Reply #30: My take on Crowley as an ex-member of

[Khephra]

the OTO, AA and EGC (Deacon in training).

The man started out life being told daily by his mother that he was the Great Beast of Revelations and was raised by a fundie father who only let him read the Bible for a long stretch of his childhood. A lot of his adult life (like many of us) was spent revolting against his upbringing.

Was he a dick and did he do horrible things? Yep. No question to it. But he also was a genius who brought many of the past magickal practices to a modern audience.

Do I emulate him? Fuck no. But then I don't want to be like the rocket scientists that we brought over from Germany after the war either, but I can still understand and appreciate their genius too.

Crowley, like the Golden Dawn, is a stepping stone for the modern occultist. You should study his work until you "get it" and then move on to your own work. The problem is that people have formed a popularity cult around him and have forgotten to do their own work.