Examines Aleister Crowleyâs 30-year-long intimate association with Paris
⢠Investigates the tales of Crowley âraising Pan,â going mad, and working gay sex magick in Paris
⢠Uncovers Crowleyâs involvement in the Belle Ăpoque with sculptor Auguste Rodin and other artists and in the 1920s with Berenice Abbott, Nancy Cunard, Man Ray, AndrĂŠ Gide, and AimĂŠe Crocker
⢠Reveals Crowleyâs âexpulsionâ from Paris in 1929 as a high-level conspiracy against Crowley
Exploring occultist, magician, poet, painter, and writer Aleister Crowleyâs longstanding and intimate association with Paris, Tobias Churton provides the first detailed account of Crowleyâs activities in the City of Light.
Using previously unpublished letters and diaries, Churton explores how Crowley was initiated into the Golden Dawnâs Inner Order in Paris in 1900 and how, in 1902, he relocated to Montparnasse. Soon engaged to Anglo-Irish artist Eileen Gray, Crowley pontificates and parties with English, American, and French artists gathered around sculptor Auguste Rodin: all keen to exhibit at Parisâs famed Salon dâAutomne. In 1904âstill dressed as âPrince Chioa Khanâ and recently returned from his Book of the Law experience in CairoâCrowleydines with novelist Arnold Bennett at Paillardâs. In 1908 Crowley is back in Paris to prove itâs possible to attain Samadhi (or âknowlÂedge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angelâ) while living a modern life in a busy metropolis. In 1913 he organizes a demonstraÂtion for artistic and sexual freedom at Oscar Wildeâs tomb. Until war spoils all in 1914, Paris is Crowleyâs playground.
The author details how, after returning from America in 1920, and though based at his âAbbey of Thelemaâ in Sicily, Crowley canât leave Paris alone. When Mussolini expels him from Italy, Paris becomes his home from 1924 until 1929. Churton reveals Crowleyâs part in the jazz-age explosion of modernism, as the lover of photographer Berenice Abbott and many others, and how he enjoyed camaraderie with Man Ray, Nancy Cunard, AndrĂŠ Gide, and AimĂŠe Crocker. The author explores Crowleyâs adventures in Tunisia, Algeria, the Riviera,his battle with heroin addiction, his relationÂship with daughter Astarte Luluâraised at CefalĂšâand finally, a high-level ministerial conspiracy to get him out of Paris.
Reconstructing Crowleyâs heyday in the last decade and a half of Franceâs Belle Ăpoque and the âroaring Twenties,â this book illuminates Crowleyâs place within the artistic, literary, and spiritual ferment of the great City of Light.
Examines Aleister Crowleyâs 30-year-long intimate association with Paris
⢠Investigates the tales of Crowley âraising Pan,â going mad, and working gay sex magick in Paris
⢠Uncovers Crowleyâs involvement in the Belle Ăpoque with sculptor Auguste Rodin and other artists and in the 1920s with Berenice Abbott, Nancy Cunard, Man Ray, AndrĂŠ Gide, and AimĂŠe Crocker
⢠Reveals Crowleyâs âexpulsionâ from Paris in 1929 as a high-level conspiracy against Crowley
Exploring occultist, magician, poet, painter, and writer Aleister Crowleyâs longstanding and intimate association with Paris, Tobias Churton provides the first detailed account of Crowleyâs activities in the City of Light.
Using previously unpublished letters and diaries, Churton explores how Crowley was initiated into the Golden Dawnâs Inner Order in Paris in 1900 and how, in 1902, he relocated to Montparnasse. Soon engaged to Anglo-Irish artist Eileen Gray, Crowley pontificates and parties with English, American, and French artists gathered around sculptor Auguste Rodin: all keen to exhibit at Parisâs famed Salon dâAutomne. In 1904âstill dressed as âPrince Chioa Khanâ and recently returned from his Book of the Law experience in CairoâCrowleydines with novelist Arnold Bennett at Paillardâs. In 1908 Crowley is back in Paris to prove itâs possible to attain Samadhi (or âknowlÂedge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angelâ) while living a modern life in a busy metropolis. In 1913 he organizes a demonstraÂtion for artistic and sexual freedom at Oscar Wildeâs tomb. Until war spoils all in 1914, Paris is Crowleyâs playground.
The author details how, after returning from America in 1920, and though based at his âAbbey of Thelemaâ in Sicily, Crowley canât leave Paris alone. When Mussolini expels him from Italy, Paris becomes his home from 1924 until 1929. Churton reveals Crowleyâs part in the jazz-age explosion of modernism, as the lover of photographer Berenice Abbott and many others, and how he enjoyed camaraderie with Man Ray, Nancy Cunard, AndrĂŠ Gide, and AimĂŠe Crocker. The author explores Crowleyâs adventures in Tunisia, Algeria, the Riviera,his battle with heroin addiction, his relationÂship with daughter Astarte Luluâraised at CefalĂšâand finally, a high-level ministerial conspiracy to get him out of Paris.
Reconstructing Crowleyâs heyday in the last decade and a half of Franceâs Belle Ăpoque and the âroaring Twenties,â this book illuminates Crowleyâs place within the artistic, literary, and spiritual ferment of the great City of Light.