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TAARP -
In Praise of Aleister Crowley
In Block 10: Why TAARP Is Unique I give examples of why I think Aleister Crowley is the great genius in the area of the Occult Sciences. Also, in Appendix E of The First TAARP Technical Report (see Section E1.0, Section E2.1, Section E2.2, and Section E3.0) I give some indications of my respect for him. However, it is in Block 10: Why TAARP Is Unique and Block 7: The TAARP Sidereal Zodiac that I have focused on his truly exceptional character, which deals with his esoteric knowledge and wisdom. In this block I will try to succinctly present the reasons for my high regard for him.
Only when you realize that there is a science of the Spirit will you understand why Aleister Crowley is so important an individual. His writings on the occult sciences are as involved and difficult as Einstein's are on physics. I don't say this casually. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology and I took a few courses in graduate mathematics at Ohio State University. A few years ago I decided to try to fathom the essence of Einstein's general theory of relativity. I spent a few hours a day for 6 months on it. I think I caught a glimpse of the central concepts. The going was very difficult for two reasons. In the first place I am not very intelligent. Whatever I get out of anything technical I work very hard for. In the second place, general relativity is very difficult because the mathematics required to understand it, which is called tensor calculus and differential geometry, is most nontrivial.
If you don't have a good background of detailed knowledge of depth psychology, comparative religion, ancient mythology, and philosophy you will not get very far with Aleister Crowley. In fact, detailed familiarity with the writings of Carl Jung is almost a necessity for approaching Crowley. Carl Jung is to Aleister Crowley as arithmetic is to calculus. To have any chance of appreciating Crowley you must be at least relatively intelligent and fairly creative, have a firm appreciation of the method of science, have a natural inclination for the mystical and the magickal, and have the warrior spirit. You must live with Crowley's works for years in order to appreciate them. The best place to start is his autobiography "The Confessions of Aleister Crowley." I am very ignorant of his many literary works, but I am quite familiar with his technical writings and recommend the following for careful study:
I am only aquatinted with two authors who show any appreciation of Crowley. Israel Regardie in "The Eye In the Triangle" does all right in terms of some of his general comments, but Kenneth Grant is the only author I know about who seems to have a real in-depth understanding of Crowley. The Grant books that I recommend are:
The Ordo Templi Orientis , (or OTO), is involved with promulgating the ideas and works of Aleister Crowley. The OTO has a good website on the Internet.
For 3 years Crowley studied chemistry at Cambridge University in England. He was a member of the semi-secret occult society "The Order of the Golden Dawn". He traveled the earth studying the secret teachings of the ages of many different cultures. He was a renowned mountain climber. Most importantly of all he is one of those most rare individuals who are capable of direct communication with the forces of the Universe that reveal to mankind the more exalted features of existence. In other words, Crowley has initiated wisdom. He has been initiated into many mysteries.
I have read and/or studied many books on the occult sciences by many different authors. There is just a whole world of difference between them and Crowley. Almost all of the others are childish, immature, shallow, and simply full of technical errors, such as "the pentagram is a symbol of peace and calm," when in fact the pentagram is one of the primary symbols of force and fire. Crowley has the benefit of personal experiential wisdom, phenomenal genius, high creativity, the warrior spirit, and the knowledge and wisdom that has came down through the ages in certain occult organizations such as "The Order of the Golden Dawn" and "The Ordo Templi Orientis".
I have studied and/or read many books on natal astrology. I was particularly impressed by Liz Greene, Alan Leo, and Dane Rudgar, but they are far below Crowley in terms of the depth and comprehensiveness of their knowledge of astrology.
As I detail in Block 12: The Corridors of Time (Itself), I have had numerous numinous experiential encounters with what Carl Jung would call archetypes of the collective unconscious and others call Gods and Goddesses or cosmic forces, and so I am a bit familiar with the power of revealed wisdom and initiated knowledge. These kinds of experiences are how the most potent information about the Universe come to mankind. You can read book after book about what the meaning is of the planetary cosmic essence that the Greeks called Hermes, the Romans called Mercury, and the Egyptians called Thoth, but it is only when you have personal encounters with Mercury either in dreams or hallucinations (produced with ritual Magick) that you come to really grasp the meaning of that parameter of natal astrology called "Mercury". I have had many such encounters in my dreams. Crowley had many, many such encounters and a large number of them were in stark, living, wide-awake consciousness resulting from detailed Magickal ceremonies.
I will now relate why there is no doubt in my mind that the two books "Astrology, Your Place Among the Stars" (henceforth called "Stars") and "Astrology, Your Place in the Sun (henceforth called "Sun") are in fact the work of Aleister Crowley and not Evangeline Adams. Note that these two books carry her name as the author and make no mention of Aleister Crowley.
As of 1990 I did not know that Crowley had written any books on natal astrology. I had been seriously studying his technical works for 20 years. In about 1991 or 1992 I discovered his book "The Complete Astrological Writings of Aleister Crowley" (henceforth called "CAW"), which is far from being a complete treatise on natal astrology. While reading it there was no doubt in my mind that it was vintage Aleister Crowley. A few years later I was in touch with Mr. William Heidrich, the Grand Treasurer of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), which is an occult organization with an ancient heritage. The OTO is the primary organization in the world that is involved with the promulgation of Crowley's works and ideas. I asked Bill if he knew of any astrology books by Crowley other than "CAW". He then told me about "Stars" and "Sun", and referred to them as the Adams/Crowley books. If I remember correctly Bill said that the OTO estimates that Crowley produced about 95% of the material in the two books and Evangeline Adams was responsible for the other 5%. Most fortunately Bill had typed both books onto the internet and so my partner, Glenn Johnson, was able to download them into our computer. Having these two books in our computer has been a very critical aspect of our research. Thank you most sincerely, Bill!!
It was immediately obvious that the same author wrote "Stars", "Sun", and "CAW". Not only do all three books use the same set of 100 famous people as examples for demonstrating astrological principles, many of the sections in "Stars" and "CAW" are word for word identical.
Crowley says in his autobiography, "The Confessions of Aleister Crowley", that during his prolonged stay in America he agreed with Evangeline Adams that they would together write a book (or some books) on astrology, but she tried to cheat him out of his share of the profits and so he broke off their relationship.
The other piece of evidence that confirms for me that Crowley is the primary author by far of "Stars" and "Sun" deals with other books that Adams has authored, such as "The Bowl of Heaven". The style and content of "The Bowl of Heaven" is very dramatically of a lesser caliber than "Stars" and "Sun", so much so that I am pretty sure it would be a vain and futile effort for anyone to try to argue that she wrote "Stars" and "Sun" for one audience and "The Bowl of Heaven" for another audience.
Note: The above was written in December 2000. The OTO under the editorship of Hymanaeus Beta has subsequently produced a book, "The General Principles of Astrology", which is comprised of "Sun", "Stars", and "CAW". As presented in Block 15: TAARP's Critique of the Crowley/Adams Book "The General Principles of Astrology", edited by Hymanaeus Beta, Frater Superior, O.T.O., I seriously DISAGREE with the editing done by Hymanaeus Beta.
