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THE PORTSMOUTH EVENING NEWS Portsmouth, Hampshire, England 12 April 1934 (page 9)
AUTHOR AND BLACK MAGIC
DROPPED HIS PLYMOUTH BRETHREN PRACTICES
HIS LIBEL ACTION
DENIAL OF TREACHERY IN THE WAR
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 from Messrs. Constable and Company, Ltd., the publishers, and Messrs. Charles Whittingham and Briggs, the printers.
Miss Hamnett, it has been states, was once a student with the plaintiff.
Refusal of Court Display
London, Thursday. 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 at Cefalu, Sicily, which was known as the “Abbey of Thelema.” He denied that he practiced “black magic” there.
In evidence he admitted that he called himself “Beast 666” and “The Master Therium” (The Great Wild Beast)—both out of the Apocalypse. Miss Hamnett was once a student of his, but he denied that he supplied any of the information on which she based the statement in the book, of which he complained. He also denied that a baby mysteriously disappeared, as the defence alleged, from the “Abbey of Thelema.”
Mr. 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, K.C.). 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.
Making Himself 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 as 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 (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.”
“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 offence, and was dealt with in the most severe way.” (Mr. Crowley’s family were Plymouth Brethren).
“Years of Abominable 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: 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.
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, 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.
Spirit of Magnanimity
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.
Case for the Publishers
Mr. Malcolm Hilbery (for the publishers and printers), said the question for the jury was whether the passages in “Laughing Torso,” of which the 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 of ordinary decency to complain if injury to a reputation which he had written about himself as being that of the worst man in the world? |