The Most Evil Secret Societies in History (5 page)

The book also names Crowley as the prophet of a New Aeon and, therefore, the supreme magical authority, over-ruling all others. Given Crowley's megalomaniac tendencies, it wasn't long before he gleefully reported this ‘promotion' to his onetime friend and Golden Dawn founder, Samuel Mathers. The result was instant warfare; a kind of magical duel in which it is said the two men cast spells over each other. Mathers was supposed to have sent an evil force to attack Crowley's hunting dogs, which he kept back in England, causing them to die as well as making Crowley's servants fall seriously ill. In retaliation, Crowley summoned the help of Beelzebub and his forty-nine servitor spirits, after which Mathers' attacks ceased and peace was restored.

By this time Rose had fallen pregnant and, on July 28, 1904, having returned to England, she gave birth to a daughter whom Crowley named Nuit Ma Ahathoor Hecate Sappho Jezebel Lilith. To explain himself Crowley wrote the following note:

Nuit was given in honor of our Lady of the Stars; Ma, goddess of justice, because the sign of Libra was rising; Ahathoor, goddess of Love and Beauty, because Venus rules Libra; I'm not sure about the name Hecate, but it may have been a compliment to the infernal gods; a poet could hardly do less than commemorate the only lady who ever wrote poetry, Sappho; Jezebel still held her place as my favorite character in Scripture; and Lilith, of course, holds undisputed possession of my affections in the realm of demons.

Perhaps due to the birth of his daughter, Crowley grew less and less interested in the realms of magic and in 1905 he decided to take part in a climbing expedition to Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas. The climb was to prove fatal for several members of the team but, seemingly unperturbed by these deaths, Crowley continued his travels through India then on to Japan and China, from where he went to North America before sailing back to England. It was not until his return that he learned of his daughter's death. Rose and Nuit had followed Crowley out to India for the first leg of his tour, but the little girl had contracted typhoid in Rangoon (now Yangon) and, although hospitalized, had died shortly afterwards.

Grieving the death of his daughter and increasingly estranged from Rose, who had begun to drink heavily, Crowley renewed a ‘magical collaboration' with an old friend of his from his time with the Golden Dawn, a man called George Cecil Jones. The two friends decided to form a new magical order, one whose driving force and leadership would be left in Crowley's capable hands and whose name was to be Argenteum Astrum or the A.
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A.
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In many respects the A.
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A.
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was a continuation of the Golden Dawn. Crowley and Jones reintroduced the Golden Dawn Neophyte Ritual, the purpose of which was ‘to transform the consciousness of the “Candidate” by severing the continuity of his life and directing him upon the hitherto invisible spiritual path.'
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Robed and blindfolded, the new recruit was led into a consecrated temple. He would then choose a motto, just as Crowley chose ‘Perdurabo' at his initiation, after which the candidate took an oath swearing that he would keep secret all the mysteries of the group. He was made to listen to various chants and instructions, before being asked to kneel. The blindfold was then removed and the candidate welcomed into the order.

One of the first men to undergo this ritual was Captain John Frederick Charles Fuller who joined the A.
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A.
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in 1906, taking the magical name of Per Ardua Ad Astra, ‘through effort to the stars.'

Meanwhile, Rose, having fallen pregnant for a second time, gave birth to another daughter, this time named Lola Zaza. Due to Rose's heavy drinking, Crowley had all but left the family home and set himself up in a bachelor flat where he entertained several lovers, two of whom, Ada Leverson and Vera Snepp, were written about extensively in his poetry. But Crowley's verses weren't the only writing he produced during this period for, in 1907, what later became known as the Holy Books began to be ‘received' much as had happened with
The Book of the Law
. Crowley claimed to write the texts as though they were dictated from another dimension through a type of unconscious channeling of ideas. At the same time, he also produced what he considered one of his finest works, a satirical drama called
The World's Tragedy,
in the preface to which he expounded some of his more outrageous theories. It included a defence of sodomy in the context that ‘there seems no better way to avoid the contamination of woman and the morose pleasures of solitary vice. (Not that women themselves are unclean. It is the worship of them as ideals that rots the soul).'
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The preface also contains a reference to the seduction of young boys (Crowley had always been attracted to men as well as to women and through his life conducted several homosexual affairs), indeed one of his main goals during this period was the recruitment of such into the A.
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A.
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Both he and Fuller traveled to Oxford and Cambridge Universities with the intention of signing up new members, one of whom Crowley immediately fell in love with, a man by the name of Victor Neuberg (whose chosen A.
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A.
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soubriquet was Omnia Vincam meaning ‘I shall conquer all'.) The hapless Neuberg thereafter followed Crowley to Paris (where the latter was living temporarily), where a bizarre type of sexual initiation took place.

The design of this ceremonial seal was commissioned by Aleister Crowley for use in rituals performed by members of his Argenteum Astrum, or Silver Star, secret society.

Neuberg had confessed to Crowley that he was a virgin, a confession that prompted Crowley to devise a devious plan, ensuring that ever afterward he, Crowley, would be Neuberg's sexual master. The plan involved a woman with whom Crowley had been conducting an affair, Euphemia Lamb (wife of the artist Henry Lamb.) Crowley encouraged his young student to fall in love with Euphemia and eventually propose to her after which Crowley persuaded Neuberg that he had to visit a prostitute so that he at least knew the rudiments of sex. After this was accomplished, Crowley, pretending that he knew nothing of Neuberg and Euphemia's engagement, advised the student to tell Euphemia of his sexual infidelity, a confession which prompted the ‘wronged' Euphemia to reject her suitor outright. Neuberg was understandably distraught, but three days later Crowley engineered an even worse turn of events for he had Neuberg visit his bedroom where the young man witnessed Euphemia in a state of complete undress sitting on Crowley's bed. Naturally, his vision of the purity of womanhood was shattered forever, and Crowley had proved himself Neuberg's sexual superior. It was a tough lesson, but it was only the first in a long line of brutalities Neuberg was to suffer.

Over the following few months, Crowley forced Neuberg to follow a course of vigils and fasts after which he insisted that he and his student should travel through Spain and Morocco on foot. Neuberg then took a Vow of Holy Obedience to Crowley. One can only imagine how arduous this journey was, both mentally and physically, but during this time Crowley and Neuberg, master and student, began a sexual relationship.

It was also during these long, unbroken walks that Crowley decided to set up a magazine whose central aim was the promotion of Argenteum Astrum. Called
The Equinox
, and published twice yearly at the spring and winter equinoxes, the magazine was devoted to ‘magic, yoga and other mystical disciplines'
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with most of the articles penned by Crowley while Captain Fuller, as Crowley's trusted second-in-command, contributed many of the illustrations.

Crowley also channeled his energies into a recruitment drive, much of which centered around Cambridge University. As well as persuading Victor Neuberg to become his disciple, he also recruited two other students into the order, Kenneth Ward and Norman Mudd. The Senior Dean of Trinity College, the Reverend R. St. J. Parry, however, was furious at what he saw as Crowley's poaching of his pupils, not to mention the content of Crowley's teachings which he regarded as highly contentious. Parry banned Crowley from entering the college and demanded that Mudd and Ward sever all ties with their ‘spiritual' leader.

Never one to be cowed by figures of authority, Crowley instead concentrated his efforts on Neuberg, retiring with him to his house in Scotland, Boleskin, where he lived with Rose, but where he now set Neuberg further tasks and tests. Most of these involved solitary confinement within his bedroom, the only interruptions being the serving of meals brought by Crowley himself. Understandably, many commentators have condemned the abusive, ultimately sadomasochistic nature of such a relationship, with Crowley quite literally in control of Neuberg's life. Critics have also pointed out that Crowley and his student no doubt had sexual relations during this period, and it is also probable that Neuberg's final test as a Probationer wanting to attain full membership of Argenteum Astrum was the performance of a sacred sexual act with his teacher. Whatever the case, there is evidence that Neuberg at times found Crowley's methods unnecessarily vicious. On more than one occasion he scourged Neuberg on his back and buttocks with a gorse switch and also a bunch of nettles.

My worthy Guru is quite unnecessarily rude and brutal, I know not why. Probably he does not know himself. He is apparently brutal merely to amuse himself and to pass the time away. Anyhow I won't stick it any more.

It seems to me unnecessary and brutal rudeness is the prerogative of a cad of the lowest type […] It is ungenerous also to abuse one's position as a Guru:

It is like striking an inferior who will be ruined if he dares to retaliate.
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At the end of Neuberg's first period of solitary confinement, far from allowing his student any respite, his Guru announced a further ten days' physical discomfort during which Neuberg was to stay naked in his room with only a bed of gorse to sleep on.

With all this happening, it is hard to believe Crowley had time to concentrate on other matters but it was also during this period that he divorced Rose, whose alcoholism had grown out of all control. Rose was later committed to an asylum, although once out of Crowley's clutches she did recover and, on her release, remarried.

Meanwhile, Crowley and his main disciple, Neuberg, took a trip to Northern Africa where they continued their master/servant relationship while studying and writing together. On their return, Crowley continued working on
The Equinox
whose offices at 124 Victoria Street in London also served as a meeting place for the A.
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A.
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, where everyone would gather together to talk, drink and experiment with drugs. Perhaps as a rebuttal of his homosexual affair with Neuberg, Crowley also took several female lovers, most of whom were members of the group and, therefore, open to much the same types of abuse as Neuberg had been.

Unconcerned about the growing criticism of his activities, Crowley now determined to stage a play,
The Rites of Eleusis,
whose main aim was the merging of poetry, dance, magic ritual and music into a vehicle that would heighten the consciousness of all those involved. A second reason for staging
The Rites
was to expand the membership of the A.
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, for in recent months numbers had dropped and Crowley's personal finances were looking somewhat unhealthy. Nevertheless, by staging the play in public and in full view of the British press, Crowley was opening himself not only to ridicule, but to outrage. One tabloid newspaper published four articles attacking both the play and its producer. The
Looking Glass
was a racing paper, edited by West De Wend Fenton who made it his duty to expose Crowley, warts and all.

Remember the doctrine which we have endeavored faintly to outline, remember the long periods of complete darkness – remember the dances and the heavily scented atmosphere, the avowed object of which is to produce what Crowley terms an ‘ecstasy' – and then say if it is fitting and right that young girls and married women should be allowed to attend such performances under the guise of the cult of a new religion.
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If this review was scathing, those that followed were even worse, for in part three of his exposé Fenton, referring back to Crowley's days with the Golden Dawn sect, accused him of engaging in ‘unmentionable immoralities' with Allan Bennett (Crowley's one-time mentor and friend). Another Golden Dawn member mentioned in the same paragraph was George Cecil Jones, a married man with four children who was employed as an analytical chemist by a highly respectable company. Naturally the implication was that Jones was also a homosexual, engaged in ‘unmentionable immoralities,' and indeed it was Jones who eventually decided to sue the
Looking Glass
for defamation of character.