Aleister Crowley in Paris: Sex, Art, and Magick in the City of Light

(Hardback)

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Examines Aleister Crowleys 30-year-long intimate association with Paris

Investigates the tales of Crowley raising Pan, going mad, and working gay sex magick in Paris

Uncovers Crowleys involvement in the Belle poque with sculptor Auguste Rodin and other artists and in the 1920s with Berenice Abbott, Nancy Cunard, Man Ray, Andr Gide, and Aime Crocker

Reveals Crowleys expulsion from Paris in 1929 as a high-level conspiracy against Crowley

Exploring occultist, magician, poet, painter, and writer Aleister Crowleys longstanding and intimate association with Paris, Tobias Churton provides the first detailed account of Crowleys activities in the City of Light.

Using previously unpublished letters and diaries, Churton explores how Crowley was initiated into the Golden Dawns Inner Order in Paris in 1900 and how, in 1902, he relocated to Montparnasse. Soon engaged to Anglo-Irish artist Eileen Gray, Crowley pontificates and parties with English, American, and French artists gathered around sculptor Auguste Rodin: all keen to exhibit at Pariss famed Salon dAutomne. In 1904still dressed as Prince Chioa Khan and recently returned from his Book of the Law experience in CairoCrowleydines with novelist Arnold Bennett at Paillards. In 1908 Crowley is back in Paris to prove its possible to attain Samadhi (or knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel) while living a modern life in a busy metropolis. In 1913 he organizes a demonstration for artistic and sexual freedom at Oscar Wildes tomb. Until war spoils all in 1914, Paris is Crowleys playground.

The author details how, after returning from America in 1920, and though based at his Abbey of Thelema in Sicily, Crowley cant leave Paris alone. When Mussolini expels him from Italy, Paris becomes his home from 1924 until 1929. Churton reveals Crowleys part in the jazz-age explosion of modernism, as the lover of photographer Berenice Abbott and many others, and how he enjoyed camaraderie with Man Ray, Nancy Cunard, Andr Gide, and Aime Crocker. The author explores Crowleys adventures in Tunisia, Algeria, the Riviera,his battle with heroin addiction, his relationship with daughter Astarte Luluraised at Cefaland finally, a high-level ministerial conspiracy to get him out of Paris.

Reconstructing Crowleys heyday in the last decade and a half of Frances Belle poque and the roaring Twenties, this book illuminates Crowleys place within the artistic, literary, and spiritual ferment of the great City of Light.

Reviews

This final installment of Churtons expansive and detailed exposition on Aleister Crowleys life, work, and milieu is a treasure trove of new information and startling revelations. Scrupulously researched and exquisitely written, Churtons complete six-volume biography of Crowley confirms his position as one of the most insightful, respected, and eloquent scholars on Frater Perdurabo to ever put pen to paper. Aleister Crowley in Paris is a delight. * John Zorn, composer *
The young Crowley was in with the in crowd in Paris and knew everyone it seems, who then, like him, became one of the characters that creatively shaped the last century. He was engaged to the great Eileen Gray, and lots of other notable women come to life in this very accomplished biography. Tobias Churton is to be applauded for once again getting rid of the gossip and giving us the facts, this time in gay Paree, of the life and aspirations of the greatest magician of the twentieth century. * Geraldine Beskin, co-owner of the Atlantis Bookshop, London *
Tobias Churtons multivolume work examining Crowleys life and work in key geographical locations is nothing less than brilliant. This time Churton takes us to Paris, an extremely important place for Crowley. Its a pure joy to travel alongside both Crowley and Churton to the City of Light and Romance and to indulge in both the scandals and miracles of the Great Beast 666. * Carl Abrahamsson, author of Source Magic, Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan, Occulture, and Reason *
Aleister Crowley in Paris recasts the Beasts biography through the lens of Belle poque Paris, where its expat embrace of freedom, art, publishing, magick, and romance captured Crowleys heart. We find the mage returning over the years, seeking fresh inspiration or a safe haven from his woes, whether personal or magical. Throughout this engaging narrative, Churton proves that we cannot understand Crowley without understanding his relationship to Paris. * Richard Kaczynski author of Perdurabo and editor of Crowleys The Sword of Song *

Author Bio

Tobias Churton is an authority on Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Freemasonry, and Rosicrucianism. Appointed Honorary Fellow of Exeter University in 2005, he is the author of many books, including Aleister Crowley in England and Aleister Crowley in America. He lives in the heart of England.