The Serpent’s Kiss20:31 Mar 08 2008
Times Read: 770
The Serpent’s Kiss
On the Love/Hate Relationship between Vampirism and Ceremonial Magick
Tau Heosphoros Iacchus & Tau Peristera de Magdalene
Early draft of an article that will appear in the upcoming anthology edited by Michelle Belanger, Vampires in Their Own Voices. Now available for pre-order.
©2006
Aleister Crowley and the Legend of the Serpent’s Kiss
"He shaved his head, filed his teeth to stiletto-like points, believed in the devil, tried to enchant women by puncturing their throats with vampire-like 'serpent's kisses,' copulated with animals and dined on the dung of diseased prostitutes."
– John Symonds, The Great Beast (1973, p. 224)
Aleister Crowley has long been rumored to have been a vampire among certain circles, including the vampire subculture. (A.C. was even given his own entry in the annals of White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade.) Most sources touting this information cite Francis King’s work as their source while some go a step further and cite King’s source: John Symonds. These rumors stem from the stories of Crowley’s “serpent’s kiss,” which were, as in the quote above, greatly hyped by Symonds. So what was Symonds’ source?
There is, to our knowledge, only one documented case of Crowley actually delivering a “serpent’s kiss.” The recipient was Miss Nancy Cunard. A Magick Life, A Biography of Aleister Crowley, by Martin Booth, mentions Crowley's meeting with Cunard, "whom he was said to have interrupted in mid-conversation with a request that he be permitted to give her a Serpent's Kiss. She acquiesced, whereupon Crowley bit her on the wrist. Later, she claimed the bite had given her blood poisoning" (p. 434). Another account, in The Private World of St. John Terrapin, by Chapman Pincher, mentions St. John Terrapin witnessing Crowley giving Cunard the Serpent's Kiss. He states, "I saw him on one occasion seize the arm of a lady companion - the heiress Nancy Cunard, with whom he was friendly - and bite her wrist, drawing blood and a cry of pain" (Pincher, 1982, p. 165). There are numerous accounts of this incident, all more-or-less the same as the two quoted here and all listing Miss Cunard as the recipient; however, Nancy Cunard tells it differently in a memoir of Crowley, written at the request of Gerald Yorke.
Still only just knowing Crowley, I don’t remember what brought us together that particular day. Someone had given me a bottle of whiskey and, coming in from lunch and intending to go to a public meeting on Germany, I met Crowley in the hall and asked him to have a drink. We sat conversing for probably two hours, gently and [agreeably] drinking, and he talked and talked [. . .] It was then I began to think that he may have adversely influenced only rather tiresome people. Not a word was said about Cefalu [. . .] I was fully prepared to believe that he had his own magic; but it wouldn’t be “mine.” It would have embarrassed me and had me floundering to have to tell him I simply could not take in things of that kind [. . .] So we just sat and slowly drank the whiskey and I remember he looked rather “deeply” at me. (Is that occult?) And then, having said something about “The Serpent’s Kiss,” which I had heard about, he asked: “Shall I give you the Serpent’s Kiss?” This did slightly embarrass me. It seemed rude to say no, to ask ridiculous questions as to its meaning and, somehow, I felt no apprehension. So I said “yes.” He applied his teeth very lightly to the inner edge of my right wrist and, after a few seconds, there it was: a tiny triangle of reddish dots – three of them – unfelt. How do you suppose he did that? There is certainly some kind of special process here! I knew him so little that I am quite unaware to this day if this was some kind of honour [sic]. It must have meant something distinctive? I found that I liked his intelligence very much indeed. There was something a touch sad about him and – to put it quite briefly – I found I was “for” him in a general way, and not “against.” And that seemed enough (Cunard, 1954).
Miss Cunard goes on to tell of the public meeting she had gone to as intended and that Crowley had accompanied her. She describes the few other encounters she shared with him over the next several years – never mentioning any other occasion on which she was bitten or her contracting blood poisoning. As a matter of fact, I would like to point out that she says “three reddish dots,” not “red” or “bloodied,” and does not mention blood or even that he broke the skin. I do not presume that he did not, but there is not enough detail here to presume that he did.
In a personal correspondence written to Nancy Cunard by Gerald Yorke, apparently in response to this account, Yorke says,
[. . .] what a great pity you did not meet Aleister more often, reminiscences of him brought him back sharply to life for me. I saw so much of him as he really was in your account. Particularly his habit of testing the psychology of those he did not know well – poison in the “eagle tail,” which was his name for the cocktail you describe [and] the Serpent’s Kiss for another – it had no occult or special significance, except to give him the reaction of the person so “honored,” and to keep up the reputation of wickedness and unconventionality which he wove so carefully around him (Yorke, November 23, 1954).
This statement by Yorke carries the implication that there may have been other incidents involving the delivery of a serpent’s kiss, but also points out that there was no special significance behind it. If there were other occasions, they were most certainly rare, given that Miss Cunard is the only example that can be produced.
Crowley himself, a man whose inflated ego allowed him to write an autobiography that dwarfs the King James Bible, never mentions this or any other incident involving filing his teeth or delivering the serpent’s kiss, nor is it mentioned in serious context by anyone else who actually knew him. This incident was just another opportunity for him to further his ominous reputation, as confirmed by Yorke, and in the hands of an unscrupulous biographer, it has become one of many stories aimed at exciting the imagination and supporting Crowley’s moniker of “evilest man alive” (even long after his death). Why then, if this rumor is so simply resolved, has it persisted 50 years after Crowley’s death, being retold in new forms year after year?
To take a page from John Ford’s classic western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: “When the legend becomes fact, we print the legend.” Quite simply, the rumors are fun and exciting stories that thrill and shock readers. Biting the necks of young socialites and defecating on Persian rugs make for a much more entertaining read than volumes upon volumes of his mountaineering adventures.
Vampire versus Vampirism: The Semantics of Division
Michelle Belanger, in her work The Psychic Vampire Codex, discusses many explanations of what a vampire is and why they need to feed. While her work focuses exclusively on psychic vampirism, rather than sanguine vampirism, the metaphysics are essentially the same in that the crux of vampirism is a physical/metaphysical need to feed on energy (whether through psychic energy manipulation or from the vital forces contained within blood) in order to sustain one’s own vitality. In contrast to this definition, the majority of ceremonial magicians define a “vamp” as someone who feeds on or steals energy from another living being; the difference being that there is no stipulation on need. Was Aleister Crowley a vampire? That depends entirely upon your definition of “vampire.” Did Aleister Crowley practice vampirism? Yes, unquestionably.
I believe it is the differing definitions of vampirism that creates the observable rift between the occult and vampire communities. While the majority of vampires believe feeding is an innate need, and is thus a value neutral fact of life, most magicians believe it to be a choice that leads to the invasion of another’s astral and physical vitality and view it as something that must be defended against, thus assigning a negative value judgment. The opinion held by magicians is in no small part either directly or indirectly influenced by the examination of intentional vampirism and unintentional parasitism put forth by Dion Fortune in Psychic Self-Defense.
Fortune asserts that, not only is vampirism an act of volition, but that “true vampirism cannot take place unless there is power to project the etheric double” (Fortune, 2001, p. 45). This view of the vampire as a psychically skilled, parasitic assailant strikes at the heart of the moral and ethical worldview of many magicians. While those of the vampire subculture maintain that the consensual exchange of vital forces (even if one-way) can be beneficial to all parties, to many magicians the very idea of “ethical vampirism” seems an oxymoron.
The reasons for this moralistic attitude may also arise in part from the influence of the “occult revival” of the late 19th century on modern ceremonial magick. The Victorian worldview, both in and out of the occult community, placed great stock in the importance of personal vitality. For example, Victorian attitudes held that the loss of semen, whether through nocturnal emissions or masturbation (the ever popular “Sin of Onan”), and in some more extreme views, even the union of lawfully wedded couples, was not only grievously degenerate, but a dire threat to the health, sanity, and very life any young man who did not vigilantly strive to retain his precious fluids. Similarly, medical science of the day had a tendency to label any medical condition of an uncertain nature as simply a “disease of the blood.” To the Victorian occultist, then, to willfully sacrifice one’s own “life essence” would be an act of unfathomable self-destructiveness in the service of a most degenerate predator, making “ethical vampirism” or consensual feeding as much of an “abomination” to the self as a psychic or physical vampiric attack. Given that modern ceremonial magick was born out of this period, the correlation between period views on masturbation, intercourse, blood impurities, and vampirism are, perhaps, not insignificant.
Also worth considering:
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Christabel,” condemns female homosexuality with the introduction of the lesbian vampire to English romantic literature – just over 200 years after the trial of Elizabeth Bathory, “The Blood Countess.”
• Charles W. Webber wrote Spiritual Vampirism : the History of Ethered Softdown and her Friends of the New Light in 1853.
• In 1894, at a time when mesmerism had been dismissed as the work of charlatans and yet hypnosis was giving the Victorian world an uncomfortably intimate look into the unconscious, Arthur Conan Doyle produced The Parasite, a work that linked vampires with hypnotism.
• Negative Victorian attitudes toward aggressive women and homoeroticism were forever intermingled with the loathsome vampire in Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 Carmilla and Florence Marryat’s 1897 The Blood of the Vampire.
• Meanwhile, in the world of non-fiction, Ceasare Lombroso put forth theories on the genetic make-up and indicators of the natural born criminal in his 1876 l’uomo delinquente and Jack the Ripper terrorized London with his bloody killing spree of 1888.
• Golden Dawn initiate, Bram Stoker, demonstrates some study of both of the latter events in his research for Draucla, also published in 1897.
• Aleister Crowley remarked that Stoker had gotten it right in his portrayal of the Count while Dracula scholar, Elizabeth Miller, comments that the Victorian anxieties concerning the displacement of religion by science, immigration of foreigners, sexually aggressive women, and artistic decadence are clearly visible in this work.
• Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s gross misinterpretation of the Hindu concept of the “Left-Hand Path” as the evil shadow of the Right-Hand Path created a black and white, good vs. evil, theme that still permeates magickal thought today.
• The vivid images of night stalking demons such as the incubi and succubae that feed on the essence of young men and women in their sleep, which were commonly and graphically described by the predecessors of the 19th century occult revival, lent imagery to the developing vampire mythos.
So why would a long list of fictional works and the religious superstitions of over one hundred years ago be relevant to the current attitude of ceremonial magicians toward vampires and vampirism? Simple, while the fictitious representation of vampires may have mutated with the changing cultural mores over the century and the emergence of the vampire subculture put a “human face” on vampirism in recent decades, this Victorian image of the vampire as ultimate evil has become forever, or at least thus far, embedded in the occult paradigms that were born out of that period.
Crowley on Vampirism – In His Own Words
The legend of the serpent’s kiss was born out of a need for attention, not energy; however, Crowley recognized vampirism as a magickal act. There are several portions of Crowley’s work that touch on the topic of vampirism. He writes the following in De Arte Magica:
Of a certain other method of Magick not included in the instruction of O.T.O.
It may not be altogether inappropriate to allude to a method of vampirism commonly practiced [sic].
The Vampire selects the victim, stout and vigorous as may be, and, with
the magical intention of transferring all that strength to himself, exhausts the
quarry by a suitable use of the body, most usually the mouth, without himself
entering in any other way into the matter. And this is thought by some to
partake of the nature of Black Magic. The exhaustion should be complete; if the
work be skillfully [sic] executed, a few minutes should suffice to produce a
state resembling, and not far removed from, coma.
Experts may push this practice to the point of the death of the victim,
thus not merely obtaining the physical strength, but imprisoning and
enslaving the soul. This soul then serves as a familiar spirit.
The practice was held to be dangerous. (It was used by the late Oscar
Wilde, and by Mr. and Mrs. "Horos"; also in a modified form by S.L.
Mathers and his wife, and by E.W. Berridge. The ineptitude of the three latter
saved them from the fate of the three former) (Crowley, 1989b)
This passage is very reminiscent in tone to the instructions given in the same work for a particular sexual rite, under the heading “Of Eroto-comatose Lucidity,” in which he states,
[. . .] Nor should the attendants reck of danger, but hunt down ruthlessly their appointed prey. Finally the Candidate will sink into a sleep of utter exhaustion resembling coma [. . .] The Initiate may then be allowed to sleep, or the practice may be renewed and persisted in until death ends all. The most favourable [sic] death is that occurring during orgasm, and is called Mors Justi (Crowley, 1989a)
The relevance of this correlation becomes clear when compared to his advice on vampirism in Magick Without Tears where he informs his student that “there is a difference between living and dead protoplasm (Crowley, 1994, p. 400)” and goes on to say “[ . . .] best of all are fluids and secretions, notably blood and one other of supreme importance to the continuity of life”(Crowley, 1994, pp.400-401). Within the same letter he tells his student that “there is a mighty volume of theory and practice concerning this and cognate subjects which will be open to you when – and if – you attain the VIIIº of O.T.O. [. . .] further when you enter the Sanctuary of the Gnosis [. . .] (Crowley, 1994, p. 400). The significance of this is that these are the degrees known to be firmly connected with the secrets of Crowley’s methods of sexual magick. Regarding the consumption of vital energies and the integration of higher and lower energies, he refers his student to “Magick, Chapter XII” – referring to Magick in Theory and Practice, Chapter XII.
In the definitive “tome de Crowley” that is Magick in Theory and Practice, vampires and vampirism have three entries. The first two references are quoted here:
In the case of The Master Therion [referring here to himself], he had originally the capacity for all classes of orgia. In the beginning, He [sic] cured the sick, bewitched the obstinate, allured the seductive, routed the aggressive, made himself invisible, and generally behaved like a Young-Man-About-Town on every possible plane. He would afflict one vampire with a Sending of Cats, and appoint another his private Enchantress, neither aware of any moral oxymoron, nor hampered by the implicit incongruity of his oaths (Crowley, 1994, p. 229).
His need to check the vampiring of a lady in Paris by a sorceress once led Frater Perdurabo [again referring to himself] to the discovery of a very powerful body of black magicians, which whom [sic] he was obliged to war for nearly 10 years before their ruin was complete and irremediable as it is now (Crowley, 1994, p.235).
The third mention in this work occurs under the heading “Other Books, Principally Fiction, of a Generally Suggestive and Helpful Kind” where he listed Bram Stoker’s Dracula as “valuable for its account of legends concerning vampires” (Crowley, 1994, p. 454). These passages have very little to do with ceremonial magick or vampirism but go a long way in demonstrating Crowley’s opinion of both himself and vampires.
Chapter XII of Magick in Theory and Practice, the chapter he refers to in Magick Without Tears, is titled “Of the Bloody Sacrifice: and Matters Cognate” and opens with, “The blood is the life. This simple statement is explained by the Hindus by saying that the blood is the principal vehicle of vital prana. There is some ground for the belief that there is a definite substance, not isolated as yet, by whose presence makes all the difference between live and dead matter.” The chapter then goes on to discuss various aspects of blood offerings, human sacrifice, and self-sacrifice in the form of the Rosy Cross.
It is important to understand through the reading of this material that Crowley often used the word “blood” to mean semen and “sacrifice” as simply the offering up of such fluids, just as his use of “death” often translates to orgasm. In light of this, it is plain to see that the majority of his comments on vampirism are really comments on sexual magick and the energy exchange that accompanies such workings. Given the implications of these passages, one must ask: Is the sex magician and the vampire that very different from one another? After all, they are each using the vital/subtle energies, either their own or that of another, for their own purposes.
The Rituals of the Ordo Templi Orientis
“The best blood is of the moon, monthly: then the fresh blood of a child, or dropping from the host of heaven: then of enemies; then of the priest or of the worshippers: last of some beast, no matter what.” Liber AL vel Legis III, 24
Crowley used the consumption of blood and sexual fluids in many of his rituals, including certain initiation rites of the Ordo Templi Orientis. The two most publicly observable instances of this are the Gnostic Mass and the Mass of the Phoenix. The passage above is taken from the list of ingredients used to form the host for the Gnostic Mass. In order of significance, Crowley (or Aiwaz, the preterhuman being who reportedly dedicated Liber Al vel Legis to Crowley) mentions menstrual blood, then that of a child, the host of heaven, an enemy, the priest, and then any sort of animal. (Let me insert a reminder here that Crowley mixed the terms blood and semen freely.) This ingredient is to then be baked unto the Cake of Light, consecrated through the Miracle of the Mass, and consumed by the congregants.
On the other hand, it bears mentioning that the seemingly obvious representation of blood consumption, drinking the wine, is not blood consumption at all within the context of the Gnostic Mass. In the context of the Roman Catholic Eucharist, the wine is transubstantiated – it becomes the physical blood of Christ. Within the latter context, the consumption of the Eucharist is literally the consumption of blood and flesh. In the former context, the bread and wine are consecrated and imbued with the significance of the “blood” and “body” of God, but this is not a physical, earthly god but rather the Sun. Thus the “blood” and “body” are not physical, earthly blood but rather the “essence of the joy of the Earth” and not physical, earthly body but rather the “essence of the life of the Sun” (Crowley, 1988, p.382). The actual transmutation of the bread and wine into body and blood occurs within the body, after consumption, when the bread and wine, quite literally, break down into the energy that fuels the body and generates cellular matter: physical body and blood.
In the Mass of the Phoenix, the magician is instructed to carve a sigil upon his breast and staunch the blood with the host (created using the same recipe and thus already containing blood within it) and to then consume this bloodied Cake of Light. The eucharistic act in The Mass of the Phoenix differs from that of the Gnostic Mass in two significant ways. A) It is made more personal by requiring self-sacrifice, rather than the sacrifice of the priest or priestess, as the magician is consuming his own blood and B) it confronts a more ominous taboo in that he is consuming fresh (e.g. uncooked) human blood.
Crowley has already mentioned the VIIIº and IXº degree rituals in the earlier excerpt from Magick Without Tears. According to Francis King’s Secret Rituals of the O.T.O., at least two lower degrees of the Ordo Templi Orientis, when performed as Crowley wrote them, also contained the consumption of blood in their initiations.
The third degree initiation, as written by Crowley, had both the candidate and initiator consuming a mixture of blood and laudanum. In the ritual of the sixth degree, Crowley had the initiator ask the candidate to seal the oath with his “heart’s own blood” (The secret rituals of the O.T.O, 1973, p. 119) Once the candidate consented to this, his blood was drawn by carving a St. Andrew’s Cross on his right forearm and drained into the chalice. The oath was then sealed with a bloody thumbprint and “the blood [offered up to] our lady Babalon” (The secret rituals of the O.T.O, 1973, p. 119) who then drank of the blood filled chalice.
The Ordo Templi Orientis’ current stance on blood magick and the consumption of bodily fluids has changed quite a bit and the rituals have been greatly reworked since Crowley’s day. The many excuses include fear of litigation and transmittable disease, but I personally believe it stems more from an unwillingness to confront, or ask their members to confront, these taboos. If this is in fact the case, it reflects the reemergence of the moralistic Victorian attitudes toward blood and vital forces, even after Crowley’s firm rejection of these attitudes. Reasoning aside, current policy discourages the use of blood in the Cakes of Light or public performances of the Mass of the Phoenix. The blood and laudanum (and even wormwood) have been banned from use in the third degree ritual. I am told that the particulars of the sixth degree ritual vary from location to location at this point.
Real Live Blood and Sex Magicians - Step Right Up, 25¢ per ticket
I am tempted to say that we are a dying breed, but I am afraid there were never really that many of us. We walk along the fine line between the occult and vampire subcultures. Blood and sex magic are a standard in our temple and we make no apologies for it. Many ceremonial magicians would call us vampires because we do feed on energy and drink blood; we also embrace all the things that come with those acts. The phenomenon that we have termed “Metaphysical Kinship” is reflected perfectly in The Psychic Vampire Codex. This phenomenon centers on the link created when energy is exchanged, whether through psychic means or blood, and includes dreamwalking, “the calling”, increased psychic connectivity, and emotional sensitivities. These are all things that we had experienced and worked with long before the publication of the Codex and never associated with psi or sang vampirism. Yet, here they are, almost word for word, and put in the context of vampiric powers. So there, we are vampires – the book says so, right? Not so fast.
I think any vampire who meets us, immediately knows that we are not an active part of their subculture either. Beyond the outward signs, or lack thereof, we do not share the foundational beliefs of the vampire subculture. We do not believe that our “feeding” or energy work is necessary to our continued strength or well-being, though it can become very addictive over time. We do not follow any established origin or cultural myth, as do some vampire houses. And though the acts and results are much the same, our aesthetic and psychological approach to this work is very different than that described by most vampires.
So where does that leave us? Unlabeled? An oddity among our peers? It leaves us in a very unique place, one that I hope will convey a message to both ceremonial magicians and the vampire community. There is no single definition or label capable of encompassing us all! I want ceremonial magicians to come away from this piece with the understanding that vampirism and vampires are not some terrible force that must be reckoned with or battled against; nor, are they weekend posers at a costume ball. There is no room in true magick for moralistic values that hold one paradigm above another or for taboos that are only whispered about in hushed tones. I want vampires to come away from this piece with the understanding that, regardless of their religious/occult beliefs, or lack thereof, there is a long and well establish magickal tradition behind the type of energy and blood exchanges that they use to feed. I would personally like to see more of the vampire community embrace the magick behind the darkness, just as I would like to see more magicians embrace the darkness behind the magick.
Special Thanks to: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center of
The University of Texas at Austin
Reference List
Belanger, M. (2004). The psychic vampire codex: A manual of magick and energy work. Boston: Weiser.
Booth, M. A magick life, a biography of Aleister Crowley. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Crowley, A. (1938). The book of the law: Liber al vel legis, CCXX. York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser. (Original work published 1909).
Crowley, A. (1988). Liber XLIV: The mass of the phoenix. In I. Regardie (Ed.), Gems from the equinox: Instructions by Aleister Crowley for his own magical order (pp. 311-314). Las Vegas: Falcon Press. (Original work published 1912-13).
Crowley, A. (1988). Liber XV: Ecclesiae Gnosticae Catholicae canon missae (the gnostic mass). In I. Regardie (Ed.), Gems from the equinox: Instructions by Aleister Crowley for his own magical order (pp. 363-384). Las Vegas: Falcon Press. (Original work published 1918).
Crowley, A. (1989a). De Art Magica: XV of eroto-comatose lucidity. In S. Michaelsen (Ed.), Portable darkness: An Aleister Crowley reader (pp. 164-165). New York: Harmony Books. (Original work published 1974, written 1914).
Crowley, A. (1989b). De Art Magica: XVIII of a certain other method of magick not included in the instruction of the O.T.O. In S. Michaelsen (Ed.), Portable darkness: An Aleister Crowley reader (pp. 167-168). New York: Harmony Books. (Original work published 1974, written 1914).
Crowley, A. (1994). Magick in theory and practice. In Hymenaeus Beta (Ed.), Magick: Book 4 (pp. 121-290). York Beach, Maine: Weiser. (Original work published 1929-30).
Crowley, A. (1994). Magick Without Tears (I. Regardie, Israel, Ed.). Tempe, Arizona: New Falcon. (Original work published 1973).
Cunard, N. (1954). Thoughts about Aleister Crowley (for Gerald York). Unpublished essay. (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin).
Fortune, D. (2001). Psychic self-defense (Revised). New York: Weiser. (Original work published 1930).
Pincher, C. (1982). The private world of St. John Terrapin. London: Sidgwick and Jackson.
Ramsland, K. (2002). The science of vampires. New York: Berkley Boulevard.
The secret rituals of the O.T.O. (1973) (F. King, Ed.). New York: Samuel Weiser.
Symonds, J. (1973). The great beast: The life of Aleister Crowley. London: Mayflower Books. (Original work published 1952).
Yorke, G. (November 23, 1954). (personal correspondence to Nancy Cunard). (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin).
COMMENTS
-
wayne
22:22 Apr 27 2008
as always your stories are spell binding
BloodxXxOverDose
13:24 Apr 30 2008
ah love this was very good,interesting for sure.
DemianA
09:51 Mar 05 2009
According to Grady McMurtry, the former Caliph of the OTO, Crowley did not have filed teeth and it was all conjecture. The "Cakes of Light" contained a mixture of semen and the aroused vaginal secretions of the woman. This was true until recently but now the cakes are burnt and then mixed with new dough and baked again to remove the possibility of pathological organisms. I was initiated Vll degree as an OTO initiate in the early 80s by McMurty and Jim Graeb IX degree, both of whom were personal friends. To my knowledge blood was never involved in the initiations. It is true that the lX and X degree did employ sex magick, the XI degree homosexual sex magick. I can only offer my first hand knowledge of Crowley and the OTO, and second hand through Grady who visited Crowley in 1945-46 and was initiated by him and became Caliph at Crowleys' request.