Paperback (1977)Arrow books Fair condition. Some foxing and staining. 210pp Stamp of ‘Ex Libris Bookshop’ (Sydney)on the inside front cover Purchased by martin for $6

Thirty years after his death, occultist Aleister Crowley now has more followers than ever during his notorious lifetime. In this full-scale biography of the bizarre inventor of what he called "Magick," Francis King examines Crowley's writings and theories as well as the elaborate rituals and perverse sexual practices that were the mark of this magnetic personality and cult figure.

A talented writer and poet, an experienced mountaineer, and a heroin addict, Crowley was at the center of any occult controversy. He was expelled from the Golden Dawn Society, which numbered W.B. Yeats among its members, and wrote anti-British propaganda in the United States during World War I. When rumors of abominable rites and orgies at his Sicilian abbey reached the authorities, he was deported from Italy. His god was the Christian Satan, his religion a sexual occultism which was a Western version of tantra, his bible a mysterious manuscript called "The Book of the Law," which he said had been dictated to him by Aiwass, his devilish deity

Francis King's wry account of Crowley's extraordinary life, and his detailed examination of the important writing, throws much new light on the man and will fascinate not only occultists but everyone intrigued by the strange and eccentric. This book is part of The Martin Phillipps collection and is being sold as a fundraiser to help fix up his house. The buyer will receive a signed slip acknowledging the book was part of Martin's collection.