Aleister Crowley in popular culture: Encyclopedia - Aleister Crowley in popular culture

Aleister Crowley in popular culture

Aleister Crowley exerted a significant influence in modern pop culture and therefore is referenced, reinterpreted, and even parodied numerous times in various pop culture mediums. Some appearances are "important," i.e., meaningful and widely promulgated. Others are simple homages or only locally known. Crowley indeed remains a popular icon of libertines and those interested in the theory and practice of magic.

Aleister Crowley in popular culture - In music

A number of rock musicians have been fascinated by the persona and ideas of Aleister Crowley, and several have made reference to him or his work in their own.

Popular music groups who have made passing references to Crowley include:

• The Beatles, who placed him among dozens of other influential figures on the cover of their concept album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

• Graham Bond, keyboard player and leader of the Graham Bond Organisation recorded Holy Magick, a "Thelemic Mass" drawn from Crowley's writings.

• Pop star Michael Jackson, whose 1991 album Dangerous featured a drawing of Crowley on the cover.

• The song Moonchild on the album In the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson may be derived from the work of Crowley.

• David Bowie, whose song "Quicksand", featured on his album Hunky Dory, makes the reference "I'm closer to the Golden Dawn, immersed in Crowley's uniform of imagery..."

• Numerous heavy metal rockers have incorporated Crowley in their lyrics, though their interpretations more often follow the tabloid "Satanist" image of Crowley and not his actual writings. Such lyrics dwell on Crowley's sometime use of Christian eschatological imagery such as the number 666.
  • Ozzy Osbourne in his solo album Blizzard of Ozz released the song Mr. Crowley which was about Crowley's struggles and beliefs.
  • Ministry have also referred to Crowley in lyrics.
  • Legendary British heavy metal band, Iron Maiden, also made references to Crowley in many of their songs (most obviously "Moonchild", on the "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" album); Bruce Dickinson, their lead singer, who is an ardent follower of mystical teachings, also frequently refers to Crowley's work in his solo projects.
  • Bruce Dickinson's Man of Sorrows song from the Accident Of Birth album, is also about Crowley.
  • Swiss black metal / thrash metal pioneers Celtic Frost released a (now classic) album named "To Mega Therion". This title was possibly a reference to Crowley's bombastic self-naming.
  • The German power metal band Edguy has a song, "Out of Control", which refers to Crowley by name.

• Entertainer and rock star Marilyn Manson, who once stated that Crowley was one of his favourite authors. On his album Antichrist Superstar, the sentence "When you are suffering, know that I have betrayed you" supposedly rephrases a line from Liber AL vel Legis: "Begone! ye mocker; even though ye laugh in my honour ye shall laugh not long: then when you are sad know that I have forsaken you." The line from Disposable Teens "I never really hated a one true god but the god of the people I hated" is believed to be a rephrased version of the line from Confessions "I did not hate God or Christ, but merely the God and Christ of the people whom I hated." Also, in the song Misery Machine the chorus goes, 'We've gotta ride to the Abbey of Thelema.'

• Experimental group Coil, near the end of the video for their eerie, funereal remake of Tainted Love (as a metaphor for AIDS), flash the phrases LOVE IS THE LAW and LOVE UNDER WILL, from Crowley's Liber AL vel Legis, or The Book of the Law.

• Liverpool, UK grindcore band Carcass (band) repeats "Hate is the law, love under will", a slight variation on the phrase from Liber AL vel Legis in the song "Firm Hand" on the album Swansong.

• British music group Current 93, fronted by a former member of the OTO, takes their name from a mystical term referring to Thelema itself, and has drawn extensive inspiration from Crowley's writings and works.

• Polish death metal band Behemoth: a record of theirs is entitled Thelema.6.

• The British gothic rock band Fields of the Nephilim, who make numerous indirect references to Crowley and to Thelema in their works, with the songs "Moonchild" and "Love Under Will" being more obvious examples. The album Elizium features a sample taken from a Phonograph cylinder of Crowley reading from one of his works.

• German pop group Alphaville, noted for mystical references of various sorts, who penned a song about Crowley's wife Rose, entitled "Red Rose", which makes coded reference to a number of Thelemic and otherwise occult ideas.

• The San Francisco-based Folk-Rock band Annwn, who have performed a similarly themed song, "The Scarlet Muse", about Leila Waddell, one of Crowley's mistresses. Some of the same performers, under the band name Nuit, have produced an album, Mother Night, based in part on Thelemic mystical concepts.

• There is a reference to the Diaries of Crowley in the song "Liezah" by The Coral.

• The American nu metal quartet Mudvayne references one of Crowley's books in their song "Mercy, Severity". On their album The End of All Things to Come, the sentence "Pain of division is nothing, joy of dissolution is everything." rephrases a line from the Liber AL vel Legis: "This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all." Also, the Thelemic teaching, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" is rephrased in the song "(K)now F(orever)" as "Do what you will, make it the whole of your law."

• British rock band Manic Street Preachers feature Crowley in the video for their song You Love Us.

• American rock band Murder City Devils titled their last album "Thelema" and featured the phrase "Do what thou wilt" on the back cover of the CD case.

• Aleister Crowley also had a heavy influence on the band Tiamat, a Swedish metal group, in their album "Prey" with songs like "Light in Extention" (a direct quote from Crowley), and "The Pentagram" where Crowley was directly quoted from one of his recorded lectures.

• American progressive metal band Tool is very influenced by Crowley's works, ranging from Danny Carey's Enochian Magic Board, supposed references to Qabalah in Lateralus, and citations by Blair MacKenzie Blake on the Tool newsletter to name a few.

• Several bands have used samples of Crowley reading his own works, including British band Paradise Lost and Finnish band Babylon Whores.

• Perhaps most curiously, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page owned Crowley's Loch Ness estate, Boleskine House, from 1971 to 1992. It is also said that on some pressings of the Led Zeppelin III album, one or more Aleister Crowley quotes are inscribed into the runoff matrix of the vinyl (the space between the last groove and the label.) This may be a misinterpretation of the signatures left by master cutter George Peckham.

• The track Synchronicity II, from the album Synchronicity by The Police, is said to be partly inspired by strange events at Boleskine House while Jimmy Page was the owner.

• Crowley is the old man pictured on the cover of Led Zeppelins fourth album (IV, Zoso, Runes etc).

• Rocker and Director, Rob Zombie also used an actual recording of Crowley himself reading his poem "The Poet" in Zombie's film, House of 1000 corpses.

• Former Pantera frontman Philip Anselmo used the alias "Anton Crowley", (In reference to Anton LaVey from "Satanic Bible" fame, and Aleister Crowley), to avoid lawsuits while recording for his many side-projects.

• Brazilian rock singer Raul Seixas was influenced by Aleister Crowley. The influence extended not only to music, but also the creation of the "Alternative Society", which was to be a thelemic community. The project was considered subversive by members of the Brazilian military, which imprisoned all prospective members of the group.

• British rock band Gothick http://www.t3kton.com are influenced by Aleister Crowley and the OTO. Their 2005 album Abyss Walker features the tracks "In Cefalu" and "Law of the Strong" taken from Crowley's Liber Oz which includes the lyrics "Every man and woman, we are stars, we are wonders".

• 'Anti-folk' musician Kimya Dawson depicts hell as a place "where Aleister Crowley milks cows in the dairy" in the song "Velvet Rabbit"

Aleister Crowley in popular culture - In print

• Ian Fleming based the character Le Chiffre in the first James Bond novel Casino Royale on Crowley.

• An Image comic book called Heaven's War by Micah Harris and Michael Gaydos describes a spiritual battle between Crowley and the Inklings C S Lewis, J R R Tolkien, and, mainly, Charles Williams in which the spiritual fate of Britain before the war is decided. It is written in the style of Charles Williams.

• Crowley appears multiple times in Alan Moore's series Promethea.

• In Neil Gaiman's and Terry Pratchett's novel Good Omens, there is a Demon character named Crowley, though it is later revealed his first name is Anthony instead of Aleister.

• Neil Gaiman furthermore makes Thelemic references in the first issue of his critically acclaimed comic, "The Sandman." Roderick Burgess, the shaven-headed and notorious "Daemon King" of England's occult scene, prior to his "success" in evoking and binding the Endless named Dream, remarks upon his rivalry with a contemporary mage, "Aleister." Later on at the Burgess estate the attentive reader will notice that, contained in the frame with the bouncers, there is a t-shirt sporting the disembodied head of an obvious Daffy Duck reject, who is pronouncing with so much spittle to "Do what thou wilt, Buster!"

• In the John Thunstone stories of Manly Wade Wellman, the villainous character Rowley Thorne was inspired by Crowley.

• In the 1911 short story Casting the Runes by M.R. James the character of Karsewell was inspired by Crowley. The story was adapted as the film Curse of the Demon (1958). Actor Niall MacGinnis played Karswell.

• In the 1938 novel, The Devil Rides Out Dennis Wheatley used Crowley as the inspiration for the character Mocata. The novel was filmed as a movie in 1968 with Charles Grey playing Mocata.

• In the novels of Robert Rankin, the character Hugo Rune is partially inspired by Crowley.

• In the Japanese Manga D. Gray-man Crowley appears as a vampire who fell in love with an Akuma.

• Somerset Maugham, who knew Crowley socially, used him as the inspiration for Oliver Haddo, the main character in Maugham's novel The Magician.

• Aleister Crowley, explicitly identified by name, is a major character in F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre's 1994 novel The Woman Between the Worlds, and also appears in "The Enigma of the Warwickshire Vortex", a 1997 short story by MacIntyre. In both of these fictional works, MacIntyre divulges obscure but accurate facts about Crowley: for example, the surprising fact that the American author Ambrose Bierce was residing near the home of Crowley's parents in Leamington Spa in February 1875, nine months before Crowley's birth.

• Crowley appears in the comic book Hellblazer (in the Critical Mass storyline, #92-96), where John Constantine merges the dark part of his own soul with the body of Crowley, and the new merged being sends itself to hell.

Aleister Crowley in popular culture - In video games

• In the playstation game Suikoden a mysterious magician hidden in a dark cave goes by the name Crowley.

• In the Videogame Tales of Symphonia, the hooded master wizard who teaches you the "meteor swarm" spell is named Crowley.

• A recent episode of the video game-reviewing show X-Play featured Aleister Crowley attempting to open a portal to Hell using old, discarded ET: The Extraterrestrial video game cartridges.

• Aleister (disguised with the name "Adam") Crowley was the key villain in the video game Nightmare Creatures by Kalisto Entertainment originally released in Europe on 12/17/97. A sequel was made and released on 05/24/00. Both portrayed Crowley as a madman stirring Black Magic.

• In the videogame Clive Barker's Undying, the main villain Otto Keisinger mentions his contempt for his rival occultist Aleister Crowley.

• In City of Heroes and City of Villains, Crowley's "research in chaos magics led to the creation of various artifacts that bear his name". Heroes and villains who powers came about through magical means are able to purchase Dual-Origin Enhancements that are, indeed, artifacts that Crowley himself supposedly used while working with magic.

Aleister Crowley in popular culture - In role-playing games

• In the World of Darkness role-playing game metaverse, the mage faction known as the Cult of Ecstasy claims Crowley as one of its own, though holding him up as an example of what not to do.

Category: Popular culture

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Aleister Crowley in popular culture", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki