tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594045886586038963.post2740740501801622241..comments2023-09-03T05:52:27.906-06:00Comments on The Magical Witch: I used to read CrowleyMorgan Drake Ecksteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09258538066497554895noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594045886586038963.post-78106756164403153932011-05-31T09:26:45.434-06:002011-05-31T09:26:45.434-06:00Regardless of your opinion of Aleister Crowley, if...Regardless of your opinion of Aleister Crowley, if you're going to reject applicants solely because they've read something of his or expel initiates for reading the same, to my way of thinking you're not Golden Dawn at all - you're Scientology.<br /><br />L. Ron Hubbard believed that Scientologists should never be exposed to information critical of his system or anything that he personally disliked. That tradition has continued long after his death, with Scientologists being give special Internet filters to make sure they don't accidentally see something objectionable. IMO, that sort of superstition has no place in a genuine magical order.<br /><br />Now, cautioning students not to take everything Crowley wrote literally is a whole other thing. That's just common sense.Scott Stenwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12389664381513219613noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594045886586038963.post-53150749944970608832011-05-29T11:21:33.696-06:002011-05-29T11:21:33.696-06:00AC played in a whole different intellectual league...AC played in a whole different intellectual league, than his golden dawn contemporaries. he took their ideas to summits, they never dreamt of or even understood. and if you ask me, that hasen't changed very much in the present. his biggest accomplishment may have been, to apply critical scientific reasoning and comparative religious studies to the field of magic/mysticism, in his search for a practice of scientific illumination.<br />ok.. he had his flaws; thelema being maybe his biggest… but nobody's perfect ;)dirkthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506068740155078004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594045886586038963.post-80621962311916158882011-05-29T09:06:47.052-06:002011-05-29T09:06:47.052-06:00Crowley, or about Crowley, was the subject matter ...Crowley, or about Crowley, was the subject matter that first introduced me to occultism, in general.<br /><br />Way back in the day, when I was 10 or 11, long before the advent of the Internet, I picked up a biography of Crowley at a public library. Being the age I was, much of it was well over my head. But still, some of the seed ideas inherent in "occultism," in general, were planted (or re-awoken) in my psyche.<br /><br />I am not a follower of Crowley or any derivatives of Crowley. But I cannot see how reading his books would make a person a less desirable candidate. I have also read most of Kenneth Grant's books, as unweildy and cryptic as those works are. I think it makes for a more well-rounded knowledge base, without giving any particular credence to those systems.<br /><br />My two cents.S.V.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14485713664230077664noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594045886586038963.post-28082888648151265892011-05-28T16:38:04.945-06:002011-05-28T16:38:04.945-06:00I will never understand why people have their pant...I will never understand why people have their panties in a bunch about uncle alPhoenixAngelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02628182447302904322noreply@blogger.com