have you at any time practised black magic—No.

What is the object of the magic you believe in?—My particular branch is the raising of humanity to high spiritual development.

Mr. Eddy asked Mr. Crowley why he indulged in German propaganda in America during the war.

Mr. Crowley: In order to destroy it. I reported my activities to the chief of our organization, Capt. (later Commodore) Guy Gaunt, and was in communication with the Hon. Everard Feilding. I came back immediately after the war, and if I had been a traitor I should have been shot—and a good job, too.

GERMAN ADMIRATION.

Carl [sic] Germer [Karl Germer], a German merchant, living in England, said that many people in Germany admired Mr. Crowley very highly. He had seen Mr. Crowley invoke the spirit of magnanimity.

Mr. Justice Swift: You are sure it was the spirit of magnanimity which came and not the spirit of hospitality?—I believe so.

The case for Mr. Crowley was concluded.

THE PUBLISHERS’ STAND

Mr. Malcolm Hilbery (for the printers and publishers) said the question for the jury was whether the passages in “Laughing Torso,” of which complaint was made, would be read by any reasonable person as worsening the character of Mr. Crowley. What right had a man who had for years been professing contempt for the standards or ordinary decency, to complain of injury to a reputation which he had written about himself as being that of the worst man in the world?