The Rites of Eleusis

4 Reprinted from THE SKETCH of 24th August 1910. A NEW RELIGION A CERTAIN number of literary people know the name of Aleister Crowley as a poet. A few regard him as a magician. But a small and select circle revere him as the hierophant of a new religion. This creed Captain Fuller, in a book on the subject extending to 327 pages, calls “ Crowleyanity.” I do not pretend to know what Captain Fuller means. He is deeply read in philosophy, and he takes Crowley very seriously. I do not quite see whither Crowley himself is driving ; but I imagine that the main idea in the brain of this remarkable poet is to plant Eastern Transcendentalism, which attains its ultimate end in Samadhi, in English soil under the guise of Ceremonial Magic. Possibly the average human being requires and desires ceremony. Even the simplest Methodist uses some sort of ceremony, and Crowley, who is quite in earnest in his endeavour to attain such unusual conditions of mind as are called ecstasy, believes that the gateway to Ecstasy can be reached through Ceremonial Magic. He has saturated himself with the magic of the East—a very real thing, in tune with the Eastern mind. He is well read in the modern metaphysicians, all of whom have attempted to explain the unexplainable. He abandons these. They appeal only to the brain, and once their jargon is mastered they lead nowhere ; least of all to Ecstasy. He goes back upon ceremony, because he thinks that it helps the mind to get outside itself. He declares that if you repeat an in- vocation solemnly and aloud, “ expectant of some great and mysterious result,” you will experience a deep sense of spiritual communion. He is now holding a series of seances. I attended at the offices of THE EQUINOX. I climbed the inter- minable stairs. I was received by a gentleman robed in white and carrying a drawn sword. The room was dark ; only a dull-red light shone upon an altar.