Aleister Crowley and the 20th Century Synthesis of Magick
by Dave Evans
Both a professional academic researcher and practising magician, Dr Dave Evans delves into modern history to present a serious, but accessible and fascinating work, based on research work done for a Master of Arts degree on the history and literature of British magic, focussing especially on Aleister Crowley.
Topics covered include Aleister Crowley and Thelema, Dennis Wheatley, Kenneth Grant, Jack Parsons, Tom Driberg, the British spying community, Austin Osman Spare, Gerald Gardner and others. Being a useful biography of Crowley, plus more, this accessible and diverse book can be considered a prequel of, and a seed for the author’s larger subsequent volume The History of British Magic After Crowley.
What reviewers think:
This fairly slim biography of Crowley provides both a quick introduction to the life and times and significance of the man and it also introduces some original new material… (which) seems fascinating and controversial. He explores in some depth Crowley’s connections to British Intelligence and their relevance to the two world wars. He presents some interesting background material on some of the people associated with Crowley, and most controversially for Thelemites, he suggests that the Book Of The Law shows evidence of plagiarism from other sources, and he doesn’t mean Aiwass. This probably won’t bother Chaoists in the slightest. For them the Book of the Law stands or falls on its own merits or usefulness, but Crowleyites may suffer apoplexy. Peter J Carroll
“…raises intriguing questions about Crowley and reconsiders what we think we know from earlier sources.” Spiralnature.com review
“If you have the verve and discipline to do your master’s thesis on Crowley, with the huge amount of research into rare and unusual sources and strange connections that it requires to provide new insights into the man’s life… to probe myths, scandals and controversies and shed light on them all, is to provide a great service to the history of Thelema.” review in SilverStar Journal, Issue 8
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