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THE DAILY MIRROR London, England 12 April 1934 (Page 9)
AUTHOR CLAIMS MAGIC POWER.
Aleister Crowley Tells Court How He Made Himself Invisible.
SCARE AT A LONDON FLAT.
Remarkable claims to magical power which enabled him to become invisible were made by Mr. Aleister Crowley, the author, in the King’s Bench Division yesterday.
Mr. Crowley is suing Miss Nina Hamnett, authoress of a book entitled “Laughing Torso,” for alleged libel. He complains that passages in the book imputed that he practiced “black magic.” The defence is a plea of justification.
It was stated that one passage in the book referred to a temple Mr. Crowley was said to have in Cefalu, Sicily, where he was supposed to practice black magic. Actually, said Mr. Crowley’s counsel, he had been fighting black magic for years.
Mr. Crowley was yesterday further cross-examined by Mr. Hilbery, K.C., for the publishers and printers of the book, who are also defendants to the action.
When counsel asked about certain of his poems, Mr. Crowley exclaimed: “I should like to be hailed as the greatest living poet.”
Mr. Hilbery: Would it be true to say this book contains disgusting poems?—It depends upon your views.
“WORST MAN IN WORLD”
Counsel next quoted from an article contributed by Mr. Crowley to a newspaper: “I have been shot at with broad arrows; they have called me the worst man in the world.”
Plaintiff said he meant that his principal assailant was sent to penal servitude.
Mr. Hilbery (quoting): “They have accused me of everything from murdering women and throwing them into the Seine to drug selling.”
Mr. Crowley: I hear a new canard about me every week.
You now bring an action for damage to your reputation of being the worst man in the world?—I also have the reputation of being the best man in the world.
Counsel read quotations from an article in which Mr. Crowley described phenomena which occurred in his flat in Chancery-lane.
Mr. Crowley agreed that he had constructed a temple or hall of mirrors in the flat. People passing fell down suddenly in fits and the flat was without a tenant for years after he had left it.
Mr. Hilbery: It was your magic that brought about all these things?—It was magic that did it. I was trying to learn how to do something and I made a lot of blunders.
HUMAN SACRIFICE
Another passage which Mr. Hilbery referred to described how Mr. Crowley conducted his first experiment in becoming invisible.
“By invoking the God of Silence” (counsel quoted), “I gradually got to the stage where my reflection began to flicker like the images of one of the old-fashioned cinemas. I never disappeared completely.
“I was able to walk out of my house in a scarlet robe and a crown on my head without attracting any attention. They couldn’t see me.”
“Was that true?” asked Mr. Hilbery. “Yes,” said Mr. Crowley.
Mr. Hilbery: You believe as a magician in bloody sacrifice?—No, not in the sense that you mean it, evidently.
Mr. Crowley afterwards admitted that he believed in the efficacy of bloody sacrifice, but he did not approve of it.
You say, “For nearly all purposes human sacrifice is best”?—Yes, it is.
The hearing was adjourned till to-day. |