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Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley, British Intelligence and the Occult

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culled from disparate sources of Anglo-American govt. files, obscure books and articles in various languages (English, French, Russian, Italian, German). Despite obvious double-dealings in intel related issues, throughout the book the author emphasizes Aleister Crowley's unwavering patriotism and subservience to the Crown as apparent from the horse's mouth, the Beast's heavily-edited "Confessions" quoted on page 10: "I still think the English pot as black as the German kettle, and I am still willing to die in defense of that pot. Mine is the loyalty of Bill Syke's dog...the fact that he starves me and beats me doesn't alter the fact that I am his dog, and I love him."

In all likelihood (chapter 1) his first brush with the Admirality's Naval Intelligence Division (NID) came while at Trinity College in Cambridge, which led to his first travel to Tsarist Russia in 1897, an assignment to infiltrate neo-Jacobites and the Golden Dawn society (HOGD), and tangential involvement in a failed coup attempt in Spain (1899).
It was also during this time that on the advice of A.E. Waite "he did latch onto Karl von Eckartshausen's [who studied at the Jesuit University of Ingolstadt under the infamous Adam Weishaupt] allegorical work as further evidence of a Secret Church and a 'hidden community of saints' guided by mysterious, illuminated adepts" (p. 22).

The early 1900s (ch. 2) find A.C. mountaineering in the Himalayas, reconnoitering French clout and role in the opium trade while on a field trip in Yunnan, and paying a second visit to Russia as director of a dance troupe billed 'Ragged Rag-Time Girls'.
In the same era, he also began experimenting with peyote/mescaline during his Mexican sojourn whose primary objective was to gather info on the local state of affairs in the oil business. Later on, "[t]he Beast routinely administered mescaline and other drugs [for instance, at his version of the Rites of Eleusis] to willing and unsuspecting subjects (spicy curries were a favourite means) methodically cataloging the results" (p. 108). The outcome entitled "Liber CMXXXIV, The Cactus" disappeared after WWI -- for on whose desk the said journals might have landed, thumb to p. 234. Crowley's first encounter with the founder of Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), Thedor Reuss in 1910, and through him with the Kaiser's intelligence apparatus and initiation into that fraternity 2 years later in Berlin, "occured soon after a major reorganization of British intelligence specifically designed to counter growing German menace" (p. 42).

The bulk of the present study (ch. 3-10) investigates the Beast's exploits in the U.S. (31 October, 1914 - mid-December, 1919) that included feeding disinfo under the guise of pro-German propagandist in the columns of such weekly newspapers as "The Fatherland", spying on Indian seditionists and militant Irish republicans, thwarting German-inspired sabotage and subversion on the West Coast (p. 102), rubbing elbows with anarchists like Emma Goldman and her lover and comrade-in-arms Alexander Berkman, etc.; all the while the Mage's seasonal magickal retreats could serve as a cover for surveillance missions.
The author takes no sides as to the veracity of various theories about a special cargo in the bowels of the Lusitania, although he has the following to add: "The New York Germans...were the victims of a clever two-pronged con. On one side, Crowley...sowed rationalizations for destroying the Lusitania. On the other, [Kurt] Thummel [aka Charles E. Thorne/Chester Williams] conveniently turned up with more evidence of hidden guns...If there was a British mastermind...it was probably not Churchill (who may still have played an accessory role) but Admiral [W. Reginald "Blinker"] Hall...[whose] man in New York was Guy Gaunt, and Gaunt oversaw Crowley" (p. 87).
To Mega Therion's key contacts among the Germans were George Sylvester Viereck (himself a possible multiple agent) and writer, occultist Hans Heinz Ewers. Fascination with the black arts and homosexuality constituted a common denominator for all three. "The occult angle might explain why the Germans have found this phony Irishman and affected fruitcake credible" (p. ?). Further below, however, we read: "For the Germans, as for the British, the crucial question about Crowley was not whether he could be trusted, but whether he could be useful" (p. 206).

Besides putting his doctrines into practice at the Abbey of Thelema, the years spent in Sicily - while commuting between Italy, France, England - afforded Uncle Crowley the opportunity to keep a tab on French and Italian naval movements concerning Tunisia and Syria at the behest of his 'beloved' country. As a curious episode, circumstantial speculation indicates A.C. may have been instrumental in the foiled assassination attempt on Mussolini in 1927. "[I]t seems possible that [Theosophist Violet] Gibson was acting on post-hypnotic suggestion, and Crowley, in league with [Giovanni A. Colonna, Duca di] Cesaro may have had a hand in preparing her" (p. 189).
Back in England, he reunited with a handful of acquaintances he had met in America, including Jewish financier Otto Kahn, who replaced fellow self-chosenite Jacob Schiff after the latter's death at the helm of Kuhn, Loeb and Co., Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) man William Wiseman, and Jack-of-all-trades Sidney Reilly (Sigmund Rosenblum). "[T]he suspicion was that Reilly and Wiseman, as agents for New York bankers, were working against British interest, perhaps channeling money to cash-hungry Soviets and bankrolling political unrest from India to Italy. Was Kahn eyeing the Beast for some part in this, or was the 'reform element' [in British intel] using Crowley to probe the Kahn-Wiseman circle?" (p. 186) This links up with another long-time Crowley 'friend' and controller Everard Feilding, who "worked closely with NILI spy ring of Zionist Jews working for Britain against the Turks. The NILI group had political allies and financial connections to the same Zionist circles in New York that were working closely with Wiseman and Section V" (p. 144).

In fact, being a master trickster the Mage had a special knack for touting his own brand of magick, Thelema, as a commodity for sale to various genocidal movements/regimes. Not long after the victory of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, in a letter to Trotsky (Lev Bronstein) the Beast offered his "help in ridding the Earth of the scourge of Christianity...Everything in Crowley's modus operandi suggests his display of radical sympathies was a new twist on his old game: agent provocateur" (pp. 148-9, see also p. 195). He even painted a picture dubbed 'Young Bolshevik Girl with a Wart Looking at Trotsky' (p. 165).
Given Thelema's ties to Qabalah, no wonder that "in 1922 he proposed a convenient means for Jews to regain their true will and destiny -- the adoption of Thelema as the foundation of new Israel" (p. 166). As for the Nazis, "around the same time Crowley was reaching out to Hitler ["in a 1933 article for the Sunday Dispatch" where he had asserted that "before Hitler was, I am"], he also was courting Joseph Stalin" via his admirer and disciple, journalist Walter Duranty, perhaps with the aim to neutralize the Red Menace (pp. 212-3).

The rest of the book (ch. 13-4) focuses, among other things, on Crowley's connections to people of importance in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. Chief among them were Karl Germer of OTO, Luftwaffe General Erich Ludendorff, old pals like Kurt Jahnke and George Viereck. Jahnke worked under Deputy Führer and Hitler's fraternal lover Rudolf Hess in a special intelligence bureau called 'Abteilung Pfeffer', whose mission was "the strengthening of Anglo-German relations by a mutual, unfettered exchange of views" (p. 245). Or preparing the ground for WWII?
After the slaughterhouse went operational in 1939, at the British end we find Crowley being an advisor to a group that targeted propaganda to lure Hess into Britain and which gravitated around Admiral John Godfrey of NID, Ian Fleming (case officer assigned to the Beast), Dennis Wheatley, and astrologer Louis de Wohl. Outlandish as may seem, Richard Spence doesn't discard the notion out of hand that A.C. had somehow (through pyscho-mystical-ritualistic means, we ask) 'implanted' a dream in Hess's mind where the chap found himself in Buckingham Palace being received by the King (pp. 247-8). Hmm. Nor is the author dismissive about the idea that the ageing Mage could interrogate the captured occultist Deputy Führer (or his body-double, we might add), utilizing his battle-tested psychotropic armamentarium. Be as it may, for further details and scores of topics left untouched in this modest review, buy a copy or two!

P.S. Have y'all read the musing that came out on April Fool's Day of 2006 and the attendant brainstorming available on the Net concerning the plausibility of the Beast having fathered Barbara Bush (née Pierce)?

First of all, I had no idea Aleister Crowley did anything more than create a popular deck of tarot cards. Whew! I had no idea that was so far down the list with this guy.

The writing style makes this book more like a textbook. Sometimes it is hard keeping track of all the characters introduced into the mix. Although it is dry, it is still well written, and the author did a lot of research to come up with all the information and references to corroborate events.

There are just too many coincidences and strange occurrences to deny that Crowley was in some manner involved with British Intelligence. What is more interesting is the people who crossed his path. The people who are connected to AC or his occult organization reads like a "lifestyles of the rich and famous" for that period...Aldous Huxley, Ian Fleming, L Ron Hubbard, etc.

The book also shows the connections between all the intelligence communities and the Freemasons and other mystery schools of the occult. With all the Freemasons in positions of worldwide power and politics, it would seem to be a perfect cover for passing confidential information among spies.

Definitely worth reading.

What a ride! The book takes you throught the life of Aleister Crowley, from early years to death and his connections with MI5 and MI6. Seemingly he was an agent of the Crown for his entire life. A laundry list of names are provided and each chapter is followed up with lists of references and footnotes.Check this out if you like Crowley and or real spy stuff!

I quite enjoyed this book. In a world where we are six degrees separate from anybody else, it seems that Aleister Crowley had first and second hand experience of pretty well everybody who was moving and shaking both world wars! In a world that is saturated with speculation and axes to grind on the Crowley Conundrum, Mr. Spence has done an amazing job of connecting the dots - albeit largely 'created' out of possibility and probability. It is not his fault of course, by his own account he does, "rely more on circumstantial evidence and informed speculation" than he would like, due to the tampering, withholding and loss of established records.

While I applaud his attempts to release Crowley from the sensationalist, satanic shadows that many of his biographers have cast him in, I find it a bit rich, in a book like this, that he condemn another writer's interpretation of 'the facts' as "pure fantasy", for example:

"(Amado Crowley's claim that the Beast used this 1897 sojourn to meet with the later-to-be-notorious Grigori Rasputin is pure fantasy. Rasputin was then busy siring in far-off Siberia." In a time where people are highly mobile between Europe and the U.S. Tibet and China, is it all that inconceivable that Rasputin could not take time off from fathering children to visit Crowley in St. Petersburg? Spence then goes on to quote from Amado Crowley's Secrets when it suits him as he also chooses to do so from sources as wide as yahoo.com message.

I think this book is a valuable compendium to weigh up what has already been written about Crowley, and it makes you wonder how some arrive at the conclusions they do - but the question still has to be asked, 'how objective' even is a 'researcher' from their own biases, even taking into account the valiant effort from such limited resources?

In Secret Agent 666 the author engages in massive speculation, rambles from one item to another, one year to another, one place to another, one topic to another, yet despite all this I would still recommend it. Why?

Despite the speculations, useful names and data are given that provide an excellent review of what was happening in the pre-WWI era into the 1940's. The author paints a lurid tale of intrigue and depravity with Aleister Crowley as its epicenter.

It becomes clear that the various British intelligence agencies were deeply involved not only in pre-WWI Germany and Russia, but also deeply imbedded in these United States, sniffing out information and seeking to influence American opinion. The Brits were trying, by any means possible, honest or dishonest, to get the U.S. into the war against Germany.

Crowley figured into that scenario as a secret agent for the Brits, under the cover of occultism. It is well known, as he has become somewhat of a cult figure these days, that Aleister Crowley was influential in the occult movements of the early 20th century, when interest in such things was at a peak in the U.S., Europe, and Russia.

It is also commonly known that Crowley's personal life was one of sexual depravity and drug addiction. His rituals included on-stage sodomy. Yet, despite his personal shortcomings, the British government found his abilities useful. Crowley's contacts among the wealthy and powerful all over the West were significant.

Now, to one more essential point that most reviewers will not touch on: Crowley was involved with several movements that might be placed under the general heading of "Rosicrucian." At the start of the 21st century, when interest in occult and mystical matters is rising phenomenally again, many sincere seekers will look at the personal life and habits of Crowley, the heroin addict wheeler-dealer, and wonder how such a man could be so high up in anything Rosicrucian. Here is the answer:

An ancient, mystical, noble, and lofty tradition--namely Rosicrucianism--was infiltrated by the likes of Crowley, for all the wrong reasons. Here was a man whose primary goals were personal pleasure, money, power, and influence at any cost. A novice in the subject, sincere but unlearned, could easily be turned off towards mysticism and Rosicrucianism when learning of the involvement of someone like Crowley.

Such seekers are cautioned to remember that the British government at that time was purposely infiltrating so-called "secret societies" because many influential scholars, artists, politicians, noblemen, and even royals were themselves involved in mystical societies and Rosicrucianism, in its various manifestations. The Brits' goal was information at any price.

Crowley, using occult societies as his cover, did spy work far and wide for decades. Be assured, this man is NOT to be taken as a true representative of Rosicrucianism, and in many occult circles, even at the time, was considered a Black Magician. Some, more recently, have speculated that Crowley personally influenced Adolph Hitler, but this author tells us that Hitler rebuffed or ignored any overtures from him.

Again, I recommend the reading of this book, but realize the multitudinous speculations for what they are, and realize Crowley for what he really was.

As stated in the title, the vast majority of this book presents information that is only inferred about Crowley's intelligence work for the British. Although the author has obviously done a great amount of research, he weakens his position by constantly inserting Crowley into situations where little or no evidence supports his presence. For example, there are dozens of examples in the book where the author writes something along the lines of "Did Crowley do ______?", or "Perhaps ________ was Crowley's doing?"

Overall, this book reads more like a history of British intelligence throughout the WWI and WWII with information about Crowley added in for flavor. The research is extensive, but the author's insistence upon inserting Crowley into every scheme and secret intelligence action becomes inane and lessens the book's overall appeal. Additionally, dozens of typographical errors plague the book, leading me to believe that production was rushed.

Enhanced with a handful of black-and-white photographs, Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley, British Intelligence and the Occult is a biography of Aleister Crowley, the founding father of modern-day occultism. Several other biographies have attempted to capture his life and personality; none of them have taken the in-depth look at his career as a British Intelligence agent that Secret Agent 666 has. Drawing upon documents garnered from British, American, French, and Italian archives, Secret Agent 666 reveals that Crowley played a role in the sinking of the Lusitania, a plan to overthrow the Spanish government, countermeasures against Irish and Indian nationalist conspiracies, and the 1941 flight of Rudolf Hess. Portraying Crowley as a patriotic Englishman who survived public vilification partly to conceal his purpose as a secret agent, Secret Agent 666 is a one-of-a-kind portrait, and worthy inclusion to shelves chronicling the history of occult practices.

this particular book is full of facts and backed by evidence. the man does his research!!