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THE DAILY TELEGRAPH London, England 13 April 1934
MR. CROWLEY INVITED TO TRY HIS MAGIC IN COURT.
COUNSEL ASKS HIM TO MAKE HIMSELF INVISIBLE.
WOMAN DESCRIBES SCENES IN HIS SICILIAN VILLA.
A challenge to practice magic in court on a K.C., or to make himself invisible, was a feature of the resumed cross-examination of Mr. Aleister Crowley, the author, when his libel action was continued before Mr. Justice Swift and a special jury in the King’s Bench Division yesterday.
Mr. Crowley claims damages against Miss Nina Hamnett, authoress of a book entitled Laughing Torso, Messrs. Constable and Co. Ltd., the publishers, and Messrs. Charles Whittingham and Briggs, the printers. He complains that the book imputed that he practised “Black Magic.” The defence is a plea of justification.
Mr. Martin O’Connor (for Miss Hamnett), resuming his cross-examination invited Mr. Crowley to try his magic in court.
“You said yesterday,” Mr. O’Connor continued, “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. Malcolm Hilbery, K.C.), counsel for the publishers and printers. I am sure he will not object.”
“I would not attack anyone,” replied Mr. Crowley, “I have never done willful harm to any human being.”
Mr. Justice Swift: We cannot turn this court into a temple, Mr. O’Connor.
Mr. O’Connor (to plaintiff): On a later occasion you said you succeeded in rendering yourself invisible. Would you like to try that on now? 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 “magic circle” ceremonies at the villa at Cefalù. Mr. Crowley denied that a cat was killed in the ceremony, and that part of the cat’s blood was drunk.
“ROAMING THE HEATHER”
Re-examined by Mr. J. P. Eddy, Mr. Crowley said, no objection had ever been taken on moral grounds to any of his books “except the disgraceful attack on my Drug Fiend [The Diary of a Drug Fiend] book, which was published by one of the strictest publishers from the moral point of view.”
Mr. Eddy asked Mr. Crowley about a passage in his Confessions [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley] (concerning which he had been cross-examined), and said it referred to a village girl with whom he “went roaming amid the heather.” Mr. Crowley said he was then a boy of 15 or 16. It was forty years ago.
“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 has stated that his family were Plymouth Brethren.)
Mr. Justice Swift: How long ago is it since you published an account of it?—The date of the publication is 1929.
Mr. Justice Swift: As late as 1929 you were publishing these stories as interesting incidents about your life?—As instructive incidents.
Mr. Justice Swift: As instructive as what?—I must tell your lordship I regard life as a sacred trust. We all of us have to find ourselves spiritual truth, and many of us make great errors. I do not believe that any human being has been free from error. Many waste their lives hopelessly, but those who earnestly aspire to God are led to Him and all their early errors are excused.
GERMAN PROPAGANDA
Mr. Crowley said he studied “Black Magic” as a student.
“I was just coming out from years of abominable torture,” he said, “I wanted to find out what a church was like, and I sneaked 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 practised “Black Magic”?—No.
When Mr. Eddy was referring to Mr. Crowley’s alleged German propaganda in America during the war Mr. Justice Swift said: “When he was writing in America he was writing for American citizens and carrying out the old adage, ‘What you should do in Rome.’ But, in 1933 he had come back to this country, and not only was the war over but he was about to appeal to the ‘burgesses and churls.’ “. (A reference to one of Mr. Crowley’s poems.)
Mr. Eddy: If there was German propaganda why did you indulge in it?—To destroy it I reported my activities to the chief of our organisation, Capt. (later Commodore) Guy Grant, and was in communication with the Hon. Everard Fielding. I came back immediately after the war, and if I had been a traitor I should have been shot, and a good job, too.
JUDGE ASKS: “WHAT IS MAGIC?” MR. CROWLEY EXPLAINS
Mr. Crowley was about to leave the witness-box when Mr. Justice Swift asked him to tell the Court “The shortest and, at the same time, 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.
If the object of the control is good, then it is White Magic?—Yes.
If the object of control is bad, then it is Black Magic?—Yes.
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 power. In that case it is possible to control evil spirits or bind spirits for a good purpose, as we might if we use the dangerous elements of fire and electricity for heating and lighting, &c.
INVOKING SPIRITS
The next witness, Carl Germer [Karl Germer], said he was a German, at present living in this country. He said he had known Mr. Crowley since 1925, and Mr. Crowley was his guest in Germany for several months.
Mr. Constantine Gallop (one of Mr. Crowley’s counsel): Do you believe there is Black Magic?—Yes.
Mr. Martin O’Connor (cross-examining): Have you ever seen Mr. Crowley invoke spirits?—Yes, the Spirit of Magnanimity.
Mr. Justice Swift: Can you point to any difference between the Spirit of Magnanimity and the Spirit of Hospitality?—I believe so. I think that is very easy.
Mr. O’Connor: Where did it come from? How long did it stay? Where did it go to? Tell me: Where did it come from first?—It probably came from Heaven: I don’t know.
I look upon this as an arch-piece of imposture. Where did it go to after the visit?—I don’t know where it went to. “I have seen him (Mr. Crowley) invoking the Sun,” said Mr. Germer, later.
What was the result of the invocation?—Nothing.
This concluded the plaintiff’s case.
WOMAN VISITOR TO CROWLEY’S VILLA CEREMONIES & SACRIFICE
Opening the defence of the publishers and the printers, Mr. Malcolm Hilbery, K.C., 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 of which he has written himself as being that of “the Worst Man in the World.”
The first witness for the defence, Mrs. Betty Sedgwick [Betty May], said she was formerly the wife of Frederick Charles Loveday, who had been referred to in the case as Raoul Loveday.
She was married to him in 1922. Shortly afterwards they met Mr. Crowley, and up to the end of 1922 Mr. Loveday saw Mr. Crowley from time to time, with her very strong disapproval. They went to Sicily at the end of 1922, though she did not wish to go. “I had to go with my young husband as I had only just married,” witness added.
Mrs. Sedgwick said they arrived at the villa at Cefalù about seven o’clock one evening, when it was dark. She continued:
“Raoul knocked at the door. Crowley came to the door just as it was opened, and said, ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.’
“Raoul answered, ‘Love is the law, love under will.’
“Crowley said to me, ‘Will you say it?’ I said, ‘I will not.”
“Crowley said, ‘You cannot come into the Abbey unless you conform to the rules of the Abbey.’ This is the beginning: the first rule of the Abbey. I had eventually to make the reply. Then I was admitted.”
“IMPROPER” PAINTINGS
Describing one part of the villa, Mrs. Sedgwick said there were five triangular boxes painted in various colors on the floor. On the floor also was a large red circle, with a pentagram in the centre. In the centre of the pentagram was an altar. There were many figures on the walls.
“They were extremely improper paintings,” Mrs. Sedgwick added.
Crowley showed her a book, she said, and asked her to sign, as they had to conform to the rules—very odd rules.
“I refused to sign. My husband did. I was ordered out of the Abbey unless I signed the book. I had no money. Ultimately I had to sign.”
Mr. Lilley (for the publishers and printers): Where did you sleep that night?—I was told I had always, from that moment, to sleep by myself in a room next to Crowley’s bed room.
Mrs. Sedgwick then continued:
“The rules for the day were typed by the secretary of the Abbey and pinned on the door. We knew they came from Crowley.
“There was only one big ceremony at the villa, and that was for money. It lasted about twenty-four hours.
“About half-past five in the morning the household were aroused and had to go out and face the sun. It was called ‘Adoration.’ Between four and 4:30 every day the children had to stand and put their hands up to the sun.
“The evening ceremony was the great thing of the day. Crowley slept the whole day and lived at night. We had high tea, and Crowley would come and ask for a pail of water to wash his hands. After tea, during the Pentagram ceremony, the women sat on boxes in the circle.”
“People assembled in the room. In one corner was a chair in which Mr. Crowley sat in front of a brazier in which incense was burned. Passes were made with a sword, and then Crowley would go up with the sword and breathe a person into him, and then out of him. There was a Scarlet Woman who wore under her robe a jeweled snake.
“There was a sort of hysterical business. They called on gods. There was an invocation which was first of all done in English. It was done in a room that had two long closed doors. There were two narrow beds. On one there was Mr. Crowley’s sleeping bag. There were enormous paintings in the room.”
Mr. Lilley: What was it like?—It was terrible.
Do you mean it was indecent?—Most.
Was there a rule about the use of a particular word?—Yes, the word “I.” Raoul was told he was on no account to use the word “I.” If he did he was to cut himself in order to remember.
SACRIFICE OF A CAT
Did you see any sacrifice at all?—I saw a very big sacrifice, a terrible sacrifice, the sacrifice of a cat in the Temple inside the circle and on the altar.
Mrs. Sedgwick said the cat had scratched Mr. Crowley, who declared it would be sacrificed within three days. She continued:
“Everybody was excited because they were going to have the big sacrifice. Mr. Crowley had a knife with a long handle. It was not very sharp.
“The cat was crying piteously in its bag. It was taken out of the bag and my husband had to kill the cat. The knife was blunt and the cat got out of the circle. That was bad for magical work.
“They had to start all over again, with the cat having such a gash in its neck that they could have killed it shortly.
“Finally they killed the cat, and my young husband had to drink a cup of the cat’s blood.”
Mr. Eddy (cross-examining): I suggest you have given evidence which is untrue, and which you know to be untrue?—No.
How many time have you been married?—I think four times.
How many times have you been divorced?—Three.
Before you went to Cefalù, were you a decent citizen or not?—I was, I think. Yes, of course I was.
You have written a book called Tiger Woman?—Yes.
Does it purport to be an autobiography of yourself?—Yes.
Is it true?—My whole early life and my latter life is very true, but there is one little thing that is untrue.
Are you here because you wanted to make money out of this case and to sell your evidence?—But I have been subpoenaed to come here.
The cross-examination of Mrs. Sedgwick was not completed when the hearing was adjourned until to-day. |