A response to the ‘Conspiracyzone’ article

Concerning Alistair Crowley dated 07.02.08

(theconspiracyzone1.blogspot.com)
The Conspiracy Zone published an article on the Blog space
concerning Crowley, which is misleading and inaccurate. Here
is a response from an interested party.

Crowley, born 12 October 1875, writer of ‘Diary of a Drug

Fiend’ ‘Magic in theory and Practice’ ‘The book of Law’
‘Moonchild’ ‘The book of Thoth’ ‘777’ and many more. In their
article the Con-zone claim that Crowley was a Satanist and
wanted to be Satan’s chief of staff. In fact Crowley did not
recognize Satan in any form other then as a concept of
Christianity; as he was not a Christian he did not recognize
Satan and cannot therefore have wanted to be his chief of
anything. The tabloid press of the time called him ‘The
Wickedest man on Earth’ and Crowley probably encouraged this
notion. Not because he thought of himself as wicked but
because (as a self-publicist) it kept him in the newspapers.

The Con-Zone then say that Crowley was ‘kicked out of’ every
country he ever visited, which is a blatant lie. He was asked to
leave an Italian island once following the death of a visiting
friend. Crowley was living there at the time, having set up his
‘Abbey of Thelema’ on the island, with his wife, Leigh Hersig,
and their children. They were regularly visited by travelling
British aristocrats who wanted to experience Crowley’s Abbey
and who provided him with much needed funds to feed the wife
and kids. The friend who died had probably been trying to keep
up with Crowley’s mammoth drug use and overdid it. This
caused the fascist government much bad press and so they asked
him and the family to leave.
Beside this incident Crowley had travelled widely without
problems; climbing K.2 and other Himalayan peeks and
walking single-handed across the Sahara desert. He was an
accomplish mountaineer and liked to set challenges for himself.

Born to parents who were part of a strict Christian sect called

the Plymouth Brethren he rebelled against his upbringing early
and, at one stage, his exasperated mother called him ‘The Great
beast 666’ a title he adopted later in life; again to get publicity.
His parent’s crazed ideology turned him against Christianity
and he spent the rest of his life looking into and exploring other
religious concepts. Because of this he never, as stated by Con-
Zone, identified with Satan or the antichrist.

Most of Crowley’s life revolved around Sex magic (Tantric

yoga), drugs, and invoking spirits and elementals; not, as stated,
because he wanted to wind God up, but in a quest to understand
the essence of spirituality and to stretch his imagination.
Crowley did not die a ‘wasted heroin addict’. He was an elderly
man who had outlived many of his contemporaries when he
died. The only problem he had with drugs at the time was called
‘The Misuse of Drugs Act’ which having been recently
introduced made getting his daily heroin dose difficult. He
shows that a life long addiction to a clean supply of heroin does
not necessarily lead to ill health. So he was ‘Perplexed’ on his
deathbed, but so are many other 80 year olds. There was nothing
evil about his ‘Hymn to pan’, the Greek god of wine and song,
which was sympathetically read at his funeral.

Crowley never believed in human sacrifice, as stated by Con-

zone, and used ritual magic positively to expand his knowledge.
Con-zone then go on, in their article, to describe Jimmy Page of
Led Zeppelin as a devout follower of Crowley. Page was
interested in the man and his beliefs. That does not make him
devout. Crowley liked to refer to himself as ‘Tomega Therion’
(The great beast) to gain notoriety in the press; being a
struggling writer with a family to feed and a habit to pay for.
Con-zone say Crowley was recognized as ‘the master Satanist of
the twentieth century’, but they do not say by whom; whoever it
was had never researched the man or his writings. If they had
they would have found that Satan was not a concept he was
drawn to. He did believe in evil forces though; he thought
Christianity was a very evil force.

Boleskine House was owned by Crowley at one time but he

never practiced Satanic rituals there because he did not believe
in the concept of Satan. Con-zone then go on to say Jimmy Page
performed these so called magic rituals during concerts; a notion
which is so stupid it was obviously written by someone who has
never seen a live rock concert; let alone a Zeppelin concert.
They state that Jimmy Page had Led Zeppelin’s third album
inscribed with Crowley’s magical motto ‘Do what thou wilt, so
shall it be’. This is untrue and you can search the L.P for
yourself to see this. Also Crowley’s motto was actually ‘Do
what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law, Love is the law,
love under will’. I imagine Con-Zone stuck the ‘So shall it be’
on the end because if fitted in with their whole Satan theory.

Page and Robert Plant, Zeppelin’s lead singer, did not ever say
that their lyrics come from the occult. Page had an interest in
Crowley, which Plant never indulged in. To say, as Con-zone
does, that Crowley described magic being spread by musical
mediums is ridiculous. The music heard when Crowley was
alive featured orchestras and brass bands; Rock music was some
way off. It was obviously written by Con-zone to link Rock
music with Crowley. They describe how lyrics come to Plant
and Page implying that there is something occult about getting
word on paper. Creativity and inspiration is a virtue we all can
tap into if we put our minds to it. It may be divine, or it may
not, who really knows?

The article then offers a badly constructed Photoshop montage

showing a picture of Page next to a picture of Crowley tied
together with the legend ‘Jimmy Page, disciple of Alistair
Crowley’. This unconvincing mock up is another attempt to link
Zeppelin’s music with Crowley’s ideology. I do not recognize it
as any official issue by Led Zeppelin and it was probably
constructed by Con-zone to enhance their silly ideas. They then
go on to say that the long and indulgent song ‘Stairway to
Heaven’ has a hidden message in the line ‘Spring clean for the
may queen’. They say if you listen to it backward it will tell you
that ‘Satan is in the shed’. I think that anyone who listens to this
track backwards has too much spare time on their hands and
would better use their free time cleaning ‘the shed’ or listening
to the other side of the L.P where they’ll fine ‘Battle of
Evermore’ which is a fantastic piece of acoustic music and is
Zeppelin at their best.

Con-zone say that in ‘Stairway to heaven’ the band presented

the concept of worshipping the male/female godhead of the
Quibala (Kaballa), and that Lucifer is the god of the world
consorting with the female god of light? What codswallop. The
Quibala is actually a Jewish set of beliefs tied around the notion
of the tree of life. It does not recognize the concept of Lucifer.
This idea almost certainly comes from Christianity which itself
borrows heavily from Egyptian theology. Isis, the Sun, battles
daily to drive the god of darkness ‘Set’ (or Night time) out. This
notion of Good Light and bad Darkness, or good verses evil is
demonstrated in the story of Isis/Horus and Set and was used in
the creation of the Jesus myth; hence the names Jesus
(Isis/Horus) and Satan (Set) by early Christians. This wasn’t just
a coincidence surely?

The Con-zone then asserts that the worship of Lucifer in the

form of Pan is a theme of Crowley’s writing. This, again,
confirms that the writer is unfamiliar with Crowley’s work and
does not comprehend his belief system. The gutter press of his
time called him a ‘black magician’, true, for probably the same
reason. Crowley never denied this because it sold books. The
Con-zone then state that Led Zeppelin placed Crowley’s
doctrines in many of their songs (naming some like the gentle
‘Ramble On’ which, in fact, tells the story of a jilted lover
rambling around to forget). They ridiculously say that fans are
‘commanded’ to sell their souls to the devil in the concert film
‘The Song Remains the Same’. I must have missed that bit and
I’ve seen the film several times.

The Con-zone then move on to show their lack of knowledge

concerning other great British bands. They note that the Beatles,
on their Sergeant Peppers album cover, show a collection of the
bands heroes and that Crowley was one of them. The Con-zone
say incorrectly that in 1967 ‘most people’ did not even know
who Crowley was when in fact a very good biography of
Crowley came out at that time; and, of course, Kenneth Anger
made a film at the ruins of Crowley’s ‘Abbey of Thelema’ in the
late 60s.

There follows, in the article, a badly drawn picture of someone

who they say is Crowley in a form which (they say) was copied
by Gene Symonds of the (middle of the road) American
(Schlock) rock group ‘Kiss’. They then list a whole menagerie
of musicians who refer to Crowley in one way or another
completely contradicting their earlier assertion the ‘most people’
did not know Crowley.

The author of the Con-zone article then states incorrectly that if

ever there was a ‘God hating degenerate’ it was Crowley. In
doing so they nail their true agenda to the mast and once again
show a misunderstanding of Crowley’s life long study of
comparative religion and his quest to spread ‘New Age’
spirituality. The writer then goes on to state that the image on
the back of a dollar bill showing an eye in a pyramid was
created by Crowley; how ignorant is that. This symbol is in fact
Egyptian (the all seeing eye of Horus) and used by Freemasons
as part of their iconography. Egyptology was popular at the
time because of the discovery of King Tut’s tomb by Howard
Carter.
There follows, in the article, a cute picture of Crowley looking
resplendent in his magical garb with a home made hat with the
symbol on the front. This does not indicate that he invented the
symbol; only that he understood its meaning and used it.

Con-zone then goes on to say that ‘Magic in theory and

practice’ Crowley’s guide to ritual magic taught, what they call,
the law of reversal. Going back to playing L.P’s the wrong way
round again. This claptrap claims that satanic churches recite the
lord’s prayer backward starting with the word ‘Amen’ (Or is
that Amon) and finishing with ‘Our father who art…’ The writer
has been to some very strange churches if this is what they
witnessed; I wonder if they walk backward and sit down for
hymns? The zone really get excited about the notion of hidden
messages in popular music claming that diverse artists from
Prince to Michael Jackson have all hidden satanic messages in
the music, merchandise and/or videos.

Con-zone’s most ridiculous claim is that Crowley may be the

real father of George ‘W’ Bush’s mother Barbara Bush. To
validate this claim they show a ‘separated at birth’ type photo of
Crowley on one side and Ms Bush on the other. Going by her
expression in the photo they use, it looks like she’s just been
told Crowley’s name is on her birth certificate. They then give a
really far-fetched story linking the Abbey of Thelema and
Grandma Bush with links so tenuous they must have been
smoking some strong weed when they came up with them.

Some so called Heavy Metal bands of the 1980s did use satanic
references in their lyrics but only because they lacked
imagination and wanted to shock so they repackaged the
Christian ideology of their ‘god-fearing’ pappies and sold it
back to the kids; but this was well removed from anything Led
Zeppelin did.
Getting back to Crowley, okay, he was a egomaniac, a self-
publicist, a drug user and womaniser. He was also artistic (see
his tarot card designs), creative, knowledgeable and deeply
spiritual. His understanding of Eastern theology, Chinese I-
Ching, Buddhism, the Tarot, astrology, Greek Gods, Egyptian
mythology, Kabbalist lore (The Zohar), transcendental
meditation, Babylonian esoteric tradition and Magical
correspondences was second to none. While most of his
contemporaries are dead and forgotten Crowley is remembered,
talked about, topical and still in print; seriously, that’s magic.

c: The Dogbreaths

5 March 2010