THE WESTERN MAIL AND SOUTH WALES NEWS

Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales

13 April 1934

(page 5)

BLACK MAGIC DEFINED.

Mr. Crowley’s Court Explanation.

“CAUSING CHANGED TO OCCUR.”

When the “Black Magic” libel case was resumed in the King’s Bench Division on Thursday, Mr. Aleister Crowley, the plaintiff, was invited to try his magic and to make himself invisible in court.

Mr. Aleister Crowley, the author, is claiming damages 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 practised black magic, and he said this was a libel upon him.

The defence was a plea of justification.

Mr. Martin O’Connor, in making the suggestion with regard to Mr. Crowley’s claim to be able to achieve invisibility, said, “If you don’t I shall denounce you as an imposter,” to which Mr. Crowley replied, “You can ask me to do what you like; it won’t alter the truth.”

In further cross-examination Mr. Crowley denied that at his villa in Sicily [Abbey of Thelema] a cat was killed in the course of a ceremony and its blood drunk.

Asked about black magic, Mr. Crowley said he studied it as a student.

“At that time,” he added, “I was coming out from years of torture.”

BLACK MAGIC DEFINED.

Before Mr. Crowley left the witness-box Mr. Justice Swift asked him for the shortest yet comprehensive definition of magic.

“Magic,” replied Mr. Crowley, “is a science or art of causing change to occur in conformity with the will. White magic is if that will is righteous, while black magic is if the will is perverse.”

Mr. Justice Swift: Does it 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 us.

Mr. Justice Swift: Is it in your view the art of controlling spirits so as to effect the course of events?—That is a part of magic; one branch.

Mr. Justice Swift: If the object of the control is good then it is white magic?—Yes.

Mr. Justice Swift: And if the object of the control is bad, then it is black magic?—Yes.

Mr. Malcolm Hilbery (for the printers and publishers) 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.

The hearing was adjourned.