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Indeed, one man's medium is another's "seer." Surprising that Crowley would feel this way, since he saw himself as the reincarnation of Edward Kelley, and worked with spirit channeling with his own wife.

And before one writes off spiritualism and mediums from a historical perspective, one mustn't forget that spiritualism and mediumship allowed women a socio-political voice in the public sphere that they were previously denied. Among others, Alex Owen, who has written about Crowley at length herself, chronicled this in her earlier work, The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England. Whatever one thinks of spiritualism practically, as a performance genre and ritual form it was quite significant in the cultural world of the late 19th century.  And if I 'm not mistaken, even though some of us are practitioners, our primary concern on this list is the scholarly, not the practical.

From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, September 24, 2011 11:09 AM
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Crowley and Spiritualism

I'd add _to the general thread_  that AC may have hated mediums but if there was a chance of penetrating the chequebook or bodily orifices of a potential pupil he would quite probably have claimed to be Blavaatsky.s lovechild if not dressed up as her in order to speed the process. Need to read between his lines and read some pupils diaries etc

Dave e
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

-----Original Message-----
From:        Khem Caigan <[log in to unmask]>
Sender:      Society for The Academic Study of Magic <[log in to unmask]>
Date:        Sat, 24 Sep 2011 12:03:19
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To:    Society for The Academic Study of Magic              <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Crowley and Spiritualism

David Mattichak doth schreibble :
<SNIPS>
> No spiritist, once he is wholly enmeshed in sentimentality and Freudian fear phantasms,
> is capable of concentrated thought, of persistent will, or of moral
> character. Devoid of every spark of the divine light which was his birthright, a prey
> before death to the ghastly tenants of the grave, the wretch, like the mesmerized
> and living corpse of Poe's Monsieur Valdemar, is a "nearly liquid mass of
> loathsome, of detestable putrescence."
>
> The student of this Holy Magick is most earnestly warned against frequenting
> their seances, or even admitting them to his presence.
> They are contagious as Syphilis, and more deadly and disgusting. Unless your
> aura is strong enough to inhibit any manifestation of the loathly larvae that have
> taken up their habitation in them, shun them as you need not mere lepers! It
> occurs in certain rare cases that a very unusual degree of personal purity combined
> with integrity and force of character provides even the ignorant with a certain
> natural defence, and attracts into his aura only intelligent and beneficent entities.
> Such persons may perhaps practise spiritualism without obvious bad results, and
> even with good results, within limits. But such exceptions in no wise invalidate the
> general rule, or in any way serve as argument against the magical theory outlined
> above with such mild suasion.

It seems to me that, in Crowley's case, this is
more in the way of "Do as I say, not as I do."

He didn't use 'mediums', true; he employed 'seers'
(his wife, Rose, among them), and the ill effects
of such employment / abuse have been detailed by
many authors over the years, including Crowley
himself.

Cors in Manu Domine,


~ Khem Caigan
<[log in to unmask]>

"Heat and Moisture are Active to Generation;
Cold and Dryness are Passive, in and to each Thing;
Fire and Air, Active by Elementation;
Water and Earth, Passive to Generation."

*Of the Division of Chaos*
-Dr. Simon Forman