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THE HULL DAILY MAIL Hull, Yorkshire, England 12 April 1934 (Page 10)
AUTHOR-MAGICIAN’S LIBEL SUIT.
MAGICIAN REFUSES TO GIVE DISPLAY IN COURT.
UNSEEN FORCES.
Mr. Crowley Admits Study of “Black Magic.”
HIS CHILDHOOD LIFE.
An invitation to give a display of magic in court was made to Aleister Crowley, the author, in the King’s Bench Division to-day during the hearing of the “black magic” libel action.
Mr. Crowley was also invited by counsel to make himself invisible, as he claimed to be able to do.
Both invitations were refused, and the judge stated that he could not have his court turned into a temple.
Mr. Crowley is claiming damages against Miss Nina Hamnett, authoress of a book entitled “Laughing Torso,” and Messrs Constable and Co., Ltd., the publishers, and Messrs 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.
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). 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.
CLAIM TO BECOME 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?
Mr. Crowley: 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 (Mr. Crowley’s counsel) next asked Mr. Crowley 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.”
TO LOOK AT GIRL AN OFFENCE
“How old were you?” asked Mr. Eddy.
“I was a boy 15 or 16,” 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 offence and dealt with in the most severe way.”
Mr. Crowley’s family were Plymouth Brethren.
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: Have you at any time practiced black magic—No.
What is the object of the magic you believe in?—My particular branch is the raising of humanity to Higher spiritual development. |