[excerpted from http://www.cris.com/~Amon1/satanism/watcher1.txt ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ALEISTER CROWLEY : SATANIST by 'Thelemite' --------------------------- HYMN TO LUCIFER -------------------------- Ware, nor of good nor ill, what aim hath act? Without its climax, death, what saviour hath Life? an impeccable machine, exact He paces an inane and pointless path To glut brute appetites, his sole content How tedious were he fit to comprehend Himself! More, this our noble element Of fire in nature, love in spirit, unkenned Life hath no spring, no axle, and no end. His body a blood-ruby radiant With noble passion, sun-souled Lucifer Swept through the dawn colossal, swift aslant On Eden's imbecile perimeter. He blessed nonentity with every curse And spiced with sorrow the dull soul of sense, Breathed life into the sterile universe, With Love and Knowledge drove out innocence The Key of Joy is disobedience. According to Israel Regardie, "anyone who says Crowley was a Satanist and a devil-worshipper should have his head examined." Crowley's own references to Satan are stated by Regardie as being due to his desire to shock, be defiant, sarcastic or witty. (Regardie, The Eye in the Triangle). Let us therefore consider the writings of Crowley himself to see whether the 'Satanism' of this remarkable personality can be so readily dismissed. Crowley's literary executor and biographer, John Symonds, writes: "Crowley's philosophy takes a bit from here and a bit from there... but... he was more a Satanist than anything else. 'I serve my great Master Satan', he wrote in one of his franker confessions, 'and that august Council composed of Beelzebub, Lucifuge, Asmodeus, Belphegor, Baal, Adrammelech, Lilith and Nahema.'" (John Symonds, The Great Beast). RESTORING DEVIL WORSHIP In his major work Magick in Theory & Practice, Crowley describes the manner in which Satan fits into his intricate cosmology: the Aeon of Horus, which he believed he was destined and chosen to proclaim to mankind, includes the formula FIAOF of which the 'O' component is "The exalted 'Devil' (also the other secret Eye {phallic worship}) by the formula of the initiates of Horus... This 'Devil' is called Satan or Shaitan, and regarded with horror by people who are ignorant of his formula... "... We have therefore no scruple in restoring the 'devil worship' of such ideas... "Thus the 'Devil' is Capricornus, the Goat who leaps upon the loftiest mountains, the Godhead which, became manifest in man, makes him Aegipan, the All." DEFINING THE DEVIL Crowley's conception of the 'Devil' is not too far removed from that of contemporary Satanists. Crowley states that "The Devil does not exist", but then goes on to explain that "The 'Devil' is, historically, the God of any people that one personally dislikes. This has led to so much confusion of though that the Beast 666 [Crowley] has preferred to let names stand as they are, and to proclaim simply that Aiwaz - solar-phallic-hermetic - 'Lucifer' - is his own Holy Guardian Angel {Higher Self} and 'the Devil' Satan or Hadit of our particular unit of the Starry Universe. This Serpent, Satan is not the enemy of man, but he who made gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil..." In his ritual for the Attainment of Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel, Crowley identifies himself as the servant of Satan, "the Devil, out Lord..." ... "whose number of magick is 666, the seal of his servant the Beast" (Crowley). The occult author Kenneth Grant, a former student of Crowley's and head of an English OTO lodge, comments that "this whole ritual is an invocation of Shaitan (Satan) or Set", Crowley's aim being union "with his Angel, Shaitan-Aiwaz." Satan is, in Crowley's cosmology, "the Sun-Father, the vibration of Life that Flames with this cosmic Energy", the solar-Phallic Current. In a ritual "to invoke the Energies of the Aeon of Horus, the ritual of the Mark of the Beast", the powers of ShT are called forth, ShT being Set/Satan/Shaitan, on which, writes Grant, "are concentrated the magical energies of the New Aeon." CULT OF SHAITAN Grant, in contradiction to Regardie, writes that Crowley's Thelemic philosophy (a synthesis of Nietzscheanism, Eastern and Western mysticism, gnosticism and mythology expressed in his own powerful poetical style) is Satanic or Shaitanic. Grant writes that Shaitan was the Chaldean form of the Egyptian Set. "The cult of Shaitan was established in Sumer by the prophet Yezid... Crowley... revived the cult of Shaitan or Set." (Grant, Outside The Circles of Time). It was Shaitan whom Crowley equated with Aiwaz, his own unconscious (Holy Guardian Angel); it was Baphomet, the idol of the Templars which Crowley adopted as one of his titles, which he equates with the 'Devil' (Crowley, 777 & Other Qabalistic Writings) and who but an inspired Satanist could write these powerful lines (?): "With my Hawk's head I peck at the eyes of Jesus as he hangs upon the cross. "I flap my wings in the face of Mohammed and blind him. "With my claws I tear out the flesh of the Indian and the Buddhist, Mongol and Din. "Bahlasti! Ompehda! I spit on your crapulous creeds. "Let Mary inviolate be torn upon wheels: for her sake let all chaste women be utterly despised among you!" (Liber AL). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- excerpted from "The Watcher", Jan/Feb/Mar 1990 e.v., Issue No. 1. originally edited by: Graeme Wilson 129 Scott Street Waverley Dunedin South Island New Zealand EOF