Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism

English

ISBN: 0199863091

EAN: 9780199863099

Category: Body, Mind & Spirit / Occultism/Body, Mind & Spirit / Magick Studies/Body, Mind & Spirit / Hermetism & Rosicrucianism/

Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated

Release Date: 09/30/2012

Synopsis: This volume is the first comprehensive examination of one of the twentieth centurys most distinctive iconoclasts. Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was a study in contradictions. Born into a fundamentalist Christian family and educated at Cambridge, he was vilified as a traitor, drug addict, and debaucher, yet revered as perhaps the most influential thinker in contemporary esotericism. Moving beyond the influence of contemporary psychology and the modernist understanding of the occult, Crowley declared himself the revelator of a new age of individualism. Crowleys occult bricolage, Magick, was an eclectic combination of spiritual exercises drawn from Western European magical ceremonies and Indic sources for meditation and yoga. This journey of self-liberation culminated in harnessing sexual power as a magical discipline, a sacrilization of the self as practiced in Crowleys mixed masonic group, the Ordo Templi Orientis. The religion Crowley created, Thelema, legitimated his role as a charismatic revelator and herald of a new age of freedom. Aleister Crowleys lasting influence can be seen in the counter-culture movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s and in many forms of alternative spirituality and popular culture. The essays in this volume offer crucial insight into Crowleys foundational role in the study of Western esotericism, new religious movements, and sexuality.

Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism

Illustrated: Yes

Format: Paperback

Height: 1.2 inches

Width: 9.2 inches

Length: 5.9 inches

Weight: 19.93 oz

Pages: 432