Aleister Crowley in Paris: Sex, Art, and Magick in the City of Light

Description

Examines Aleister Crowley's 30-year-long intimate association with Paris * Investigates the tales of Crowley "raising Pan," going mad, and working gay sex magick in Paris * Uncovers Crowley's involvement in the Belle Epoque with sculptor Auguste Rodin and other artists and in the 1920s with Berenice Abbott, Nancy Cunard, Man Ray, Andre Gide, and Aimee Crocker * Reveals Crowley's "expulsion" from Paris in 1929 as a high-level conspiracy against Crowley Exploring occultist, magician, poet, painter, and writer Aleister Crowley's longstanding and intimate association with Paris, Tobias Churton provides the first detailed account of Crowley's activities in the City of Light. Using previously unpublished letters and diaries, Churton explores how Crowley was initiated into the Golden Dawn's Inner Order in Paris in 1900 and how, in 1902, he relocated to Montparnasse. Soon engaged to Anglo-Irish artist Eileen Gray, Crowley pontificates and parties with English, American, and French artists gathered around sculptor Auguste Rodin: all keen to exhibit at Paris's famed Salon d'Automne. In 1904-still dressed as "Prince Chioa Khan" and recently returned from his Book of the Law experience in Cairo-Crowleydines with novelist Arnold Bennett at Paillard's. In 1908 Crowley is back in Paris to prove it's possible to attain Samadhi (or "knowl edge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel") while living a modern life in a busy metropolis. In 1913 he organizes a demonstra tion for artistic and sexual freedom at Oscar Wilde's tomb. Until war spoils all in 1914, Paris is Crowley's playground. The author details how, after returning from America in 1920, and though based at his "Abbey of Thelema" in Sicily, Crowley can't leave Paris alone. When Mussolini expels him from Italy, Paris becomes his home from 1924 until 1929. Churton reveals Crowley's part in the jazz-age explosion of modernism, as the lover of photographer Berenice Abbott and many others, and how he enjoyed camaraderie with Man Ray, Nancy Cunard, Andre Gide, and Aimee Crocker. The author explores Crowley's adventures in Tunisia, Algeria, the Riviera,his battle with heroin addiction, his relation ship with daughter Astarte Lulu-raised at Cefalu-and finally, a high-level ministerial conspiracy to get him out of Paris. Reconstructing Crowley's heyday in the last decade and a half of France's Belle Epoque and the "roaring Twenties," this book illuminates Crowley's place within the artistic, literary, and spiritual ferment of the great City of Light.

Tobias Churton is an authority on Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Freemasonry, and Rosicrucianism. Appointed Honorary Fellow of Exeter University in 2005, he is the author of many books, including Aleister Crowley in England and Aleister Crowley in America. He lives in the heart of England.

"This final installment of Churton's expansive and detailed exposition on Aleister Crowley's life, work, and milieu is a treasure trove of new information and startling revelations. Scrupulously researched and exquisitely written, Churton's complete six-volume biography of Crowley confirms his position as one of the most insightful, respected, and eloquent scholars on Frater Perdurabo to ever put pen to paper. Aleister Crowley in Paris is a delight." * John Zorn, composer * "The young Crowley was in with the 'in crowd' in Paris and knew everyone it seems, who then, like him, became one of the characters that creatively shaped the last century. He was engaged to the great Eileen Gray, and lots of other notable women come to life in this very accomplished biography. Tobias Churton is to be applauded for once again getting rid of the gossip and giving us the facts, this time in 'gay Paree,' of the life and aspirations of the greatest magician of the twentieth century." * Geraldine Beskin, co-owner of the Atlantis Bookshop, London * "Tobias Churton's multivolume work examining Crowley's life and work in key geographical locations is nothing less than brilliant. This time Churton takes us to Paris, an extremely important place for Crowley. It's a pure joy to travel alongside both Crowley and Churton to the City of Light and Romance and to indulge in both the scandals and miracles of the Great Beast 666." * Carl Abrahamsson, author of Source Magic, Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan, Occulture, and Reason * "Aleister Crowley in Paris recasts the Beast's biography through the lens of Belle Epoque Paris, where its expat embrace of freedom, art, publishing, magick, and romance captured Crowley's heart. We find the mage returning over the years, seeking fresh inspiration or a safe haven from his woes, whether personal or magical. Throughout this engaging narrative, Churton proves that we cannot understand Crowley without understanding his relationship to Paris." * Richard Kaczynski author of Perdurabo and editor of Crowley's The Sword of Song *