THE LIVERPOOL ECHO

Liverpool, Lancashire, England

12 April 1934

(Page 12)

“Black” & “White” Differences.

GUARDIAN ANGEL.

Controlling the Evil Spirits.

INVITATION DECLINED.

Mr. Aleister Crowley.

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 damaged 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 had 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 practised “black magic” there.

Miss Hamnett was once a student of his, but he denied that he supplied any of the information on which she based the statements in the book of which he complained.

He also denied that a baby mysteriously disappeared, as the defence alleged, from the “Abbey of Thelema.”

TRY IT ON MR. HILBERY

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.

 “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 not cat, no animal, no blood, and no drinking,” he declared.

Mr. Eddy 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.

“A TERRIBLE OFFENCE”

“How old were you,” asked Mr. Eddy.

“I was a boy, 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 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.

RAISING HUMANITY

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 higher 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 organisation. Captain—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.

Mr. Crowley said he merely kept opium and strychnine in his medicine chest for medicinal purposes when travelling in the tropics. He did not keep it for any magical purposes.

JUDGE’S QUESTIONS

When Mr. Crowley’s evidence was concluded, and he was about to leave the witness-box, Mr. Justice Swift asked him to tell the court “the shortest and at the same time most comprehensive definition of magic which he knew.”

Mr. Crowley.—Magic is the science of the art of causing change to occur in conformity with the will. White magic is if the will is righteous, and black magic is if the will is perverse.

Mr. Justice Swift.—Does that involve the invocation of spirits?—It may do so. It does involve the invocation of the holy guardian angel who is appointed by Almighty God to watch over each of us.

Then it does involve invocation of the spirits?—Of one spirit. God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Is it, in your view, the art of controlling spirits so as to affect the course of events?—That is part of magic—one small branch.

When the object of control is bad, what spirits do you invoke?—You cannot invoke evil spirits. You must evoke them and call them out.

When the object is bad you evoke evil spirits?—Yes. You put yourself in their power. In that case, it is possible to control evil spirits or blind spirits for a good purpose, as we might if we use the dangerous elements of fire and electricity for heating and lighting, etc.

JUDGE AND SPIRITS

Carl 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.