Aleister Crowley: The Beast Demystified [Paperback]

Roger Hutchinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1999

Dubbed the "wickedest man in the world" and the "Great Beast", Aleister Crowley has a terrifying reputation. Stories abound of drugs, orgies and magical ceremonies involving the sacrifice of babies. Many who associated with him died tragically, including his wife and child. This biography offers an agnostic view, concentrating not on Crowley the impenetrable mystic and bizarre character, but on Crowley the comprehensible man. The book presents the Great Beast as an accessible character: a flawed and egotistical individual who nonetheless left an ineradicable mark on the 19th century.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Roger Hutchinson is an award-winning author and journalist. He lives on the Isle of Raasay. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Trafalgar Square Publishing (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1840182296
• ISBN-13: 978-1840182293
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,103,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A biography that finally gives us Crowley as a person, February 20, 2000

By 

scrawfo "scrawfo" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aleister Crowley: The Beast Demystified (Paperback)

Regardless of what "A Reader for Cleveland.USA" says this book is very gentle in has handling of the subject. To date there have been two brands of biographies of Crowley:

1. Those written by fawning worshippers, who somehow overlook the glaring defects in Crowley's character.

2. Those written by his enemies. These are the type who take Crowley literally when the later claims to have sacrificed 150 male children per year between 1912 and 1928.

The author of this book takes a middle ground. Crowley had done some amazing things. He held records for his mountain climbing. As well he had done some very horrible things and seemed to have little if any ability to feel for other human beings. In short, Crowley was human like the rest of us; he simply lived life larger.

It was interesting to get a fairly well rounded picture of Master Therion, as the public saw him, through the use of the mass media. However, the author is always careful to point out where the newspaper articles have gone astray from what can actually be said historically.

The failings of the book were as follows:

1. No documentation of sources. If you have no knowledge of this subject, you do not know where his quotes are coming from.

2. A lack of psychological analysis. This is a failing of almost all books on the subject.

To begin where I started, with the author of another review: don't confuse quantity with "rightness". By your argument, Christianity and Islam would be more "right" than Thelema. One hundred years after the founding of the first two religions, they had believers that numbered between the high hundreds of thousands to a million. One hundred years after the reception of the Liber Legis, the number of Thelemites is in the low thousands.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Through a glass darkly..., August 5, 2000

By 

Seth Bunke - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aleister Crowley: The Beast Demystified (Paperback)

Mr. Hutchinson has made the great error most of Crowley's biographers have made, not understanding the man. Crowley was neither a saint, nor was he the "wickedest man in the world", he was an extremely engaging figure that history has yet to understand. The author does manage not to fall into the lines of the late Mr. Crowley's dejectors, and he is far from one of the sycophants who pandered to the ego and legend of "The Great Beast". I found the book hardly enlightneing, and the author fails utterly to site any sources or to add any resemblance of a bibliography to the book. All in all it seems that the author had little interest in the man as a whole, and one wonders why he wrote his biography. Hutchinson gives little sympathy to his subject, and he himself claims ignorance of the very subjects Crowley claimed expertisein (and spent his life pursuing), Hutchinson's reasons for this book seem vague as the subject matter. The author does a fiar job at clarifying a few historical figures and the relevence of their own roles in history, bur he fails to clarify or in any way "demystify" the Enigmatic Aleister Crowley. The book renders itslef as something of an abridged "Confessions" and lacks the chaotic Crowley wit and irritating ego, that make Crowley such an intersting read. The book is a mediocre biography shedding no real light, and adding nothing to the understanding of the man. For those seeking a cursory overview of the man's life, or simply seek to know a little about Aleister Crowley, this is your book. Occultists, Thelemites and otherwise truly intersted parties (dejectors and sycophants alike) this book could be avoided, and a simple re-read of "Confessions" will have the same effect as this work.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars If You Want Crowely Don't Get This., October 1, 2000

By 

Fisher "Fisher" (Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aleister Crowley: The Beast Demystified (Paperback)

And I say that for these reasons. First there is no bibliography and that is a red flag to me when I'm reading a book. Where does he get his info??

Another big problem is that its VERY obvious that he is writing this book to bash Crowely. He takes every opportunity to prove to the world that he hates Crowely and that you and I should too. Thank you but I'll just have the facts please without your personal opinion to poison my judgmental processes.

The author's ending to the bibliography is a fine case in point because out of the 4 or 5 accounts of Crowely's last minutes before dying the author picks the worst one and doesn't even bother to list the others. This is typical throughout the book.

If you want to read a biography of Crowely that will list the good AND the bad and let you have the privilage of figuring out this incredibly fascinating man for yourself try "Do What Thou Wilt". You can order that here too and it has an IN DEPTH bibliograhy and MULTIPLE accounts are listed for events in Crowley's life when they occur.

Peace, ~Marz~