Aleister Crowley

Luminous

I'm back reading stuff again, always been fascinated by him. I discovered Led Zeppelin through him. Anyone else have an interest?

monofin

I discovered him through Led Zep so the opposite way round. Read his stuff as a teenager but not since

Drew_TNBD

The worlds first hippy.

ICBM

He was also a fairly serious mountaineer, although it's likely he exaggerated some of his accomplishments.

A very strange man...

Luminous

@ICBM yes....a mass of contradictions

Sporky

ICBM said:

He was also a fairly serious mountaineer, although it's likely he exaggerated some of his accomplishments.

Did he claim to have climbed the North Face Of Cthulhu?

Luminous

http://footlesscrow.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/brief-mountaineering-career-of-aleister.html

Philly_Q

I read a book about him when I was a teenager, and of course there are references by various rock/metal bands like Ozzy and Blood Ceremony.

I think it's a fascinating story and seems genuinely quite eerie/disturbing in its historical context, but if someone behaved the same now it would just be a minor tabloid story for people to laugh at for 24 hours.

Have you seen the film Chemical Wedding?  It's co-written by Bruce Dickinson (and sort of connected with his album of the same name), with Simon Callow as a reincarnated Crowley.  Absolute shite, as far as I can remember. 

Luminous

https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item/52868/aleister_crowley_-_climber_and_madman

Luminous

Yup...seen that...terrible, terrible film

EricTheWeary

I saw a documentary about him, as I remember it things got a bit seedy and venereal diseasey. 

bacchanalian

I took a bit of interest as a teenager because of Jimmy Page. Played Stairway in reverse on numerous occasions.  The recent BBC4 documentary about Hippies described how one of the elements of the Hippy movement were 'The Truth Seekers' who were heavily influenced by Crowley.  He introduced yoga to Europe.
Once I read about making the sacraments for black mass using ,inter alia, menstrual blood, I thought it was probably not for me.

Philly_Q

Sporky said:

ICBM said:

He was also a fairly serious mountaineer, although it's likely he exaggerated some of his accomplishments.

Did he claim to have climbed the North Face Of Cthulhu?

No, I'm pretty sure that was Kim Jong Un.

Fretwired

Drew_TNBD said:

The worlds first hippy.

I think Jesus beat him to that .... ;-)

Handsome_Chris

Phew, for a moment then I thought this was another obituary thread.  I don't think I could handle losing Big A.C.

ICBM

Fretwired said:

Drew_TNBD said:

The worlds first hippy.

I think Jesus beat him to that .... ;-)

No, Jesus was the world's first communist.

Bellycaster

What went on in his Head?

Dominic

ICBM said:

Fretwired said:

Drew_TNBD said:

The worlds first hippy.

I think Jesus beat him to that .... ;-)

No, Jesus was the world's first communist.

Yup .......he went to live on a Kibbutz 

JezWynd

Handsome_Chris said:

Phew, for a moment then I thought this was another obituary dead.  I don't think I could handle losing Big A.C.

Perplexed?

MagicPigDetective

Did he talk to the dead? 

scrumhalf

MagicPigDetective said:

Did he talk to the dead? 

Yes. But he shat himself when they talked back.