Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1992, Page 35
during the Enlightenment, influencing figures as diverse as Benjamin Franklin (the obverse of
the Great Seal of the United States is Masonic in origin) and Mozart (The Magic Flute is an
allegory grounded in Masonic ritual).
The advance of scientific thought during the 19th century was paralleled by increased interest
in cabalistic thought and ritual magic. Elephas Levy in his Histoire de la Haute Magie, Les Clefs
des Grands Mystère, and Dogma et Rituel de la Haute Magie capitalized on this interest in the
exotic and sensational. His work was influential, attracting literary figures such as Baudelaire
and Rimbaud. Rimbaud, himself, with his juxtaposition of fevered creativity, drug use, and
quasimanic search for decadence and depravity is the prototype of the modern adolescent
whose search for transcendence is the counterpoint of his fears of evanescence, transience,
and alienation (Halperin, 1987). And, in modern adolescents one sees the attraction to
marginal and destructive groups who lure vulnerable adolescents who may feel Rimbaud‟s
rage but lack his creativity.
Aleister Crowley: Magister Ludi
The most influential figure in the modern satanist and occult movements was Aleister
Crowley. Crowley was a self-styled practitioner of “magick.” A product of a family adhering to
a fundamentalist dissenter group, the Plymouth Brethren, Crowley served as an organizing
nidus against the complacency of Edwardian England. His occult lodge, The Order of the
Golden Dawn, was a quasi-Masonic group that trafficked in pretentious ritualized “magick”
and adopted as its motto: “Do As Thou Wilt.” Literary figures such as William Butler Yeats
were briefly attracted to Crowley. But they were rapidly repelled by his authoritarianism and
his reliance on quasimystical cant in a ceaseless effort to outrage the establishment.
Crowley‟s activities appear to reflect his rage at having spent his childhood under the
governance of the Plymouth Brethren. It may be apocryphal but nonetheless plausible that his
mother identified him with the Beast of Revelations during his childhood, and that Crowley
adopted this projection as his adult identity. In any event, during his life he signed his letters
“666” (or “FFF”). While Crowley may have seen himself as an occult confidence man, his
books “The Book of the Law, The Lesser Key of Solomon, and Magick: Theory and Practice”
form the basis for the modern “scriptures” of Satanism such as the Necronomicon (1977) and
the Satanic Bible (LaVey, 1969).
The organizations that Crowley founded are not currently extant, and the members of groups
founded by his latter-day disciples, such as the Temple of Set and the Church of Satan, are
not numerous. The importance of these organizations lies in their providing the vulnerable
adolescent with support and an alternate object for identification and/or idealization.
For these adolescents, these “scriptures” reaffirm their sense of alienation and undermine the
influence of conventional morality. These groups and their literature may provide an
intellectual framework for vulnerable adolescents in search of an intellectual reinforcement for
their rage at an adult world whose morality they regard as hypocritical. The simplified
Machiavellianism of the Temple of Set may appeal to adolescents who see the world around
them as being dominated by force, immorality, and unreason. Moreover, Crowley‟s disciples
appeal to those adolescents whose fear of their environment has reached such frightening
proportions that they must resort to “magick” to feel that survival is possible. Indeed, in
literary works dealing with occultism and in clinical cases in which occultism has played a
significant role, an evident leitmotif is the need for “magick,” the need to utilize symbolic
rituals to control an otherwise ominous world.
Modern Literary Perspective
Arthur Machen was one of Crowley‟s most prominent literary disciples. Machen was briefly a
member of the Order of the Golden Dawn. Subsequently, he became a member of the
“Inklings,” a literary group of Christian apologists which formed around Charles Williams and
during the Enlightenment, influencing figures as diverse as Benjamin Franklin (the obverse of
the Great Seal of the United States is Masonic in origin) and Mozart (The Magic Flute is an
allegory grounded in Masonic ritual).
The advance of scientific thought during the 19th century was paralleled by increased interest
in cabalistic thought and ritual magic. Elephas Levy in his Histoire de la Haute Magie, Les Clefs
des Grands Mystère, and Dogma et Rituel de la Haute Magie capitalized on this interest in the
exotic and sensational. His work was influential, attracting literary figures such as Baudelaire
and Rimbaud. Rimbaud, himself, with his juxtaposition of fevered creativity, drug use, and
quasimanic search for decadence and depravity is the prototype of the modern adolescent
whose search for transcendence is the counterpoint of his fears of evanescence, transience,
and alienation (Halperin, 1987). And, in modern adolescents one sees the attraction to
marginal and destructive groups who lure vulnerable adolescents who may feel Rimbaud‟s
rage but lack his creativity.
Aleister Crowley: Magister Ludi
The most influential figure in the modern satanist and occult movements was Aleister
Crowley. Crowley was a self-styled practitioner of “magick.” A product of a family adhering to
a fundamentalist dissenter group, the Plymouth Brethren, Crowley served as an organizing
nidus against the complacency of Edwardian England. His occult lodge, The Order of the
Golden Dawn, was a quasi-Masonic group that trafficked in pretentious ritualized “magick”
and adopted as its motto: “Do As Thou Wilt.” Literary figures such as William Butler Yeats
were briefly attracted to Crowley. But they were rapidly repelled by his authoritarianism and
his reliance on quasimystical cant in a ceaseless effort to outrage the establishment.
Crowley‟s activities appear to reflect his rage at having spent his childhood under the
governance of the Plymouth Brethren. It may be apocryphal but nonetheless plausible that his
mother identified him with the Beast of Revelations during his childhood, and that Crowley
adopted this projection as his adult identity. In any event, during his life he signed his letters
“666” (or “FFF”). While Crowley may have seen himself as an occult confidence man, his
books “The Book of the Law, The Lesser Key of Solomon, and Magick: Theory and Practice”
form the basis for the modern “scriptures” of Satanism such as the Necronomicon (1977) and
the Satanic Bible (LaVey, 1969).
The organizations that Crowley founded are not currently extant, and the members of groups
founded by his latter-day disciples, such as the Temple of Set and the Church of Satan, are
not numerous. The importance of these organizations lies in their providing the vulnerable
adolescent with support and an alternate object for identification and/or idealization.
For these adolescents, these “scriptures” reaffirm their sense of alienation and undermine the
influence of conventional morality. These groups and their literature may provide an
intellectual framework for vulnerable adolescents in search of an intellectual reinforcement for
their rage at an adult world whose morality they regard as hypocritical. The simplified
Machiavellianism of the Temple of Set may appeal to adolescents who see the world around
them as being dominated by force, immorality, and unreason. Moreover, Crowley‟s disciples
appeal to those adolescents whose fear of their environment has reached such frightening
proportions that they must resort to “magick” to feel that survival is possible. Indeed, in
literary works dealing with occultism and in clinical cases in which occultism has played a
significant role, an evident leitmotif is the need for “magick,” the need to utilize symbolic
rituals to control an otherwise ominous world.
Modern Literary Perspective
Arthur Machen was one of Crowley‟s most prominent literary disciples. Machen was briefly a
member of the Order of the Golden Dawn. Subsequently, he became a member of the
“Inklings,” a literary group of Christian apologists which formed around Charles Williams and
