Life magazine is displaying a gallery of seventeen photos titled “Aleister Crowley: Wicked“.

The photos span the course of his life, and also feature people he’s influenced, such as Kenneth Anger, Jimmy Page and Ozzy Osbourne.

Interestingly, also included is a photo of Nina Hamnet, the caption for which reads:

In 1934, Crowley, now bankrupt, sued Welsh writer Nina Hamnett (pictured in 1945) for defamation because she’d written that he practiced black magic. Crowley lost, with the the judge, Justice Swift, declaring: “I thought that I knew of every conceivable form of wickedness. I thought that everything which was vicious and bad had been produced at one time or another before me. I have learnt in this case that we can always learn something more if we live long enough. I have never heard such dreadful, horrible, blasphemous and abominable stuff as that which has been produced by the man [Crowley] who describes himself to you as the greatest living poet.”

Hamnet looks fierce.

None of these photos or captions will be new to anyone familiar with Crowley’s life and work, but it is kind of odd to see Crowley’s life celebrated in a mainstream publication.

Spotted on BoingBoing.

Saturday Signal: attempting to sift signal from the noise of the Internet’s occultural cacophony.

In our first Saturday Signal Beth asked “how our “fun day” (Saturday) got named after the least fun god/planet of the week”.  Last week we looked at one possible reason, and Gesigewigus commented on how the planetary hours align nicely with the days of the week: Continue reading »