Crowley and Theosophy

i know we have a few here who have read Crowley, here is a little tid bit from the Thelema Encyclopedia.



Theosophy and Aleister Crowley

Crowley considered it noteworthy that he was born in the same year as the founding of the Theosophical Society (1875). He was an admirer of the work of Anna Kingsford, who was briefly the head of the British section of the Theosophical Society, and whose Way to Christ was very influential on Samuel Mathers and other early members of The Golden Dawn. He later recognized Blavatsky as a Magister Templi in his A.'.A.'. grade system, and annotated an edition of her Voice of the Silence as Liber LXXI (http://hermetic.com/crowley/libers/lib71.html).

During Annie Besant's headship of the Theosophical Society, Crowley engaged in a long campaign to discredit the Society's leadership, and to insert himself at the head of the movement that they were building to recognize Krishnamurti as the "World Teacher." He also met with Katherine Tingley, who led a schismatic Theosophical group in California.

Crowley's commentary on the Voice was often sarcastic or denigrating of HPB. It is not a sympathetic commentary at all. For example:

42. To don Nirmanakaya’s humble robe is to forego eternal bliss for Self, to help on man’s salvation. To reach Nirvana’s bliss but to renounce it, is the supreme, the final step—the highest on Renunciation’s Path.

"All this about Gautama Buddha having renounced Nirvana is apparently all a pure invention of Mme. Blavatsky, and has no authority in the Buddhist canon."

This just shows Crowley's ignorance of Mahayana Buddhism, in which Buddha's renunciation of Nirvana in order to stay and help all beings is a keynote.

Alan Bennett a Theosophist introduced Crowley to drugs used in magical practices. Heroin, mescaline peyote etc. Crowley was an ego maniac and never wanted to be second best to anyone. Ego is the great destroyer.

Ego is the great distraction. But like all objects of Consiousness it must be recognized and understood to master. Especially the ego which one could argue is a creation of the individual as well as a vehicle for Consiousness itself.

True. Many lifetimes to master!