http://bayimg.com/dalHiAAdA Masters of Darkness: Aleister Crowley - The Wickedest Man in the World (TV 2002) http://www.imdb.

com/title/tt0814208/ Aleister Crowley was perhaps the most controversial and misunderstood personalit y to figure in the new era of modern day witchcraft. Known by the popular press of his time as The Great Beast and The Wickedest Man in the World, Crowley was a powerful magician, poet, prophet and famed occultist. He was also a one-time wi tch, though most of the elders of the craft would discredit him the title. Born Edward Alexander Crowley, he is primarily known for his occult writings and teachings. He founded the religion of Thelema, which became adopted by the Ordo Templis Orientis (O.T.O.) as well as the magical order Argenteum Astrum, the Or der of the Silver Star. He was also a highly controversial member of the Hermeti c Order of the Golden Dawn, where he was known by the magical name of Frater Per durabo. Crowley s lifestyle was absolutely shocking in the era in which he lived. Besides his interest in the occult, he was sexually promiscuous with both genders (at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain), frequented prostitutes, w as vocally defiant against Christianity and Victorian and post-Victorian prudish ness toward sexual subjects, and was a drug addict. While Crowley detested Christianity, he considered himself an immensely religiou s and spiritual person. His writings record incidents of experiencing deity, and Thelemites consider him to be a prophet. In 1904, he encountered a being known as Aiwass, described as a minister to Horus, the central deity in Thelema, and as a Holy Guardian Angel. Aiwass dictated the Book of the Law, which Crowley wrote down and published, becoming the central Thelemic text. Crowley s beliefs included pursuing the Great Work, which included gaining self-kn owledge and uniting with the larger universe. He also encouraged seeking out one s ultimate destiny or purpose, commonly referred to as one s True Will. Involved as a young adult in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, he first stu died mysticism with and made enemies of William Butler Yeats and Arthur Edward W aite. Like many in occult circles of the time, Crowley voiced the view that Wait e was a pretentious bore through searing critiques of Waite s writings and editori als of other authors writings. In his periodical The Equinox, Crowley titled one diatribe, Wisdom While You Waite, and his note on the passing of Waite bore the title, Dead Waite. His friend and former Golden Dawn associate, Allan Bennett, introduced him to th e ideas of Buddhism, while Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, acting leader of th e Golden Dawn organization, acted as his early mentor in western magic but would later become his enemy. Several decades after Crowley s participation in the Gold en Dawn, Mathers claimed copyright protection over a particular ritual and sued Crowley for infringement after Crowley s public display of the ritual. While the p ublic trial continued, both Mathers and Crowley claimed to call forth armies of demons and angels to fight on behalf of their summoner. Both also developed and carried complex Seal of Solomon amulets and talismans. In 1899, Crowley acquired Boleskine House, in Foyers on the shore of Loch Ness i n Scotland. In a book of fiction, titled Moonchild, Crowley later portrayed Math ers as the primary villain, including him as a character named SRMD, using the a bbreviation of Mathers magical name. Arthur Edward Waite also appeared in Moonchi ld as a villain named Arthwaite, while Bennett appeared as the silent, monkish M

ahathera Phang. While he did not officially break with Mathers until 1904, Crowl ey lost faith in this teacher s abilities soon after the 1900 schism in the Golden Dawn (if not before). Later in the year of that schism, Crowley travelled to Me xico and continued his magical studies in isolation. Crowley s writings suggest th at he discovered the word Abrahadabra during this time. In October 1901, after practicing Raja Yoga for some time, he said he had reache d a state he called dhyana one of many states of unification in thoughts that are described in Magick (Liber ABA). 1902 saw him writing the essay Berashith (the f irst word of Genesis), in which he gave meditation (or restraint of the mind to a single object) as the means of attaining his goal. The essay describes ceremon ial magick as a means of training the will, and of constantly directing one s thou ghts to a given object through ritual. In his 1903 essay, Science and Matter, Cr owley urged an empirical approach to Buddhist teachings

Crowley began to travel, mostly in the East studying Eastern Occult systems and Tantric Yoga; he also studied Buddhism and the I Ching. Then for a time he lived in an isolated setting near to Loch Ness in Scotland. In 1903 he met and then m arried Rose Edith Kelly, sister of the well-known artist Sir Gerald Kelly. She b ore him one child. While they where on holiday in Egypt the following year, Apri l 1904, he and Rose took part in a magical ritual during which he alleges to hav e received a message from the Gods. As a result of this communication he wrote d own the first three chapters of his most famous book Liber Legis, the Book of Law . Th s book contains his oft-quoted dictum: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the Law, Love under Will , upon which Crowley based the rest of his lif e and teachings. Aleister Crowley: The Other Loch Ness Monster Original Air Date:11 August 2000 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1674855/ In year 2000 BBC Scotland made a short documentaroy about Boleskine, Crowley s hou se on the banks on Loch Ness. The show was called The Other Loch Ness Monster, b ut the BBC have so far refused to show it outside of Scotland. Channel Four have filmed a more throughgoing documentary although broadcast has again been delaye d due to editorial difficulties. Now you can watch the entire Aleister Crowley m ystical thelemic documentary video entitled The Other Loch Ness Monster with app earance by Kenneth Anger. Aleister Crowley and the Other Loch Ness Monster is quirky and fascinating short documentary on the most wickedest man in the world and his time at Boleskine Ho use, at the turn of the last century. Crowley purchased the estate on the shores of the south-east shore of Loch Ness in order to carry out rituals from The Boo k of the Sacred Magick of Abramelin the Mage, as he required: ...a house where proper precautions against disturbance can be taken; this being arranged, there is really nothing to do but to aspire with increasing fervor an d concentration, for six months, towards the obtaining of the Knowledge and Conv ersation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Crowley described Boleskine in Confessions: The house is a long low building. I set apart the south-western half for my work . The largest room has a bow window and here I made my door and constructed the terrace and lodge. Inside the room I set up my oratory proper. This was a wooden structure, lined in part with the big mirrors which I brought from London. For Crowley, Boleskine House was a Thelemic Kiblah, a Magical East, where he pra

cticed the Black Mass and summoned demons, which may have caused disruption to L och Ness, as Crowley later claimed in his autobiography: ...the spirits he summoned got out of hand, causing one housemaid to leave, and a workman to go mad. He also insinuates he was indirectly responsible for a loca l butcher accidentally severing an artery and bleeding to death. Crowley had wri tten the names of some demons on a bill from the butcher s shop. Garry S. Grant s documentary is never less than engaging, and contains fine contri butions from Kenneth Anger, Colin Wilson, Neil Oram, Head of the UK OTO, John Bo nner and Mogg Morgan. The commentary is read by former Jesus of Nazarerth actor Robert Powell. The Man We Want to Hang (2002) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0360775/ Every time you turn on your television set it's impossible to avoid the imprints of Kenneth Anger's influence on nearly everything that flashes across the scree n. More widely known for his dishy Hollywood exposs Hollywood Babylon and Hollywo od Babylon II than his influential body of short films, the maverick director, a long with his contemporary Andy Warhol, explored the ways commonplace images and objects can be subverted to project different meanings. But Anger's most lastin g and pervasive influence (to which everybody from Martin Scorsese and Wes Ander son to every non-reality television show is heavily indebted) is his innovative use of pop songs as the basis for a film soundtrack. The title comes from a newspaper headline, one of many that the tabloid press be stowed on occultist Aleister Crowley whilst titillating their readers with lurid descriptions of orgies and Black Masses throughout the 1920s. Before the Second World War it was still possible to label a self-aggrandising magus The Wickedest Man in the World . If only they knew what was coming The paintings were filmed in exhibition at the October Gallery in 1998 and Anger turns the original tabloid headline around by making the hang refer to hanging a painting. Crowley s crude artwork often turns up in books but there are several pictures in the film I hadn t come across before. Crowley s depiction of the Himalay as, where he spent some time mountaineering, look very similar to those of Nicho las Roerich, the painter whose work HP Lovecraft references in At the Mountains of Madness. It would have been nice to have some more information about the pict ures but that s not Anger s style.