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Philosophical Influence on Crowley?
I’ve never been really into philosophy. I don’t know if that’s surprising or not. But I find that when you’re just discussing ideas themselves, I sort of tune out - no matter how much effort I put in. I think what I like about religion/mythology/occult is that it’s basically philosophy which is delivered through stories. So for me, there’s really something to hang your hat on that’s more tangible than just a floaty idea. That said, plenty of this stuff does indeed involve floaty ideas. Some of the floatiest in fact. But as long as they have a symbolic/archetypal payload, I rarely get bored from it.
A good example of a “philosophy” (although maybe that’s not the best word for it) turned into an engaging story which teaches that philosophy is Herman Hesse’s Demian, which is probably one of the best primers for understanding Jungian psychoanalysis I’ve ever seen.
Anyway, I’m so bored with everybody bringing up Aleister Crowley constantly. But one thing I’ve been wondering why no one addresses is the obvious influence Western Philosophy had on his ideas. Everyone talks about him going back to all these old occult sources, yadda yadda. But if you look around at some of the philosophers who were big just before them, you find pretty much exactly the same themes and even the same language.
I don’t know much about him, but Schopenhauer’s “The World as Will and Representation” seems to be somewhat connected - at least from the perspective of some of the questions I’ve been asking lately. I’m sure there are several others. Anybody have a good footing in this area of occult-to-philosophic correspondences? Where do I start and do you have any advice for getting over the “boring” factor of philosophy? Maybe I just need the right author or introduction.
- Crowley Books?
- Aleister Crowley
- Philosophical Paganism
- James Bond & Aleister Crowley
- Skeptic’s Are Idiots
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July 5th, 2005 at 7:14 pm
Geroges Bataille was a French postmodernist philosopher who sort of represented the dark underbelly of surrelism - Andre Breton actually kicked him out because his writing was too sexual, scatalogical and violent
He wrote an amazing book about economics called the accursed share where he compared modern economic movements to the aztecs & human sacrifice
He wrote other books about human sacrifice, religion and its connection to lust, plus bizarre, dreamy pornographic novels like the story of the eye
A major influence on a number of differnet people from Baudrillard to Burroughs
Bataille himself tried to start an occult organization called the acephale - or headless- movement. It was a secret society dedicated to stopping fascism
problem was they were going to kick things off with a human sacrifice, everyone voulunteered to be sacrificed but nobody wanteed to be the one to do it
great short story on the essentials of his philiosophy here:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/relig/enc/stories/s281136.htm
personally i’m a huge fan of Bataille, he was also one of the first to rehabilitate nietzsche from the taint of post-war links to fascism (which Nietzsche was against but that sort of thing never stops misdirected admirers)
July 5th, 2005 at 7:17 pm
Not an influence on crowley that i know of - just a fantastic religious philosopher who was also an occultist
July 5th, 2005 at 7:21 pm
This may be obvious… but Plato is pretty good for that.
Once you get over the academic connontations to his work, (which drew me away from getting into it in the first place) it definately opens up some of the roots of modern thought.
The Alegory of the Cave from The Republic Part 7 identifies the original theory of the Matrix.
Other than that as a philsophical reading, it is much easier to digest because of the dialectic style (ie conversational) The republic also establishes Plato`s own version of Leary`s 8 circut model, but into four parts.
On the other spectrum, In Twilight of the Idols/ The Antichrist, Nietzsche has one of my favorite philosphical texts in the form of Maxims and Arrows. These are a collection of quotes and or ideas that are layed out in short form, very easy to read but much to ponder.
Both of the above, have greatly influenced the occult in their ways as has Hagel and other germanic philsophers (for obvious reasons)
Again in true form to the occult, you could approach Eastern work such as Confucius, or Sun Tzu in the same manner.
I could go on, but I think that this is a start…
July 5th, 2005 at 7:32 pm
Yeah I love Sun Tzu, I haven’t read him in forever. I should. I’ve come across the “acephale” elsewhere Max. I’ll look into it more. Plato’s a good call too. I guess I’m also looking more specifically for Crowley and how he developed the idea of “Will” which I know was hugely popular at the time philosophically
July 5th, 2005 at 7:41 pm
Seems to me that Crowleys’s concept of will is basically Nietzschean, what Bataille calls sovereignty.
Wasn’t the motto over crowley’s abbey taken from Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel?
You might also check out Bakhtin who was a Russian literary philosopher and a huge fan of Rabelais.
July 5th, 2005 at 7:42 pm
or hell, just read Gargantua and Pantagruel
July 6th, 2005 at 1:23 am
Interesting topic, Tim. The black bridges that link Western philosophy and Western esotericism are definitely worth exploring; with the whole Thelema/Will thing being as obvious and excellent a place to start as any.
Know Bataille only by name, not by ideas. Will promptly dig in.
July 6th, 2005 at 2:25 am
Rabbelais.
July 6th, 2005 at 2:49 am
Rabbelais wasn’t really a philosopher though, was he?
Not that I don’t love the guy!
July 6th, 2005 at 3:46 am
No, but he was a major influence all the same…and a philosopher in his own way.
July 6th, 2005 at 9:50 am
Read the Enneads by Plotinus. Neoplatonist philosophy influenced sufism and persian thought before it got around to us.
You might try “Phenomenology of Spirit” by Hegel, too.